Closing summary
Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, is considering the “pros and cons” of holding presidential elections next spring, his foreign minister said. “We are not closing this page. The president of Ukraine is considering and weighing the different pros and cons,” Dmytro Kuleba told a briefing, adding that holding elections during the war with Russia would entail “unprecedented” challenges.
Russia launched its largest drone attack on Ukraine for weeks early this morning, hitting critical infrastructure in the west and south of Ukraine and destroying private houses and commercial buildings in Kharkiv.
Russia intends to stick to a nuclear test ban moratorium despite withdrawing its ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban treaty, the foreign ministry said.
A Russian court sentenced Pyotr Verzilov, an activist linked to the Pussy Riot group, to eight and a half years in prison for breaching Russia’s strict censorship laws. The 36-year-old was sentenced “in absentia” today as he has not lived in Russia since 2020, reported MediaZona, an opposition news site that he founded.
A diplomatic adviser to Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, has resigned, taking responsibility for a prank call fiasco, according to the PM. Earlier this week, Meloni’s office said she had a phone conversation with a Russian comedian who successfully posed as a high-ranking African Union official.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has claimed that some western weapons supplied to Ukraine were finding their way to the Middle East through the illegal arms market and being sold to the Taliban.
A handful of Ukrainian troops who have reached the occupied side of the Dnipro River are clinging to a foothold in Russian-controlled territory in the south of the country despite a fierce bombardment.
The Kremlin has dismissed a new package of US sanctions, saying Russia had learned to “overcome” such economic hurdles since the Ukraine conflict began. Washington yesterday sanctioned several Russian energy and finance companies it said were supporting Russia’s offensive against Ukraine.
The chief of Austria’s Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) has said the timing of a sale or spin-off of its extensive operations in Russia is largely out of his control. Russia made up 45% of RBI’s profit in the first nine months of the year, though it reported a 30% decline in the volume of its loans in Russia in the third quarter from a year earlier.
The Russian Orthodox church called for an apology from Alla Pugacheva, the country’s most renowned pop singer who returned home this week, over her criticism of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
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An evacuation train that came under fire while en route to Irpin, in northern Ukraine, is now on display in St Michael’s square in Kyiv as part of an exhibition.
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