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Morning Headlines
Reuters: European Union heavyweights are set for a showdown with Hungary this week over giving Ukraine billions of euros in aid and the chance to start membership negotiations, both key objectives for Kyiv as its war with Russia stalls.
AFP: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will meet with the new Republican speaker of the US House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, in Washington on Tuesday as he tries to restart US aid to his embattled country, Johnson's office said.
Reuters: The British government said on Monday it was creating an enforcement unit to increase its power to crack down on companies evading Russian sanctions.
POLITICO: Britain will hand over two Royal Navy minehunter ships to Ukraine as the war-torn country grapples with a continued blockage of the Black Sea by Russia.
Reuters: Russians who have been banned from travelling abroad will have to hand over their passports to authorities within five days after being notified, according to a government decree that comes into force on Monday.
10.12.2023
Reuters: Hungarian truckers plan to protest near Hungary's main border crossing with Ukraine on Monday, aiming to slow the movement of trucks as they demand restrictions on Ukrainian hauliers working in the European Union, police said on Sunday.
CNN: President Joe Biden will host Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House Tuesday as discussions on a Ukraine aid deal remain stalled in Congress.
Reuters: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he had a "frank" conversation with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on the sidelines of the inauguration of Argentine President Javier Milei on Sunday.
The Kyiv Independent: The situation in Ukraine’s east remains difficult as Russian troops continue conducting offensive operations along the entire front line, Ground Forces Commander Oleksandr Syrskyi reported.
Reuters: The White House will step up its engagement with U.S. lawmakers trying to strike a bipartisan deal that would provide military aid for Ukraine and Israel while tightening U.S. border security, a Democratic senator said on Sunday.
The Guardian: Allies of Hungary’s far-right prime minister Viktor Orbán will hold a closed-door meeting with Republicans in Washington to push for an end to US military support for Ukraine.
Reuters: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to Putin on Sunday and voiced displeasure with "anti-Israel positions" taken by Moscow's envoys at the United Nations, an Israeli statement said.
Meduza: Russian military police have arrested a Russian citizen, who was reportedly a contract soldier but had left the country after the start of the full-scale war, in Armenia. Human rights activists say Russian police have no jurisdiction in Armenia.
Reuters: Serbia on Sunday completed the interconnector to a pipeline in Bulgaria which would allow the Balkan country to diversify its gas supplies and reduce its dependence on Russia.
ISW: Russian forces have likely committed to offensive operations in multiple sectors of the front during a period of the most challenging weather of the fall-winter season in an effort to seize and retain the initiative prior to the Russian presidential elections in March 2024.
09.12.2023
The Kyiv Independent: Germany should be prepared to increase its support for Ukraine "when others are faltering," German Chancellor Scholz said on Dec. 9, apparently referring to the uncertainty over further aid to Ukraine in the U.S.
Simple Flying: The Russian cargo airline Volga-Dnepr is fighting to get its seized An-124 aircraft back and has taken its battle to the Canadian courts, hoping that Canadian sanctions are ruled illegal.
The Moscow Times: With challenges to his rule all but removed, Putin's next six years in office promise to keep Russia on its current trajectory. But the risk of an economic crisis looms.
Reuters: A man with dual U.S.-Russian nationality has been placed in pre-trial custody in St Petersburg for "rehabilitating Nazism" in posts on social media, the city's court service said on Saturday.
The Kyiv Independent: A group of European Parliament members called on Poland’s President Andrzej Duda and EU leaders “to act decisively" to end the blockade of the Polish-Ukrainian border.
CNN: Ukraine said Saturday that Russia launched nearly 100 air attacks across the country in the space of 24 hours, as its first lady warned Ukraine was in “mortal danger” without Western military aid.
Reuters: Ukrainian officials pressed on with a campaign to remove Soviet-era monuments on Saturday as authorities in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv dismantled a statue of a Red Army commander from a central boulevard.
The Kyiv Independent: Up to 800,000 Russians have moved to occupied Crimea since its illegal annexation in 2014, and around 100,000 Ukrainians have left, in what amounts to a larger Russian project of remaking the peninsula's demography.
Reuters: Russia said on Saturday it was looking into whether its frozen gold reserves, taken after Russia invaded Ukraine, could be used to fund the climate damage fund to help developing countries.
Newsweek: Russian plane malfunctions have tripled in just one year as Western sanctions imposed in response to Putin's war in Ukraine suffocate the aviation industry.
08.12.2023
AP News: Bulgaria’s parliament on Friday approved the provision of additional military aid to Ukraine in its war with Russia.
Reuters: The European Union will find ways to provide more financial support to Ukraine even if Hungary vetoes it as well as membership talks for Kyiv at a summit next week, a senior official said on Friday.
AFP: World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said Friday that there would be no Russians or Belarusians competing as neutrals in the athletics at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
AP News: Some Russian athletes will be allowed to compete at the 2024 Paris Olympics, the IOC said Friday, in a decision that removed the option of a blanket ban due to the invasion of Ukraine.
POLITICO: Finland hopes to ease restrictions on its eastern border with Russia after the traffic of migrants stopped following Helsinki’s complete closure of the frontier last week, Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen said.
Reuters: Finland will not extradite to Ukraine a Russian man suspected of terrorism in Ukraine, Finland's supreme court ruled on Friday, citing the risk of inhuman prison conditions in Ukraine.
The Kyiv Independent: Donald Tusk, the leader of the Polish Civic Coalition and victor in recent Polish elections, said at a press conference on Dec. 8 that the Hungarian government, led by Prime Minister Viktor Orban, has "openly switched to Russian positions."
Reuters: The Ukrainian parliament on Friday approved four bills necessary to start European Union accession talks, including one on national minorities' rights, a critical demand from Hungary which opposes Ukraine's EU bid.
POLITICO: Russia bombarded Ukraine on Friday, firing cruise missiles at Kyiv for the first time in months and targeting infrastructure facilities.
Reuters: Russia's success in evading a Western oil price cap is helping drive a recovery in economic growth as Putin prepares to run for re-election, despite the problems caused by labour shortages, inflation and high interest rates.
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