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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The UK ministry of defence has released its latest update on the situation in Ukraine.
In the south, the Ukrainian advance remains relatively static between the two main lines of Russia’s well prepared defensive positions. Around the Donbas town of Avdiivka, a large-scale Russian assault has floundered on strong Ukrainian defences.
A major factor in this phenomenon has highly likely been the relative side-lining of tactical air power: both sides have maintained credible air defences, preventing combat jets from providing effective air support for assaults.
Above all, the geographic size of the conflict has hampered the offensives: both sides have struggled to assemble uncommitted striking forces capable of a breakthrough because most of their mobilised troops are needed to hold the 1,200km line of contact.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine – 03 November 2023.
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) November 3, 2023
Find out more about Defence Intelligence's use of language: https://t.co/tkqrs5h78q
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/97t9scVat6
The US has begun sending smaller military aid packages to Ukraine to stretch out support given a stalemate in Congress over providing funding for Ukraine, the White House said on Friday.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the intention was to extend the ability to support Ukraine for as long as possible while Congress debates new aid.
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The US has announced a new $425 m (£343m) military assistance package for Ukraine that features air defence, artillery munitions and anti-tank weapons.
That equipment, which also includes small arms ammunition, demolitions munitions and other items, is part of $125m in gear drawn from existing military stocks. The package also includes $300m in laser-guided munitions to counter drones, which will be funded via the Ukraine security assistance initiative (USAI).
That means it will not immediately arrive on the battlefield, as the munitions need to be procured from the defence industry or partners, rather than drawn from American stockpiles. The Pentagon said in a statement that the USAI funding was provided by a continuing resolution passed by Congress in late September to temporarily fund the government.
But it is now gone – the package “exhausts the remaining USAI funds currently available to support Ukraine”, the statement said.
The Pentagon also made the case for Ukraine aid, saying it is “a smart investment in our national security”. It said: “It helps to prevent a larger conflict in the region and deters potential aggression elsewhere, while strengthening our defense industrial base and creating highly skilled jobs for the American people.”
The US is by far the biggest donor of security assistance to Ukraine, committing more than $44.2bn since Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022. But some Republicans oppose continued assistance for Kyiv, putting the future of American aid for Ukraine in doubt.
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Ukrainian shelling of the Russian-occupied part of the southern Kherson region killed seven people today, the Moscow-installed occupational authorities said.
“The Ukrainian army attacked civilian infrastructure in the Chaplynskiy district,” local Moscow-backed Konstantin Basyuk said on Telegram. “According to preliminary information, seven people are dead and seven wounded. Medics are fighting for the life of another two people.”
The town of Chaplynka lies around 100 kilometres (62 miles) south-east of Kherson, the regional capital controlled by Ukrainian forces. Basyuk said the strikes had targeted the local pensions office. Ukraine retook Kherson from Russian forces last year, but Moscow still controls most of the Kherson region.
Village of Hoptivka, #Kharkiv Oblast, 4 kilometers from the Russian border.
— UkraineWorld (@ukraine_world) November 3, 2023
“We have neither water, gas, nor electricity, nothing here.” #Russia did it to locals.
Watch our documentary “Ukraine. A liberated land”: 👉 https://t.co/IQ3RFFoTba pic.twitter.com/4MNMQDpaVF
Serbia’s intelligence chief, who has fostered closer ties with Russia and is under sanctions by the US, resigned today after less than a year in the post, saying he wanted to avoid possible further embargos against the Balkan nation.
In July, the US imposed sanctions on Aleksandar Vulin, accusing him of involvement in illegal arms shipments, drug trafficking and misuse of public office. The US treasury department’s office of foreign assets control said that Vulin used his public authority to help a US-sanctioned Serbian arms dealer move illegal arms shipments across Serbia’s borders. Vulin is also accused of involvement in a drug trafficking ring, according to US authorities.
Vulin became the director of Serbia’s intelligence agency BIA in December 2022. The close associate of Serbia’s populist president, Aleksandar Vučić, had previously served as the army and police chief, according to AP.
Vulin is known for advocating close ties with Russia instead of the west, and promoting the concept of a “Serbian World” – a carbon copy of the “Russian World” advocated by Vladimir Putin – that would be made up of all ethnic Serbs living in neighbouring states.
Vučić has said the real reason why Vulin has faced US sanctions is his position toward Russia and not corruption allegations.
The US and the EU are looking for my head as a precondition for not imposing sanctions on Serbia. I will not allow myself to be the cause of blackmail and pressure on Serbia and the Serbian world. That is why I submit my irrevocable resignation.
My resignation will not change the policy of the USA and the EU towards Serbia, but it will slow down new demands and blackmail,” Vulin said, adding that he won’t stop believing in “the inevitability of the unification of Serbs and the creation of a Serbian world.
In August 2022, Vulin visited Moscow in a rare visit by a European government official to the Russian capital since the start of the war. The trip underscored Belgrade’s refusal to join western sanctions against Russia over its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
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German chancellor Olaf Scholz has spoke with Chinese president Xi in a video conference today, a German government spokesperson said.
The leaders discussed economic cooperation, as well as the Hamas attack on Israel and the situation in the region, the spokesperson said in a statement.
Scholz and Xi also discussed the war in Ukraine. Their conversation served to stress that nuclear war must not happen there and cannot be won, according to the statement reported by Reuters.
Ukraine has harvested more than 67m tonnes of grain and oilseeds from the new 2023 harvest so far, the agriculture ministry said today.
It said 47.2m tonnes of grain and about 20m tonnes of oilseeds had been threshed. The harvest ends late this year, depending on the weather. The volume included 22.4m tonnes of wheat, 5.9m tonnes of barley, 398,200 tonnes of peas, 17.1m tonnes of corn and smaller contributions from other cereals. The ministry also said farmers had harvested 4m tonnes of rapeseed and 11.3m tonnes of sunseed, reports Reuters.
Last year’s grain harvest was set to fall to 44.3m tonnes from 53.1m in 2022 as less acreage was sown due to the Russian invasion, according to a forecast. At the same time, gross production of oilseeds was expected to increase to 19.2m tonnes from 18.2m tonnes in 2022 due to a larger sowing area for the more lucrative crop. If the forecasts were correct, it would have added up to 62.5m tonnes – suggesting a bounceback for the harvest this year.
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The US has sanctioned a Russian national for helping Russian elites to launder and transfer hundreds of millions of dollars using virtual currency in contravention of existing sanctions imposed after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Ekaterina Zhdanova helped a Russian client hide their source of wealth to transfer more than $2.3m (£1.8m) into western Europe through a fraudulently opened investment account and real estate purchases in 2022, allowing for sanctions evasion, the treasury department said.
Zhdanova also used virtual currency exchanges to help oligarchs who had relocated internationally, it said. In one example listed by the department, a Russian oligarch asked Zhdanova to move more than $100m to the United Arab Emirates. She also established a UAE tax residency service for Russian clients and may have helped to obfuscate their identities, the statement said.
To facilitate large cross-border transactions, the department said Zhdanova used virtual currency entities, including Garantex, a prominent Russia-based darknet market site and cryptocurrency exchange that was sanctioned by the US in 2022 for operating in Russia’s financial services sector, Reuters reported. The department did not say where it believes Zhdanova is located.
“Our action today highlights the consequences of supporting corrupt Kremlin proxies, underscores the United States’s efforts to address the abuse of virtual currency to launder illicit funds, and exposes an illicit actor’s money laundering activities,” state department spokesperson Matthew Miller said.
Under the US sanctions program that targets certain harmful Russian foreign activities, all of Zhdanova’s assets in the US are blocked and US citizens are prohibited from dealing with her.
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Russia intends to stick to nuclear test ban moratorium, Moscow says
Russia intends to stick to a nuclear test ban moratorium despite withdrawing its ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, the foreign ministry has said.
“We intend to keep the moratorium that was introduced more than 30 years ago in place,” said a ministry statement.
The US formally withdrew from the landmark 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty with Russia in 2019 after claiming that Moscow was violating the accord, an accusation the Kremlin denied.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, proposed to the US and several western European Nato members that there should be a moratorium on the development of missiles previously banned by the INF treaty.
But Russian deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, who leads on arms control talks, said the US was “moving rapidly” towards the deployment of such missiles in both Asia and Europe.
“Accordingly, our moratorium, which was announced by the president of the Russian Federation, in the light of such developments, of course, cannot be maintained,” Ryabkov told the Kommersant newspaper. “The Americans think it doesn’t matter. We believe that they are thereby delivering a new powerful blow to global stability and the security of the respective regions.”
The US publicly blamed Russia‘s development of the 9M729 ground-launched cruise missile, known in Nato as the SSC-8, as the reason for it leaving the INF treaty.
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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.
The Ukrainian air force said it shot down 24 Shahed drones out of 40 launched by Russia, with Kharkiv, Odesa, Kherson, Ivano-Frankivsk and Lviv among the targets. Oleh Syniehubov, Kharkiv’s governor, said drones had hit civilian infrastructure and caused fires in and near the city of Kharkiv. He said eight people, including two children, required medical help due to acute stress.
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Meloni adviser quits over prank call
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.
During the call, which took place in September, Meloni spoke of international “fatigue” with the war in Ukraine and complained that Italy had little support from European partners in dealing with migration.
Ukraine’s counteroffensive is not going as expected … It has not changed the fate of the conflict, and everyone understands that [the conflict] could last many years if we don’t find a solution. The Ukrainians are doing what they have to do and we are trying to help them.
“This matter was not handled well, we are all sorry, Ambassador [Francesco] Talo took responsibility for it,” Meloni said, announcing that her aide had quit.
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The Russian Orthodox church has 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.
The 74-year-old Pugacheva, for decades hugely popular in Russia and other parts of the former Soviet Union, left the country for Israel along with her husband several weeks after the war began.
In September 2022, she sparked widespread attention by supporters and opponents of the conflict by saying that Russian soldiers were dying for “illusory goals” and that the country had become “a pariah”.
She also suggested that authorities should name her a “foreign agent” – a statusapplied to her husband, Maxim Galkin, an actor and comedian, Reuters reports.
Although Russia enacted a law after the start of the war that called for prison terms or fines for denigrating the armed forces, Pugacheva was not charged. She came back to Russia in May to attend the funeral of the fashion designer Valentin Yudashkin, where the Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, was seen kissing her hand.
She later left the country, but returned this week, Russian news agencies reported on Friday. Her reason for leaving Israel was not reported.
The church spokesperson, Vakhtang Kipshidze, was quoted by the state news agency RIA-Novosti as saying that Russians “who accompanied their departure by insulting their people or if they made controversial statements should apologise. This also applies to Alla Borisovna” Pugacheva’s patronymic. The church has been a firm supporter of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
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In a tit-for-tat move, Russia has stripped a Moscow correspondent for Bulgaria’s national radio of accreditation and expelled him after Sofia kicked out a Russian journalist on national security grounds, Reuters reports.
The Russian foreign ministry spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, had called the expulsion of Alexander Gatsak “another unlawful move by Nato against Russian journalists”.
Relations between Bulgaria and Russia have been increasingly strained since Bulgaria expelled 70 Russian diplomats last year.
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Tass reports that earlier today Vladimir Putin said Russia was defending its culture and history in the occupied regions of Ukraine which it claims to have annexed since late last year.
It quotes the Russian president saying:
Why do we so reverence Alexander Nevsky as a saint? It was precisely for this choice - he thought about preserving the Russian people, and then all the peoples living on the territory of our huge country. In many ways, the same thing is happening today when we speak that we defend our moral values, our history, our culture, our language, including by helping our brothers and sisters in Donbass and Novorossiya to do this.
Novorossiya is a historical name for the land of southern Ukraine including Crimea. Nevsky is a significant 13th century figure in Russian history.
Suspilne, Ukraine's state broadcaster, reports that seven employees of Nova Poshta who were injured during the Russian attack on the company’s distribution centre in the north-eastern Kharkiv region on 21 October continue to receive treatment in hospital.
Before the war, few but journalists, lawyers and free speech campaigners paid much attention to Slapps, delicious acronym though it is. Strategic lawsuits against public participation: in other words, the rich and powerful using the legal system to silence anyone they don’t want poking around their business.
Since Russian troops flooded into Ukraine in February 2022, more people have realised that it might be unwise to allow legitimate scrutiny of those who make fortunes in Vladimir Putin’s Russia and elsewhere in the dictatorships of the former Soviet Union to be censored in this way. The latest Today in Focus tells the tale of a few remarkable Slapps, including one against me.
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Zelenskiy weighs up presidential elections in spring, minister says
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy is considering the “pros and cons” of holding presidential elections next spring, his foreign minister has 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.
In August, Zelenskiy, responding to calls by a US senator to announce elections in 2024, said that voting could take place during wartime if partners shared the cost, legislators approved, and everyone got to the polls. However, he also expressed concerns.
“The logic is that if you are protecting democracy, then you have to think about this protection even during times of war,” he reportedly said. “Elections are one of the protections. But there is a reason why elections are prohibited by law during wartime – it is very difficult to hold them.”
In 2019, the former actor and comedian had no political experience other than playing the role of president in a TV series when he won a landslide victory in Ukraine’s presidential election.
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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.
“Now they say: weapons are getting into the Middle East from Ukraine. Well of course they are because they are being sold,” Putin said. “And they are being sold to the Taliban and from there they go on to wherever.”
Ukraine says it keeps tight control over any weapons supplied to it, but some western security officials have raised concerns and the US has asked Ukraine to do more to tackle the broader issue of corruption. Time magazine reported this week that, “in recent months, the issue of corruption has strained Zelenskiy’s relationship with many of his allies”.
It comes after the head of Interpol, Jürgen Stock, in June 2022 warned that some of the advanced weapons sent to Ukraine would end up in the hands of organised crime groups.
Nonetheless, a report about the Ukraine war and the illegal arms trade by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime said in March that there was “currently no substantial outflow of weapons from the Ukrainian conflict zone.
“However, every precedent suggests that, especially if the threat is not addressed proactively and imaginatively, when the current war ends, Ukraine’s battlefields could and will become the new arsenal of anarchy, arming everyone from insurgents in Africa to gangsters in the streets of Europe,” the report said.
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As winter draws in, Ukrainians are looking up into the cold, clear skies and wondering: When will it start?
Everyone expects a repeat of what happened a year ago. A Russian bombing campaign targeted the infrastructure Ukraine needs to get through until spring, chiefly energy. Last winter, millions suffered power cuts. The Russians have been using some of their most formidable missiles sparingly of late, suggesting they may be gathering resources for major attacks.
In the southern frontline city of Kherson this week, residents who have grown accustomed to daily bombardment with shells, tank rounds, mortars, bombs and drones were bracing for yet more. In the cafes and the market, there was a certain grim steeliness, given how thoroughly and endlessly Kherson is pummelled. The nights are dark and sleepless: there is no pattern to the barrage, just the random whistles and booms, some far off, some close.
But the further west you go, the more the war can seem like something that’s happening to other people. In Lviv, close to the Polish border, anyone fancying a night out last weekend could head to the main square and choose between a boisterous brass ensemble upstairs in a beer hall, a DJ playing drum’n’bass at an achingly hip bar, or just a pleasant stroll with no greater precautions against what might fall from the sky than an umbrella for the rain.
Last night, Russia sent forth dozens of Iranian shaheed drones. The governor of Lviv region said 16 were aimed at the west. Ukraine’s air defences took out 11. “Unfortunately,” the governor posted on Facebook, “there are 5 hits in the critical infrastructure in our area. Fortunately, there were no victims or injured. There was a fire, it was quickly eliminated.” It feels like just the beginning.
What’s different this year is Ukraine’s capabilities. They have more long-range missiles such as Storm Shadows from the UK. “We realise that as winter approaches, Russian terrorists will try to do more damage,” Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, posted on Telegram today. “We will respond to the enemy.”
Here is a snapshot of the main battlefield developments in Ukraine since the start of Kyiv’s latest counteroffensive in early June, courtesy of Reuters.
After Ukraine made spectacular territorial gains in the second half of 2022, hopes were high in Kyiv and among its allies for further significant successes this year along the frontline of up to 620 miles. Western weaponry including state-of-the-art tanks and long-range missiles had boosted such expectations.
But the gains so far have been small, as improved Russian defences proved effective, and any momentum created in the south and east looks to have run out of steam for now. The weather is turning wet, making the ground boggy and difficult to navigate for heavy equipment, though freezing temperatures should eventually harden the earth and improve manoeuvrability as winter sets in.
The devastated town of Avdiivka, close to the Russian-held Ukrainian city of Donetsk, has seen periods of fierce bombardment and fighting throughout the war.
The pre-war population of 30,000 people has dwindled to around 1,500 as civilians flee missile attacks, shelling and air raids, as well as ground battles that intensified in recent weeks.
Russian forces have begun to encircle the town, just as they did with the city of Bakhmut further north earlier in 2023, and while Ukraine has vowed to defend Avdiivka, supply lines in and out are coming under pressure.
In late May, Russia’s mercenary Wagner group claimed to have captured Bakhmut after some of the bloodiest fighting of the war. It was the only significant victory Moscow could claim since its forces left Kyiv’s suburbs and then retreated around Kharkiv in the north and Kherson in the south in late 2022.
Thousands of troops on both sides died in attritional fighting that reduced Bakhmut to rubble. Its strategic importance has been questioned by some military analysts. Despite that, Ukraine has committed significant resources to regaining territory around Bakhmut, and has reached the southern and western outskirts of the city.
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Reuters has this dispatch, from near Kreminna, eastern Ukraine, in which a soldier describes recent clashes, and the fatigue that he and his unit are experiencing.
Istoryk, a 26-year-old soldier in eastern Ukraine, finally managed to fall asleep one morning, exhausted from the relentless battles against Russian forces in the pinewood forests near Kreminna. His rest was cut short just an hour later when a fresh firefight broke out, forcing the senior combat medic back into action in a fierce and lengthy exchange.
“We had a firefight for over 20 hours,” said Istoryk, identified by his military call sign. “Non-stop fighting, assaults, evacuations, and you know, I managed it,” he told a Reuters reporter visiting his position on Thursday. “And we all managed it. We aren’t very fresh, and right now we need to find strength.”
The soldiers also know that Russia has a far bigger army and more weapons and ammunition, raising the uncomfortable question of how Ukraine can ever repel the invaders once and for all in Europe’s bloodiest conflict since the second world war.Istoryk, speaking in a broad west Ukrainian accent, recounts his grim experiences with a winning smile. Asked whether he could continue to fight for another year, or even two, he replied: “I think so. For sure.”
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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 marines have secured a beachhead that could allow Ukraine to reclaim more of the Kherson region that lies between Ukrainian territory and Crimea, seized by Russia in 2014, a fillip for a counter-offensive showing few gains elsewhere, but only if they can find a way to bring armoured vehicles and heavy weapons across the wide river separating the two militaries.
When the Ukrainian marines landed on the east bank in mid-October, Russian infantry counterattacked, backed by artillery and drones.
“The coastline and floodplains are littered with the bodies of Ukrainian fighters,” said Volodymyr Saldo, the Putin-appointed governor of occupied Kherson. The Russian president called the attack “a mistake”, declaring at a press conference that the Ukrainians “have started the long-announced and expected next counteroffensive now in the Kherson direction – there is no result yet”.
This week, however, Rybar, one of the Russian military bloggers whose information is regarded as more credible than official propaganda, said fresh teams of marines had crossed the river by night to replenish the Ukrainian contingent. A security source described the Ukrainian position as “stable”.
The Kremlin has dismissed a new package of US sanctions, saying Russia had learnt to “overcome” such economic hurdles since the Ukraine conflict began.
Washington yesterday sanctioned several Russian energy and finance companies as well as individuals and firms in Turkey, China and the United Arab Emirates it said were supporting Russia’s offensive against Ukraine, reports AFP..
“Of course, sanctions create additional problems. But I will repeat once again, we have adapted to sanctions... We have learned how to overcome them,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.
A massive hike in military spending and redirecting vital energy exports to China and India has helped Moscow avoid the West’s early hopes that sanctions could push Russia into economic collapse.
However, hundreds of Western companies have left Russia, and a volatile currency and high inflation continue to cause concern among Russian policymakers.
After hitting statutory limits on import-export lending, South Korea is gathering local banks to help Poland buy $22 billion worth of weapons in Seoul’s largest arms sale, five people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
South Korea’s defence exports totalled about $17 billion in 2022, according to its defence ministry, up from $7.25 billion a year before, as the war in Ukraine opened a door for Seoul’s weapons exports.
The 2022 arms deal with Poland established Seoul as a major player in global weapons exports, largely dominated by the US and Russia. Seoul is also seeking deeper security ties in Europe, an ambition with ideal timing for Poland, which borders Ukraine, as it ramps up arms imports amid tensions with Russia.
“Five local banks are reviewing a syndicated loan as a support measure” to help Poland finance its purchase of South Korean rocket artillery systems and fighter jets, a South Korean government official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing planning.
It is the first indication that Seoul is working to remove Poland’s financing hurdles to enable the two countries to strike South Korea’s biggest-ever weapons arms deal, estimated at around 30 trillion won ($22.72 billion).
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 was largely out of his control.
One of the banks in Europe most exposed to Russia, RBI has been studying options for its business there since the invasion of Ukraine last year, warning its exit may take some time, reports Reuters.
The bank said in a quarterly financial report today that it would “continue to progress potential transactions” but warned that market conditions were “highly complex”. It said: “The local and international laws and regulations governing the sale of businesses in Russia are subject to constant change.”
Scores of foreign businesses have quit Russia since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 as western sanctions made it increasingly difficult to stay, but the Kremlin has also introduced measures to control asset sales.
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. Earnings that RBI makes in Russia stay with the local subsidiary because of the western sanctions.
RBI’s chief executive, Johann Strobl, who in early August said the bank was aiming for a spin-off of the Russian business by the end of 2023, later that month would not commit to a timeframe. Today he said: “We depend on numerous regulatory approvals from Russian and European authorities and can therefore influence the pace only to a very limited extent.”
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Russia’s attempt to compare the country’s Olympic committee suspension with the situation of Israeli athletes following the start of the conflict between Israel and Hamas was out of place, the International Olympic Committee has said.
The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, yesterday said the IOC was aligning itself with western political decisions after the Olympic body had said any discrimination against athletes at the games would be swiftly dealt with because they are not responsible for the decisions of their governments.
The IOC had been responding to a question regarding Israeli athletes participating at next year’s Paris Olympics and the potential refusal of other nations’ athletes to compete against them over the ongoing conflict.
Lavrov called the IOC statement “shameful”, saying it “proves its political bias”. He said: “Everything that is [in the] interests of western countries, primarily the United States, it actively supports and tries to find formulations that will generally approve of this line.”
However, an IOC spokesperson said: “This [Russian] is a unique situation and cannot be compared to any other war or conflict in the world, because the measures taken and recommendations made by the IOC are a consequence of the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian army during the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games Beijing 2022.”
The IOC did not ban the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) until last month after it recognised regional organisations from four territories annexed from Ukraine. The IOC said on 12 October the ROC would be banned with immediate effect after it recognised olympic councils from the regions of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.
“This constitutes a breach of the Olympic charter because it violates the territorial integrity of the national Olympic committee of Ukraine, as recognised by the IOC in accordance with the Olympic charter,” the IOC spokesperson said.
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My colleague Tom Burgis is in Kyiv. He reports that claims by Elon Musk about a purported lack of insurgency from Ukrainians living under Russian occupation gloss over how troops are constantly surveilling people and allegedly denying them access to basic services if they do not take take up Russian passports.
Been in Kherson this week, a Ukrainian city on the frontline. @elonmusk has claimed a lack of insurgency by Ukrainians under occupation shows they want to be part of Russia. I've been hearing a different story: of resistance despite the sheer terror of the Russian occupation. 1/3 https://t.co/GUSBfZMaDr
— Tom Burgis (@tomburgis) November 3, 2023
I'm told the Russian occupiers use constant surveillance, at checkpoints and by forcing everyone onto Russian networks; detention, which can include sexual violence, electrocution and mock execution; and denial of access to basic services if you don't take a Russian passport. 2/3
— Tom Burgis (@tomburgis) November 3, 2023
Activist linked to Pussy Riot group sentenced to eight and a half years in prison
A Russian court has 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.
The court said Verzilov’s social media posts about Russian atrocities in the Ukrainian city of Bucha were “false information” - a criminal offence according to anti-dissent laws Moscow introduced in the opening days of its assault on Ukraine, AFP reports. Russia has sentenced dozens of high-profile critics to years in prison since it launched its offensive last February.
Verzilov has told Russian media he travelled to Ukraine at the beginning of the conflict to film a documentary but was now fighting alongside Ukrainian forces. The case was based on social media posts by Verzilov in which he shared videos of dead civilians lined up in body bags in Bucha and compared Russian soldiers to Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin.
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Summary of the day so far …
Russia launched its largest drone attack on Ukraine for weeks early on Friday, hitting critical infrastructure in the west and south of Ukraine and destroying private houses and commercial buildings in Kharkiv. The Ukrainian air force said it shot down 24 “Shahed” drones out of 40 launched by Russia, with Kharkiv, Odesa, Kherson, Ivano-Frankivsk and Lviv among the targets.
Ukraine’s air force said the latest drones were launched in several waves and flew to different regions in small groups. Air alerts in some regions lasted for several hours during the night. No casualties were reported, but Lviv’s governor said an infrastructure facility had been hit five times during the attacks on his region, a military facility was hit in Ivano-Frankivsk, and Kharkiv’s governor said drones had hit civilian infrastructure and caused fires in and near the city of Kharkiv.
Officials say Ukraine is bracing for a second winter of Russian air strikes on the energy system, which they warn is more vulnerable than it was last year as it has less excess capacity and little in the way of spare equipment. “We realise that as winter approaches, Russian terrorists will try to do more damage. We will respond to the enemy,” president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said of the attack.
In Russia, the foreign office spokesperson Maria Zakharova has dismissed the latest round of US sanctions against Russia. On state television, Reuters reports she said: “This is a continuation of the policy of inflicting as they call it – a strategic defeat on us. They will have to wait in vain forever before that happens”. On Thursday, the US state department imposed new sanctions targeted at Russia’s future energy capabilities, sanctions evasion and the manufacture of suicide drones. The Biden administration added a dozen Russian companies to a trade blacklist, and announced a crackdown on sanctions evasion in the UAE, Turkey and China.
Vladimir Putin on Thursday signed a law withdrawing Russia’s ratification of the global treaty banning nuclear weapons tests. US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, criticised Russia for leaving the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and called on Moscow to commit not to test. “Unfortunately, it represents a significant step in the wrong direction, taking us further from, not closer to, entry into force” of the treaty, Blinken said in a statement.
That is it from me, Martin Belam, for now. I will be back later. Mattha Busby will be here shortly to take you through the next few hours of our live coverage.
Updated
Vitali Klitschko, mayor of Kyiv, has announced that the city has received three new fire-fighting vehicles from international donors.
In a message posted to Telegram, Klitschko said:
We thank our international partners for their comprehensive support and help that is very important for Kyiv. After all, in the conditions of war, the city needs to respond promptly and effectively to challenges and emergency situations.
Let me remind you that since the beginning of the large-scale war, Kyiv has received a total of 54 fire trucks and 82 city buses as aid from European partners and benefactors.
One of the overnight Russian drone strikes on Ukraine hit Kharkiv’s college of transport technology.
AFP has put out a longer video of firefighters working at the scene.
VIDEO: Firefighters put out a fire following a Russian drone strike in Ukraine's Kharkiv, which hit civilian infrastructure, including a building of the Kharkiv College of Transport Technology.
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) November 3, 2023
There was no immediate report of casualties pic.twitter.com/HSxBEpMoNi
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Ukraine’s emergency service has posted to social media to say that the fire in Kharkiv caused by the overnight drone strike has been extinguished. It states that at its height it covered 1,000 sq metres, and “almost 70 rescuers and 12 units of equipment” were involved in the battle to contain it.
Updated
Russian shelling in Kherson has interrupted water and electricity supply in parts of the city, Suspilne reports. It cites the head of the city administration, saying: “Repair crews are working, electricity is planned to be restored during the day.”
Updated
Russia's biggest drone strike in weeks hits Ukrainian infrastructure
Russia launched its largest drone attack on Ukraine for weeks early on Friday, hitting critical infrastructure in the west and south of Ukraine and destroying private houses and commercial buildings in Kharkiv.
The Ukrainian air force said it shot down 24 “Shahed” drones out of 40 launched by Russia, with Kharkiv, Odesa, Kherson, Ivano-Frankivsk and Lviv among the targets.
Reuters reports that the air force said the latest drones were launched in several waves and flew to different regions in small groups. Air alerts in some regions lasted for several hours during the night.
Lawmakers have expressed concern that the resurgent conflict in the Middle East has diverted western attention from the battle in Ukraine, with MP Kira Rudik posting to social media that “such a news is increasingly commonplace for you, though it is so real and painful for us. The war in Europe continues. And we need your support.”
38 drones attacked 🇺🇦 cities overnight. It is natural that such a news is increasingly commonplace for you though it is so real and painful for us. The war in Europe continues. And we need your support.
— Kira Rudik (@kiraincongress) November 3, 2023
Video: Office of the President of Ukraine pic.twitter.com/JfbrQussP8
Maksym Kozytskiy, Lviv’s governor, said an infrastructure facility had been hit five times during the attacks on his region, but did not elaborate on the damage. He reported no casualties.
In the nearby region of Ivano-Frankivsk a military facility was hit, governor Svitlana Onishchuk said.
Oleh Kiper, Odesa’s regional governor, reported a strike on an infrastructure facility in the southern region.
Oleh Synehubov, Kharkiv’s governor, said drones had hit civilian infrastructure and caused fires in and near the city of Kharkiv. He said eight people, including two children, required medical help due to acute stress.
Officials say Ukraine is bracing for a second winter of Russian air strikes on the energy system, which they warn is more vulnerable than it was last year as it has less excess capacity and little in the way of spare equipment.
“We realize that as winter approaches, Russian terrorists will try to do more damage. We will respond to the enemy,” president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said of the attack.
Updated
In Russia, its foreign office spokesperson Maria Zakharova has dismissed the latest round of US sanctions against Russia. On state television, Reuters reports that she said: “This is a continuation of the policy of inflicting as they call it – a strategic defeat on us. They will have to wait in vain forever before that happens.”
On Thursday, the US state department imposed new sanctions targeted at Russia’s future energy capabilities, sanctions evasion and the manufacture of suicide drones.
The Biden administration added a dozen Russian companies to a trade blacklist, and announced a crackdown on sanctions evasion in the UAE, Turkey and China.
Updated
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has posted to social media to say that air defence was active in 10 regions of Ukraine overnight, and that there were no reported casualties from the Russian drone strikes that got through.
Ukraine’s president said:
Our aircraft, air defence, and mobile fire groups worked hard in 10 regions of Ukraine, from east and south to the west.
I thank our warriors for every kill! More than half of the enemy drones were shot down. Unfortunately, there were also hits. There were no casualties, according to preliminary reports. Consequences are being addressed.
We are strengthening air defence and mobile fire groups. As winter approaches, Russian terrorists will try to cause more harm. We will be fighting back.
The message was accompanied by a short video clip showing firefighters tackling a blaze at an unspecified location.
Russia fired about forty "Shahed" drones at quiet Ukrainian towns and cities during the course of the night.
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) November 3, 2023
Our aircraft, air defense, and mobile fire groups worked hard in ten regions of Ukraine, from east and south to the west.
I thank our warriors for every kill! More… pic.twitter.com/XK0Ismogqy
Updated
Ukraine claims to have shot down 24 out of 40 drones launched by Russia overnight
Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, in its morning news roundup, states that Ukraine’s armed forces claim to have shot down 24 out of 40 drones launched at Ukrainian territory by Russia overnight.
In its report, it states that in the west of Ukraine, a military object was attacked in Ivano-Frankivsk region, where a fire started. It has been extinguished. Also in the west, “five drone strikes were recorded at a critical infrastructure facility” in Lviv region. The governor there reported no casualties.
Suspilne also reports:
Around midnight, drones struck Kharkiv and its suburbs: a civilian object, private houses, an educational institution, and cars were damaged. There are no injured.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Updated
Odesa regional governor Oleh Kiper has said an infrastructure object was struck by a Russian drone overnight. He reported no casualties or significant damage, and claimed that two Shahed drones had been taken down by air defence.
Russia claims its air defence systems destroyed a Ukrainian drone in the sky over the Belgorod region, Tass reports.
The US is expected to deliver $425m in new military aid to Ukraine for its fight against Russia, including about $300m in long-term funding to buy laser-guided munitions designed to take out drones, according to the AP news agency, which attributes the line to unnamed US officials.
It’s understood the long-term money will be provided through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which funds contracts for larger weapons systems that need to be either built or modified by defence companies.
The new agency says the officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the aid has not yet been publicly announced. An announcement is expected on Friday.
This would be the 50th package of aid pulled from Pentagon shelves and it resembles an aid package about a week ago that was for $150m.
The smaller totals for the drawdowns come as Pentagon funding for the Ukraine war shrinks.
Updated
Putin withdraws from ratification of global treaty banning nuclear weapon tests.
President Vladimir Putin on Thursday signed a law withdrawing Russia’s ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). Moscow said the move was needed to establish parity with the US.
Putin said that rescinding the ratification of the treaty would “mirror” the stand taken by the US, which has signed but not ratified the nuclear test ban.
The US secretary of state Antony Blinken said that Russia’s move “represents a significant step in the wrong direction” but added that “Russian officials say Russia’s planned move to withdraw its ratification does not mean that it will resume testing, and we urge Moscow to hold to those statements,” Blinken said.
Putin has noted that some experts argue for the necessity of conducting nuclear tests, but said he had not formed an opinion on the issue.
According to the UN, the Soviet Union carried out its last nucelar test in 1990. The UK’s last test was in 1991, and the US in 1992. The Russian Federation has never carried out a test.
Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said last month that Moscow would continue to respect the ban and will only resume nuclear tests if Washington does first.
The CTBT was adopted in 1996 and bans all nuclear explosions anywhere in the world. But the treaty was never fully implemented. In addition to the US, it has yet to be ratified by China, India, Pakistan, North Korea, Israel, Iran and Egypt.
Welcome and summary
Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine.
Russian president Vladimir Putin has signed a bill withdrawing Russia’s ratification of a global nuclear test ban. US secretary of state Antony Blinken criticised the move and called on Moscow to commit not to test. “Unfortunately, it represents a significant step in the wrong direction, taking us further from, not closer to, entry into force” of the treaty, Blinken said in a statement.
More on this shortly. In the meantime, here are the other key recent developments:
Russia rejected comments from Ukraine’s most senior military official that their nearly two-year conflict had reached a stalemate. “No, it has not reached a stalemate,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “Russia is steadily carrying out the special military operation. All the goals that were set should be fulfilled,” he added, using the Kremlin’s term for its full-scale military intervention.
Peskov was responding to an interview in British media with Ukraine’s commander-in-chief of the armed forces, Gen Valery Zaluzhny, who said the war in Ukraine was “at a stalemate” and there was likely to be “no deep and beautiful breakthrough” soon in the counteroffensive against Russia.
Annalena Baerbock, the German foreign minister, said on Thursday she was confident that the European Union next month would advance Ukraine’s bid to join the bloc at a summit seen as a key milestone in Kyiv’s efforts to integrate with the west. Germany proposed a detailed and innovative roadmap to expand the EU that would give candidate countries such as Ukraine early benefits including observer status at leaders’ summits in Brussels before full membership.
Mike Johnson, the US Republican House of Representatives speaker, has said that a bill pairing Ukraine aid with US border security “will come next”, after the body’s vote on a standalone Israel aid measure.
Russia said on Thursday it had handed jail terms to two Ukrainian soldiers who fought in the city of Mariupol, as it continued to put dozens of captive soldiers on trial. Thousands of Ukrainian fighters were taken prisoner after Russia seized control of Mariupol last May, some of whom were sent to Russia or tried by Moscow-backed courts in occupied east Ukraine. Rights groups and western countries have criticised Moscow for putting captured Ukrainian soldiers on trial.
Russian drones hit civilian targets and triggered a fire early on Friday in and near Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city. Kharkiv regional governor Oleh Synehubov, writing on Telegram, said some of the attacks targeted civilian infrastructure in the city, in Ukraine’s north-east.
Russian shelling on Thursday killed two people in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region and damaged a critical infrastructure facility there, causing power cuts, local officials reported.
Russia has claimed Ukraine was risking a nuclear disaster, saying nine Ukrainian drones were shot down by Russian forces near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear station, Europe’s largest atomic power plant. Maria Zakharova, a spokesperson for Russia’s foreign ministry, said: “Kyiv is continuing to ‘play with fire’ and is carrying out criminal and irresponsible provocations.”
Polish truckers will block several border crossings with Ukraine starting next week in protest at what they say is Ukrainian hauliers’ free rein in Poland that is hurting their business, a co-organiser of the protest said.
The Biden administration today added 12 Russian companies to a trade blacklist for supplying Russia’s military with drones that could be used to aid Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, the commerce department said in a statement.
Russia is preparing to attack Ukraine’s critical infrastructure once the temperatures drop, according to Ukraine’s national security and defence council secretary, Oleksiy Danilov.
