19.10.2025

FT: Trump urged Zelenskyy to accept Russia’s terms for ending its war in a volatile White House meeting on Friday, warning that Putin had said he would “destroy” Ukraine if it did not agree. The meeting descended many times into a “shouting match”, with Trump “cursing all the time”. The US president tossed aside maps of the frontline in Ukraine, insisted Zelenskyy surrender the entire Donbas region to Putin, and repeatedly echoed talking points the Russian leader had made in their call a day earlier (archive).

Politico: Ukraine sees its EU membership bid advancing before the end of this year thanks to “creative solutions” to overcome Hungary’s opposition, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Taras Kachka told POLITICO.

Yle: Finland is a key target of Russia's hybrid operations, according to Sean Wiswesser, a former US intelligence officer, who spoke to Yle during a recent visit to Helsinki.

Reuters: The European Union's diplomatic arm, the EEAS, is urging member states to back a maritime declaration that would allow EU nations working with flag states to arrange inspections on Russia's "shadow fleet" of oil tankers, an EEAS document shows.

The Moscow Times: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday urged allies against appeasing Russia, in a statement after he returned from a trip to the United States, where he failed to secure access to long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles.

United24 Media: A sabotage operation carried out by the Atesh partisan movement has disrupted Russian military communications in the Bryansk region, near the Ukrainian border.

RFE/RL: The European Union is edging closer to training Ukrainian troops inside the country itself and to expanding other forms of support – including border monitoring, assistance for war veterans, and boosting Ukraine’s cybersecurity.

Reuters: The Orenburg gas processing plant, the largest facility of its kind in the world, has been forced to suspend its intake of gas from Kazakhstan after a Ukrainian drone attack, Kazakhstan's energy ministry said on Sunday.

ISW: Ukraine’s October 2025 strikes against an oil terminal in occupied Feodosia, Crimea, appear to have significantly degraded the terminal, and it is unclear when or if Russia will be able to repair it.

The Kyiv Independent: Putin demanded that Ukraine hand over full control of Donetsk Oblast to Russia as a condition for ending the war during a phone call with Trump this week, The Washington Post reported on Oct. 18.

18.10.2025

The Insider: For many years, Russia’s Service for the Protection of the Constitutional Order and the Fight against Terrorism, also known as the FSB’s Second Service, has effectively functioned as Russia’s version of the Gestapo — a secret police force responsible for domestic repression and terror.

TVP World: Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service said the loss of Russia’s spy network has forced the Kremlin to begin recruiting civilians as “one-time agents.”

Reuters: Austria said on Saturday that it would agree to the European Union's latest sanctions package against Russia, in an about-face of its earlier stance and removing a key hurdle ahead of a vote early next week.

The Insider: Russian state media circulate fake story about former UK PM Boris Johnson taking £1 million “bribe” to derail Russia-Ukraine talks. Putin has accused Johnson of sabotaging the 2022 Istanbul peace talks, a claim Kremlin propaganda continues to promote.

AP News: Ukrainians shared their disappointment Saturday that the U.S. may not provide Kyiv with long-range Tomahawk missiles, while work to repair the damaged power supply to the country’s Zaporizhzhia power plant soothed other concerns surrounding Europe’s largest nuclear plant.

The Kyiv Independent: An electrical substation in Russia's Ulyanovsk Oblast is in flames following a Ukrainian drone strike, Russian Telegram media channels reported on Oct. 18.

Reuters: Three people were killed and five injured in a blast at the Avangard explosives plant in the city of Sterlitamak, Bashkortostan region, regional governor Radiy Khabirov said on Saturday. The explosion at the plant occurred on Friday evening.

ISW: The Kremlin is reducing its financial incentives used to recruit volunteer soldiers, likely as part of the Kremlin’s efforts to restructure force generation efforts and centralize control over Russian recruits in an effort to sustain its protracted war in Ukraine.

17.10.2025

Reuters: Russia's state-owned railway monopoly Russian Railways plans to reduce management jobs as the company faces lower freight volumes and a broader slowdown in the Russian economy, Interfax news agency reported on Friday, citing the company.

The Kyiv Independent: Ukraine's Special Operations Forces confirmed that a drone strike targeted an oil depot and industrial facility near the Russian Gvardeyskoye airbase in occupied Crimea overnight on Oct. 17.

Reuters: The U.S. is supportive of a new IMF lending programme for Ukraine and the European Union initiative to extend a loan to Kyiv based on Russian central bank assets immobilized in the West, European Economic Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said on Friday.

RFE/RL: Chinese spy satellites reportedly observed Ukraine during Russian missile attacks, raising concerns about potential intelligence sharing with Russia.

Politico: EU officials said Friday that one or more European leaders would need to grant Putin a special waiver to fly through their airspace if he is to attend a proposed Budapest summit with Trump.

Reuters: The European Commission has suggested Ukraine use part of an envisaged 140 billion euro reparations loan funded from frozen Russian assets to buy weapons outside the EU, a commission paper sent to member states showed.

The Moscow Times: A record $50-billion payment from Russia to shareholders of dismantled oil giant Yukos remains in force after the Dutch Supreme Court on Friday quashed a Russian appeal, ending a long-running legal saga.

Reuters: U.S. and European pressure on Asian buyers of Russian energy could restrict India's oil imports from December, leading to cheaper supplies for China, while Japan is unlikely to halt its Sakhalin liquefied natural gas shipments for now, trade sources and analysts said.

The Moscow Times: Russia’s air defense systems accidentally shot down their own Su-30SM fighter jet over annexed Crimea while attempting to repel Ukrainian drone strikes overnight, Ukraine’s Navy said Friday.

Reuters: Fifteen members of a Ukrainian militia group were convicted by a Russian military court on Friday of taking part in "a terrorist organisation" and sentenced to between 15 and 21 years in a maximum security penal colony, Russia's prosecutor general said.

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