VIKTOR YANUKOVYCH

The U.K. Supreme Court has ruled that Ukraine can try to avoid repaying $3 billion in loans it said it took under pressure from Russia in 2013 to prevent it from trying to join the European Union.

Hundreds of mourners have gathered in Ukraine's capital for a well-known Kyiv activist who took up arms against Russia's invasion and was killed.

A Russian citizen who years ago left her home country in opposition to Vladimir Putin’s government has been forced to flee again — this time from her adopted home of Kyiv — as Putin’s armed forces assault Ukraine.

Russia is heading to the Beijing Olympics against a backdrop of international tension.

A Russian military buildup has raised fears in Ukraine and the West that Moscow could invade its neighbor.

Ukraine’s president has urged closer ties between the ex-Soviet nation and NATO and the European Union in a speech marking the 30th anniversary of Ukraine’s independence.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken has arrived in Ukraine carrying a tough anti-graft message and strong U.S. backing for the country’s response to Russian aggression.

THE HAGUE – The International Criminal Court's prosecutor said Friday that a preliminary probe has found “a reasonable basis at this time to believe” that crimes against humanity and war crimes have been committed in Ukraine which merit a full-scale investigation. Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said the suspected crimes and the failure of courts in Ukraine and Russia to successfully prosecute them mean that the next step for ICC prosecutors will be to request authorization from judges to open a formal investigation. Without going into details of the alleged crimes, Bensouda said in a statement that her preliminary investigation found three “clusters of victimization;” crimes committed during hostilities, during detentions and crimes committed in Crimea. The ICC is a court of last resort that only takes cases when member states do not or cannot prosecute them in domestic courts. Earlier Friday, Bensouda whose term as prosecutor at the ICC is drawing to a close, said she also was ready to seek authorization for a full-scale investigation into the conflict between Nigerian forces and the Boko Haram extremist group.

Belarusian opposition supporters with old Belarusian national flags gather toward the Independence Palace, the residential of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in Minsk, Belarus, Sunday, Sept. 6, 2020. Sunday's demonstration marked the beginning of the fifth week of daily protests calling for Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko's resignation in the wake of allegedly manipulated elections. Protesters say the results were rigged, and some have explained to Associated Press journalists exactly how the fraud took place in their districts. Authorities also have revoked the accreditation of many Belarusian journalists and deported some foreign journalists, including two Moscow-based Associated Press journalists. APs Belarusian journalists were among those told their press credentials had been revoked.

Hundreds of supporters of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko with Belarusian State flags, and a poster that reads: "Our President, our Country!, Not let destroy the country", gather at Independent Square of Minsk, Belarus, Sunday, Aug. 16, 2020. On Saturday, thousands of demonstrators rallied at the spot in Belarus' capital where a protester died in clashes with police, calling for Lukashenko to resign. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)MINSK Thousands of people have gathered in a square near Belarus' main government building for a rally to support President Alexander Lukashenko, while opposition supporters whose protests have convulsed the country for a week aim to hold a major march in the capital. Now everybody is against Lukashenko and the president needs our support. Belarus' declining economy and Lukashenko's dismissal of the coronavirus pandemic as psychosis are among the factors that galvanized the largest and most sustained protests the country has seen.