Exclusives

Putin's daily budget hits $1.1M as half a million Russian businesses face new taxes. Kremlin staff get $18M in raises while World Bank predicts Soviet-style economic stagnation.

Georgian protesters give government ultimatum after watching Moldova defeat Russia—all five leaders arrested. Pro-Russian party tightens control. Whether Georgia's democracy survives depends on what's next.

Colombians fight for Ukraine with guns and guitars—making Russians rage to show it's not "just Putin". Los iankovers fuses Colombian rhythms with Ukrainian folk songs, bringing what they call "music therapy" to a nation at war, while their viral video chats with Russians expose Russian imperialism as a societal problem, not just Putin's agenda.

How Ukraine's battlefield radios seduced NATO. A startup supplying the US Air Force delivers radios designed against Russian jamming.

Ukraine's 59-kill cargo plane proves low-tech can beat high-tech. Ukraine is launching every possible light plane to defend against swarms of Russian Shahed drones. The latest is an An-28 transport.

Military

Frontline report: Retreat becomes trap: How Ukraine weaponized its old logistics routes against Russian advance. Ukrainian forces are exploiting intimate knowledge of supply routes they recently abandoned in the Serebryanski forest, using drone surveillance to systematically destroy Russian troops attempting to use the same paths - turning a tactical withdrawal into a devastating trap near Yampil.

Ukrainian soldiers broke through open-steppe defenses, liberating Sichneve village from Russian troops. The liberation cuts off Russian forces from expanding westward, fortifying Ukraine's defense line and restoring control in a key border zone.

Partisans derail military cargo train in Leningrad Oblast, paralyzing St. Petersburg-Pskov route. A locomotive and several cars carrying military cargo left the tracks on 7 October after partisans blew up a railway section near St. Petersburg, paralyzing a major transport route

Ukraine captures Indian fighting for Russia — he says Moscow swapped his drug sentence for a rifle. Once in Russian hands, the 22‑year‑old says he endured empty promises of cash, a rushed 16‑day training, and an assault mission he allegedly never wanted.

Frontline report: Russia loses one million tons of fuel in September alone as strikes and sanctions converge. Battlefield strikes hollowed out refining capacity and coordinated Brussels policy moves produce two-track effect forcing Moscow to choose between fiscal subsidies, domestic shortages, or riskier evasion attempts.

Intelligence and technology

Ukraine quietly unveils a mystery Neptune missile version — Lithuania gets the first look. The Ukrainian Defense Ministry presented a previously unseen modification of the homegrown Neptune cruise missile, showing distinct body changes that hint at new capabilities.

Ukraine has already identified how to launch Tomahawks to strike deep Russian rear. Ukrainian officials confirm land-based launchers already exist.

Ukraine's homegrown Neptune missiles struck over 50 Russian targets last year – Navy. Ukraine's Neptune missiles, originally built to destroy warships, have been transformed into long-range precision weapons capable of striking targets up to 1,000 kilometers away.

Bohdana artillery output hits 40 units monthly as Ukraine scales up defense production. Monthly production of Ukraine's Bohdana artillery system has reached 40 units, four times the rate recorded in May 2024, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

Zelenskyy: Ukrainian defense industry produces 40% of frontline weapons, plans to set 50% target by year-end. Ukraine's defense industry has scaled production to 40 Bohdana artillery systems per month and delivered 2.4 mn rounds to the front in the previous year, Zelenskyy said

Estonian company to provide Ukraine with over 150 combat robots. The Netherlands will fund the delivery of more than 150 Estonian-made THeMIS unmanned ground vehicles to Ukraine

Russia stalks British military satellites and tries to jam them every week, says UK Space Command chief. Maj Gen Paul Tedman reveals Moscow persistently targets British systems from the ground, disrupting operations in orbit.

International

Bratislava insists its 14th Ukraine aid package is humanitarian, not military. Slovakia's Defense Minister Robert Kaliňák said the delivery includes de-mining and energy-support gear aimed at civilians, not soldiers.

Merz warns Putin intends to flip Europe's order upside down by sowing panic with drone swarms. Russia is imposing asymmetric psychological pressure on Europe.

Latvia takes over reconstruction of one Ukrainian military hospital. Latvia will coordinate the renovation of one of five Ukrainian military hospitals under NATO's Renovator project

Europe's sleepwalk into danger — defense support drops as war warnings grow louder. While Russian drones violate NATO airspace and generals warn of looming war with China and Russia, new polling shows Europeans losing the will to rearm — a trend that could cost the continent its readiness.

Trump has "sort of made a decision" on Tomahawks for Ukraine — and it's complicated. He hasn't ruled it out, but insists he must first ask Ukraine "what they're doing with them."

Slovakia breaks two-year freeze with new Ukraine military aid under Fico government. Slovakia will transfer five Bożena demining machines and medical equipment to Ukraine in the first direct military aid package since Robert Fico's government halted transfers in October 2023. 

Humanitarian and social impact

Ukraine to increase gas imports by 30% as Russia targets energy infrastructure before winter. Russian strikes on the country's energy infrastructure threaten to disrupt electricity supply and worsen living conditions in cities during the colder months.

Political and legal developments

US Supreme Court clears path to seize Russia's Sberbank assets for MH17 families.

Russian сourts сonvict two people daily for treason as paranoia spirals – intelligence. The 224 treason convictions handed down in six months exceed the total for all of 2023.

New developments

Finland finds drones over Presidential Palace in restricted no-fly zone. Two men claiming to be tourists from Hong Kong operated a drone over Helsinki's Presidential Palace, violating a no-fly zone that covers the capital's most sensitive government buildings.

Phase 0 begins: ISW says Russia is laying psychological groundwork for a future NATO war. Russia's spy agency now claims the UK is preparing pro‑Ukrainian Russians to stage an attack on a Ukrainian or allied ship in Europe, using Chinese equipment to make it appear China supports Russia, which actually does support Russia.

Read our earlier daily review here.