For full coverage of the crisis in Ukraine, visit .
Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine has dealt a deep blow to Russian foreign policy and left the country’s diplomats with an “impossible” task of trying to pursue the Kremlin’s goals amid increasing isolation,
That’s the assessment delivered by Boris Bondarev, a counselor at Russia's permanent mission to the United Nations in Geneva and a 20-year veteran of the country’s foreign service. He resigned in May because he felt the war had shown how repressive and warped Russia and its leaders had become.
The U.S. State Department said Secretary Antony Blinken spoke on Saturday with his counterpart in India about Russia's war on Ukraine among other issues, Reuters reported.
Blinken spoke with Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar about "regional and global issues, including counterterrorism cooperation and Russia’s continuing aggression against Ukraine," the department said in a release.
India has been a large purchaser of Russia's oil, which is helping to fund its war against Ukraine.
Jaishankar will visit Russia on Nov. 8, the Russian embassy in India said on Thursday.
: The firing of Denis Skopin, an associate professor at St. Petersburg State University (SPSU), for his opposition to the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine is the latest instance of a deepening crackdown on academic freedom inside Russia, .
Skopin -- who taught philosophy in the university’s Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences -- was fired on October 26 for his participation in a protest against Moscow’s mobilization of military-age men to fight in Ukraine, where he was arrested and sentenced to 10 days in jail. While detained, Skopin and other protesters were also allegedly pressured by authorities to submit summonses to their local military enlistment office.
According to the dismissal order issued by the university, Skopin was fired for his opposition to Moscow’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine and for protesting against the mobilization drive that began on September 21: “The act committed by the employee is immoral and incompatible with the implementation of educational functions and the continuation of this work,” the order stated.
“A university is a place where people should think, where qualities such as critical thinking and independent thought should be encouraged,” Skopin told RFE/RL’s North.Realities during an interview. “Unfortunately, this is no longer possible in today's Russia.”
US President Joe Biden said Russia's suspension of its participation in an agreement that allowed vital grain exports from Ukraine was "purely outrageous," while speaking to reporters Saturday, Agence France-Presse reports.
There is "no reason for them to do that," the president said of the halt to the deal, which had been heralded as critical to easing the global food crisis caused by the conflict.
Russia and Ukraine carried out the latest in series of prisoner of war exchanges on Saturday, with both sides returning around 50 people, officials in Moscow and Kyiv said.
Ukraine's military intelligence directorate reported the return of 52 detainees, among them soldiers, sailors, border guards, national guard members and doctors, Reuters reports.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyyy said that since March, Russia had freed a total of 1,031 prisoners.
"We remember all those who are held captive in Russia and on occupied territory and will do everything to ensure that each and every one is returned," he said in a video address.
Russia's defense ministry said Ukraine handed over 50 prisoners of war after talks.
The European Union said Saturday, it supports U.N. led efforts to keep the Ukraine grain deal alive after Moscow announced it is exiting the initiative, Reuters reports.
"We ... stress that all parties must refrain from any unilateral action that would imperil the Black Sea Grain Initiative which is a critical humanitarian effort that is clearly having a positive impact on access to food for millions of people around the world," said Nabila Massrali, spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy at the European Commission.
Ukraine is gaining the upper hand against Russia in southern Kherson with range and precision guidance of artillery, and drones, reports. In a war that is fought primarily through the air, Ukraine is turning the tables against Russia with Western weapons and homemade drones.
“We can reach them, and they cannot reach us,” said Major Oleksandr, the commander of an artillery battery on the Kherson front, who like others interviewed for this article gave only his first name for security reasons. “They don’t have these weapons” he said.