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Morning Headlines
AP News: Russia and Vietnam have developed a back-door method of concealing arms deal payments to avoid American and other Western sanctions, using the profits from joint oil and gas ventures to pay off defense contracts without any open transfers of cash through the global banking system.
CNN: Britain’s foreign intelligence service, MI6, is launching a new online portal called Silent Courier, aimed at using the dark web to entice potential spies to send it secrets, particularly targeting Russia.
The Kyiv Independent: Polish authorities are carrying out extensive inspections of bomb shelters across the country to assess their readiness as temporary protective facilities, RMF24 reported on Sept. 18.
AP News: With little chance of NATO membership for Ukraine, the country’s Western allies have bought into an alternate strategy for helping it repel Russian aggression: invest billions in Ukraine’s weapons industry so it can better defend itself.
The Kyiv Independent: Ireland delivered 34 military vehicles and three demining robots to Ukraine as part of its non-lethal military aid, the Irish government announced on Sept. 18.
ISW: The Kremlin appears to be conducting a coordinated information campaign threatening Finland.
The Kyiv Independent: Ukraine will soon be able to deploy at least 1,000 interceptor drones per day to repel Russian attacks, Defense Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Sept. 18.
More News
Reuters: The European Commission is discussing a proposal to bring forward a ban on Russian liquefied natural gas in a new package of sanctions against Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine, an EU official said.
The Kyiv Independent: Slovakia and Hungary said they will not bow to pressure from Trump to reduce imports of Russian oil and gas unless the European Union secures sufficient alternative energy supplies.
Reuters: European Defence Commissioner Andrius Kubilius said on Thursday he plans to convene talks with defence ministers next week on creating a "drone wall" along the EU's eastern border - a project infused with urgency by a Russian drone incursion into Poland.
The Kyiv Independent: The first batch of military equipment under the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List program has arrived in Ukraine, Suspilne reported on Sept. 18, citing an unnamed NATO official.
Reuters: Putin signalled on Thursday that he is open to raising certain taxes, especially on the wealthy, as the government struggles to make ends meet in the fourth year of the war in Ukraine.
Ukrainska Pravda: Russian forces dropped a FAB-250 bomb on a residential area in the town of Kostiantynivka in Donetsk Oblast on the morning of 18 September, killing five people.
Reuters: Ukrainian troops are carrying out a counteroffensive against Russian forces on the eastern front, where Kyiv has reclaimed seven settlements, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday after visiting the Donetsk region.
The Kyiv Independent: Ukraine said on Sept. 18 that it has received 1,000 bodies from Russia, which Moscow says are fallen Ukrainian soldiers.
Reuters: Poland observed more drone activity near its border with Belarus during the night, the government said on Thursday, after closing the frontier ahead of Minsk's military drills with ally Russia.
Reuters: Ukrainian troops and engineers will train their Polish counterparts in a joint group on countering drones, Ukraine's defence minister Denys Shmyhal said on Thursday, a week after Russian drones flew into Poland.
SCMP: South Korea is investigating reports that Russia has supplied North Korea with nuclear submarine reactor modules, a move analysts see as highly plausible and one that could mark a breakthrough in Pyongyang’s decades-long push for a nuclear-powered navy.
Reuters: U.S. oil major Exxon Mobil has no plans to resume operations in Russia, Chief Executive Darren Woods told the Financial Times in an interview on Thursday.
BBC: Three people have been arrested on suspicion of spying on behalf of Russia, the UK's Metropolitan Police has said.
Reuters: Russia's state oil and gas sales in September are set to fall by around 23% from a year earlier on lower prices and a stronger rouble, Reuters calculations show, hitting Moscow's biggest source of revenue.
The Kyiv Independent: Eighteen Russian staff officers of the 35th Combined Arms Army were killed in a sabotage attack in the occupied part of Zaporizhzhia Oblast in late August, the Ukrainian project "I Want to Live" reported on Sept. 18.
The Kyiv Independent: Ukrainian drones struck the Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat petrochemical plant in Russia’s Bashkortostan Republic on Sept. 18. Separately, the Ukrainian Special Operations Forces also reported a strike against an oil refinery in Russia’s Volgograd Oblast.
worth mentioning
In show of force to Trump, Venezuela launches military drills and displays its Russian fighter jets
US approves $780m sale of Javelin missiles to Poland as Russia threat grows
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