“Ukraine – Russia”

Sweden’s Armed Forces said on Wednesday it had begun new inspections in the Baltic Sea at the sites of suspected explosions that ruptured the Nord Stream pipelines last month.

“The Swedish Armed Forces are this week carrying out complementary seabed surveys at the gas leaks with minesweepers,” the armed forces said on Twitter. “The investigation is done at our own initiative and is not part of the police investigation.”

Military officials did not want to be drawn into what sparked the new probe. “I can’t comment on what we are looking for, why we are there; but we had the need to come back to do an additional search,” a spokesperson for the military said.

Alleged recordings of the head of a major Ukrainian aircraft manufacturer accused of aiding the Russian military – saying he “completely understands” why a Russian missile was fired at his factory – have been released by Kyiv’s security services after his arrest at the weekend.

Vyacheslav Boguslaev, the president of Motor Sich, has been charged with treason after a raid at the weekend on his home in the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia. The manufacturing heavyweight is suspected of selling engines – before and after the invasion – for Russian attack helicopters that have been used extensively against Ukrainian troops.

Germany has called for a “new Marshall Plan” to rebuild Ukraine even as Russian forces continue to bombard a blacked-out Kyiv with cruise missiles and Iranian-made drones.

Tomorrow Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, hosts a meeting of international aid organisations and experts on the “recovery, reconstruction and modernisation of Ukraine”.

The Ukrainian government has complained that the European Union has so far paid up “zero” in financial aid that was already promised.

#Ukraine: A Russian T-62M tank was destroyed by a Ukrainian Artillery strike in #Kherson Oblast. pic.twitter.com/93Cfmi9nlW

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) October 24, 2022

Ukraine’s military spy chief has said that invading forces are intent on drawing the local army into urban combat in the city

Russia’s army has not abandoned Kherson city and is instead reinforcing it ahead of a major battle, Ukraine’s military spy chief has said.

Major-General Kyrylo Budanov told the Ukrainska Pravda newspaper that Russian forces wanted to draw Ukraine’s army into urban combat in the south Ukrainian city.

“They are not leaving right now. They are preparing to defend,” he said. “They are creating the illusion that all is lost. Yet at the same time, they are moving new military units in.”

#Ukraine: A Ukrainian Sisu XA-185 amphibious armored personnel carrier (donated by Finland) and a previously captured BMP-3 IFV were destroyed by Russian anti-tank mines and direct fire in the vicinity of Opytne, #Donetsk Oblast. pic.twitter.com/29Sja4CSsw

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) October 24, 2022

In his daily video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy dismissed Moscow’s claims that Ukraine was preparing provocations with the use of a “dirty bomb”, as suggested by Russia’s defense minister during telephone calls with NATO counterparts.

“If Russia calls and says that Ukraine is allegedly preparing something, it means one thing: Russia has already prepared all this. I believe that now the world should react as harshly as possible,” Zelenskyy said.

The Ukrainian president also said that only Russia was capable of using nuclear weapons in Europe.

This ominous throwback to the Stalin era is not getting the attention in the West that it should.

Russian President Vladimir Putin first took power in 2000. He succeeded Boris Yeltsin in Russia’s first peaceful transition of power from one democratically elected leader to the next — ever. It was a historic moment for Russia.

Putin, however, had decidedly undemocratic ambitions. He was restricted by the Russian Constitution to two terms in power at the most — that is, two elected four-year terms, if chosen by voters. This meant that Putin’s run would have ended in 2008. Quite the contrary, Putin ever since has done everything from unilaterally reconfiguring the Russian Constitution to manipulating elections to bully, coerce, and at times kill dissenting voices. With his many dark maneuvers, Putin has crafted for himself a hold on power that now extends to the year 2036, assuming he lives that long. If he does live that long, he’ll find a way to seize more power for yet more years to come.

Nato planners have always worried about the Storskog border crossing in Finnmark, where Arctic Norway comes face to face with the cold reality of Russia. In Soviet times, the 121-mile frontier was a potential flashpoint. The Red Banner Northern Fleet’s nuclear-armed submarines are still based at nearby Murmansk, on the freezing Barents Sea.

Reasons to worry afresh about the border are multiplying following Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Norwegian police recently arrested several Russians, equipped with drones and cameras, who were showing unusual interest in oil and gas installations. Some of the suspected spies entered via Storskog.

Since Russia cut energy supplies to Europe in retaliation for western sanctions – and following last month’s sabotage of the Nord Stream Baltic pipelines – Norway has become Europe’s biggest gas supplier. And while the Oslo government is not directly accusing Moscow, it knows that makes it a prime target for covert hybrid warfare operations.

LONDON (AP) — In Romania, protesters blew horns and banged drums to voice their dismay over the rising cost of living. People across France took to the streets to demand pay increases that keep pace with inflation. Czech demonstrators rallied against government handling of the energy crisis. British railway staff and German pilots held strikes to push for better pay as prices rise.

Across Europe, soaring inflation is behind a wave of protests and strikes that underscores growing discontent with the spiraling cost of living and threatens to unleash political turmoil. With British Prime Minister Liz Truss forced to resign less than two months into the job after her economic plans sparked chaos in financial markets and further bruised an ailing economy, the risk to political leaders became clearer as people demand action.

Israeli defense minister Benny Gantz announced this week that Israel would maintain its policy of not supplying weapons to Ukraine. This drew criticism, including charges that Israel has a moral obligation to help Ukraine and is instead foolishly prizing its relations with Russia. Critics also note that Israel’s archenemy Iran is providing weapons and advisors to Russia. They further point out that Israel’s Ukraine arms embargo puts it out of step with Israel’s most important partners in the West, especially the United States.

Russian-installed authorities ordered all residents of the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson to leave “immediately” ahead of an expected advance by Ukrainian troops waging a counteroffensive to recapture one of the first urban areas Russia took after invading the country.

In a post on the Telegram messaging service, the regional pro-Kremlin administration called on civilians to use boat crossings over a major river to move deeper into Russian-held territory, citing a tense situation on the front and the threat of shelling and alleged “terror attacks” by Kyiv.