Vladimir Putin hailed Elon Musk as a “genius” and said he was in contact with the tech billionaire as Russia develops its answer to his Starlink satellite internet system.
The Russian president's remarks came after Ukraine, which uses a version of Starlink as a key component of drone operations and battlefield communications, complained of speed restrictions that hampered its ability to intercept Russian attack drones and forced the cancellation of some operations.
"Just a second, I want to point out this is just our first step. Elon Musk is a genius, he's just a real genius," said Putin during a presentation by minister who claimed that Russia has launched 30 satellites.
Meanwhile, Moscow faced an onslaught of drone attacks overnight, its mayor said, prompting authorities to impose temporary flight restrictions at the Vnukovo, Domodedovo and Zhukovsky airports serving the capital.Russia downed most of 613 drones heading towards Moscow overnight, mayor Sergei Sobyanin said.
A US-brokered local ceasefire in southern Ukraine held for a second consecutive day on Wednesday, as an estimated 2,000 people remain stranded in Oleshky.
“30 hours of the ceasefire in Oleshky have passed without a single incident,” Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said.
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Key Points
- Putin hails Elon Musk as ‘genius’ weeks after Starlink access slowed down for Ukraine
- Moscow airports shut as Russia claims to have intercepted 166 drones overnight
- Zelensky touts Ukraine's strong battlefield position after recapturing territory
- Recap: Finnish and Norwegian leaders hold rare call with Putin to urge end to Ukraine war
- Ukraine wants 'new momentum' in peace talks, FM says
- Ceasefire begins in Oleshky after Melania Trump brokers deal
- France temporarily sends maritime patrol plane to Black Sea after cargo ship attacks
Zelensky announces joint air defence project with Netherlands
05:00 , Shweta SharmaUkrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has announced plans for a joint air defence project with the Netherlands following talks with Dutch prime minister Rob Jetten and business leaders from both countries.
The two leaders met executives from Ukrainian and Dutch companies in the defence, energy and software sectors to discuss strengthening economic and technological cooperation.
His visit came as the Netherlands is preparing a new €500 million military aid package to help Ukraine defend against air attacks.
“Our teams have been tasked with working out a specific air defence project, Bliksem. We have already started this work,” he said in a post on X.
“The amount is 500 million euros. The package being prepared now, this fall. And this is something that truly matters. In particular, for repelling Russian air attacks,” he added.
Zelensky reiterated that Ukraine is facing a critical shortage of interceptor missiles for its US-made Patriot air-defense systems.
Putin hails Elon Musk as ‘genius’ weeks after Starlink access slowed down for Ukraine
04:52 , Shweta SharmaVladimir Putin hailed Elon Musk as a “genius” and said he was in contact with the tech billionaire as Russia develops its answer to his Starlink satellite internet system.
It comes just weeks after Ukraine, which uses a version of Starlink as a key component of drone operations and battlefield communications, complained of speed restrictions that hampered its ability to intercept Russian attack drones and forced the cancellation of some operations.
The Russian president made the remark about Mr Musk on Wednesday as he listened to a presentation by digital development minister Maksut Shadayev, who said Russia had launched more than 30 satellites as it builds its own Starlink equivalent.
"Just a second, I want to point out this is just our first step. Elon Musk is a genius, he's just a real genius," said Mr Putin.
"Over 5,000 while we are only taking our first steps. But we are proud that we have begun to do this, and started to do it independently," Mr Putin said, adding that the task now was "to move from quality to quantity".
"We are in close contact with our American partners — including Mr Musk — because it is very important, in orbit, not to get in each other's way and to maintain a certain level of discipline and order," he said.
Starlink, which does not work in Russia, uses a constellation of satellites that orbit far lower than traditional geostationary communications satellites, reducing signal travel time.
Moscow airports shut as Russia claims to have intercepted 166 drones overnight
04:20 , Shweta SharmaMoscow faced an onslaught of drone attacks overnight, the mayor said, prompting authorities to shut down airports.
Russian air defence units intercepted nearly 60 drones bound for the capital over 90 minutes, Sergey Sobyanin said.
An additional 57 drones were intercepted in Moscow Oblast.
He later reported another 15 interceptions, with subsequent updates bringing the total number of drones reportedly downed to 166.
The total number of drones launched remains unclear, as Russian authorities have only reported those intercepted.No casualties or damage have been reported, and the intended targets remain unknown. Emergency services were deployed to the sites where drone debris fell, Sobyanin said.
Russia's aviation authority imposed temporary flight restrictions at Vnukovo, Domodedovo and Zhukovsky airports.
Restrictions were subsequently lifted at Zhukovsky, while those at the other two airports remained in place.
Two flights travelling from Istanbul to Moscow were forced to turn back because of restrictions at Vnukovo airport, Russian state news agency TASS reported.
North Korea sending workers to Russian war factories in violation of UN sanctions, report finds
04:00 , Shweta SharmaA Russian network of brokers backed by Pyongyang has been sending North Koreans to work in exploitative conditions in Russia, including at factories producing supplies used in Moscow’s war in Ukraine, according to a new investigation.
The Hague-based rights group Global Rights Compliance (GRC) said North Korea was pocketing much of the workers’ wages, while labourers were forced to work 12-hour shifts with just two days off a month under threats of punishment against them and their families.
The workers reportedly entered Russia on student visas to circumvent UN sanctions banning the employment of North Korean nationals overseas. Brokers received commissions of up to 150,000 roubles (£1,400) per worker.
Undercover investigators posing as prospective employers found North Koreans being recruited for production sites, including a factory manufacturing military rations.
"This investigation exposes a dangerous convergence between two states' military ambitions," said the group's legal adviser, Elise Lauriot Prevost.
These were "North Korea's use of overseas forced labour to finance its weapons programme, and Russia's growing reliance on labour to sustain its war economy," she added.
Watch: Trump points to 'a lot of progress' on trilateral meeting with Putin and Zelensky
03:00 , Daniel KeaneEU energy ministers to discuss soaring fuel prices as winter looms
02:00 , Daniel KeaneEU energy ministers will meet on Thursday to discuss energy security ahead of the winter heating season as the wars in Iran, Ukraine and Yemen send oil and natural gas prices soaring.
Fighting has damaged refineries across the Middle East and Russia, and hampered oil and gas flows through vital shipping lanes in the Black Sea, Red Sea and the Strait of Hormuz.
"We are in a very serious situation now. It does not look like we have a security of supply issue but I would warn against neglecting that," EU Energy Commissioner Dan Jorgensen told reporters on Wednesday. He said affordability was just as urgent an issue, arguing that available supply meant little to households and businesses that could not afford it.
Finnish foreign minister to meet Rubio
01:00 , Daniel KeaneFinnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen will meet US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington on Thursday for talks about Russia's war in Ukraine and bilateral relations, Finland's foreign ministry said.
During her visit, Valtonen will also hold talks with other US administration officials on foreign and security policy as well as international economic and technology issues, the ministry said in a statement.
Europeans will not join next round of trilateral Ukraine talks, Kremlin aide says
Wednesday 28 October 2026 23:00 , Daniel KeaneEuropean representatives will not take part in the next round of talks between Russia, the United States and Ukraine on a settlement of the conflict in Ukraine, Interfax news agency quoted Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov as saying.
Ushakov said the possible participation of European countries in the negotiations was not discussed during President Vladimir Putin's phone conversation on Tuesday with Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere.
Speaking about the timing of the talks, which are expected to be held next month in Abu Dhabi, Ushakov said no date had yet been agreed.
Germany brigade in Lithuania to monitor Kaliningrad, Belarus with electronic warfare
Wednesday 28 October 2026 22:00 , Daniel KeaneGermany's permanent brigade in Lithuania will use electronic warfare capabilities to provide early warning of military activity in Kaliningrad and Belarus, the military's cyber chief said.
The brigade, due to be fully deployed next year, will also collect data on Russian and Belarusian military emitters and radar systems to update electronic-warfare databases used by German and allied forces, Vice Admiral Thomas Daum told Reuters.
"If anything happens, these units will identify that", he said.
"We'll put (the data) into electronic warfare databases which will then inform all our systems if there is a new radar on the Belarusian side."
German police arrest two suspected of planning sabotage attacks for Russia, Spiegel says
Wednesday 28 October 2026 21:00 , Daniel KeanePolice have arrested two Belarusian nationals suspected of planning sabotage attacks on behalf of Russia in southern Germany, Spiegel magazine said on Wednesday, citing security sources.
The suspects allegedly planned to start fires near a railway line and a power transmission line, Spiegel said.
Watch: Ukraine drones hit Azot chemical plant in Russia
Wednesday 28 October 2026 20:00 , Daniel KeaneRussia attacks on energy grid amount to war crimes, UN report finds
Wednesday 28 October 2026 19:00 , Adam WithnallRussia committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine by intentionally attacking energy infrastructure, leaving millions of people without electricity and heat in freezing temperatures, a UN-backed inquiry reported Monday.
Read more here:
Russian attacks on Ukraine energy sites are war crimes, UN report finds
UK households urged to prepare for ‘attacks’
Wednesday 28 October 2026 18:00 , Adam Withnall
UK households urged to prepare for emergencies and ‘attacks’. Here's what to buy
Netherlands pledges Ukraine reconstruction support during Zelensky visit
Wednesday 28 October 2026 17:00 , Adam WithnallTheDutch government said on Wednesday it would give Ukraine €1.2 billion ($1.3 billion) in non-military support in the next three years, announcing the move ahead of a visit by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to The Hague.
Zelensky travelled to the Netherlands this afternoon for meetings with Dutch prime minister Rob Jetten and other cabinet members, followed by a visit to Dutch King Willem-Alexander, Jetten's office said.
The government pledged €380m to help reconstruction in Ukraine next year and around €410m in both 2028 and 2029.
Part of the money will be used for funds that support Dutch companies willing to invest in the rebuilding of Ukraine, the government said.
Other support is intended for urgent repairs of Ukraine's energy infrastructure and the supply of machines to Ukrainian industry.
Zelensky touts Ukraine's strong battlefield position after recapturing territory
Wednesday 28 October 2026 16:00 , Adam WithnallPresident Volodymyr Zelensky has said that Kyiv’s battlefield position is the strongest it has been in some time after his forces retook territory through a series of offensives.
It includes one operation previously unannounced in which Kyiv's troops used gas pipelines to outflank Russian positions.
Zelensky, speaking in his nightly video address, cited a report by senior commanders to say that, for the first time, the "Veles" operation used pipelines in Ukraine's northeast.
He also referred to an air assault operation in eastern Ukraine and the "Vivaldi" operation further to the north, designed to prevent Russian advances in key areas.
He said Operation Veles was conducted near Kupiansk, a city in northeastern Kharkiv region recaptured by Ukrainian forces in late 2022, but which has been under constant Russian pressure.
EUR-GEN UCRANIA-GUERRA (AP)
"It is a strong operation, well planned and technology-driven. The Russians tried to use underground gas pipelines to advance past our positions," Zelensky said.
"Our fighters turned this tactic against the Russians and used the underground infrastructure against the occupiers with extraordinary success," he said.
In the Vivaldi offensive, one senior commander reported last month that Ukraine's Third Army Corps had cleared an area of 75 square kms (29 square miles) of Russian infiltration groups and recaptured a further 10 square kilometres.
That operation was focused on the north of the key strongholds in the region, the so-called "fortress belt" of the cities Sloviansk and Kramatorsk. Their capture would bring Russia closer to its goal of seizing the entire Donbas region.
Russia's Sberbank says Ukrainian drone attack on data centre did not cause abnormal cash outflows
Wednesday 28 October 2026 15:00 , Adam WithnallRussia's largest lender Sberbank did not see any abnormal outflow of funds into cash or to other banks after a Ukrainian drone hit its data centre, chief financial officer Taras Skvortsov said on Wednesday.
The data centre in the Saratov region was attacked earlier this month, but the bank said all its systems and services continued to operate normally despite the attack.
Skvortsov said clients would only have learned of any potential risk from news reports, as there was no impact on the bank's operations.
Norway's PM says call with Putin was effort to present European views
Wednesday 28 October 2026 14:00 , Adam WithnallNorway's prime minister has defended his phone call with Vladimir Putin and Finland's president that took place yesterday, saying it was intended to ensure the Russian leader heard European views as well as those from the US.
The call involving Finnish president Alexander Stubb and Norwegian premier Jonas Gahr Støre broke a longstanding practice among Western European leaders of shunning direct contact with the Kremlin, and was criticised by allies.
"We (Stubb and I) were focused on looking forward, what must happen for thiswar to not continue endlessly for months, with people dying ... and it is even more difficult to find a solution," Støre told public broadcaster NRK. "I don't think (Putin) will change his mind, but he gets to hear our position very clearly. I am worried that some of these messages do not reach him when the Americans talk to him," he said.
Støre said Norway was keen to introduce de-escalation steps such as stopping attacks on energy infrastructure in Russia and Ukraine, halting strikes on ships exporting Ukrainian grain and conducting prisoner-of-war exchanges.
Asked whether there could be peace without Ukraine ceding territory, Støre said: "Today Russia controls nearly 20 per cent (of Ukrainian territory). Ukraine will never sign a deal that recognises that they have lost territory, but whether they can take the current frontline as a reality and as a starting point, that is a different question."
"And the big question is what kind of security guarantees can there be for the country (Ukraine) after a peace deal? Putin recognises that this is the big question."
Ukraine drones hit Azot chemical plant in Russia
Wednesday 28 October 2026 13:00 , Adam WithnallLast night it was reported that Ukrainian drones struck a number of facilities linked to Russia’s military-industrial complex.
According to Russian Telegram accounts following the war, these included the Azot chemical plant in Novomoskovsk, in Tula Oblast, a facility which Ukraine has struck several times over the course of the war.
Videos were shared of plumes of smoke emanating from a fire at the plant on Wednesday morning, though these could not be immediately verified.
Lavrov dismisses Putin call with Nordic leaders as part of 'information war'
Wednesday 28 October 2026 12:00 , Shweta SharmaRussian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday that the information war around Ukraine would continue and was likely to escalate, Interfax news agency reported.
Commenting on a phone call between president Vladimir Putin and the leaders of Finland and Norway earlier on Tuesday, Lavrov said they had offered nothing new on the Ukraine conflict, adding that European countries were simply seeking a role in the negotiation process.
Melania Trump ceasefire still holds in Oleshky after 30 hours
Wednesday 28 October 2026 11:30 , Adam Withnall
Melania Trump ceasefire still holds in Oleshky after 30 hours
In pictures: Strike in Kharkiv injures five
Wednesday 28 October 2026 11:03 , Shweta SharmaA Russian drone strike has injured five people in Ukraine's second biggest city of Kharkiv, Ukraine's emergency service said on Telegram, adding that a major fire sparked by the attack was extinguished.
Those injured included a 4-year-old child.
Russia committed war crimes in Ukraine by attacking its energy grid, UN report finds
Wednesday 28 October 2026 10:00 , Shweta SharmaRussia committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine by intentionally attacking energy infrastructure, leaving millions of people without electricity and heat in freezing temperatures, a UN-backed inquiry reported Monday.
The inquiry also found evidence that Russia recruited men from 29 countries into its armed forces “through deception or coercion” to fight in Ukraine in violation of international law. The men, age 18 to 60, “came mostly from vulnerable and marginalized communities, with a poor economic background and a low education level," it said.
Russian attacks on Ukraine energy sites are war crimes, UN report finds
Russia fired more than 100 ballistic missiles at Kyiv in two weeks, Zelensky says
Wednesday 28 October 2026 09:00 , Shweta SharmaRussia has launched over 100 ballistic missiles at Kyiv and the surrounding region in two weeks, president Volodymyr Zelensky said.
"In two weeks, more than 100 ballistic missiles have been launched against Kyiv and Kyiv Oblast. We are doing everything possible to protect our energy sector, to protect our infrastructure and our logistics. The task is extremely difficult," Zelensky said.
Kyiv, a city of three million people, has faced relentless attacks by Russian ballistic missiles in recent months.
“Unfortunately, there are significant restrictions on supplies, with air defence packages being delayed. I want to thank all our partners who provide their support on time,” he added.
It comes a day after Russian ballistic missiles targeted Kyiv in a deadly attack on a university campus, a major bridge, an administrative building, and medical facilities. The attack killed one person and injured 15.
Russian ballistic missiles strike university grounds and residential areas in Kyiv, Ukraine says
Wednesday 28 October 2026 08:00 , Shweta SharmaNo breaches of Oleshky ceasefire in first 30 hours, Kyiv says
Wednesday 28 October 2026 07:39 , Adam WithnallThere have been no breaches of the US-brokered local ceasefire around the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky in southern Ukraine in itsfirst 30 hours, Ukraine's human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said on Wednesday.
A ceasefire has been agreed until 1 November to allow residents of the frontline town, who had been unable to leave as conditions had become near-uninhabitable, to evacuate.
