Ukraine and Eastern Europe

NATO's new Secretary General Mark Rutte visited Kyiv on Thursday (3 October). It is Rutte's first working trip since officially taking office earlier this week. Earlier, Rutte announced that Ukraine's NATO membership would be one of the spearheads of his policy.

A major Russian air strike on Lviv, a city in western Ukraine near the border with NATO member Poland, killed seven people, wounded more than 30 and caused extensive damage to historic buildings in the city centre, regional officials said on Wednesday (4 September). The attack came a day after Russia's deadliest single attack this year, when two ballistic missiles hit a military institute in the central Ukrainian city of Poltava, killing 50 people and injuring hundreds more. Meanwhile, neighbouring Poland scrambled jets to secure its airspace for the third time in eight days.

Belarus said on Monday (19 August) that it had sent more troops to its border with Ukraine. A day earlier, President Alexander Lukashenko said nearly a third of the Belarusian army was stationed on the border, although he did not give exact figures. Belarusian General Andrei Lukyanovich said this included anti-aircraft troops.

The European Union has condemned several waves of large-scale attacks on several Ukrainian cities carried out by Russia on Monday (8 July). 

From 9 to 11 July, Olivér Várhelyi, Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement, will make an official visit to the Republic of Moldova to launch the EU's bilateral accession screening process with Moldova, starting with the basics. 

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is in the Chinese capital Beijing. He is due to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing later today (8 Juli). What exactly they will talk about is not known.