03.12.2023

Reuters: Fresh Russian shelling killed at least three people including an elderly man in a village garage and a woman beside a city bus stop, Ukrainian officials said, as President Volodymr Zelenskiy reported "intense battles" at dozens of frontline locations.

AP News: Ukrainian officials on Sunday launched an investigation into allegations that Russian forces killed surrendering Ukrainian soldiers — a war crime if confirmed — after grainy footage on social media appeared to show two uniformed men being shot at close range after emerging from a dugout.

Reuters: Ukraine and Poland will open an additional border crossing for empty trucks on Monday in order to open up a much-needed route for Kyiv, with some crossings blocked by weeks of protests by Polish drivers, Ukrainian authorities said on Sunday.

Ukrinform: Ukraine's Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War has warned that Russian propaganda channels will launch another wave of disinformation shortly regarding the reasons behind the suspension of prisoner of war exchanges.

The Kyiv Independent: Russian forces have reduced the number of airstrikes against Ukraine but intensified infantry activity on the southeastern front line, General Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, the commander of the Tavria Group, reported.

POLITICO: The Russian military has continued to fight and commit atrocities in Syria for eight years, with no sign of slowing. It’s a signal to Ukraine of just how long Russia is willing to conduct indiscriminate attacks, and a warning that Russia is able to drag out conflicts over long periods of time.

FT: Russia’s military is buying hundreds of units of a Chinese all-terrain vehicle that is also widely marketed to US consumers, purchases that risk heightening tensions between the west and Beijing over President Xi Jinping’s tacit backing for Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

AFP: The Ukrainian town of Avdiivka, under constant Russian fire, has seen fewer ground attacks in the past 24 hours due to heavy Russian losses and harsh weather, the mayor said on Sunday.

France 24: The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) is "aware of numerous specific violations of the IPC Constitution" by the Russian Paralympic Committee and should ban Russia and Belarus from the 2024 Paralympics, the president of the Ukrainian Paralympic body has told AFP.

Reuters: Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko was heading to Beijing on Sunday for talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Belarusian state media reported, the second trip of the close ally of Putin to China this year.

02.12.2023

France 24: Ukraine's security service said on Saturday it had prevented former president Petro Poroshenko from leaving the country on grounds that Russia planned to exploit a planned meeting with Hungary's prime minister to hurt Ukrainian interests.

The Kyiv Independent: The Union of European Football Associations did not include the Russian national football team in its schedule for the Nations League draw matches, meaning that the team will automatically not qualify for participation in the 2024/2025 season.

Meduza: Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas has said the government is looking into legal ways to deport individuals who decide to obtain Russian citizenship, reports Estonian publication Postimees.

UK Ministry of Defence: The Russian authorities are likely attempting to quash public dissent by wives of deployed Russian soldiers, including by attempting to pay them off and discrediting them online. This follows small scale protests in Moscow in November 2023.

The Kyiv Independent: German arms manufacturer Rheinmetall plans to build the first armored vehicles on-site in Ukraine from the summer of 2024, CEO Armin Papperger said in an interview with German business magazine WirtschaftsWoche.

The Moscow Times: Moscow police carried out raids of gay-friendly nightclubs, bars and saunas in the city center overnight, Russian media reported Friday night. The raids came one day after Russia's top court banned the "international LGBT movement," a group that does not formally exist, sparking fears of widespread persecution of LGBT people and rights groups.

POLITICO: Russia’s attempts to flood the Finnish border with migrants are “deliberate, cynical, hybrid actions” aimed at sowing anxiety and discontent, said Finland’s Minister of European Affairs Anders Adlercreutz.

Reuters: The U.S., EU and UK are pressuring Liberia, the Marshall Islands and Panama to increase oversight of ships carrying their flags to ensure they do not transport Russian oil sold above the price cap, a source who has seen the communications to the countries said on Friday.

01.12.2023

AP News: The International Red Cross on Friday suspended the Belarusian chapter after its chief stirred international outrage for boasting that it was actively ferrying Ukrainian children from Russian-controlled areas to Belarus.

Reuters: The United States on Friday imposed additional sanctions related to the price cap on Russian oil, targeting three entities and three oil tankers as Washington seeks to close loopholes in the mechanism designed to punish Moscow for its war in Ukraine.

AFP: Putin signed a decree on Friday boosting troop numbers by 15 percent, in a move the army said was due to "threats" associated with the Ukraine offensive.

The Telegraph: Germany is seeking to reduce the amount it gives to a €20billion European Union fund for weapons for Ukraine, a document leaked to The Daily Telegraph on Friday revealed. In a confidential “non-paper”, Berlin argues that the European Peace Facility should take into account the billions in military aid it has donated to Kyiv bilaterally.

Reuters: Russia on Friday failed to win enough votes for re-election to the United Nation's shipping agency's governing council after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had urged countries not to allow Moscow to be part of the UN body's executive arm.

Reuters: Putin has signed a decree putting St Petersburg's Pulkovo Airport under the temporary management of a Russian company, wresting control from investors from Germany, Qatar and other Gulf states.

Novaya-Europe: The rate of HIV infection has reached epidemic proportions in 19 Russian regions, independent Russian think-tank To Be Precise announced on Friday, which is also World AIDS Day.

The Kyiv Independent: The Security Service of Ukraine blew up another train on a key railway line in Russia's far eastern republic of Buryatia, Ukrainska Pravda reported on Dec. 1, citing a security service source.

Reuters: European Union increased imports from Russia of nuclear fuel and services for the bloc's Russian-designed reactors again in 2023 compared to 2021, the year before Moscow invaded Ukraine, Euratom Supply Agency said.

Reuters: Switzerland has frozen an estimated 7.7 billion Swiss francs ($8.81 billion) in financial assets belonging to Russians, the government said on Friday, under sanctions designed to punish Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine.

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