Russia’s Justice Ministry has added Diana “Naoko” Loginova, the vocalist for the band Stoptime, to its registry of “foreign agents.”

The ministry also added Loginova’s fiancé, Stoptime guitarist Alexander Orlov, to the list.

Another new addition to the registry is the Malinovy Klin Nezavisimaya Kuban (Raspberry Wedge Independent Kuban) movement.

Stoptime is a street band from St. Petersburg that became known for covering songs by musicians designated as “foreign agents.”

In the fall of 2025, the band’s members were detained and subjected to a series of “revolving-door arrests” for allegedly organizing a mass gathering in a public place. In total, the musicians spent more than a month in a detention center. After their release, Loginova and Orlov left Russia. They recorded their first album while living abroad.

More from Meduza

• A Russian lawmaker offered to make Stoptime’s teenage frontwoman a patriotic star — if she’d repent on camera. Diana Loginova chose exile instead, and the band just released its first album.
• ‘I thought, what could they do to me?’ Russian street singer Diana Loginova, jailed for performing anti-war songs, gives first major interview in exile
• Nothing but the anti-Kremlin hits Performing songs by blacklisted musicians made this Russian street band famous. Then it landed them in jail.

At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.

If you find any errors in this translation, please contact us at reports@meduza.io.

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Russia’s Justice Ministry has added Diana “Naoko” Loginova, the vocalist for the band Stoptime, to its registry of “foreign agents.”

The ministry also added Loginova’s fiancé, Stoptime guitarist Alexander Orlov, to the list.

Another new addition to the registry is the Malinovy Klin Nezavisimaya Kuban (Raspberry Wedge Independent Kuban) movement.

Stoptime is a street band from St. Petersburg that became known for covering songs by musicians designated as “foreign agents.”

In the fall of 2025, the band’s members were detained and subjected to a series of “revolving-door arrests” for allegedly organizing a mass gathering in a public place. In total, the musicians spent more than a month in a detention center. After their release, Loginova and Orlov left Russia. They recorded their first album while living abroad.

More from Meduza

• A Russian lawmaker offered to make Stoptime’s teenage frontwoman a patriotic star — if she’d repent on camera. Diana Loginova chose exile instead, and the band just released its first album.
• ‘I thought, what could they do to me?’ Russian street singer Diana Loginova, jailed for performing anti-war songs, gives first major interview in exile
• Nothing but the anti-Kremlin hits Performing songs by blacklisted musicians made this Russian street band famous. Then it landed them in jail.

At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.

If you find any errors in this translation, please contact us at reports@meduza.io.

To read Meduza’s exclusive content in English, please subscribe to our newsletter.

The Turkish criminal gang known as the Daltons may have been involved in the arson attack on a Starlink satellite ground station in the village of Wola Krobowska in Poland’s Masovian province, Der Spiegel reported, citing sources.

The ground station caught fire on September 23. Polish authorities called the fire a deliberate act of sabotage and blamed Russia. According to Spiegel, Russian intelligence services may have hired the Daltons to carry out the attack.

On October 12, two Turkish citizens suspected of involvement in the arson attack were arrested in the German town of Nürtingen at Poland’s request. Spiegel identified the men as 38-year-old Ümit E. and 34-year-old Müslüm T. The outlet said they likely belong to the Daltons — or at least may have acted at the direction of the gang’s supporters.

A court in Stuttgart is expected to decide in the coming days whether to extradite the two men to Poland.

Spiegel reported that Russian intelligence services have so far relied primarily on “low-level agents,” such as petty criminals who took on jobs for small amounts of money, to carry out sabotage in Europe. If it is confirmed that Daltons supporters were involved in the arson attack on the Starlink terminal in Poland, that would signal a shift in Russian intelligence strategy, the outlet said.

The Daltons gang was formed in 2024. According to the Azerbaijani news site Haqqin.az, its members were mostly young people born in 2000 or later. In Turkey, the Daltons were involved in the killing of Serdar Öktem, a prominent lawyer and member of the Nationalist Movement Party, who was shot dead in his car in Istanbul. Gang members also operated in Germany and other European countries, where they engaged in extorting protection money, arms trafficking, and contract killings.

The leader of the Daltons, Beratcan Gökdemir, was arrested in Russia in 2024, Spiegel reported. Turkey demanded his extradition, but Russia never handed him over. Experts speculated that the Kremlin might have hoped to get something from the Daltons in return. It remains unclear whether Gökdemir is still in Russia.

Plots and attacks in Europe

• U.S. uncovers network that plotted assassinations of Russian ‘dissidents’ in Washington and Vilnius. Among the suspects: an ex-colonel with Putin ties, his FSB officer son, and a Cuban dancer.
• Russia is escalating its hybrid attacks on the West. Moscow will make Europe’s life ‘hell’ for supporting Ukraine, Kremlin insider tells Bloomberg.
• Unmasking Moscow’s sex toy bombers Journalists expose the operatives behind Russia’s European package plot

At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.

If you find any errors in this translation, please contact us at reports@meduza.io.

To read Meduza’s exclusive content in English, please subscribe to our newsletter.

The Turkish criminal gang known as the Daltons may have been involved in the arson attack on a Starlink satellite ground station in the village of Wola Krobowska in Poland’s Masovian province, Der Spiegel reported, citing sources.

The ground station caught fire on September 23. Polish authorities called the fire a deliberate act of sabotage and blamed Russia. According to Spiegel, Russian intelligence services may have hired the Daltons to carry out the attack.

On October 12, two Turkish citizens suspected of involvement in the arson attack were arrested in the German town of Nürtingen at Poland’s request. Spiegel identified the men as 38-year-old Ümit E. and 34-year-old Müslüm T. The outlet said they likely belong to the Daltons — or at least may have acted at the direction of the gang’s supporters.

A court in Stuttgart is expected to decide in the coming days whether to extradite the two men to Poland.

Spiegel reported that Russian intelligence services have so far relied primarily on “low-level agents,” such as petty criminals who took on jobs for small amounts of money, to carry out sabotage in Europe. If it is confirmed that Daltons supporters were involved in the arson attack on the Starlink terminal in Poland, that would signal a shift in Russian intelligence strategy, the outlet said.

The Daltons gang was formed in 2024. According to the Azerbaijani news site Haqqin.az, its members were mostly young people born in 2000 or later. In Turkey, the Daltons were involved in the killing of Serdar Öktem, a prominent lawyer and member of the Nationalist Movement Party, who was shot dead in his car in Istanbul. Gang members also operated in Germany and other European countries, where they engaged in extorting protection money, arms trafficking, and contract killings.

The leader of the Daltons, Beratcan Gökdemir, was arrested in Russia in 2024, Spiegel reported. Turkey demanded his extradition, but Russia never handed him over. Experts speculated that the Kremlin might have hoped to get something from the Daltons in return. It remains unclear whether Gökdemir is still in Russia.

Plots and attacks in Europe

• U.S. uncovers network that plotted assassinations of Russian ‘dissidents’ in Washington and Vilnius. Among the suspects: an ex-colonel with Putin ties, his FSB officer son, and a Cuban dancer.
• Russia is escalating its hybrid attacks on the West. Moscow will make Europe’s life ‘hell’ for supporting Ukraine, Kremlin insider tells Bloomberg.
• Unmasking Moscow’s sex toy bombers Journalists expose the operatives behind Russia’s European package plot

At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.

If you find any errors in this translation, please contact us at reports@meduza.io.

To read Meduza’s exclusive content in English, please subscribe to our newsletter.

On October 9, Shortparis released “Iliada” (“Iliad”), their first album since vocalist Nikolai Komyagin died in February 2026. Its sound is unusual for the band, and its lyrics are probably the most candid in their catalog. Music critic Artyom Makarsky explores how “Iliada” differs from the band’s earlier recordings and how some of its lyrics might be interpreted.

There aren’t many Russian-language posthumous albums. Records by Andy Cartwright and Yung Trappa came out almost immediately after their deaths — both musicians left plenty of finished, unreleased material. In rock, collaborators usually spent a long time finishing the musicians’ work, and most of these recordings revealed a different side of the artist: Kino’s “Cherny albom” (“Black Album,” 1991) drew on house and electronic music, while Yanka’s “Styd i sram” (“Shame and Disgrace,” 1991), completed by Yegor Letov, was more jittery and tense than her other work. There was also Sergei Kuryokhin’s “Detsky albom” (“Children’s Album,” 1998), on which he sang for the first time and ventured into dance music.

Shortparis also change their style on “Iliada.” Acoustic keyboards increasingly replace synthesizers, with horns appearing here and there as the band moves toward epic rock. In 2018, their cover of the glam rock song “All the Young Dudes,” written by David Bowie, was an anomaly in their catalog. After “Iliada,” that experiment seems like a logical step — Shortparis are now releasing music in the vein of early Sparks, Bowie himself, or the unfairly overlooked Soviet art rock band Aprelsky Marsh. Only “Gvozd” (“Nail”) and “Zanovo” (“All Over Again”), with rhythms more typical of the band, recall the old Shortparis.

Still, this change will really surprise only those who missed everything the band has released since keyboardist Alexander Galyanov left in 2023. The tenderness of “Kolybelnaya” (“Lullaby”) and “Proshchalnaya” (“Farewell Song”) has its roots in their soundtrack to Anna Melikyan’s film “Chuvstva Anny” (“Anna’s Feelings”). Straightforward rock was already there on the EP “Grozdya gneva” (“Grapes of Wrath,” 2023), and horns appeared on “Rodnaya zemlya” (“Native Land”), a song from Kirill Serebrennikov’s film “Ballada ob Edichke” (“Limonov: The Ballad of Eddie”).

The band released nothing in 2024 — perhaps they had probably already begun work on ‘Iliada’ by then. They seem to have devoted the past two years to the project, with a pause after Komyagin’s sudden death in February 2026. That summer, the magazine Pravila Zhizni tried to get drummer Danila Kholodkov to open up about what would happen next, but he said only that “right now, nobody’s even trying to think about [new releases].” Still, the band released an album: “Iliada” became their final statement, a monument to Komyagin, and a way to work through their grief.

“Iliada” has three main lyrical themes: death (and, with it, war), silence, and doubt.

Death appears in the opening song’s very first line: “The dead will no longer fall into line.” The theme develops in “Poy so mnoy” (“Sing With Me”), which describes two scenes: birch trees stained with soldiers’ blood and advertisements featuring dead soldiers in the subway. And though fireworks go off — perhaps for Victory Day? — nothing lets you forget death.

Yet the world of “Iliada” is largely closed off: everything that happens to the album’s narrator takes place in Russia. The soldiers have already returned — they lie buried in their native soil. “Russkaya toska, ili Pesnya slabaka” (“Russian Melancholy, or a Weakling’s Song”) recreates a storyline from Alexei Balabanov’s film “Gruz 200” (“Cargo 200”). Another coffin arrives in “Pobeda” (“Victory: Song for a Children’s Funeral Orchestra”) — this time carrying a father rather than a fiancé — as jubilant propaganda contrasts with a sense of catastrophe. Here, too, Ukraine is evoked through allegory: “There the banks are jelly, there the sand is sugar, but the river flows not with water, but with bitter boiling water.” This place promises a soldier certain death.

Silence is the album’s second major theme. The protagonist keeps recalling how he said and did nothing: “I’ll be peaceful, I’ll be meek, I’ll be faithful, a galley slave”; “Do you remember the tear rolling from your eyes when you kept quiet for the first time?”; “Hear that growling? That’s our silence”; and “In the silence, whispers about the country.” He’s hardly happy about it. He’s forever questioning himself (the record’s third main theme): “Maybe these songs aren’t sung in vain?”; “What if I’ve been singing about all the wrong things? What if we’ve all been going the wrong way?” In the line “I’d sing only of love, but the country doesn’t want that,” Komyagin, who often sang of a coarse, gritty romanticism, suddenly realizes he needs to speak about something else after all. Now he’s gone, and these lines full of doubt have become darker still.

Shortparis never wanted to state their position clearly and directly, and Komyagin’s own interviews left the same impression. But war demands an answer. Komyagin understood that, and so “Iliada” became the band’s clearest album. Its lyrics are still full of contradictions, as in the closing lines of “Zanovo”: “All-o-ver-a-gain! You can’t start again! Start again! Everything all over again!” Or take “Molodost” (“Youth”), a song that touches on a possible revolution while telling the story of someone unprepared for it. But the album depicts such a bleak world that the band’s overall position is clear. Komyagin does, however, seem to mourn the Russian soldiers, asking in “Kolybelnaya”: “Who will remember all their faces? Could even you, Lord?” Not every listener will necessarily share that sentiment.

The band’s aptly named label, Fenix Music, stresses that the album should be heard in full, and its cohesion really does matter. But another contradiction emerges here: “Iliada” is clearly an unfinished album, as the titles of some tracks suggest — “Pervaya” (“First”), “Shestaya” (“Sixth”), and “Sedmaya” (“Seventh”). On “Pervaya,” the words are unintelligible, sounding more like a scratch vocal laid over the music for lack of finished lyrics. The two interludes are much the same, with the nonsense words on “Interlyudiya I” (“Interlude I”) clearly following the rhythm of the lyrics to “Poy so mnoy.” “Shestaya” ends the same way.

This unfinished quality seems to be the greatest strength of “Iliada.” Shortparis’ music used to be polished, perfect in many respects — even the noise was deliberate. Now that close listening reveals missing (or very quiet) syllables in Komyagin’s singing, the band’s songs come alive, feel more intimate, and become easier to understand.

Shortparis like to quote literary classics when talking about themselves. In 2025, for instance, they accompanied the news of their return from a European tour with a photograph of a page from Andrei Platonov’s “Chevengur.” It contained a passage about sparrows that don’t fly off to distant lands because they are proletarian birds. A fairly transparent metaphor. The epigraph to “Iliada” uses the same technique, quoting Nikolai Chernyshevsky’s “Chto delat?” (“What Is to Be Done?”):

It was a bold, spirited little song, and its melody was cheerful — there were two or three sad notes, but they were swallowed up by the tune’s overall brightness, disappearing in the refrain, disappearing throughout the final verse.

This reference is more complicated than it seems. The song in the passage is sung by Vera Pavlovna, the protagonist of “Chto delat?” Shortly after this scene, she learns that her husband has killed himself. The song is the French revolutionary song “Ça ira,” written by a former soldier and also known in Russian as “Akh, poydut dela na lad” (“Ah, Things Will Get Better”). Chernyshevsky freely translated this iconic song, which predated “La Marseillaise,” as follows:

We are coarse, but we ourselves suffer from our coarseness. We are full of prejudices, but we ourselves suffer from them, and we feel it. Let us seek happiness, and we will find humanity and become kind — things will get better — we’ll live on, we’ll live to see it.

That “we’ll live to see it” now feels especially bitter, while “Akh, poydut dela na lad” itself seems to hold the key to the record: despite all the contradictions, there is hope. This text mattered to Komyagin — back in 2023, he read it onstage, putting particular emphasis on “We’ll live on, we’ll live to see it.” And Homer’s “Iliad,” after all, tells of the final days of a 10-year war.

At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.

If you find any errors in this translation, please contact us at reports@meduza.io.

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Artyom Makarsky

Donald Trump said he had not ordered restrictions on Starshield, the military version of Starlink, in Ukraine.

“Well, I don’t know if it was anybody, because it wasn’t me. And I don’t think it was Elon [Musk],” Trump told reporters.

Trump said he had checked that morning and everything was working as usual. He said he was “not even sure” Starlink had stopped working in Ukraine.

On October 14, Ukrainian military personnel reported restrictions affecting their Starlink satellite communications terminals — specifically, the military version, Starshield. The restrictions caused some Ukrainian military missions to fail.

The following day, a senior U.S. administration official told Axios that the White House had nothing to do with the restrictions on Starlink in Ukraine. However, sources cited by Reuters said the White House had ordered restrictions on Starshield. They did not specify who had given the order.

At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.

If you find any errors in this translation, please contact us at reports@meduza.io.

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Donald Trump said he had not ordered restrictions on Starshield, the military version of Starlink, in Ukraine.

“Well, I don’t know if it was anybody, because it wasn’t me. And I don’t think it was Elon [Musk],” Trump told reporters.

Trump said he had checked that morning and everything was working as usual. He said he was “not even sure” Starlink had stopped working in Ukraine.

On October 14, Ukrainian military personnel reported restrictions affecting their Starlink satellite communications terminals — specifically, the military version, Starshield. The restrictions caused some Ukrainian military missions to fail.

The following day, a senior U.S. administration official told Axios that the White House had nothing to do with the restrictions on Starlink in Ukraine. However, sources cited by Reuters said the White House had ordered restrictions on Starshield. They did not specify who had given the order.

At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.

If you find any errors in this translation, please contact us at reports@meduza.io.

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Russia expects to force Ukraine to capitulate this coming winter by disabling its energy system, particularly by leaving Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Odesa without electricity, heat, or water, The New York Times reported. The newspaper reviewed a Russian government plan that Ukraine intercepted and showed to its European allies in September.

According to the plan, Russia would need about 70 ballistic missiles, 720 long-range drones, and 150 guided aerial bombs to cut off water, electricity, and heat to Ukraine’s three largest cities. Russian military planners believe a month of strikes at that intensity would destroy Ukraine’s energy system.

With the war now in its fifth year, previous attacks have left Ukrainian power plants unable to operate at full capacity, and each new strike quickly knocks them offline, the newspaper reported. Before the war, for example, the three combined heat and power plants supplying Kyiv had a total generating capacity of about 1.3 gigawatts. That has now fallen to about 500 megawatts.

If Russia’s plan succeeds, Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Odesa could lose 90% of their power generating capacity and see heat supplies cut by 90%, disrupting water and sewage systems, according to the newspaper.

Russia’s confidence that the plan can work stems largely from Ukraine’s shortage of air defenses, particularly Patriot interceptor missiles, without which Ukrainian forces are virtually unable to defend against ballistic missiles.

Analysts agree that Moscow now has a better chance of succeeding in its air campaign than at any other point in the war. Ukraine’s missile defenses have been depleted by cuts in American aid, Russia’s missile and drone arsenal has grown more powerful and effective, and years of strikes have left Ukraine’s energy infrastructure far more vulnerable.

This makes Moscow extremely unlikely to agree to any version of the energy ceasefire Kyiv has repeatedly proposed. “The only card they have to pressure the Ukrainians are these air attacks. They don’t have anything else,” Harry Nedelcu, a director at the consulting firm Rasmussen Global, told The New York Times.

But history shows that such bombing campaigns, which devastate economies and civilian life, usually fail to force an enemy to surrender, the newspaper reported. The United States failed to achieve its aims this way in Vietnam, during the Persian Gulf War in the early 1990s, and in the current war against Iran.

“Punishing the adversaries’ civilian population and trying to break its will has a very poor historical track record for coercing it to concede defeat,” Seth Jones, a military expert at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, told the newspaper.

At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.

If you find any errors in this translation, please contact us at reports@meduza.io.

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Russia expects to force Ukraine to capitulate this coming winter by disabling its energy system, particularly by leaving Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Odesa without electricity, heat, or water, The New York Times reported. The newspaper reviewed a Russian government plan that Ukraine intercepted and showed to its European allies in September.

According to the plan, Russia would need about 70 ballistic missiles, 720 long-range drones, and 150 guided aerial bombs to cut off water, electricity, and heat to Ukraine’s three largest cities. Russian military planners believe a month of strikes at that intensity would destroy Ukraine’s energy system.

With the war now in its fifth year, previous attacks have left Ukrainian power plants unable to operate at full capacity, and each new strike quickly knocks them offline, the newspaper reported. Before the war, for example, the three combined heat and power plants supplying Kyiv had a total generating capacity of about 1.3 gigawatts. That has now fallen to about 500 megawatts.

If Russia’s plan succeeds, Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Odesa could lose 90% of their power generating capacity and see heat supplies cut by 90%, disrupting water and sewage systems, according to the newspaper.

Russia’s confidence that the plan can work stems largely from Ukraine’s shortage of air defenses, particularly Patriot interceptor missiles, without which Ukrainian forces are virtually unable to defend against ballistic missiles.

Analysts agree that Moscow now has a better chance of succeeding in its air campaign than at any other point in the war. Ukraine’s missile defenses have been depleted by cuts in American aid, Russia’s missile and drone arsenal has grown more powerful and effective, and years of strikes have left Ukraine’s energy infrastructure far more vulnerable.

This makes Moscow extremely unlikely to agree to any version of the energy ceasefire Kyiv has repeatedly proposed. “The only card they have to pressure the Ukrainians are these air attacks. They don’t have anything else,” Harry Nedelcu, a director at the consulting firm Rasmussen Global, told The New York Times.

But history shows that such bombing campaigns, which devastate economies and civilian life, usually fail to force an enemy to surrender, the newspaper reported. The United States failed to achieve its aims this way in Vietnam, during the Persian Gulf War in the early 1990s, and in the current war against Iran.

“Punishing the adversaries’ civilian population and trying to break its will has a very poor historical track record for coercing it to concede defeat,” Seth Jones, a military expert at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, told the newspaper.

At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.

If you find any errors in this translation, please contact us at reports@meduza.io.

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An immigration raid is underway in central St. Petersburg, where OMON riot police have cordoned off a block on Moskovsky Prospekt near Sennoy Market. The block includes a prayer room attended by about 1,000 worshipers, a law enforcement source told TASS.

Officers are also checking nearby hostels and cafes. Several dozen people have been detained, journalists said. Officers are checking registration documents, migration cards, and work permits.

Enlistment officers are taking part in the raid, checking whether recently naturalized Russian citizens have registered with the military. “So far, several dozen people have been identified and served summonses to report to a military enlistment office for registration,” the TASS source said.

Read more

• Russia is filling its ranks with foreign fighters and treating them as ‘disposable soldiers’
• ‘They’re grabbing everyone’: Russian military enlistment officers are rounding up men en masse in Penza, residents say
• Russian police are raiding gyms, sweeping up men for conscription and deportation

At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.

If you find any errors in this translation, please contact us at reports@meduza.io.

To read Meduza’s exclusive content in English, please subscribe to our newsletter.

An immigration raid is underway in central St. Petersburg, where OMON riot police have cordoned off a block on Moskovsky Prospekt near Sennoy Market. The block includes a prayer room attended by about 1,000 worshipers, a law enforcement source told TASS.

Officers are also checking nearby hostels and cafes. Several dozen people have been detained, journalists said. Officers are checking registration documents, migration cards, and work permits.

Enlistment officers are taking part in the raid, checking whether recently naturalized Russian citizens have registered with the military. “So far, several dozen people have been identified and served summonses to report to a military enlistment office for registration,” the TASS source said.

Read more

• Russia is filling its ranks with foreign fighters and treating them as ‘disposable soldiers’
• ‘They’re grabbing everyone’: Russian military enlistment officers are rounding up men en masse in Penza, residents say
• Russian police are raiding gyms, sweeping up men for conscription and deportation

At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.

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Pope Leo XIV spoke by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin and the Vatican said.

During the call, the pope expressed “deep concern” about the dire humanitarian situation in Oleshky, in the Kherson region, and called for a ceasefire to allow deliveries of humanitarian aid and the safe, voluntary evacuation of civilians.

Putin gave the pope “comprehensive explanations of the Kyiv regime’s responsibility” for “the humanitarian situation that has developed in Oleshky,” the Kremlin said. “Support was expressed for the Vatican’s intention to help create conditions that would keep the city’s residents safe and allow essential supplies to be delivered. The two sides agreed to cooperate on this,” the Kremlin press service said in a statement.

The pope is in the hospital after being diagnosed with lung adenocarcinoma. He has undergone surgery and is recovering but remains under medical supervision.

Residents of Oleshky (known in Russian as Alyoshki), in the Kherson region, have lived under Russian occupation since 2022, but this fall conditions there have become dire, verging on a humanitarian catastrophe. Constant drone attacks have left residents without food, electricity, or adequate medical care. They cannot safely leave the city and sometimes cannot even bury loved ones who have been killed.

Read more

• ‘The smell of death is everywhere’: Inside the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Russian-occupied Oleshky, where hundreds are trapped without food, electricity, or medicine
• A humanitarian crisis is gripping Russian-occupied Oleshky as food deliveries stop and safe evacuation becomes nearly impossible
• Pope Leo XIV urges European leaders to be willing to make concessions to help end Russia–Ukraine war — but doesn’t say what should be conceded

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Pope Leo XIV spoke by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin and the Vatican said.

During the call, the pope expressed “deep concern” about the dire humanitarian situation in Oleshky, in the Kherson region, and called for a ceasefire to allow deliveries of humanitarian aid and the safe, voluntary evacuation of civilians.

Putin gave the pope “comprehensive explanations of the Kyiv regime’s responsibility” for “the humanitarian situation that has developed in Oleshky,” the Kremlin said. “Support was expressed for the Vatican’s intention to help create conditions that would keep the city’s residents safe and allow essential supplies to be delivered. The two sides agreed to cooperate on this,” the Kremlin press service said in a statement.

The pope is in the hospital after being diagnosed with lung adenocarcinoma. He has undergone surgery and is recovering but remains under medical supervision.

Residents of Oleshky (known in Russian as Alyoshki), in the Kherson region, have lived under Russian occupation since 2022, but this fall conditions there have become dire, verging on a humanitarian catastrophe. Constant drone attacks have left residents without food, electricity, or adequate medical care. They cannot safely leave the city and sometimes cannot even bury loved ones who have been killed.

Read more

• ‘The smell of death is everywhere’: Inside the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Russian-occupied Oleshky, where hundreds are trapped without food, electricity, or medicine
• A humanitarian crisis is gripping Russian-occupied Oleshky as food deliveries stop and safe evacuation becomes nearly impossible
• Pope Leo XIV urges European leaders to be willing to make concessions to help end Russia–Ukraine war — but doesn’t say what should be conceded

At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.

If you find any errors in this translation, please contact us at reports@meduza.io.

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European leaders did not press Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to tone down his remarks about U.S. President Donald Trump during their meeting in Brussels, diplomatic sources told Politico.

“What do you expect him [Zelenskyy] to do? He’s desperate, and the situation is as bad as it can get,” one of the sources told the outlet.

The previous day, the Financial Times reported that EU leaders planned to urge Zelensky to tone down his criticism of Trump, fearing that the Ukrainian president’s increasingly sharp remarks could further damage the already strained relationship between Washington and Kyiv.

Read more

• Trump calls for Ukraine to choose a new president as relations with Zelensky hit their lowest point since Oval Office clash
• European allies publicly back Zelensky after Trump says Ukraine needs a new president
• Zelensky has a message for Washington: Don’t call peace impossible while refusing to put more pressure on Putin

At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.

If you find any errors in this translation, please contact us at reports@meduza.io.

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European leaders did not press Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to tone down his remarks about U.S. President Donald Trump during their meeting in Brussels, diplomatic sources told Politico.

“What do you expect him [Zelenskyy] to do? He’s desperate, and the situation is as bad as it can get,” one of the sources told the outlet.

The previous day, the Financial Times reported that EU leaders planned to urge Zelensky to tone down his criticism of Trump, fearing that the Ukrainian president’s increasingly sharp remarks could further damage the already strained relationship between Washington and Kyiv.

Read more

• Trump calls for Ukraine to choose a new president as relations with Zelensky hit their lowest point since Oval Office clash
• European allies publicly back Zelensky after Trump says Ukraine needs a new president
• Zelensky has a message for Washington: Don’t call peace impossible while refusing to put more pressure on Putin

At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.

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Moscow’s Zamoskvoretsky District Court has ordered Oleg Shorin, the former director of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Library for Natural Sciences, held in custody on charges of large-scale fraud, Kommersant reported.

The basis for the charges is unknown.

Shorin stepped down as the library’s director in December 2023. In June of that year, Moscow’s Khamovnichesky District Court fined the library 141,000 rubles for misusing 2.8 million rubles in public funds, according to Kommersant.

The library told Kommersant it did not know why its former director was being prosecuted.

Shorin graduated from the Faculty of Computational Mathematics and Cybernetics at Lomonosov Moscow State University. From 2011 to 2018, he worked at the National Library of Russia in St. Petersburg. He then became director of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Library for Natural Sciences, where he worked on digitizing the library. In 2023, he left that position and became director of digital transformation at Rently, where he was responsible for the strategic development of a cloud-based software-as-a-service platform.

More from Meduza

• Russia’s Institute of Philosophy raided over fraud case tied to Aristotle translation project — the institute had previously been accused of disloyalty to the Kremlin.
• The case against Russia’s ‘extremist librarian’ How the head of Moscow’s Ukrainian literature library landed in court

At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.

If you find any errors in this translation, please contact us at reports@meduza.io.

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Moscow’s Zamoskvoretsky District Court has ordered Oleg Shorin, the former director of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Library for Natural Sciences, held in custody on charges of large-scale fraud, Kommersant reported.

The basis for the charges is unknown.

Shorin stepped down as the library’s director in December 2023. In June of that year, Moscow’s Khamovnichesky District Court fined the library 141,000 rubles for misusing 2.8 million rubles in public funds, according to Kommersant.

The library told Kommersant it did not know why its former director was being prosecuted.

Shorin graduated from the Faculty of Computational Mathematics and Cybernetics at Lomonosov Moscow State University. From 2011 to 2018, he worked at the National Library of Russia in St. Petersburg. He then became director of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Library for Natural Sciences, where he worked on digitizing the library. In 2023, he left that position and became director of digital transformation at Rently, where he was responsible for the strategic development of a cloud-based software-as-a-service platform.

More from Meduza

• Russia’s Institute of Philosophy raided over fraud case tied to Aristotle translation project — the institute had previously been accused of disloyalty to the Kremlin.
• The case against Russia’s ‘extremist librarian’ How the head of Moscow’s Ukrainian literature library landed in court

At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.

If you find any errors in this translation, please contact us at reports@meduza.io.

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In its dispute with Volodymyr Zelensky, Donald Trump’s administration quickly used its strongest leverage. It did more than threaten to halt military aid to Kyiv — it immediately restricted the most important part of that aid: U.S. satellite communications. On the morning of October 14, Ukraine’s military command reported that drones equipped with Starlink terminals (more precisely, their military counterpart, Starshield) had begun losing their connections at speeds above 160 kilometers per hour (about 100 mph). This caused several operations to fail. The next day, the speed threshold at which connections cut out fell to 60–80 kilometers per hour (about 37–50 mph). This created even more serious problems for Ukraine’s armed forces, whose command and communications depend directly on satellite links. A day later, however, the speed limit rose again. It remains unclear exactly how the White House is making these decisions (sources cited by Western media say the Trump administration is behind the restrictions). All that is clear is that Washington is not seeking to cripple Ukraine’s military command system immediately. Even so, Ukrainian commanders should consider finding a replacement for this crucial system, which depends entirely on the United States.

What has happened to Ukraine’s military satellite communications in recent days?

The first speed limits on satellite terminals using Starlink, a service operated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, took effect in early 2026. At the time, the stated purpose was to help the Ukrainian military. The limits came in response to Russian drone units’ widespread use of the terminals to strike deep inside Ukraine. In particular, in late 2025, the Russian Defense Ministry’s Rubikon special unit set up a system for attacking moving targets on the Pokrovsk–Dnipro highway with drones guided by video feeds. The highway is the Ukrainian military’s main supply route in western Donbas. Ukrainian terminals continued to work because they had access to the protocols used by Starshield — SpaceX’s military division, created specifically to fulfill contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense (or, officially, the Department of War).

A separate SpaceX subsidiary established in late 2022 to take part in military programs. The U.S. government helps oversee the company, which has received Pentagon contracts. Musk hopes Starshield will become the main contractor for Golden Dome, the megalomaniacal missile defense system Trump is promoting.

About 180 dedicated satellites have also been launched for military use. Unlike Starlink satellites, they use cameras operating in different spectral bands to monitor Earth’s surface. In particular, the new satellites are believed to have already become part of the early-warning system for ballistic missile launches, though there is no precise information on this.

Starshield’s military satellite communications, however, still rely on the much larger civilian Starlink constellation. Software separates military communications functions — stronger encryption, protection against electronic warfare, and the ability to bypass restrictions — from civilian functions.

The speed limits were followed by a complete shutdown of all terminals in Ukraine that were not listed in a special Defense Ministry registry. According to sources cited in media reports, Ukraine’s then-defense minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, reached an agreement with Musk to create this system, cutting off Russian forces’ access to satellite communications through smuggled terminals. The Russian military, which had also come to rely on Starlink for both aerial and ground operations, had to scramble for alternatives. It largely solved the problem, but access to Starlink gave Ukraine’s armed forces an advantage in communications and command that they retain to this day. More on that below.

Now the Trump administration, which, unlike Joe Biden’s administration, does not consider itself obliged to support Ukraine unconditionally, has used this dependence on SpaceX’s services to pressure Kyiv.

• First, Zelensky suspects that the United States deliberately stopped supplying Ukraine with information about Russian ballistic missile launches (Starshield is part of the launch detection system). The White House is also threatening to cut off other intelligence.
• Second, on October 14, speed limits were imposed on Starlink/Starshield terminals used by the Ukrainian military.

According to Ukrainian military personnel and politicians, the speed limit changed over the following 24 hours. Some drones lost their connections for 20 seconds at speeds as low as 60 kilometers per hour (about 37 mph). Finally, former Defense Minister Fedorov said on X that, as of October 15, satellite connections were working reliably at speeds up to 160 kilometers per hour (about 100 mph). He thanked Musk personally for the fix. The SpaceX owner immediately declined to take credit, saying that all Starshield decisions are made by the U.S. Department of War and President Trump himself.

How and why does Ukraine’s military use U.S. satellite communications?

Starlink/Starshield technology has long underpinned Ukraine’s military command system and is deeply integrated into many aspects of the war. Individual infantry units use satellite communications, including units that are effectively surrounded. Many units buy terminals themselves or receive them from volunteers, then register them in the special registry mentioned above. Headquarters at various levels use satellite connections to access shared command systems and coordinate directly with other units.

Ukrainian drones equipped with Starlink terminals operate over the front line as relays, providing connections for other drones and radio-controlled ground vehicles. Another, less common way to control these ground “robots” is to install a terminal directly on each one. Without an airborne relay or a terminal of their own, these vehicles, which have become absolutely indispensable for supplying troops in recent months, cannot be controlled: They almost always operate below the radio horizon of any ground-based communications antenna.

Starlink terminals are also installed on attack drones and other weapons. Starshield communications are essential to Ukraine’s campaign of strikes on Russian forces at medium depth behind the front lines. At least some of the drones attacking Russian transport in occupied territory 50–150 kilometers (about 30–95 miles) from the front — for example, on the highway running along the Sea of Azov toward Crimea — carry Starlink terminals and act as relays for other attack drones. Ukrainian long-range drones equipped with terminals and video cameras have also long been used to strike targets in Crimea.

Read more

• Putin claims that Ukraine has no ‘antidote’ to Russia’s new jet-powered drones. Kyiv has already shown it can shoot them down, but doing it at scale could cost billions.
• Ukrainian troops lost Starlink access for a day. Elon Musk and the Trump White House both deny responsibility.
• Russia was never supposed to have Starlink, so why did SpaceX wait so long to cut it off?

After the United States introduced the speed limits, Ukrainian sources reported that satellite communications were also being used on a new generation of interceptor drones capable of taking on Russian jet-powered drones. In recent months, Russia has used large numbers of these drones to attack targets far behind Ukraine’s front lines. The sources did not specify how the interceptors use these connections.

Before the Trump administration began its latest pressure campaign against Kyiv, Ukraine had been trying to persuade Musk or the Pentagon to enable Starlink service over Russia — naturally, only for terminals held by Ukrainian forces. The idea was to equip long-range drones striking Russia’s rear areas with video cameras so operators could attack mobile targets as well as fixed ones with known coordinates, such as factories, warehouses, and data centers. This would allow Ukrainian forces to strike targets such as Iskander-M ballistic missile launchers and fighter-bombers at air bases.

Kyiv’s request was denied, so Ukrainian long-range drones — apart from those attacking Crimea and other occupied territories — still use inertial navigation systems combined with GPS satellite navigation rather than being controlled by operators.

What would restrictions on Starlink/Starshield use mean for Ukraine?

That depends on the speed limit.

• Cutting off connections at speeds above 160 kilometers per hour (about 100 mph) makes it extremely difficult for drones to strike mobile targets, such as trucks, at medium depth behind the front lines: Attack drones generally fly faster than that. There are ways to adapt, however, such as using slower relay drones. Satellite communications would also become completely unusable on interceptor drones capable of taking on jet-powered drones: These interceptors need to fly several times faster than the limit.
• If the limit is set at 60–80 kilometers per hour (about 37–50 mph), drone operations across the front will be disrupted, including “Baba Yaga” multicopters. Satellite communications terminals will have to be installed on all unmanned ground vehicles, substantially increasing the cost of front-line operations. Ukrainian forces will have to forgo a large share of long-distance FPV drone strikes, which are currently possible mainly thanks to relay drones.
• Finally, a complete shutdown — unlikely, but still possible if the dispute between Trump and Zelensky worsens — would deprive Ukraine’s armed forces of their established communications and command system altogether. This threat means Ukrainian commanders need to start looking for a replacement for Starlink now.

What could the Ukrainian military use instead of Starlink?

No system outside the U.S. administration’s control is available to Ukraine as a direct replacement for Starlink. Its European counterpart, Eutelsat OneWeb, has been through bankruptcy proceedings; EU and British authorities are now working to incorporate the OneWeb constellation, which has 600 satellites in orbit, into a new system called IRIS². Even if the new program goes ahead, it will have less bandwidth than Starlink. It is quite possible that the Chinese systems Guowang and Qianfan will become available to the Russian military before IRIS² becomes available to Ukraine’s military.

However, the Russian military’s experience shows that alternatives to satellite communications exist. Within a few months of the unexpected shutdown of all the smuggled Starlink terminals Russian forces had been using in Ukraine, those forces built a communications system based on mesh networks.

A technology built around computer nodes that can each act as a switch for other devices on the network.

For the military, this means a system of airborne and ground-based communications relays that can be used to control drones tens of kilometers from their operators’ positions.

The Russian military has managed to replace some of the satellite communications provided by smuggled terminals both at the front and on long-range drones. Its mesh system is, of course, inferior to Ukraine’s Starlink-based system: Mesh relays are unevenly distributed among Russian units, and much of their equipment comes from private “volunteers” rather than the Defense Ministry. The ground antennas that act as the network’s main nodes are vulnerable to detection and strikes by Ukrainian forces.

Ukraine has even threatened strikes against Belarus, where, Kyiv says, the Russian military has installed antennas used to control the mesh networks of drones attacking the Ukrainian capital. Even so, mesh networks could serve as a makeshift substitute for a Starlink-based system if satellite communications were cut off completely.

At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.

If you find any errors in this translation, please contact us at reports@meduza.io.

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky declined to discuss his relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump at a news conference in Brussels.

A Sky News reporter asked Zelensky whether he believes Trump is using him as a scapegoat for his own low approval ratings ahead of the U.S. congressional elections.

Zelensky fell silent for a few seconds, then smiled pointedly. When other reporters in the room started laughing, too, he said, “This is my answer.” He then left the news conference.

Earlier in the news conference, Zelensky said Starlink service in Ukraine has not yet been fully restored and again reported a “significant shortage” of Patriot missiles. He said he had asked the United States for additional interceptors to cover the period during which Ukraine would refrain from striking oil refineries in Russia, but the United States refused.

In recent weeks, Donald Trump has demanded that Ukraine stop striking oil refineries in Russia, claiming the strikes — not the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, caused by the war the United States and Israel started against Iran — are driving up global diesel prices.

Under pressure from Trump, Ukraine agreed not to strike Russian oil refineries on the understanding that Russia should reduce its attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure. That did not happen, and three days into the pause, Zelensky said Ukraine’s armed forces are resuming their strikes.

At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.

If you find any errors in this translation, please contact us at reports@meduza.io.

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky declined to discuss his relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump at a news conference in Brussels.

A Sky News reporter asked Zelensky whether he believes Trump is using him as a scapegoat for his own low approval ratings ahead of the U.S. congressional elections.

Zelensky fell silent for a few seconds, then smiled pointedly. When other reporters in the room started laughing, too, he said, “This is my answer.” He then left the news conference.

Earlier in the news conference, Zelensky said Starlink service in Ukraine has not yet been fully restored and again reported a “significant shortage” of Patriot missiles. He said he had asked the United States for additional interceptors to cover the period during which Ukraine would refrain from striking oil refineries in Russia, but the United States refused.

In recent weeks, Donald Trump has demanded that Ukraine stop striking oil refineries in Russia, claiming the strikes — not the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, caused by the war the United States and Israel started against Iran — are driving up global diesel prices.

Under pressure from Trump, Ukraine agreed not to strike Russian oil refineries on the understanding that Russia should reduce its attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure. That did not happen, and three days into the pause, Zelensky said Ukraine’s armed forces are resuming their strikes.

At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.

If you find any errors in this translation, please contact us at reports@meduza.io.

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