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The Moscow Times: Russian state-owned oil giant Rosneft employs dozens of young women who provide escort services, paying them high salaries from the company budget, late Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s team said in an investigation published Thursday.

NY Times: North Korean soldiers who joined their Russian allies in battle against Ukrainian forces have been pulled off the front lines after suffering heavy casualties, according to Ukrainian and U.S. officials (archive).

Meduza: A new investigation by iStories shows that Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov runs an "unofficial embassy" at a Dubai luxury villa through one of his cousins.

The Kyiv Independent: Ukraine's Security Service has identified four Russian generals and one colonel responsible for the deadly attack on a hypermarket in Kharkiv, the agency reported on Jan. 30. The attack on the Epicenter hypermarket was carried out with guided aerial bombs on May 25. It killed 19 people, including two children, and injured 46 others.

Sweden's defence minister said on Thursday the Nordic country had agreed to donate its biggest aid package to Ukraine so far, worth 13.5 billion Swedish crowns ($1.23 billion). The aid package is Sweden's 18th since Russia launched a large-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The Guardian: The government and HM Revenue and Customs should urgently examine whether Roman Abramovich owes British tax authorities up to £1bn, more than 40 UK's MPs and peers have said.

Bloomberg: Oil flows through Russia’s Baltic Sea port of Ust-Luga appeared to pause, backing up Kyiv’s claims of a successful drone strike on a pumping station (archive).

RFE/RL: Chinese companies are supplying Russia with gallium, germanium, and antimony -- key elements found in the drones and missiles that Moscow is using to pummel Ukraine.

The Moscow Times: Law enforcement authorities in Kyrgyzstan said Thursday that they arrested a suspected arms trafficker who is part of a criminal group that has shipped more than 300 weapons from the United States to Russia since April 2022.

Reuters: Ukraine's foreign ministry summoned Slovakia's ambassador in Kyiv on Thursday to reject accusations that it is meddling in its neighbour's internal affairs and to accuse Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico of being a "mouthpiece" for Russia.

RFE/RL: With the war in Ukraine dominating Russia’s economy, a once-lively mortgage market has largely ground to a halt, paralyzed by soaring interest rates and a sharp curtailment of state subsidies for first-time buyers.

The Kyiv Independent: Far-right Romanian politician Calin Georgescu called Ukraine a "fictional state" and claimed that the eventual partition of its territories is "inevitable" in an interview published on Jan. 29.

LRT: Chief of Defence Raimundas Vaikšnoras believes that Lithuania should consider sending troops to Ukraine as part of a peacekeeping mission.

FT: European officials are debating whether Russian pipeline gas sales to the EU should be restarted as part of a potential settlement to end the war against Ukraine. Advocates of buying Russian gas argue it would bring down high energy prices in Europe, encourage Moscow to the negotiating table, and give both sides a reason to implement and maintain a ceasefire (archive).

The Kyiv Independent: A Russian drone struck a residential building in the northeastern city of Sumy overnight on Jan. 30, killing nine people and injuring 13 others, the Interior Ministry reported.

The Kyiv Independent: Russian forces attacked the city of Kramatorsk in Donetsk Oblast, injuring at least 13 people, including two children, Governor Vadym Filashkin said on Jan. 30.

The Moscow Times: A U.S. trust linked to sanctioned Russian senator and billionaire Suleiman Kerimov held a 1% stake in Elon Musk’s SpaceX before authorities blocked the trust, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.

The Kyiv Independent: Cyber specialists from Ukraine’s Military Intelligence Agency launched a cyber attack against Gazprom and Gazpromneft on Jan. 29, Hromadske reported.

worth mentioning

Russians held in Tunisia on 'terrorism' allegations

EU’s frontline nations see €100 bn in urgent defense needs

Lithuanian border guards discover smugglers’ tunnel on border with Belarus

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