Important Takeaways:
- One key question about the Russo-Ukraine War is: how long can the Russian economy keep it up? After all, the intention of Western economic and financial sanctions against Russia was to cripple Russian growth and render its war machine incapable of maintaining the fight.
- Russia’s heavily-oil-dependent economy is estimated to have lost over $100 billion as a consequence of oil sanctions.
- Yet economies at war often find a way to keep going for longer than one might think, provided that domestic citizens retain faith in their leaders
- The current violent attacks by Hamas on Israel may even have had, as one of their goals, a rise in oil prices – after all, Russia is a significant Hamas backer.
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Important Takeaways:
- Facing a likely roadblock from House Republicans on aid for Ukraine, President Joe Biden said Wednesday he’s planning to give a major speech on the issue and suggested there may be “another means” to provide support for Kyiv if Congress continues to balk.
- “There is another means by which we may be able to find funding, but I’m not going to get into that right now,” he said.
- Last week’s deal to keep the government open through mid-November excluded the $13 billion in supplemental aid that the Biden administration sought last month, raising questions about just how long the U.S. could continue to send money to Ukraine.
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Important Takeaways:
- Zelensky asks Marina Abramovic to be ambassador for Ukraine
- Volodymyr Zelensky has asked Marina Abramović, the performance artist, to be an ambassador for Ukraine.
- Abramović, a fierce critic of Vladimir Putin’s illegal invasion, said the Ukrainian president had asked for her help in rebuilding schools.
- “I was the first artist to support the Ukraine war against Russia and to give my voice. It is definitely a repetition of history,” she said in an interview with the Modern Art Museum in Shanghai.
- “I have been invited by Zelensky to be an ambassador of Ukraine, to help the children affected by rebuilding schools and such.”
- She added: “I have also been invited to be a board member of the Babyn Yar organization to continue to protect the memorial.”
- The Holocaust memorial center to Jews murdered by Nazis in Ukraine was damaged by Russian missile attacks in March last year.
- The artist posted a video online days after Putin launched his unprovoked war. In it she spoke about being born in the former Yugoslavia, which was once invaded by the Soviet Union, and called Ukrainians “proud, strong and dignified”.
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Important Takeaways:
- Ukraine endured a deadly nationwide Russian missile barrage targeting energy facilities in Kyiv and other cities on Thursday, just hours before President Volodymyr Zelensky was set to meet US President Joe Biden at the White House
- Officials called it “a terrible night for Kherson city,” with at least three people killed and six injured, noting that apartment buildings and cars were also damaged in Russian shelling on residential areas.
- Just as the country gears up for colder seasons that will require more energy use for heating
- The air raid alarms, which frequently blare on loudspeakers throughout the city and on residents’ cell phones, are so commonplace that government officials have had to appeal to residents to continue to use bomb shelters.
- The latest round of missile strikes comes after a contentious United Nations General Assembly in New York on Wednesday, where Zelensky argued that removing Russia’s veto power “will be the first necessary step.”
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Important Takeaways:
- The United States’ warnings about the summit in Russia illustrated concerns that North Korea may agree to supply artillery shells that Russia’s war effort seems to need
- Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has left him short not only of friends, but also munitions to sustain his frustrated military.
- Kim’s trip is significant, with Ukraine pushing to break through Russian lines before winter in a counteroffensive loaded with Western weapons
- Russia already sources drones — a cheap but effective weapon designed to wear down Ukraine’s air defenses — from Iran, another Western adversary.
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Important Takeaways:
- Ukraine is set to receive longer-range US missiles armed with cluster bombs, granting Kyiv the ability to cause significant damage deep within Russian-held territory
- The Biden administration is close to approving the shipment, according to the officials, after seeing the success of cluster munitions delivered in 155 mm artillery rounds in recent months.
- Washington is now considering shipping either or both Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) that can fly up to 190 miles (306 km), or Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS) missiles with a 45-mile range packed with cluster bombs, three officials said.
- Made by Lockheed Martin, ATACMS come in several versions some of which can fly four times GMLRS’ range, and their use could reset battlefield calculus.
- Cluster munitions are prohibited by more than 100 countries. Russia, Ukraine and the United States have not signed onto the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which bans production, stockpiling, use and transfer of the weapons.
- Both sides in the war have used the weapons, usually with devastating consequences.
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Important Takeaways:
- Poland embraces neighborly role in war against Russia; small airport grows into logistics hub
- Rows of U.S. surface-to-air missiles line the damp earth along the road leading to the regional airport — a stark reminder of how sensitive and strategic this once-quiet corner of NATO’s eastern flank has become to the multinational scramble to help Ukraine turn back Russian invaders.
- The Polish backwater, about 60 miles from the Ukraine border, has been transformed into a buzzing international logistics hub for all kinds of aid flowing into Ukraine. The once-modest Rzeszow-Jasionka Airport became the center of a major international crisis overnight.
- “No one expected that this place would play such a vital role in the whole situation of the war,” Michal Tabisz, the airport’s vice president, said on a drizzly afternoon shortly after the Russian war against its neighbor passed the 18-month mark.
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Important Takeaways:
- ‘The war is coming home to Russia’: Ukraine turns the tables on Moscow as drone warfare intensifies
- A dramatic uptick in drone attacks targeting Russian territory is likely to continue and could be a game changer in the next phase of the war, analysts say.
- Russia has seen a sharp rise in unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, targeting western, central and southern Russian regions as well as the capital Moscow.
- Mostly Ukrainian-made drones have provided a way for Kyiv to strike back at Russia itself with military bases, airfields and fuel depots among the recent targets.
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Important Takeaways:
- Putin suffers his worst night of bombardment since invading Ukraine: Zelensky’s drones blast four military transport planes and six Russian regions are hit – but Kyiv also suffers ‘massive’ missile attack
- Vladimir Putin suffered his worst night of bombardment of the war as Ukraine hit back at Russia with a series of drone strikes deep into enemy territory.
- Russian military aircraft were damaged and civilian aviation was disrupted in the drone attacks, Russian officials said, citing Pskov, Bryansk, Kaluga, Orlov, Ryazan and Moscow regions as targeted, as well as Russian-occupied Crimea.
- Most of the drones were reportedly shot out of the skies by Russian air defenses.
- Ukraine, which has yet to achieve a major success in its summer ground counteroffensive, has struck deep into Russia in recent months, including an attack on the Kremlin in May and numerous drone attacks on civilian targets in Moscow.
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Important Takeaways:
- Dutch Confirm U.S. Approval for Delivery of F-16s to Ukraine
- The U.S. has given approval for the Netherlands to deliver F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, the Dutch defense minister said Friday, although no timeline was given for delivery or training of the required combat pilots.
- “I welcome the US decision to clear the way for delivery of F-16 jets to Ukraine. It allows us to follow through on the training of Ukrainian pilots,” Dutch Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren said in a message on X, formerly known as Twitter. “We remain in close contact with European partners to decide on the next steps.”
- The Netherlands is part of a Western coalition that also includes Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sweden and the United Kingdom that in July pledged to train Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16s.
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