Will Ukraine President hold elections next year which are supposeted to be?
Russian WILL stick to the limits of the internatioanl nuclear test band treaty even though they said they wouldn’…
President Biden announces a smaller, and last aid package to Ukraine while the US House Republicans want to limit more aid going forward….
Ukraine gain harvest has increased from last years numbers…..
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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The Kremlin has dismissed a new package of US sanctions, saying Russia had learned to “overcome” such economic hurdles since the Ukraineconflict began. Washington yesterday sanctioned several Russian energy and finance companies it said were supporting Russia’s offensive against Ukraine.
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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.
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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 Russian war in Ukraine….
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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 ….
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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….