The International Olympic Committee's decision to lift its years-long suspension of the Russian Olympic Committee has triggered calls in the EU to revoke the body's European funding, Politico reported. The IOC provisionally reinstated Russia's Olympic body on 7 July, paving the way for Russians to compete at the 2028 Los Angeles Games. 

Russia cleared for Los Angeles 2028

The IOC announced this week that it would pave the way for Russians to compete at the next Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028, though Russia's flag and anthem remain banned. Russian athletes have been barred or forced to compete as neutrals since Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The IOC formally took the decision to provisionally reinstate the Russian Olympic Committee on 7 July.

Estonia targets the IOC's EU money

Estonia said it would propose that the European Commission cut off cash for the IOC by excluding the Olympic body from the EU's funding programs, including Erasmus+.

"It is impossible to understand decisions that seek to bring aggressor countries back into international sport as if nothing had happened," Estonian Culture Minister Heidy Purga said.

European Commissioner for Sport Glenn Micallef appeared to signal support. 

"Athletes should not pay the price for the decisions of their governments. But sport cannot become a back door for normalizing aggression. If dialogue cannot guarantee that, the EU and its member states must be ready to consider proportionate steps to defend the values international sport is built on," he told Politico.

Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braže called the IOC's move a "dangerous message." She argued that "Russia's imperial ambitions seek not only to annex Ukraine's territory, but also pursue international legitimacy of its conquests. It pursues both through every international platform available."

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“Even 50% must be destroyed”: Russian MP openly calls for exterminating Ukrainians

The decision drew condemnation across the Atlantic as well. US lawmakers reacted with incredulity. The IOC has told Russia and the world that "you can bomb civilians one day and still proudly wave your flag at the Games the next," Republican Senator Rick Scott wrote.

Kyiv: the ruling breaks the logic of sanctions

Ukrainian Sports Minister Matvii Bidnyi called the decision an "alarming signal" for the world and asked international sports federations to uphold their bans on Russian athletes.

Vladyslav Vlasiuk, Ukraine's presidential commissioner for sanctions policy, stated that the IOC ruling contradicts the logic of international sanctions pressure, since Russian sport works as an instrument of state propaganda and support for the war. The Ukrainian World Congress demanded that the IOC cancel the decision altogether.

Russia keeps killing Ukrainian civilians daily — yet the Olympic movement now offers the aggressor state the international stage its war has cost it. The IOC's reinstatement hands Moscow a propaganda victory no battlefield advance has delivered, normalizing the aggressor while its missiles level Ukrainian apartment blocks. 

A Russian State Duma deputy declared that destroying up to half of Ukraine's population is acceptable to eradicate what he called "Nazism," the Moscow Times reported. MP Alexei Zhuravlyov made the remarks in a conversation with a blogger. 

As Moscow's all-out war against Ukraine continues, Zhuravlyov's words spell out, in plain terms, the extermination agenda behind Russia's repeated "denazification" claims — the Kremlin accuses Ukrainians of Nazism while its own officials voice openly Nazi-style calls to wipe out a neighboring nation.

"Even fifty percent must be destroyed"

Zhuravlyov spoke in a YouTube interview. When asked how many "Nazis" there are in Ukraine now. Zhuravlyov claimed the figure used to be 2% but may now stand at 20–30%. Asked whether all of them should be destroyed, the deputy answered: "Preferably."

"All Nazis must be destroyed. All of them must be. You understand, if it's fifty—even fifty percent must be destroyed... So that this contagion is not there, so that no one threatens us," Zhuravlyov stated.

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The deputy claimed he saw "with his own eyes" how "these creatures come and hang everyone—Russians, non-Russians, regardless of your views." He offered no evidence. He insisted that "if this contagion is not uprooted from there, it will remain forever."

Kill criterion: a weapon in hand

Zhuravlyov allowed that some Ukrainians might switch sides—"change their views.". Those who refuse, he said, "must be destroyed, of course." Asked how to tell a "fascist" from a "non-fascist," the parliamentarian named the main criterion—defending their land with a weapon.

"If he has an assault rifle—yes, he must be destroyed. Why tell him apart? See him—kill him," he stated.

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Expulsion or death for those who won't recant

To back his claim that Ukrainians would quickly change their position, Zhuravlyov cited a phrase he attributed to a—possibly non-existent—"native Ukrainian": 

"Lviv has never yet met a single army in the world without bread and salt." 

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He then repeated that those who refuse to change their views should be killed or deported. 

"If you don't want to switch sides—you must be either expelled from there or destroyed," he said.

A script written in 2022

Zhuravlyov's formula—re-educate some, expel or kill the rest—repeats the program Russian state media laid out at the start of the full-scale invasion. In April 2022, the Kremlin-controlled agency RIA Novosti published a manifesto declaring that "denazification will inevitably be de-Ukrainization," a text Yale historian Timothy Snyder called a "genocide handbook." In that document, as in the deputy's interview, "Nazi" simply means Ukrainian.

Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) has detained eight more people accused of promoting Russia's war from inside the country, the SBU reported. The suspects allegedly backed the invasion online, called for heavier strikes on Ukraine, and justified Russian war crimes. They face years in prison.

Suspects detained across six regions

• The cases stretch from Kyiv to Odesa. In Kyiv, SBU cyber specialists detained a security company's cash courier. He allegedly spread falsehoods about Ukraine's Defense Forces and called for the country's seizure. On work trips, he allegedly photographed checkpoints and mobilization patrols in secret. He then marked their locations and leaked them with calls to disrupt the draft.
• In Sumy, investigators served notice of suspicion to a Telegram channel administrator. He allegedly praised Russian fighters for shelling the regional center. The blogger also allegedly urged Russia to strike Ukraine with a "Sarmat" nuclear missile.

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• In Dnipro, the SBU exposed an alleged member of an underground "fake people's power" cell. The woman allegedly called for a coup and denied Russian war crimes, including mass strikes on Ukrainian cities. She allegedly posted hostile content to Facebook and TikTok pages reaching almost 8,000 users. Officers also detained a Kryvyi Rih resident who allegedly urged Russia to hit Kyiv with nuclear weapons.

A soldier who denied the war

• In Chernihiv Oblast, SBU military counterintelligence and the State Bureau of Investigation exposed a mobilized serviceman. He allegedly denied that Russia's full-scale invasion was even happening. Witnesses say he regularly backed the Kremlin and justified Russian war crimes. Officers detained him in Poltava, where he had fled his unit after training.

From Zhytomyr chats to TikTok streams aired from Russia

• In Zhytomyr Oblast, cyber specialists exposed two unemployed suspects who allegedly praised the Kremlin and Russian armed groups. One allegedly justified Russian war crimes in Bucha. The other allegedly called for more strikes on Defense Forces positions with guided aerial bombs.
• In Odesa Oblast, counterintelligence officers detained an agitator who allegedly urged Russia to seize the region and "annex" it. To spread the propaganda, he allegedly joined online broadcasts aired from Russian territory.

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Linguistic analyses confirmed the suspects' information-subversion activity served Russia, the SBU said. They have been served notice of suspicion under several articles of Ukraine's Criminal Code, including attempts to seize state power, war propaganda, and justifying Russia's aggression. 

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Recent SBU cases

Russia's pull on people inside Ukraine shows up again and again — it keeps trying to enlist Ukrainians through Telegram for sabotage and spying. The SBU and the National Police deal with such cases on a regular basis.

On 23 June, the SBU reported detaining another spotter for Russian air attacks on Zaporizhzhia — a local mobilized man who left his unit to work with Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB). Separately, the SBU and National Police foiled a plot by two FSB agents to blow up an administrative building in central Kyiv.

On 17 June, the SBU detained a Kherson region woman suspected of collaboration and pro-Russian propaganda during the occupation. On 15 June, officers held a Chornomorsk woman who allegedly rigged "video traps" on the Kyiv Reservoir to guide strikes on the capital, including the 24 May 2026 attack. Earlier, a court sentenced a former Shostka councilman to 15 years for guiding Russian strikes in Sumy Oblast.

Russian state-funded propaganda media outlet Sputnik will cease operations in Azerbaijan, Russia Today media group CEO Dmitry Kiselyov said on July 3, according to the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.

"We regret to say that, as of today, the conditions for Sputnik Azerbaijan to continue its activities in this country are not in place," Kiselyov said.

The move comes amid a major deterioration in Russian-Azerbaijani relations.

Kiselyov's comments followed the detention of several Sputnik Azerbaijan employees by Azerbaijani police on June 30. Authorities said two of the detainees were operatives of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), prompting a formal protest from Moscow.

Kiselyov called the charges "far-fetched," saying the staff had worked to "develop cooperation between Azerbaijan and Russia." He added that legal action would be taken to defend them.

Sputnik, a key pillar of the Kremlin's global propaganda network, has long been accused by Western governments and media watchdogs of spreading disinformation and pro-Russian narratives.

These developments follow a deadly June 27 operation in Russia's Yekaterinburg, where Russian security forces killed two Azerbaijani nationals and injured several others in a raid linked to a 2001 murder case.

On June 28, Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry issued a rare public rebuke, calling the operation "ethnically motivated" and part of a "systematic pattern" of unlawful treatment of Azerbaijani nationals in Russia.

The diplomatic rupture deepened further after Azerbaijani authorities arrested eight Russian citizens the next day, presenting them in court handcuffed and visibly injured. They were accused of participating in organized crime, cyberattacks, and drug smuggling from Iran.

The closure of Sputnik's bureau marks a new low in relations between the two former Soviet states, which have seen escalating tensions despite longstanding ties.

Arrests, raids, beaten and bloodied suspects — how Russia-Azerbaijan relations have unravelled

Deaths in custody, media offices raided, and beaten and bloodied suspects paraded in court — relations between Russia and Azerbaijan, once considered close, have sharply deteriorated in recent days amid a series of high-profile incidents. The latest tensions erupted over the weekend when Russian law enforcement officers detained over 50 Azerbaijani

The Kyiv IndependentTim Zadorozhnyy

Armenian authorities should "seriously" consider banning the broadcast of Russian television channels in Armenia, Armenian Parliament Speaker Alen Simonyan said on July 1, citing concerns over interference and deteriorating ties.

"We must very seriously discuss the suspension of the Russian television channel broadcast in the territory of Armenia," Simonyan told reporters, according to Armenpress. He criticized recent content aired by Russian state broadcasters, which the Armenian government has denounced as harmful to bilateral ties.

The remarks come as Armenia continues to pivot away from Moscow's sphere of influence and seeks to bolster ties with the West.

Simonyan suggested that individuals connected to Armenian-Russian oligarch Samvel Karapetyan may be financing efforts to meddle in Armenia's internal matters.

"If there are channels that allow themselves to interfere in Armenia’s domestic affairs, perhaps we ought to respond likewise, by at least banning their entry into the homes of our society," he said.

Tensions between Armenia and Russia have mounted since Moscow's failure to intervene during Azerbaijan's military operation in Nagorno-Karabakh in September 2023, which resulted in the mass displacement of ethnic Armenians.

In April, Armenian President Vahagn Khachaturyan signed a law initiating the country's formal accession process to the European Union.

Though symbolic, the legislation marks a significant political shift, embedding European integration into Armenian law. The bill, passed by parliament in March, was backed by 64 lawmakers and opposed by seven.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has said that EU membership would require a referendum, while the Kremlin warned that joining both the EU and the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) is "simply impossible." The EAEU, established in 2015, includes Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia, and Kyrgyzstan.

Why Norway is investing billions in Ukraine’s victory

The Kyiv Independent’s Oleksiy Sorokin sat down with Eivind Vad Petersson, state secretary to the Norwegian foreign minister and co-chair of the joint Norwegian-Ukrainian Working Group on Nuclear Safety and Security.

The Kyiv IndependentOleksiy Sorokin

Editor's note: The story was updated after the Sputnik news agency disclosed the names of those detained in Baku.

Azerbaijani police detained two alleged agents of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) on June 30 following searches at the Baku office of the Russian state-controlled news agency Sputnik, the Azerbaijani news outlet Apa.az reported.

Sputnik later elaborated that Igor Kartavykh, chief editor of Sputnik Azerbaijan, and Yevgeniy Belousov, managing editor, had been detained in Baku. The agency called the allegations that the detainees were FSB agents "absurd."

The move comes amid a major deterioration in Russian-Azerbaijani relations that followed the detention of over 50 Azerbaijanis as part of a murder investigation in Yekaterinburg on June 27. Two people died during the detentions, and three others were seriously injured.

The searches in the office of the Russian propaganda media outlet, which operates as a local branch of Russian state news agency Russia Today (RT), began on June 30.

The Russian propagandist Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of Russia Today, said that representatives of the Russian embassy in Baku were on their way to Sputnik's office. Sputnik employees were offline and probably did not have access to phones, she added.

According to Simonyan, some of Sputnik's employees were Russian citizens.

The Azerbaijani government ordered in February that the activities of Sputnik's Azerbaijani office be suspended.

The authorities said that the move was intended to ensure parity in the activities of Azerbaijan's state media abroad and foreign journalists in the country. This meant that the number of Sputnik Azerbaijan journalists working in Baku was to be equal to the number of journalists of the Azerbaijani news agency Azertadzh in Russia.

As a result, Sputnik Azerbaijan had to reduce its staff from 40 people to one but refused to do so and continued to operate despite the Azerbaijani government's decision, according to Apa.az.

As the Russian-Azerbaijani relations deteriorate, Azerbaijan has cancelled all planned cultural events hosted alongside Russian state and private organizations, the country's Culture Ministry announced on June 29.

The announcement followed the deaths of two Azerbaijani citizens during police raids in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg.

Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry said on June 28 that Ziyaddin and Huseyn Safarov had died during a raid carried out by Russian authorities. Azerbaijan called the killings "ethnically motivated" and "unlawful" actions.

Baku called for the perpetrators to be brought to justice and said it expected Moscow to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the incident.

In the meantime, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that the detentions were carried out as part of an investigation into serious crimes. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova claimed that these were cases related to murders committed in 2001, 2010, and 2011.

Russia pulls its scientists out of Iranian nuclear plant, as Israeli strikes threaten decades of collaboration

Israel’s strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities have alarmed none more than Russia, the country that first brought nuclear power to Iran in defiance of Western objections. We’re “millimeters from catastrophe,” said Kremlin spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on June 18 in response to a bombing campaign that Israel launched against Iran on June 13. Decades of conflict with the West have united Iran and Russia, despite a cultural gulf between the two nations that dwarfs the Caspian Sea that physically di

The Kyiv IndependentKollen Post

Editor's Note: This story was updated with comments from Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said "all of Ukraine" belonged to Russia in a speech on June 20 at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, amid increasingly aggressive official statements about Moscow's final territorial ambitions in Ukraine.

Putin's claim was based on the false narrative often pushed both by himself as leader and by Russian propaganda that Russians and Ukrainians are "one people."

The narrative has long figured prominently in Putin's rhetoric, often brought up as justification for its aggression in Ukraine.

In July 2021, just half a year before the full-scale invasion, the Russian leader stoked fears of a larger attack when he wrote and published an essay on the "historical unity of Russians and Ukrainians."

In response to the speech in St Petersburg, Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha condemned Putin’s comments as "cynical," saying it showed “complete disregard for U.S. peace efforts."

"While the United States and the rest of the world have called for an immediate end to the killing, Russia's top war criminal discusses plans to seize more Ukrainian territory and kill more Ukrainians," he wrote in a post on X.

Putin made several other statements at the forum, some contradictory, about Moscow's aims in the war going forward.

"Wherever the foot of a Russian soldier steps is Russian land," Putin said, directly implying Russia's intention to continue occupying more than just the five Ukrainian regions that Moscow has illegally laid claim to: Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson oblasts, as well as the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.

Sybiha said that "Russian soldier's foot" brings only "death, destruction, and devastation." He accused Putin of indifference toward his own troops, calling him “a mass murderer of his own people.”

"He already disposed one million Russian soldiers in a senseless bloodbath in Ukraine without achieving a single strategic goal. One million soldiers. Two million feet," the minister said.

"And, while Putin is busy sending Russian feet to invade other countries, he is bringing Russians inside the country to their knees economically."

Russia just accidentally admitted to its staggering troop losses in Ukraine

A senior Russian official on June 19 inadvertently confirmed the staggering troop losses incurred by Moscow’s forces during its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In an interview with CNN, Russian Ambassador to the U.K. Andrey Kelin was asked about Moscow’s maximalist intentions in Ukraine and its ability to recruit enough

The Kyiv IndependentChris York

As per the "peace memorandum" presented by the Russian delegation at the last round of peace talks in Istanbul on June 2, Moscow demands Kyiv recognize the oblasts as Russian and hand over all territory not yet controlled by Russian forces into occupation, including the regional capitals of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.

Asked whether Russia aimed to seize the regional center of Sumy in Ukraine's northeast, Putin said that while such a mission has not been assigned, he wouldn't rule it out.

Russian ground attacks into Sumy Oblast have intensified along the northeastern border in the past weeks, having first crossed the border after Ukraine's withdrawal from most of its positions in Kursk Oblast in March.

Russian troops have moved 10-12 kilometers (6-8 miles) deep into the region, according to Putin.

"The city of Sumy is next, the regional center. We don't have a task to take Sumy, but I don't rule it out," Putin said.

Sybiha urged the West to ramp up military aid to Ukraine, tighten sanctions against Russia, designate Moscow a terrorist state, and "isolate it fully."

"His cynical statements serve only one purpose: to divert public attention away from the complete failure of his quarter-century rule," the minister added.

Since March, Russia has reportedly taken control of about 200 square kilometers (80 square miles) in northern Sumy Oblast, including roughly a dozen small villages, according to open-source conflict mapping projects.

As of May 31, mandatory evacuations had been ordered for 213 settlements.

In May, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his military to create a so-called "security buffer zone" along the border with Ukraine, while Zelensky said on May 28 that Moscow had massed 50,000 troops near Sumy.

In a separate interview with Bild on June 12, Zelensky dismissed Moscow's claims of significant territorial gains as "a Russian narrative" aimed at shaping global perceptions. He stressed that Ukrainian forces have managed to hold off a renewed offensive for nearly three weeks.

When asked if Moscow requires the complete capitulation of Kyiv and the Ukrainian leadership, Putin denied this, saying that Russia instead demands the "recognition of the realities on the ground."

The statement follows a consistent line from Russian officials since the return of U.S. President Donald Trump brought new momentum to the idea of a quick negotiated peace in Ukraine.

Projecting a winning position on the battlefield and gaining confidence from Trump's frequent anti-Ukrainian rhetoric and refusal to approve further military aid to Kyiv, Moscow has stuck to maximalist demands, refusing the joint U.S.-Ukraine proposal of a 30-day unconditional ceasefire along the front line.

On June 18, in an interview to CNN, Russian ambassador to the U.K. Andrei Kelin said that while Russian forces were advancing on the battlefield and taking more Ukrainian, there was no incentive to stop, and that Kyiv must either accept Moscow's peace terms now or "surrender" after losing much more.

With no new US aid packages on the horizon, can Ukraine continue to fight Russia?

The U.S. has not announced any military aid packages for Ukraine in almost five months, pushing Kyiv to seek new alternatives. But time is running out quickly as Russian troops slowly advance on the eastern front line and gear up for a new summer offensive. “While Ukraine’s dependence on

The Kyiv IndependentKateryna Hodunova