Fighters of the 1st Corps of the National Guard of Ukraine "Azov" struck more than 100 Russian trains carrying fuel and other supplies for occupying forces, the corps reported on social media on 28 October. The strikes disabled locomotives, fuel tank cars, and other equipment, the statement said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed on 16 October that seizing all of Donetsk Oblast remains one of Russia's main tasks. Azov notes that these strikes help "destroy" Russia's offensive capabilities.

Small Ukrainian drones strike Russia's 100-ton locomotives

Azov emphasizes that neither mobile fire groups nor electronic warfare systems can protect Russian logistics routes.

"The enemy is doing its utmost to create an image of successfully capturing settlements, but is unable to protect key railway stations through which the fuel supply chain runs toward the front," Azov said.

The rail hubs hit had carried Russian military trains to the fighting in Donbas and southern Ukraine, Defense Express reported on 29 October. The count of more than 100 trains covers Azov's operations over the past four months, the outlet said.

The mass of any diesel locomotive exceeds 100 tons, yet the Ukrainian military struck these large Russian targets using small UAVs, the outlet also notes.

Donations helped make the strikes possible

Donations and the work of the Come Back Alive foundation contributed to the operation's results, Azov said. In particular, the foundation provided the military with 440 Starlink Mini terminals, the corps added.

War on Credit: Over 100 Trains Hit

The enemy is doing all it can to create the image of successfully capturing settlements, yet it cannot protect the key railway stations through which its fuel supply chain toward the front runs. Neither mobile fire groups nor electronic warfare… pic.twitter.com/QpqEQHyxvp

— First Corps Azov of the National Guard of Ukraine (@azov_media) October 28, 2026

Azov announced Operation Hell back in the summer

On 2 July, the Azov Corps announced Operation Hell and released the first footage of strikes on Russian railway equipment. The video shows a strike on a diesel locomotive that was likely used by Russian forces for military logistics.

Operation "Inferno." Coming soon.

This wasn't just about our distaste for old Soviet cartoons. Demilitarization is the priority. Decommunization's just a bonus.

So what's happening in the video? This isn't a random hit — it's part of a carefully planned operation by First Corps… pic.twitter.com/feNc72isUk

— First Corps Azov of the National Guard of Ukraine (@azov_media) July 2, 2026

The corps said the strike was part of a carefully planned operation and promised details soon.

Warsaw police have arrested a man suspected of stabbing two Ukrainians on a bus over their nationality, police said. A court ordered him held in custody, and the charges he faces carry long prison terms.

Russia's full-scale war drove nearly a million Ukrainians to seek protection in Poland, and attacks on them for their nationality grew this year. Polish police received 180 reports of hate crimes against Ukrainians in the first half of 2026, over 30% more than a year earlier.

Police tracked the suspect to a forest

The attack took place on a Warsaw city bus in mid-October. The attacker stabbed and slashed two passengers, both Ukrainian citizens, and fled before police arrived. Both victims went to hospital with multiple stab and cut wounds. Police found that he attacked them because of their nationality.

Officers quickly identified the suspect but spent days locating him. The 30-year-old was hiding and living in a forest in Warsaw's northern Bielany district, where police detained him last weekend.

He faces three charges. Two concern the bus attack: attempting to cause grievous bodily harm, and causing injuries lasting more than seven days. The third covers threats against another man at a Warsaw venue in August 2024.

Police said he acted as a repeat offender, within five years of serving a prison term for a similar crime. The charges carry three to 20 years in prison. At prosecutors' request, a court ordered him held for three months.

This year's attacks on Ukrainians in Poland

In early August, Ukraine's ambassador to Poland, Vasyl Bodnar, said anti-Ukrainian remarks and attacks had risen by about 30%. Days later, people rallied in 22 Polish cities against violence toward Ukrainians and other minorities.

Other recent cases this year include:

• In late July, police in Wrocław detained two of three men suspected of beating a young Ukrainian couple.
• On 14 August, a woman allegedly attacked a Ukrainian girl and her younger brother in a Bydgoszcz park after hearing them speak Ukrainian. Prosecutors charged her four days later.
• In September, a man punched a 20-year-old Ukrainian tourist in the head at a crossing in central Warsaw, knocking him unconscious. Police detained the attacker, who gave no motive.

Tensions rose again in late September, when a Ukrainian man allegedly killed a priest in a knife attack at a monastery in Jarosław. Bodnar said some Polish politicians and journalists used it to argue for deporting Ukrainians.

Meanwhile, police in southwestern Poland detained a Russian citizen suspected of spying, after catching him photographing trains and railway infrastructure. Russia's suspected sabotage campaign keeps reaching Poland and the rest of Europe, and Ukraine's intelligence warned last week that Russia may stage sabotage in Eastern Europe and try to pin it on Kyiv.

Russia has carried out more than 350 attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure since September, damaging more than 800 pieces of equipment, Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Friday.

Speaking at a briefing in Brussels attended by EU Today, Azerbaijani presidential envoy Elchin Amirbayov said his country was prepared to increase natural gas exports to Europe, but warned that insufficient pipeline capacity, investment restrictions and uncertainty over long-term contracts were preventing further expansion.

Azerbaijan is prepared to increase natural gas supplies to the European Union, but further expansion will require investment in transport infrastructure and long-term commitments from European buyers, according to Elchin Amirbayov, Representative of the President of Azerbaijan on Special Assignments.

Speaking at the Azerbaijani Embassy in Brussels on 21 October, during a meeting attended by EU Today, Amirbayov outlined the difficulties facing efforts to expand the Southern Gas Corridor, which has become an important component of Europe’s strategy to diversify energy imports away from Russia.

“Today it’s fully booked already by all those contracts which we have concluded with all recipients of our gas,” Amirbayov said, referring to existing pipeline capacity.

He stressed that Azerbaijan possessed additional natural gas resources but that increasing deliveries depended on the availability of transportation infrastructure and commercially viable investment arrangements.

“As far as our capacity to provide them with gas is concerned, it is there because we have necessary resources. But what we need to be able to do that is also transportation infrastructure,” he explained.

Europe’s 2027 gas target faces infrastructure constraints

In July 2022, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed a strategic energy partnership envisaging an expansion of the Southern Gas Corridor to deliver at least 20 billion cubic metres (bcm) of natural gas annually to the EU by 2027.

The agreement formed part of Europe’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent restructuring of European energy supplies.

According to the European Commission, Azerbaijan and its state energy company SOCAR supplied 12.5 bcm to EU member states in 2025, an increase of more than 50 per cent compared with 2021.

However, the latest figures published by Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Energy show that during the first nine months of 2026, the country exported 18.4 bcm worldwide, including 8.6 bcm to European destinations.

The figures underline the challenge of achieving the planned increase in deliveries without additional investment.

The Southern Gas Corridor includes the South Caucasus Pipeline, the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) and the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), connecting Azerbaijani production with European markets.

TAP completed an initial capacity expansion in early 2026, adding 1.2 bcm annually. Further expansion will depend on additional infrastructure and sufficient contractual demand.

As EU Today previously reported, Azerbaijan began supplying natural gas to Germany and Austria in January 2026, extending its presence in central European markets.

Long-term contracts and investment financing

Amirbayov emphasised that additional gas infrastructure could not be developed without long-term commercial arrangements.

“Gas being different from oil, it has to be based on long-term contracts, on long-term expressed willingness,” he said.

He also raised the difficulties created by European restrictions on financing fossil-fuel infrastructure, suggesting that EU institutions and member states needed to reconcile their energy security requirements with existing investment policies.

The regulatory situation is complex. The European Investment Bank no longer finances new unabated fossil-fuel energy projects, including conventional gas infrastructure. However, the EU taxonomy framework permits certain gas-related activities under specific conditions.

Amirbayov said European countries had differing energy requirements and were at different stages of the transition away from fossil fuels. Those differences complicated agreement on the financing of additional gas supplies.

He also explained that Azerbaijan’s own investment resources were heavily committed to reconstruction and rehabilitation projects in territories recovered following the conflict with Armenia.

“We cannot do that job ourselves for the reasons I just explained,” he said, referring to the financial requirements of expanding export infrastructure.

Natural gas and Europe’s energy transition

Amirbayov acknowledged Azerbaijan’s own investment in renewable energy, including wind, solar and hydropower. He highlighted the Caspian Sea’s potential for offshore wind generation and described the country’s efforts to increase renewables in its domestic energy system.

Nevertheless, he questioned whether natural gas could be replaced by renewable sources within a short period.

“I don’t think it’s realistic,” he said when discussing the prospect of replacing natural gas within the next year or two.

His comments come as Brussels continues to balance its climate objectives with energy security requirements and the planned reduction of Russian gas imports.

Azerbaijan has increasingly positioned itself as an alternative supplier to European countries seeking to diversify their energy sources. However, Amirbayov made clear that further expansion would depend on decisions taken by European governments, financial institutions and energy companies.

“We are there, ready to assist,” he said, adding that further progress would require clear intentions and decisions from the European side.

The immediate question is whether European buyers and policymakers can establish sufficient contractual certainty and investment arrangements to support the additional pipeline capacity envisaged in the 2022 partnership.

A Russian FPV drone struck a social bus operated by the Proliska Humanitarian Mission in the frontline village of Bilenke, Zaporizhzhia Oblast, while it was carrying 23 passengers and a driver. The mission’s head, Yevhen Kaplin, reported the attack on Facebook on 29 October. In a comment to Ukrainska Pravda, he later gave slightly different details: 20 passengers and around 14:50.

Earlier that day, Russian attacks on Bilenke killed a 49-year-old man and wounded three other men, acting Zaporizhzhia Oblast head Mykhailo Semikin said. The village of Bilenke is likely to face the most difficult conditions in Zaporizhzhia Oblast this winter, then-head of the oblast Ivan Fedorov said in an interview with Ukrinform on 15 August. Russian forces use the village as a testing ground because the front line runs roughly across the river, he said.

Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, this marks the 121st attack on the mission’s staff and volunteers while they were providing aid, as well as on its vehicles, offices, and warehouse infrastructure, Kaplin said.

The drone was reportedly lying in wait

The attack killed a female passenger born in 1952. The bus driver sustained serious injuries and was evacuated to a medical facility, Kaplin said. Another passenger, a man born in 1947, sustained multiple shrapnel wounds, while another woman suffered injuries from flying glass. The remaining passengers suffered acoustic barotrauma. Most of the people on board were elderly.

According to preliminary information, this was a drone that was lying in wait, Kaplin said. The attack took place at around 14:30 in the center of the village, on a section of road protected by an anti-drone net.

The bus was clearly marked with the humanitarian mission’s logo on the hood and roof, as well as the words “social bus,” Kaplin said.

National Police special units and military personnel evacuated the wounded, accompanied by aerial cover teams, due to the threat of further drone attacks.

It was the only transport serving the village, Kaplin said

Commercial transport operators no longer serve the village of Bilenke, but more than 1,600 people still live there.

As a result, residents had no way to reach the Oblast center to access essential services, or to buy food and medicine, Kaplin said. They also could not collect their pensions or winter aid payments from the state and humanitarian organizations.

The Proliska team launched the social bus at the request of regional and local authorities.

Russians attack public transport in Zaporizhzhia with drones

Russian drones also hit civilian transport in the Oblast capital several times on 29 October. The city came under a record number of FPV drone attacks that day, Semikin said, adding that Russia had changed its tactics and modified its drones.

• In the morning, a Russian FPV drone struck a municipal bus in the city, Semikin said on 29 October. He first said the strike injured a woman and a man, then said four people were injured.
• Russia launched two strikes on Zaporizhzhia, Semikin reported the same day. Two men, aged 66 and 41, were injured. The strikes damaged 15 vehicles, a warehouse building, a power line, and a nearby apartment block. A fire broke out at the site, he added.
• Later, a Russian drone struck a minibus in central Zaporizhzhia, Semikin reported. According to preliminary information, one person was injured.
• A Russian FPV drone struck a municipal trolleybus in Zaporizhzhia again, Semikin said. He initially reported one woman injured, then said the number rose to three. They included a 56-year-old woman in serious condition and two other women, aged 71 and 66, who sustained minor shrapnel wounds to their legs, he said.

As thousands of datacentres are constructed across Europe, the Guardian and Investigate Europe have uncovered disturbing evidence that some workers building them are exposed to dangerous conditions and living in fear of speaking out

Sandu* checked his watch. He was winding down the last 15 minutes of his shift at a vast Google datacentre site in Saint-Ghislain, Belgium, in March, when the call came in. The 34-year-old electrical tester had already worked almost 10 hours, but says such last-minute jobs were normal: “I had no choice. People have been fired after saying no.”

The task was one Sandu had done many times before and involved a series of tests measuring the safety and integrity of the electrical wiring. A protective suit was locked away in an equipment room. The round trip would have added another 15 minutes to the job, he says, and people were waiting, so he decided not to retrieve the suit.

Continue reading...

© Illustration: Alamy/Mei-Ling McNamara

© Illustration: Alamy/Mei-Ling McNamara

© Illustration: Alamy/Mei-Ling McNamara

As thousands of datacentres are constructed across Europe, the Guardian and Investigate Europe have uncovered disturbing evidence that some workers building them are exposed to dangerous conditions and living in fear of speaking out

Sandu* checked his watch. He was winding down the last 15 minutes of his shift at a vast Google datacentre site in Saint-Ghislain, Belgium, in March, when the call came in. The 34-year-old electrical tester had already worked almost 10 hours, but says such last-minute jobs were normal: “I had no choice. People have been fired after saying no.”

The task was one Sandu had done many times before and involved a series of tests measuring the safety and integrity of the electrical wiring. A protective suit was locked away in an equipment room. The round trip would have added another 15 minutes to the job, he says, and people were waiting, so he decided not to retrieve the suit.

Continue reading...

© Illustration: Alamy/Mei-Ling McNamara

© Illustration: Alamy/Mei-Ling McNamara

© Illustration: Alamy/Mei-Ling McNamara