The Bulgarian parliament has ousted its speaker in a new blow to the coalition government of Prime Minister Kiril Petkov, who faces a vote of no-confidence next week.
Former Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) officer Ilya Bogdanov first came to Ukraine in 2014 "not to fight for Ukraine but to fight against Putin’s regime." After becoming a Ukrainian citizen and recovering from a serious injury in recent fighting, he now says he doesn't "want war for the sake of war. I want peace in Ukraine."
A court in Bishkek has acquitted former Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambaev in two corruption cases dating back several years unrelated to the crime for which he is currently serving an 11-year prison sentence.
The U.S. agriculture secretary has called on Russia to rapidly open Ukraine's ports to allow the export of millions of tons of stockpiled grain, while a U.S. satellite company says it has images of Russian ships delivering Ukrainian grain to Syria.