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Morning Headlines
Reuters: U.S. President Joe Biden on Sunday pressed congressional Republicans to back a bill to provide more aid to Ukraine, saying he was "sick and tired" of the political brinkmanship that nearly led to a government shutdown.
POLITICO: The EU’s foreign affairs ministers and chief diplomat Josep Borrell meet for a special session with their Ukrainian counterpart today — but instead of Dmytro Kuleba coming to Brussels or dialing in, this time, they’re going to Ukraine.
Reuters: Russian shelling of Ukraine's southern region of Kherson overnight killed at least one person and injured six, including two children, the regional governor said on Monday.
Reuters: Japan's move to bar most used-car sales to Russia slammed the brakes on a trade nearing $2 billion annually that had boomed in the shadow of sanctions over Ukraine elsewhere, according to trade data and market participants.
ISW: Russian forces are conducting tactical counterattacks in the Robotyne area as part of their elastic defense against ongoing Ukrainian offensive operations in western Zaporizhzhia Oblast. The situation south of Robotyne is fluid as some tactically significant field fortifications have changed hands several times.
WSJ: At a workshop in central Ukraine, workers are busy making parts for howitzers, radar stations and mortars. They are all fakes.
Reuters: Pakistan refiner Cnergyico has imported the country's first private-sector shipment of Russian crude oil, it said on Monday, as the cash-strapped nation takes advantage of Moscow's discounts on its oil exports.
Reuters: Activity in Russian manufacturing grew at its fastest pace in more than six years in September, a survey showed on Monday, while employment in the sector rose at its quickest rate in over two decades.
01.10.2023
AFP: The future of US aid for Ukraine hangs in the balance after a last-gasp deal to avoid a government shutdown, despite President Joe Biden's attempts to reassure Kyiv it will get what it needs to fight Russia.
AFP: Ukraine said Sunday it was working with Washington to ensure new wartime aid, after US lawmakers dropped new funding for Kyiv in a last-minute deal to avoid a government shutdown.
The Telegraph: The Royal family’s official website went down after being targeted in a cyber attack for which Russian hackers have claimed responsibility. It is understood that the website was down for about an hour and a half on Sunday morning but that no access to the site, systems or content was gained.
The Guardian: A Russian oligarch sanctioned over his alleged links to Vladimir Putin has asked a court to render Australia’s sanctions regime invalid, documents show.
Ukrainska Pravda: The team of the International Monetary Fund starts its work on 1 October at the meeting in the city of Kyiv with the representatives of the Ukrainian government and other key partners.
POLITICO: Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel's economic adviser was adamant that his country wasn't in the wrong by working with Putin to secure massive gas supplies.
Reuters: Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Sunday any British soldiers training Ukrainian troops in Ukraine would be legitimate targets for Russian forces, as would German factories producing Taurus missiles should they supply Kyiv.
BBC News: Russia has one of the largest police forces in the world, employing over 900,000 officers to serve a population of 146 million, according to the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs. It has nearly 630 officers per 100,000 people - more than double the US or the UK.
CNN: A party headed by a pro-Kremlin figure came out top after securing more votes than expected in an election in Slovakia, preliminary results show, in what could pose a challenge to NATO and EU unity on Ukraine.
ISW: The Kremlin has seemingly not yet clarified what Ukrainian territories it claims that Russia has annexed, leading to continued confusion among Russian government and occupation officials a year after the illegal annexation of occupied territories.
30.09.2023
The War Zone: Moscow’s efforts to disrupt Ukraine’s ability to target and strike its bomber force while on the ground now includes painted silhouettes.
The Kyiv Independent: Belarus is planning to organize a visit for foreign representatives at locations where Ukrainian children taken from regions temporarily occupied by Russia are kept, the Foreign Ministry said on Sept. 30.
POLITICO: The Ukrainian National Agency on Corruption Prevention announced on Friday that it temporarily removed Hungary’s OTP Bank from a list of “international sponsors of war,” a move the agency said was aimed at securing Budapest’s support for the latest package of EU military aid to Ukraine.
AFP: Russia's former leader Dmitry Medvedev suggested Saturday that Moscow may annex more regions of Ukraine, as he marked one year since the Kremlin claimed four Ukrainian territories as its own.
Reuters: President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday he wants to turn Ukraine's defence industry into a "large military hub" by partnering with Western weapons manufacturers to increase arms supplies for Kyiv's counteroffensive against Russia.
Ukrinform: Turkey's Baykar, the manufacturer of Bayraktar TB2 unmanned combat aerial vehicles, is investing $100 million in three projects in Ukraine, among them the construction of a drone production plant that will be completed in one-and-a-half years.
WP: With virtually the entire population of Armenians feeling from Nagorno-Karabakh, refugees are voicing rage over the loss of their homeland and accusing Russia of betrayal after peacekeepers sent by Moscow failed to protect them.
AFP: NATO member Romania on Saturday reported a possible violation of its airspace during overnight drone attacks by Russia on infrastructure in neighbouring Ukraine.
Reuters: Ukraine's air force shot down 30 out of 40 Iranian-made "Shahed" drones launched by Russia in an overnight attack on central and southern regions, regional and military officials said on Saturday.
ISW: The piecemeal deployment of former Wagner personnel to any areas of the frontline is unlikely to generate any significant strategic or even localized effects on the battlefield in Ukraine.
29.09.2023
The Moscow Times: The Kremlin has launched a sweeping propaganda campaign to convince young Russians that their country has built the world’s most free and fair elections since President Vladimir Putin came to power, officials have told The Moscow Times.
Meduza: Putin has signed an executive order to draft 130,000 eligible men into the army as part of the seasonal conscription drive conducted by Russia this fall.
POLITICO: French and German defense companies are setting up local shops in Ukraine for arms maintenance — a first step toward manufacturing weapons in the country.
Reuters: Russian and Belarusian athletes will compete as neutrals at next year's Paris Paralympics after the International Paralympic Committee voted against maintaining a full ban of the two countries, imposed after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Switzerland has announced “further sanctions in connection with the supply of Iranian drones to Russia” in a statement from the government. The measure brings it in-line with EU sanctions.
Bloomberg: Bulgaria accused Russia of boosting euroskeptic sentiment aimed at blocking the country’s deeper integration in the European Union and adopting the bloc’s single currency.
AP News: Norway announced Friday that it will start barring Russian-registered passenger cars from entering the Scandinavian country starting next week, mirroring sanctions imposed by the European Union against Moscow over its war on Ukraine.
Reuters: Romania is moving air defences closer to its Danube villages across the river from Ukraine where Russian drones have been attacking grain facilities, and is adding more military observation posts and patrols to the area, two senior defence sources said.
UK sanctions Russian officials involved in recent sham elections in the Ukrainian oblasts of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Luhansk, and in illegally annexed Crimea.
Reuters: Seven EU countries have ordered ammunition under a landmark European Union procurement scheme to get urgently needed artillery shells to Ukraine and replenish depleted Western stocks, according to the European Defence Agency.
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