Volunteers helping to clean up a major oil spill along Russia's Black Sea coast appealed in a video released on Monday for President Vladimir Putin to urgently send federal aid, saying that they and local authorities were overwhelmed.

North Korea and Russia are deepening their military cooperation, as Pyongyang ramps up the supply of arms to Moscow for its war in Ukraine and receives much needed cash and oil from the Kremlin in return.

Russia has held several rounds of tactical nuclear weapons drills this year, and regularly carries out military exercises for its strategic nuclear forces.

A senior Russian general was killed in a bomb blast in a residential neighborhood in Moscow, Russian media reported early Tuesday.

A Russian intelligence agency said Wednesday that it has detained a suspect in the killing of a senior general in Moscow. The suspect was described as an Uzbek citizen recruited by Ukrainian intelligence services.

Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks in the Kremlin on Sunday with Slovakia’s prime minister, Robert Fico, in a rare visit to Moscow by an EU leader since the conflict between Russia and Ukraine began in 2022.

Talks come as Ukraine plans to cut off Russian gas supply to east European nation through pipeline on its territory

European energy infrastructure has been target of repeated sabotage and surveillance episodes since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022