Ukraine Breaking News Today Live on 11-04-2024

Stefan Korshak, Kyiv Post's military correspondent, shares his perspective on the developments in Russia's war in Ukraine.

Svetlana Gotsyk

Svetlana Gotsyk is a pretty standard feel-good story from this week but, it’s worth pointing out, in the first place this would never make mainstream media, and second place this is the kind of heroism you see in Ukraine pretty much every day multiple times a day. Everyone knows lots of people who have made sacrifices. I think this gives an insight into Ukrainian resiliency and will to fight.

Social media got terribly excited by a video of an Asian man in a Russian uniform “[expressing] surprise at the variety and abundance of food provided,” only he wasn’t.

A video circulating on social media allegedly showing a North Korean soldier, in Russian uniform, being fed adequately for the first time in his life after arriving in Ukraine to fight for Moscow – wasn’t just misleading it was totally wrong.

The man is Chinese, and he was simply describing what he was eating in Mandarin.

If Trump wins: does Ukraine lose? An Interview with Steve Schmidt by Kyiv Post’s Jason Smart.

The outgoing Russian executive director announced in September that Yudaeva, a former adviser to Bank of Russia Governor Elvira Nabiullina, would become the country’s new representative.

Ksenia Yudaeva, under sanctions from the United States, has been elected as the International Monetary Fund’s executive director for Russia and Syria, the IMF said on Friday.

The executive board is the IMF's top day-to-day business decision-making body. Executive directors are elected by member countries or by groups of countries.

Changes in government bonds offering set, the central bank increases UAH rate fluctuations and worsens forecast for 2025. Weekly Insight for Nov. 4

Changes in government bonds offering set

The Ministry of Finance (MoF) reintroduced reserve bonds at primary offerings, but excluded 12-month military bills from the auctions.

The Kremlin seems to think that more than a few of its top officers are responsible for filching millions of rubles’ worth of cash and military resources from the Russian war effort.

The Kremlin’s declared campaign to eliminate graft and corruption in the Russian army claimed a new victim on Sunday with the arrest of Major General Mirza Mirzaev on suspicion of shaking down military contractors for epic kickbacks.

Mirzaev, 52, was formerly Vice Commander in Russia’s Southern Military District, for the national law enforcement agency Rosgvardia.

As Kyiv’s daily update on Monday claims another 1,300 Russian casualties to top yet another milestone it is reported that Moscow has issued a 20-page guide on the preparation of mass graves.

The Kremlin has begun distributing an updated instruction manual to military units engaged in its war in Ukraine on the preparation and maintenance of mass graves. The directives arrived a few days before Ukraine’s military reported on Monday that Moscow had suffered the loss of 1,300 personnel on Sunday, which took the total number of casualties since the start of the 2022 full-scale invasion to 700,390.

The 20-page textbook titled, “Civil Defense: Urgent burials of corpses in wartime,” was produced by Russia’s Ministry of Emergency Services and is an updated version of one issued a few months prior to the February 2022 full-scale invasion; the earlier version was said to be intended for dealing with large scale fatalities following an attack on Russia. The new version is not quite so coy, with the front cover showing an emergency worker in a protective suit and helmet standing in front of a helicopter.

In a referendum held parallel to the first round of voting on 20 October, a wafer-thin majority of citizens voted in favour of writing EU accession into the constitution as an irrevocable goal.

Maia Sandu will continue as president in Moldova. In the run-off election the pro-Western leader was around ten percentage points ahead of her pro-Russian challenger Alexandr Stoianoglo. In a referendum held parallel to the first round of voting on 20 October, a wafer-thin majority of citizens voted in favour of writing EU accession into the constitution as an irrevocable goal. Commentators see a worryingly divided country.

Dangerous image of a divided country

Between February and October 2023, the proportion of Ukrainians who believe Russia retains substantial resources for a prolonged war against Ukraine nearly doubled, rising from 22% to 49%.

For the first time, sociologists in Ukraine have recorded a decline in the percentage of people willing to endure the war indefinitely, although 63% still respond affirmatively, according to a survey by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KMIS).

The survey, conducted in September-October 2024, found that 15% of respondents are prepared to endure the war for several more months, while 4% are willing to last another six months.

The world in focus, as seen by a Canadian leading global affairs analyst, writer and speaker, in his review of international media.

The incumbent pro-Western president of Moldova, Maia Sandu, has won another term against a Russia-friendly opponent, in a second election runoff. It was a tight race against the backdrop of alleged massive Russian interference and intimidation. However, as in the last round, Sandu was pushed well over the finish line by votes from several diaspora voting stations (there are an estimated 1.2 million Moldovans abroad compared to 2.5 million at home). With nearly 100% of votes counted, Sandu had 55.4% of the vote, according to the Central Electoral Commission, compared to 44.59% for Alexandr Stoianoglo, a former prosecutor general who was backed by the pro-Russia Party of Socialists. Earlier, the president's national security adviser claimed "massive interference" from Russia in the electoral process that had "high potential to distort the outcome.” There were concerns that a low turnout and voter complacency would hurt Sandy’s chances of re-election and indeed a polling station in central Chișinău we visited at midday had very lite traffic. There were also concerns that the overseas vote could be swayed by voters being allegedly flown into Belarus, Azerbaijan, Turkey and elsewhere to cast votes as part of organized schemes.

Late Sunday night, Maia Sandu told supporters: “Moldova, you are victorious! Today, dear Moldovans, you have given a lesson in democracy, worthy of being written in history books. Today, you have saved Moldova..I have heard your voice – both those who supported me and those who voted for Mr. Stoianoglo. In our choice for a dignified future, no-one lost... we need to stand united."

Serhiy Kolyada on Trump's and the MAG's understanding of a peace settlement with Russia.

Moldova's large pro-West diaspora secure victory for Sandu over a pro-Russian candidate.

The European Union on Monday welcomed the re-election of Moldova's pro-European President Maia Sandu, in a tense vote that has laid bare divisions in the former Soviet republic bordering war-torn Ukraine.

Backed by the country's large diaspora, Sandu won 55.41 percent of votes, according to near-complete results published by the election commission.

The Russian opposition should blame not just Putin for Russia’s barbaric war against Ukraine but all Russian people who retain their traditional imperialist mindset.

In the absence of any indication from Russia that Russia’s war against Ukraine will end with Russia’s withdrawal, ending the war then becomes not the responsibility solely of Ukraine and Ukraine’s allies; the Russian opposition residing outside Russia must play a critical role, as well.

To do so, Russia’s opposition need to become a strong, united, and effective force capable of persuading ordinary Russians that it is time to lay down their weapons. They must challenge those who support the invasion of a peaceful country, explain why this aggression is wrong, reach those who are indifferent, explain the immorality of ignoring massive destruction and genocide being perpetrated by the current Russian government with the complicity of tens of millions of Russian citizens.

The election in the ex-Soviet republic that lies sandwiched between war-torn Ukraine and the European Union was overshadowed by allegations of meddling by Moscow.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday congratulated Moldova's pro-EU incumbent Maia Sandu who won a tense presidential runoff this weekend and beat her rival backed by a pro-Russian party.

The election in the ex-Soviet republic that lies sandwiched between war-torn Ukraine and the European Union was overshadowed by allegations of meddling by Moscow.

Recently updated imagery released on Google Earth and Maps showed the location of some Ukrainian military systems. The tech giant belatedly said it was “working to rectify the situation.”

Ukraine potentially received another blow to its ability to defend itself from continuing brutal Russian attacks with the appearance of unspecified Ukrainian military positions and systems on Google’s Oct. 12 update of its freely accessible satellite imagery maps, according to Andriy Kovalenko, head of Kyiv’s Center for Countering Disinformation (CCD) at Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council (NSDC).

Kovalenko said that once the issue was identified Ukraine contacted Google asking them to resolve the issue quickly, but its response was delayed because it was the weekend. He added: “Meanwhile, Russians are actively circulating these images.”

Trump again fuels unfounded worries of voter fraud, as his supporters amplify fake videos and specious reports of non-existent nuns. The Kremlin plays its part, too.

On the final days of his campaign trail, US Republican candidate Donald Trump has been repeating that if he loses Tuesday’s elections, it is because the Democrats cheated, stoking fears of a violent response to any potential victory of Vice President Kamala Harris. Ten states have put their National Guard units on stand-by to quell unrest as a result.

On one occasion, Trump told his rally-goers that he “never should have left the Oval Office” in 2021, when he incited his supporters to march to the Capitol to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s victory in what turned out to be a deadly insurrection attempt. After nearly four years of legal challenges and inquiries, there has been no evidence found to support Trump’s claim of a “stolen” election.

Ukraine has seen a particular increase in antimicrobial resistance during the Russian invasion, according to WHO representatives in a war-torn country.

Ukrainian soldier Anton Sushko, severely wounded, thought he was finally safe when he spotted a rescue team after crawling for hours through the battlefield in eastern Ukraine.

"That's it, I thought, here are the guys... We made it. Wounded, but alive," the 40-year-old recalled from his hospital bed in Dnipro, southeastern Ukraine.

The assault on Kyiv spanned around three hours, during which Ukrainian air defenses effectively intercepted every enemy drone.

Russia launched another consecutive extensive air assault on Ukraine early morning on Monday, Nov. 4, including an Iskander-M ballistic missile strike in the Dnipropetrovsk region and guided aerial bomb attacks in the Kharkiv region.

The offensive included 80 Shahed attack drones and unidentified UAVs from various directions, including Bryansk, Kursk, and Primorsko-Akhtarsk in Russia.

As Russian disinformation aims to sow distrust between Ukrainians and Poles, the chief editor of Poland’s respected news outlet Onet.pl sets the record straight.

The Kremlin and its propagandists are constantly spouting that Poland has either already occupied or wants to occupy swathes of Ukrainian territory. The narrative includes such topics as the Polish army operating in Lviv, a Western conspiracy to divide Ukraine, and even a Polish imperial ambition to conquer or dominate Ukraine.

The crude Russian propaganda machine is intended to serve only one purpose – to arouse distrust in Ukrainians towards the motives of Kyiv's Western allies.

The election in the ex-Soviet republic that lies sandwiched between war-torn Ukraine and the European Union has been overshadowed by allegations of meddling by Moscow.

Moldova's pro-EU incumbent Maia Sandu on Sunday won a tense presidential runoff, beating her rival backed by a pro-Russian party in what she described as a "lesson in democracy".

The election in the ex-Soviet republic that lies sandwiched between war-torn Ukraine and the European Union has been overshadowed by allegations of meddling by Moscow.

Latest from the Institute for the Study of War.

Key Takeaways from the ISW:

• Incumbent Moldova President Maia Sandu has claimed victory in the Moldovan presidential runoff election held on November 3, 2024.
• Moldovan authorities reported extensive Russian interference and sabotage efforts during the runoff presidential elections held on November 3, 2024, in a likely effort to favor pro-Kremlin Stoianoglo.
• The Russian Ministry of Defense's (MoD) efforts to centralize control over informal Russian drone operation units may degrade the effectiveness of Russian drone capabilities.
• Ukrainian Human Rights Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets refuted a Russian information operation about prisoner of war (POW) exchanges aimed at destabilizing Ukrainian society and undermining Ukrainians' trust in their government.
• Russian forces recently advanced near Siversk, Pokrovsk, Kurakhove, and Vuhledar in Donetsk Oblast.
• A Ukrainian official reported that Russian naval infantry units cannot be considered “elite” due to a lack of specialized training for new recruits and because Ukrainian forces have destroyed the main core of the Russian professional army since the start of the Russian full-scale invasion.