Anna Belokur, of The Kyiv Independent, explains the top stories from the week. From the North Korean soldiers fighting in Russia to an update on Volodymyr Zelensky’s Victory Plan.
The election results were tainted with allegations of Russian interference. Moldovan lawmakers claimed that Moscow spent millions in a campaign against Maia Sandu, the pro-Western incumbent and voted down the EU referendum.
According to reports, the attack involved seven tanks and eleven infantry fighting vehicles. Ukrainian forces destroyed seven pieces of Russian equipment.
Interfax, a state-controlled news agency, reported that Dmitry Peskov, spokesperson for the Russian media said: “We see a great deal of contradictory data.”
The Air Force reported that Ukrainian air defenses destroyed 59 of 116 Shahed type attack drones that Russia launched overnight. According to reports, 45 drones “lost” in Ukraine and 10 others were still present at the time of publication.
According to the National Guard of Russia, Russian troops regularly conduct mechanized attacks near Selydove. These assaults involve three to five armored vehicle.
Yonhap reported that South Korea summoned Georgy Zinoviev as the Russian ambassador to Seoul on October 21 to protest the dispatching of North Korean troops in support of Moscow’s war with Ukraine.
According to internal documents of the agency, the IAEA has signed at least two agreements for research in Crimea that included fieldwork. The deals were signed from 2016 to 2019, and the first deal was reportedly extended during the summer of 2019.
A military intelligence source told Kyiv Independent that Russian authorities had detained 18 North Koreans who abandoned their positions within the Kursk Oblast of Russia.
Dmitry Rogozin said that the Russian official in charge of the occupation of Zaporizhzhia Oblast was forced to change the registration number because the unmanned boats used by the enemy were a large target for our large ships.
According to Ukraine’s Military Intelligence (HUR), Russian Pilot Dmitry Golenkov sustained multiple head injuries. These were probably caused by a heavy hammer.
CNN reported that U.S. defense secretary Lloyd Austin arrived in Kyiv, Ukraine on October 21 to ensure continued support before the uncertain U.S. presidential election.
According to regional authorities, the wounded include seven women ranging in age from 22 to 83 years old and five men ages 21 to 38. The attack caused some areas of the city to lose electricity.
This includes 1,710 casualties that Russian forces have suffered in the last day.
The memoir “Patriot” was compiled from the prison diaries of the Russian opposition leader and edited in part Yulia Nalnaya. The book will be published in 22 languages including Russian.
According to the drone developers, the Wild Hornets Group, “Sting” is expected to be able fly at altitudes of up to 10,000 feet and with speeds exceeding 100 miles per hour. It is the world’s first drone designed to specifically target Russia’s Shaheds arsenal.
In his evening address of October 20, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that Russia had launched 6,130 drones of the type Shahed since 2024.
On October 20, a large rally in support for Georgia’s entry into the European Union took place in Tbilisi’s Freedom Square, ahead of the upcoming elections scheduled for October 26.
Belarusian Hajun, a monitoring group, reported that the Belarusian Air Force had downed an Russian Shahed drone in Belarus‘ Homel Oblast over night on October 20. This is only the third time that a Belarusian aircraft downed a Russian drone that entered its airspace.
Sources told the Kyiv Independent that drones were used to target the large Sverdlov Plant, owned by the state and located in Dzerzhinsk, a city in the Nizhny Novgorod Region. This is about 900 kilometers into Russia.
Oleksandr Vilkul said that eight of the injured were currently hospitalized, but their condition is “moderate”.
This includes 1,340 casualties that Russian forces have suffered in the last day.
Read More @ kyivindependent.com