Dear Reader, if you find this email interesting, helpful or of value, please do consider forwarding it to your friends or colleagues and encouraging them to subscribe. Thank you.
Morning Headlines
The Kyiv Independent: Russian forces launched a mass ballistic missile and drone attack on Kyiv overnight on Feb. 3, striking multiple residential buildings across the city and injuring at least three people, officials said.
Reuters: Ukraine has agreed with Western partners that any persistent Russian violations of a future ceasefire agreement would trigger a co-ordinated military response from Europe and the U.S., the Financial Times reported on Tuesday, citing people briefed on the discussions.
Byline Times: In February 2020, far-right activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (‘Tommy Robinson’) travelled to Moscow and St Petersburg, giving interviews to Kremlin-backed broadcaster RT and meeting figures linked to Russian nationalist movements. Years before that trip, Robinson was hired as a “goodwill ambassador” for an unregistered charity fronting a secretive Russian propaganda network that worked directly for Putin’s admin, and has ties to a sanctioned Russian state-linked oil giant.
Reuters: Russia is ready for the new reality of a world with no nuclear arms control limits after the New START treaty expires later this week, Russia's point man for arms control said on Tuesday.
ISW continues to assess that Russian forces are at least several months away from being able to begin a ground offensive against Ukraine’s Fortress Belt from the north or east.
Reuters: Indian refiners will need a wind-down period to complete Russian oil deals before imports from that country can be halted, and they have so far not been ordered by the government to stop such imports.
More News
NY Post: Thousands of cryptic messages tying Jeffrey Epstein to Putin have been discovered in the latest release of files related to the late pedophile financier — raising a new theory about whom he was really working for.
Politico: FIFA President Gianni Infantino said Monday the world football governing body should lift its ban on Russia competing in international tournaments.
Politico: Hungary says it has asked the European Union's top court to annul a new law banning the import of Russian gas into the bloc, filing the challenge within hours of the new law taking effect.
Bloomberg: The European Union is considering to ban Russian imports of several platinum group metals and copper as part of new sanctions targeting Moscow for its war against Ukraine (archive).
The Kyiv Independent: Russia struck a coal mine operated by Ukraine's biggest private energy firm, DTEK, in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast for the second time over the past day, the company said on Feb. 2.
AP News: Trump said Monday that he plans to lower tariffs on goods from India to 18%, from 25%, after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi agreed to stop buying Russian oil.
Reuters: Kyrgyzstan's government said on Monday that it is seeking talks with the European Union, after Bloomberg reported last week that the bloc is planning the first-ever use of its anti-sanctions circumvention tool against the Central Asian country.
The Kyiv Independent: A shortage of air defense missiles has left some Ukrainian air defense systems empty at times amid the threat of further Russian attacks, Yurii Ihnat, head of the Air Force's communications department, said in an interview with RBC Ukraine published on Feb. 2.
Reuters: Romania will have advanced detection capabilities in the Black Sea by 2027 to protect a pending offshore gas project that will make it into a net gas exporter as well as other infrastructure, the president's economic adviser said.
The Kyiv Independent: Some 43% of Ukrainians do not believe that the war with Russia will end in 2026, up 14% from December, according to a poll by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology published on Feb. 2.
Reuters: Germany has detained five people suspected of operating a network that exported goods to Russian defence companies, contravening European Union sanctions imposed after Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, federal prosecutors said on Monday.
United24 Media: Ukrainian artillery units, operating in coordination with reconnaissance assets, have destroyed a Russian Buk-series surface-to-air missile system, according to an official statement from Ukraine’s 43rd Separate Artillery Brigade published on February 2.
Reuters: A Greek joint venture has signed its first deal to supply U.S. liquefied natural gas to Ukraine in March, it said on Monday, as Greece seeks to bolster its role as a transit route for gas into Europe which plans to ban Russian gas imports by late 2027.
BBC: A Kenyan family is seeking answers and support to repatriate the body of their 29-year-old relative, who was killed in Ukraine while fighting for Russia.
Reuters: Russian energy giant Gazprom's average daily natural gas supplies to Europe via the TurkStream undersea pipeline rose 10.3% in January year-on-year, Reuters calculations showed on Monday.
worth mentioning
Russian captain found guilty over crew member's death in US tanker crash
Ukraine's electricity imports jump 40% to record 894 gigawatt hours in January
An internal document shows the Vietnamese military preparing for a possible American war
Record 6,000 sailors abandoned in 2025, mostly by shadow fleets
Russa-Ukraine Daily Briefing is sent 5 days a week. Do you think your friend or colleague should know about this newsletter? Forward it to them, please.They can also sign up here
Please consider supporting my work
