On Oct. 30, Slovakia’s Prime Minster Robert Fico conducted an online interview with Olga Skabeyeva. Parts of the interview were published on Skabeyeva’s Telegram channel.
Fico is well-known for his inflammatory statements about Ukraine and the war, which often echo Moscow’s talking point. He has repeatedly criticised military aid to Ukraine and called for the restoration of relations with Russia following the war.
The prime minister of a NATO member and EU country spoke to a propagandist sanctioned in several Western countries. They discussed a number of topics, including the Nord Stream explosions and the alleged Western fatigue regarding the support for Ukraine. Fico reiterated his desire for a visit to Moscow during the celebrations of Victory Day on May 9.
Fico claimed, based on the snippets that Skabeyeva published on her channel, that real agreements could be reached in April 2022 that would end the war immediately.
Ukraine and Russia only engaged in direct negotiations once, in 2022 in Belarus and Turkey. The draft treaty that resulted, which reportedly prevented Ukraine from joining NATO, and postponed occupied territories was never signed because of disagreements on several key issues and a changing tide on the battlefield.
“We all look at this conflict and, to be honest, I feel that we are looking away. Here are your weapons and here is your money. Fight, but don’t bore with it. We just don’t want to be involved anymore with this war,” said the Slovak Prime Minister.
Fico expressed skepticism about earlier reports that the Nord Stream pipe was blown up in the Ukraine by Ukrainian officers. He called the allegation ‘nonsense.’ He said that it was his duty to travel to Moscow for the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.
German investigators reportedly tied the Nord Stream blasts of September 2022 to a Ukrainian national group, implicating some top former officials like ex-Commander-in-Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi. Kyiv denies any involvement and blames Russia instead.
The denial comes just a day after Financial Times reported that Ukraine, Russia and other countries are resuming talks about stopping the strikes on their energy infrastructures after the talks abruptly ceased in August after Ukraine’s Kursk invasion.
The prime minister of a NATO member and EU country discussed a number of topics with the propagandist sanctioned in the West, including the Nord Stream explosions and the supposed Western fatigue regarding the support for Ukraine.
It was a confidential information between Ukraine & the White House. How can we understand these messages? Volodymyr Zelensky, President of Ukraine, said this during a press conference with journalists from Nordic nations.
Eric Schmidt, speaking at the Future Investment Initiative Conference in Saudi Arabia said that Russia’s conflict in Ukraine demonstrated how a “$5,000 Drone can destroy a tank worth $5 million.”
One source stated that only a few hundred of them are special forces and the rest are regular troops.
A source at the South Korean news agency said that Seoul had not received a similar request from the Ukrainians and the matter was not being considered.
As part of the investigation, the office summoned Salome Zourabichvili on Oct. 31. The president refused acknowledge the results, calling it “a Russian special operation” and urging voters to protest.
According to the Air Force, Ukrainian air defenses destroyed 33 of the 62 Russian Shahed drones that were launched overnight. Twenty-three drones were reported “lost.”
Oleksandr Vikul, the head the city’s Military Administration, said on his Telegram channel, Oct. 30, “Unfortunately, 55-year-old male died at 8:50 am.”
Microsoft warned in a blogpost on October 29 that the Russian hacker group Midnight Blizzard was sending highly targeted phishing email to U.S. citizens working in government, academia and defense organizations as well as non-governmental organisations.
In a separate press briefing on October 28, Pentagon spokesperson Major-General Pat Ryder stated that a “relatively few” North Korean troops were already in Kursk Oblast.
On Oct. 29, Ramzan Kadyrov, the Chechen dictator, appeared to boast about using Ukrainian prisoners in Chechnya as human shields. He claimed that there were casualties after a drone attack on Chechnya.
This includes 1,560 casualties that Russian forces have suffered in the last day.
The city authorities reported that Russian drones attacked Kyiv overnight on October 30, 2010.
Peter Szijjarto, the Hungarian foreign minister, will be speaking at the Minsk Conference on Eurasian Security on October 31, Belarus.
The Financial Times reported that Ukraine and Russia have begun preliminary discussions to stop attacks on each other’s energy infrastructure.
Mediazona, an independent Russian media outlet, and BBC Russia confirmed through open-source research the names of 75.382 Russian soldiers killed since the start of Russia’s full scale invasion.
Brekht warned that if Russia continues to attack critical energy infrastructure, as it did in the year 2023, Ukrainians could face power outages of up to eight hours on “critical” days.
CNN reported on October 29 that United States National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan had urged China, which maintains relationships with North Korea to put pressure on Pyongyang, to withdraw North Korean soldiers from Ukraine’s first line.
G7 leaders announced that they would begin disbursing funds by the end the year. The loan will help Ukraine meet its economic, defense and reconstruction needs.
The fire started at 1:30 pm local time on a hydraulic press that was used to make steel shell casings in three-dimensional form.
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