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(WASHINGTON) — Two American women remain missing more than a week after their plane crashed off the coast of Panama, as their families plead with the United States government for assistance in the recovery effort.

Debra Ann Velleman, 70, of Waukesha, Wisconsin, and Sue Borries, 57, of Teutopolis, Illinois, both retired public school teachers, were part of a community of snowbirds and expats living in the area of Chame, Panama.

The two friends were traveling with their husbands back to Chame after spending New Year’s Eve weekend at a bed and breakfast on the Panamanian island Isla Contadora on Jan. 3 when the crash occurred. The small plane, piloted by the owner of the bed and breakfast, suffered an engine failure and crashed off the coast of Chame, according to friends and family.

Their husbands, Anthony Velleman and Dennis Borries, as well as the pilot were rescued by Panamanian search and rescue teams, though the women have yet to be found despite continued search efforts, according to Albert Lewitinn, a representative for the Velleman family. The women are believed to be in the unrecovered plane wreckage, he said.

The Panamanian government had requested that the U.S. deploy assets including Navy salvage divers and sonar to aid in the search effort and locate the wreckage, but the request was denied this week due to a lack of assets and jurisdiction, according to a family statement.

The families are continuing to “implore” the U.S. government to send equipment and personnel to aid in the search and recovery effort.

“The only acceptable outcome is that our loved ones are found and recovered so that our families can begin the long and difficult grieving process,” the Borries and Velleman families said in a statement. “Until our loved ones are recovered and brought home, that cannot occur. It is the United States government’s duty to provide much needed assistance in accomplishing this.”

ABC News has reached out to the U.S. Embassy in Panama for comment.

The Velleman family has been in touch with two of their Wisconsin representatives, Sen. Tammy Baldwin and Rep. Scott Fitzgerald, as they seek assistance in the search and recovery effort.

Baldwin’s office told ABC News it has contacted the Embassy and the State Department “to share our concern that Ms. Vellemen has not yet been located.” The office said it has also contacted the U.S. Coast Guard and the Department of Defense “to urge them to deploy and use any resources that may be available to help in the search effort.”

According to Baldwin’s office, the U.S. Coast Guard has provided Panamanian authorities with technical modeling to support the search for the aircraft.

“The Department of State, through its Embassy in Panama City, is working in close coordination with the National Transportation Safety Board and USCG to support the Panamanian search operation,” Baldwin’s office said. “The U.S. Embassy is also maintaining contact with the families of those missing and the Panamanian government throughout this response.”

A spokesperson for Fitzgerald’s office told ABC News it cannot comment on ongoing casework.

The surviving passengers continue to recover following the crash. Anthony Velleman will travel by air ambulance back to Wisconsin after having spinal surgery in Panama and “will need months of extensive medical care,” Lewitinn said.

Meanwhile, the Vellemans’ two sons are looking for closure.

“It’s been a week, and they are American citizens,” Josh Velleman told ABC Milwaukee affiliate WISN from Panama. “I believe the U.S. should do the right thing, bring those Americans home where they belong.”

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(BRUSSELS) — A new round of talks between Russia and NATO countries aimed at averting a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine have again ended with little progress, with the two sides still at an impasse over Russia’s demands for security guarantees.

Russia met with 30 NATO member states at the alliance’s headquarters in Brussels on Wednesday, the second of three diplomatic meetings organized this week in Europe between Russia and Western countries amid fears raised by Russia’s massing of 100,000 troops on Ukraine’s border.

In Wednesday’s talks, NATO offered Russia to hold a series of meetings to discuss arms control and other confidence building measures in an attempt to persuade it to lower tensions around Ukraine. The alliance’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said it had proposed talks on limiting missile deployments and troop exercises as well as how to improve communication and transparency. He told reporters afterward that Russia said it needed to time to consider the offer, but it had not rejected it out of hand.

“We are ready to sit down,” Stoltenberg told journalists. “And we hope Russia is ready to sit down and hold these meetings.”

But NATO unanimously rebuffed Moscow’s core demands for formal guarantees that Ukraine will never join NATO and that the alliance will pull back its forces from countries in Eastern Europe that joined after the Cold War. Russia and the United States held talks on Monday in Geneva where Moscow pressed those demands and which the U.S. rejected as impossible.

NATO and the U.S. said they would never compromise on what they called the alliance’s “core principles,” after Russia’s negotiators, Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko and Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin, presented the same demands again at Wednesday’s meeting.

“Together, the United States and our NATO allies made clear we will not slam the door shut on NATO’s open-door policy,” U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, who led the U.S. delegation, said after the meeting, calling them a “non-starter.”

But while Russia’s key demand was again rejected, the door to a diplomatic solution remains open, U.S. and NATO officials said.

“There was no commitment to deescalate, nor was there a statement that there would not be,” Sherman added, even offering some praise for the Russian delegation for sitting “through nearly four hours of a meeting where 30 nations spoke — and they did — which is not an easy thing to do. I’m glad they did it.”

She and Stoltenberg said Russia now had a choice to make whether to engage with dialogue, saying she hoped the Russian negotiators would now go back to President Vladimir Putin and they would choose “peace and security.”

Russia made the sweeping demands over NATO in two draft treaties in December after building up troops close to Ukraine for months. That buildup, along with bellicose rhetoric and plans for “internal sabotage,” according to U.S. officials, raised fears that Putin may be preparing to launch a renewed attack on the country after he seized Crimea and launched a separatist war in 2014.

Russia has denied it is planning to attack Ukraine, despite the buildup on its border. Amid the diplomatic efforts, it staged live fire exercises on Tuesday with 3,000 troops and hundreds of tanks in three regions neighboring Ukraine.

The U.S. and NATO have hoped that Russia might accept more modest offers, such as limiting missile deployments and troop exercises. But Russia’s negotiator, Grushko, insisted again Wednesday that Russia could accept nothing less than the guarantees on Ukraine and NATO, calling it “imperative.” No progress on arms control or confidence-building measures could be made without progress on Moscow’s core demands, he told reporters afterward.

Grushko said Russia was now waiting for NATO and the U.S. to send written responses to the Russian proposals and that it would then make a decision on how to proceed.

Russia has complained for decades about NATO expansion into countries formerly dominated by Moscow under the Soviet Union. The Kremlin now alleges that NATO assistance to Ukraine means the former Soviet country is becoming a defacto part of the alliance. The U.S. and NATO say Moscow’s demand is an attempt to reimpose its Soviet-era sphere of influence on Eastern Europe and that it violates a fundamental right for countries to choose their security alliances.

Grushko said deescalation was “absolutely possible,” but he warned that the alliance’s enlargement into Eastern Europe had become “unbearable” for Russia, warning if Russia felt threatened it would use “military means.”

“We have a range of military-technical measures that we will use if we will feel a real threat to our security,” Grushko said. “And we already are feeling it, if they are looking at our territory as a target for guided, offensive weapons. Of course, we cannot agree with that. We will take all necessary measures in order to fend off the threat with military means, if political ones don’t work.”

But Grushko also spoke positively about the talks, saying for the first time he believed Russia had “managed to convey to the members of the alliance that the situation is unbearable.”

Stoltenberg said Russia could not have a veto over Ukraine joining the alliance, saying Russian claims to feel threatened by Ukraine were also wrong.

“Ukraine is a sovereign nation. Ukraine has the right to self-defense,” he said. “Ukraine is not a threat to Russia. To say that Ukraine is a threat to Russia is to put the whole thing upside down.”

Western officials have been trying to understand whether the threat of a Russian attack on Ukraine is real or a bluff to strengthen Moscow’s hands as it makes its demands. Sherman suggested that remained an open question, perhaps even for the Kremlin itself.

“Everyone, Russia most of all, will have to decide whether they really are about security, in which case they should engage, or whether this was all a pretext,” she said. “And they may not even know yet.”

While the buildup, including the new live-fire exercises Wednesday, could still be a negotiating tactic, some Western officials and independent experts also worry that Russia might be engaging in the talks intending for them to fail, so as to use that as a pretext for a military intervention.

“The United States and our allies and partners are not dragging our feet. It is Russia that has to make a stark choice: deescalation and diplomacy, or confrontation and consequences,” Sherman said. “If Russia walks away, however, it will be quite apparent they were never serious about pursuing diplomacy at all.”

On Thursday, the talks will move to a third round at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, a Cold War-era forum that includes all of the continent’s countries, the U.S. and Canada and several in Central Asia. Those talks are expected to yield even fewer results, with 57 member states participating in an open dialogue.

The Kremlin has suggested it will make a decision whether it is worth continuing talks following this week’s meetings. Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, on Tuesday said Moscow did not “see a substantial reason for optimism” so far but that for now it was not drawing any conclusions.

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(NEW YORK) — A federal judge in New York has denied Prince Andrew’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit from Virginia Giuffre, an alleged victim of Jeffrey Epstein.

A spokesperson for Prince Andrew said no comment when asked for one.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

ABC News’ Zoe Magee contributed to this report.

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(LONDON) — Magawa, a rat credited with finding over 100 landmines and explosives in Cambodia, is dead at age 8.

The African giant pouched male rat was the most successful landmine detecting rat for the nonprofit APOPO — a Tanzania-based group that trains the species to detect landmines and tuberculosis — dubbing them “HeroRATs.”

Magawa won a People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals Gold Medal — the highest honor given to heroic animals by the U.K.-based veterinary charity — for his work in Cambodia in 2020. According to APOPO, Magawa “passed away peacefully this weekend,” having recently celebrated his birthday.

Magawa retired last year after spending four years discovering explosives with his incredible sense of smell.

African giant pouched rats are larger than the average pet rat, but are not heavy enough to set off most landmines by walking over them.

With 60 million people in 59 countries affected by uncleared landmines, training animals like Magawa can improve efficiency and cut costs in a decades-long battle to clear landmines from past conflict zones, APOPO says.

“All of us at APOPO are feeling the loss of Magawa and we are grateful for the incredible work he’s done,” the nonprofit said on its website. “During his career, Magawa found over 100 landmines and other explosives, making him APOPO’s most successful HeroRAT to date. His contribution allows communities in Cambodia to live, work, and play; without fear of losing life or limb.”

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(KAZAKHSTAN) — Russian-led troops sent to help quell protests will begin leaving Kazakhstan in two days now that the government is back in control, the country’s president has said.

President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev in an address to Kazakhstan’s parliament Tuesday said the troops, deployed by the Moscow-dominated military alliance, the Collective Security Treaty Organisation at his request last week, would start a phased withdrawal that would finish in no more than 10 days.

“The main mission of the CSTO peacekeeping forces has been successfully completed,” Tokayev told lawmakers. He said that the situation was now stable in all regions of Kazakhstan.

The Russian-led alliance sent troops late last week to Kazakhstan as violent protests saw Tokayev’s authoritarian government lose control over its biggest city, Almaty. Russia sent the largest contingent, deploying paratroopers units with armored vehicles, backed by several hundred soldiers from the other former Soviet countries in the alliance: Belarus, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Tokayev has said the force numbers around 2,300 troops.

In recent days, Tokayev’s security forces have forcibly regained control in Kazakhstan, using live fire to end the uprising in Almaty and arresting nearly 10,000 people. The unrest saw at least 164 people killed and over 2,000 injured, according to authorities.

The Russian-led troops have not been used in combat or in direct clashes with protesters, according to the authorities, who say instead they were used to guard key facilities, including Almaty’s airport which was overrun by protesters. Tokayev has said the arrival of the foreign forces freed up his security forces in the capital Nur-Sultan to help quash the unrest in other regions.

The Russian intervention had worried Western countries that have expressed fear the Kremlin’s forces might remain indefinitely and that Kazakhstan could find its independence eroded.

The U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken this weekend told reporters, “I think one lesson in recent history is that once Russians are in your house, it’s sometimes very difficult to get them to leave.”

Russia’s president Vladimir Putin a day earlier has insisted his troops would “without question” leave as soon as their mission was complete.

Life was slowly returning to some normalcy in Almaty on Tuesday, although the city remained under heavy guard by security forces. Troops are posted at key buildings and checkpoints, stopping people and examining their phones for signs they may have taken part in the protests, according to an ABC reporter on the ground.

Tokayev on Tuesday announced his picks for a new government, including a new prime minister. The lower house of parliament quickly approved Tokayev’s acting prime minister, Alikhan Smailov, to the the post. In a special session of parliament, Tokayev also promised to launch broad reforms to overhaul Kazakhstan’s government and tackle economic problems in the country — addressing concerns that led to the protests. The unrest was triggered by a sudden hike in fuel prices, and came amid wide discontent with rising prices on basic goods and stagnant wages that have worsened with the pandemic.

Tokayev said his government would announce a new packet of measures within two months aimed at tackling inflation and raising incomes.

He also declared he would radically improve Kazakhstan’s security forces to prevent a repeat of last week’s unrest, promising to increase the number of special forces units in the police and create new ones in the national guard. He also promised to announce in September a packet of political reforms, saying Kazakhstan would “continue a course of political modernisation.”

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(NEW YORK) — Scientists are researching how to promote global diversity amid warming temperatures, but some of the methods that could prove effective may be further hindered by climate change, according to new research.

The mass-clearing of trees is occurring around the world due to a plethora of culprits, including wildfires, logging and clearing development. More than 18 million acres of forest are lost every year, according to the Ecological Society of America, and the forests that remain are often weakened by severe drought and disease. All of these things are exacerbated as the earth warms.

One method some scientists are confident will help vegetation survive the inevitable heat of the future is assisted migration, which involves planting a species of tree that is native to the area but sourcing the seed from farther south, where the temperature is warmer. Theoretically, this would ensure that the forest will endure, because that variation has already adapted to warmer temperatures.

But new research has shown that populations of some species of warm-adapted plants are actually decreasing in their native habitats — and if a plant population is dwindling, its seedlings may not be available to be migrated. A study published in Nature on Monday found that alpine plants in the European Alps are among the many plant and animal species responding to recent global warming, and climate change could be leading to the reduction of plants within each species that has adapted to warmer weather.

“These individuals that are adapted to warmer climatic conditions may get lost in the future climate change,” Johannes Wessely, author of the study and a researcher in the University of Vienna’s department of botany and biodiversity research, told ABC News.

The model developed by the researchers, which considered variations in the climate tolerance of six species of alpine plants, suggests that the ranges and populations of these plants will shrink as the climate warms, because the area in which it can survive will occupy smaller plots at higher elevations. This will then lead to less warm-adapted vegetation, and possibly the extinction of the species due to maladaptation and less vegetation overall, Wessely said.

The survivability of the species will depend on the rate of climate change, Wessely added.

“This pattern gets stronger, the stronger climate changes,” he said.

More research needs to be done to determine whether warming temperatures will have the similar effect on other plant species, Wessely said. If so, it could alter how effective assisted migration will be in fortifying vegetation against climate change.

Maladaptation is one of the main concerns scientists have when considering assisted migration, making sure to take extreme care when moving species outside of their normal zone, Owen Burney, the director of the John T. Harrington Forestry Research Center at New Mexico State University, told ABC News.

“There’s always a risk in doing that,” he said, but he emphasized that genetic research completed so far proves the method can be beneficial, for example, in providing some resilience to drought within a local population.

Scenarios that could possibly work include moving a variation of a Mexican pine species from Mexico to the southeastern U.S., where it does not exist, or moving a species from a lower to higher elevation. But ample testing will be necessary to make that determination, it can be tough to find investors for forestry, Burney said.

Forests are critical to the Earth’s ecology for their ability to capture and store carbon out of the atmosphere, alter the air quality and quantity of drinking water and provide habitat for the world’s land species.

Last year, the United Nations Environment Programme declared that promoting and preserving biodiversity — especially reforestation — would play a crucial role in combating climate change.

The growth and productivity of forests is both directly and indirectly affected by climate change, according to the Ecological Society of America. Changes in the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere affect forests directly, while the effect on the complex ecosystems as a result of climate change affects the forests indirectly.

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(WASHINGTON) — Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday that the United States was open to discussing limits on missile deployments and troop exercises in Europe during talks with Russia this week over Ukraine.

“There are confidence-building measures, there are risk-reduction measures, all of which, if done reciprocally, I think can really reduce tensions and address concerns,” Blinken told told ABC This Week anchor George Stephanopoulos.

And after Russia sent troops to help quell unrest in neighboring Kazakhstan, Blinken did not rule out that events there could come up in talks — even though Russia has ruled that out.

He criticized Kazakhstan’s president ordering security forces to shoot to kill protesters.

“That is something I resolutely reject,” Blinken said. “The shoot-to-kill order, to the extent it exists, is wrong and should be rescinded.”

Delegations from the U.S. and Russia planned to hold talksSunday night and Monday in Geneva, kicking off a critical week of diplomacy between Moscow and the West over Russian President Vladimir Putin menacing neighboring Ukraine.

Blinken said it may be possible “to address whatever legitimate concerns Russia may have.”

For example, he said, “there may be grounds for renewing” the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty with Russia, from which the Trump administration withdrew and which the U.S. accuses Russia of violating.

“Similarly, there are agreements on the deployment of conventional forces in Europe, on things like the scope and scale of exercises, that, if adhered to reciprocally — that is, Russia makes good on its commitments, which it’s repeatedly violated — then there are grounds for reducing tensions, creating greater transparency, creating greater confidence, all of which would address concerns that Russia purports to have,” Blinken said.

Stephanopoulos pressed, “So you’re willing to address troop levels, you’re willing to address missile deployments, you’re willing to address training exercises?”

Blinken said the United States was “not looking at troop levels.”

“When it comes to the deployment of forces and troop levels, we’re not looking at troop levels,” he said. “To the contrary, if Russia commits renewed aggression against Ukraine, I think it’s a very fair prospect that NATO will reinforce its positions along its eastern flank, the countries that border Russia.

“But when it comes to, for example, the scope and scale of exercises,” he continued, “things that were dealt with in the conventional forces in Europe treaty that Russia’s been in violation of, those are things that we can look at.”

The U.S.-Russia negotiations are expected to be followed by talks between Russia and NATO in Brussels on Wednesday and more discussions between the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe in Vienna on Thursday. The U.S. will participate in those talks, too.

As President Joe Biden has threatened in the past, Blinken promised “massive consequences” for Russia if it invades Ukraine — promising they would go beyond those that the West imposed on Russia after it annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014 — saying the U.S. and European allies have coordinated on “economic, financial and other consequences.”

But when asked by Stephanopoulos whether he thinks Putin has already made the decision to take control of the Ukraine, Blinken noted he wasn’t sure yet.

“It’s clear that we’ve offered him two paths forward,” Blinken said. “One is through diplomacy and dialogue. The other is through deterrents and massive consequences for Russia if it renews its aggression against Ukraine. And we’re about to test the proposition of which path President Putin wants to take this week.”

And the secretary of state tempered expectations about quick results.

“I don’t think we’re going to see any breakthroughs next week,” Blinken said.

It would be “very difficult” to “make actual progress,” he said, as long as “there’s an ongoing escalation, when Russia has a gun to the head of Ukraine with 100,000 troops near its borders, the possibility of doubling that on very short order.”

“If we’re seeing de-escalation, if we’re seeing a reduction in tensions, that is the kind of environment in which we can make real progress and, again, address concerns, reasonable concerns on both sides,” Blinken said.

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(CAPITOLIO, Brazil) — At least 10 people are dead and two remain hospitalized after a slab of a cliff broke off Saturday afternoon and crashed down onto four tourist boats in a lake in Brazil, officials said.

The incident took place at Lake Furnas, a popular tourist spot roughly 260 miles north of Sao Paulo, around 12:30 p.m., according to the Minas Gerais state fire department. The Brazilian Navy and local firefighters were deployed to the scene to help the victims.

One of the deceased victims has been identified as 68-year-old Julio Borges Antunes, according to the Minas Gerais Fire department. The names of the other victims have not been released.

Officials said all of the tourists on the boats were Brazilians.

Officials on Saturday evening had said 20 people were missing and 32 were hospitalized.

Romeu Zema, the governor of Minas Gerais, tweeted updates on the incident during the afternoon and said heavy rains were a factor in the cliff collapse. The rescue efforts were ongoing, Zema tweeted.

“I sympathize with the families during this difficult time,” he tweeted in Portuguese.

The Brazilian Navy is overseeing the investigation into what caused the collapse, according to authorities.

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(LAKE FURNAS, Brazil) — At least five people are dead and as many as 20 are missing after a slab of a cliff broke off Saturday afternoon and crashed down onto three tourists boats in a lake, officials said.

The incident took place at Lake Furnas, a popular tourist spot roughly 260 miles north of Sao Paulo, around 12:30 p.m., according to the Minas Gerais state fire department. The Brazilian Navy and local firefighters were deployed to the scene to help the victims.

Five people were killed, 32 people were hospitalized and 20 people were missing, as of Saturday evening, the fire department told ABC News. Six victims were taken to the hospital in serious condition, officials said.

The fire department told ABC News that 23 of the hospitalized victims could be released soon.

Romeu Zema, the governor of Minas Gerais, tweeted updates on the incident during the afternoon and said heavy rains were a factor in the cliff collapse. The rescue efforts were ongoing, Zema tweeted.

“I sympathize with the families during this difficult time,” he tweeted in Portuguese.

The Brazilian Navy is overseeing the investigation into what caused the collapse, according to authorities.

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(ALMATY, Kazakhstan) — There are signs Kazakhstan’s president is slowly regaining control in the country, following a bloody clampdown by security forces to end days of mass protests and after Russian-led troops arrived to support the government.

For the second day in a row, Kazakhstan’s biggest city Almaty was eerily quiet and under heavy military control, according to an ABC News reporter there. The city, the former capital, was the epicenter of the protests this week, where mobs stormed key government buildings and overran the airport. But under cover of an internet blackout, security forces using live fire have cleared the streets over the past three days in clashes that have left dozens killed, according to the government.

The streets were mostly deserted on Saturday, but the occasional sound of gunshots could be heard. It was not clear, but some of the shots appeared to be warning shots fired by troops, directing people not to approach police cordons, according to the ABC News reporter, who is not being named for safety reasons. The main square, the key protest site, was occupied by security forces and blocked off with armored vehicles.

A curfew is in effect in the evening and authorities have told people to remain indoors. Military units have set up checkpoints and are controlling access to the city. Most shops are closed and people are struggling to find basic groceries, except for bread that is still being delivered, according to ABC’s reporter. The city center is wrecked, many shops looted and the roads are strewn with burnt-out cars. Several journalists on the ground have reported seeing corpses lying in the street.

The protests began a week ago, triggered by a rise in gas prices, but quickly spread and developed into the biggest uprising against Kazakhstan’s authoritarian government since it gained independence following the fall of the Soviet Union. Kazakhstan’s president Kassym-Jomart Tokayev on Wednesday appealed to Russia for help, asking a Moscow-led military alliance of former Soviet countries to send troops. A few thousand Russian paratrooper units have since arrived in the country, along with several hundred from Belarus, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia.

The internet blackout in the country made it difficult to get a clear picture of the situation in other cities on Saturday, but there were signs protests had faded. Kazakhstan’s interior ministry said police now have “full control” over Aktob, a city that saw major protests. In Aktau, another protest center, a Russian-state news reporter showed police removing a small number of protesters from the central square.

Security forces were engaged in a gun battle for several hours near a village on the outskirts of Almaty, according to a reporter from the Russian state news agency, Sputnik.

Kazakhstan’s interior ministry said police have arrested over 4,400 people during the protests. At least 26 protesters and 18 security forces personnel have been killed, and hundreds of people injured in the unrest, according to the authorities.

Tokyaev on Saturday spoke to Russia’s president Vladimir Putin, telling him the situation was “stabilizing” but that “hotspots of terrorism” remained and that he would fight them “with the utmost determination,” according to a readout from Kazakhstan’s president’s office.

Tokayev and the Kremlin have claimed the unrest was carried out by “foreign terrorist” groups. In many places the protests have been largely peaceful, though in Almaty they were overtaken by intense violence, with mobs of men ransacking government buildings and there was widespread looting. Men armed with assault rifles, seemingly organized, have been seen and appear to have fought with the security forces. But peaceful demonstrations appear to continue in the city — as troops advanced on the square on Wednesday, a group of young people stood holding a banner reading, “We are not terrorists.”

Kazakhstan’s security services on Saturday also arrested the former head of the country’s domestic security agency, Karim Masimov, on charges of treason, in a surprise move that fueled speculation in Kazakhstan that an internal struggle has also been going on among the elite during the protests.

Masimov had headed the powerful KNB security service until he was removed this week by Tokayev, when the president dismissed his government as a concession to the protests.

A statement published on the security agency’s website, said Masimov and other unnamed individuals, were suspected of “state treason” and that he has been held in a detention center for the past two days. The charge against him carries a maximum sentence of 15 years prison.

Masimov was a key ally of Kazakhstan’s long-time ruler Nursultan Nazarbayev, the ex-Communist party boss who has dominated the country for three decades.

Nazarbayev, who is 81, in 2019 passed the presidency to Tokayev, but had retained considerable power behind the scenes as chairman of the national security council and has the honorary title “leader of the nation.”

This week, amid the unrest, Tokayev announced he was replacing Nazarbayev as chairman of the security council, a move seen as signaling an end to Nazarbayev’s power.

Nazarbayev’s removal now combined with the arrest of his key ally in Tokayev’s government has prompted some to claim Tokayev is using the upheaval to put an end to his former patron’s influence in the government and cement his own.

Nazarbayev’s whereabouts — as has not been seen in public since the protests began — have become a subject of interest among Kazakhstanis. Nazarbayev’s spokesperson on Saturday denied multiple reports that Nazarbayev had left Kazakhstan with his daughter. The spokesperson said Nazarbayev was in the capital Nur-Sultan — named after him — and was in regular contact with Tokayev.

A journalist working with ABC News contributed to this report from Almaty, Kazakhstan.

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