President Trump has repeatedly promised to end the Russia–Ukraine war within 24 hours, though peace talks have made little substantive progress so far. Just as often, he returns to a story about the early days of the full-scale invasion — tweaking a minor detail each time — describing Russian tanks that were advancing on Kyiv but got stuck in the mud.

During a conversation with reporters at the White House on October 20, Trump repeated the story again, this time focusing on one Russian general.

A stupid general for Russia, a very stupid gentleman. They had a thousand tanks riding up a concrete highway. They would have been in Ukraine in four hours, going maximum tank speed, which is 48 miles an hour, to be exact. Nothing to stop them. The war would have been over in one day. And this very stupid general — I have no idea who he is. I doubt he’s still with us. I doubt he’s still living. He decided to hang a right onto the farmland and then take a left and go up to Kyiv, rather than staying on the highway — the concrete highway, perfectly good highway — where they were doing very nicely. It would have been three and a half, four hours, and the whole war would have ended. He ended up getting stuck in the mud.

BBC Russia fact-checked Trump’s claim. According to the outlet, Colonel General Alexander Chayko led Russia’s advance on Kyiv from Belarus in February 2022, and the offensive’s failure had nothing to do with any decision by him to turn off the road.

Ukrainian forces stopped the advance on Kyiv. On February 26, 2022, Ukraine’s military blew up a bridge over the Irpin River on the outskirts of the capital, then destroyed the Kozarovychi dam when Russian forces tried to go around the obstruction. Ukrainian forces also destroyed a column of Russian armored vehicles in Bucha. As the Russian army’s losses mounted, its command brought in reinforcements from Belarus.

After the failed advance, Russian military command removed Chayko as commander and sent him to lead the Russian contingent in Syria. He stayed there until June 2025, a tenure that spanned the coup that forced President Bashar al-Assad to flee to Moscow.

None of this hurt the general’s career, BBC Russia said. He returned to Moscow, became deputy chief of the General Staff, and was later promoted to commander of Russia’s Aerospace Forces.

In August 2026, General Chayko did indeed nearly die: an explosion occurred near the Balzi Rossi restaurant in Moscow, where he was celebrating his 55th birthday and his promotion to the new post. Five people were killed, including Chayko’s son-in-law, and 19 others were injured. Chayko himself was unharmed.

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The Ukrainian command is trying to stop the Russian offensive — the decisive push in the battle for Donbas — on the approaches to the Kramatorsk-Sloviansk urban area. To do this, it has created two operational groupings, both led by veterans of the Azov Brigade: the “Center” grouping, tasked with holding Sloviansk, is commanded by Andriy Biletsky (former commander of the 3rd Army Corps), while the Azov grouping guarding the approaches to Kramatorsk is commanded by Denys Prokopenko (former commander of the 12th National Guard Brigade, which was reconstituted after the 2022 capture of its forces in Mariupol in 2022). Biletsky’s troops have already distinguished themselves with a successful offensive: they pushed Russia’s 20th Army back across the Siverskyi Donets north of Sloviansk, and are now trying to drive back the forces advancing on the city from the east and south. Prokopenko’s task is harder: he took up his new post in the midst of a fresh Russian breakthrough between Dobropillia and Kramatorsk. In this sector, Ukrainian forces are dealing with a full-blown crisis — possibly more serious than the one caused by the Russian breakthrough in the same area 14 months ago. Russian troops have already cut the Dobropillia-Kramatorsk road, are storming the first city, and are pushing toward the outskirts of the second.

Dobropillia

• Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces had fully captured Dobropillia and released several videos of Russian assault troops in the city as evidence. Some of the footage shows clear signs of AI processing (a practice that is becoming more common), though other clips appear genuine. Ukrainian forces, meanwhile, have published videos of their own strikes on Russian forces in Dobropillia.
• Troops advancing from the south have reached the city center, while forces attacking from the east have reached the northern outskirts via the village of Hannivka. A third group is advancing between Dobropillia and the Pokrovsk–Dnipro road, threatening to outflank the entire area from the west. The apparent goal is to drive a wedge between the “Azov” group in Dobropillia and the forces defending the eastern part of the Dnipropetrovsk region, in the area around Mezhova.
• North of the Pokrovsk–Dnipro road, Russian forces have reached Hulive, while to the south they have captured Serhiivka.
• The main danger, though, comes from a Russian breakthrough east of Dobropillia. Russian command has moved additional forces there from the eastern part of the Zaporizhzhia region and repeated, on a much larger scale, a maneuver that failed last year: a large grouping has pushed through to the Dobropillia–Kramatorsk road and now threatens to break through to Kramatorsk’s southwestern outskirts. Russian forces have retaken Kucheriv Yar and part of the large village of Zolotyi Kolodiaz — the same settlements where a Ukrainian counterattack in August 2025, reinforced by large forces redeployed from the Sumy region, halted the well-known Dobropillia breakthrough. Both sides have simultaneously published videos meant to prove they control Zolotyi Kolodiaz, so it remains unclear which side holds the village. Russian forces, however, have already managed to get behind its Ukrainian defenders near Petrivka. Russian forces earlier reached Novoandriivka on the road to Druzhkivka farther east, raising a real threat of a breakthrough directly to Kramatorsk’s southeastern outskirts.
• At the same time, on the opposite flank of the area overseen by Denys Prokopenko’s group — along the front southeast of Kramatorsk — another Russian grouping continues to advance. It is moving around the northern outskirts of Kostiantynivka and Oleksiievo-Druzhkivka, heading generally toward Bilokuzminovka. The terrain there is difficult: Bilokuzminovka is home to a park with cliffs dozens of meters high, backed by a ridge of hills. Even so, Ukrainian forces still have reason to fear a Russian breakthrough toward the airport on Kramatorsk’s southern edge.
• East of Bilokuzminovka, Russian forces have resumed their advance along the Bakhmut–Sloviansk highway, aiming to reach Kramatorsk’s northeastern outskirts.
• Ukrainian command also faces an additional problem: figuring out the plan behind the Russian offensive in the northern Donbas. Ukraine had previously been confident that Russian forces intended to swing deep around the Kramatorsk–Sloviansk urban area from the west and east, forcing Ukrainian troops to retreat under threat of encirclement while avoiding urban combat. Ukrainian command said the western Russian grouping aimed to reach Barvinkove in the Kharkiv region, while the eastern grouping aimed to reach the confluence of the Oskil and Siverskyi Donets rivers near Izyum. However, it now appears Russian command may have another plan as well (and perhaps not only one): to approach Kramatorsk from several directions at once and begin storming the city itself, whose prewar population was 150,000. In that scenario, the battle for neighboring Sloviansk, whose prewar population exceeded 100,000, would begin at the next stage.

Sloviansk and Lyman

• Over several months, Ukraine’s Operation Vivaldi eliminated the threat of a breakthrough by Russia’s 20th Combined Arms Army toward the confluence of the Oskil and Siverskyi Donets rivers near Izyum, as well as Russian attempts to cross the Siverskyi Donets near Sviatohirsk.
• Andriy Biletsky’s group has finally confirmed, with video evidence, a long-anticipated development: Russia’s 20th Army has abandoned a large area west of the Chornyi Zherebets River and is now trying to organize a defense along its banks between Torske and Zarichne. Ukrainian assault troops are already operating inside Zarichne but have not yet crossed the river.
• Russian command’s evident task is to defend not only along the river but also the northern flank of the 25th Combined Arms Army, which continues to control the area west of the Chornyi Zherebets all the way to the outskirts of Lyman. This sector matters even more to Russian forces than the 20th Army’s: beyond hopes of capturing Lyman, the 25th Army is meant to support the flank of another Russian grouping operating on the Siverskyi Donets’s southern bank and advancing directly on Sloviansk.
• For now, the 25th Army is holding its territory despite problems on its northern flank near Zarichne and Yampil, and is even trying to advance into Lyman’s residential areas.
• Biletsky’s group, meanwhile, is trying to address the Russian advance on the Siverskyi Donets’s southern bank more radically. The commander received reinforcements for this: two brigades that had previously been fighting in the eastern Zaporizhzhia region. Using these forces, Ukraine’s “Center” group launched a counterattack against Russia’s “South” group, which had previously been advancing on Sloviansk from the east.
• Ukrainian forces tried to retake Rai-Oleksandrivka from Russian assault troops, who had been infiltrating from there into the town of Mykolaivka, 6 kilometers (4 miles) east of Sloviansk, in recent weeks. Ukrainian units appear to have gained a foothold in central Rai-Oleksandrivka, but Russian forces continue to hold the village’s northern outskirts.
• South of Rai-Oleksandrivka, Ukrainian forces have not yet managed to turn the situation around: Russian troops continue to infiltrate between the Siverskyi Donets–Donbas canal and the Bakhmut–Sloviansk road.

Zaporizhzhia region

• As noted above, Ukrainian command was forced to redeploy two brigades to the Sloviansk area from the Zaporizhzhia region — more precisely, from the junction of the Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, and Dnipropetrovsk regions. They had previously been part of a Ukrainian corps that had spent several months advancing on the northern flank of Russia’s “East” group, which in turn had been moving along the front toward the central districts of the Zaporizhzhia region.
• To organize this offensive, Ukrainian command had redeployed the 7th Air Assault Corps from the Dobropillia area back in late spring, a move that weakened Ukrainian defenses around the town. There was no choice at the time: after capturing Huliaipole in the winter, Russia’s “East” group was rapidly advancing toward Orikhiv, threatening to collapse Ukrainian defenses in the western districts of the Zaporizhzhia region and the eastern part of the Dnipropetrovsk region.
• The 7th Corps’ offensive achieved relatively modest results: the “East” group’s advance on Orikhiv slowed sharply, and Russian command was forced to redeploy forces to its northern flank. However, Ukrainian forces never managed to cut the “East” group’s supply lines or force it to retreat, and Ukrainian command is now being forced to gradually dismantle its strike grouping at the junction of the Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, and Dnipropetrovsk regions.
• Russian forces have also attempted to storm Orikhiv. So far, only forces from the “Dnipro” group are directly involved, since Ukrainian attacks on the northern flank have delayed the “East” group from reaching Orikhiv from the east.
• About a month ago, Russian forces captured Novodanylivka south of Orikhiv, as well as the now-famous village of Mala Tokmachka to the east. Airborne forces redeployed to the area from the reserve simultaneously launched an offensive southwest of Orikhiv, reaching Novoandriivka and Novopavlivka.
• Ukrainian forces have responded with counterattacks. Russian airborne units reportedly may have been pushed out of Novopavlivka, west of Orikhiv, though there is no visual confirmation yet.
• At the same time, east of Orikhiv, Ukrainian forces again attacked Mala Tokmachka from several directions. Published videos show Russian forces holding only part of the village’s center and its southeastern outskirts, including the area around a penal colony whose ruins have already changed hands many times.
• The situation around Orikhiv continues to worsen for Ukrainian forces, however: Russia’s “East” group has resumed its offensive on a broad front toward Orikhiv and the Orikhiv–Novomykhailivka road, previously one of the main Ukrainian supply routes in the area.
• Troops from the “East” group have already infiltrated Omelnyk, north of Mala Tokmachka and 10 kilometers (6 miles) northeast of Orikhiv. Russian forces are advancing not only on Orikhiv itself and its supply routes, but also on Novomykhailivka to the north.
• So far, there are not many Russian assault troops along the Orikhiv–Novomykhailivka road. Ukrainian forces, however, are busy repelling the “Dnipro” group’s attempted storm of the city and apparently lack the strength to dislodge the Russian troops from their positions.

Interactive map

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Meduza’s Razbor (“Explainers”) team

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky responded to the Russian military’s strikes on Kyiv overnight on October 22.

“Three waves of ballistic missiles have been launched at Kyiv by Russian ‘humanitarians’ since yesterday evening. They used 21 missiles. Unfortunately, numerous sites across the city have been hit and damaged,” he wrote on social media.

Zelensky said the strike came “almost immediately after another round of talks” and that it showed “no real change in [Russia’s] attitude toward everything that is happening.” He called on allies to speed up deliveries of air defense systems to Ukraine and increase sanctions pressure on Moscow.

Russian forces struck Kyiv with drones and ballistic missiles overnight on October 22. One person was killed and more than 20 were injured.

The Ukrainian military, in turn, used drones to strike several regions of Russia overnight after the talks, including Moscow and the Moscow region. Two people were injured in New Moscow.

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European Union officials are searching for someone to represent Europe’s position in negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Politico reported that discussion of candidates intensified after U.S. presidential special envoy Steve Witkoff met with Putin in St. Petersburg on October 21.

“President Putin disregards the European Union as an authority,” Czech President Petr Pavel said in an interview with the Axel Springer Global Reporters’ Network, of which Politico is a part.

“He doesn’t want to talk to [European Commission President] Ursula von der Leyen, he doesn’t talk to [the head of European diplomacy] Kaja Kallas. He stopped talking to other European leaders, including [French President] Emmanuel Macron,” he said.

Pavel said the EU needs to “identify a person or a group of people who would speak for Europe.” These don’t necessarily have to be representatives of EU or NATO leadership, he said, but “simply leaders who would be given a mandate by the others to negotiate.”

Finnish President Alexander Stubb is among those being considered as a potential lead negotiator for the EU. European diplomatic sources told Politico that Stubb has “the best relationship with Trump among EU leaders” cited Finland’s long border with Russia as another factor.

Stubb took part in a meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Witkoff in Oslo that preceded Witkoff’s trip to Russia, according to Politico. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also attended that meeting and is being considered as a key negotiator for the EU, Politico said. Another candidate is European Council President António Costa.

Sources told Politico that it is critical for the EU to take part in the negotiations as a single entity rather than through the leaders of its individual member states.

Russian President Vladimir Putin previously said that former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, with whom he maintains a friendly relationship, could serve as a negotiator.

WSJ sources reported a few days ago that Putin had proposed a trilateral meeting between the leaders of the U.S. and China to discuss ending the war between Russia and Ukraine. The outlet said EU representatives were not going to be invited to the meeting.

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Russian forces struck Kyiv overnight on October 22 with drones and ballistic missiles.

In the Dniprovskyi district, the strikes damaged homes and vehicles and set residential and non-residential buildings on fire, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said. One person was killed and five others, including a child, were injured. In the Darnytskyi district, the strikes damaged transportation infrastructure.

In the Obolonskyi district, two people were injured. In the Pecherskyi district, eight people, including three children, were injured. In the Holosiivskyi district, six people were injured. The strikes also damaged non-residential buildings, ambulances, and a monastery.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the strikes damaged part of the metro system’s infrastructure at the South Bridge. He did not provide further details.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said the strikes in Kyiv hit “Ukrainian military-industrial facilities involved in the production and storage of long- and medium-range cruise missiles and drones, as well as transportation infrastructure sites.”

In the Odesa region, Russian forces struck a food production facility, Ukraine’s public broadcaster Suspilne reported. A fire broke out, destroying the administrative building. No one was injured.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said the strikes targeted “port infrastructure facilities in the Odesa region and vessels used in the interests of Ukraine’s Armed Forces.”

Russia strikes Kyiv with drones and various types of missiles daily. The latest attack, on October 22, came just hours after U.S. presidential envoy Steve Witkoff traveled to St. Petersburg to meet with Vladimir Putin for talks focused on ending the war between Russia and Ukraine.

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Ukrainian forces attacked several Russian regions with drones overnight on October 22, including Moscow and the surrounding Moscow region. In Voronovo, part of the New Moscow area, two people were injured in the strike.

In Serpukhov, outside Moscow, a strike hit the Defense Ministry’s “75 Arsenal” plant, which produces weapons and ammunition, according to the independent Telegram channel Astra. The Ukrainian Telegram channel Exilenova+ said the strike on the Moscow region involved not only drones but also missiles.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said 163 drones were shot down as they approached the city since the evening of October 21. In total, he said, 630 Ukrainian drones were headed toward Moscow and the Moscow region, and most of them were destroyed at “distant frontiers.”

Ukrainian drones also struck Lipetsk. Lipetsk Governor Igor Artamonov said the attack damaged windows and facades of private homes and apartment buildings, as well as a clinic, in the regional capital. A man born in 2001 was injured and hospitalized. Astra reported that the strike sparked a fire on the upper floors of a building in the “Atmosfera” residential complex.

Voronezh Governor Alexander Gusev said 44 drones were shot down overnight over the city of Voronezh and the Voronezh region. Local authorities in the Tula region said 70 Ukrainian drones were destroyed overnight. In Voronezh, the attack damaged the roofs and facades of private homes, apartment buildings, and a public facility. In Tula and the Zaoksky district, private homes sustained damage.

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Poland has suspended delivery of a large weapons package to Ukraine over the Lviv Regional Council’s decision to declare 2027 the year of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), a source told the news outlet RBC Ukraine.

Lviv Regional Council members voted at an October 20 plenary session to declare 2027 the year of the UPA, its commander Roman Shukhevych, and Ukrainian political figure Oleh Olzhych.

The source told RBC Ukraine that the Lviv regional authorities had “managed” to hold the vote just as Poland was preparing to send Ukraine a large military aid package. “Their irresponsible actions have now put delivery of this package on hold. Intensive efforts are underway through back channels to resolve a problem that was created out of nothing,” the source said.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk called the Lviv Regional Council’s decision “unwise” and said it “harms Ukraine itself.” Polish Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz called the decision unacceptable, saying it “deepens divisions” between the two peoples. “The Ukrainian authorities must distance themselves from this position,” he said.

Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Marcin Bosacki said Ukraine had assured Poland that the Lviv Regional Council’s decision would not take effect. He said the resolution had disappeared from the council’s website after Poland intervened.

The Lviv Regional Council’s Facebook post announcing the year of the UPA is now unavailable.

Issues surrounding the Ukrainian Insurgent Army regularly strain relations between Poland and Ukraine. The most recent such dispute arose in the spring of 2026, when Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree awarding the honorary title “Heroes of the UPA” to the Separate Special Operations Center North, part of the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ Special Operations Forces. The decision drew sharp criticism in Poland because UPA fighters took part in the Volhynia massacres of 1943–1944, in which an estimated 30,000 to 60,000 Poles and 20,000 to 30,000 Ukrainians were killed. After Poland condemned the decision, Zelensky promised to open the archives on the Volhynia massacres.

Poland and Ukraine’s UPA dispute

• Poland strips Zelensky of highest honor after Ukrainian army unit is named for controversial WWII fighters; Ukrainian officials return their awards

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Oleg Mikhailov was detained in Moscow on suspicion of “justifying terrorism,” the Telegram channel Novaya Respublika and the BNK news agency reported.

The regional branch of Russia’s Communist Party confirmed his detention to BNK. Novaya Respublika reported that Mikhailov was charged with “justifying terrorism” over a 2024 post about sociologist Boris Kagarlitsky, who was sentenced that year to five years in a penal colony, also for “justifying terrorism.”

Mikhailov is being held in a temporary detention facility. A court will decide on October 22 whether to keep him in custody or impose other restrictions pending trial. The provision he is accused of violating, Part 2 of Article 205.2 of Russia’s Criminal Code, carries a fine or five to seven years in prison, according to Novaya Respublika.

Oleg Mikhailov heads the Communist Party’s regional branch in Komi and is a former member of the republic’s State Council. In September 2021, he won a State Duma seat in a single-member district. After Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the European Union, Canada, New Zealand, the United States, and Ukraine imposed sanctions on him. The United States sanctioned him over the passage of a law against “fake news” about the military, even though he had not voted for it.

In the 2026 State Duma election, Mikhailov finished second in the Syktyvkar single-member district, losing to a candidate who had fought in the war. During the campaign, Mikhailov was the only candidate from Komi to call for peace. A month and a half before the vote, there was an attempt to remove him from the ballot.

From Meduza’s archives

• ‘You can always find a crime to charge someone with’ Russian leftist thinker Boris Kagarlitsky faces seven years in prison for ‘justifying terrorism.’ Meduza spoke with his daughter about his arrest.
• Gerrymandering à la russe: To preserve United Russia’s supermajority, the Kremlin is pressuring Communists to sideline their strongest candidates in September’s elections
• The ‘certain nuances’ of prosecuting journalists The Kremlin’s spokesman explains why policing ‘justifications of terrorism’ isn’t an assault on free speech

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October 20, 2026

October 21, 2026

Authorities said the monument had been removed at the request of the Pacific Fleet’s leadership and veterans, who considered it “out of keeping with the themes of the memorials and monuments” along the waterfront.

Officials said the monument was being returned because it did not fit its intended site in Vera i Nadezhda Park. Its dimensions, they said, “do not fully suit the park’s current layout.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly called Solzhenitsyn a “patriot” and a nationalist “in the civilized sense of the word.”

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U.S. Vice President JD Vance backed President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, who called Vladimir Putin a “humanist.”

After meeting with Putin in St. Petersburg, Witkoff thanked the Russian president for releasing U.S. citizen Stephen Hubbard, who was convicted in Russia of serving as a mercenary. Witkoff said: “You talk so much about my president, President Trump, being a humanitarian. You are a humanitarian also, sir, and I salute that. I commend you, and I thank you again.”

American journalists later asked Vance whether he agreed with Witkoff’s remarks.

Q: Witkoff called Putin 'a humanitarian' for agreeing to release Stephen Hubbard. Do you agree with that?

JD VANCE: I agree with Steve Witkoff saying something nice to a person who just released an American hostage. pic.twitter.com/BV7MnDxApp

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 21, 2026

I agree with Steve Witkoff saying something nice to a person who just released an American hostage. Whether you agree with the underlying sentiment or not, Steve Witkoff is a diplomat. His job is to go over there and get a job done. I care much less about what Steve said and about the fact that he is bringing an American hostage home to his family.

Vance said Americans “should all be celebrating” Hubbard’s return, “not be complaining about what [he] said in order to get it done.”

Witkoff and Putin met the day after Witkoff held talks with Volodymyr Zelensky and representatives of European countries in Oslo. Witkoff brought new Ukrainian and European proposals for ending the war to the meeting in Russia.

After the meeting, the Kremlin said it was ready to resume trilateral talks with the United States and Ukraine between November 10 and 19 (after the U.S. midterm elections). However, Putin’s aide Yuri Ushakov said the EU’s and Kyiv’s “new approaches” contained “not all that much that was useful for a settlement in Ukraine.”

Read more

• Who is Stephen Hubbard, the American Putin just freed?
• Putin and U.S. envoy Witkoff hold talks in St. Petersburg as Washington pushes a new plan to end the war in Ukraine
• U.S. pushes to revive Ukraine–Russia talks after Witkoff and Kushner meet Zelensky in Kyiv

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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Russia’s Interior Ministry has placed Dmitry Bastrakov, the founder of the Chernaya Sotnya (Black Hundred) publishing house and its affiliated far-right Listva bookstores, on its wanted list, Mediazona reported.

The listing does not specify what criminal offense Bastrakov is wanted for. According to iStories, leaked records indicate that by 2024, authorities had opened a criminal investigation into his alleged absence without leave under Article 337, Part 5, of Russia’s Criminal Code.

iStories reported that Bastrakov was most likely added to a list of service members absent without leave when his Tyl-22 team was placed under the command of another military unit of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic in 2023.

The Telegram news channel Ostorozhno, Novosti also reported, citing several sources familiar with the situation, that Bastrakov may be wanted for absence without leave.

Bastrakov founded Chernaya Sotnya in 2013 with Timur Venkov. In a 2022 interview, Bastrakov said he had been traveling to the Donbas since 2014 and founded Tyl-22 after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began on February 24, 2022. The humanitarian project helps both civilians and Russian soldiers on the front lines. Mediazona reported that Bastrakov’s Telegram channel does not make clear whether he is currently in Russia or abroad, but as recently as September, his associates posted a photo of him at a religious procession in Moscow.

The Listva bookstores are part of Chernaya Sotnya and are very popular among the far right. Listva regularly hosted events with Russian “war correspondents,” pro-war writers, and Donbas separatist leaders.

From Meduza’s archives

• ‘Better than ending up under a bush in Ukraine’ How Russian army deserters are getting themselves sent to prison to avoid being sent back to war
• What happened to the Russians Putin mobilized four years ago? Meduza follows two of them — one still at the front, the other now a deserter in Spain.
• ‘Expected to serve in any conditions’ How Russia is using new, stricter laws to prosecute soldiers who leave the front

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The case of medical journalist Darya Shipacheva, sentenced to 12 years in a penal colony for treason in July 2026, drew widespread attention. A photograph of her in handcuffs in the courtroom spread across social media. Her trial was held behind closed doors, and almost nothing was known about the substance of the charges. BBC Russian has learned exactly what led to her conviction. Meduza summarizes its findings.

Shipacheva raised money for Ukraine’s armed forces on behalf of Ukrainian blogger Vasilisa Levchenko, BBC Russian reported. According to investigators, Shipacheva transferred more than 1.5 million rubles to Levchenko.

Darya Shipacheva is 35. Before her arrest, she wrote about medicine, health, and feminism for RBC, Takie Dela, Wonderzine, and Forbes Woman. She also published a book about medicine and health, “Bez paniki” (“Don’t Panic”). As an activist, she organized demonstrations in support of the Khachaturyan sisters and feminist activist Yulia Tsvetkova. She also volunteered at a residential school for children with autism spectrum disorder.

After the war began, Shipacheva chose to stay in Russia. She called Moscow her home and wasn’t considering emigrating. Still, a friend said, she had noticed the security services taking an interest in her. When she traveled abroad, border guards asked why she had been born in Ukraine. Shortly before her arrest, a stranger warned her that people would “soon come” for her.

Before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Vasilisa Levchenko ran a Russian-language psychology blog and had about 60,000 Instagram followers, including some in Russia. After the invasion, she began collecting donations for Ukraine’s armed forces through her Sberbank account. According to the BBC, Russian followers who “felt ashamed” sent her more than a million rubles in the first few days.

In May 2022, Russian propagandists took notice of the fundraising. Sberbank later blocked Levchenko’s card, and Rosfinmonitoring, Russia’s financial monitoring agency, subsequently added her to its list of terrorists and extremists. Shipacheva, who did not know Levchenko personally, then offered to collect donations through her own bank account. According to investigators, Shipacheva raised 1.558 million rubles and transferred the money to Levchenko in cryptocurrency.

In letters to BBC journalists, Shipacheva wrote that concern for her family had driven her decision. She was born in Kharkiv but spent most of her life in Russia. She still has relatives in Ukraine, and her cousin serves in the Ukrainian military.

“I faced an unbearable choice: Supporting one homeland meant betraying the other. I chose to support those who, in my view, are the injured party,” Shipacheva wrote. She emphasized that she had raised money for first-aid kits, jackets, and sleeping bags.

Shipacheva said she realized she would end up in prison as soon as she was detained. There was no point denying it, she said — the officers “had all the evidence.” She pleaded guilty “out of fear and weakness” and signed a pretrial cooperation agreement after being threatened with 18 years in prison.

A transfer “to a Sberbank card belonging to a Ukrainian blogger” may also have been the basis for another criminal prosecution. IT consultant Nina Slobodchikova was sentenced to 12 years for treason over a transfer of 5,000 rubles. Although Slobodchikova declined to tell journalists whom she had sent the money to, her account matches the circumstances of Levchenko’s fundraising, the BBC reported.

Shipacheva hopes to be included in a prisoner exchange and is counting on Levchenko’s help. In letters to her friends, she asks them to let Levchenko know that she has been sentenced to 12 years. “Remind Vasilisa — maybe she’ll put in a word for her somewhere. It would be good if Vasilisa remembered her,” acquaintances of Shipacheva told the BBC.

BBC journalists reached out to Levchenko. She confirmed that Shipacheva had followed her blog but said she had not known her personally. Levchenko declined to answer any other questions. “I don’t see any point in this. I don’t do volunteer work anymore,” she wrote, before blocking the BBC correspondent.

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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Russia’s Supreme Court has ruled that a Russian man does not have to return his daughter to her mother in France, even though he took the child to Russia without permission, Kommersant reported.

The case concerns Veronika Tishkova, a Ukrainian citizen who married Russian citizen Alexey Yermakov in 2018. They lived in Kyiv, where their daughter was born. The couple divorced in 2021, and the child stayed with her mother. Shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began, Tishkova moved to France with her 3-year-old daughter, while Yermakov remained in Ukraine.

In June 2023, he asked a Kyiv court to order his former wife to bring their daughter to Ukraine every six weeks. The court denied his request.

Yermakov also took legal action against his former wife in France. In April 2024, he consented to the child’s living permanently in France. The following March, he asked for permission to take his daughter on vacation to Turkey and Slovakia, promising the court he would return her in two weeks. He did not. It soon emerged that he had taken the child to Russia.

In July 2025, Tishkova asked a court in Novosibirsk to order her daughter’s return. During the proceedings, the girl was granted Russian citizenship at her father’s request. The court nevertheless sided with Tishkova and ordered Yermakov to return the child to France under the Hague Convention. Higher courts rejected Yermakov’s appeals.

He then appealed to Russia’s Supreme Court, which ruled in his favor in July 2026. The court found that the girl had adjusted to life in Russia and that moving to France could therefore adversely affect her. It cited an article of the Hague Convention that allows courts to refuse to return a child “if there is a grave risk that his or her return would expose the child to physical or psychological harm.” The court also said the girl has Russian citizenship and that France is an “unfriendly” country and a member of NATO and the European Union.

Tishkova challenged the ruling, which is now under review by the Supreme Court’s Presidium. Her lawyer, Dmitry Litvinsky, said the Supreme Court had “put its own political interpretation of the situation above the applicable law.” Andrey Targashov, Yermakov’s lawyer, said the court’s position was “in line with international practice.”

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A Palace for Veterans of the Special Military Operation will open in Yekaterininsky Park in Moscow’s Meshchansky district, Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said.

The new facility will be created by converting the War Veterans’ Social Rehabilitation Center, which is currently being renovated. Work is scheduled to finish by the end of 2027.

Sobyanin said the palace would bring recovery and rehabilitation services together in a fully equipped complex. “The key idea behind the new approach is to combine active social reintegration with advanced rehabilitation methods without taking people away from their jobs and families. That is why the emphasis is on flexible, daytime, and short-term programs,” he said.

In February 2026, Sobyanin outlined plans to improve Yekaterininsky Park. He also mentioned the War Veterans’ Social Rehabilitation Center in the park, where “combat veterans, including those who served in the special military operation, undergo rehabilitation.” “With this in mind, improvements to Yekaterininsky Park will include making the park fully accessible for veterans,” the mayor wrote.

From Meduza’s archives

• ‘He survived war but not rehabilitation’ An employee at a rehab center describes caring for Russian soldiers returning from the front
• ‘The system could collapse’ A ceasefire would mean hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers returning home. Moscow is bracing for chaos.
• Fighting their way to the front A Kremlin-backed foundation provides war veterans with electric wheelchairs and housing. Orphans and people with disabilities are left to fend for themselves.

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The State Duma has approved all of Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin’s nominees for a government reshuffle.

• Anton Siluanov will become deputy prime minister while remaining finance minister.
• Oleg Kozhemyako, the governor of Primorsky Krai, will become deputy prime minister and presidential envoy to the Far East, replacing Yury Trutnev.
• Transport Minister Andrey Nikitin will become deputy prime minister overseeing transport.
• Dmitry Yadrov, the head of Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency, will become transport minister.
• Irina Okladnikova, the first deputy finance minister, will become deputy prime minister and government chief of staff, replacing Dmitry Grigorenko.

Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin announced the Russian government reshuffle on October 19. Vladimir Putin backed the proposal. Experts say Siluanov’s new role and the appointment of his first deputy at the Finance Ministry, Irina Okladnikova, point to Siluanov’s growing influence. Dmitry Grigorenko, whom Okladnikova will replace, is considered one of the officials closest to Mishustin.

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Valery Kachin, a geodesist from Birobidzhan who was sentenced in January 2025 to 14 years in a penal colony for treason, has begun a dry hunger strike at Pretrial Detention Center No. 1 in Izhevsk, the human rights group Department One (Pervy Otdel) reported.

In a letter from the detention center, Kachin, 39, said he had stopped eating and drinking after staff tormented and physically assaulted him. He said he has been held continuously in a punishment cell: After an initial seven days, he was given another 10 days, followed by two consecutive 15-day terms. He said staff force him to raise and lower a heavy bed by himself, even though he is not required to do so. He said staff also conduct nighttime inspections and confiscate personal belongings from his cell.

“This morning, after we traded insults, they forced me to the floor. I bruised my face on the floor, and my elbows and knees are scraped. I started a hunger strike this morning — no water or food. Tell everyone,” he wrote, according to Pervy Otdel.

Kachin is 182 centimeters (about 6 feet) tall and weighs just 60 kilograms (132 pounds), the group said.

Kachin previously began a dry hunger strike in September 2025 at Penal Colony No. 8, known as Khokhryaki, in Udmurtia. He went on that strike after spending 60 days in a punishment cell. He said that while there, he was unable to keep to the vegan diet he has followed for 14 years. He had received food assistance from Vegan Peredachki (Vegan Care Packages), an initiative whose volunteers arrange vegan meals for political prisoners, but prisoners in punishment cells cannot receive care packages.

Kachin’s case became public in December 2022. On January 27, 2025, the Birobidzhan City Court sentenced him to 14 years in a high-security prison. He was then transferred to a penal colony in Udmurtia.

Kachin last worked as a junior researcher at the Bastak Nature Reserve in Birobidzhan. The news outlet Ostorozhno, Novosti reported that he had used social media to voice support for Alexei Navalny and the protests in Belarus and to speak out against the war in Ukraine.

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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A magistrate’s court in Moscow’s Tagansky district fined blogger Yekaterina Kuznetsova 30,000 rubles for an administrative offense involving abuse of media freedom under Part 9 of Article 13.15 of Russia’s Code of Administrative Offenses, the news outlets Ostorozhno, Novosti and Mediazona reported.

The citation stemmed from a June 2026 post on Kuznetsova’s Telegram channel, Ne marginalny kontent, which has 15,000 subscribers. She shared a news item about Telegram being unblocked, writing, “Friends, looks like I’ve got some good news,” followed by a statement from Russia’s communications regulator, Roskomnadzor, about fully unblocking the messaging app in the summer of 2020.

Kuznetsova soon received a notice from Roskomnadzor demanding that she delete the post for spreading false information on a matter of public importance.

Roskomnadzor concluded that Kuznetsova “presents old, accurate information as fresh, current news.” The regulator said the post could mislead readers and lead to widespread public disorder.

Internet blocking in Russia

• Telegram is one of the last messaging apps in Russia that the state doesn’t control. Did the Kremlin just block it for good?
• To block or not to block Will Roskomnadzor actually restrict access to major sites like YouTube for ‘censoring’ Russian content?

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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Donald Trump’s deal with the Kremlin to supply diesel to the global market is unlikely to lower prices substantially, analysts and market participants interviewed by Reuters said. The promised quantities are too small, and Ukrainian attacks are preventing Russia from increasing production.

Trump said Russia would immediately supply 300,000 metric tons of diesel (2.25 million barrels), followed by another 500,000 metric tons in November and 1 million metric tons “immediately thereafter.” Spread over a month, the first shipment would amount to about 73,000 barrels a day.

That is too little to lower prices noticeably, experts warned. Analytics firm Kpler estimates that at least 400,000 additional barrels of diesel a day are needed. Consulting firm Baringa puts the minimum even higher, at 850,000 barrels a day.

“The diesel that Putin was going to sell, they were going to make it available to the global market one way or the other. The only difference is how much of it the U.S. was going to get,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said over the weekend. Trump initially said the supplies would go to the U.S. and global markets, but later clarified that the shipments would not go specifically to the U.S.

The Energy Policy Research Foundation calculated that Russia would need to produce an additional 384,000 to 509,000 barrels of diesel a day. The country currently produces about 1.4 million barrels a day and consumes roughly 1.2 million domestically, leaving only a small surplus for export.

“We question whether Russia’s refineries could even support an increase in exports with, by some estimates, up to 45% of Russia’s refining capacity currently offline,” Baringa said.

If Ukrainian attacks on refineries stopped, the facilities could begin repairs and eventually ramp up output, but that is unlikely to happen before the end of the year, sources told Reuters.

Russian oil and diesel

• Trump’s diesel deal with Putin, a rebuke from Brussels, and a squabble over Europe’s enormous Russian energy bill
• ‘We’re being used as a front,’ Zelensky says of Trump’s diesel deal with Putin
• ‘We’re done,’ Zelensky says, as Ukraine resumes strikes on Russian oil refineries. The Kremlin claims the attacks never stopped.

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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U.S. President Donald Trump wants Russia and Ukraine to sign a peace agreement at the G20 summit in December, sources told The Atlantic.

Trump “has visions of standing between Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as they sign a peace deal,” the outlet’s sources said.

To make that happen, The Atlantic reported, Trump is willing to consider strong-arming Ukraine into a deal.

The U.S. president is now “furious at Ukraine, and he wants Zelensky gone,” one of the sources said.

This year’s G20 summit will take place in Miami on December 14–15. Vladimir Putin has been formally invited, but Moscow has yet to confirm whether he will attend.

The United States is making another attempt to restart peace talks between Russia and Ukraine. Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff visited Moscow on October 21 for the first time in many months and held talks with Putin. The day before, Witkoff met with Zelensky in Oslo.

Ukraine peace efforts

• Putin and U.S. envoy Witkoff hold talks in St. Petersburg as Washington pushes a new plan to end the war in Ukraine
• Two presidents, two versions of peace: Trump says Zelensky doesn’t want the war to end. Zelensky says Trump wants Ukraine to give in.
• After Trump and Zelensky meet in New York, Ukrainian president says he hopes war will end ‘before winter’

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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A Russian Su-30 fighter jet crashed in the Kaliningrad region during a scheduled training flight, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

The ministry said the crew ejected and was evacuated, and that the pilots’ lives are not in danger. It added that the plane came down in an uninhabited area and that the flight was being carried out without ammunition.

The Russian security services-linked Telegram channel Mash reported that the Su-30SM jet came down in a field between the villages of Timofeyevka and Zelenyy Bor, near Chernyakhovsk. The pilots were taken to a military hospital with injuries.

The Ukrainian monitoring channel Exilenova+ published video showing the jet coming down near a cemetery.

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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