Belgrade erupted in celebration on Sunday night as Serbia's Gen Z-led protest movement transformed nearly two years of anti-corruption demonstrations into an electoral victory over the political establishment of former President Aleksandar Vucic, who had held power for 14 years.

Among the crowds was Dijana Hrka, whose 27-year-old

Russia launched two waves of ballistic missiles at the capital overnight, targeting a major bridge, metro stations, and other civilian infrastructure.

As it turns out, dictation exercises are not just for schoolchildren. On Oct. 27, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians — from diaspora communities abroad to service members on the front lines — will take part in an annual tradition: listening, writing, and testing their mastery of the Ukrainian language.

Organized

Key developments on Oct. 26:

• Ukrainian forces carry out 2 aerial evacuations of wounded soldiers, video shows
• Death toll from Russian attack on park in Kharkiv Oblast on Oct. 19 rises to 6 after child dies in hospital
• Ukraine strikes Russian plant producing missile, bomb batteries in Yelets, General Staff

The two soldiers, 25-year-old Yevhen, call sign "Izium," and 24-year-old Artem, call sign "Kolobok," had suffered severe limb injuries and were stranded in a contested area about 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the Russian border.

The law fulfills Ukraine's commitments under the Ukraine Facility, an EU financial assistance program launched in 2024, and unlocks 137 million euros ($153 million) in budget funding, Prime Minister Serhii Koretskyi said.

The move adds to tensions between the two countries after Lviv's council adopted decrees on Oct. 20 symbolically declaring 2027 as the Year of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) and its military leader Romam Shukhevych.

When Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, Iryna Simakina was in Enerhodar, a city in southern Ukraine, home to Europe's largest nuclear power plant.

As Russian forces advanced on the city, staying became increasingly dangerous. Simakina, who uses a wheelchair because of a disability, eventually left

Artem Koval suffered severe injuries in the drone strike and was taken to hospital. Despite a week of efforts to save him, doctors were unable to overcome his life-threatening injuries, the Vodolaha Village Council said.

A fire broke out on the territory of the Energia plant following the attack, the General Staff said, without specifying the extent of the damage.

"We should (have) some sympathy for the poor Russian conscripts too. Those kids have no choice but to fight and die in drone strikes."

For anyone watching and understanding Ukraine's years-long struggle for survival, the words of SpaceX founder and world's richest man Elon

"The worst thing would be if the whole world came to believe that everyone had been evacuated from Oleshky, whilst (people) were still there. And (they) would simply be forgotten," evacuation volunteer Kseniia Arkhipova said.

In the midst of Donald Trump's attempt to turn Russian diesel into a political asset to help him avoid disaster in November's midterm elections, the internet went out on the front lines.

Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Ukrainian forces have relied on Starlink to

President Volodymyr Zelensky's planned Oct. 26 trip to Brussels descended into a diplomatic guessing game, with conflicting signals from his own team leaving EU and NATO officials scrambling to establish whether he was coming — and who was supposed to meet him.

At the center of the confusion

While 55% pointed to genuine efforts to tackle corruption, 41% said Ukraine was "hopelessly corrupt," a poll by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) found.

In May 2026, Ukraine’s 3rd Army Corps launched a secret counteroffensive now known as Operation Vivaldi, aiming to strengthen Ukraine’s defensive positions in the Lyman and Sviatohirsk sectors and disrupt Russia’s plans to encircle Ukraine’s key strongholds – the cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk.

The Resolute Reforger 2026 exercises, scheduled from Oct. 26 to Nov. 2, will involve about 3,000 soldiers and 1,000 units of equipment, moving on roads and railways, according to the Latvian army.

"Russia is building the military-industrial capacity to continue waging wars even after the war in Ukraine ends. These are not the actions of a country preparing for lasting peace," Oleksandr Danylyuk, chairman of the Center for Defense Reforms and former chief adviser to Ukraine’s defense minister, told the Kyiv Independent.

A senior Ukrainian official previously told the Kyiv Independent that the batch awaiting U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's approval was "significant."

Voronezh Oblast Governor Aleksandr Gusev claimed that Russia had downed 113 Ukrainian drones over Voronezh and several districts of the region overnight and this morning, with over 70 of them heading toward the regional capital.