Austrian police detained Ukrainian investigative journalist Mykhailo Tkach and cameraman Yaroslav Bondarenko in Vienna yesterday, on 8 October. Both were later released, but the circumstances of their detention remain unclear, and the prosecutor’s office said suspicion against them had not been substantiated so far.

The detention lasted more than 12 hours, the first time Tkach had been held that long while on a reporting assignment abroad. The case unfolded alongside a separate Austrian espionage investigation involving two men suspected of working for Ukraine’s military intelligence. Authorities have not said whether the cases are connected.

Tkach describes detention

In a video published by Ukrainska Pravda, Tkach said seven people wearing masks and carrying weapons approached their car at a traffic light about 3–5 kilometers from central Vienna, broke its windows, and pointed weapons at them.

He said the people did not identify themselves or explain their actions. The journalists were pulled from the car, forced face down onto the road, searched, and had their hands taped behind their backs, according to Tkach. He said he initially thought they were being kidnapped because he did not see identification or have time to notice police markings. He realized they were police only after seeing police vehicles.

“As I felt it, they detained us like terrorists,” Tkach said.

He added that people shouted and pointed weapons, and there was no communication. He said one person put a knee on his neck and shouted at him to be quiet. He also saw glass from the broken window fly into Bondarenko’s face.

In a second report, Ukrainska Pravda said Tkach’s account of a document presented to him listed three allegations: espionage in the interests of Ukrainian military intelligence, participation in a criminal organization, and, as far as he remembered, causing harm to Austria. He said investigators did not explain the evidence behind the allegations.

Vienna prosecutor’s office spokesperson Nina Bussek told the Austrian Press Agency (APA) that suspicion against the two journalists had arisen during other investigations but had not been substantiated. She said it currently appeared that the suspicion was not holding up. Austrian officials have not publicly addressed Tkach’s account of the force used.

Diplomatic response and calls for an investigation

Tkach and Bondarenko were in Vienna on an assignment to find Ruslan Kravchenko, Ukraine’s former prosecutor general, Ukrainska Pravda reported. Kravchenko was dismissed on 15 September amid an investigation by Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau and Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office into alleged protection of fraudulent call centers. He denied involvement. Der Standard reported that it remained unclear whether the journalists’ detention was connected to their reporting on him.

Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi confirmed Tkach’s release and said the Ukrainian consul had requested access to him, according to NV. Musaieva said Bondarenko had been injured and hospitalized.

A statement signed by Ukrainian media and civil society organizations, including Euromaidan Press, called for an immediate, transparent, and independent investigation of law enforcement’s actions. The signatories also demanded an independent review of the force used, the return of seized equipment, and necessary medical and legal assistance.

Separate espionage investigation

Austrian Interior Minister Gerhard Karner confirmed the arrests of four Ukrainians, according to ORF. The two men detained on 5 October were placed in pretrial detention until 21 October on suspicion of secret intelligence activity against Austria. APA reported that they were suspected employees of Ukraine’s military intelligence service. Both deny the allegations.

People in Russian-occupied Oleshky, a town in southern Ukraine, are running out of food and medicine and have no way out, a local resident told RBC-Ukraine. Ukraine's human rights ombudsman told the outlet that civilians there are dying of hunger every day.

The part of Kherson Oblast across the Dnipro River has been under Russian occupation since 2022, with civilians facing food and medicine shortages and restrictions on leaving. The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine has documented deteriorating conditions in Oleshky and neighboring Hola Prystan. There has been no practical breakthrough toward an organized evacuation, though 358 people who need help to leave Oleshky and nearby settlements have been verified. About 2,000 people remain in Oleshky, Kherson Oblast head Oleksandr Prokudin estimated.

The resident, who spoke anonymously, said food is extremely scarce, and residents are waiting for a humanitarian corridor to leave. The local market offers mostly vegetables and fruit, such as tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, pears, and apples. Russia made its ruble the only legal currency in occupied Kherson Oblast from 1 January 2023, pushing out the Ukrainian hryvnia. Prices at the market start at 500 rubles (about $6), and "if you're lucky, 10 eggs can be bought for 3,000 rubles" (about $36), the resident said. That is about $3.60 an egg, nearly 20 times the US average of about $0.19, or $2.27 a dozen in August, US government data show.

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Russian troops enter homes and threaten starving Oleshky residents for food and alcohol, officials say

Ukraine's human rights ombudsman, Dmytro Lubinets, told RBC-Ukraine that civilians in the occupied area were dying every day.

"There is a humanitarian catastrophe there. Ukrainian civilians die there every day because they lack even basic food and water. There have been no medicines there for a long time. According to our information, there is simply hunger there," he said.

Practically no medicines

The resident said there were practically no medicines available. Expired drugs were being sold at about 100 rubles (about $1.20) a pill. His father has Parkinson's syndrome and has been concussed twice. The resident said he was forced to reduce his father's dose by 25% so the supply would last at least until the new year.

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Thousands are starving in occupied Oleshky. People have no food, no way out, and Russian forces bomb incoming aid

The resident's apartment had burned down, and his house remained damaged. His family had made the house livable and was living there, he said. His wife had lost more than 40 kilograms while the family relied on vegetables and fruit.

Beyond Oleshky: villages with no transport or aid

Four villages in the Hola Prystan community—Kokhany, Kardashynka, Velyka Kardashynka, and Mala Kardashynka—are effectively blocked, according to the Skhid-SOS fund. The fund told RBC-Ukraine that no transport reaches the villages and no humanitarian aid has been delivered for a prolonged period, although it is difficult to get more information from the villages. Residents are forced to walk or cycle to other settlements to find food, despite the risks of mines and drone strikes.

Civilians used as a buffer

Lubinets also said Russian troops were using civilians as a buffer and as protection against the Ukrainian military, RBC-Ukraine reported. Because Ukrainian citizens remain in Oleshky, Ukraine cannot conduct active combat operations there, he said—which, in his view, allows Russia to hold civilians effectively as hostages on the front line.

Food arrives by drone, but how much reaches residents is unclear

Ukraine has delivered food to Oleshky by drone since March, Prokudin said. Nearly 400 parcels weighing almost 4 tons reached their drop-off points on the night of 4 October, Interior Minister Ivan Vyhivskyi said. How much of the food stays with residents is unclear. Prokudin has said Russian forces shoot down supply drones, confiscate or resell the packages, and detain and beat residents who receive them.

After a previous delivery, Tetiana Hasanenko, head of the Oleshky City Military Administration, said that Russian troops take drone-dropped food and accuse those who receive it of cooperating with Ukraine, and that some residents got several packages while others got none.

Uno dei volti più conosciuti delle proteste degli studenti di queste ore in Francia è quello del sindaco di Saint-Denis, Bally Bagayoko, membro del partito France Insoumise. Ma la mente dietro alle manifestazioni che infiammano le piazze francesi sarebbe di un giovane studente chiamato Elwan B.

Il ragazzo, di soli 17 anni, frequenta l’Istituto Jacques‐Decour e ha richiamato l’attenzione dei media quando si è seduto a fianco del leader di France Insoumise, Jean‐Luc Mélenchon, durante una protesta. Avvolto in una “kefiah”, l’indumento tradizionale mediorientale, simbolo del sostegno alla Palestina, Elwan B. ha dichiarato che Mélenchon “è l’uomo che salverà la Francia, sono convinto”. Il leader di sinistra pubblicò la loro fotografia insieme con la didascalia: “Insieme, per vincere”.

Elwan rappresenta il movimento auto-organizzato che promuove le manifestazioni, e che fino ad oggi aveva ribadito di non volere alcun leader. Nelle prime interviste ha criticato duramente il sistema politico francese e politici come Emmanuel Macron e Gabriel Attal.

Tra le richieste che porta avanti c’è, al primo posto, la creazione di una vera “sinistra di rottura”, che possa mettere in atto misure forti, tra cui la cancellazione del sistema di accesso all’istruzione superiore Parcoursup. Elwan considera che questa piattaforma è uno strumento che aumenta la disuguaglianza sociale ed è primo di trasparenza.

“Un accento operaio degli anni ‘50, un modo di parlare ampolloso e un’aria insolente… C’è un tocco dell’Antoine Doinel adolescente nel giovane Elwan B., la nuova figura di spicco del movimento studentesco delle scuole superiori sui social media”, scrive il quotidiano Le Figarò.

La differenza è che il personaggio fittizio di François Truffaut, indubbiamente un po’ ribelle, non indossava una kefiah e non gridava “Acab” attraverso un megafono davanti ai suoi compagni di classe. Diventato un’icona di internet in soli due giorni, con migliaia di “mi piace” per ogni sua nuova apparizione online, Elwan chiede una revisione completa del sistema scolastico.

“In periferia, la violenza è molto più vantaggiosa per i singoli perché non hanno nulla”, ha spiegato questo giovane studente al videografo di estrema destra Vincent Lapierre, in un video diffuso da Le Parisien. Elwan B. era in un blocco stradale davanti al liceo Jacques-Decour, a due passi da Montmartre. Davanti alla telecamera ha pronunciato un discorso sulla “segregazione sociale” tra quartieri benestanti e quartieri degradati e sulla disparità di risorse a disposizione degli studenti delle scuole superiori rispetto a quelli che vivono in periferia. Con 10 milioni di visualizzazioni in poche ore, il ragazzo è diventato una delle voci più discusse della rabbia degli studenti francese contro la politica tradizionale.

Il giorno dopo, Elwan era in tv, al programma del giornalista David Pujadas “La Grande Confrontation”. A discutere con lui un’altra studentessa e attivista di destra, Louise Montangon, che ha denunciato le violenze intorno alle scuole e gli attacchi agli insegnanti: “Siete gli utili idioti di questo movimento”.

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Un post condiviso da Clémence Guetté (@clemence_guette)

Ogni popolo ha sviluppato, nel corso della propria storia, una preparazione derivata dalla fermentazione di un cereale, adattata alle coltivazioni disponibili e alle condizioni ambientali del territorio: stagione, clima, latitudine e altitudine. Alcuni cereali prosperano nei climi freddi, altri in quelli caldi; alcuni prediligono ambienti umidi, altri secchi. Di conseguenza, ogni cultura ha modellato la propria alimentazione sui cereali endemici e più adatti al contesto naturale in cui viveva.

Già nelle civiltà della Mesopotamia e dell’antico Egitto, il pane aveva assunto un ruolo centrale non solo nell’alimentazione quotidiana, ma anche nella sfera simbolica e religiosa. Le fonti archeologiche e iconografiche mostrano una grande varietà di pani, spesso modellati in forme coniche o allungate, talvolta aromatizzati o arricchiti, destinati tanto al consumo quanto alle offerte votive. La fermentazione era conosciuta e praticata, e il pane divenne uno degli elementi fondamentali dell’economia e della gerarchia sociale, al punto da essere utilizzato come salario per operai e costruttori. In questo contesto, il pane non era soltanto nutrimento, ma misura del valore del lavoro umano.

Nelle civiltà dell’America precolombiana, invece, il cereale simbolo fu il mais, profondamente intrecciato ai miti di origine e all’identità stessa dei popoli mesoamericani. Attraverso il processo di nixtamalizzazione, che prevedeva la cottura del mais in acqua e calce, i chicchi venivano resi più digeribili e nutrienti, e successivamente macinati per ottenere impasti destinati a diverse preparazioni. Tra queste, le tortillas, talvolta sottoposte a brevi fermentazioni, e bevande come il pozol, una massa di mais fermentata consumata soprattutto nelle regioni del Messico meridionale. Anche qui, la fermentazione non era solo una tecnica, ma un passaggio essenziale per trasformare il cereale in alimento vitale e identitario.

In Asia orientale, infine, la fermentazione degli impasti si sviluppò lungo traiettorie differenti, spesso svincolate dall’uso del forno. In Cina, già in epoche antiche, si diffusero pani e focacce cotti al vapore, come il mantou, ottenuto da impasti fermentati di grano tenero. Da queste preparazioni derivarono numerose varianti, tra cui i baozi, pani ripieni che uniscono la tecnica della fermentazione a quella della cottura al vapore.

In queste culture, la lievitazione del cereale non conduceva alla crosta croccante tipica del pane occidentale, ma a strutture soffici e leggere, testimonianza di un diverso rapporto tecnologico e culturale con il grano.

Nei paesi del Nord Europa è particolarmente ricca la tradizione dei pani a base di segale, un cereale che cresce bene in climi freddi e aridi. Ne sono esempi il pumpernickel tedesco, spesso arricchito con semi, il borodinskij russo, caratterizzato dall’aggiunta di malto, e il knäckebröd scandinavo, pane secco e sottile simile allo schüttelbrotaltoatesino, prodotto in una regione dove la segale è storicamente abbondante.

In un contesto climatico quasi opposto, come quello caldo del Sud Europa e del Nord Africa, il cereale dominante è il grano duro. Qui si sviluppa la tradizione delle grandi pagnotte cotte in enormi forni a legna comunitari, forme di pane che per molti rappresentano ancora oggi l’immagine più familiare della panificazione. Emblematici sono il pane di Altamura, oggi tutelato da marchio Dop, dalla tipica forma “accavallata”, risultato di una manualità specifica prima dell’infornata, nota come u sckuanète, e il pane di Matera, riconosciuto come Igp.

A queste forme si affiancano pani che conservano tecniche di lavorazione ancora più antiche, basate su cotture in piastra o in forni verticali. Ne fanno parte la pita, nelle sue numerose varianti greche e arabe, che attraversa e accomuna tutto il bacino del Mediterraneo, lo msemen marocchino, così come il pane carasau sardo, sottile e croccante, nato per garantirne lunga conservazione.

Un’altra preparazione tradizionale a base di cereali fermentati è l’injera etiope, realizzata con il teff, il più piccolo tra i cereali. Prevede una fermentazione di diversi giorni di una pastella di farina e acqua, necessaria a ottenere una struttura spugnosa ed elastica, capace di accogliere e trattenere sughi e pietanze. In questo modo, il pane stesso diventa utensile, rendendo superfluo l’uso delle posate durante il pasto.

In India è iconico il naan, pane lievitato diffuso anche nel Medio Oriente, che prevede l’aggiunta di yogurt nell’impasto. È declinato in numerose varianti, tra cui la più nota con aglio e ghee, il burro chiarificato della tradizione ayurvedica.

Anche agli antipodi dell’Italia, in Nuova Zelanda, esistono preparazioni tradizionali legate alla fermentazione.

Tra queste, il Rēwena paraoa del popolo Māori, un pane che utilizza come agente lievitante un bug ottenuto dalla fermentazione della patata dolce locale, la kumara, a cui viene successivamente aggiunta della farina.

Dalle zuppe di cereali alle paste fermentate, dai pani cotti sulla pietra a quelli al vapore, ogni civiltà ha trovato nel proprio cereale un linguaggio comune per trasformare il nutrimento in cultura: il pane, in tutte le sue forme, resta così una delle espressioni più universali e profonde dell’ingegno umano.

Tratto da “La Teoria del Pane. Tecniche e ricette” di Aurora Zancanaro, Guido Tommasi Editore, 320 pagine, euro 30

L'articolo La panificazione in ogni popolo del mondo proviene da Linkiesta.it.

Spanish trade unions representing millions of workers have announced a general strike for November 11. The announcement comes amid nationwide mobilizations for the right to housing and only days after Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called early elections for November 29.

Read more: Housing crisis leads to snap election in Spain

The strike was announced by the two largest union organizations, the General Union of Workers (UGT) and the Workers’ Commissions (Comisiones Obreras, CCOO), alongside the General Confederation of Labor (CGT), Basque unions ELA and LAB, and the Galician confederation CIG.

It will be the country’s first general strike in 14 years, excluding the feminist strike of March 8, 2018. 

Housing and wages are the same struggle

“A key demand of this strike is to vindicate decent salaries to afford housing,” the Madrid Tenants Union wrote.

In their strike call, unions emphasized several demands that have been on their agenda for months. These include reductions in working hours, wage increases, health and safety measures in the workplace, eradicating precarious employment and progress in collective bargaining – a process that has been obstructed by employers for almost a year.

Yet, echoing the sentiment voiced on the streets, where hundreds of thousands have protested and erected encampments against a predatory housing system, the trade union call links all these demands to the right to housing.

“This is a strike with very clear foundations and labor demands,” CCOO’s Carlos Gutiérrez said. “Is it being called because working families cannot access affordable housing? Yes. But we cannot separate the inability to access affordable housing from the wage situation in our country and what is happening in the workplace.”

The general strike builds on a protest wave triggered by the eviction of 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal in late September. After years of battle to keep the home she had been living in for 70 years, Abascal was carried out of the apartment on a stretcher. She remained hospitalized until Wednesday, October 7, when the Madrid Tenants Union announced her death.

“Although a historic agreement was reached that would have allowed her to return to her home, this solution came too late,” the organization wrote. “An absolutely avoidable situation, following an agonizing process.”

A strike against all who “do nothing to solve the housing crisis”

Many of those participating in the protests recognized that Sánchez’s administration failed to implement policies that would truly address the housing crisis. Yet union and civil society statements emphasize the problem goes much further than the behavior of a specific political option.

“It’s important to make clear that this is not a strike against any particular government, but against those who do nothing to solve the housing crisis, and also against the employers, who have kept the Agreement for Employment and Collective Bargaining (AENC) blocked for nearly a year,” Patricia Ruiz from UGT was quoted as saying in Público.

Political parties from the center-left to the left have largely expressed support for the strike. Even PSOE figures who share the responsibility for not addressing the housing crisis signaled support for concerns outlined by trade unions.

While a general strike held only a couple of weeks ahead of an election would usually spell trouble for the incumbent administration, local political analysts say this is a peculiar situation that could swing both ways. 

Read more: Far right exploits Ceuta incident to call for border crackdown

Right-wing options are polling high, but ongoing housing mobilizations could steer the electoral campaign away from scapegoating migrants toward issues of social justice – topics they are generally keen to avoid.

Lithuania plans to deploy up to 100 soldiers to support border guards along its frontier with Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast, Defense Minister Robertas Kaunas said on 7 October.

Lithuanian Interior Minister Martynas Katelynas has described the deployment as a preventive measure linked to possible Russian mobilization and a recent incident on the Latvia-Belarus border, where masked, armed escorts tried to push a group of migrants into Latvia. Katelynas said Lithuania could face people trying to avoid mobilization and seeking asylum.

Kaunas said he had granted permission to use Lithuanian soldiers to strengthen border protection for the next several weeks.

 “The order starts being implemented immediately,” he wrote on Facebook.

Russia denies a new mobilization

The Kremlin denies a new mobilization is coming. In early September, Russian President Vladimir Putin called reports of one "complete nonsense" and "an information attack on Russia." Ukraine's military and foreign intelligence services say Russia's General Staff has prepared a scenario to mobilize 600,000 people over 2026 and 2027. On 28 September, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that "in effect, the Russians have already begun additional mobilization."

Frontier-station patrols for a couple of weeks, possibly longer

On 8 October, the Lithuanian army said soldiers were being brought in to help the State Border Guard Service from that day. A company-sized unit was planned for the assignment, initially for two weeks, with the option to extend. Soldiers will patrol with border guards in frontier-station areas, while mobile patrols, mobile observation posts, and military police crews may be added as needed. The army described the deployment as preventive and a normal form of interagency cooperation.

Kaunas had told LRT TV the soldiers would stay until 16 October. On the morning of 8 October, he said the deployment "was supposed to start" overnight and that he would check with the army. On 8 October, the Lithuanian army said soldiers were being brought in to help the State Border Guard Service from that day. Kaunas also said that “on the Kaliningrad side” there were no physical barriers, unlike the border with Belarus.

Lithuania says its border guards are stretched

On 8 October, Katelynas said the border guard service’s capacity was insufficient, with shifts growing while officer numbers were not increasing. He said the threat level had not changed. In a Facebook post the previous day, he said the situation at Lithuania’s border was calm and there was no reason to panic. He said Russia was planning mobilization after the elections and that Lithuania may face people trying to avoid it and seeking asylum.

Lithuania's State Border Guard Service had turned back 1,693 people trying to cross illegally from Belarus this year and about 26,300 since the migration crisis began, as reported by ELTA on 8 October. Katelynas said 43 migrants tried to enter southern Lithuania last week and were turned back.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Russia's handling of a suspected pneumonic plague case fit what he described as Moscow's history of concealing information about dangerous incidents, citing the 1979 anthrax outbreak, the Chornobyl disaster, and the COVID-19 pandemic, according to his post on X on 8 October.

A 28-year-old worker at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute, Daria Shipilova, died at Shelekhov District Hospital on 2 October. The hospital was placed under quarantine, and nearly 200 people who had contact with her were put under medical observation.

Sybiha has called on Russia to disclose all the facts surrounding the case, provide transparent epidemiological data, and cooperate with international mechanisms.

"Russia has a long record of concealing the truth: the 1979 anthrax leak in Sverdlovsk, the 1986 Chornobyl disaster, and the true scale of COVID-19 in 2020–2022," he said.

Plague is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, which is usually found in small mammals and their fleas. Bubonic plague, the most common form, is caused by the bite of an infected flea. Pneumonic plague is the most virulent form: left untreated, it can be fatal within 18 to 24 hours of onset, though common antibiotics can cure it if given early.

But each time, the consequences were devastating.

Sybiha warns of the risks of secrecy

Sybiha added that there is compelling evidence that Russia has used chemical weapons in Ukraine and has threatened to use nuclear weapons in its genocidal war. His remarks came amid rumors that the plague could have originated in a biological laboratory developing weapons.

"The world must not wait for another catastrophe before asking questions," he said.

Russia must disclose all the circumstances surrounding the case, provide transparent epidemiological data, and cooperate with international mechanisms because “when dangerous pathogens are involved, secrecy is a threat to everyone,” Sybiha added.

WHO seeks more information from Russia

The World Health Organization (WHO) says it still lacks the data it needs for a full risk assessment, while Russia has told the organization that no cases of plague have recently been reported in Irkutsk Oblast.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says that the organization has asked Russia for "further information on the laboratory tests conducted on the individual who died and the contacts," more details on what prompted the public health measures, and the health status of the contacts. The organization also seeks verification of media reports of a second employee with pneumonia of undetermined cause.

Based on "unofficial information," the public health risk to the general population appears to be low, WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier says, according to Forbes.

US officials say they know little about what is happening in Russia

On 6 October, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said information з приводу вирогідної хвороби from Russia was "still quite limited."

The next day at the White House, a reporter asked US President Donald Trump whether the plague in Russia was a bioweapon, according to CNN.

"Well, we don't think so. We're going to find out soon enough, but we don't think so," he said.

The reporter also asked whether Trump was “getting the same vibe right now from Russia that you got from China at the start of COVID.”

"Well, China didn't say much, and Russia's not saying much either, but they do say they have it very much under control,"  Trump answered.

Il presidente Vladimir Putin ha deciso di allargare la sua casa nel Mare Nero e dietro a questa scelta potrebbe esserci una motivazione di sicurezza più che logistica. La storica struttura statale Bocharov Ruchey a Sochi, usata da Boris Yeltsin, tra altri leader russi, è diventata la dimora preferita dell’attuale capo del Cremlino da maggio del 2000. Nel 2008 è stata segnata come la residenza ufficiale del presidente russo ed è lì che poteva “dormire, lavorare, vivere e svolgere tutte le sue funzioni, inclusa quella del comandante supremo a capo” dello Stato.

Secondo il quotidiano britannico Financial Times, solo nel 2021 c’è stato 24 volte, ma dal 2024 al 2025 – colpa della guerra in Ucraina – solo due volte. I droni ucraini sono riusciti a raggiungere la dimora e questo ha spinto Putin a ridurre i suoi spostamenti sul Mare Nero.

Questa situazione però non ha diminuito la sua preferenza nello svolgere alcuni appuntamenti importanti, come nel 2024 è accaduto quando ha ricevuto nella residenza Rafael Grossi, direttore generale dell’Agenzia internazionale per l’energia atomica.

Nel 2024, Bocharov Ruchey è stato demolito (è rimasto uguale solo una zona costruita per i Giochi Olimpici invernali di Sochi del 2014) e i servizi federali di sicurezza hanno cominciato la progettazione di un’enorme ristrutturazione per proteggere la residenza in un perimetro di tre chilometri.

Le autorità russe non hanno confermato la ristrutturazione ma un’indagine dell’emittente Bbc ha svelato alcuni indizi: cause legali aperte, immagini satellitari e annunci di lavoro (in cambio di casa vicino alla piscina, cibo gratis e pagamento in contanti) che riguardano Bocharov Ruchey.

“In una decisione su una disputa tra contrattisti, Bbc News Russia ha scoperto il riferimento ad un contratto di un programma statale di acquisizioni di difesa con il codice numero 2327202903572000000000000 – spiega l’emittente -. L’informazione di questi contratti è segreta ma il codice svela alcuni dettagli importanti. I primi quattro numeri indicano l’anno in cui si è firmato il contratto e la data di scadenza. I tre numeri successivi, 202, sono il codice dell’Fso, l’autorità che contratta”.

Si tratta dunque di appalti di imprese che lavorano a Bocharov Ruchey. Il principale è il contrattista generale della costruzione Tsi Group. Ci sono state anche alcune irregolarità che riguardano la costruzione dei muri della “casa principale” con l’impresa Orenburg.

La Bbc ha anche scoperto alcuni annunci di impiego per costruttori, da idraulici a fabbri, pubblicati sui social network, in cui si offre alloggi vicino alla piscina, pagamenti in contanti, cibo gratis e altri benefici. “L’installazione è strategica”, hanno aggiunto.

Inizialmente, l’offerta di lavoro è limitata a cittadini russi senza precedenti penali, ma successivamente il mercato è stato aperto a kazachi, bielorussi e chirghisi.

TSI e il gruppo Transstroiinvest hanno un’ampia esperienza in progetti di costruzione legati al governo russo e alle organizzazioni di sicurezza statali. “Nel 2019, il media di inchiesta indipendente russo Project ha informato che l’impresa aveva partecipato alla costruzione di una residenza statale nella località di Oliva, nella costa sud della Crimea annessa”, ha aggiunto la Bbc.

Transstroiinvest continua a lavorare in territori occupati dell’Ucraina, come ad esempio, il restauro dell’antico cinema di Mariupol, occupato dalla Russia nel 2022. Tra quell’anno e il 2025, TSI si è aggiudicato 54 contratti, tra cui un contratto di ricostruzione del centro infantile internazionale Artek per 330 milioni di dollari.

The death toll from Russia's 7 October missile strike on Pryluky, a city in Chernihiv Oblast in northern Ukraine, has risen to 22, including five children, Ukraine's State Emergency Service said on 8 October. Another 54 people were injured, and 15 were rescued from the rubble.

Pryluky suffered the heaviest losses in Russia's 7 October attack, which struck cities across Ukraine. The attack involved about 70 missiles, many of them ballistic, as well as Shahed drones.

Search ends with 15 rescued

Seven of the injured are children, and the rescued include a 5-year-old. The search-and-rescue operation, which involved more than 500 emergency workers, has ended, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

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14 dead in Pryluky, two each in Kyiv, Kremenchuk, and Oleksandriia: Russia’s night of 70 missiles

A five-story building hit early in the morning

Russia attacked Pryluky with cruise missiles and directly hit a five-story apartment building, Chernihiv Oblast head Viacheslav Chaus said. The strike came in the morning, when people were still asleep.

The strike hit the apartment building, a children's and youth creativity center, and a business, according to the National Police.

The death toll rose through 7 October and overnight. On the morning of 7 October, the National Police reported five dead and 26 injured. By the afternoon, the State Emergency Service put the figure at 14, including four children. By the morning of 8 October, it had reached 22, Chaus said. Four of the children died at the scene, and one died in hospital.

Russian strikes in Kyiv, Kremenchuk, and Oleksandriia

Russia attacked Kyiv and 12 oblasts overnight on 7 October, Zelenskyy said. Two people were killed in each of Kyiv, Kremenchuk, and Oleksandriia.

Air defense downed or suppressed five ballistic missiles, 39 cruise missiles, and 117 drones, while missiles and drones hit 18 locations, according to the Air Force.

Israel marked three years since the Oct. 7 attacks with memorials for those killed. And in Gaza, people are living among the ruins of a war they say has never ended.

A company of unmanned ground systems from Ukraine's 92nd Assault Brigade used the robotic system Frodo to evacuate a wounded soldier, Frontline Robotics told Militarnyi on 7 October.

Ground robots are being used to evacuate wounded soldiers from the drone-dominated "kill zone," a band tens of kilometers deep on both sides of the front line. About 112,000 logistics and evacuation missions by ground robotic systems were recorded from January through August 2026, according to Ukraine's Defense Ministry.

Operator credits speed and suspension

The operator, callsign Tango, named speed and the ability to perform complex maneuvers as the robot's main advantages, according to Militarnyi. The unit also praised Frodo's adaptive suspension, which it said smoothed out rough terrain and kept the wounded soldier's transport relatively comfortable.

What Frodo can carry, and how far

The robot has a 6×6 wheel layout with independent suspension, adjustable ground clearance of 170–330 mm, and a top speed of 40 km/h. Its recommended payload is 200 kg, and its maximum is 400 kg, according to Frontline Robotics. The company lists its range as 150 km on asphalt and up to 90 km over rough terrain with the recommended load. Frodo supports several communication channels, and one person can swap its batteries in about two minutes.

Frodo had passed the Defense Ministry's codification and could carry remote-controlled modules such as the Burya turret, Militarnyi reported on 30 September.

The 92nd Brigade had used ground robots to evacuate wounded soldiers before. In September 2025, the brigade evacuated three wounded soldiers using a ground robot, according to Militarnyi.

Ukraine's 413th Separate Raid Regiment of the Unmanned Systems Forces struck the Snizhne Machine-Building Plant in occupied Donetsk Oblast in September, working with other Defense Forces units, the regiment posted on 6 October, sharing a video of the strike. The General Staff reported the strike on the plant on 11 September, saying that the extent of the damage was being clarified.

The strike adds to Ukraine's campaign of long-range attacks on Russian military targets as Russia has begun its winter campaign of strikes against Ukraine's energy infrastructure. Hitting the suppliers of aircraft parts goes after Russia's ability to keep its attack jets and helicopters flying.

The regiment said the plant works for Russia's military industry, producing engine components for attack aircraft and combat helicopters.

A former Motor Sich plant in occupied Snizhne

The Snizhne plant was a separate division of Motor Sich, a Ukrainian aircraft-engine maker based in Zaporizhzhia, a city that remains under Ukrainian control. Snizhne has been under Russian occupation since 2014. The plant specializes in producing parts for gas-turbine engines, including compressor and turbine discs and blades, the General Staff said. It never built whole engines. In September 2014, months into the occupation, it was machining blanks from Motor Sich's Zaporizhzhia plant into turbine blades and was one of only two plants in the former Soviet Union making such blades for helicopters, a plant worker said.

Motor Sich said in December 2017 that it had lost control of the plant. Weeks later, Viacheslav Bohuslaiev, then Motor Sich's honorary president and a member of parliament, told RFE/RL's Donbas.Realii that Motor Sich still owned the plant and had handed its management to a foreign company, while keeping it under the company's "full control."

In February 2023, Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office served Bohuslaiev a notice of suspicion of aiding a terrorist organization, alleging that Motor Sich shipped blanks to the Snizhne plant and received finished engine parts through foreign-registered companies. The case went to court in October 2023, and Bohuslaiev, who denies the charges, has been in pretrial detention since October 2022 as the trial continues.

Snizhne, which Russia uses as a rear base, has been hit before. In May, Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces and the Security Service of Ukraine struck a Russian training center for drone pilots in the city, and in September, a strike on energy infrastructure cut power across Snizhne.

Ukraine's state railway, Ukrzaliznytsia, has added 18 Kyiv City Express shuttle runs between Vydubychi and Darnytsia for 5–9 October, while the government has begun preparatory work on temporary crossings over the Dnipro River after Russian strikes disrupted bridge traffic. Minister for Restoration, Infrastructure and Transport Mykola Kalashnyk outlined the backup plan in an interview with Suspilne on 3 October.

About 600,000 vehicles cross the Dnipro in Kyiv each day, making the river crossings critical to movement across the capital, Kalashnyk said. Russia's attacks on the Southern and Northern bridges have disrupted traffic, with the Southern Bridge fully closed to cars and metro on 2 October and restrictions introduced on other crossings. The risk of further damage is heightened by Russia's upgraded jet-powered Geran-4, which now carries a specialized warhead designed to cut through bridge structures and power-line supports, according to presidential adviser Serhii Beskrestnov.

Jams, restrictions, and extra trains

On 6 October, large traffic jams formed between Kyiv's left and right banks, with the heaviest queues on approaches to the Southern Bridge, Obozrevatel reported. The jams followed Russian strikes that cratered the Northern Bridge.

Green-line metro trains resumed carrying passengers between the banks during the yellow threat level on 4 October, Radio Svoboda reported. Under the current restrictions, traffic on the Southern and Podilskyi bridges is stopped in certain directions for at most the first 15 minutes after an air alert begins.

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14 dead in Pryluky, two each in Kyiv, Kremenchuk, and Oleksandriia: Russia’s night of 70 missiles

The additional Kyiv City Express shuttles run during the busiest hours, 06:00–09:00 and 16:00–21:00. Together with scheduled suburban and regional trains, they bring the number of peak-hour runs between the banks to up to six, Ukrzaliznytsia said.

Pontoons first, tunnel later

Kalashnyk said the government plans to build several backup crossings over the Dnipro. The sites have already been chosen, and he named a combination of earth embankments and pontoon crossings as measures that can be built quickly. He said construction could take up to three months and that the backup crossings should provide at least 50% of the capacity of the existing bridges. The government is also considering quick-build concrete structures and, in the longer term, a tunnel under the Dnipro, he told Suspilne.

Volodymyr Kreidenko, deputy head of the parliamentary committee on transport and infrastructure and an MP from the Servant of the People party, proposed reversible traffic across the bridges: "in the morning from the left bank to the right, in the evening from the right to the left." He also suggested hubs near the bridges where people could take a bicycle or e-scooter, and passenger ferry crossings, Radio Svoboda reported.

Andrii Koretskyi, an associate professor in the department of bridges, tunnels and hydraulic structures at the National Transport University, cautioned that temporary crossings cannot substitute for a permanent bridge.

"The only alternative to a bridge is a bridge as a permanent structure," he told Radio Svoboda.

He said a tunnel under the Dnipro is technically possible but "not a quick solution at all." He pointed to the scale involved: where the Irpin River requires spanning a few dozen or, in places, a few hundred meters, the Dnipro within Kyiv is "roughly 400 to 1,500 meters" wide.