Thursday, October 31

Russia’s war against Ukraine

Rescue workers assist an injured woman at an attack site in Kharkiv on Oct. 30, 2024. Russia bombed a 9-story apartment building in the city, killing a child and injuring at least 29 people. (Oleh Syniehubov / Telegram)

No confidentiality between partners — Zelensky calls out White House over Tomahawk missiles leak. “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.

Ukraine should strike back if North Korean troops cross into its territory, Biden says. In a separate news briefing on Oct. 28, Pentagon spokesperson Major General Pat Ryder said a “relatively small number” of North Korean troops are already in Kursk Oblast.

North Korean soldiers 50 km from Ukraine’s border, including special forces, FT reports. A few hundred of those are special forces, with the rest being regular troops, one source said.

Ukraine presents roadmap for partially opening airspace during war. Deputy Communities and Territories Development Minister Serhii Derkach introduced a step-by-step plan for a partial reopening of Ukraine’s airspace at a conference in Warsaw.

Parts of Pokrovsk will be blocked for city’s defense, authorities say.

“Fortifications are being built in Pokrovsk, and we are already entering the city, and certain areas of the city will be blocked, so please leave these areas, not entering or leaving the city,” said Serhii Dobriak, head of the Pokrovsk military administration.

Ukraine produces 20 Bohdana howitzers per month, Zelensky says. “…The Danish model allows (us) to attract finance from our partners in Ukrainian defense production. For example, we’re now manufacturing almost 20 ‘Bohdana’ artillery units monthly, with strong progress across other areas,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

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Ukraine never wanted to seize Kursk nuclear Power Plant, Zelensky says. “Russia thinks they are very strong, but if we wanted to seize their nuclear power plant, we would have done it, we could have done it, but we never wanted to do it,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

Kremlin denies Russia-Ukraine talks on halting energy strikes. The denial comes a day after the Financial Times reported that Ukraine and Russia are resuming discussions about halting the strikes on each other’s energy infrastructure after the talks abruptly ended in August following Ukraine’s Kursk incursion.

Chechnya drone strike: Kadyrov claims to use Ukrainian POWs as human shields. Chechen dictator Ramzan Kadyrov on Oct. 29 apparently boasted about using Ukrainian prisoners as human shields, claiming there were casualties among the captives after a drone strike on Chechnya.

Russian bank offers preferential mortgages in occupied parts of Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk oblasts. The Russian banking giant offers interest rates as low as 2%, according to Interfax, and plans to expand its offer to Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts as soon as “housing constructions” start there.

Next Ramstein meeting to take place in ‘coming weeks,’ Zelensky says. Prior to Volodymyr Zelensky’s announcement, the White House said on Oct. 17 that the next meeting in the Ramstein format would take place in November virtually.

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Ukraine war latest: North Korean soldiers reportedly 50 km from Ukraine’s border

Around 3,000 North Korean troops who arrived in Kursk Oblast were housed in barracks only 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the Russia-Ukraine border, the Financial Times reported on Oct. 29, citing undisclosed Ukrainian intelligence officials.

Photo: Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images

Can Harris sway Pennsylvania’s Ukrainian vote ahead of a tight presidential race?

The Harris campaign hopes that by going to traditionally conservative Eastern European communities in Pennsylvania and reminding them of Trump’s stance on Ukraine, the state’s Polish and Lithuanian populations will show up for Harris alongside their Ukrainian neighbors.

Photo: Owen Racer/The Kyiv Independent

Human cost of war

Russian attack on Kharkiv kills child, injures at least 34. The attack hit a 9-story building, destroying the entryway from the first through fifth floors, authorities said. A child was killed and at least 34 people were injured.

Russian attacks against Ukraine kill 4, injure 41. Ukrainian air defenses shot down 33 of the 62 Russian Shahed-type drones launched overnight, according to the Air Force. Twenty-three of the drones were reported as “lost.”

Death toll of Russia’s Kryvyi Rih strike on Oct. 28 rises to 2. “Unfortunately, a 55-year-old man died at 8:50 a.m.,” said Oleksandr Vilkul, the head of the city’s military administration, on his Telegram channel on Oct. 30.

General Staff: Russia has lost 693,640 troops in Ukraine since Feb. 24, 2022. This number includes 1,560 casualties Russian forces suffered just over the past day.

Historian on the past, present and future of Russia’s colonialism

International response

US imposes sanctions on nearly 400 individuals, legal entities, including Putin’s relative. The recent limitations are applied to companies involved in sanctions evasion networks in 17 jurisdictions, including China, India, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Thailand, and Turkey, according to the U.S. Treasury Department.

Ukraine could join Union by late 2029, EU official says. The European Commission has recently praised Ukraine’s progress on critical reforms, including those related to the rule of law, judicial system, and anti-corruption measures, though it emphasizes that further reforms are still required.

‘Putin will not prevail in Ukraine,’ even with North Korean help, US defense secretary says. “The evidence now suggests the that North Korea has sent about 10,000 soldiers to train in eastern Russia,” U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Oct. 30. “And some of these DPRK troops have already moved closer to Ukraine, and we are seeing them outfitted with Russian uniforms and provided with Russian equipment.”

UK promises $3.8 billion per year in military aid to Ukraine. London will provide guaranteed military support to Ukraine of £3 billion ($3.8 billion) per year “for as long as it takes,” according to U.K. Finance Minister Rachel Reeves.

South Korea reportedly not considering direct 155 mm ammunition supplies to Ukraine. Seoul has not received such a request from the Ukrainian side, and the matter is not under consideration, a source in the Presidential Office told the South Korean news agency.

EU slams Ukraine’s wartime pool of TV channels, urges Kyiv to restore media pluralism. Brussels expects Ukraine to restore the work of all broadcasters in the pre-war format, questioning the telethon’s objectivity.

Slovak PM interviewed by top Russian propagandist. Talking to the propagandist sanctioned by Western countries, the prime minister of a NATO and EU member country discussed several topics, including the Nord Stream pipeline explosions and the supposed Western fatigue over the support of Ukraine.

Sanctioned LNG ships gather off Russian coast as buyers withdraw, Bloomberg reports. Tankers bearing sanctioned Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) have clustered off Russia’s eastern coast following suspension of operations at the Arctic LNG 2 plant, indicating that Moscow is unable to find buyers for its product amid sanctions.

Russian hackers targeting US officials, Microsoft warns. Russian hacker group Midnight Blizzard has been sending out highly targeted phishing emails to U.S. individuals working in government, academia, defense, and non-governmental organizations, Microsoft warned on Oct. 29 in a blog post.

Ex-Google CEO urges US to buy drones instead of ‘useless’ tanks, cites Ukraine experience. Speaking at the Future Investment Initiative conference in Saudi Arabia, Eric Schmidt said that Russia’s war in Ukraine showed how a “$5,000 drone can destroy a $5 million tank.”

In other news

Georgia’s accession to EU suspended due to actions of Georgian government. The European Commission singled out the recent legislative amendments to the election process, frequent compromises on vote secrecy, procedural inconsistencies, intimidation, and pressure on voters that negatively impacted public trust in the process.

Georgian prosecutors open investigation into election fraud allegations. The office summoned President Salome Zourabichvili for Oct. 31 as part of the investigation. The president refused to acknowledge the result, calling it a “Russian special operation” and urged voters to protest.

Georgia’s president declines to appear before prosecutors in election fraud investigation. During a press conference in Tbilisi, President Salome Zourabichvili presented footage purportedly showing ballot violations. “It is not the President’s responsibility to provide evidence that already exists within society.”

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