The press service of Russia’s VTB Bank opened applications for preferential loans in the Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine’s Luhansk Oblast and Donetsk Oblast, according to the state-controlled Interfax News Agency on October 30.
Moscow has offered incentives to Russian citizens to settle on the occupied territories, while thousands of Ukrainians fled. The goal is to Russify this conquered land.
Interfax reported that the Russian banking giant offered interest at rates as low as 2 percent and plans to extend its offer to the occupied areas in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia as soon as “housing” constructions begin there.
The Russian war has left many Ukrainian villages and cities in ruins.
In September 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the illegal annexation the four oblasts mentioned above. Since the beginning of the Russian aggression, in 2014, Crimea and some parts of Donetsk and Luhansk have been occupied.
Kyiv says that peace talks should only be held if Russia withdraws fully from Ukraine.
VTB stated that the 2% annual interest rate would be fixed throughout the loan term of up to 30 years. The initial payment will be 10.1% of the purchase price of the home and the loan amount can reach up to 6,000,000 rubles ($62,000).
The decision by the partially state-owned banks comes after Putin’s request that banks expand their services to the occupied territories beginning in 2024.
According to Interfax the Russian banking giant offers interest at as low as 2% and plans to extend its offer to Kherson oblast and Zaporizhzhia as soon as housing constructions begin there.
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 alleged 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 that 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 a drone attack on Chechnya. He claimed that there were casualties amongst the captives.
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 hoped to start disbursing funds by the end the year. The loan will help Ukraine meet its economic, defense and reconstruction needs.
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