It never happened during the entire Cold War. But all these years later, Russia's border with NATO is about to double in size. Finland remains unmoved by threats out of the Kremlin over its bid to join the US-led alliance. The same goes for neighbouring Sweden, which is so concerned by Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine that it is ready to call time on two centuries of neutrality.

Some Russian lawmakers have urged the death penalty for Ukraine's captured Azov steel plant fighters. But what consequences could Russia face?

Posts on social media claim that Russian forces captured a US admiral, Eric T. Olson, at the Azovstal steel plant in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol. The US Department of Defense confirmed to The FRANCE 24 Observers that Eric T. Olson retired in 2011 as an admiral for the US armed forces. But the claims that he was captured in Mariupol are false. We tell you more in this edition of Truth or Fake.

Posts on social media claim that Russian forces captured a US admiral, Eric T. Olson, at the Azovstal steel plant in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol. The US Department of Defense confirmed to The FRANCE 24 Observers that Eric T. Olson retired in 2011 as an admiral for the US armed forces. But the claims that he was captured in Mariupol are false. We tell you more in this edition of Truth or Fake.

Rising food and energy prices, shortages and uncertainty. Russia's war in Ukraine and its naval blockade of Ukrainian grain exports is creating a severe international crisis. DW's Thomas Sparrow explains what the West is doing to stop it.

Whilst Russia represents an immediate threat, the long-term one China poses to the global order is more serious, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said.

Russia has confirmed the capture of the strategic town of Lyman after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy vowed resistance in the Donbas region.

Lysychansk is in the small remaining area of the Luhansk region that Ukrainian forces still control. The Russian army has almost destroyed the town, but DW met some of the residents still holding out there.

Russian energy firm Gazprom says it has suspended supplies of gas to the Netherlands after payments were not made in rubles.

The leader of South Ossetia, the breakaway region of Georgia, has scrapped plans to hold a referendum on joining Russia. However, a vote could still be held after consultations with Moscow.

In the week that EU leaders agreed on a sixth round of sanctions against Russia, Polish Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Pawel Jablonski speaks to FRANCE 24 about the effect he hopes the measures will have on the Russian economy, his disappointment at the Hungarian government's stance regarding sanctions and the latest developments in Poland's rule of law dispute with the European Commission.

Senegal's President Macky Sall appeals to the West to ease sanctions on Russia to facilitate the export grain to Africa. Millions on the continent face hunger amid a global food crisis sparked by the Ukraine war. We talk to David Laborde, Senior Research Fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute about the crisis.Also in this edition: Sudan marks the three-year anniversary of the June 3rd massacre, and in Cameroon, refugees prepare to go back home to the Central African Republic.