Ukraine Breaking News Today Live on 10-26-2024

Four pro-Western opposition groups agreed to form a coalition have received 51.9% of the vote, according to an exit poll commissioned by a pro-opposition TV station from US pollster Edison Research.

Georgia's pro-Western opposition claimed electoral victory after an exit poll showed it was narrowly ahead in Saturday's ballot.

The "Georgian people and Europe have won", Tina Bokuchava, the leader of the United National Movement, which is part of the opposition union, told journalists as pro-opposition President Salome Zurabishvili saluted a victory for "European Georgia."

The longer the war goes on, the more unsustainable it is and how risk of domestic conflict within Russia may determine what happens within Ukraine.

A dollar a pint is nothing short of a bargain and miracle, but just like the memories that went along with Wunderbar, all good things must come to an end.

Sidebar Stories – In the vein of “literature is news that stays news,” Kyiv Post presents some not necessarily factual narratives that offer added insight into Ukraine’s realities.

The prices at Wunderbar, like the pothole outside, always felt like they would be there forever. 

Ukraine’s Presidential Office said Kyiv and Sofia have agreed on the “key provisions” of the agreement.

Ukraine and Bulgaria have started negotiations on formulating a bilateral security agreement between the two nations and have already agreed on the key provisions, Ukraine’s Presidential Office reported on Friday. 

“On the instructions of the President of Ukraine and the Head of the Presidential Office, and in pursuance of the G7 Joint Declaration, Deputy Head of the Presidential Office Ihor Zhovkva held the first round of negotiations with the Bulgarian side on the conclusion of a bilateral security agreement,” read the office’s press release. 

Musicologist Suzanne Kassian said Georgia needed to find a "harmonious path between traditions and development."

Voters in the Georgian capital Tbilisi expressed diverging views on Saturday on whether their country should move closer to Europe or improve ties with Moscow.

"I want to live in Europe, not in Russia," said 18-year-old voter Alexandre Guldani.

On the suicide prevention and crisis support hotline’s fifth anniversary, founder Paul Niland spoke with Kyiv Post about its work, such as saving 15,000 Ukrainian lives.

As it marked its 5th anniversary this week, suicide prevention hotline Lifeline Ukraine also met another major milestone: it answered its 100,000 call from Ukrainians seeking support in their moments of personal crisis.

Lifeline Ukraine was spearheaded and founded in 2019 by Paul Niland, a Kyiv-based writer and businessman, following support for the concept by then Acting Minister for Health Ulana Suprun. The model of Lifeline Australia, which emphasizes non-judgment and confidentiality, was used as a basis for the Ukrainian effort.

South Korea, NATO and the United States claim thousands of North Korean troops are already training in Russia.

The deployment of North Korean troops to help Russia in its war against Ukraine is unlikely to have a significant impact on the fighting on the ground but could affect security interests in Asia, Europe, and elsewhere, analysts said.

Growing military ties between Moscow and Pyongyang are a major concern for Washington and Brussels as Russian leader Vladimir Putin presses ahead with his efforts to build an anti-Western alliance.

As we assure Russia the peace that we deny Ukraine, Russia torches Ukraine with that very American technology, imbedded in its own, and in Iranian and North Korean weaponry.

Negotiated Peace?

Western pressure on Ukraine to negotiate with Russia is increasing; for half of America’s political spectrum, the negotiation drumbeat has become histrionic, with Republicans asserting that “no vital American interest is at stake.”

Some reflections on last week’s BRICS summit hosted by Putin.

The brainchild of the Western financial services industry more than 20 years ago has grown like a cancer to be an opportunity for Russia’s current rehabilitation. This is at a time when Russia is increasing its atrocities in Ukraine, even utilizing the resources of a global pariah that even Russia had sanctioned in the past.

Ironic? Certainly. An aberration? Hardly! The West has, unwittingly mostly, done much to enhance its greatest perils over the last century. And so, the West will suffer the consequences.

A member of Russia’s National Guard was killed in an attack on a military vehicle on Thursday on the outskirts of the Chechen capital in the mountainous North Caucasus.

Unknown gunmen attacked a troop-carrying Ural truck with personnel from Rosgvardia, Russia’s National Guard, near the village of Petropavlovskaya in the Groznensky District in Russia’s Chechen Republic at around noon on Oct. 24.

“Unknown people attacked a military convoy in the Grozny suburbs,” reported Russia’s state-run news agency RIA Novosti, citing a spokesperson for the National Guard unit.

"The loan proceeds will be disbursed through multiple channels to support Ukraine's budgetary, military and reconstruction assistance," G7 leaders said.

G7 leaders have finalized details surrounding a $50 billion loan to aid Kyiv, backed by profits from Russian sovereign assets frozen after its invasion of Ukraine, according to a statement released Friday.

Leaders of the Group of Seven wealthy democracies said they "have reached a consensus on how to deliver" the loans of approximately $50 billion, with an aim to start disbursing funds by the end of this year.

The world in focus, as seen by a Canadian leading global affairs analyst, writer and speaker, in his review of international media.

Israel says it has concluded strikes on Iranian military targets and all its planes have returned safely home. Earlier Israel said it had conducted "precise strikes on military targets" in Iran, as blasts were heard in Tehran. The Israel Defense Forces say the strikes are in response to "months of continuous attacks from the regime of Iran" and after a barrage of Iranian missiles hit Israel on 1 October . Military bases in the west and south west of the Iranian capital have been targeted, according to an Iranian news agency close to the country's Revolutionary Guards. Iranian state media is so far denying the attacks caused any real damage, says Bahman Kalbasi of BBC Persian. The US was briefed on the strikesbeforehand, but did not have any involvement - BBC

Satellite imagery over the past two years shows construction vehicles renovating an old Soviet-era laboratory called Sergiev Posad-6 - previously quiet for decades - and breaking ground on 10 new buildings, totaling more than 250,000 square feet, with several of them bearing hallmarks of biological labs designed to handle extremely dangerous pathogens. It had once been a major research center for biological weapons, with a history of experiments with the viruses that cause smallpox, Ebola and hemorrhagic fevers. There has been no sign such weapons have been used in the Ukraine conflict, but the construction of new labs at Sergiev Posad-6 is being closely watched by U.S. intelligence agencies and bioweapons experts amid worries about Moscow’s intentions as the conflict grinds through its third year. The images showed multiple signatures that, when combined, indicate a high-containment biological facility: dozens of rooftop air handling units, layouts consistent with partitioned labs, underground infrastructure, heightened security features and what appears to be a power plant - Washington Post

Born into poverty in the village of Chorvila in western Georgia, Ivanishvili made his fortune in Russia during the cutthroat 1990s, amassing huge wealth as state-owned Soviet assets were privatized.

When Georgia's richest man first burst into politics 12 years ago, he vowed to "astonish Europe" with the democracy he would bring to the Black Sea nation.

But Bidzina Ivanishvili, the billionaire founder of Tbilisi's ruling party, has done what many critics say is the opposite: led the country into international isolation while curbing the power of his political opponents.

A military issues website cites unnamed sources that part of the motivation for sending 12,000 North Korean troops to fight in Ukraine is the promise of more than 30 of Moscow’s latest fighters.

The military issues website BulgarianMilitary.com, citing unidentified sources, suggested one of the drivers behind Pyongyang’s provision of several thousand troops to support Russia’s war in Ukraine was the need to modernize its air force.

The desire to get modern aircraft has been a long-term objective of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

The IMF praised Ukraine’s government for steering the economic policy during wartime, even though the fund downgraded its growth outlook due to Russia’s strikes on energy infrastructure.

The International Monetary Fund downgraded projections for Ukraine, reflecting a protracted war and strikes on energy infrastructure, but the Ukrainian policymakers are “doing a marvelous job” in such circumstances, Director of the European Department of the International Monetary Fund Alfred Kammer said during a press briefing presenting October 2024 Regional Economic Outlook for Europe.

“Growth numbers this year have been brutally affected by the bombing of the energy infrastructure in Ukraine and that dampens growth, also the outlook,” Kammer stated.

Lowest turnout in Bulgarian election expected since fall of communism, survey shows.

Public trust in the Bulgarian parliament is now just 6%, according to a survey carried out days before the country heads to the polls on Oct. 27 for its seventh general election in just three years.

The poll, conducted by bTV, a Bulgarian media group, and Market Links, a market and social research company, also found that only 17% have trust in the current caretaker government.

In an intercepted call, a Russian soldier expressed doubts about North Korean troops’ integration: “One translator for 30 soldiers? Where will we find three senior personnel for them?”

Russian troops stationed in the country’s Kursk region were reportedly discussing issues pertaining to North Korean troops’ integration into local units, with language barriers being one of the key issues, according to a new intercepted call published by the Ukrainian military intelligence (HUR) on Friday.

HUR said the call took place between servicemen of Russia’s 810th Separate Marine Brigade, which is part of the country’s Southern Military District’s 18th Army.

Serbia's Prime Minister Milos Vucevic had met earlier with Maxim Reshetnikov, Russia's Minister of Economic Development.

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen canceled talks with Serbia's Prime Minister Milos Vucevic on Friday because of his earlier meeting with a Russian minister, the EU's ambassador said.

"We canceled the meeting... following the prime minister meeting with the minister of economy of the Russian Federation," the EU's ambassador in Belgrade, Emanuele Giaufret, told AFP.

An exclusive report from the Georgian capital on the mood before Saturday’s vital parliamentary election.

Meggie Diasamidze likens the fight for election integrity in Georgia to the mythical struggle depicted in the popular HBO series Game of Thrones. 

For Diasamidze, 22, the thousands of Georgians who have volunteered to police fraud at polling stations in the upcoming election are the “Night’s Watch,” a team of guardians sworn to protect the kingdom. Bidzina Ivanishvili, the billionaire oligarch who funds the ruling Georgian Dream party, is the “Night King” – a conniving, supernatural ruler who represents an existential threat. 

Russia’s Friday attack on the central Ukrainian city destroyed and damaged multiple buildings, including a local hospital.

Russia’s Friday evening missile attack on Dnipro city killed three and injured 19, with four children among those injured, according to preliminary reports. 

More than a dozen cars and buildings were destroyed or damaged, including hospital buildings, said Serhiy Lysak, the head of Dnipropetrovsk Regional State Administration on Saturday morning. 

Eight potential owners were competing to buy the bank in a fire sale initiate following a criminal investigation in Poland – but there was a strong desire to purchase the bank long before the war.

Polish Getin Holding and Ukrainian TAS Group have signed a deal to purchase Idea Bank Ukraine. The purchase will cost the new owner $34 million and will become the first mergers and acquisitions (M&A) deal in the banking sector after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. 

Ukraine’s central bank, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), forced Idea Bank’s previous owner, Getin Holding, to sell the bank before the end of October because owner Leszek Czarnecki became a subject of criminal investigation in Poland. 

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected the report, saying "it's all untrue, absolutely false information."

Elon Musk, the world's richest man and an avid supporter of Donald Trump, was plunged into new controversy on Friday after a report that he is in regular contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Wall Street Journal story, which has been denied by the Kremlin, comes days after the US Justice Department sent a letter to Musk's America PAC warning that its $1 million giveaways to registered voters may violate federal law.

A drone struck a highrise residential building in Kyiv’s Solomyansk district on Friday evening, with fires engulfing the upper floors, forcing more than a hundred residents to evacuate.

A Russian drone struck a highrise building in Kyiv’s Solomyansk district on Friday evening, killing a child and injuring six more, authorities said. 

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko announced on social media at 9:20 p.m. that an explosion was recorded in the district, where he later added that a fire started at the site and the 17th to 19th floors were damaged in the attack. 

Latest from the Institute for the Study of War.

Key Takeaways from the ISW:

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Russia will imminently deploy North Korean forces to unspecified combat zones on October 27 and 28, as Russian and North Korean officials continued to issue vague yet suggestive statements regarding the possible presence of North Korean troops in Russia.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin signaled that Western “Ukraine fatigue” is encouraging Russia to continue its full-scale invasion of Ukraine and pursue its theory of victory predicated on Russia outlasting Western support for Ukraine.
• Putin also continued to exaggerate Russian progress in Kursk Oblast, likely in an attempt to reassure domestic audiences of the Russian military's ability to suppress Ukraine's incursion into Kursk Oblast.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin promoted former Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) “Sparta” Battalion Commander and Plenipotentiary Representative in the Urals Lieutenant Colonel Artyom Zhoga to the Russian Security Council, likely in an ongoing effort to establish younger, pro-war figures within the Kremlin.
• Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov claimed that Russia does not seek to “influence” elections of other countries "unlike the West" amid continued evidence to the contrary.
• Russian authorities swiftly responded to xenophobic riots in Korkino, Chelyabinsk Oblast on October 25, a marked change from Russian authorities' slow and disorganized response to the October 2023 antisemitic riots in the Republic of Dagestan.
• German arms manufacturer Rheinmetall announced on October 24 that it recently delivered 20 additional Marder infantry fighting vehicles to Ukraine and noted that Germany financed the delivery of the vehicles.
• Ukrainian forces advanced near Borki and regained lost territory near Chasiv Yar and Toretsk.
• Russian forces advanced near Siversk, Pokrovsk, and regained territory near Obukhovka.
• The Kremlin is continuing to forge new state-affiliated veteran societies and organizations likely in an ongoing effort to replace veteran organizations that have been critical of Russia’s conduct of war in Ukraine.