29.10.2023

Reuters: Israel summoned the Russian ambassador on Sunday to lodge a protest at Moscow's hosting last week of a delegation from Hamas, the Palestinian militant group whose Oct. 7 attack on Israel killed at least 1,400 people and led to the war in Gaza.

Forbes: Newly elected Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said he plans to move stand-alone Israel funding bill to the floor this week, backing only part of President Joe Biden’s request, which also included funding for Ukraine’s war efforts.

Reuters: Ukraine aims to hold a global "peace summit" of world leaders this year, Deputy Minister Mykola Tochytskyi said on Sunday after international representatives met in Malta over the weekend to discuss Kyiv's peace formula for its war with Russia.

The Kyiv Independent: It's likely that Ukrainian advances, especially in the south, will remain very slow and localized for a time. Both sides' attention will shift east, to Avdiivka, and to a lesser extent, Kupiansk, as Ukrainian assault brigades rest and await the tools they need.

Meduza: Ukraine has no plans to extend the contract for Russian gas transit through its territory, which is set to expire at the end of 2024, said Naftogaz CEO Oleksiy Chernyshov.

POLITICO: Moscow is preparing to confiscate the assets of “unfriendly” EU nations in retaliation if the bloc pushes ahead with a proposal to seize the profits from frozen Russian holdings, a high-level Russian official said on Sunday.

France 24: Russians commemorated the victims of Stalinist terror on Sunday, more than 20 months into Moscow's Ukraine offensive that has been accompanied at home by a major crackdown on dissent.

The Telegraph: Ukraine’s youngest government minister is building an army of killer robots and hopes to find his country’s answer to English engineer Barnes Wallis to help defeat Russia. Under Mykhailo Fedorov’s watch, dozens of Soviet-legacy laws have been scrapped to encourage the creation of the next generation of weapons for Kyiv’s armed struggle against their Russian invaders.

AFP: Group of Seven trade ministers took veiled swipes at China and Russia on Sunday while expressing concerns about the economic effect of the conflict in the Middle East.

ISW: Remnants of the Wagner Group appear to be fighting in the Avdiivka direction subordinate to Russian Ministry of Defense controlled formations.

28.10.2023

The Kyiv Independent: Ukrainian forces repelled 48 Russian attacks in many sectors of the eastern front, including in the Avdiivka, Kupiansk, Bakhmut, and Marinka axes over the past day, the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces said in its evening update on Oct. 28.

The Guardian: Around 200,000 Russians have fled to Serbia, where they face threats and violence from the nationalist right.

AP News: Russia accused Ukraine on Saturday of damaging a nuclear waste storage facility in a drone strike on the Kursk nuclear power plant while fighting raged on for the control of the key eastern city of Avdiivika, where Russians apparently suffered heavy losses.

Reuters: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged a gathering of over 60 national security advisers on Saturday to make a global model out of his 10-point formula for peace with Russia. The meeting, which was held behind closed doors in neutral Malta, will help gauge Ukraine and the West's ability to drum up continued and broader support as the conflict in Israel dominates headlines, moving the focus from Kyiv.

Bloomberg: Siemens Energy AG supervisory board chairman Joe Kaeser defended plans to continue doing business with Russia’s nuclear giant Rosatom Corp. in Hungary amid criticism that such deals help fill the Kremlin’s coffers.

AFP: Hamas is trying to locate eight Russian-Israeli dual citizens among nearly 230 taken hostage during its attack on Israel after Moscow's request to free them, Russian news agencies reported Saturday.

The Kyiv Independent: Russia’s campaign of mass strikes against Ukraine’s energy system damaged around 70 large facilities last fall and winter, Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, the head of Ukraine's state grid operator Ukrenergo, told Voice of America.

The Guardian: Ukrainian officials seeking to oust Russian actors from its gambling industry are going to emulate the methods of the US authorities in the 1980s when they rooted out the Italian mob from the casinos of Las Vegas.

ISW: Ukrainian forces marginally advanced on the east (left) bank of Kherson Oblast and continued offensive operations near Bakhmut and in western Zaporizhzhia Oblast.

27.10.2023

The Kyiv Independent: The European Council discussed ongoing and future security commitments to Ukraine at its meeting in Brussels on Oct. 26 and 27, according to a document published by the Council. It promised "to provide strong financial, economic, humanitarian, military and diplomatic support to Ukraine and its people for as long as it takes."

Le Monde: To reinforce its troops in Ukraine, and avoid an unpopular new wave of military mobilization, the Kremlin has been arresting and deceiving foreign workers, going as far as raiding mosques for them.

The Guardian: The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has condemned the Hungarian leader Viktor Orbán’s recent meeting and handshake with Putin.

Reuters: The shooting of pro-Russian former Ukrainian lawmaker Oleg Tsaryov was a special operation conducted by the Security Service of Ukraine, a source in the Ukrainian intelligence agency said on Friday.

The Moscow Times: A Moscow court has sentenced a physicist who worked on hypersonic development to 12 years in a penal colony on treason charges, the independent Mediazona news website reported Friday.

Reuters: Russian forces heavily shelled the centre of the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson on Friday, injuring eight people and destroying or damaging at least 15 buildings, a senior city official said.

Novaya-Europe: The Swiss authorities are potentially putting a Chechen man’s life at risk by insisting he is deported to Russia rather than allowing him to return home to his wife in Ukraine.

Bloomberg: Bulgaria’s leader accused Hungary and Serbia of helping feed the Kremlin’s “war machine” by failing to seek alternative energy supplies in an escalating row over a gas-import tax.

Reuters: President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday Russian forces have lost at least a brigade worth of troops trying to advance on Ukraine's eastern town of Avdiivka.

POLITICO: EU leaders endorsed unprecedented plans to use profits generated by frozen Russian state assets for Ukraine reconstruction, and called on the European Commission to make legal proposals to that effect, according to European Council summit conclusions.

Reuters: Most European Union leaders on Friday backed granting more financial support to Ukraine as it fights a Russian invasion, but Hungary and Slovakia voiced reservations ahead of a decision the bloc needs to make unanimously in December.

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