Bulgaria is preparing to seize control of Lukoil's Burgas oil refinery and sell it to a new owner after the Russian oil company came under US sanctions, according to Bulgarian media reports. Burgas is Bulgaria's only oil refinery and as part of Lukoil is at risk of having to shut down because of the sanctions. The US joined Britain last month in imposing sanctions on Russia's two largest oil companies, Lukoil and Rosneft, over Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine.
Italian officials have reacted with outrage after Russia used the partial collapse of a medieval tower in central Rome to claim that Italy's support for Ukraine has drained funds needed to preserve its cultural heritage. The Torre dei Conti, a 29m-tall fortified residence built near the Colosseum in the 13th century, partially collapsed on Monday (4 November), causing the death of a Romanian worker who was trapped under rubble for 11 hours.
Germany plans to raise its military aid to Ukraine by €3 billion next year to around €11.5 billion ($13.2 billion) to support its battle against Russia, the finance ministry said Tuesday. Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil "will introduce a further €3 billion in support for Ukraine into the parliamentary budget process for 2026", a ministry spokesman told AFP. "This includes, among other things, artillery, drones, armoured vehicles and the replacement of two Patriot systems." The spokesman added that "Germany stands firmly by Ukraine's side and is Ukraine's biggest supporter in Europe. This applies financially, economically and militarily. "We will continue our support for as long as it is necessary to defend against Russia's war of aggression."
that was but but Norah, that was Joe Biden's war, not my war. I inherited that stupid war. That should not have been a war. That would've never happened if I were president. And by the way, for four years it didn't happen. There was never even a doubt. Then the election was rigged and stolen, and all of a sudden you see them forming up at the line. And now I come back and I'm gonna get that one solved too.
Vadym Voroshylov, a well-known Ukrainian MiG-29 pilot with the call sign Karaya, wrote on Instagram this week that the JAS-39 Gripen "is the only fighter jet in the world I'd be willing to sell my soul for." He said that this jet us "ideal option" for Ukraine today and also reliable for the future. Voroshylov's post came after Ukraine and Sweden signed a letter of intent to export up to 150 JAS 39 Gripen E fighter jets to Kyiv.
Putin said on Sunday that Russia had successfully tested its unique nuclear-capable Burevestnik cruise missile, which the Kremlin described as part of efforts to ensure the country's national security. When asked on Monday by reporters onboard Air Force One about Russia's nuclear missile test, Trump said Putin should focus on ending the war with Ukraine rather than testing missiles. Trump said the US had a nuclear submarine right off their shores that did not need to travel such distances.
He was in charge from 2014 to 2024 and this documentary, with remarkable access, shows us his final 12 months day-by-day, moment-by-moment after Joe Biden had persuaded him in 2023, when his tenure was technically at an end, to stay on for another year after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Perhaps, until that moment, Stoltenberg had been happy to assume that for all the meetings and stress, the secretary-generalship was an agreeable prestigious technocratic position without any real danger.
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand says pursuing forfeiture of a seized Russian cargo plane that has been parked for years at Toronto Pearson International Airport has forced the government to disentangle the aircraft's complex ownership structure. This is a legal process, but it's also in the context of: How else can we help Ukraine in its time of need?' Anand said at a Friday news conference. The owners of the Antonov aircraft used complex corporate structures that have required significant time to disentangle.
Prime Minister Viktor Orban led what he called a "peace march," stressing his opposition to military support for Ukraine, while his main challenger, Peter Magyar of the Tisza Party, led a competing protest. In an address to the crowd in front of parliament, Orban reiterated his opposition to EU military aid for Ukraine as well as potential EU and NATO membership for the country.
Spain is joining the joint purchases of U.S. military equipment by NATO countries for shipment to Ukraine. The decision was confirmed by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez upon arriving at the meeting of the European Council this Thursday in Brussels. This is a proposal that NATO launched a few weeks ago. I had the opportunity to speak with President Zelenskiy [] and I informed him that we were going to join this program, the Spanish leader stated in response to questions from the media.
European leaders are meeting on Thursday with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in Brussels to reaffirm support for Kyiv. The president of the European Council, Antonio Costa, welcomed Zelenskyy, addressing him as future member of the European Union. The meeting comes as the 27 member bloc formally adopted a 19th package of sanctions against Russia for its war against Ukraine that includes a ban on Russian liquefied natural gas imports.
After all, the Hungarian capital was the site of the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, in which Ukraine gave up the thousands of nuclear weapons it had inherited upon the breakup of the Soviet Union in return for assurances that Russia would respect Ukraine's territorial integrity. Putin broke that promise with his 2014 invasion and annexation of Crimea, with his decade-long military offensive in the Donbas region, and then with his all-out invasion in 2022.
Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine was supposed to be a short campaign, but the larger country's swift victory anticipated by many analysts failed to materialize. Part of the reason for Ukraine's effective defense was Kyiv's early warning of the build-up of Russian forces on its border. U.S./allied intelligence warned Kyiv, but another non-government source tipped them off to the impending invasion: commercial imagery, especially Maxar's optical photos, publicly documented the build-up and the initial invasion, revealing the long convoy heading toward Kyiv on Feb. 27, 2022.
