“Down! And now this gesture will make the dog sit,” says a National Guard officer, his face half-covered by a balaclava, as he points at a German Shepherd. He stands in a school assembly hall in the Russian-occupied Kherson region. The dog obeys, and the children laugh.

The session is part of a professional training program run by the Russian

The Kremlin on Wednesday declined to say whether a 30-day pause on strikes against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure would be extended, just hours before the moratorium was set to expire.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on March 18 that he had ordered a temporary halt to such attacks, though Ukrainian officials have accused Moscow of

Finland will keep its land border with Russia closed indefinitely due to continued concerns over a potential surge in asylum seekers allegedly encouraged by Moscow, the Finnish government announced Wednesday.

The Nordic country shut its 1,340-kilometer (830-mile) eastern border in December 2023 amid an uptick in asylum seekers from the Middle East