The Ukrainian president announced on Tuesday, October 3, that he had visited the Eastern Front in the area of Koupyansk and Lyman, which were the target of an offensive by Russian troops. “Today we visit our brigades fighting in one of the hottest areas, Kupiansk and Lyman,” Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on Telegram, posting a video in which he can be seen with soldiers in what looks like a fortified shelter. Follow our live stream.
New series of night attacks in Ukraine. The Ukrainian Air Force reported on Tuesday that it had shot down 29 drones and a missile fired by Russia in the south and east of the country. The air defense says these were 29 Iranian-made Shahed 131/136 drones and an Iskander-K cruise missile. In total, Russia launched 31 drones and one missile from Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014.
A cessation of American aid? In the United States, the federal administration’s preliminary budget approved on Saturday does not provide for an envelope for Kiev. Trumpist elected officials, who are putting all their weight behind the current budget negotiations, have actually managed to get Congress to adopt a text that does not include this aid. If this aid were to be stopped, “it would be devastating for the Ukrainians,” warns Mark Cancian, consultant at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington.
Japan is embarrassed by the visit of one of its senators to Russia. A pro-Russian Japanese senator visited Moscow, the first time since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began. The visit surprised the Japanese government, which criticized the personal initiative on Tuesday. “The government was not informed by Mr. Suzuki of his visit to Russia,” Japanese government spokesman Hirokazu Matsuno said. Tokyo has strongly condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine from the start and, like its Western allies, has imposed sanctions on Moscow.
European ministers in Kyiv. European Union foreign ministers met in Kiev on Monday for a “historic meeting” aimed at drawing the boundaries of “sustainable support” for Ukraine as it seeks to join the EU. In view of a slow Ukrainian counter-offensive and fears of a decline in Western support for Ukraine, it is also about showing Russia that it should not count on the European Union becoming “tired,” said French Minister Catherine Colonna.