A large-scale investigation published by TRT in Russian lays bare the human cost of Russia's war in Ukraine for the Republic of North Ossetia—a small region with a population of approximately 700,000, where, according to figures presented at a meeting of an internal, interdepartmental, government commission, between 43,000 and 45,000 people took part in the fighting.

Nearly three dozen Armenian human rights and civil society organizations have sent an open letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President António Costa calling for the release of Armenian prisoners held in Baku. The letter was published on the eve of the 8th European Political Community Summit and the Armenia-European Union meeting, scheduled to take place in Armenia.

Armenia's Anti-Corruption Committee has uncovered new cases of vote-buying by representatives of the opposition party "Strong Armenia," led by Russian oligarch Samvel Karapetyan.

Chechnya's leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, has received Vladimir Putin's support ahead of the region's latest election. During a meeting in the Kremlin the previous evening, the Russian president praised the republic's successes under the current leader's leadership and expressed confidence that the people of Chechnya will once again place their trust in him in the September 20 elections.

The 2026 World Press Freedom Index, published this morning by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), records the worst deterioration in global media freedom in 25 years. More than half of the world's countries rank the situation as "challenging" or "very challenging," and the average index level has never been lower. A key trend is increasing legal pressure on the media: of the five indicators used to assess press freedom worldwide (economy, law, security, politics, culture, and society), the "law" indicator showed the most significant decline.

Elman Abdullaev, a veteran of the Ukrainian conflict and a native of North Ossetia, failed to obtain a review of his sentence in a fraud case. Following a ruling by a court in Vladikavkaz, the Southern District Military Court upheld his two-year prison sentence on charges of bribery.

Georgia and Armenia will host the 2029 FIFA U-20 World Cup. The national football associations of both countries confirmed this information, which was received at the FIFA Council in Vancouver on April 28.

The Committee for the Protection of the Rights of Ali Karimli expressed strong protest on the occasion of the 61st birthday of the leader of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA), which the politician is celebrating in the pretrial detention facility of the State Security Service. The human rights activists accused the authorities of exerting pressure on Karimli for years, including the revocation of his passport and periodic arrests.

Speaker of the Georgian Parliament, Shalva Papuashvili, stated that Georgia's territorial integrity is inviolable and will not be subject to negotiation for EU membership. He criticized the "Ukrainian and Moldovan-style" approaches to European integration, calling them alien to Georgia.

The Chechen opposition movement NIYSO announced the arrest and subsequent deployment to Ukraine of three young men from the village of Tangi-chu in the Urus-Martan district of the Chechen Republic. Fellow villagers reportedly asked for prayers for them.