The Dutch government made the move to help individual cases brought by victims’ relatives, the foreign minister said in a letter to Parliament.

A Chechen man shot near Vienna last weekend had spoken publicly of giving Austrian and Ukrainian authorities information about contract killings. He also said there was a price on his head.

Russia’s grievances against what it sees as American bullying and expansion into its own zones of influence have been stacking up for decades.

The International Monetary Fund agreed to lend Ukraine $5 billion over 18 months while stressing the importance of central bank independence. Three weeks later, the central banker quit, citing political pressure.

Environmentalists say illegal logging in the Carpathian Mountains is contributing to flooding. Rising waters forced the partial evacuation of a hospital treating Covid-19 patients.

Status-conscious fast-food joints across Eastern Europe have offered their diners disposable gloves for years. The idea may find a wider audience in the pandemic era.

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine won an endorsement for his anti-corruption policies with the approval of a $5 billion lending program from the International Monetary Fund.

Eleven foreign couples, previously barred by coronavirus restrictions, have entered the country to meet their newborns. But births are still outpacing pickups.

The plan is a further blow to America’s weakening European alliances and likely to be welcomed by President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.

As she endured a difficult recovery from Covid-19, the grandmaster Irina Krush thrived in competition and found familiar support from others in the game.

President calls for his country to be put on pathway to membership of western military alliance

Ukraine’s president has called on Nato and key member states to hasten his country’s membership of the western military alliance in response to a growing buildup of Russian forces on his country’s borders.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy spoke to Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, on Tuesday, and urged for Ukraine to be put on a pathway to future membership to halt the long-running conflict in the eastern Donbas region.

Related: EU and UK pledge backing to Ukraine after Russian military buildup

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Boris Johnson and European envoy say Kyiv has their ‘unwavering support’, while Moscow denies threatening behaviour

The European Union and UK have pledged “unwavering” support for Ukraine’s government amid concerns of a military escalation in the east of the country or a possible new offensive against the Nato ally after recent Russian troop movements.

Ukraine has accused Russia of massing thousands of military personnel on its northern and eastern borders as well as on the Crimean peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014. Online researchers have identified troops being transferred to Ukraine’s borders from western and central Russia, including artillery from as far away as Siberia.

Related: US warns Nord Stream pipeline is 'Russian geopolitical project'

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A fisherman from Ukraine has come up with a creative way to save a boy floating on a block of ice in the middle of a river. Richard Gorda cast out his fishing rod with a weight on it with such accuracy that he was able to reel the boy back in to safety. The air temperature in Kyiv hovers around 0C, so a swim in the ice-cold water could end badly for the boy, whose piece of ice got carried dozens of meters away from the bank. The unusual rescue operation worked perfectly as the boy was seen stepping from the ice piece to the bank without even getting his feet wet

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Antony Blinken, US secretary of state, says firms involved in pipeline should stop work or risk sanctionsThe German-backed Nord Stream pipeline is “a Russian geopolitical project intended to divide Europe and weaken European energy security”, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has warned.The claim on Thursday is likely to send a chill through US-German relations, as the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, has repeatedly claimed the near-complete project – a system of offshore natural gas pipelines – should be seen as an economic rather than political project. Merkel has invested huge political capital in defending the project. Related: 'Takes one to know one': Putin-Biden spat escalates over 'killer' accusation Related: How Biden era could kickstart coordinated approach to Russia Continue ...

Photographer Tomer Ifrah travelled between six post-Soviet countries, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Russia, Belarus, Georgia and Armenia, documenting city life on the metro, beginning in Moscow in 2012 and continuing until 2019. The images reveal personal stories of everyday life, intimate portraits, and a background of grandiose architecture

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From the Godfathers of Arabic rap to the father of Ethio-jazz, Grammy-winning producer Ian Brennan guides a tour through global music’s greatest The Grammys have a major problem with global diversity. Lip service isn’t going to solve itThis week I wrote about the glaring lack of international inclusivity in the Grammys’ newly redubbed global music (formerly world music) category.In the category’s 38-year history, almost 80% of African nations have never had an artist nominated; no Middle Eastern or eastern European musician has ever won; every winner in the past eight years has been a repeat winner; and nearly two-thirds of the nominations have come from just six countries (the US, the UK, Brazil, Mali, South Africa, India). The situation shows little signs of improving. Related: The Grammys have a major problem with diversity. Lip service isn’t going to solve it | Ian Brennan Continue ...

Much progress has been made in attitudes towards sexual equality and gender identity – but in many places a dramatic backlash by conservative forces has followed. By Mark Gevisser

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Ukrainian police officers have rescued four men who fell through ice in the city of Dnipro. Video released by the national police shows the dramatic rescue operation as officers pulled the men out of the water with a rope

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In letter to Tehran, human rights advocate outlines six-month investigation into disasterMany high-level Iranian officials should be charged for the shooting down of a Ukrainian commercial airliner in January 2020, a UN human rights expert has said, describing the killing of the 176 people aboard as a “profound and serious indictment” of the country’s civil and military authorities.Agnès Callamard, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, delivered a 45-page letter to the Iranian government that was made public on Tuesday, outlining her findings from a six-month investigation into the disaster, and complaining about the lack of Iranian cooperation, which has left many of her questions unanswered. Related: A visual guide to the Iran plane crash Continue ...

Man unhappy with state of his road told officers they would have to come in a snowplough to arrest him

A Ukrainian man confessed to a fictitious murder in the hope police would clear his snow-covered road when they came to arrest him, regional authorities have said.

The man called police on Saturday evening to tell them he had killed his mother’s partner by stabbing him in the chest.

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‘Get someone to investigate this,’ Giuliani tells two Ukrainian officials in 40-minute call obtained by Time magazine

A new transcript has surfaced of the former Trump lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, putting pressure on the Ukrainian government to open an investigation into the Biden family.

The transcript of a 40-minute call between Giuliani and two Ukrainian officials, was obtained by Time magazine, and served as a reminder of Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial, even as his second is under way in the Senate.

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European court of human rights: Moscow responsible for murder of civilians, and looting and burning of homes

Russia committed a series of human rights violations during its war with Georgia in 2008, the European court of human rights ruled on Thursday, saying Moscow was responsible for the murder of Georgian civilians, and the looting and burning of their homes.

In a landmark judgment, the court said the Kremlin was guilty of unlawfully rounding up ethnic Georgians and their subsequent “inhuman and degrading treatment”. This included the torture of Georgian prisoners of war and the expulsion of Georgian villagers from their homes in South Ossetia.

Related: Even in a Moscow jail, Alexei Navalny is dangerous to Putin

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