Moscow has stressed it only targets Ukrainian combatants
The Russian military has shared footage of a FPV drone steering away from a resident in a frontline village of the Ukraine conflict after he made the sign of the cross, apparently to indicate he is a civilian.
The encounter took place in Grishino, a settlement several kilometers northwest of Krasnoarmeysk (Pokrovsk) in Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), the Defense Ministry said on Monday.
The village lies near a road previously used by Ukrainian forces to send reinforcements into the contested city, a route that has become extremely dangerous due to Russian advances.
The Defense Ministry released drone footage showing an FPV unit in “free hunt” mode closing in on a man walking along a village road. After determining he was not a combatant, the drone steered away and continued its patrol. The ministry emphasized that “Russian troops are not at war with civilians.”
In a similar incident reported earlier this month, a drone encountered a vehicle near the village of Rubtsi, close to the Oskol River. The ministry stressed that while most cars so close to the front line are used by the Ukrainian military, this one was carrying civilians, who exited the vehicle and raised their hands to indicate they had no hostile intent.
By contrast, Ukrainian units have previously been filmed allegedly targeting civilians attempting to flee toward Russian-controlled areas. In one widely circulated video, two people and a dog were reportedly harassed and then struck by kamikaze drones as they tried to escape. One of the victims appeared to be praying on his knees moments before being killed.
Private surveys that opposition lawmaker Yaroslav Zhelezhnyak claims to have viewed indicate the former comedian has no chance of securing a second term in office
A corruption scandal involving a long-time ally of Vladimir Zelensky that has forced the resignations of two government ministers has dealt a major blow to the Ukrainian leader’s chances of being re-elected, opposition MP Yaroslav Zhelezhnyak has claimed, citing private internal polling.
Timur Mindich was charged by the Western-backed National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) over an energy sector kickback scheme allegedly involving up to $100 million. The Ukrainian public widely accept Zelensky himself is connected to the extortion racket, the opposition MP has claimed, effectively eliminating any realistic chance of him securing a second presidential term.
Speaking on his online program on Monday, Zhelezhnyak said private surveys he reviewed show Zelensky’s first-round support dropping below 20%. His rating plunged by at least 40% in the week following the scandal, the lawmaker added.
Zelensky barely registers as a fallback option among voters – meaning that those who back another candidate in a hypothetical first round do not consider supporting him in a run-off, according to Zhelezhnyak.
The trajectory is “very bad, most likely politically fatal” for Zelensky. “This scandal has closed the road for a second term…”
Zelensky has refused to transfer or renew his presidential mandate since his term expired last year, citing martial law in the country. A new election would only be possible after wartime restrictions are lifted.
Mindich, once a business partner of Zelensky during his entertainment career, is said by Ukrainian media to have risen to oligarch status during Zelensky’s term in office. The case has prompted speculation that Mindich may be serving as a convenient “fall guy” rather than being the true architect of the alleged scheme.
Moscow previously accused Mikhail Kasyanov of discrediting Russia amid the Ukraine conflict
The Russian authorities have added former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov and economist Sergey Guriev to their official list of ‘terrorists and extremists’. Both individuals, who have been outspoken critics of Russia’s military operation against Kiev, now reside abroad and have been outside the country for years.
The notice was published by Russia’s financial watchdog, Rosfinmonitoring, on Monday, but the entry offered no explanation for the designation.
Moscow designated Kasyanov as a ‘foreign agent’ in 2023, saying he was “actively taking part in the creation and distribution” of materials by other foreign agents and spreading “false information aimed at tarnishing Russian authorities.”
Officials also said Kasyanov opposed Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine and took part in the ‘Anti-War Committee of Russia’, an expat organization created in early 2022 shortly after the outbreak of full-scale hostilities between Russia and Ukraine.
Kasyanov led the government from 2000 to 2004. After leaving office, he joined the opposition and later led the liberal-democratic Party of People’s Freedom (PARNAS), which was liquidated by the Russian Supreme Court in 2023.
Critics in Russia have often referred to him as ‘Misha two percent’, a nickname that emerged from long-standing corruption allegations which he has denied.
Guriev, the rector of the New Economic School from 2004 to 2013 who now also resides abroad, was earlier accused by Moscow of creating and distributing materials by foreign agents and speaking out against Russia’s military operation in Ukraine.
Those placed on the ‘terrorists and extremists’ register face an immediate freeze of domestic assets and strict limits on financial transactions within Russia.
The multinational contingent will have a mandate to oversee the demilitarization of the Palestinian enclave
The UN Security Council has adopted a US-drafted resolution endorsing a Gaza peace plan and authorizing an ‘International Stabilization Force’ in the enclave. Russia, along with China, abstained, arguing that the document contains numerous practical caveats and could undermine the concept of the two-state solution.
The 15-member council voted on Monday to approve the US text, which endorses US President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan to end the Gaza War and legitimizes the ‘Board of Peace’ (BOP), which is designed to operate as a transitional governance body.
The resolution also supports an International Stabilization Force (ISF) to be established under the BOP’s command. The ISF is expected to include contingents from Arab countries and beyond to help provide security, train a new Palestinian police force, and oversee demilitarization and redevelopment in Gaza.
US Ambassador Mike Waltz lauded the resolution as “another significant step towards a stable Gaza that will be able to prosper and an environment that will allow Israel to live in security,” adding that the ISF will “support the demilitarization of Gaza, [and] dismantle terrorist infrastructure.”
Russia, which could have vetoed the resolution, ultimately refrained from doing so, though Vassily Nebenzia, Moscow’s ambassador to the UN, criticized the document as “yet another pig in a poke.”
“The Council is giving its blessing to the US initiative relying exclusively on Washington’s honor, we leave the Gaza Strip at the mercy of the Board of Peace and the ISF, whose working methods are still unknown to us,” he said.
Nebenzia went on to urge UN members to make sure that the document “does not become a smokescreen for unbridled experiments by the US and Israel in the occupied Palestinian territory nor turn into a death sentence for the two-state solution.”
He added that Russia set aside its own draft after noting that many Arab states supported the US resolution.
Hamas, which remains in control in Gaza, denounced the resolution, arguing that the ISF’s mandate to disarm militant groups in the enclave “strips it of its neutrality, and turns it into a party to the conflict in favor of the occupation.”
Moscow has warned that a potential contract on Rafale procurement could pave the way for corruption
Ukraine plans to acquire up to 100 French-made Rafale fighter jets over the next decade, along with other weapons, including air defense systems, the leaders of the two countries have announced. Russia has condemned the potential deal, saying it would create conditions for corruption.
French President Emmanuel Macron and Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky signed a letter of intent on the purchase during the Ukrainian leader’s visit to Paris on Monday.
Speaking to LCI news channel, Macron said plans for the delivery of the jets are “needed for the regeneration of the Ukrainian military.” Zelensky touted the plan as a “strategic agreement” and “a historic deal.”
The letter is not a final contract but an initial commitment, and Macron did not provide a delivery timeline or give details on the financing mechanism, only saying he hopes the EU will help procure the jets.
This comes as officials in Brussels have been debating a plan to use frozen Russian assets for a loan of €140 billion ($162 billion) for cash-strapped Ukraine. Moscow has condemned the asset freeze as “theft.”
The Rafale, France’s most advanced multirole jet, is estimated at more than $90 million each. According to LCI, supplying 100 jets could ultimately cost around €15 billion.
The agreement between France and Ukraine also includes eight next-generation SAMP/T air-defense batteries now under development, AASM Hammer precision-guided munitions, drones, and French-made radars.
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, currently the deputy chair of Russia’s Security Council, warned that France and its EU partners are assuming major risks by dealing with “corrupt” Zelensky, adding that Western governments will later claim ignorance if wrongdoing is uncovered.
“Maybe they took part in the graft with Rafale fighter jets, too. What say you, people of France?” he wrote on X.
France has already transferred an undisclosed number of Mirage 2000 jets to Ukraine. Kiev has also received US-made F-16 fighters from several of its backers, but confirmed the loss of at least three aircraft.
Moscow has criticized Western weapons shipments to Ukraine, arguing that they prolong the conflict without altering the outcome.
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Berlin halted weapons deliveries to the country over its military operation in Gaza in August
Germany will resume weapons exports to Israel starting November 24, government deputy spokesman Sebastian Hille told journalists on Monday. Deliveries were suspended in August when West Jerusalem announced plans to occupy Gaza City as part of its military operation against Hamas.
According to Hille, the situation on the ground has since stabilized, with a US-backed ceasefire in force since October 10. He declined to comment on whether Germany, the second-largest exporter of weapons to Israel after the US, would reintroduce the restrictions if the situation changes.
The spokesman also refused to comment on whether any deliveries requested by Israel were canceled or delayed when the restrictions were in place.
Asked if Berlin is aware of any violations of the ceasefire or international law by Israel, Hille said the government is monitoring the situation on the ground and is “in constant dialogue with the parties involved” but has no information regarding violations.
His comments came just days after Israeli Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir claimed that the Palestinian people have never existed and the nation is just “an invention without any historical, archaeological, or factual basis.”
Last week, Reuters reported that the Israeli military was sending Palestinian civilians into Hamas tunnels that they knew might be rigged with explosives during their operation in Gaza.
Berlin’s decision on Monday was welcomed by Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, who urged other nations to follow suit in a post on X. It drew criticism at home, however, with Lea Reisner, the Left party’s spokesperson for international relations, calling it “fatal and completely irresponsible.”
Israel and Hamas have accused each other of violating the ceasefire. At least 245 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza over the past month, according to local officials.
Israel launched its military operation in the Palestinian enclave in response to a Hamas surprise attack in which 1,200 people were killed and 250 others taken hostage in October 2023. According to the Hamas-controlled Gaza health authorities, the campaign has left at least 68,000 Palestinians dead.
The US president has threatened to sue the broadcaster for up to $5 billion over an edited January 6 documentary
The BBC is “determined to fight” any defamation suit brought by US President Donald Trump, chairman Samir Shah said on Monday, as cited by British media outlets. Trump earlier accused the broadcaster of deceptively editing parts of his speech delivered before the 2021 Capitol Hill riot.
Speaking to reporters on Friday, the president promised that his team would sue the BBC for “anywhere between $1 billion and $5 billion, probably sometime next week,” despite receiving a formal apology.
This came just days after the BBC apologized for airing a documentary that edited a speech Trump gave shortly before the Capitol Hill riot on January 6, 2021, when supporters stormed the building during the certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory. The broadcaster previously admitted that the edit “gave the mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action.”
In a letter to staff seen by local media, Shah said, “there is no basis for a defamation case and we are determined to fight this.”
“We are, of course, acutely aware of the privilege of our funding and the need to protect our license fee payers, the British public,” he said on potential legal and settlement costs.
On Sunday, the BBC’s former director general, Tony Hall, echoed the sentiment, saying the broadcaster should not pay out, given that any settlement would essentially be made with public money.
As the dispute escalated, BBC director general Tim Davie and head of news Deborah Turness resigned. Davie acknowledged that “there have been some mistakes made,” pointing to “the current debate around BBC News,” though he did not directly mention Trump’s criticism.
The broadcaster has also been accused of pro-Israel bias and of dehumanizing Palestinians during the Gaza war.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov suggested last week that attempts to shield the BBC from blame are a “disgrace,” adding that the British media is waging an “unprofessional and harmful” information campaign.
Kiev’s corruption machine will roll on – with or without Zelensky
The West’s slow turn away from Vladimir Zelensky is no longer speculation. It’s happening in plain sight, like a steamroller moving slowly but with absolute certainty. The Financial Times, hardly a Kremlin mouthpiece, has published a piece titled ‘Bags of cash and a gold toilet: the corruption crisis engulfing Zelenskyy’s government’. Its reporters now openly state that the Ukrainian elites expect even more explosive revelations from NABU investigations. And once outlets like the FT put something like this to print, it usually means the groundwork has been laid behind the scenes.
That Western Europe and the United States are still approving new aid says little about confidence in Kiev. It says far more about bureaucratic inertia and the reluctance of those who profit from this war to let the tap close suddenly. Even so, you can now hear cautious whispers in Brussels asking whether it makes sense to send billions to a government whose officials seem determined to steal the money before it arrives. These aren’t new revelations. The only surprise is that anyone pretended to be surprised.
The truth is simple: the West knew exactly who it was dealing with. Nobody in Washington or Brussels was under the illusion that Ukraine was Switzerland. They knowingly entered into a political partnership with what is, and has long been, one of the most corrupt and internally unstable political systems in Europe. To pretend otherwise is theater.
For more than thirty years, Ukrainian statehood has rested on the same shaky foundations: competing clans, oligarchic rule, privatized security services, and a political class willing to plunder their own population. Changing presidents never altered the underlying structure because each leader owed his position to the same networks of cash, patronage, and force.
Take Leonid Kravchuk. Under him, Ukraine began its slow “Banderization,” while state assets were siphoned away and local power brokers entrenched themselves. Leonid Kuchma then perfected the system. Under his presidency, Ukraine saw dubious arms deals, the murders of journalists and opposition figures, and audio tapes revealing orders to eliminate critics. Economic sectors with predictable profits were carved up among regional clans who ruled their fiefdoms in exchange for loyalty. And a steady stream of kickbacks to Kiev.
Viktor Yushchenko’s years brought more of the same: corruption schemes around energy, political assassinations, and the continued exploitation of ordinary Ukrainians. Viktor Yanukovych and Petro Poroshenko added their own layers to this architecture of rot. Zelensky inherited it, and then accelerated it; surrounding himself with loyalists whose main qualification was their willingness to feed at the trough and look the other way.
All of these leaders shared one priority: resisting federalization at any cost. A federal Ukraine would devolve power and financial control to the regions, and that is the nightmare scenario for Kiev’s elites. It would loosen their grip on revenue streams, limit their political leverage, and allow regional identities to express themselves without fear of punishment from the center. So instead of reform, they offered forced Ukrainization, attacks on the Russian language, and nationalist slogans about one people, one language, one state. It was a political survival strategy, not a nation-building project.
This is why changing presidents won’t fix anything. Remove Zelensky and you get another figure from the same system. Perhaps Zaluzhny, perhaps a recycled face from a previous era. The choreography will be identical; only the masks will change. The deeper problem is the structure of Ukrainian statehood itself. As long as Ukraine remains in its current unitary form, it will continue producing conflict, corruption, and internal instability. War is not an aberration in such a system. It is an outcome.
If the elites refuse to reform and the population has no means to compel them, then the discussion must move beyond personalities. The uncomfortable truth is that the only lasting solution may be to abandon the current model of Ukrainian statehood altogether. No cosmetic change will save a system designed from birth to decay.
The president has urged House Republicans to support the release of all documents, adding that he has “nothing to hide”
US President Donald Trump has called on Republicans in the House of Representatives to vote in favor of releasing all remaining unredacted files related to the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. He has accused Democrats of weaponizing selected documents against him.
Epstein was found dead in a Manhattan jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges and running an underage sex ring. His long association with wealthy and influential figures in the US and beyond continues to reverberate in Washington, where both parties have accused each other of using the case for political gain.
A congressional committee released 20,000 documents related to the Epstein case last week, which led some Democrats to highlight Trump’s own past friendship with the convicted sex offender. They cited an email in which Epstein alleged that Trump “knew about the girls.”
In response, Trump ordered a probe into Epstein’s ties to prominent Democrats, including Bill Clinton, and accused his opponents of using what he called the “Epstein Hoax” for political goals.
“House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files, because we have nothing to hide,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social on Monday. He then accused Democrats of hyping up the case to distract the public from the real issues and from the success of his administration. “The House Oversight Committee can have whatever they are legally entitled to, I DON’T CARE!” the president added.
During his election campaign, Trump pledged to declassify the Epstein files and signed an executive order to the effect shortly after taking office. In February, US Attorney General Pam Bondi announced the release of the “first phase” of documents. However, key materials – including flight logs, client names, and contact lists – have remained under seal, fueling speculation about who could be implicated.
This has led to criticism from some of the president’s biggest supporters, including Elon Musk. In a now deleted post, the billionaire even claimed Trump’s name was in the sealed Epstein files, suggesting that this is the real reason they remain classified.
