Ukraine Breaking News Today Live on 01-10-2025

The United States and Britain on Friday announced sanctions against Russia’s energy sector, including oil giant Gazprom Neft.

Russia’s shadow, or ghost, fleet was back in focus Friday after the country was hit by Western sanctions on its key oil sector.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the number of oil tankers with opaque ownership or without proper insurance has soared, enabling Moscow to keep on exporting its crude.

Kyiv Post reported that late December footage showed DPRK troops in the Kursk region being attacked by Ukrainian drones. The soldiers tried to down them before fleeing in panic across open fields.

A Ukrainian First Person View (FPV) drone coming under fire from a North Korean soldier can reportedly be seen in a video shared on a Ukrainian military Telegram channel.

Kyiv Post was unable to verify the exact time and location of the footage, but it appears to show a Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) soldier firing an assault rifle at the drone. A small explosion is seen on the drone’s camera, and by the end of the video, a soldier with a bloody face is lying on the ground, turning from side to side.

Europe’s air transport safety regulator has expanded its conflict-zone advisory for Russian airspace, following the crash of an Azerbaijani airliner damaged by military activity in Chechnya.

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has advised against all flight operations within five Russian airspace regions west of the 60°E longitude – on which the cities of Ekaterinburg and Chelyabinsk lie – at all altitudes and flight levels.

This latest conflict-zone information bulletin (CZIB) warning encompasses five Russian flight information and control regions covering: Moscow, St Petersburg, Samara, Ekaterinburg, and Rostov-on-Don.

The broadcaster based the estimated numbers of elite Russian troops killed since the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine on open-source data – the actual figures could be much higher.

After nearly three years of its full-scale war against Ukraine, Russia has lost at least 6,083 elite soldiers to combat, whose training took years and millions of dollars, according to the BBC Russian service.

This figure includes only regular military personnel serving in elite units such as the Airborne Forces (VDV), Marine Corps, Ministry of Defense special forces, Rosgvardia, and military pilots. In total, based on open-source data, journalists have positively identified 88,055 Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine.

Canadian Member of Parliament Yvan Baker emphasizes that supporting Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression is a matter of vital national security for Canada, the US, and all NATO countries.

Germany’s Chancellor blocks military aid amid growing pressure from the Green Party for more defense spending, while the CDU pushes for supplying Ukraine with TAURUS missiles to boost its defenses.

The proposed arms package, created shortly after the collapse of Germany’s governing coalition in November, included three Iris-T air defense batteries with missiles, Patriot missiles, ten wheeled howitzers, and artillery ammunition.

Baerbock and Pistorius argue that aid is urgently needed as Ukraine faces mounting military challenges, particularly due to Russia’s winter offensives and energy infrastructure strikes.

Ukrainian forces targeted a Russian drone and ammunition warehouse in the Rostov region, causing powerful explosions and secondary detonations.

Kyiv Post sources in special services confirmed that in a joint operation, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the Ukrainian Navy successfully targeted a storage facility for Russian reconnaissance drones in the Rostov region early in the morning on Friday, Jan. 10. The facility, located near the village of Chaltyr, also housed ammunition.

According to sources, the operation began with SBU drones “overloading” Russian air defense systems, followed by a precise strike with a Neptune missile. The attack caused significant explosions, reportedly resulting in the detonation of stored ammunition.

Another market player joined the war risk insurance niche in Ukraine – this time it’s Ukraine’s largest insurance company ARX.

ARX, Ukraine’s leading insurance company and a member of the Canadian Fairfax Financial Holdings group, has launched war risk insurance for commercial real estate and investments in Ukraine. 

It will provide coverage of up to $50 million per risk, creating the product in collaboration with an insurtech participant in Lloyd’s Lab FortuneGuard and a top Lloyd’s broker McGill and Partners, the company’s press release said on Thursday. 

“When We Come and Belong Together – No One Is Too Small to Make a Real Impact on History.”

From the Editors:  President Zelensky delivered a speech at a meeting of Ukraine’s supporters on Jan. 9 at the US air base Ramstein in Germany, the last such gathering of allies in this format before Donald Trump takes office in Washington on Jan. 20. The Ukrainian leader later announced that Ukraine’s Western allies had pledged an additional $2 billion in military assistance.

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Serbia’s Chief of the General Staff said Belgrade was forced to cancel several military contracts with Russia because of the impact of sanctions on Moscow’s ability to honor them.

Serbia’s Chief of the General Staff Milan Mojsilovic said in an interview with the Vechernje Novosti tabloid news site that Belgrade was terminating several contracts for military materiel with Russia. He said that under the current conditions, it had proven impossible for Russia to fulfill them.

Mojsilovic said that a large proportion of Serbia’s military weapons and equipment were acquired during the Soviet-era which had previously been maintained and renewed by Russia. He suggested since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the imposition of sanctions on Moscow, Serbia had relied on third party nations who produced the same equipment under license for the support they needed.

Russia forcibly conscripts residents of the occupied regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia for compulsory military service, violating international humanitarian law.

Russia has forcibly drafted some 300 residents of the Russian-occupied parts of the Ukrainian regions Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense’s Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR) reported on Thursday, Jan 9.

The forced conscription occurred from Oct. 1 to Dec. 31, 2024, the HUR press service stated.

Trump, who will be inaugurated on January 20, has repeatedly said he can bring a swift end to the nearly three-year war between Russia and Ukraine.

The Kremlin said Friday that President Vladimir Putin was open to talks with Donald Trump, after the incoming US president said a meeting between the pair was being set up.

“The president has repeatedly stated his openness to contact with international leaders, including the US president, including Donald Trump,” Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Donald Trump’s desire for the Arctic island could capitalize on energy and security needs arising from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but whether he should pursue it is another question.

US President-elect Donald Trump has reiterated his desire to purchase Greenland and said he does not rule out military or economic coercion when prompted by reporters.

During a press conference at his Florida resort on Jan. 7, reporters asked whether Trump would assure that he would not use military or economic coercion to take over the Panama Canal and Greenland, to which Trump said, “No, I can’t assure you on either of those two. But I can say this, we need them for economic security,” according to Reuters.

Elon Musk, Big Tech billionaire and future head of the US Department of Government Efficiency, is increasingly interfering in European politics.

Elon Musk, Big Tech billionaire and future head of the US Department of Government Efficiency, is increasingly interfering in European politics. Only weeks before the German parliamentary elections he has endorsed the AfD and called Chancellor Olaf Scholz an “incompetent fool”. He also accused British Prime Minister Keir Starmer of failing to properly investigate an abuse scandal when the latter was the UK’s Director of Public Prosecutions.

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Democracies must protect themselves from undue influence, writes the Irish Independent:

Poland’s prime minister has hit out at the main opposition party after their presidential candidate said Ukraine did not belong in either the EU or NATO.

Karol Nawrocki made the comments on the private Polsat News channel in response to the presenter’s comments that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump does not see Ukraine in the North Atlantic Alliance.

Nawrocki said: “Today, I do not see Ukraine in either structure, neither in the European Union nor in NATO, until those important civilizational issues for Poles are resolved.“A country that cannot answer for a very brutal crime against 120,000 of its neighbors cannot be part of international alliances.“Nawrocki’s remarks were a reference to the World War II-era ethnic cleansing of Poles in what is now western Ukraine.

The column included air defense ammunition and numerous fuel tankers, raising concerns about Russia’s logistics strategy.

Ukrainian guerilla fighters in occupied Crimea have reported the movement of a Russian military equipment column near Dzhankoi, the Atesh partisan movement announced on Telegram on Thursday, Jan. 9.

The column reportedly carried personnel, weapons, air defense ammunition, and a large number of fuel tankers. According to Atesh, all collected intelligence, including the column’s detailed route, has been passed to the Ukrainian Defense Forces.

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

Firefighters are battling to control a series of major fires in the Los Angeles area that have killed five people, ravaged communities from the Pacific Coast to Pasadena and forced over 180,000 people to flee their homes. The Palisades and Eaton fires each appeared to have destroyed some 5,000 or more structures, officials said, which would put them both among the five most destructive fires in California history. After a brief respite, winds were picking up as a new fire broke out.- AP

President Biden announced from the White House on Thursday that the federal government would pay for 100 percent of the region’s firefighting needs for the next 180 days, pledging the full weight of the federal government — and his successor’s administration — to help contain the fast-moving fires, which have killed at least five people and forced tens of thousands to evacuate, and support recovery. “We are with you,” Mr. Biden said. “We are not going anywhere.” So far, more than 29,000 acres, about twice the size of Manhattan, have burned. Robert Luna, the Los Angeles County Sheriff, said some areas “look like a bomb was dropped in them,” adding, “I think the death toll will rise.” - NYT

The operation was primarily targeting the organisers of schemes that aid draft evaders to illegally cross the Ukrainian border.

Ukrainian police said Friday they were conducting hundreds of raids nationwide to shut down routes used by military-aged men to flee the country to avoid military service.

Kyiv has been driving a large-scale mobilisation campaign for months to boost its military, which is struggling to hold back Russia’s significantly larger army that is advancing in the east of the country, nearly three years after Moscow invaded.

Acetone is a chemical solvent that is highly flammable and explosive. Its fumes can cause dizziness, nausea, and breathing problems.

Ukrainian drones attacked several regions across Russia early morning on Friday, Jan. 10, leading to damage in some areas but no reported casualties.

According to regional governor Yuri Slyusar, Russian air defense forces intercepted 16 drones in the Rostov region. In the village of Crimea [a village in Rostov region], a fire broke out at a manufacturing plant, reportedly the Plastfactor factory, which produces floor coverings.

With two weeks to his inauguration, Trump set alarm bells ringing with provocative statements including refusing to rule out using military force to seize Denmark’s territory Greenland.

Donald Trump hasn’t even moved back into the White House -- but the volatile US president-elect has already rattled his counterparts in Europe.

With under two weeks to his inauguration, Trump set alarm bells ringing with provocative statements including refusing to rule out using military force to seize Denmark’s autonomous territory Greenland.

He made the statement just a week and a half before taking office, following promises during his campaign to bring peace to Ukraine, which has been under Russian invasion since February 2022.

US President-elect Donald Trump said Thursday that Russian leader Vladimir Putin wanted to meet and that a rendezvous between the pair was being arranged.

He made the statement just a week and a half before taking office, following promises during his campaign to bring peace to Ukraine, which has been under Russian invasion since February 2022.

Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief reported the statistics on Jan. 5 following his monthly update meeting with commanders of Ukraine’s unmanned systems and electronic warfare units.

Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrsky posted a summary of his monthly meeting with commanders of unmanned systems and electronic warfare units via video conference on Telegram on Jan. 5.

He said that during December, the Ukrainian Defense Forces had hit over 54,000 Russian targets, with almost half of the strikes being achieved using kamikaze drones. He made particular mention of the successes achieved by Maj. Robert Brovdy’s unmanned aerial systems (UAS) regiment and by the drone units attached to the 46th Airmobile, 57th Motorized Infantry, 28th Mechanized, 35th Marine, and 3rd Assault Brigades.

After Italian PM Meloni’s visit to Trump’s Florida resort, a journalist is suddenly freed from an Iranian prison. Is there a correlation? Does Giorgia Meloni have the president-elect’s ear?

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni seems to have pulled a diplomatic rabbit out of a hat.

In recent decades, Iran has had a relatively good relationship with Italy as far as Western European governments go, but last month Tehran warned Rome about bending to the “political and hostile goals” of the United States, after Italian authorities in Milan arrested an Iranian engineer pursuant to a US Department of Justice warrant for a drone attack in Jordan last year.

Rekindling animosity over the 1943 Volhynia massacres, Polish presidential candidate Karol Nawrocki of the right-wing Law and Justice party says he does not see Ukraine in either NATO or the EU.

Polish presidential candidate Karol Nawrocki, who is supported by the opposition Law and Justice party, said: “Today, I do not see Ukraine in any structure – neither in the European Union nor in NATO – until such important civilizational issues for Poles are resolved.”

Nawrocki made the comment in response to the host’s remark that “Donald Trump does not see Ukraine in NATO.” The candidate expressed his “unequivocal opinion on this issue” on the Polsat News TV channel.

Latest from the Institute for the Study of War.

Key Takeaways from the ISW:

• Ukraine’s Western partners reiterated their support for Ukraine and their commitment to the development of Ukraine’s defense industrial base (DIB) at the Ukraine Defense Contact Group at Ramstein Air Base in Germany on January 9.
• Ukraine’s Western partners announced additional military aid packages at Ramstein Air Base on January 9.
• Russian elites and high-ranking security officials are reportedly frustrated with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s efforts to wage a full-scale war in Ukraine with half measures and are increasingly concerned with Putin’s timeline to end the war.
• High-ranking Russian security officials appear to be assessing that Russia needs to intensify its war in Ukraine rather than seek an exit via negotiations.
• Russian elites’ reported diagnosis of the main problem with Russia’s conduct of the war is inaccurate, as Russia’s failure to restore maneuver to the battlefield — not a shortage of manpower — is the main factor causing Russia’s relatively slow rate of advance.
• Meduza‘s report indicates that Russia’s security elite — like Putin himself — is uninterested in a negotiated and peaceful resolution to the war in the near future.
• A Russian opposition investigative outlet reported that Russian authorities have turned a pretrial detention center (SIZO) in Taganrog, Voronezh Oblast into a torture center for Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) and imprisoned Ukrainian civilians.
• The UN condemned the recent surge in Russian executions of Ukrainian POWs.
• The Armenian government approved a draft law on January 9, beginning Armenia’s accession process into the EU.
• Russian forces recently advanced near Borova and Pokrovsk and in Kursk Oblast.
• Ukrainian forces recently advanced near Sudzha.
• Russian officials continue to indicate that the Kremlin intends to further militarize the Russian government and Russian society in the long term.

Russia paid the Taliban $200K per coalition soldier killed; Carter funeral in Washington gathers five former US presidents and four first ladies, as a president’s “character” is called into question.

Russia paid Taliban $200K per coalition soldier killed

A joint report from Russian-founded investigative outlet The Insider and German news magazine Der Speigel found that Moscow had been offering bounties of $200,000 for every American and coalition soldier killed in Afghanistan.

The report, which came out on Jan. 8, claimed that Russia’s military intelligence agency, the GRU, had paid around $30 million in total to Taliban-linked soldiers between 2016 and 2019.