Friday, November 1

Russia’s war against Ukraine

The scene of the attack on Kharkiv on Oct. 31.  (Ukraine’s State Emergency Service / Telegram)

Ukraine’s UN envoy names North Korean generals sent to aid Russia’s war. The top officers include two deputy chiefs of North Korean General Staff: Colonel General Kim Yong Bok, who oversees special forces, and Ri Chang Ho, who is in charge of the Reconnaissance Directorate, North Korea’s spy agency, Kyslytsya said.

Zelensky calls out White House over Tomahawk missiles leak — ’it was confidential.” “It was confidential information between Ukraine and the White House. How to understand these messages?” President Volodymyr Zelensky said during a press briefing with journalists from Nordic countries.

National Bank of Ukraine leaves interest rates unchanged at 13%. The decision was in line with analysts’ predictions, and comes as Ukraine braces for next week’s U.S. presidential election, Bloomberg reported.

Kyiv still waiting for MiG-29 fighter jets from Warsaw, Zelensky says. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said in July that Warsaw may provide Kyiv with additional Soviet-made fighter jets if it can find a replacement. Following Zelensky’s calls to speed up the transfer, Polish Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said, “Poland makes decisions based on its security and has already done everything it can for Ukraine.”

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Ukraine’s 2025 budget clears first reading, allocates $53 billion for defense.

“The priority of next year’s budget will also be security and defense. All taxes paid by people and businesses will go toward strengthening our defenders and military capabilities,” Prime Minister Denys Smyhal said on his Telegram channel.

Ukraine has received just 10% of US aid approved by Congress earlier this year, Zelensky says. “You do your job. You count on reserves, you count on special brigades, you count on such equipment. And if you get 10% of all the package (that) has already been voted on… It’s not funny,” Zelensky said.

Russia confirms North Korea’s involvement in war to West, Zelensky says. Russia has confirmed to the West that North Korea is taking an active part in the war against Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview with the South Korean KBS TV channel published on Oct. 31.

Ukrainian drone strikes Russian oil refinery 1,500 km from border, Russian official claims. A Ukrainian drone struck an oil refinery in the city of Ufa in Russia’s Bashkortostan Republic, the head of the republic, Radiy Khabirov, said on Oct. 31.

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Russia’s next mass missile attack on Kyiv likely imminent, experts and weary residents say

The last combined mass missile and drone attack on Kyiv was nearly two months ago. “I think this is a target practice before winter,” 32-year-old Kyiv school teacher Zakhar Shevchuk told the Kyiv Independent.

“I think there will be missiles, drones — everything combined because there have been no missiles for a long time, but there are a lot of drones.”

Photo: Yan Dobronosov/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images

Ukraine Business Roundup — Ukraine debates who serves and who doesn’t

Companies in Ukraine that were expecting to be able to “reserve” their employees to shield them from military service might not be able to do so starting mid-November.

The government in Kyiv said over the last week that it is currently doing an audit of the exemption process until Nov. 15 to assess which businesses qualify for “critical enterprise status” that allows them to keep some employees from having to serve

Photo: Julia Kochetova/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Russia carried out at least 36 double-tap strikes in Ukraine, killing over 100 people since 2022, report says

A double-tap attack is an illegal military tactic in which an initial strike is followed by a delayed second strike, usually intended to kill or injure first responders who arrive at the scene and cause panic among the population. 

Russia has been using this tactic extensively in Ukraine and previously in Syria alongside Bashar al-Assad’s government forces.

Photo: State Emergency Service of Ukraine/Anadolu via Getty Images

‘A war of two countries against one’ — Zelensky urges Western allies to take decisive action on North Korean troop involvement

In a lengthy post on social media on Oct. 31, President Volodymyr Zelensky urged Western allies to develop “concrete solutions” to provide additional supports for Ukraine as North Korean troops prepare to engage Ukrainian forces on the battlefield. 

Photo: Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images

Human cost of war

UPDATED: Russian attack on Kharkiv kills 3, injures 35. The attack hit a 9-story building, destroying the entryway from the first through fifth floors, authorities said.

Russian attacks against Ukraine kill at least 9, injure 47 over past day. Russia launched at least 50 drones overnight, of which Ukrainian air defenses shot down 17 across various regions, Ukraine’s Air Force said on Oct. 31.

General Staff: Russia has lost 694,950 troops in Ukraine since Feb 24, 2022. This number includes 1,310 casualties Russian forces suffered just over the past day.

Opinions and insights

Opinion: Rigged elections have stolen Georgia’s European future

Although the Georgian opposition is still investigating the specifics of the government’s electoral fraud, it is clear that Georgia has not witnessed such massive election interference since its first post-Soviet election 33 years ago.

Photo: Giorgi Arjevanidze / AFP via Getty Images

International response

US lawmakers call for Biden to allow Poland to down Russian missiles over Ukraine. The possibility of Warsaw downing Russian missiles heading toward Poland through Ukraine was laid out in June in a signed Polish-Ukrainian security agreement.

8,000 North Korean troops have been deployed to Kursk Oblast, Blinken says. There have been no clashes between the North Korean and Ukrainian military so far, Antony Blinken said, adding that they can happen “in the coming days.”

Ukraine, Hungary preparing bilateral document ‘to clear up misunderstandings,’ Zelensky says. No information was provided on what specific agreements the bilateral document seeks to reach, however, Zelensky said that the document would likely involve issues pertaining to national minorities as well as security cooperation.

Over 45 countries pledge support at Montreal conference for total return of Ukrainians captured and deported to Russia. Following the Ministerial Conference on the Human Dimension of the Peace Formula in Montreal, over 45 countries signed a pledge on Oct. 31 in support of facilitating the return of all Ukrainian captives and deportees.

In other news

Kyiv won’t stop supporting wartime pool of TV channels before martial law ends. The Ukrainian government doesn’t plan to stop supporting the telethon, Ukraine’s state-run pool of TV channels created during wartime, before the end of the martial law, Interfax Ukraine reported on Oct. 31, citing Culture Minister Mykola Tochytskyi.

Russian court fines Google $2.5 trillion trillion trillion. Written in full $2.5 decillion is $2,500,000,000,000,000,​000,000,000,000,000,000,000.

Time names Ukraine’s online wedding service among best inventions of 2024. For more than two decades, Time editors have annually spotlighted the most influential new products and ideas in their Best Inventions issue.

Ukraine charges Russian soldier exposed by Kyiv Independent for rape. The Kyiv Independent in June identified Mykola Senenko as raping a woman in Kherson Oblast in March 2022.

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Today’s Ukraine Daily was brought to you by Martin Fornusek, Kateryna Hodunova, Boldizsár Győri, Dmytro Basmat, and Sonya Bandouil.

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