World about Ukraine: October 2023 digest. Week 3.
BLOOMBERG: Ukraine to Push Peace Formula at Meeting in Malta This Month
Ukraine will press forward with an effort to build support for a peace formula with the so-called Global South as Malta hosts a third gathering of senior officials to discuss the blueprint this month.
The Oct. 28-29 meeting in Malta, a European Union island nation in the Mediterranean Sea, will aim to secure the “broadest possible international support” for President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s plan, the Maltese Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Friday.
As much of the globe’s attention has shifted to the Israel-Hamas war and geopolitical fallout, Zelenskiy is pushing the formula, which aims to recruit nations such as India and Brazil to Ukraine’s aims and culminate in a global summit later this year. The Malta meeting follows similar gatherings in Denmark in June and Saudi Arabia in August.
U.S. NEWS: The ATACMS the US May Send to Ukraine and Their Cluster Bomb Payloads
The Biden administration may soon begin shipping to Ukraine several variants of Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS), a long-range missile system that often carries varying amounts of cluster bomblets.
The following information relies heavily on U.S. Army presentations and budget data.
– The M39 Block I ATACMS is a guided missile with a range of 25 to 165 km (15 to 100 miles) that carries a payload of 950 anti-personnel and equipment-destroying bomblets. The M39 Block I was added to the U.S. arsenal in 1991 and is no longer in production. There were about 1,650 made with several hundred used in conflicts such as Operation Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom, according to Army documents. Remaining units are being modernized to a version what does not contain cluster munitions. The Pentagon says the dud rate – the percentage of distributed munitions that do not explode once deployed – is classified.
THE GUARDIAN: Ukrainian parliament votes to ban Orthodox Church over alleged links with Russia
The Ukrainian parliament gave initial approval on Thursday to a law that would ban the Moscow-linked Ukrainian Orthodox Church after Kyiv accused it of collaborating with Russia following last year’s invasion.
The UOC – which is distinct from the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) – says it no longer aligned with the Russian Orthodox Church and denies the charges levelled at it by Kyiv and said the draft law would be unconstitutional.
Yaroslav Zheleznyak, a member of parliament, said on the Telegram messaging app that deputies had voted to support the bill in its first reading. It has to be backed in a second reading and approved by the president to go in to force.
The law would ban the activities of religious organisations affiliated with centres of influence “in a state that carries out armed aggression against Ukraine”, and such activities could be terminated by a court of law.
The Ukrainian parliament gave initial approval on Thursday to a law that would ban the Moscow-linked Ukrainian Orthodox Church after Kyiv accused it of collaborating with Russia following last year’s invasion.
The UOC – which is distinct from the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) – says it no longer aligned with the Russian Orthodox Church and denies the charges levelled at it by Kyiv and said the draft law would be unconstitutional.
Yaroslav Zheleznyak, a member of parliament, said on the Telegram messaging app that deputies had voted to support the bill in its first reading. It has to be backed in a second reading and approved by the president to go in to force.
The law would ban the activities of religious organisations affiliated with centres of influence “in a state that carries out armed aggression against Ukraine”, and such activities could be terminated by a court of law.
THE NEW YORK TIMES: Four Ukrainian Children Abducted to Russia Return Home After Qatar Intervention
Four Ukrainian children who had been separated from their families and taken to Russia have been reunited with them, the government of Qatar announced on Monday, saying it had acted as a mediator in negotiations for the return of the children.
Qatar’s foreign ministry said that a “successful family reunification process” had been completed this week in the case of the four, “marking an important step toward reuniting children with their families.” There was no immediate comment from the Ukrainian authorities.
The removal of children to Russia has been one of the most painful issues for Ukraine since Moscow launched its invasion last year; Ukraine’s government as well as parents and humanitarian groups have made strenuous efforts to get the children back.
THE GUARDIAN: UN finds further evidence of Russian war crimes in Ukraine
Report points to ‘wilful killing, torture, rape and other sexual violence, and the deportation of children to the Russian Federation’
VOA NEWS: European Parliament Approves $53 Billion More for Ukraine
The European Parliament on Tuesday backed giving an extra $53 billion in European Union money over the next four years to help rebuild a Ukraine shattered by Russia’s invasion.
The proposal, advanced by the European Commission in June, would see a mix of grants and loans go to Ukraine as a line in the bloc’s long-term 2024-2027 budget.
It was adopted by 512 members of the European Parliament, with 45 voting against and 63 abstaining.
The result means negotiations can now start with EU member states on the final details of the Ukraine Facility, which would go some way to help Ukraine plug gaps in its finances.
BBC: Why Kyiv’s Dnipro east bank gain could be significant
Ukrainian fighters on the frontline say troops have not only crossed into Russian occupied territory but held a position, apparently for the first time, on the fiercely defended east (or left) bank of the Dnipro River in Kherson region.
The development is potentially significant. Ukraine’s counteroffensive aims to slice through Russian occupied territory, severing a land corridor to the Crimean peninsula which Moscow annexed – illegally – in 2014.
In a text exchange, the 46th brigade told the BBC that troops were engaged in heavy fighting as they try to take full control of the village of Krynky.
If successful, the force said, the settlement would give advanced units a base from which to launch a larger offensive aimed at dividing Russian troops and cutting off their supply lines.
AL JAZEERA: Russian missile strike on mail depot in Ukraine kills six, officials say
Six people were killed and at least 14 injured when Russian missiles hit a postal distribution centre in Ukraine’s northeastern city of Kharkiv, Ukrainian officials have said.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a post on the Telegram messaging app that the strike on Saturday hit an “ordinary civilian” site.
He shared a video showing a building with blown-out windows and heavy structural damage, with the logo of Ukraine’s Nova Poshta postal service in the background.
Victims of the attack are being treated for shrapnel injuries and seven are in serious condition and “fighting for their lives,” regional Governor Oleh Syniehubov said.
The injured are aged between 17 and 42, Syniehubov said.
AP: Ukraine displays recovered artifacts it says were stolen by Russians
Ukraine has recovered 14 archaeological items allegedly stolen by a Russian man who was stopped at a U.S. airport on suspicion of illegally importing artifacts, Ukrainian officials said Friday.
Ukraine’s acting Minister of Culture Rostyslav Karandieiev said the man stole the artifacts from Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory and then tried to transport them into the U.S. At a news conference in Kyiv Friday, Karandieiev showed some of the artifacts to journalists, along with the documentation that Ukraine received.
The recovered items include various types of weaponry, such as axes of different sizes, and date back to periods ranging from the Neolithic to the Middle Ages. One of the oldest is a polished Neolithic axe, dating from approximately 5,000-3,000 years BCE, said Karandieiev.
