Russia’s Digital Development Ministry and telecom operators have agreed on a system that would keep essential services accessible during mobile Internet shutdowns, ministry head Maksut Shadaev told the news agency Interfax. The system would create a “white list” of crucial services — marketplaces, delivery services, taxi apps, and others — that users could access “at the same speed” even during restrictions.

Russian lawmakers will consider draft legislation that would grant widows of fallen soldiers preferential admission to universities and colleges, marking the latest expansion of educational benefits tied to the war in Ukraine. Nina Ostanina, who chairs the State Duma’s Family Protection Committee, sponsored the legislation, arguing that military widows need “additional support measures” including education opportunities and professional retraining.

HIV patients in at least 16 Russian regions are being denied routine tests for viral load and immune status, tests prescribed every six months under national medical guidelines, reports the newspaper Vedomosti . The “Patient Control” advocacy group has documented 40 such complaints since the start of 2025, affecting regions including Samara, Tyumen, Kaluga, Orenburg, Rostov, Leningrad, and Amur, as well as Dagestan, Udmurtia, and Bashkortostan.

How Russia’s pro-war bloggers reacted to the planned Trump–Putin meeting Getty Images Russia’s pro-war Telegram channels are abuzz with commentary following news of a planned meeting between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump. Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov announced on August 7 that preparations were underway for an in-person meeting of the two leaders “in the coming days.” The announcement came a day after Trump envoy Steve Witkoff met with Putin in Moscow.

A Russian court fined a woman 10,000 rubles (about $125) for using a derogatory term for Ukrainians on social media — marking a rare case of prosecution for anti-Ukrainian hate speech in Russia. The ruling comes as Russia wages war on Ukraine while state propaganda continues to use the same derogatory language the court has now outlawed.

He still works with the theme of war. Let's talk about his projects At the No exhibition, which took place in Berlin from April 26 to July 6, many visitors remembered the detailed models of war-damaged buildings drawn with a 3D pen. They were created by Sergei Prokofiev, an artist who was one of the first to work with the theme of the Russian-Ukrainian war and has been working on it for ten years.

Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images The Polish media outlet Onet.pl has published new details of what it says is Washington’s plan to end the war between Russia and Ukraine. According to the report, which Meduza has not independently verified, U.S. presidential envoy Steve Witkoff presented the Kremlin with a “highly favorable offer” from the Trump administration during his August 6 meeting with Vladimir Putin. The proposal was reportedly coordinated with Ukraine’s European partners.

Ukrainians stranded at Georgian border after deportation from Russia launch hunger strike Serhiy Larko The basement where the Ukrainians are being held at Georgia’s Dariali border checkpoint At least 15 Ukrainians deported from Russia declared a hunger strike at the Georgian border on August 6, demanding a meeting with their consular officials.

One thousand two hundred and sixty-first day. Putin and Trump will hold talks. When and where will they take place? Will Putin meet with Zelensky? And what about Trump's ultimatum? Alexander Ermochenko / Reuters / Scanpix / LETA Marinka, Russian-controlled part of the Donetsk region, August 7, 2025 Since February 24, 2022, Meduza has been broadcasting live about the Russian-Ukrainian war.

Trump’s envoy reportedly ate a giant meat pie before meeting with Putin. Russian media couldn’t get enough. Voskhod In the hours after U.S. presidential envoy Steve Witkoff met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, few details were released publicly. Still, pro-Kremlin media had no trouble finding something to report. RIA Novosti, Komsomolskaya Pravda, Lenta.ru, and even the official newspaper of the Russian Senate all published stories — about Witkoff’s breakfast.

Lukashenko has remained in power and is still taking revenge on those who demanded his departure. Does this mean it was all in vain? David W Cerny / Reuters / Scanpix / LETA On August 9, it will be exactly five years since the most massive protests in the modern history of the country began in Belarus. They started on the day of the presidential election, against the backdrop of falsifications in favor of Alexander Lukashenko, and did not fade away for several months.

Vladimir Putin said the United Arab Emirates would be a “perfectly suitable place” for his upcoming meeting with Donald Trump. “We have many friends who are ready to help us organize an event of this kind. One of my friends is the President of the UAE. I think we will decide, but this would be one of the quite suitable places,” Putin told reporters in the Kremlin during his meeting with the UAE president, who came to Russia.

Cease-fire. Actual recognition of Russian conquests. Lifting sanctions. But the US does not guarantee that Ukraine will not join NATO Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images The Polish publication Onet.pl published details of the US plan to resolve the Russian-Ukrainian war. According to journalists, at a meeting between Vladimir Putin and Steve Witkoff in Moscow on August 6, the Kremlin received a “very advantageous offer” from the Donald Trump administration, agreed upon with its European allies.

Z-channels again admire Putin and call his upcoming meeting with Trump “epoch-making” - but they don’t expect much from it Getty Images On August 6, Vladimir Putin received US Presidential Special Envoy Steve Witkoff in the Kremlin, and the next day, assistant to the Russian President Yuri Ushakov announced preparations for a personal meeting between Putin and Donald Trump. According to Ushakov, the American side proposed holding the meeting. The White House said the initiative came from Putin.

How the Kremlin’s slow-motion YouTube block pushed Russians back into the arms of television Last summer, the Russian authorities began throttling YouTube playback speeds, rendering the popular video platform practically unusable. YouTube videos began taking a long time to load — if they loaded at all — and it soon became all but impossible to watch anything without a VPN.