Russia-Ukraine war: Putin to give shock G20 speech this week – live

Ukrainian investigators suspect a lawmaker of trying to bribe the head of a government reconstruction agency in the country’s first-ever documented cryptocurrency kickback, authorities said on Tuesday.

The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) said the lawmaker, a member of parliament’s anti-corruption committee, is believed to have offered the equivalent of $50,000 in bitcoin in exchange for state funds to rebuild infrastructure under his control.

The bureau did not name the official, who was served by prosecutors with an official notice of suspicion.

The head of Ukraine‘s State Agency for Restoration and Infrastructure Development reported the bribe to authorities after receiving the first $10,000 tranche, NABU said.

“This is the first illegal benefit in cryptocurrency in the history of (Ukraine‘s) anti-corruption institutions that has been documented,” the agency said in a statement.

Ukraine has stepped up efforts to stamp out corruption as it pursues membership of the European Union, which has made the fight against graft a key condition for negotiations to begin.

It happens every November, when the cold descends on Kyiv. The change in weather always makes Dmytro Riznychenko think back, and he is overwhelmed by his emotions.

“This is where it truly began,” Riznychenko said, walking through central Kyiv’s Independence Square recently, reflecting on the uprising that unleashed a decade of momentous change for Ukraine, eventually leading to the current war with Russia.

“Ten years of war and struggle,” the 41-year-old psychologist continued, wearily and reluctantly. “And it seems like the blood has only just begun to flow, truly. I regret nothing. But, God, it’s just so tiresome.”

The attacks are focused on Klishchiivka, a village on higher elevation about 9km away from Bakhmut, said Volodymyr Fityo, a spokesperson for Ukrainian ground forces.

“Russian occupying forces have brought in the necessary reserves and gone on the attack,” the spokesperson said, referring to renewed assaults by Moscow.

Ukrainian troops repelled 11 attacks in the past 24 hours, Mr Fity said. “The enemy is trying to dislodge our men from defensive positions around Klishchiivka,” he said.

Tatyana Prima thought she’d left the bombs behind when she fled Ukraine more than a year and a half ago, after Russia decimated her city, Mariupol. The 38-year-old escaped with her injured husband and young daughter, bringing the family to safety in southern Israel.

The calm she was slowly regaining shattered again on Oct. 7, when Hamas militants invaded.

“All these sounds of war that we hear now, they sometimes work as a trigger that brings back memories of what we’ve gone through in Mariupol,” she said. “It’s hard feeling like that you’re the one responsible for your child, the one who wants what’s best for them, and in some way like you’ve failed them.”

Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu has claimed that Ukraine have failed to carry out a landing operation in the Kherson region, the Interfax news agency reported.

The Russian politician, a senior figure involved in the “special military operation” and an integral member of Vladimir Putin’s siloviki (inner circle), was echoing dismissive claims made by the official channel of his own ministry earlier today.

Almost two years into Russia’s devastating invasion, one of Ukraine’s most famous exports is desperate to keep shining a light on his country’s plight, writes Lawrence Ostlere, as global attention shifts to the Middle East.n

Russia cannot co-exist with the current Ukrainian “regime” and will resist the might of the NATO military alliance for as long as Moscow needs to achieve its aims, a senior Russian foreign ministry diplomat said on Tuesday.

“The current regime is absolutely toxic, we do not see any options for co-existence with it at the moment,” Russian Ambassador-at-Large Rodion Miroshnik told reporters in Moscow.

Miroshnik said Ukraine had carried out crimes against civilians and that NATO had supplied forbidden weapons to Ukraine but that the West would eventually lose interest in Ukraine.

“We can resist NATO just as much as we need to fulfill the tasks that the president has formulated,” Miroshnik said.

Charles Michel, the European Council president, has also arrived in Kyiv ahead of talks about Ukrainian accession to the European Union.

Moldovan leader Maia Sandu arrived in the Ukrainian capital earlier this morning, as did German defence minister Boris Pistorius.

In a statement on X, Ms Sandu said that “discussing the next steps in EU accession of Moldova and Ukraine” was on the agenda for discussions.

She added that “enhancing regional security” as well as discussion on the “EU’s continued support of reforms and development in our countries” would also be a part of meetings today.

Mr Michel was greeted by the EU’s ambassador to Ukraine, Katarina Mathernova, at Kyiv’s railway station. She can be seen shaking Mr Michel’s hand below in a picture posted by the European Council chief to X. He captioned the photo: “Good to be back in Kyiv – among friends.”

The wartime leader, speaking from the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, said the volume of attempts had turned him almost numb to the danger. He compared the later attempts to catching the Covid-19 infection.

“The first one is very interesting, when it is the first time, and after that it is just like Covid,” he said in a new interview.

You can read the full story here.