Vladyslav, a member of Ukraine's National Guard, suffered a nearly fatal wound to his throat behind enemy lines in the Donetsk region. Unable to speak, Vladyslav wrote that he had been taken captive, tortured, and left for dead with his comrades before crawling for five days to safety.| Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron and other Western leaders in Paris to discuss plans for Ukraine's post-war security. Macron said that 26 countries had agreed to provide security guarantees for Ukraine.| Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
Thousands of Afghans are returning home from Pakistan after Islamabad imposed an August 31 deadline for them to return or face forcible repatriation. The exodus comes despite a 6.0-magnitude earthquake in eastern Afghanistan that killed more than 1,400 people and left many more homeless.| Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
Families in eastern Afghanistan continue to recover their dead after an earthquake struck on August 31, killing more than 1,400 people. RFE/RL's Radio Azadi spoke to a man in Kunar Province who lost 10 family members. He and fellow survivors are sheltering under tents near their destroyed homes.| Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
With villages in the Dnipropetrovsk region in constant danger of Russian air assaults, locals are increasingly deciding to leave their homes behind for safer places further west. As volunteers arrived to transport some of them, another Russian drone struck, underscoring the risk of remaining.| RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty
Few families remain in the village of Maksymivka, near Ukraine's Black Sea coast. As the country prepares to observe Independence Day on August 24, some residents say the holiday evokes hopes for a Ukrainian victory, while others focus on the mounting human cost of the war.| RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty
During Volodymyr Zelenskyy's visit to Washington, US President Donald Trump said he would work to coordinate a summit between the Ukrainian president and Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Ukrainians in Kyiv told RFE/RL they feared that such a meeting was unlikely to lead to a peace deal.| RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty