(Reuters) -President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday that a Ukrainian counteroffensive had made gains in both southern Zaporizhzhia region and in an area of Donetsk region, the focal point of the conflict, where Kyiv has reported successes.
Kyiv has said for several weeks that its forces have advanced around the town of Dobropillia — near the logistical hub of Pokrovsk, one of the key targets of Russian troops advancing slowly westward through Donetsk region.
In his nightly video address, Zelenskiy said Kyiv’s forces had made gains of more than 3 km (1.8 miles) further south in Zaporizhzhia region.
“At this time, Ukrainian units are continuing our counteroffensive actions near Dobropillia, but also in other sectors — particularly in Zaporizhzhia region near Orikhiv,” he said.
“There, our forces have advanced — today more than 3 km.”
The Ukrainian military’s 24th Separate Assault Battalion, posted on the Telegram messaging app, saying together with another unit, it had brought under control Mali Shcherbaky, a village between Orikhiv and the Dnipro River.
A Russian Defence Ministry report made no reference to Ukrainian advances or whether Mali Shcherbaky had changed hands. But it said Moscow’s troops had hit Ukrainian troops and equipment in Zaporizhzhia region, including in the village of Novoandriivka, near both Mali Shcherbaky and Orikhiv.
Reuters could not independently verify battlefield reports from either side.
Ukraine and Russia have in the past week issued conflicting accounts of the situation along the frontline in the more than 3-1/2-year-old war, estimated by Ukraine’s top commander to stretch along 1,250 km (775 miles).
Russian President Vladimir Putin told senior officers last week that Moscow’s forces had captured 5,000 sq. km of territory this year (1,930 sq. miles) and have held the strategic advantage through all sectors of the front line.
Zelenskiy, a day later, said Ukrainian forces were inflicting heavy losses on Russian troops near Dobropillia and were “defending ourselves along all other directions.”
(Reporting by Ron Popeski and Bogdan Kochubey; Editing by David Gregorio)
First lady Melania Trump said she has had an open channel of communication with Russia’s Vladimir Putin on the impact his war on Ukraine is having on children. The U.S. government has documented tens of thousands of Ukrainian children who have been kidnapped and taken to Russian territory. Margaret Brennan has been reporting on the “stolen children of Ukraine” and joins to discuss.
(Reuters) -Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday that Russia deliberately waited for bad weather before staging a vast attack on Ukraine’s energy system, adding the conditions reduced the efficiency of air defences by between 20% and 30%.
“The main assault was in four regions,” Zelenskiy told reporters in Kyiv. “I believe that the weather conditions affected our capability to repel by something like 20-30%.”
Russian drones and missiles struck Ukrainian energy facilities overnight, plunging parts of Kyiv into darkness, cutting power and water to homes and halting a metro link across the Dnipro river. Ukraine’s energy ministry said 380,000 customers were still disconnected on Friday afternoon.
“The blow is strong, but it is definitely not fatal,” he said about the strikes.
Zelenskiy said there were 203 energy facilities in the country which needed air defences to protect them from Russia.
He said Russian forces had attempted a new assault near the town of Dobropillia in eastern Donetsk region, where Kyiv has reported successes in recent weeks, but had been repelled.
“The Russians tried to stage some offensive actions,” he said. “They wanted to unblock their troops, but they suffered losses and retreated.”
Zelenskiy also said Ukraine was waiting for clarification of the status of 10 air defence systems promised by the U.S.
He said he hoped the “coalition of the willing”, a group of countries pledged to strengthen support for Ukraine, would hold a new meeting this month.
(Reporting by Yuliia Dysa, Editing by Sharon Singleton, Ron Popeski and David Gregorio)
MOSCOW (Reuters) -Two months after a smiling Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin shook hands at a military base in Alaska in what looked like the start of a U.S.-Russia rapprochement, a top Russian diplomat has raised doubts that the “spirit of Alaska” is still alive.
For Russia, the Anchorage summit on August 15 had two primary goals: to persuade President Trump to lean on Ukraine and Europe to agree to a peace settlement favourable to Moscow, and to encourage a rapprochement in U.S.-Russia ties.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said this week there had been scant progress on either front and “powerful momentum” had been lost. Moscow had signalled it was ready to rebuild ties but Washington had not reciprocated, he said.
“We have a certain edifice of relations that has cracked and is collapsing,” Ryabkov said. “Now the cracks have reached the foundation.”
PUTIN SAYS COMPLEX ISSUES REQUIRE MORE STUDY
After Ryabkov spoke, a Kremlin aide and Putin’s spokesman underlined that contacts with Washington continue, and the Russian leader sounded more optimistic than Ryabkov when asked about Ukraine and ties with the U.S. on Friday.
“These are complex issues that require further study. But we remain on the basis of the discussion that took place in Anchorage,” Putin told a press conference.
His aide later told the Kommersant newspaper that Russia had agreed to unspecified concessions or reciprocal steps at the Alaska summit it would be ready to make if Trump got certain things from Ukraine and the Europeans.
Such a contrast in tone among senior officials is rare in Moscow and highlights the delicacy and sensitivity of the twin-track approach Russia is taking – combining flattery and warnings to adapt to diplomatic reversals since the summit.
While a Trump initiative has raised hopes of peace in Gaza, he is frustrated by his failure to broker an end to fighting in Ukraine and has soured, at least publicly, on Russia.
There is no new Trump-Putin meeting on the agenda, no date has been set for the next talks on improving ties, and Washington, without an ambassador in Moscow since June, has not sought Russia’s approval to send a successor.
Trump has spoken of possibly supplying Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine, hitting a nerve with Putin, who said it would destroy what is left of U.S.-Russia ties.
Trump has also said he wants Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to hold direct talks, but there appears no near-term prospect of that happening as the tempo of the war increases.
In a rhetorical U-turn, Trump has suggested Ukraine could win back all its lost territory, while dismissing Russia as “a paper tiger,” a snipe shrugged off by Moscow.
In response, Russia has tried playing good cop, bad cop – with officials at times appearing to threaten tough responses to U.S. action and at others underlining shared values.
Putin offered to voluntarily maintain limits on deployed strategic nuclear weapons set out in the last arms control treaty with the U.S. once it expires next year if Washington does the same.
Trump said “it sounds like a good idea,” but there has been no formal U.S. response.
At a foreign policy conference this month, Putin praised Trump’s efforts to broker peace in Ukraine and made a series of U.S.-focused statements likely to appeal to him.
Putin praised Michael Gloss, the son of a CIA official killed in Ukraine fighting on Russia’s side, saying he represented “the core of the MAGA movement, which supports President Trump.”
He also condemned the murder of Trump ally Charlie Kirk , saying Kirk had defended the “traditional values” which he said Gloss and Russian soldiers in Ukraine were giving their lives to defend.
Kirill Dmitriev, head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund and Putin’s special envoy, often underlines shared views and values with Trump to try to warm up ties – at times denigrating Trump’s opponents and praising his special envoy, Steve Witkoff.
Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov went so far as to say Russia would back Trump’s candidacy for the Nobel Peace Prize.
PUSHBACK, WARNINGS AND DISAPPOINTMENT
But warnings have continued, and pushback against Trump’s talk of supplying Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine was immediate.
Putin said such a step would require the direct involvement of U.S. military personnel, destroy bilateral relations and usher in a new stage of escalation.
Andrei Kartapolov, who heads Russian parliament’s defence committee, said Moscow would shoot down Tomahawk missiles and bomb their launch sites if the U.S. supplied them, and find a way to retaliate against Washington that hurts.
In other terse comments, Ryabkov said Russia would quickly carry out a nuclear test if the U.S. did the same, and that Moscow would “get by” if Washington did not take up Putin’s nuclear arms control offer.
Ryabkov also backed off a Russian offer to discuss the fate of U.S. nuclear fuel at a nuclear plant Moscow controls in southern Ukraine, and spoke of how Russia was withdrawing from an agreement with the U.S. to destroy weapons-grade plutonium.
“After the summit in Alaska, there was hope that Trump was ready to continue dialogue with Russia and take our interests into account,” wrote Andrei Baranov, a commentator for pro-Kremlin newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda.
“Donald has now thoroughly disappointed us with his trademark inconsistency.”
Kyiv, Ukraine — Russian drone and missile strikes overnight Friday caused blackouts across large swaths of Ukraine, damaged residential buildings and injured at least 20 people in Kyiv, authorities said. A child was killed in attacks in the southeast of the country.
In the heart of the Ukrainian capital, rescue crews pulled more than 20 people out of a 17-story apartment building as flames engulfed the sixth and seventh floors. Five people were hospitalized, while others received first aid at the scene, authorities said.
The Russian “cynical and calculated” strikes targeted civilian and energy infrastructure as Ukraine prepared for falling winter temperatures, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on social media.
Residential districts on Kyiv’s left bank remain without electricity due to Russian strikes on Oct. 10, 2025.
Andriy Zhyhaylo/Oboz.ua / Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images
Ukraine’s air force said Friday that the latest Russian barrage included 465 strike and decoy drones, as well as 32 missiles of various types. Air defenses intercepted or jammed 405 drones and 15 missiles, it said.
Zelenskyy wrote that parts of nine regions of the country were hit with blackouts.
“It is precisely the civilian and energy infrastructure that is the main target of Russia’s strikes ahead of the heating season,” he said.
“Together, we can protect people from this terror. What’s needed is not window dressing but decisive action – from the United States, Europe, and the G7 – in delivering air defense systems and enforcing sanctions. We count on a response to this brutality from the G20 and from all those who speak of peace in their statements yet refrain from taking real steps.
“The world can defend itself against these crimes – and doing so will undoubtedly strengthen global security.”
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said Friday’s attack knocked out power on both sides of the city, divided by the Dnipro River, while Ukraine’s biggest electricity operator, DTEK, said repair work was already underway on multiple damaged thermal plants.
The energy sector has been a key battleground since the war started.
Each year, Russia has tried to cripple the Ukrainian power grid before the bitter winter season, hoping to erode public morale. Ukraine’s winter runs from late October through March, with January and February the coldest months.
In the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, residential areas and energy sites were pounded with attack drones, missiles and guided bombs, killing a 7-year-old boy and wounding his parents and others, military administration officials said. A hydroelectric plant in the area was taken offline as a precaution, they said.
Separately, the Reuters news service notes, Ukraine’s top general said Ukraine struck Russian territory 70 times last month.
“We are destroying the production of fuels and lubricants, explosives, and other components of the Russian military-industrial complex in the aggressor country,” Oleksandr Syrskyi wrote on Facebook.
By Marwa Rashad, Kate Abnett and Nerijus Adomaitis
(Reuters) -European nations, including France, are among the staunchest supporters of Ukraine in its fight against Russia. Several have also stepped up their imports of Russian energy which pump billions of euros into Moscow’s wartime economy.
Well into the fourth year of Russia’s war against Ukraine, the European Union remains in the precarious position of financing both sides in the conflict. Its large deliveries of military and humanitarian aid to Kyiv are countered by commercial payments to Moscow for oil and gas.
The bloc has reduced its reliance on once-dominant supplier Russia by roughly 90% since 2022. It nonetheless imported more than 11 billion euros of Russian energy in the first eight months of this year, according to a Reuters analysis of data from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), an independent research organization based in Helsinki.
Seven of the EU’s 27 member countries increased the value of their imports versus a year earlier, including five countries that support Ukraine in the war. France, for example, saw purchases of Russian energy rise 40% to 2.2 billion euros while the Netherlands jumped 72% to 498 million euros, the analysis shows.
While LNG ports in countries like France and Spain serve as entry points for Russian supplies into Europe, the gas is often not consumed in those countries but instead sent onwards to buyers across the bloc.
Vaibhav Raghunandan, EU-Russia specialist at CREA, described increased flows as “a form of self-sabotage” by some countries, given energy sales are the biggest source of revenue for Russia as it wages war against an European-backed Ukraine.
“The Kremlin is quite literally getting funding to continue to deploy their armed forces in Ukraine,” he said.
TRUMP SLAMMED EUROPE’S LEADERS
EU energy payments to Moscow have come under renewed scrutiny after U.S. President Donald Trump dressed down European leaders in his speech to the U.N General Assembly last month, demanding they cease all such purchases immediately.
“Europe has to step it up,” Trump said. “They can’t be doing what they’re doing. They’re buying oil and gas from Russia while they’re fighting Russia. It’s embarrassing to them, and it was very embarrassing to them when I found out about it.”
The French energy ministry told Reuters that France’s value of Russian energy imports rose this year as it served customers in other countries, without naming countries or companies. Gas market data suggest part of France’s Russian imports are sent onwards to Germany, according to Kpler analysts.
The Dutch government said while it supported EU plans to phase out Russian energy, until these proposals are fixed into EU law, it was powerless to block existing contracts between European energy companies and Russian suppliers.
The EU, which has already barred most purchases of Russian crude oil and fuel, has announced plans to speed up a ban on Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) to 2027, from 2028. LNG now represents the biggest EU import of Russian energy, accounting for almost half the value of total purchases, the data shows.
The European Commission declined to comment on the 2025 imports data. The bloc’s energy chief said last month the phased retreat from Russian fossil fuels was designed to ensure member countries don’t face energy price spikes or supply shortages.
The proposals, which envisage a total ban on all Russian oil and gas from 2028, mean European cash could be supporting the Kremlin’s war effort for a year or more to come.
Trump says U.S. oil and gas could replace lost Russian supplies, and many analysts say such a switch is possible, though it would boost Europe’s dependency on U.S. energy in an era when Washington is using tariffs as a policy tool.
“The EU has agreed to buy more energy from the U.S to accommodate the very strong U.S. demands to stop Russian imports,” said Anne-Sophie Corbeau, a research scholar at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy. “However, it is an illusion to think that U.S. LNG would replace Russian LNG on a one-to-one basis. U.S. LNG is in the hands of private companies, which do not obey orders from the White House and the European Commission, they optimize their portfolios.”
HUNGARY, BELGIUM AND OTHERS SEE BILLS RISE
The EU has come a long way since 2021.
In that year, before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the bloc imported more than 133 billion euros of Russian energy, according to CREA data.
In January-August this year, the EU’s bill amounted to 11.4 billion euros – a fraction of per-war levels and a decline of 21% from the same period of 2024, the figures show.
Hungary and Slovakia – which maintain close ties with the Kremlin and reject any notion of renouncing Russian gas – remain major importers, together accounting for 5 billion euros of that total. They wouldn’t be affected by the planned EU sanctions on LNG, which requires the unanimous backing of member states, as they could still receive Russian pipeline gas until 2028.
Hungary was among the seven countries to see the value of Russian energy imports rise this year, by 11%, according to the data. France and the Netherlands are joined by four other countries whose governments support Ukraine in the war: Belgium, which saw a 3% increase, Croatia (55%), Romania (57%) and Portugal (167%).
Belgium’s energy ministry said the country’s increase was down to separate EU sanctions that took effect in March and banned “transshipments”, or re-exporting, of Russian LNG to outside the bloc, meaning arriving LNG had to be unloaded in Belgium – a global hub – rather than being transferred from ship to ship to be transported onwards to a final destination.
Portugal’s energy ministry said the country only imported modest amounts of Russian gas and that flows over the course of the year would be lower than 2024. The Croatian and Romanian governments didn’t respond to requests for comment on the data.
The European Union’s total imports of Russian energy since 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine, have amounted to more than 213 billion euros, the CREA data shows.
That dwarfs the amount the EU has spent on aid to Ukraine in the same period, even though it has been the country’s biggest benefactor: the bloc has allocated 167 billion euros of financial, military and humanitarian assistance to Kyiv, according to the Kiel Institute, a German economic think-tank.
ENERGY FIRMS STICK TO LONG-TERM CONTRACTS
France’s TotalEnergies is among the biggest importers of Russian LNG into Europe, with other major players including Shell, Spain’s Naturgy, Germany’s SEFE, and trading house Gunvor. They all operate long-term contracts that last into the 2030s or 2040s.
TotalEnergies told Reuters it was continuing deliveries from Russia’s Yamal plant under contracts that could not be suspended without official EU sanctions in place. The company will maintain supplies as long as European governments deem Russian gas necessary for energy security, it added.
Shell, Naturgy and Gunvor declined to comment on Russian imports.
Ronald Pinto, gas research principal analyst at Kpler said companies were reluctant to risk incurring fines from breaching contractual commitments without the solid legal cover of an EU ban on Russian LNG.
“In the end, market players are buying this LNG, not countries, and for the most part, they are sticking to their long-term contracts,” he added.
Pinto said flow dynamics studies suggested French imports of Russian LNG often flowed via pipeline to Belgium to then reach Germany, where there’s strong demand from industrial users. He cautioned it was “impossible to track exactly the movement of gas molecules within the European gas grid”.
A spokesperson for SEFE, which operates 10% of Germany’s gas transmission network, confirmed that the company imports Russian gas via France and Belgium.
The German economy ministry told Reuters that it welcomed EU efforts to phase out imports of Russian fossil fuels, but that SEFE was bound by a long-standing contract to buy LNG from Russia’s Yamal plant with no option to terminate the agreement.
“Under the contract’s take-or-pay terms, SEFE would have to pay for the agreed quantities, even if no delivery was taken,” a ministry spokesperson said. “Non-acceptance would enable Yamal to resell these quantities, which would then provide double support to the Russian economy.”
(Reporting by Marwa Rashad in London, Kate Abnett in Brussels and Nerijus Adomaitis in Oslo; Additional reporting by America Hernandez in Paris, Francesca Landini in Milan, Christoph Steitz and Vera Eckert in Frankfurt, Shadia Nasralla in London, Pietro Lombardi in Madrid and Andrey Khalip in Lisbon; Editing by Dmitry Zhdannikov and Pravin Char)
(Reuters) -A mass Russian attack triggered a fire in a high-rise apartment building in central Kyiv and targeted energy sites early on Friday, officials said.
Energy Minister Svitlana Grynchuk said Russian forces were striking energy sites in the country and crews would be attempting to minimise the effects of the assault.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko eight people had been injured, with five of them in hospital. He said power cuts had hit the city.
Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv’s military administration, said both drones and missiles had been deployed in the post-midnight assault on the capital.
Tkachenko said a drone set apartments on fire on the 6th and 7th floors of a high-rise block in the central Pecherskyi district.
Pictures posted online showed apartments ablaze as firefighters moved into position.
Grynchuk, writing on Facebook, said: “Energy experts are taking all necessary measures to minimise negative consequences.”
“As soon as safety conditions allow, energy experts will begin clarifying the consequences of the attack and conducting restoration work.”
In the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, drones had struck several targets, injuring three people and triggering at least one fire in a dwelling, the regional governor said.
(Reporting by Gleb Garanich and Ron Popeski; Editing by Kim Coghill)
Russian AI drones such as this present a new challenge to Ukraine, says Serhiy Beskrestnov [Serhiy Beskrestnov]
“This technology is our future threat,” warns Serhiy Beskrestnov, who has just got his hands on a newly intercepted Russian drone.
It was no ordinary drone either, he discovered. Assisted by artificial intelligence, this unmanned aerial vehicle can find and attack targets on its own.
Beskrestnov has examined numerous drones in his role as Ukrainian defence forces consultant.
Unlike other models, it didn’t send or receive any signals, so could not be jammed.
Russian and Ukrainian forces have both been testing AI in this war, and in some areas they are already using it, for finding targets, gathering intelligence and de-mining.
And for the Ukrainian army, AI has become indispensable.
“Our military gets more than 50,000 video streams [from the front line] every month which are analysed by artificial intelligence,” says Ukraine’s deputy defence minister, Yuriy Myronenko.
“This helps us quickly process this massive data, identify targets and place them on a map.”
AI processes the feeds from Ukraine’s front line, shown here behind Ukraine’s deputy defence minister Yuriy Myronenko [BBC/Matthew Goddard]
AI-empowered tech is seen as a tool that can enhance strategic planning, make the most of resources and ultimately save lives.
But when it comes to unmanned weapons systems, it is also transforming the battlefield.
Ukrainian troops already use AI-based software so that drones lock on a target and then fly autonomously for the last few hundred metres until the mission is over.
Jamming is impossible and shooting down such a small flying object is not easy.
Ultimately these systems are expected to evolve into fully autonomous weapons that can find and destroy targets on their own.
All a soldier will need to do is press a button on a smartphone app, explains Yaroslav Azhnyuk, chief executive of Ukrainian developer The Fourth Law.
The drone will do the rest, he says, finding the target, dropping explosives, assessing the damage and then returning to base.
“And it would not even require piloting skills from the soldier,” he adds.
Vadym’s company DevDroid produces remotely controlled machine guns that can track targets with the help of AI [BBC]
Interceptor drones with that kind of automation could significantly strengthen air defences against Russian long-range attack drones, such as the notorious Shaheds.
“A computer-guided autonomous system can be better than a human in so many ways,” says Azhnyuk. “It can be more perceptive. It can see the target sooner than a human can. It can be more agile.”
Yuriy Myronenko says that kind of system does not exist yet, but he suggests Ukraine is close to finishing its development. “We have partly implemented it in some devices,” says the deputy defence minister.
There could even be thousands of such systems in place by the end of 2026, claims Azhnyuk.
But Ukrainian developers are cautious about fully making use of defence systems that rely entirely on AI, with no human involvement. The risk is that AI may fail to distinguish a Ukrainian soldier from a Russian, as they may be wearing the same uniform, says Vadym, who declined to give his surname.
His company DevDroid makes remotely controlled machine guns, that use AI to automatically detect people and track them. Because of concerns over friendly fire, he says they don’t have an automatic shooting option.
“We can enable it, but we need to get more experience and more feedback from the ground forces in order to understand when it is safe to use this feature.”
AI interceptor drones could defend Ukraine against Shaheds, Iranian-made drones used by Russia [Reuters]
There are also fears that automated systems will violate the rules of war. How will they avoid harming civilians, or distinguish soldiers who want to surrender?
For the deputy defence minister, the final decision in such circumstances should rest with a human, although AI would make it “easier to decide”. But there are no guarantees that states or armed groups will adhere to international humanitarian norms.
So counteracting these systems becomes even more critical.
How do you stop a “swarm of drones” when jamming or using jets, tanks or missiles is rendered ineffective?
OSLO (Reuters) -The winner of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize will be announced on Friday, in a year overshadowed by a months-long campaign by U.S. President Donald Trump to win what is arguably the world’s most prestigious award.
Trump has been outspoken about his desire for a prize won by four of his predecessors – Barack Obama in 2009, Jimmy Carter in 2002, Woodrow Wilson in 1919 and Theodore Roosevelt in 1906. All but Carter won the award while in office, with Obama named laureate less than eight months after taking office – the same position Trump is in now.
But when Joergen Watne Frydnes, the leader of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, steps to the microphone at the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo at 11 a.m. (0900 GMT), experts on the award believe it is extremely unlikely Trump’s name will be read out.
GAZA DEAL LIKELY TOO LATE FOR THIS YEAR
To be sure, Trump announced the conclusion of a ceasefire and hostage deal on Wednesday, under the first phase of his initiative to end the war in Gaza.
But according to Norwegian daily VG the committee took its decision on Monday – before the announcement of the deal – and even if its five members had known about it before making their choice for this year’s award, it is unlikely they would have rushed into a decision they usually spend months debating.
Experienced Nobel-watchers have argued that a Trump win was extremely unlikely, citing what they see as his efforts to dismantle the post-World War Two international world order the Nobel committee cherishes.
Instead, they say the committee may wish to highlight Sudanese volunteer network the Emergency Response Rooms, a U.N. body such as the UNHCR, UNICEF or the ICJ, or an aid organisation like the Red Cross or Doctors Without Borders.
It could also put the spotlight on journalists, following a year when more media workers than ever before were killed reporting the news, most of them in Gaza. If so, the committee could reward the Committee to Protect Journalists or Reporters Without Borders. And surprises are not unknown.
SPIRIT OF ALFRED NOBEL’S WILL
The foundation the five-strong Norwegian Nobel Committee follows as its basis for decisions is the 1895 will of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, which established the peace prize alongside those for literature, chemistry, physics and medicine.
Nina Graeger, head of the Peace Research Institute Oslo, said Trump withdrawing the U.S. from the World Health Organization and the 2015 Paris climate accords, and his trade war with allies, went against the spirit of Nobel’s will.
“If you look at Alfred Nobel’s will, it emphasizes three areas: one is the achievements regarding peace: brokering a peace deal,” she said. “The other is to work and promote disarmament and the third is to promote international cooperation.”
Asle Sveen, a historian of the award, cited Trump’s attempted rapprochement with Russian President Vladimir Putin, among other reasons.
“His admiration of dictators counts also against him,” Sveen said. “This goes against Alfred Nobel’s will.”
HOW THE NOBEL COMMITTEE DECIDES
Insiders say the award follows a year-long, deliberative process, during which candidates’ strengths and weaknesses are debated by the five-strong committee.
Nominations for the prize must reach the committee by January 31. Committee members can also make nominations but they have to be made by the committee’s first meeting in February.
After that, the committee meets roughly once a month. The decision tends to be taken in August or in September, but it can also be later, as was the case this year.
The Nobel committee says it is used to working under pressure from people, or their supporters, who say they deserve the prize.
“All politicians want to win the Nobel Peace Prize,” Frydnes, the Nobel committee leader, told Reuters.
“We hope the ideals underpinned by the Nobel Peace Prize are something that all political leaders should strive for … We notice the attention, both in the United States and around the world, but outside from that, we work just the same way as we always do.”
(Reporting by Gwladys Fouche in Oslo; Editing by Alex Richardson)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has labeled his military’s strikes on Russia’s oil infrastructure “the most effective sanctions.” Meanwhile, reports indicate that alongside urging Europe and India to halt purchases of Russian oil, Washington plans to share additional intelligence with Ukraine on Russian refineries, pipelines and other energy infrastructure.
Most discussions about these “sanctions” have focused on their financial implications for Russia. Vladimir Putin relies heavily on corruption and patronage, with oil and gas serving as key revenue streams. Disrupting the flow could force Mr. Putin to choose between sustaining the war and maintaining the payouts to oligarchs and citizens that secure his political backing—though such an economic squeeze would take some time.
MYKOLAIV, Ukraine—Yaroslav Pavlivskiy waved his hands as he sprang from his car, pleading for mercy with the operator of a Russian drone circling overhead as he drove home from a market in the southern city of Kherson.
The operator flicked a switch to release a grenade, which exploded and tore into the legs of the 69-year-old pensioner. A passerby used a belt as a tourniquet to stop him from losing too much blood, saving his life.
The likely future prime minister of the Czech Republic, Andrej Babiš, has reaffirmed his stance on not sending arms money to Ukraine as it fights off Russia’s invasion.
“We will not give Ukraine a single crown from our budget for weapons,” the right-wing populist and billionaire announced in Prague on Wednesday. “We have no money for the Czech Republic.”
The EU and NATO member state continues to use its own currency the crown.
Babiš, previously prime minister 2017-2021, pointed out that Kiev already receives billions in financial aid through the EU. He clarified that Czech arms companies could continue exporting to Ukraine.
“We have no problem with that,” the 71-year-old said.
At the same time, he called on NATO to adopt a Czech ammunitions initiative.
Approximately 3.5 million rounds of large-calibre ammunition have been provided to Ukraine as part of the project, which was a flagship idea of the centre-right coalition led by outgoing Prime Minister Petr Fiala, which lost the recent election.
The ammunition comes from unnamed third countries, with Germany among the financial contributors.
Babiš is holding initial talks with two far-right parties, Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) and the Motorists’ Party, about forming a future government.
SPD leader Tomio Okamura has already caused outrage by demanding the replacement of the country’s police chief.
This comes after law enforcement authorities requested the lifting of Okamura’s parliamentary immunity over allegations of incitement to hatred in connection with an anti-EU migration poster campaign.
President Petr Pavel has announced that the newly elected lower house of parliament will convene for its first session on November 3.
Babiš’s ANO movement will hold 80 of the 200 seats and, with the support of SPD and the Motorists’ Party, would secure a majority of 108.
MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Russian forces captured almost 5,000 square kilometers (1930 square miles) in Ukraine in 2025 and that Moscow retained complete strategic initiative on the battlefield.
Kyiv was trying to strike deep into Russian territory, but it would not help it to change the situation, Putin said at a meeting with Russian top military commanders.
KYIV (Reuters) -Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy accused Russia on Tuesday of using oil tankers for intelligence gathering and sabotage operations.
Zelenskiy, writing in a post on Telegram after receiving a briefing from Ukraine’s foreign intelligence chief, said his country was cooperating with allies on the matter.
“Currently, Russians are using tankers not only to earn money for the war, but also for reconnaissance and even sabotage activities. It is entirely possible to stop this,” he said.
Speaking later in his nightly video address, Zelenskiy said foreign intelligence chief Oleh Ivashchenko described in his report how Russia was using tankers from its “shadow fleet” to “conduct sabotage and destabilising operations in Europe.”
“Recent cases of drones being launched from tankers are one such example,” he said. “We are sharing this information with partners and it is important that their response to Russia be real.”
(Reporting by Yuliia Dysa. Writing by Max Hunder. Editing by Mark Potter, Ron Popeski and Mark Porter)
MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russia said on Tuesday it was waiting for clarity from the United States about the possible supply of Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine, saying such weapons could theoretically carry nuclear warheads.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday he would want to know what Ukraine planned to do with Tomahawks before agreeing to provide them because he did not want to escalate the war between Russia and Ukraine. He said, however, that he had “sort of made a decision” on the matter.
Asked about the comments, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “We understand that we need to wait, probably, for clearer statements, if any come.”
Peskov said that under Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden, U.S. practice had been to announce supplies of new weapons only once they had been delivered to Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in comments published on Sunday that if Washington supplied Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine for long-range strikes deep into Russia, it would lead to the destruction of Moscow’s relationship with the U.S.
Peskov said it was important to realise that “if we abstract from various nuances, we’re talking about missiles that could also be nuclear-capable. Therefore, this is truly a serious round of escalation.”
Tomahawk missiles have a range of 2,500 km (1,550 miles), so Ukraine would be able to use them to strike targets anywhere in European Russia, including Moscow, if Trump gave the go-ahead to supply them.
(Reporting by Reuters, Writing by Felix Light and Mark Trevelyan; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)
DOBROPILLYA, Ukraine (Reuters) -Russian sabotage groups are operating inside the embattled eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, where forces from both sides have clashed, said the commander of a Ukrainian drone unit.
Dmytro Lavro, a deputy commander in Ukraine’s 25th Airborne Brigade, said fighting rages “on the ground and in the sky” for the city, a strategic hub for Kyiv’s forces on the eastern front.
“The enemy is putting pressure on us (and) we are doing our best to repel them,” he said. “At the moment, we are evenly matched.”
Russia has been attacking Pokrovsk for many months as it grinds out incremental gains in the east and south of Ukraine. Open source maps showing Russian military positions indicate the city is being gradually surrounded in a pincer movement.
Lavro added that the proportion of Ukrainian-made drones and ammunition had increased since 2023, the result of Kyiv’s efforts to scale up its burgeoning domestic defence industry.
(Reuters) -Russia said on Monday its air defence units destroyed 251 Ukrainian drones overnight, most of them over the southwest, with 61 over the waters of the Black Sea and one heading towards Moscow.
The Russian defence ministry posted the figures on the Telegram messaging app, but there was no official information on possible damage. The ministry reports only the number of drones destroyed, not how many Ukraine launches.
Ukrainian news channels on Telegram said a large fire was sparked by a hit on an oil depot in Feodosia on the Crimean coast of the Black Sea. A fuel tank at the depot exploded as a result of the attack, the RBK-Ukraine media outlet said.
Reuters could not independently verify the reports on Feodosia.
(Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Clarence Fernandez)
BERLIN (Reuters) -Germany must improve its anti-drone defences, its defence minister said, but warned against a hasty response to airspace incursions by Russia which would risk falling into “Putin’s escalation trap”.
Boris Pistorius’ remarks in an interview with Handelsblatt newspaper followed drone sightings at Munich Airport that cancelled dozens of flights and stranded over 10,000 passengers this weekend.
Authorities have yet to attribute blame, but officials have said Russia was responsible for dozens of recent aircraft incursions and sightings in the airspace of Ukraine’s European allies.
“Putin knows Germany very, very well,” Pistorius said of the Russian President, who was a KGB agent in East Germany in the 1980s.
“We mustn’t fall into Putin’s escalation trap,” he added. “If we shot an aeroplane down, he would claim the airspace violation was just pilot error and we had shot down an innocent young man,” he told Handelsblatt.
STATE ROLE IN DEFENCE COMPANIES
Germany needed to take an overview of all relevant threats, not just drone incursions, in order to draw links between seemingly unrelated events, he said.
“Say there are lots of forest fires or power cuts in several regions at the same time,” he said. “All relevant data for assessing Germany’s security situation must flow to a single point.”
Germany should follow France in taking active state stewardship of important defence companies.
“Firms with key technologies need to be preserved,” he said. “We need the state shares, I’m convinced of it: also to ensure that know-how and jobs are kept in Germany.”
DECISION ON FCAS NEEDS TO COME SOON
Pistorius also warned that without a clear commitment by all three governments to the joint Franco-German-Spanish warplane project FCAS, Germany would withdraw.
“I’ll talk with my counterparts as soon as there is a French government,” he said. “The Chancellor and I are in full agreement that there needs to be a decision by the end of the year… Otherwise we will pull the plug.”
He issued a pointed warning to Washington with respect to rumours of a “kill switch” in its F-35 warplane that would control how customers used it.
“If there were such limitations – of which there is no sign – U.S. industry would immediately look unreliable, and nobody would buy from them,” he said.
(Reporting by Thomas EscrittEditing by Ros Russell)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Donald Trump’s administration is mobilizing U.S. diplomats to lobby against a U.N. resolution calling on Washington to lift its decades-long embargo on Cuba, in part by sharing details of Cuba’s support for Russia’s war in Ukraine, according to an internal State Department cable seen by Reuters.
As part of the administration’s campaign, U.S. diplomats will tell countries that the Cuban government is actively supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with up to 5,000 Cubans fighting alongside Moscow’s forces.
The October 2-dated unclassified cable sent to dozens of U.S. missions directed American diplomats to urge the governments to oppose the non-binding resolution, which has passed in the U.N. General Assembly by wide margins year after year since 1992.
Officials at the Permanent Mission of Cuba to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story.
Last year, the General Assembly adopted the resolution with 187 countries voting in favor. The United States and Israel were the only countries that voted against it, while Moldova abstained.
Since returning to office in January, Trump has doubled down on sanctions, returning Cuba to a U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism, tightening financial and travel restrictions and sanctioning third-country nationals who host Cuban doctors.
Trump has also recently toughened his stance towards Moscow, threatening financial penalties against buyers of Russian oil and allowing U.S. intelligence agencies to share information with Ukraine to help its attacks on energy assets inside Russia.
The cable said that the U.N. resolution was “incorrectly” blaming the United States for Cuba’s problems which it said were caused by Cuba’s “own corruption and incompetence.” It added that the objective of this push was to demonstrate the administration’s opposition, significantly reducing the number of “yes” votes.
“”No” votes are preferred but abstentions or absent/not voting are also useful,” the cable said, adding that Washington needed “allies and like-minded partners” in this push.
The United States has piled dozens of new sanctions on the Communist-run Caribbean island since a trade embargo was put in place following Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution.
The U.N. vote can carry political weight, but only the U.S. Congress can lift the Cold War-era embargo.
The Cuban government blames U.S. sanctions for the grueling crisis the country is mired in, the worst economic downturn in decades characterized by shortages of basic goods, collapsing infrastructure and runaway inflation.
The State Department said Cuba was using the annual U.N. resolution as a mechanism to victimize itself and that it did not deserve the support from America’s democratic allies.
“The Trump Administration will not remain on the sidelines or support an illegitimate regime that undermines our national security interests in our region,” a State Department spokesperson said in emailed comments on Saturday.
CUBAN MERCENARIES IN UKRAINE
For years, U.S. tactics to weaken support for the non-binding U.N. resolution have focused on the legality of the embargo, how the U.S. provided exceptions for food and medicine and highlighted Cuba’s human rights, the cable said.
All of these approaches have failed to influence the vote, it added. The cable provided nearly two dozen talking points, many of which accused Cuba of squandering its limited resources, denying its people basic human rights and being a threat to international peace.
Cuba and its President Miguel Diaz-Canel were actively supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine, one of the talking points said.
“After North Korea, Cuba is the largest contributor of foreign troops to Russia’s aggression, with an estimated 1000-5000 Cubans fighting in Ukraine,” the cable said.
The State Department spokesperson declined to provide further details on the Cuban fighters but said Washington was aware of the reports that they were fighting alongside Russian troops in Ukraine.
“The Cuban regime has failed to protect its citizens from being used as pawns in the Russia-Ukraine war,” the spokesperson said.
In recent weeks, Ukrainian officials warned U.S. lawmakers about the growing scale of recruitment of Cuban mercenaries by Russia to fight in Ukraine.
The cable also accused the Cuban government of undermining democracies in the Western Hemisphere, as tensions have been mounting between Washington and Venezuela, Cuba’s most important political and economic ally. The U.S. military has carried out strikes in the Caribbean on boats out of Venezuela that it claimed were carrying drugs. The latest U.S. attack took place on Friday.
On Wednesday, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez called for the United Nations to stop the United States from starting a war in the region. He said fighting drug trafficking in the name of U.S. national security was a “crude and ridiculous pretext” for aggression.
(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk Editing by Don Durfee and Diane Craft)
BEIRUT — The ad was straightforward: Sign up for one year to fight on Russia’s side in “the special military operation zone” — i.e. the war in Ukraine — and get citizenship, free healthcare, money and land.
It was one of many promotions cropping up on the messaging platform Telegram beginning in 2024, shortly after Russian President Vladimir Putin decreed foreign nationals fighting in the army’s ranks would receive passports for themselves and their families. Since then, travel agencies and brokers have drawn people from all over the world to join what they call Russia’s “elite international battalion,” dangling a raft of benefits to attract would-be recruits.
For Raed Hammad, a 54-year-old Jordanian man who worked as a cab driver until a herniated disk made sitting in a car seat all day untenable, it seemed like the opportunity he never found in his home country. He contacted a Russian businesswoman, Polina Alexandrovna, whose number was on the Telegram ad, and sent his passport information. In August, he received a visa and flight ticket and flew to Moscow.
(Other media reports put Alexandrovna’s last name as Azarnykh. It’s unclear if her name is a pseudonym.)
“As a 54-year-old who was sick, he had a hard time finding employment here in Jordan. When he found this job, and they accepted him with a very attractive salary and benefits, he didn’t think twice,” said Lamees Hammad, his wife, in a tearful video address she posted on social media in September. Because of his age, Lamees Hammad added, her husband assumed he would work as a driver or a cook; she insisted he repeatedly confirmed with Alexandrovna that he wouldn’t serve on the front line.
“He wanted to provide for our kids, to give them what he couldn’t give them in the past,” Lamees Hammad said. Hammad is a father of four sons, the youngest of whom is 13.
But days after signing a 17-page army contract that Hammad couldn’t read — he was denied a Russian translator and wasn’t given access to WiFi to translate using his phone, according to his wife — he found himself bunkered in a drone-stalked forward position somewhere in Russian-occupied southeastern Ukraine.
“He’s facing all kinds of danger … If a rifle is raised in his face, he can’t even run. They’re being treated like livestock over there,” Lamees Hammad said in a recent interview with a Jordanian TV channel, adding that Hammad contacted Alexandrovna and begged to break his contract but was told he would have to pay 500,000 rubles — almost $6,000 — to do so.
Russian military personnel, draped in Russian flags, appear after a prisoner swap with Ukraine on June 24.
(Russian Defense Ministry/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Accurate figures are hard to come by, but it’s clear that Hammad isn’t alone in fighting under Russia’s banner for benefits, with estimates putting the number of foreign fighters in Russian army ranks in the tens of thousands. Many come from disadvantaged countries in the Middle East, Africa and South and East Asia.
Some 2,000 Iraqis are thought to have enlisted, but press reports indicate thousands joining from Egypt, Algeria, Yemen and Jordan. Fighters from Nepal, Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Cuba and Syria, who in the past came in significant numbers, are no longer allowed to join, according to the Russian defense ministry.
Foreigners have also served on the opposing side, with Ukrainian officials stating in the past that roughly 20,000 fighters from 50 countries joined Ukraine’s International Legion, including around 3,000 Iraqis.
In the Russian military, many of the enlisted foreigners came to Russia first as students, but their visas lapsed and they do not want to return home. A significant number also travel to Moscow on tourist visas after they are approved by the military. Once in Russia, they visit offices of companies like Alexandrovna’s and sign a contract with the Russian ministry of defense; others are met by a broker and a Russian officer at the airport.
Offers vary, but recruits can receive a signing bonus of 1.5 million rubles (around $17,000), and depending on where they fight, get a monthly salary ranging between $2,500 to $3,500 — a life-changing amount in countries like Egypt, where the average salary barely exceeds $300.
Training lasts four to six weeks and includes language instruction so foreigners can follow basic commands in Russian. They receive citizenship soon after they join, and are given a two-week paid vacation six months into their one-year deployment. If they are killed or wounded, their families can claim the money and citizenship.
Among the recruitment ads, which appear in Arabic and other languages, Alexandrovna’s channel keeps up a steady rhythm of posts extolling the Russian army’s victories in Ukraine.
Alexandrovna herself appears in several photos taken with recruits when they first land in Russia; others depict foreign soldiers after they receive their citizenship, smiling to the camera and proudly showing off their passports. Her clients appear to be mostly from the Arab world and parts of Africa.
“Each of my soldiers is a source of pride,” she writes in one post, saying that they add to the “victory against the neo-Nazis from Ukraine.”
“Every soldier must proudly and steadfastly defend the new homeland of Russia, because Russia becomes a new homeland for each of them!” she writes.
Despite the risks, there’s no lack of interest: A look on Alexandrovna’s Telegram channel, titled “Friend of Russia” and featuring a picture of Putin, shows more than 22,000 subscribers. Another channel, run by an Iraqi man who calls himself Bahjat, has almost 30,000.
Members of a thousands-strong Telegram community group run by an Iraqi with the nickname Abbass the Supporter — who served in the Russian military for three years but now works as a broker and answers questions about deployments on his TikTok channel — participate in chats asking how quickly they can get their visa and travel.
When contacted by The Times, Alexandrovna denied giving false information to would-be recruits but did not answer detailed questions about Hammad. Nevertheless, it’s unclear how Hammad concluded he would serve in rear positions: Most ads on Alexandrovna’s channel explicitly say foreigners must fight in Ukraine, with no mention of being able to join as a driver or cook, and in any case, those decisions are made by the defense ministry.
The E-visa form inquires about military experience. Bahjat, who spoke on condition of only giving his first name, said those coming to the Russian army from abroad should expect to go into combat, and that breaking the contract risks imprisonment.
“What, you think a country is going to give you money and citizenship so you come and cook?” he said in a WhatsApp chat.
“I’ll give it to you straight. Everyone coming here is going to the frontline and to the war. Anyone saying otherwise is speaking nonsense.”
The Jordanian ministry did not answer questions about Hammad, but legal experts say governments have little recourse to repatriate their citizens if they signed a contract, unless they can prove they did so under duress.
Lamees Hammad has been pleading with Jordan’s King Abdullah and government officials to communicate with the Russian foreign ministry and to bring her husband home. But in the meantime, she said, she hoped the Jordanian government would at least block Telegram channels like Alexandrovna’s to prevent others from following in Hammad’s steps.
“People should know if they do this,” she said, “they’re going to their death.”
