Wednesday, October 23

Russia’s war against Ukraine

Volunteers from Base UA, a Ukrainian NGO for humanitarian aid and cultural work, help a civilian to evacuate from Kostiantynivka in Donetsk Oblast as the area gets too dangerous for locals to live in on Oct. 21, 2024. (Andre Luis Alves/Anadolu via Getty Images)

North Korean troops to arrive in Kursk today, military intelligence says. “We are waiting for the first units tomorrow in the Kursk direction,” military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov said on Oct. 22, though he did not specify how many would be deployed.

Zelensky urges allies to increase pressure on North Korea. Two North Korean brigades of up to 6,000 personnel each are currently undergoing training in Russia, Zelensky said in his evening address, citing military intelligence reports. “We expect a firm, concrete response from the world.”

North Korea has sent pilots to Russia to join its war in Ukraine, Newsweek reports. A government official in South Korea claimed that North Korea had sent fighter pilots to Vladivostok, a city in the Russian Far East.

North Korea helping Russia in Ukraine ‘for money,’ Zelensky says. Speaking at a meeting attended by the Kyiv Independent, Zelensky was asked about Pyongyang’s increasing support for Moscow, which in recent days is reported to have developed from just weapons to boots on the ground.

North Korea denies sending troops to join Russia’s war in Ukraine, dismisses ‘groundless rumors.’ The statement is Pyongyang’s first public reaction to multiple reports of such a deployment from Kyiv and Seoul.

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Ukrainian drones target Russian alcohol plants overnight, local authorities claim. Ukrainian drones attacked four plants, including three distilleries, in Tula, Tambov and Voronezh oblasts in Russia overnight on Oct. 22, Russian local authorities claimed.

Germany ‘skeptical’ about Ukraine’s NATO membership, Zelensky says. Talking to journalists, Zelensky did not rule out that “some partners” may think about Ukraine’s membership in NATO in exchange for the occupied territories. “We are not discussing this,” he said.

Polish officials seek access to classified sections of Ukraine’s victory plan. Warsaw is seeking to review the classified additions to Ukraine’s victory plan recently presented by President Volodymyr Zelensky, Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Wladyslaw Teofil Bartoszewsk said in an interview on Oct. 21.

Zelensky signs decree to liquidate medical examination commissions amid corruption scandal. According to the decree, working groups will be set up to verify certificates of disability issued by medical examination commissions within three months. If any violations are found, the certificates must be annulled.

Ukraine’s population dropped by 10 million after Russia’s 2014 invasion, UN says. Ukraine’s birth rate is the lowest in Europe and the number of refugees has surged to 6.7 million, with the full-scale invasion of 2022 exacerbating an already dire decline, according to the U.N. Population Fund.

Read our exclusives

Ukraine war latest: US announces new defense aid package for Ukraine worth $400 million

The U.S. is planning to provide Ukraine with an aid package of $700-800 million for the domestic development of long-range capabilities, President Volodymyr Zelensky told journalists. On the same day, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced a new $400 million military aid package during a surprise visit to Kyiv.

Photo: Ukrinform/NurPhoto/Getty Images

Torn apart by infighting, without a plan, what comes next for Russia’s opposition?

When Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny died in an Arctic penal colony in February 2024, the country’s liberal dissidents vowed to carry on their mission: to end the rule of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Eight months on, however, and Russia’s opposition is bitterly divided, with little to no vision of how to carry on the promised fight.

Photo: Artem Priakhin/SOPA Images/LightRocket

‘Not waiting until the war is over’ – Foreign investment keeps growing in Ukraine

The start of the full-scale invasion painted a bleak scene for Ukraine’s M&As with only 28 deals amounting to $494 million in 2022, the lowest level in a decade. But Ukraine’s business activity is slowly rising from the ashes, bolstered by inflation control and gross domestic product (GDP) growth in 2023, and topped off with resilient companies.

Image: Lisa Kukharska/The Kyiv Independent

As the Baltic countries raise the alarm about Russia, Washington still not listening

Despite Moscow’s full-scale invasion and recent escalations, some from the Baltics say Washington still isn’t heeding their warnings of the threat of Russia — one the countries know intimately after over half a century of Soviet occupation and decades of bordering modern-day Russia, making them some of Ukraine’s strongest advocates in the U.S. capital.

Photo: Mandel NGAN / AFP via Getty Images

Human cost of war

Russian attacks against Ukraine kill 10, injure 42. Ukrainian forces downed 46 out of 60 Shahed-type drones launched by Russia overnight, the Air Force reported.

General Staff: Russia has lost 681,580 troops since Feb. 24, 2022. This number includes 1,350 casualties Russian forces suffered over the past day.

North Korean troops, Jared Leto, Victory Plan | Ukraine This Week

Opinions and insights

Opinion: Shifting the paradigm in Ukraine

“It is always difficult to extricate ourselves from long-held paradigms and see the world anew. This has been poignantly obvious with Biden, who has clung to “escalation avoidance” in Ukraine, long after that paradigm turned perverse and deadly,” writes Marci Shore, a history professor at Yale University.

Photo: Oksana Parafeniuk/Washington Post

International response

South Korea considering sending military personnel to Ukraine to monitor North Korean troops, Yonhap reports. “While watching signs of North Korea-Russia military cooperation, the response measures will be taken in steps,” a government source told the South Korean news agency Yonhap.

UK to provide Ukraine with $29 billion military loan, to be repaid with proceeds from frozen Russian assets. The loan will be allocated to Ukraine’s military spendings. Kyiv will be able to invest in key equipment to fight Russia, such as artillery, air defense, and wider equipment support.

G7 plans to keep Russian assets frozen after war in Ukraine ends, Nikkei reports. G7 leaders will issue a joint statement in October saying that “Russia’s sovereign assets will remain immobilized until Russia ends its aggression and pays for the damage it has caused to Ukraine,” according to the draft prepared by this year’s chair, Italy.

Putin hosts BRICS summit in Russia but Brazilian and Cuban leaders cancel attendance. BRICS, composed of Russia, China, India, Brazil, and other nations, is a group of emerging economies often portrayed as a counterweight to the Western-led world.

Putin, Xi discuss war in Ukraine. The leaders discussed Russia’s war against Ukraine, the BRICS agenda, and bilateral relations at the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia. Russia hopes to increase cooperation with China on “all international platforms,” Putin said.

In other news

Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Kostin resigns. “I am grateful to the president of Ukraine and Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada for their trust. But in this situation, I believe it is right for me to resign from the post of prosecutor general,” he said.

Zelensky denies potential dismissal of defense minister, head of military intelligence. “I wasn’t going to do that. I was not going to replace Budanov. This information was circulating, yes. There was no such question about Umerov either,” Zelensky said during a meeting with journalists.

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