Key Takeaways from the ISW:
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and US President Donald Trump met at the White House on October 17 and discussed ongoing US support for Ukraine and efforts to the war
- The Kremlin continues to employ a dual-handed rhetorical strategy, leveraging economic proposals and veiled military threats in an effort to simultaneously pursue normalizing US-Russian relations and deterring US support for Ukraine.
- The Kremlin is reducing its financial incentives used to recruit volunteer soldiers, likely as part of the Kremlin’s efforts to restructure force generation efforts and centralize control over Russian recruits in an effort to sustain its protracted war in Ukraine.
- Russia’s short-range and long-range drone strike campaigns continue to disproportionately impact civilians in Ukraine.
- Ukraine’s European allies continue to provide military aid and support Ukraine’s growing defense industry.
- Ukrainian forces advanced near Velykomykhailivka and in northern Sumy Oblast. Russian forces advanced near Lyman and Siversk.
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