MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich’s spokesperson said on Sunday that a criminal investigation launched by the Jersey authorities against him in 2022 was baseless and that he had been allowed to introduce “claims of conspiracy” against the government.
In April 2022, the Royal Court of Jersey imposed a formal freezing order on $7 billion worth of assets in trusts which Jersey said were linked to Abramovich and the Attorney General of Jersey said that Abramovich was a suspect in a criminal investigation.
“No charges have been brought against Mr Abramovich in the 3.5 years since the investigation was commenced, and, to our knowledge, in fact no progress has been made on this case,” his spokesperson said.
“Mr Abramovich was allowed earlier this year to introduce claims of Conspiracy against the Government of Jersey,” the spokesperson said.
Jersey did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the statement.
Abramovich’s spokesperson said that the conspiracy claim related to the government of Jersey admitting to having deleted data relating to the case as well as their overall failure to disclose data held on Abramovich.
Abramovich, who also holds Israeli citizenship, was one of the most powerful businessmen who earned fabulous fortunes after the 1991 break-up of the Soviet Union. Forbes has put his net worth at $9.2 billion.
(Reporting by Reuters; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)
(Reuters) -Ukraine is working to resume the exchange of prisoners with Russia, hoping for the release of 1,200 Ukrainians, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his Security Council chief said.
“We are … counting on the resumption of exchanges,” Zelenskiy said in a video posted on the Telegram messaging app on Sunday. “Many meetings, negotiations and calls are now devoted to this.”
His security chief, Rustem Umerov, said on Saturday that he had held consultations in Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, with the support of Kyiv’s partners, on resuming the process of exchanges.
“As a result of these negotiations, the parties agreed to return to the Istanbul agreements,” he said. “This concerns the release of 1,200 Ukrainians,” Umerov said in a statement on Telegram.
There was no immediate comment from Moscow to Ukraine’s statements.
The Istanbul agreements are prisoner-exchange understandings brokered with Turkish mediation in 2022, setting out rules for large, coordinated swaps between Russia and Ukraine.
Since then, the two have traded thousands of prisoners, though exchanges have been sporadic and often disrupted by frontline escalation in the war Russia launched against Ukraine in February 2022.
Umerov said that consultations would take place in the near future to decide the procedural and organisational details of the process.
“We are working without pause so that Ukrainians who are to return from captivity can celebrate New Year and Christmas at home – at the family table and with their loved ones,” Umerov said.
(Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by William Mallard)
BRUSSELS—The European Union is racing against the clock to overcome Belgium’s objections to a plan to fund Ukraine’s defense using Russian money.
Ukraine is on course to run out of cash in the spring, EU officials say, and they see
their loan proposal as the best option for allowing Kyiv to continue buying weapons. The plan would lend as much as 183 billion euros (about $213 billion) to Ukraine, backed by Russian financial assets that are immobilized in Belgium.
KYIV (Reuters) -Ukraine has started mass production of its new domestically developed interceptor drones to strengthen air defences, the Ukrainian defence ministry said on Friday.
As the war with Russia approaches the four-year mark, Ukrainian cities and towns far from the frontline are under nearly daily assault from hundreds of Russian drones.
In the latest attack on Ukraine, 430 drones were used, Ukrainian officials said.
The ministry said that the first three manufacturers have already started production, and 11 more were preparing to set up production lines.
The drones would be based on a domestically developed technology called ‘Octopus”. The ministry said the technology to intercept Shahed drones was tested in combat and proved that it was working “at night, under jamming, and at low altitudes.”
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said that the goal was to manufacture up to 1,000 of the interceptors a day.
Russia is investing heavily in long-range drones and has been steadily increasing the number of drones it uses in a single strike on Ukraine.
Interceptor drones, which cost a few thousand dollars each, are also important for Ukraine as it can save its more expensive missiles for faster, deadlier cruise and ballistic threats.
(Reporting by Olena Harmash, Editing by William Maclean)
(Reuters) -North Korean troops who helped Russia repel a major Ukrainian incursion into its western Kursk region are now playing an important role in clearing the area of mines, the Russian Defence Ministry said on Friday.
Under a mutual defence pact between the two countries, North Korea last year sent some 14,000 soldiers to fight alongside Russia in Kursk, and more than 6,000 were killed, according to South Korean, Ukrainian and Western sources.
Ukrainian forces smashed across the border in August 2024 and held on to substantial pockets of territory for months. Russian President Vladimir Putin said in April that Russia had finally pushed them out, with help from the North Koreans.
The significant North Korean role in Russia’s de-mining operations highlights the desire on both sides to further develop their military ties, which North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said last month would “advance non-stop”.
Video published by the Russian Defence Ministry showed North Korean troops being shown different types of mines and mine detection equipment, taking part in training exercises and singing patriotic songs.
“They’re great lads, they learn quickly, listen attentively and take notes,” said a Russian commander with the call sign “Veles”.
A second commander, “Lesnik”, said: “They are on an equal level with my sappers, carrying out the same tasks as my lads.”
Russian military news outlet Krasnaya Zvezda said the Russian and North Korean soldiers were dealing with a “previously unseen density” of anti-tank and anti-personnel mines left behind by Ukrainian forces in Kursk. It said many of the devices had been manufactured by NATO countries.
In the Bolshesoldatsky region of Kursk, 37 out of 64 settlements were still no-go areas for civilians because of the danger from mines, it said.
The sappers were coming under attack by Ukrainian artillery and drones while carrying out their work, according to the report, which Reuters could not independently verify.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Moscow was grateful for the “selfless, heroic assistance”.
“We will never forget this help. This work continues. It is dangerous and difficult, but our Korean friends are truly helping us, and we greatly appreciate it,” he said.
(Additional reporting by Gleb Stolyarov, Editing by William Maclean)
As a child, she fled Ukraine during a war. Now at the age of 92, a Minneapolis woman is looking to return to her homeland and into another war.
Nadia Pishko’s childhood was about survival. Growing up in Lviv, Ukraine she experienced mass starvation in the 1930’s. And during World War II, she and her family fled the country as the Germans and Russians closed in. But her heart never left her homeland.
“How do you say it? The door never closed. The door never closed,” said Nadia Pishko.
She eventually made her way to Minneapolis where she and her husband raised four kids. Now, at the age of 92, she’s looking to return to Ukraine.
“I want to go and stay there before I die,” said Nadia Pishko.
A debilitating stroke in February has added urgency to Pishko’s wish. Her parents and her husband are buried in Lviv, which has felt the impact of the Russian and Ukrainian War.
“We said mom, are you sure you really want to go because remember there is a war going on there? She goes, you know I left during a war, and I’ll be going back during a war,” said Julian Pishko, Nadia Pishko’s son. “She really wanted to go and she started crying. She got very emotional about it.”
Nadia Pishko still has cousins there and she remembers the beauty of the country, before war took over. Her family bought her a plane ticket, and she’s planning to leave later this month.
The journey back won’t be easy. In addition to all the paperwork needed to make this happen, there’s no direct route to Nadia Pishko’s hometown.
“We are going from Iceland to Copenhagen, to Warsaw and then we are going to take a train from Warsaw to Ukraine,” said Howard Dotson.
Dotson is a chaplain and fellow church member who will be accompanying Nadia Pishko on her return home. They are currently looking for care centers around Lviv, where she can stay.
“Her stories and her testimony as a refugee can inspire so many Ukrainians that have been on that journey,” said Dotson.
A homecoming more than 80 years in the making. A final trip to fulfill a lifelong dream.
“She is really determined to be there and die there. That’s what she really wants,” said Julian Pishko.
Pishko is scheduled to fly out on Nov. 23.
A GoFundMe has been set up in her name to help her pay for living expenses as she returns home.
Russia has created a new branch of its military to oversee the production, operation, and testing of uncrewed systems and the tactics and techniques for using them. Called the Unmanned Systems Forces (USF), the new branch mirrors a similar one Ukraine created last year, even using the same name. Its work will encompass aerial, land and surface drones.
In history’s most drone-saturated battlefield, both sides are seeking to streamline operations to better use the resources they have and stay ahead of the never-ending technology development cycle. The objective of the Russian USF is to do just that, according to its deputy chief.
“We have already formed established regiments, battalions, and other units,” Lt. Col. Sergei Ishtuganov told the Russian KP.Ru media outlet. “Their combat operations are conducted according to a unified plan and in coordination with other units of the troop groups. At the same time, the expansion of existing and the creation of new units… continues. We are assigning operators, engineers, technicians, and other support specialists to these units.”
“Have you noticed what the enemy complains about most when surrounded in the Pokrovsk-Myrnohrad agglomeration? That’s right – drones,” exclaimed Ishtuganov. “Just a year ago, our troops weren’t so saturated with drones of all types. But gradually, Russian units managed to turn the tide in the skies and effectively ‘squeeze’ them from the Ukrainian Armed Forces.”
Beyond the battlefield, the USF is “conducting combat testing of both drones and electronic warfare systems, working closely with manufacturers,” the USF deputy chief noted.
“If necessary, we modify these or other products, taking into account the rapidly changing situation,” Ishtuganov explained. “The enemy plays with frequencies; we reconfigure our electronic warfare systems. The enemy begins to suppress us with electronic warfare; we switch to other frequencies. And this is an ongoing process, requiring, among other things, technical expertise.”
A Ukrainian serviceman tests an anti-drone backpack. (Photo by YURIY DYACHYSHYN / AFP) YURIY DYACHYSHYN
While procurement is a major effort of the new military branch, Ishtuganov offered no details about the process. It is important to note that Russia is now receiving a good deal of assistance from Beijing, now producing drones completely made up of Chinese components. Overall, Moscow has announced lofty intentions for producing new drones. It has a factory where the goal is to build 6,000 Shahed-type drones per month. Russia also has plans to make a total of 2 million first-person-view (FPV) drones this year.
Equipment is just part of the equation. The USF is also recruiting top military talent, Ishtuganov said.
“The effectiveness of this new branch of the armed forces, which is still in its infancy, is demonstrated by its personnel approach,” he suggested. “The best service members are selected, taking into account their combat achievements, among other things.”
The USF was created at the behest of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who in December 2024 ordered the Defense Ministry to establish a dedicated branch for drone warfare. While Putin shrugged off concerns about the capabilities of his drone operations, one Russian military observer said a combination of issues had impeded operations. One is how troops are deployed, explained the Forces Group “ZAPAD” | News Telegram channel. The other is how they have been equipped.
“Drone operators should not be sent as assault troops, as some commanders do,” the Telegram channel pointed out. “Otherwise, the whole process loses its meaning. Patching holes is a consequence of problems. And the existence of such problems is a result of careless command actions. There is hope that the (USF) troops will become a kind of ‘shield’ for all successful drone operators.”
Resources have been another big issue.
“In combat conditions, losing a drone is very easy, and if you have a strict limit on the number of drones — you are limited in your capabilities,” Forces Group posited. “It is no secret that drones are currently in short supply almost everywhere. Especially night drones. Especially our equivalents of Baba Yaga.” Baba Yagas, as we have explained in the past, are large industrial quadcopter drones armed with guided munitions.
Engineers of the Achilles drone battalion testing night bomber drone Vampire (Russians also call it Baba Yaga) before the night mission on the Chasiv Yar direction in Donetsk region. (Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images Serhii Korovayny) Serhii Korovayny
The only Russian unit immune to this concern is Rubicon, a secretive force of drone operators that helped Russia push back Ukraine’s Kursk invasion.
“There is hope that the UAV Forces are being created, among other things, to solve the supply problem so that each unit can eventually call itself at least a mini-Rubicon,” Forces Group “Zapad” postulated.
Samuel Bendett, a drone expert and researcher with the Center for Naval Analyses think tank concurred with much of the Telegram channel’s hypothesis.
“There are no official standards today for many tactical drone R&D and uses in the Russian military,” he told us. “There are uneven supplies, there are issues with UAV pilots treated as typical infantry used for assaults, uneven supplies of qualified pilots and drones, etc. There is hope from many in the Russian military that USF will solve many of these issues.”
The USF is not Russia’s first attempt to wrangle its drone operations. As we reported earlier this year, the Russian Navy dedicated regiments to operate uncrewed surface, undersea, air and land systems.
Ukraine, as we noted at the top of this story, created its own USF to address many of the same issues. The reaction in Kyiv toward the Russian version is one of concern.
“Heard a detailed intelligence report on the development of the enemy’s unmanned forces,” Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, noted on his Telegram channel. “The occupiers are following our experience, particularly in creating regiments of unmanned systems and interceptor drones, and are directing significant resources towards this. We must constantly improve to maintain technological superiority.”
“Special attention,” he added, “is given to scaling the [Ukrainian] Unmanned Systems Forces units: increasing the number of trained crews, involving personnel, and creating infrastructure for their effective operation.”
One Ukrainian official posited that Russia’s following Kyiv’s lead presents a real danger.
“They copied our successful solutions,” Andrii Kovalenko, the head of Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation, stated on Telegram. “It was we who created strike UAV companies, which in 2023 allowed us to have an advantage over the enemy. And now the SBS operates very effectively. But the Russians copy and try to scale our innovations by quantity. This is a threat, of course.”
BRUSSELS (Reuters) -EU member states have three options to fund Ukraine’s financing needs, with a reparations loan based on immobilised Russian assets as the most effective option, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Thursday.
Other options are for the EU to use “headroom” in its budget to raise capital, or for an agreement among member states to raise capital by themselves, she said in a speech in European Parliament.
“Option three is to have a reparations loan based on immobilised Russian assets. We give a loan to Ukraine – that Ukraine pays back if Russia pays reparations,” she said.
“This is the most effective way to sustain Ukraine’s defence and its economy.”
(Reporting by Bart Meijer and Lili Bayer, Editing by Charlotte Van Campenhout)
NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE, Canada (Reuters) -European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told Reuters on Wednesday that an energy corruption scandal in Ukraine was “extremely unfortunate” and it was important that Kyiv takes it seriously.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called for the dismissal of two cabinet ministers on Wednesday amid a probe into an alleged $100 million corruption scheme that has fuelled fresh public anger at the country’s government.
“They are acting very forcefully. There is no room for corruption, especially now. I mean, it is literally the people’s money that should go to the front lines,” Kallas said on the sidelines of a meeting of Group of Seven foreign ministers in Canada.
“I think what is very important that they really proceed with this very fast and take it very seriously,” she added.
(Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis; Writing by Lili Bayer; Editing by Chris Reese and Nick Zieminski)
KYIV (Reuters) -Ukraine’s military said on Wednesday that it had pulled back troops from near a settlement on the southeastern Zaporizhzhia front, but that it has stopped Russian advances in the area.
“On November 11, 2025, late in the evening, as a result of combined fire damage to our positions in the Rivnopillya area, Ukrainian units moved to more advantageous lines in order to save the lives of personnel,” it said in a statement.
(Reporting by Yuliia Dysa; Writing by Dan Peleschuk; Editing by Sharon Singleton)
When Russians finally began to outnumber Ukrainians in Pokrovsk in recent weeks, the city lay in ruins and bodies lined the streets.
The brutal fight for the Ukrainian city points to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ultimate aims in the war—and explains why President Trump’s peace efforts have, so far, failed.
A Russian drone slammed into a tower block in eastern Ukraine early on Saturday while many were sleeping, killing three and injuring 12 people, Ukrainian authorities reported.
The attack in Dnipro, Ukraine’s fourth-largest city, was part of a large Russian missile and drone barrage across the country that targeted energy infrastructure.
In eastern Ukraine, fighting for the strategic city of Pokrovsk has reached a key stage, with both Kyiv and Moscow vying to persuade U.S. President Donald Trump that they can win on the battlefield.
Russia fired a total of 458 drones and 45 missiles, including 32 ballistic missiles. Ukrainian forces shot down and neutralized 406 drones and nine missiles, the air force said, adding that 25 locations were struck.
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, firefighters put out the fire following a Russian rocket attack that hit a multi-story apartment building in Dnipro, Ukraine, Saturday, Nov. 8, 2025.
Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP
Authorities switched off power in several regions due to the attacks, Ukrainian Energy Minister Svitlana Grynchuk said in a post on Facebook.
A fire broke out and several apartments were destroyed in the nine-story building in Dnipro, the emergency services said. Rescuers recovered the bodies of three people. Two children were among the injured.
Almost four years after its all-out invasion, Russia has been pummeling Ukraine with near-daily drone and missile strikes, with many civilians killed and injured. The Kremlin claims its only targets are linked to Kyiv’s war effort. Russia’s Defense Ministry asserted Saturday that the nighttime strikes hit military and energy sites supplying Ukrainian forces.
Moscow and Kyiv have traded almost daily assaults on each other’s energy targets as U.S.-led diplomatic efforts to stop the nearly four-year war had no impact on the battlefield.
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, firefighters evacuate a resident following a Russian rocket attack that hit a multi-story apartment building in Dnipro, Ukraine, Saturday, Nov. 8, 2025. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP
Ukraine’s long-range drone strikes on Russian refineries aim to deprive Moscow of the oil export revenue it needs to pursue the war. Russia wants to cripple the Ukrainian power grid and deny civilians access to heat, light and running water in what Kyiv officials say is an attempt to “weaponize winter.”
Russian forces, meanwhile, repelled a “massive” nighttime strike on energy facilities in the southern Volgograd region, its Gov. Andrei Bocharov said Saturday, two days after Ukraine claimed to have hit a key oil refinery there with long-range drones. Bocharov added that the strike knocked out power in parts of the region’s northwest, but caused no casualties. There was no immediate comment from Kyiv.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Saturday that its forces shot down 82 Ukrainian drones during the night, including eight over the Volgograd region. Two people were injured in the neighboring Saratov region after a Ukrainian drone strike blew out windows in an apartment block, according to regional Gov. Roman Busarin.
Pokrovsk sits along the eastern front line, part of what has been dubbed the “fortress belt” of Donetsk, a line of heavily fortified cities crucial to Ukraine’s defense of the region. It could also be a key point in influencing Washington’s stance and sway the course of peace negotiations, analysts say.
Russian President Vladimir Putin claims his forces are on the cusp of winning. As a prerequisite for peace, he demands that Ukraine cede the Donbas, made up of Donetsk and neighboring Luhansk, one of his key war aims.
KYIV (Reuters) -Russia launched a barrage of drones and missiles in overnight attacks on Ukraine on Saturday, killing at least three people and damaging large energy infrastructure facilities in three regions, Ukrainian officials said.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russia had launched more than 450 drones and 45 missiles.
Two people were killed and 12 wounded in the city of Dnipro when a drone hit an apartment building. One person was killed in the Kharkiv region, regional officials said.
Energy facilities in the Kyiv, Poltava and Kharkiv regions were damaged, Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said.
ZELENSKIY CALLS FOR MORE SANCTIONS PRESSURE
Zelenskiy said the strikes showed that sanctions pressure should be intensified.
“… for every Moscow strike on energy infrastructure – aimed at harming ordinary people before winter – there must be a sanctions response targeting all Russian energy, with no exceptions,” he said on the Telegram app.
Since the start of its full-scale assault on Ukraine almost four years ago, Russia has made a point of attacking the power sector as the need for heating grows. This autumn it has attacked gas facilities nine times in the space of two months, according to the state energy firm Naftogaz.
Moscow’s Defence Ministry said it had launched “a massive strike with high-precision long-range air, ground and sea-based weapons” on weapon production and energy facilities in response to Kyiv’s strikes on Russia.
Russia also said its forces continued to advance in grinding battles around the key towns of Pokrovsk and Kupiansk, and had captured a tiny village in eastern Ukraine.
Ukraine regularly sends its drones to strike oil facilities inside Russia.
As diplomatic efforts to stop the war have faltered, Kyiv is trying to reduce Moscow’s ability to finance its war.
The Ukrainian air force said 406 Russian drones and nine missiles had been shot down, and 26 Russian missiles and 52 drones had hit 25 sites.
Svyrydenko said the government and energy companies were working to restore damaged electricity, water and heating provision.
In the central Poltava region, two cities – Kremenchuk with a population of about 200,000 people and Horishni Plavni with some 50,000 residents – lost most of their electricity and were using generators to provide water, city officials said.
(Reporting by Olena Harmash; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
Ukrainian forces managed to rescue one of their own recently — a wounded soldier trapped for 33 days behind enemy lines — by sending a casket-shaped, off-road robot to navigate a perilous route dodging landmines and drone attacks to retrieve him.
After six failed rescue attempts, the 1st Medical Battalion of the Ukrainian Ground Forces managed to rescue the soldier from Russian-occupied territory in the east of the country.
The remotely operated robot, which looks like an armored casket mounted on an ATV frame and wheels, traveled a total of about 40 miles for the mission — almost 23 of them with a damaged wheel after it struck a landmine. The mission took just under six hours, according to the battalion, which shared a video of the operation on social media this week.
“We received a request from an adjacent unit to try to evacuate their soldier,” the medical battalion’s head of communications Volodymyr Koval told CBS News on Friday. “They had already made four attempts on their own, but they were unsuccessful. They turned to us because we had the appropriate capabilities.”
The MAUL ground drone, designed by the 1st Medical Battalion of the Ukrainian Ground Forces for troop extraction, is seen in a photo provided by the battalion.
Handout/Ukrainian Ground Forces
The most important of those capabilities was the robot, a MAUL ground drone originally developed by the medical battalion precisely for the purpose of extracting wounded or trapped soldiers.
“The soldier’s location was known, there was contact with him, food was being sent to him from the air — logistics were carried out by aerial drones. We began to develop a plan for his evacuation and study the route,” Koval told CBS News. “Two attempts were unsuccessful due to enemy mines and drones waiting on the ground in ambush on the roads. The seventh mission was successful, despite the fact that the drone hit an anti-personnel mine.”
The robot reached the soldier, who climbed into the personnel capsule, laid down and closed himself inside. But the rolling rescue unit then came under attack by a Russian drone on its way back toward the battle line. The soldier survived thanks to the armored capsule.
A view from a camera on board a MAUL ground drone shows an explosion in front of the vehicle during a mission to extract a wounded Ukrainian soldier from Russian-occupied territory, as shared by the Ukrainian Ground Forces 1st Medical Battalion.
Handout/Ukrainian Ground Forces 1st Medical Battalion
Military medics provided first aid and stabilized the soldier as soon as the robot reached Ukrainian-controlled territory.
“The wounded warrior is now undergoing treatment and rehabilitation. His life has been saved,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video statement Thursday evening. He lauded the troops of the 1st Medical Battalion for the operation, stressing the importance of such lifesaving missions and battlefield innovations.
“We will scale up exactly this kind of technological backbone for our army — more ground robotic systems operating at the front, more drones of all types, and increased deliveries of modern solutions that help achieve results in combat, in providing supplies for our combat units, and in evacuating our wounded warriors,” Zelenskyy said.
Koval told CBS News it was not the first and would likely not be the last ground-based drone evacuation carried out by the battalion.
“This is simply a special story of perseverance that carries an important message for the military and society. We are actively trying to implement unmanned evacuation from the battlefield, directly from the line of combat contact. This is the main task of our unit,” he said. “Evacuation is now very difficult due to the high density of fire, which is visible in the video. But every Ukrainian soldier must know that they will fight for him, that they will try to save him. This is what we wanted to show by telling this story.”
A wounded Ukrainian soldier is assisted by fellow troops after being extracted from Russian-occupied territory by the Ukrainian Ground Forces’ 1st Medical Battalion using a MAUL ground drone, in an image taken from video shared by the battalion on Nov. 4, 2025.
Handout/Ukrainian Ground Forces
The MAUL robot used in the operation was originally designed by the 1st Medical Battalion, but is now made and sold by Ukrainian defense company DevDroid, which bought the license to the design.
According to the battalion, the MAUL robot “is an evacuation platform powered by an internal combustion engine, which allows it to reach speeds of up to 70 kph (43 mph). It has a special armored capsule to protect the wounded and special metal wheels that do not contain air.”
The units are now sold by DevDroid for about $19,000 each.
Earlier this year, the Ukrainian National Guard’s 13th Khartia Brigade used a Zmiy-500 ground drone, a simpler robot that offers less protection to the person riding it, to evacuate a wounded soldier while simultaneously delivering supplies to the front line, according to a social media post by the brigade.
The drone covered more than 20 miles and completed the operation without incident, the brigade said.
(Reuters) -Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday appointed a new commander responsible for drone air defences, seen as a critical element in defending against the threat of Russian drones.
The president’s website said Yuri Cherevashenko had experience in helping create Ukraine’s first group of reaction forces of air defence mobile brigades.
He also played a role in developing interceptor drones, which Zelenskiy and other officials have portrayed as a key part in countering intensive Russian drone assaults in the more than 3-1/2-year war.
Zelenskiy said a meeting of Ukraine’s command set out several tasks for the new commander, including the development of interceptor drones and the introduction of new means to strengthen air defences.
Ukraine’s top commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said in September that Ukraine was looking to improve performance by interceptor drones to create a “layered system” of defence against Russian drones.
(Reporting by Ron Popeski and Oleksander KozhukharEditing by Rod Nickel)
If politics makes strange bedfellows, war sometimes makes strange career paths. In her 20s, Iryna Terekh was a “very artsy” architect who viewed the arms industry as “something destructive.” Now Ms. Terekh, 33, is chief technical officer and the public face of Fire Point, a Ukrainian defense company. She and her team developed the Flamingo, a long-range cruise missile that President Volodymyr Zelensky has called “our most successful missile.”
(Reuters) -The United States fully backs the European Union using frozen Russian assets as a tool to support Ukraine and end the war with Russia, a U.S. source familiar with the situation told Reuters on Friday.
As the West seeks to ramp up pressure on Moscow, the European Commission has proposed a plan allowing EU governments to use up to 185 billion euros ($217 billion) – most of the 210 billion euros worth of Russian sovereign assets currently frozen in Europe – without confiscating them.
Washington “absolutely supports (the EU) and the steps they’re taking right now to be in a position to make use of those assets as a tool,” the source said, requesting anonymity to discuss an ongoing issue.
After Russian President Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine in 2022, the United States and its allies prohibited transactions with Russia’s central bank and finance ministry, immobilizing around $300 billion of sovereign Russian assets.
The European proposal is being held up due to concerns from Belgium, where most of the assets are located.
Germany suggested on Friday that recent drone sightings over airports and military bases in Belgium were a message from Moscow not to touch the frozen assets. Moscow has denied any connection to the incidents and has promised a “painful response” if its assets are seized.
In a renewed attempt to end Russia’s war, U.S. President Donald Trump hit Rosneft and Lukoil, its two biggest oil companies, with sanctions late last month, adding to an unprecedented basket of economic sanctions that seek to pressure Moscow and those doing business with it.
The move underlined Washington’s intent to squeeze Russia’s finances and force the Kremlin towards a peace deal in its 3-1/2-year-old full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Washington is watching the fallout from the Rosneft and Lukoil move and “there are more things we could do to try to up the pressure,” the source said.
(Reporting by Jonathan Spicer; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
KYIV (Reuters) -More than 1,400 citizens from three dozen African countries are fighting alongside Russian forces in Ukraine, Kyiv’s foreign minister said on Friday.
Ukrainian officials say Russia has tried to bolster the force attacking its smaller neighbour by recruiting fighters from a variety of countries, sometimes through subterfuge.
Andriy Sybiha said Russia was enticing Africans to sign contracts that he described as “equivalent to … a death sentence”, and urged African governments to warn their citizens.
“Foreign citizens in the Russian army have a sad fate,” he wrote on X. “Most of them are immediately sent to the so-called ‘meat assaults’, where they are quickly killed.”
South Africa said on Thursday it would investigate how 17 of its citizens joined mercenary forces after the men sent distress calls for help to return home.
And Kenya said last month that some of its citizens had been detained in military camps across Russia after unknowingly getting caught up in the conflict.
Sybiha said the total number of African recruits could be higher than the 1,436 identified, originating from 36 countries, and that most foreign mercenaries in Ukrainian custody had been captured during their first combat mission.
He said Ukraine would provide more specific information about the countries and regions from which Russia has recruited troops.
(Reporting by Dan Peleschuk; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
BRUSSELS (Reuters) -The European Union has adopted stricter visa rules for Russian nationals in light of what it calls the “weaponisation of migration, acts of sabotage and potential misuse of visas”.
Russian nationals will no longer be eligible for multiple-entry visas and must apply for a new visa each time they travel to the EU, a statement from the European Commission read. It said the aim was to protect public policy and security.
There will be limited exceptions for dissidents, independent journalists and human rights defenders.
“Starting a war and expecting to move freely in Europe is hard to justify,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on X.
“The EU is tightening visa rules for Russian nationals amid continued drone disruptions and sabotage on European soil. Travelling to the EU is a privilege, not a given.”
(Reporting by Charlotte Van Campenhout; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
Gunvor pulled its offer to buy the international assets of sanctioned Russian oil producer Lukoil after the U.S. Treasury Department said it opposed the deal and called the Swiss commodities trader the “Kremlin’s puppet.”
The move signals the Trump administration is taking a hard-line approach in its recently launched effort to use economic pressure on Moscow to end the war in Ukraine.
