Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said speed restrictions on Starlink satellite communications terminals and their military version, Starshield, remain in place in Ukraine. He spoke in a video address to the Hudson Institute in Washington, Interfax-Ukraine reported.

“The speed limits on Starlink and Starshield are still there. The speed has not been restored. And the delivery of interceptors to protect us against Russian ballistic missiles is still delayed. We’re waiting for interceptors that were already agreed on. But they are still not coming. Hope that everything is on the way. And this is a real problem for us, because the Russians attack us almost every day. Russia attacks us massively. So that’s where things stand today,” Zelensky said.

He added that this was happening as Ukraine continues its “quite successful operations on the front,” and said the Starlink and Starshield restrictions had complicated the situation.

“But our front line is still holding, and we are doing our best to keep our logistics working, and we continue defending ourselves,” he said.

On October 14, Ukrainian military personnel reported encountering restrictions on Starlink satellite communications terminals — specifically, their military version, Starshield. The connection cut out when drones exceeded 160 kilometers per hour (about 100 miles per hour). This came amid a sharp deterioration in relations between Zelensky and U.S. President Donald Trump.

Two days later, Trump said he had not ordered Starshield service in Ukraine to be restricted and did not know who could have done so. However, The Telegraph, citing four sources, reported that Musk had approached Trump with a proposal to restrict Starlink speeds in Ukraine. The Wall Street Journal later reported that Musk had ordered Starshield service in Ukraine to be restricted.

The Wall Street Journal also reported that Trump called Musk and asked him to lift the restrictions on the military version of Starlink in Ukraine. Trump later said Musk had lifted the restrictions.

Ukraine’s military Starlink service

• How Ukraine’s military uses Starlink — and what would happen if the Trump administration cut off its satellite communications entirely
• Ukrainian troops lost Starlink access for a day. Elon Musk and the Trump White House both deny responsibility.

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Moscow’s Tagansky District Court has ruled partly in Oleg Deripaska’s favor in his defamation lawsuit against Anti-Corruption Foundation investigators Maria Pevchikh and Sergey Yezhov, former Popular Politics host Irina Alleman, and human rights activist Olga Romanova, the businessman’s lawyer, Alexey Melnikov, told Interfax.

Melnikov said the court found that the information the defendants had circulated was false and defamatory. The court also ordered the defendants to pay 40 million rubles in compensation.

Deripaska had sought 1 billion rubles from Pevchikh, Yezhov, Alleman, and Romanova.

In his lawsuit, Deripaska alleged that for several years, “the defendants have been waging a large-scale campaign against him to tarnish his honor and good name.”

The lawsuit stemmed from a video titled “Organized Crime, Officials, Girls: The Criminal Biography of Oleg Deripaska” on the Navalny Live YouTube channel. The video’s description calls Deripaska “an oligarch for whom crime has always been the norm.”

Oleg Deripaska has repeatedly sued the Anti-Corruption Foundation. In August 2022, he filed a lawsuit against Alexey Navalny, Maria Pevchikh, Georgy Alburov, and The Insider over an investigation into Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. In October 2022, Moscow’s Zelenogradsky District Court ruled in Deripaska’s favor. He had previously sued over an investigation by Navalny’s team into his yacht vacation with Sergey Prikhodko, then a Russian deputy prime minister, and escort agency employee Nastya Rybka. In December 2024, Deripaska sued Pevchikh and Google over her statement in a Popular Politics video that the billionaire “chips in to fund a private military company.”

From Meduza’s archives

• ‘Working trips’ Team Navalny looks into Sergey Lavrov’s ‘female companion’ identified by investigative journalists
• ‘The main risk is that they’ll kill us all’ How Navalny’s team worked while he was in prison — and what changed after his death

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Russia’s Justice Ministry has added journalist Maxim Kurnikov, editor-in-chief of the news outlet Ekho, to its register of “foreign agents.”

Also added to the list were:

• Yelena Shuvalova, a former Moscow City Duma member who heads the Novosibirsk branch of the Rassvet party
• The project “BEYOND PROPAGANDA”
• The project Prostranstvo Politika. Novosibirsk
• The International Union of German Culture, an association of nonprofit organizations
• Mavi Grupp LLC

Ekho was founded abroad by former journalists from the radio station Ekho Moskvy. The outlet was designated a “foreign agent” in July 2026.

From Meduza’s archives

• ‘Our readership is smarter than the Kremlin thinks’ Meduza talks to the chief editors of blacklisted Russian media outlets about their plans for the future
• ‘You can always expect retaliatory measures from Moscow’ Deputy Duma Speaker Pyotr Tolstoy explains Russia’s new legislation against ‘foreign agents’ in the news media
• ‘I don’t want to become a political prisoner’ Three ‘foreign agent’ journalists describe life after designation by Russia’s Justice Ministry

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Russia’s Justice Ministry has published a registry of people subject to “temporary restrictive measures” on its website.

The list contains 12 names, with Mikhail Khodorkovsky first. It also includes political scientist Yekaterina Schulmann, businessman Yevgeny Chichvarkin, philanthropist Boris Zimin, and several others.

1. Mikhail Khodorkovsky

2. Alexey Nesterenko

3. Anastasia Shevchenko

4. Yekaterina Schulmann

5. Leonid Gozman

6. Yevgeny Chichvarkin

7. Michael Nacke

8. Yelena Kotyonochkina

9. Boris Zimin

10. Vladimir Milov

11. Mark Zakharov

12. Anastasia Burakova

Clicking on a name in the registry opens an entry with personal information — date and place of birth, taxpayer identification number, and pension insurance number — along with the grounds for the restrictions.

Deputy Justice Minister Oleg Sviridenko discussed the registry’s creation in an interview with TASS the previous day. He said the law establishing it — dubbed the “civil death” law on social media — was “neither excessive nor a violation of constitutional rights, but a justified effort to restore the rule of law and justice.”

“I can’t rule out that, as the law is applied, it may need fine-tuning and targeted adjustments to ensure it is fully consistent with the broader legal framework for protecting national sovereignty,” Sviridenko said.

In late July 2026, the State Duma passed a law in both its second and third readings introducing “temporary restrictive measures” against people outside Russia who have been found guilty of an offense in the country and are “evading” an administrative or criminal penalty. Among other provisions, the law called for a registry — effectively a list of “enemies of the people.” The registry began operating in test mode in late August.

Placement on the registry effectively amounts to “civil death.” Restrictions include freezing funds in Russian banks, barring access to online banking, prohibiting sales of real estate and vehicles, banning all transactions conducted under a power of attorney, and denying access to consular services.

Measures affecting Russians abroad

• Russia begins widespread freezing of bank accounts belonging to exiled cultural figures
• How new ‘transnational repression’ measures could affect the lives of Russians in Europe

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Austria will expel four Russian diplomats suspected of spying. Three worked at the Russian Embassy in Vienna and the fourth at Russia’s mission to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

Austria’s Foreign Ministry said the diplomats “have engaged in activities incompatible with their diplomatic status” and had therefore been declared personae non gratae.

Austrian authorities have long known about all four diplomats and have kept them on internal lists of suspects for some time, Profil magazine reported. An inquiry began in mid-August after the news outlet Proekt reported on ties between Russian diplomats in Europe and three Russian intelligence agencies: military intelligence (the GRU), the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), and the Federal Security Service (FSB).

Austria previously expelled three Russian Embassy employees in May on suspicion of maintaining spying equipment. Profil reported that satellite dishes Russia could use to intercept communications traffic had been found on the embassy’s roof.

From Meduza’s archives

• ‘A path towards destroying relations’ Czech Republic to limit Russian Embassy staff in Prague amid escalating diplomatic tensions
• What is the GRU? Who gets recruited to be a spy? Why are they exposed so often? Here are the most important things you should know about Russia’s intelligence community

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Police in Cyprus have launched an investigation into reports that Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich may have evaded taxes with help from the accounting firm Deloitte. A Cypriot Justice Ministry official told a parliamentary committee meeting on combating money laundering that the investigation was underway, the BBC reported.

The police financial crime unit is conducting the investigation.

“We will look at any company or person who may be involved. We will see if there has been fraud or if some documents have been manipulated,” Cypriot police spokesman Andreas Anastasiades told the BBC.

The BBC, The Guardian, and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) previously published investigations reporting that Deloitte, one of the world’s largest consulting and accounting firms, helped falsify documents to conceal Abramovich’s wealth and help him evade taxes. According to the journalists, Deloitte’s Cyprus division helped him conceal $672 million in assets, including mansions, yachts, and private jets.

Abramovich’s lawyers denied any wrongdoing. Deloitte Cyprus said it had always complied with local laws.

Russian billionaires and Cyprus companies

• Investigations implicate Deloitte, one of the world’s largest accounting firms, in alleged tax-evasion schemes involving Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich’s Cyprus companies
• Moscow money in the Mediterranean Leaked documents show Cyprus firms linked to Russian billionaires played key role in the Kremlin’s backdoor dealings

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Israel will hold parliamentary elections on October 27. Recent opinion polls show Likud, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, trailing Yashar, the party led by former Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot. Neither party has a decisive lead, however.

A few days before the election, Netanyahu posted a recording of a conversation with musician Andrey Makarevich, who has lived in Israel for the past several years. Makarevich, who holds both Israeli and Russian citizenship, expressed support for Netanyahu during the conversation.

Many people in Israel and beyond were unhappy with Makarevich’s support for Netanyahu, who divides opinion among Israelis. Some Israelis are dissatisfied with the prime minister’s domestic policies, as well as his government’s actions before, during, and after the Hamas terrorist attack on October 7, 2023.

“Wow, what a storm this has stirred up! A typhoon! A tsunami!” Makarevich wrote on social media.

Critics noted that the musician had supported Vladimir Putin in the early 2000s and that in 2008, his band, Mashina Vremeni, had taken part in the “Forward, Russia!” rally and concert on Moscow’s Vasilyevsky Spusk to celebrate Dmitry Medvedev’s presidential election victory. Makarevich later publicly criticized the Russian authorities on many occasions. In 2022, the musician, who spoke out against the war with Ukraine, was designated a “foreign agent” in Russia.

“God, what an absolute disgrace,” blogger Rustem Adagamov wrote, pointing out that the International Criminal Court had issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu and that the prime minister faces corruption charges in Israel.

Adagamov stressed that Makarevich had “spent years condemning the crimes of Putin’s regime, Russian aggression, and the killing of civilians,” but was now “having a friendly chat with a politician accused of extremely serious international crimes,” helping him “build a favorable public image.” “This isn’t about principles anymore — it’s hypocrisy and double standards,” the blogger wrote.

Some users on Facebook, where Makarevich’s conversation with Netanyahu has drawn the most discussion, supported the musician, saying that “everyone has the right to freedom of speech and freedom of choice.”

Makarevich responded to the comments:

Once again, my opponents have proved that their emotions run about a hundred times stronger than their brains — assuming they have any — and that they can outdo even the worst Kremlin trolls when it comes to being obnoxious. Pretty much what I expected. Building politics in our country around those attitudes is a bad idea. Take my word for it. I reserve the right to think what I think and say what I say. Enjoy the elections.

Israelis and the October 7 attack

• Three years since October 7: Israelis tell Meduza how the worst terrorist attack in their country’s history changed them and the world around them
• ‘Something like this has never happened before’ Meduza readers in Israel share their experiences of the October 7 Hamas attack

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Valery Gerasimov, chief of the Russian military’s General Staff, said Russian forces would cease fire on the Kherson front starting at 4 a.m. on October 27 for a humanitarian operation in Oleshky (Alyoshki in Russian).

“To ensure people’s safety and deliver essential supplies, arrangements will be made to conduct engineering reconnaissance and provide safe passage for a humanitarian convoy into Alyoshki in the Kherson region,” Gerasimov said.

On the afternoon of October 23, the White House said Russia and Ukraine would temporarily halt hostilities in Oleshky, in the Russian-occupied part of the Kherson region, so residents could leave the city safely. U.S. first lady Melania Trump was involved in reaching the agreement. The ceasefire was scheduled to begin on October 29, the White House said.

Oleshky was occupied at the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. By the fall of 2026, conditions there had become dire — residents had no food, electricity, or adequate medical care. Civilians cannot leave the city safely. Pope Leo XIV also appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin regarding the situation in Oleshky, calling in a phone call for a ceasefire to allow humanitarian aid deliveries and the safe, voluntary evacuation of residents.

The humanitarian crisis in Oleshky

• ‘The smell of death is everywhere’: Inside the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Russian-occupied Oleshky, where hundreds are trapped without food, electricity, or medicine
• A humanitarian crisis is gripping Russian-occupied Oleshky as food deliveries stop and safe evacuation becomes nearly impossible

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The Comoros-flagged cargo ship Khoryv sank in the Black Sea off Romania’s coast after a drone attack, Reuters reported. The ship had 13 sailors from Ukraine and Azerbaijan aboard. One crew member was killed, nine were rescued, and three remain missing.

“It is part of Russia’s escalation process in its war in Ukraine,” Romanian President Nicusor Dan said. He told reporters that the ship had sunk after being hit by a drone.

Romania’s naval authority said the Khoryv sent a distress signal 24 kilometers (about 15 miles) from the port of Constanta, just outside Romania’s territorial waters.

At least seven cargo ships have been attacked off the coasts of Romania and Bulgaria in the past two weeks, Reuters reported. About 30 sailors have been killed or gone missing.

Most of the ships attacked were near the Sulina Channel, which connects the Danube to the Black Sea. After strikes on Ukraine’s Black Sea ports, the channel became the main export route for Ukrainian grain and vegetable oil, Reuters reported.

Ukraine, Romania, and Bulgaria have called on NATO to do more to protect commercial ships in the Black Sea.

Black Sea shipping

• Greenpeace reports another huge oil slick in the Black Sea following an attack on a tanker off Sochi’s coastline. Russia denies any pollution but has declared a h alert.
• ‘The agreement won’t last long’ What the Black Sea grain deal means for Ukraine, Russia, and the wider world

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The retail chain Metro, whose Russian assets were placed under temporary management less than a month ago, said it had donated 1 billion rubles to the “People’s Front: Everything for Victory!” fund.

The money will go toward “purchasing equipment needed by the military on the front lines,” the company said in a press release.

The fund said the money would help meet “urgent needs” for vehicles, communications and reconnaissance systems, equipment to counter drones, and “other things needed by troops in the “special military operation.”

“As part of Russia’s economic system, we believe it is important to take part in the state’s strategic initiatives,” said Johannes Tholey, Metro’s chief executive in Russia.

Update: Germany’s Metro said it had not approved the transfer of 1 billion rubles to the Russian military. In a statement to Deutsche Welle, Metro AG said it “distances itself from any support for Russia’s war against Ukraine.” “Financing or supporting military operations runs counter to both our position and our business principles,” the company said.

In late September, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree placing the assets of the German retail chain Metro under temporary management. The company had remained in Russia after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The appointed manager was JSC UK Torg Rus, a company registered three weeks earlier. Its listed owner was Johannes Tholey, who has headed Metro Cash & Carry since 2023.

Le Monde later reported that Metro itself had proposed that the Russian authorities place it under temporary management, deciding to “act preemptively” to avoid the worst-case scenario.

From Meduza’s archives

• Here’s what we know about Putin’s decree empowering the Russian state to take control of companies that fail to stop Ukrainian drones
• A new wave of nationalization How the Russian authorities are seizing private assets, one court ruling at a time
• Putin says he won’t nationalize markets, but here are three tactics federal prosecutors are using to seize Russians’ assets

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Ukraine’s armed forces have evacuated a wounded soldier from the front line by drone for the first time, Reuters reported. The news agency recounted the rescue of 49-year-old Kostiantyn Vlasenko in the Kharkiv region, based on his account.

Vlasenko had been on the front line since May 2025, holding a position in a trench with a fellow soldier whose call sign was Basky. They received food and supplies by drone. There was no other way to deliver them — the sheer number of drones made any movement near the front line potentially deadly, Reuters reported.

They were due to rotate out in the fall of 2025, but the two soldiers sent to relieve them were killed on the way to their position. Two more soldiers sent to retrieve their bodies were then killed. Vlasenko said that was when he realized that “no one would get out anymore.”

In mid-February, after 10 months in the trench, Vlasenko and Basky were forced to abandon their position because it had flooded. They moved into a partially destroyed school building. One day, when they went out to collect a package of food and clothing dropped by their fellow soldiers, a Russian reconnaissance drone spotted them. Another drone then struck their position. Basky, who turned 50 that day, was killed.

The blast shattered Vlasenko’s left foot and left his right leg broken and twisted. He managed to crawl into shelter — a pit measuring about 80 by 60 centimeters beneath a metal boiler used to heat the school.

Vlasenko said his left foot gradually “rotted away,” while a bone protruded from his injured right shin. He decided to cut off his right foot as well. “I had to amputate it because it was just dragging along behind me. The leg was dragging so much that the bone was sticking out further and further,” he said.

As Vlasenko “started losing hope,” Reuters reported, his commanders began looking for ways to evacuate him. Using an armored vehicle was impossible because of the drones, so they initially planned to rescue him with unmanned ground vehicles. But drones destroyed two of those vehicles as they tried to reach him.

The commanders then decided to try a new heavy-lift drone capable of carrying a 90-kilogram load for up to 25 kilometers. That was enough: The officers estimated that Vlasenko weighed about 70 kilograms after a year on the front line, and a safe location behind the lines was 15 kilometers away.

Vlasenko was evacuated in early October after spending months alone awaiting rescue. The day before, a supply drop brought him a harness to put on and attach to a cable, along with a phone containing instructional videos.

During the evacuation, the drone carrying Vlasenko climbed to an altitude of 70 meters. Three other small drones escorted it to distract Russian drones. Before and during the evacuation, four FPV drone crews, fixed-wing drones, and artillery struck nearby positions identified as those of Russian drone operators.

The flight lasted 15 minutes. “I wasn’t afraid of falling, say somewhere into the forest, I wasn’t afraid of that. But I was afraid of falling into the water, because I can’t swim,” Vlasenko said. He is now undergoing rehabilitation at a hospital in Kharkiv.

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In December 2025, Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov, head of the Russian Armed Forces General Staff’s Operational Training Directorate, was killed in a car bombing in Moscow. A Russian man who left the country in 2022 and now coordinates a network of volunteers tracking Russian military personnel says he helped prepare the killing. His role is detailed in the BBC documentary ”Traitors, Patriots, Spies: Shadowmen Helping Ukraine Inside Russia.”

The film introduces the man as Foma. His face is hidden — viewers see only his silhouette and hear his voice. The filmmakers say that in early 2022, Foma warned Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, the HUR, about Russia’s planned invasion. He then fled Russia, and the Ukrainians helped him settle in Warsaw. He now lives in Poland.

Foma says he coordinates a network of about 30 people operating in Russia, Ukraine, and several European countries. He says he also maintains ties with sources in Russia’s intelligence services. According to the film, years of working among Russia’s elite gave him a unique network of contacts and a steady flow of inside information.

Foma says his network gathers intelligence on where storage depots and headquarters are located, where units are stationed, where generals live, where officers working at those headquarters live, where strategic bomber pilots who attack Ukraine live, and who gives the orders.

The HUR confirmed that it had worked with Foma, the investigative outlet iStories reported.

One scene shows Foma training volunteers to conduct surveillance in Moscow. He tells them not to bring a phone. He also warns that if they are caught, they face terrorism charges and 25 years in prison.

In the film, Foma says he wants Russian soldiers and officers who order the shooting of prisoners and the rape and murder of civilians to think long and hard before giving such orders, to be scared, and to stop. Those who turn into animals and those who kill people, he says, need to be punished.

The next segment covers the December 2024 killing of General Igor Kirillov, head of Russia’s Radiation, Chemical, and Biological Protection Troops. Foma told the BBC that he was not involved in that killing but confirmed that his network passes information about Russian military personnel to Ukraine. He insists the people his volunteers follow are war criminals.

Sarvarov was killed a year after Kirillov. When the BBC filmmaker asked Foma about Sarvarov’s killing, he said: “Keeping track of him took quite an effort. He lived alternately with his mistress and his colleague. Covered his tracks and constantly changed his schedule.” Foma stresses, however, that his group does not take part in the killings themselves.

A man using the same pseudonym has appeared as a military expert on The Breakfast Show’s morning broadcasts since mid-September. On September 19, after regular military expert Yuri Fyodorov left the channel, The Breakfast Show founder Alexander Plyushchev wrote that the morning show would have a new military commentator: Foma, co-founder of the Telegram channel Volya, who appears on camera with his face hidden.

The BBC film does not explicitly link Foma to Volya. But Agentstvo journalists noticed that several shots show him sitting in front of a computer monitor displaying Volya’s donation page on Patreon.

Plyushchev told Agentstvo that he contacted Foma while looking for a replacement for Fyodorov. “All I knew about Foma was that he did analysis on Georgian political scientist Gela Vasadze’s show and ran the Telegram channel Volya… We understood the risks of having an anonymous commentator, but we decided to try it, since he was providing commentary rather than serving as a source. Foma is now one of four military commentators who regularly work with The Breakfast Show,” Plyushchev said. Agentstvo received no response from Foma, who had been sent an editor’s contact information.

Russian military personnel and attacks

• At least six assassination attempts have targeted Russian generals away from the front line over the past two years — three of them fatal
• ‘A war criminal and a legitimate target’ Russian general assassinated in Moscow accused Kyiv and the West of secret biolabs, drone-delivered mosquitoes, and engineered pandemics
• A spy inside Russia’s army. The Wall Street Journal tells the story of the lieutenant who helped Ukraine kill hundreds of his fellow soldiers.

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Ukrainian forces launched a missile attack on Russia’s Oryol region. Preliminary reports from Ukrainian monitoring channels suggest the target was the Proton factory, which produces optoelectronic equipment and components for military use.

A missile alert was issued across the Oryol region at about 5 p.m. local time. Local Telegram channels reported at least four explosions in the city of Oryol. Afterward, residents reported seeing thick smoke and hearing emergency vehicles.

Storm Shadow cruise missiles were used in the attack on Oryol, according to preliminary reports from Ukrainian monitoring channels.

The Telegram channel Exile+ reported that the factory’s products are used to manufacture S-71 “Kover” air-launched cruise missiles, 9M723 Iskander-M ballistic missiles, and Pantsir-S1 air defense missile and gun systems.

Oryol Governor Andrey Klychkov said Ukrainian forces had launched a missile attack on a civilian facility — a business in Oryol’s Sovetsky district. Details on casualties and the extent of the damage remain unclear.

Ukraine’s missile strikes on Russian factories

• Photos and videos from Voronezh, where Ukraine attacked a factory that supplies electronics for Russia’s cruise missiles
• What we know about Ukraine’s missile attack on a microchip plant in southwestern Russia
• A Ukrainian attack on a Russian missile plant killed at least seven civilians. Locals say they had nowhere to hide.

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Russia has mounted an online campaign to discredit candidates for the U.S. Congress ahead of the November 3 midterm elections, Senator Mark Warner and Representative Jim Himes told Politico. Both are Democrats who sit on their chambers’ intelligence committees.

The lawmakers said their conclusions about Russian interference come from a classified U.S. intelligence report they received earlier in the week. The report says Moscow is using AI tools to spread disinformation and undermine trust in individual candidates and in the elections as a whole.

The lawmakers believe Russia could target both Democrats and Republicans who support Ukraine. The intelligence agencies have found no proven attempts by Russia to hack the election system or campaign networks.

Reports of attempts to interfere in the congressional elections first surfaced in early September. The Bot Blocker project, which tracks pro-Russian bot activity on social media, warned about AI-generated videos featuring deepfakes of celebrities such as Robert De Niro, Julia Roberts, and Cher urging viewers not to vote for Democrats.

According to the project, a Russian bot network called “Matryoshka” is spreading the videos. The clips were posted on X under the logos of real news outlets and contained false accusations against American politicians.

Posts from Russian bots on X rack up tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of views, but those figures are artificially inflated through fake engagement, Bloomberg reported. The clips can reach up to 200,000 views in the first hour, after which the view counts stop moving entirely. Moreover, the posts draw almost no likes or reposts.

Researchers from Graphika, Alethea, and Clemson University identified another Russian bot network spreading deepfake videos that targeted American politicians, NBC News reported. On October 20, videos appeared on X baselessly accusing Texas Democrat James Talarico of sexual assault, and one post garnered more than 1.3 million views.

The researchers said the network behind it is a Russian disinformation operation called “Storm-1516” that has been linked to Russian military intelligence. “Storm-1516” has previously been accused of interfering in elections in the United States, Germany, Hungary, and France.

At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.

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Russia and Ukraine will temporarily pause fighting to allow residents of Oleshky, a city in the occupied part of Ukraine’s Kherson region, to evacuate safely.

The White House said U.S. first lady Melania Trump helped broker the agreement.

The ceasefire will begin October 29.

“Residents who wish to evacuate will receive coordinated support and transportation to their preferred destination. I anticipate some will want to go to Russia, and some to Ukraine,” Melania Trump said.

Russian forces occupied Oleshky at the start of the full-scale war in 2022. By the fall of 2026, conditions in the city had grown dire: residents had no food, electricity, adequate medical care, or any safe way to leave.

European Parliament Vice President Pina Picierno declared a hunger strike to “draw international attention” to the situation in Oleshky. Pope Leo XIV spoke by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin and urged him to halt the fighting so humanitarian aid could reach residents and allow them to evacuate.

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Russian authorities are discussing ending the preferential mortgage program for IT specialists early, three sources told the Russian business news outlet RBC.

Two of RBC’s sources said the program will end in December 2026. Another source said “the parameters and timing of early termination are being worked out.” A federal official said the matter remains under discussion and that no final decision has been made.

A Digital Development Ministry representative said, “amid limited budget funds, funding for the program for the next period is being worked out.” He promised that the rates currently in effect for borrowers who have already taken out loans will remain unchanged for the full term of their loan agreements.

The preferential mortgage program for IT workers launched in spring 2022. Employees of IT companies accredited by the Digital Development Ministry that use tax incentives were eligible to apply.

The interest rate on the preferential mortgage initially did not exceed 5%, but authorities tightened the terms in 2024: the rate cap rose to 6%, and Moscow and St. Petersburg were excluded from the regions where the program applied. In cities with populations over a million, the maximum loan size fell from 18 million rubles to nine million rubles, and the salary threshold rose from 120,000 to 150,000 rubles. The Digital Development Ministry said at the time that the changes were driven in part by the program’s high burden on the budget. The government also announced plans to extend the program through 2030.

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The new U.S. peace plan calls for creating a demilitarized zone in Donbas, The Economist reported, citing Ukrainian officials. The plan also reportedly envisions Ukraine abandoning its bid to join NATO in exchange for an investment program and European Union membership. Russia would be offered eased sanctions and a partial restoration of ties with the West, possibly including a resumption of gas supplies to Europe and the restart of the Nord Stream pipelines. The Economist said these are only the outlines of the plan, and the details of the discussions remain unknown.

Kyiv reacted without enthusiasm to Steve Witkoff’s last meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky in Oslo, a source close to the Ukrainian president’s office told Meduza. The reason, according to the source, is that Russia continues to insist on recognition of its control over the Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine, including territories it has not captured. The source told Meduza that along the line of contact, Kyiv is ready for a cease-fire “as soon as today,” but added, “we have a consensus: Ukraine does not give up its territories.”

Vladimir Putin commented on the state of the negotiations for the first time. In an interview with Pavel Zarubin, he confirmed that Moscow agrees to resume “trilateral contacts” and said their purpose would be to discuss security issues for both Ukraine and Russia, “and in a final form, not as a result of a pause in hostilities.” On the subject of territorial concessions by Ukraine, Putin said: “This is not their territory, it is the territory of historical Russia. So talking about any territorial losses seems inappropriate to me.”

Europe is considering five candidates for the role of negotiator with Putin, The Telegraph reported. They are Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, Czech President Petr Pavel, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre (Norway is not an EU member). According to the newspaper’s sources, Brussels might send not just one but several people to the negotiations, which would help avoid internal competition between countries.

War in photos. Zaporizhzhia region

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All four of Moscow’s airports — Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo, Vnukovo, and Zhukovsky — closed to arrivals and departures, Rosaviatsia said.

Sheremetyevo declared an air raid alert and told passengers to head to the nearest safe zones and shelters.

Domodedovo announced that, because of temporary restrictions, “flight schedules are being adjusted.”

Vnukovo also reported the closure, explaining that the measures “were due to security considerations.” Passengers were advised to “be prepared for a lengthy wait,” including on board aircraft.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said over the past several hours that at least 11 drones had been shot down approaching the capital.

Update: Restrictions at all four Moscow airports were lifted several hours later, but the airports closed again by 9 p.m. At around 11 p.m., Vnukovo and Domodedovo resumed handling arriving and departing flights “subject to approval.” The Ukrainian monitoring channel Exilenova+ posted a photo of drone debris on a runway at Sheremetyevo Airport. Passengers were evacuated, though Russian authorities made no official statement about debris falling there. The air raid alert at the airport was later lifted. An evacuation was also ordered at the IQ Quarter complex in Moscow City during the attack. The tower houses several federal government agencies, including the Economic Development Ministry, the Industry and Trade Ministry, and the Digital Development Ministry.

On September 1, Volodymyr Zelensky warned airlines that Russian skies are “becoming unsafe,” saying that “drones will appear in Russian skies in a way that will have to be reckoned with.” He added that Ukraine “doesn’t threaten civil aviation as such,” but that because of Ukrainian drone attacks, “Russian airspace will de facto be closing.” Vladimir Putin called Zelensky’s statement “a declaration of terrorism” and added that “if such tragedies occur, we will find a way to respond.”

Over the past two months, Moscow’s airports have repeatedly closed due to the threat of Ukrainian drone attacks. Dozens of flights have been delayed as a result, and in some cases airports descended into chaos.

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Boris Kostenko, a former director of the Orthodox Christian channel Spas TV who now advises the state secretary of the Union State of Russia and Belarus, said a photograph of a fighter from the Espanola battalion who was killed in the war with Ukraine had “begun weeping myrrh.” The independent Russian investigative outlet Agentstvo reported the remark.

Speaking at the “Religion and Peace” forum in Moscow, Kostenko said:

Yesterday I received a photograph showing one of our fighters, call sign “Kazak.” He’s from the Espanola battalion. He died after drawing a drone away from his fellow soldiers, a heroic act. Many such acts are happening in the war right now. He died. He left behind a wife and a child. But what’s important is that this photo has been placed in the battalion’s office in Moscow. So the photo began weeping myrrh: it became covered in tiny droplets of myrrh.

Vadim Kazak of Espanola died in September 2024 near Chasiv Yar, Agentstvo reported.

Espanola was formed mostly from football fans, and some of its fighters openly hold neo-Nazi views. The news outlet Cherta reported that Espanola has ties to Vladislav Surkov, a former aide to the Russian president, and to United Russia. In October 2025, Stanislav Orlov, who led Espanola, announced that the battalion would be disbanded. In December, Orlov was killed in occupied Sevastopol.

Espanola said Orlov’s farewell ceremony was held at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. Agentstvo said he was the first participant in Russia’s war with Ukraine whose farewell ceremony was held at the main cathedral of the Russian Orthodox Church.

The “Religion and Peace” forum has been held since 2013. It is organized by the “Christian World” Union for Promoting the Preservation of Traditional Values, with support from the Presidential Directorate for Domestic Policy, the Higher Education and Science Ministry, and the Moscow government.

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An An-124-100 Ruslan cargo plane operated by Ukraine’s Antonov Airlines caught fire while landing at Chubu International Airport.

Antonov An-124 Incident at Chubu Centrair International Airport

Location: Chubu Centrair International AirportClick to open side panel for more information (Tokoname, Aichi Prefecture, Japan)

Aircraft Type: Antonov An-124 Ruslan (Heavy Strategic Airlifter / Cargo Aircraft)… pic.twitter.com/sc8cWTeHAY

— FL360aero (@fl360aero) October 22, 2026

The airport closed its runway for 15 minutes due to the incident, the broadcaster NHK reported. NHK did not specify what damage the plane sustained or whether anyone aboard was injured.

Japanese authorities said they are investigating the incident.

A drone carrying explosives was found near a Ukrainian An-124 at Leipzig Airport in August 2026. Germany accused Russia of attempting sabotage, which Russian authorities deny.

At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.

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