U.S. rocket companies are facing the daunting task of ferrying hundreds of satellites to space in the coming years as sanctions sideline the Russian space launch industry.

All Japan Judo Federation President Yasuhiro Yamashita on Monday criticized Russian President and judoka Vladimir Putin, saying his country's aggression in Ukraine is against the ethos of the sport.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday he had held spoken on the phone with German chancellor Olaf Scholz on the possibility of additional sanctions on Russia, as well as fresh defence and financial support for his country.

After its striking post-invasion setbacks, Russia has appointed a new Ukraine war commander, a U.S. official said Sunday. Russia turned to Gen. Alexander Dvornikov, 60, one of Russia’s most experienced military officers and — according to U.S. officials — a general with a record of brutality against civilians in Syria and other war theaters. Up to now, Russia had no central war commander on the ground.

The Ukrainian leader has also renewed his plea for more weapons ahead of an expected surge in fighting in the country’s east.

The war in Ukraine is now well into its sixth week, and taking on a new dimension with growing evidence of human rights atrocities by Russian troops as they retreated from the Kyiv region and other parts of the north.

In Germany, they call it “Day X”. Businesses up and down the land are making contingency plans for what is seen as a growing likelihood that Russian gas will stop flowing into Europe’s biggest economy. “It would be a disaster – one which would have seemed almost unthinkable just two months ago, but which right now feels like a very realistic prospect,” the owner of a hi-tech mechanical engineering company in western Germany said. The firm produces everything from battery cases for electric cars to train clutch systems.

A voting app run by supporters of prominent Putin critic Alexei Navalny is once again available for download on Apple’s Russian App Store, The Washington Post reports, citing independent researchers and Navalny’s chief of stall Leonid Volkov. Both Apple and Google removed the app last year after the Kremlin threatened to criminally prosecute company employees in the country.

In his first public comments since returning to Earth aboard a Russia space craft, astronaut Mark Vande Hei says the war in Ukraine didn't hurt relationships aboard the International Space Station.

"We don't have any difficulty paying in rubles," Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told reporters on Wednesday.

On March 2, 141 countries in the United Nations General Assembly voted to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. India was one of 35 countries to abstain, just days after it declined to vote on a similar resolution in the U.N. Security Council. Although the abstention seems jarring for a democratic country, it is not a surprising move for India, which not only has a historic friendship with Russia but also depends on Russian weapons.

Russia is turning to microchip manufactures in China to circumvent western sanctions which have boosted demand for bank cards linked to the Mir payment system, an executive with the domestic payment system said.

China may portray itself as a neutral party in the war in Ukraine, but the message it communicates to its audience at home tells a different story. State news agency Xinhua calls the war “a special military operation” and “the Russia-Ukraine crisis” but never refers to it as an invasion. CCTV, the state broadcaster, mentioned civilian casualties for the first time only three weeks after Russia invaded.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy asked Belgian lawmakers for more help and took aim at the continued import of Russian diamonds to Belgium’s port of Antwerp on Thursday while repeating calls for a no-fly zone over his country.

Despite the United States and Russia’s deteriorating relationship here on Earth, Russia is still considering extending its participation on the International Space Station through 2030, according to NASA. However, it could be a few months before there is a solid update on Russia’s official stance.

President Joe Biden called for a war crimes trial against Russian President Vladimir Putin and said he'd seek more sanctions after reported atrocities in Ukraine.

Ukrainian forces liberating the town of Bucha near Kyiv find streets littered with corpses of civilians and burned-out Russian tanks

As Moscow’s forces bog down in Ukraine, many young Russians of draft age are increasingly jittery about the prospect of being sent into combat. Making those fears particularly acute is an annual spring conscription that began Friday and aims to round up 134,500 men for a one-year tour of military duty.

Russia will end its cooperation on the International Space Station (ISS) and cease working with NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) due to western sanctions against the country.

The international sanctions campaign that countries and companies have mounted against Russia in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine is a remarkable achievement of multinational diplomacy and corporate responsibility. Much of the world has voluntarily terminated business with Russia, severing trade ties and financial relationships with the country and shocking the Kremlin by freezing many of its foreign assets. The speed, scope, and scale of these punitive economic measures and the nature of their target—one of the world’s largest and most important economies—are all without precedent.