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In Georgia's highlands near Batumi, many villagers distill their own, fiery drink out of grape juice left over from wine production.

Russia has intensified attacks near the cities of Bakhmut and Soledar in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk Region in recent days. On August 4, RFE/RL correspondent Maryan Kushnir filmed Ukrainian tank and artillery units in the battlefield as they assisted the infantry with supporting fire.

We joined a Ukrainian Army crew manning a German Panzerhaubitze 2000, a self-propelled, long-range howitzer, as it opened fire on Russian positions. After firing a salvo, the crew hid the weapon system among trees and broken branches. They said Russian drones were hunting the howitzers.

While new long-range artillery from the West has been a huge boon for Ukraine in hitting Russian positions far from the front line, older equipment is also serving defenders well. Ukrainian troops were making the most of locally produced Verba MLRS rocket launchers on August 2 in Kharkiv.

Ukrainian soldiers say there's a "big difference" when using the Bureviy multiple-launch rocket system, a modernized version of the Soviet-era Uragan system. The Bureviy system now sits on a Czech-built Tatra truck, which Ukrainian soldiers say provides greater mobility and off-road capabilities

Anna Zaitseva, the wife of an Azov Battalion soldier, was taken to the Bezimenne filtration camp east of Mariupol. Body-cavity searches in unhygienic conditions and threats followed. "I know that they said to other women that they would send them the heads of their husbands in a box,"

Russian troops are continuing assaults in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region. Ukrainian forces say their goal is the key city of Bakhmut. RFE/RL's Maryan Kushnir spent time with soldiers from a Ukrainian mortar unit trying to disrupt Russian plans.

At least one person was reported killed in the Armenian capital, Yerevan, on August 14 after a strong blast hit a fireworks storage area. The pyrotechnics were kept at the city's popular Surmalu market. Authorities expect that people could be trapped under the rubble.