Shares of Russian state-run aerospace company United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) soared 45% on Tuesday after the maiden flight of the country’s first fully domestically-built aircraft. Earlier, the Russian Industry Ministry said that an SSJ-100 equipped only with domestically-produced components had carried out its first flight. The airliner flew at altitudes of up to 3,000 meters…

Combatants from the Ukrainian Aidar Battalion have been firing weapons from the Svyato-Uspensky Nikolo-Vasilievsky Monastery in the village of Nikolskoye, in the People’s Republic of Donetsk, and “holding around 300 locals and monks hostage,” the Russian Ministry of Defense said in a statement on Sunday.

Last month, the country’s Supreme Court banned the LGBTQ movement, labeling it as “extremist” A controversial member of the Russian parliament, Vitaly Milonov, has proposed a ban for organizations promoting so-called childfree lifestyles in the country, arguing that the movement’s philosophy has “extremist roots.”