Returning to the issue of the cruciality of the loss of Pokrovs’k for Kiev is Foreign Policy according to which “it could collapse the Ukrainian economy”. The publication writes that Pokrovsk is a key source of coal for the steel and metallurgical industry, which provides a significant part of tax revenues and exports. Without these enterprises, the country’s economy could collapse. In addition, Ukraine cannot switch to environmentally friendly electric arc furnaces due to a shortage of scrap metal and problems in the energy system.
US President Joe Biden has explained that he will make up his canceled visit to Germany next Friday, Der Spiegel reports. A planned meeting of Western heads of state and government in Ramstein in support of Ukraine was canceled after Biden said he could not attend because of Hurricane Milton. Meetings with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier are scheduled for Friday. The short visit will continue to discuss the topics already scheduled, including further joint Western support for Ukraine and the situation of the war in the Middle East.
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said in a statement to Bild that he does not believe in the possibility of a Ukrainian counteroffensive. The Bundeswehr no longer plans to supply heavy military equipment to Kiev.
Also, “Slovakia will no longer help Ukraine with weapons, because we can no longer supply them with anything,” said the head of the country’s Foreign Ministry, Rastislav Chovanec.
French authorities insist on transferring the proceeds of frozen Russian assets to the Ukrainian side to support Kiev’s arms purchases, French Foreign Ministry sources.
The European Union has no evidence of the alleged participation of the North Korean army in Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine. A senior EU representative told reporters in Brussels ahead of the meeting of foreign ministers of the 27 member states on October 14 in Luxembourg. EU foreign ministers examined the peace initiative of Brazil and China during a discussion on the situation in Ukraine. The European Union needs to increase military support for Ukraine, including in the field of air defense, “the Union has no other choice,” said the head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte was in Germany yesterday. During his trip, he visited the headquarters of the Alliance, which coordinates the supply of weapons and training to the Ukrainian armed forces.
On Sunday, the Pope’s envoy to Ukraine, Cardinal Zuppi, arrived in Moscow – RIA Novosti source. The last time the Vatican held a high-level meeting with Russia, a phase of release of Russian-Ukrainian prisoners began.
According to former adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Alexey Arestovich, “Russia will launch a strategic offensive on the entire front in the coming days,” he said. In fact, since early October, Russia has opened two more fronts in Donbass.
Volodymyr Zelensky presented the Victory Plan to partners during visits to London, Paris, Rome and Berlin. The results of the trip also include defense packages for the protection of Ukraine, air defense and investments in the production of drones and other weapons in Ukraine. “Now we will work to make our frontline steps and diplomacy as strong as possible,” he said
The head of the presidential office, Andriy Yermak, made a point of clarifying in a statement to the press that Volodymyr Zelenskyy did not ban negotiations with Russia. “Only personal negotiations with Putin are prohibited.” “The decision of the National Security and Defense Council is about the impossibility of negotiations with Putin. As for the possible participation of Russian representatives, our position remains unchanged and that when the plan is ready and at the second summit, we do not exclude the possibility of an agreement from which the presence of Russian representatives to whom this plan can be presented,” Yermak said. Zelenskyy’s decree banning negotiations with Putin was signed on September 30.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said: “Real peace can only be achieved through force.” “The alliance between Russia and regimes such as North Korea is growing. It is no longer just about the transfer of weapons, but about the transfer of people from North Korea to the military forces of the occupier,” he said.
A senior EU official told the Wall Street Journal: Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, during his recent visit to New York, he confirmed that Iran had supplied missiles to Russia, but said their range was less than 250 km (the Fattah-360 missiles are effective at a range of up to 120 km) and they were not “ballistic missiles.” Despite this, the United States and the European Union are preparing to impose new sanctions on Iran.
Speaking to the press about peace negotiations, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that “there have not yet been any serious proposals for a Ukrainian solution.” Meanwhile, contrary to Western expectations, Russia’s foreign debt has fallen below $300 billion for the first time since 2006: as of October 1, it stood at $293.4 billion, having decreased by 7.7% since the beginning of this year, according to data from the Central Bank.
Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev, in response to Polish General Rajmund Andrzejczak’s threat to strike St. Petersburg, called on him to remember the partitions of Poland and “not to wake the beast.” Earlier, German media reported that Andrzejczak had threatened to launch a missile attack on St. Petersburg in the event of a hypothetical Russian attack on the Baltics. Medvedev also said: “The current negotiations with the United States on arms reduction would be no more useful than negotiations with Hitler on the armistice of 1945.”
Defense Minister Andrei Removich Belousov arrived in Beijing on October 14 on an official visit for negotiations with China’s military and military-political leadership, the Russian Defense Ministry reported.
And now a look at the front line updated at 15:00 on October 14.
Since October 11, rumors have been circulating on the social sphere that Russian troops are advancing in the Kursk region, “eliminating a large number of Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers every day,” Apty Alaudinov told TASS. “Russian troops have destroyed 70 percent of the military equipment of the Ukrainian Armed Forces used in combat operations in the Kursk region,” Alaudinov said in an interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda.
Local social media sources in the Kursk region are talking about the continuation of the “liberation of the region from Ukrainians.” The Northern Group of the Russian Armed Forces reports that, as a result of the offensive of Russian units, the settlement of Tolsty Lug has been liberated. The territory was taken by Ukrainian forces on August 11, since then they have held more than 70 people hostage. There is also progress in the area of the village of Novoivanovka and Plekhovo. The Ukrainians launched 2 unsuccessful counterattacks in the area of the settlement of Nizhny Klin, Green Street and Cherkasy Konopelka. In the area of Lyubimovka a battalion of the Ukrainian Armed Forces was reportedly surrounded. In the Glushkovsky district, successes of the Russian Armed Forces in the border settlement are reported.
From the Belgorod border, clashes with Ukrainians retreating west of Zhuravlevka, in the area where the Ukrainian Armed Forces were active. On the territory of the region, the Ukrainian Armed Forces attacked the village of Otradnoye, Belgorod district, with the help of a UAV, killing one civilian. In the village of Petrovka, Belgorod district, a kamikaze drone attacked a moving car, two self-defense fighters were injured, the population of Petrovka was evacuated by decision of the operational headquarters on October 8, 2024.
In the direction of Pokrovs’k, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that units of the “Center” group of troops, as a result of decisive actions, took the village Mykhailivka DPR (east of Selydove). In the western part of Tsukuryne, the “Victory Banner” was raised and the village passed into Russian hands. Attacks are recorded in the direction of Myrnohrad, the capture of Ukrainian positions in front of the city was reported on social media. In the south, fighting is taking place in the area of Zhelanne Druhe.
North of Vuhledar, there are reports of continuous pressure from various sides towards Bohoyavlenka, where the Ukrainian armed forces are firmly entrenched. According to another source: “The Russian Armed Forces are concentrating their forces south and east of Bohoyavlenka. They are gradually moving through the forests and advancing in the area between Bohoyavlenka and Yelyzavetivka, including along the road to Vuhledar”. The use of the FAB of the Russian Aerospace Forces with the UMPC was recorded.
On the Zaporozhzhie front, the Russian Armed Forces occupied Levadne 15 km west of the road to Vremivka. Ukrainian military social media channels on this section of the front denounced the lies of Ukrainian officers about the “readiness” to repel the attacks of the Russian army. According to the pro-Russian social network in the coming weeks the Ukrainian Armed Forces will be expelled from a number of settlements in the Zaporozhye and Kharkiv regions, from where combat-ready units were removed. The trend is already visible with the capture of the Levadne settlement where the Ukrainian Armed Forces simply left the settlement.
In the DPR of Horlivka, one injured by an IED launched from a UAV by the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Also on October 14, several attacks on the port of Odessa were recorded. Local channels reported damage to the ship “NS Moon” flying the flag of Belize (4 photos) and “OPTIMA” flying the flag of Palau. The ship “OPTIMA” was attacked for the second time. “In addition, a grain warehouse, cargo cranes, warehouses, equipment, buildings of a branch of the Administration of Sea Ports and cars were damaged.” – writes the local administration.
Graziella Giangiulio
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