Thursday, October 24

Russia’s war against Ukraine

A group of Ukrainian military personnel completed a basic training course for piloting F-16 fighter jets in the U.K., the British Royal Air Force (RAF) reported on Oct. 22, 2024. (Royal Air Force (RAF)/X)

North Korean troops are in Russia, US defense secretary confirms. “There is evidence that there are DPRK troops in Russia,” U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said.

About 3,000 North Korean troops were sent to Russia to participate in war against Ukraine, South Korean intelligence says. “Signs of troops being trained inside North Korea were detected in September and October,” Park Sun-won, a member of a parliamentary intelligence committee, said.

Zelensky preparing action plan for Ukraine to withstand war, source says. The document will address Ukraine’s military, political, economic, and other areas, including certain decisions regarding law enforcement, a source close to the Presidential Office told the Kyiv Independent.

Russia helping North Korea with sanctions evasion, nuclear technology in return for soldiers, arms, Budanov says. Russia’s support in nuclear capabilities includes providing technologies for smaller tactical nuclear weapons and submarine missile-launch systems, military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov claimed.

Ukraine has stabilized situation in Toretsk, but Russia is concentrating troops in town’s east, military says. “The situation in Toretsk has relatively stabilized. We (Ukrainian forces) are now holding the line unchanged,” Anastasiia Bobovnikova, a spokesperson of the Operational Tactical Group Luhansk, said.

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Ukraine receives $1.1 billion from IMF. “The funds will be used to cover important non-military budget spending,” PM Denys Shmyhal said.

UK to allocate $155 million for naval coalition to protect Ukraine’s ports. The U.K. is looking for partners to co-finance the supply of “hundreds” more naval drones as well as surveillance radars to protect Ukraine’s grain corridor.

France’s first batch of Mirage 2000 jets for Ukraine to include 3 planes, media reports. The planes will reportedly be equipment with ground strike capabilities, namely SCALP/Storm Shadow long-range missiles and French guided bombs AASM.

Ukraine denies Russia breached Chasiv Yar defense line following conflicting reports. Hours prior, Ivan Petrychak, a representative of the 24th Mechanized Brigade’s press service, said on national television that the Russian military managed to breach the defense, but there were no signs of the city’s potential loss.

US to provide $20 billion loan to Ukraine as part of G7 pledge. Daleep Singh, the White House deputy national security adviser on international economics, said that Joe Biden’s administration intends to split the funds between helping the Ukrainian economy and the military.

Read our exclusives

Ukraine war latest: US confirms North Korean troops in Russia; Zelensky preparing plan to withstand war

President Volodymyr Zelensky tasked the Ukrainian authorities to develop proposals for an internal action plan to help the country withstand the war, a source close to the President’s Office told the Kyiv Independent on Oct. 23.

Photo: Simon Wohlfahrt/Bloomberg via Getty Images

South Korea supplying weapons to Ukraine directly unlikely given legal hurdles, experts say

South Korea has hinted it could change its long-standing stance on not providing Ukraine directly with weapons in light of the dramatic escalation of North Korea’s role in Russia’s full-scale invasion.

Photo: Jung Yeon-je / AFP

Finishing off the defenseless: How the Russians execute Ukrainian soldiers

Cases of executions of Ukrainian prisoners of war by Russian soldiers have spiked since 2023. As executions of soldiers remain among the least documented deaths in war, we publish testimonies about three such cases.

Image: Karolina Gulshani / The Kyiv Independent

Russia’s wartime economy delivers growth, but will the bubble burst?

“What we have seen in the past two years is that you can achieve relatively high growth with enormous fiscal support. The problem is you are simply mortgaging your future,” financial analyst says.

Photo: Ulf Mauder/picture alliance via Getty Image

Human cost of war

3 companies of Russian soldiers killed, injured in assaults on Selydove, National Guard says. Ukraine’s National Guard troops repelled 13 Russian assault attempts near the town of Selydove in Donetsk region over the past day, spokesperson Ruslan Muzychuk told Ukrainska Pravda on Oct. 23.

’Moscow is desperate:’ Expert on North Korean troops in Russia

Opinions and insights

Opinion: Ukraine’s war is the reckoning with empire Europe can no longer avoid

Ukrainians are pulling Tolstoy off their shelves, and toppling Catherine the Great from her plinth. Once Ukraine has won a peace it can live with, it will have to own the imprint of the Russian past on its soul, and then wrestle free of that past.

Photo: Alexander Nemenov / AFP via Getty Images

Opinion: Putin’s drone strategy shows the cracks in Russia’s war machine

Russia’s drone dreams are grounded in harsh realities, as Putin’s bold ambitions collide with production bottlenecks, foreign dependence, and systemic inefficiencies.

Photo: Alexander Nemenov / AFP via Getty Images

International response

US to continue to ‘tighten the screws’ on Russian LNG exports, senior official says. “You can be assured that the Biden administration is going to continue to tighten the screws against Russia’s LNG exports,” Jeffrey Pyatt, assistant Secretary of State for Energy Resources, said.

UN secretary general visits Russia for BRICS summit despite Kyiv’s criticism. “This is a wrong choice that does not advance the cause of peace. It only damages the U.N.’s reputation,” Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said.

North Korean troops dispatch was secret clause of Moscow-Pyongyang pact, WSJ reports. The secret clause reportedly allowed North Korea to send the first 1,000 of its soldiers to Ukraine to gain military experience. More North Korean troops are expected to be engaged, the source told the WSJ.

UK prepares another group of future Ukrainian F-16 pilots, bringing total number of trainees to 200. “The next step is advanced fast jet training and conversion to F-16 with partner nations,” the statement read.

Belarus schedules next presidential election for January 2025. Belarus has scheduled its next presidential election for January 26, 2025, the country’s Central Electoral Commission announced on Oct. 23. Incumbent Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko is widely expected to hold on to power following the election’s result.

In other news

SBU says it foiled terror attack in Kyiv, detained suspects. According to the SBU, the suspects reportedly planned to detonate improvised explosives in a crowded place in Ukraine’s capital to cause “the maximum number of civilian deaths” and sow panic.

Georgia denies journalist entry to cover elections amid rising Russian influence. Czech journalist Ray Baseley was denied entry to Georgia without an explanation after arriving at Tbilisi airport on Oct. 22 to cover the upcoming parliamentary elections.

Many Russians support Putin despite favoring opposing policies, survey shows. Around 61% of Putin’s supporters said they favored peace in Ukraine under mutual concessions, according to the poll conducted by the independent Levada Center between Sept. 10 and 17.

Ukraine’s ‘I Want to Live’ project posts Korean-language video message, calls on North Korean soldiers to surrender. Launched in September 2022 by Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence, the 24-hour “I Want to Live” hotline helps Russian soldiers willingly surrender themselves or their units to the Ukrainian army.

Controversial chief of staff for Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces dismissed months after appointment, Ukrainska Pravda reports. Roman Hladkyi, the controversial Chief of Staff of the Unmanned Systems Forces (USF), was dismissed from his position just months after being appointed to the post in August 2024, Ukrainska Pravda reported on Oct. 23, citing Ukraine’s Defense Ministry.

Ukraine risks delay in receiving $43 billion instalment from EU’s Ukraine Facility due to reform shortcomings, Foreign Ministry says. Deputy Foreign Minister Yevhen Perebyinis issued a letter to cabinet ministers on Oct. 23 warning that the European Union has notified Ukraine that the next tranche of 4 billion euros ($4.3 billion) from the EU’s Ukraine Facility may be delayed until next year unless expected aspects of corruption reforms are completed by the end of this month.

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Today’s Ukraine Daily was brought to you by Martin Fornusek, Kateryna Denisova, Kateryna Hodunova, Oleksiy Sorokin, Dmytro Basmat, and Alan Lipp.

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