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Weekend Briefing
Here's what you need to know to start your week
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Morning Headlines
Reuters: Russia launched several waves of drones targeting Kyiv for the second night in a row, damaging residential buildings and injuring at least one civilian, Ukrainian officials said early on Monday.
Yonhap: South Korea's foreign ministry has summoned the Russian ambassador in Seoul in protest over what it has said is the dispatch of North Korean troops to the country for deployment in Ukraine, the Yonhap news agency reported on Monday.
Bloomberg: Russian spies were watching Georgia’s government and major companies in a comprehensive espionage and hacking campaign over years, scooping up information and gaining powers to potentially sabotage critical infrastructure (archive).
The Kyiv Independent: A Russian attack targeting Kharkiv on the evening of Oct. 20 injured 13 civilians, Ukraine's National Police in Kharkiv Oblast reported.
Reuters: U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin visited Ukraine on Monday, in a show of U.S. support for Kyiv just two weeks ahead of a U.S. presidential election that is casting uncertainty over the future of Western support.
20.10.2024
The Kyiv Independent: Ukraine is developing a new drone that can track and intercept Shahed-type attack drones, the Telegraph reported on Oct. 20.
Reuters: Russia's Black Sea Fleet has been forced to move many warships from the naval base of Sevastopol on the Crimean peninsular, which Russia annexed in 2014, due to attacks by Ukraine, a Russian-installed official was quoted as saying on Sunday.
AP News: European Union candidate Serbia will continue to refuse to impose sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine despite Western pressure, Serbia’s leader said after his telephone conversation with Putin on Sunday.
Reuters: Russian forces are fighting street-to-street battles with Ukrainian troops in the outskirts of the eastern Ukrainian town of Selydove as Moscow's forces push to gain control over the whole of the Donbas region, according to pro-Russian bloggers.
The Kyiv Independent: Ukraine said on Oct. 20 that it attacked Russia's "largest explosives plant" and an airfield overnight, the latest in a series of long-range drone attacks in the rear to slowly grind down the bigger foe's powerful war machine from afar.
AFP: Two dozen world leaders will meet in Russia next week for a summit of the BRICS group, an alliance of emerging economies that the Kremlin hopes will challenge Western "hegemony".
Reuters: Russian missile strikes on the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih wounded 17 people, authorities said on Sunday, following an overnight attack on the country that included dozens of drones.
Euromaidan Press: France plans to utilize 300 million euros in interest from frozen Russian assets to purchase military equipment for Ukraine, BFMTV reports. This includes 12 new Caesar self-propelled howitzers, enhancing Ukraine’s artillery capabilities in the ongoing war with Russia.
19.10.2024
Reuters: Defence Ministers of the Group of Seven major democracies support Ukraine's "irreversible path to full Euro-Atlantic integration, including NATO membership," they said in a statement on Saturday.
AP News: French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot pledged his support for Ukraine’s plan for ending the 2 1/2-year war with Russia, telling reporters in Kyiv on Saturday that he will work with Ukrainian officials to secure other nations’ backing for the proposal.
The Kyiv Independent: Russian Major Dmitriy Pervukha was killed in the center of Russian-occupied Luhansk after his car exploded, Ukraine's military intelligence said on Oct. 19.
Politico: The Biden administration has been pouring resources into countering Russian efforts to influence this weekend’s national elections in Moldova, where Moscow is looking to sway the future of a key nation on the border with Ukraine.
AFP: North Korea's decision to deploy thousands of soldiers to Ukraine's front lines cements Pyongyang's contentious military alliance with Moscow, experts told AFP, and pulls Russia deeper into Korean peninsula security.
The US government is offering a reward of as much as $10 million for information “leading to the identification or location” of the Russian military media outlet Rybar and its employees, according to a statement posted on the Rewards for Justice mission.
The Kyiv Independent: The "Kremniy El" microelectronics plant caught fire in the Russian city of Bryansk following a Ukrainian drone strike overnight on Oct. 19, Russian and Ukrainian media reported.
Reuters: Romania's radar systems detected a second drone in as many days breaching its national airspace that fighter jets scrambled overnight did not see, the defence ministry said on Saturday.
FT: The US is willing to provide up to $20bn as part of a G7 loan to Ukraine that will be repaid with profits generated by Russia’s frozen assets, according to three people familiar with the matter (archive).
United24 Media: The Dutch Ministry of Defense, in collaboration with DeltaQuad, has announced plans to deliver reconnaissance drones to Ukraine valued at €42.6 million.
18.10.2024
The board of the International Monetary Fund on October 18 approved a $1.1 billion payout for Ukraine to be used to provide budget support to the war-torn country.
The Kyiv Independent: Ukraine's Center for Strategic Communication and Information Security published on Oct. 18 a video that purportedly shows North Korean soldiers in a Russian military camp preparing to join Moscow's war effort against Ukraine.
Reuters: Russia and Ukraine carried out a new exchange of prisoners of war on Friday, each side bringing home 95 prisoners in an agreement in which the United Arab Emirates acted as mediator.
The Kyiv Independent: The Danish Defense Ministry announced on Oct. 18 a new 2.4 billion kroner ($350 million) military aid package for Ukraine.
Meduza: Apple notified Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty on Friday that it will remove all of the broadcaster’s apps from the Russian App Store in response to a demand from Russia’s federal censor, Roskomnadzor.
The Kyiv Independent: Ukrainian forces have liberated and "cleared out" the village of Kruhliakivka in Kharkiv Oblast of Russian soldiers, Ukraine's military intelligence reported on Oct. 18.
AFP: Kyiv said Friday it had received the bodies of 501 servicemen killed fighting Russian forces, mainly in eastern Ukraine.
Bloomberg: Ukrainian researchers say they’ve discovered components produced by western companies in North Korean missiles Russia used to attack the country, highlighting the need to enforce export controls (archive).
AFP: Ukraine on Friday said it was evacuating thousands of people from an embattled northeastern town that Kyiv retook from Russia about six months after Moscow launched its invasion in 2022.
Reuters: Canada plans to give Ukraine a C$64.8 million ($47 million) military aid package that will include small arms, ammunition, and protective gear, Defense Minister Bill Blair said in a statement on Friday.
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