Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva had promised to persuade Russian President Vladimir Putin to engage in peace talks with Ukraine. However, during his visit to Moscow, he never met with Putin,

The talks in Istanbul complicated a European push for the U.S. to pressure Russia an into a ceasefire in Ukraine, even as questions persist on who is attending.

U.S. President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin were still "maybes" for what could be the first direct peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv in years after the Kremlin on Wednesday held off disclosing who would represent Russia.

A Moscow court has sentenced Grigory Melkonyants, co-chair of the independent election-monitoring group Golos, to five years in prison on charges of organizing the activities of an “undesirable” organization,

A court in Moscow on Wednesday convicted one of the leaders of a prominent independent election monitoring group on charges of organizing the work of an “undesirable” organization and sentenced him to five years in prison.