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.

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 which 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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Claiming to be inspired by true events, the story of a young Jewish man who stays alive by pretending to be half-Iranian strains credibilityHere’s a superbly acted, though worryingly polite, Holocaust survival drama by the Ukrainian film-maker Vadim Perelman. It’s the story of a Jewish man from Belgium called Gilles (Nahuel Pérez Biscayart), who stays alive in a transit camp by pretending to be half-Iranian and teaching Farsi to a savage-tempered SS officer, Klaus Koch (Lars Eidinger). In truth, Gilles doesn’t know a word of Farsi; the language he makes up is gibberish, and he lives in constant terror of slipping up, forgetting one of the words he’s invented – almost 600 in six months.The film opens with the line “inspired by true events”, but given the plausibility issues here surely it is safe to prefix that claim with “very loosely”. The setting is France, 1942; Gilles, the son of a rabbi, is transported to a transit camp with other Jews caught trying to flee to Switzerland. A hustler by nature, Gilles easily – too easily – persuades Nazi officer Koch that he speaks Farsi. Koch is a chef by training and dreams of opening a restaurant in Iran after the war. Suspecting Gilles of lying, he grills him, with ...

Scientists warn of threat of nuclear contamination from work on giant E40 waterway linking Baltic to the Black SeaThe race to save Polesia, Europe’s secret AmazonRead more in our series Biodiversity: what happened next?The river running past the Chernobyl nuclear reactor is being dredged to create an inland shipping route, potentially resurfacing radioactive sludge from the 1986 disaster that could contaminate drinking water for 8 million people in Ukraine, scientists and conservationists have warned.The dredging of the Pripyat began in July and is part of an international project to create the 2,000km (1,240-mile) long E40 waterway linking the Baltic and Black seas, passing through Poland, Belarus and Ukraine. The river – which snakes within 2.5km of the reactor responsible for the world’s worst nuclear disaster – has already been dredged in at least seven different places, five of which are within 10km of the reactor, according to the Save Polesia coalition. Related: The race to save Polesia, Europe's secret Amazon Continue ...

Ukrainian man was allegedly beaten and asphyxiated by officers at detention centre in March

Portugal’s home affairs minister is facing calls to resign amid outrage over the fatal beating of a Ukrainian man by border patrol officers at a detention centre at Lisbon airport in March.

It is alleged that Ihor Homenyuk, after two days in custody following his arrival without a visa and refusal to board a flight home, was beaten and asphyxiated by three officers who tied his arms and legs to restrain him.

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Bear attacks and marauding hordes can’t rescue this dismal attempt to conjure up an epic medieval adventureSay what you like about the artistic integrity of Game of Thrones, but at least it never skimped on the saucy stuff. Fall of a Kingdom pitches itself as “Game of Thrones meets Braveheart”, but lacks the redeeming feature that united both those sources of inspiration: entertainment value. It’s a dull historical action drama that is in desperate need of some gratuitous sex or violence to liven up its near two-hour running time.Originally called The Rising Hawk and shot in Ukraine (home country of co-director Akhtem Seitablaev), Fall of a Kingdom attempts to conjure an epic sense of adventure with its Carpathian mountains backdrop and large cast of costumed extras. Maksim (Alex MacNicholl) and Myroslava (Poppy Drayton) are the children of rival neighbouring chieftains; they begin courting during a bear attack, but have a hard time overcoming Myroslava’s family’s opposition to their union. “No daughter of mine will be picking berries!” booms her stern father (Tommy Flanagan). Continue ...

Tech giant criticised for failing to act after being told two years ago about extremist activity on its platform

A white supremacist network with more than 80,000 followers and links to the UK far right, including a student charged with terrorist offences, is being hosted by Facebook and Instagram, putting the world’s largest social media company under fresh pressure to tackle extremism.

The network, which includes more than 40 neo-Nazi sites, offers merchandise including NaziSS symbols and stickers praising Kyle Rittenhouse, the teenager under investigation for shooting dead two Black Lives Matter protesters in Wisconsin in August.

Related: Michigan terror plot: why rightwing extremists are thriving on Facebook

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Andriy Yermak says unrest in Belarus means his country needs to strengthen defences

The UK is willing to provide a large lethal weapons contract to Ukraine and a £1bn loan to help Ukraine’s navy build new ships capable of use in the Black Sea, according to a senior aide to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Andriy Yermak, the head of office to Zelenksiy also warned that the suppression of post-election unrest in neighbouring Belarus posed a potential direct threat to Ukraine, and said his country was seeking assurances from the European Union and the UK about helping to safeguard its security.

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• Woman had non-diplomatic job at embassy, source says
• Police looking for tall, dark-haired man aged about 30

An American woman working for the US embassy in Kyiv has been killed in an apparent attack while she was jogging in the Ukrainian capital.

A police statement said the victim was found unconscious from a head injury by railway tracks near Kyiv’s Nyvky Park and in the same district as the US embassy. She died in hospital. The statement said the police were looking for a tall, dark-haired man in shorts, T-shirt and running shoes, aged about 30.

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Joe Biden was interrupted while paying tribute to his son Beau, who died of brain cancer in 2015, during the first presidential debate against Donald Trump.The former vice-president brought up Beau, the former attorney general of Delaware who served in the army, to highlight Trump’s reported criticism of military members as 'losers'. The president cut in and turned the exchange into an attack on the business dealings of Biden’s other son, Hunter, in Ukraine. Despite a Senate investigation, there was no evidence of any wrongdoing by Biden, and indeed Trump was impeached for the way in which he was pushing government officials in Kiev to investigate the Biden family.The president went on to remind viewers of Hunter Biden’s past drug use and falsely accused him of being dishonourably discharged from the military. Joe Biden, looking directly into the camera, explained that like many Americans, his son had struggled with addictionDonald Trump plunges debate into chaos as he repeatedly talks over Joe BidenA mess of Trump's making: key takeaways from the first presidential debate Continue ...