Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday discussed his proposed ‘victory plan’ with Britain and France’s leaders and the incoming head of Nato as he seeks to garner military support to put himself in a position for eventual peace talks.
A group of five nuclear weapons states will hold a meeting in New York in the next two weeks, Russian state media quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying on Thursday.
Russia, which chairs the BRICS group this year, has called on its partners to create an alternative to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to counter political pressure from Western nations ahead of the BRICS summit later this month.
Zelensky outlines ‘victory plan’, discusses long-range weapons
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday discussed his proposed “victory plan” with Britain and France’s leaders and the incoming head of Nato as he seeks to garner military support to put himself in a position for eventual peace talks.
Western officials and Zelenskiy have said the war with Russia is at a critical point. With a US election less than a month away and winter set to arrive in Ukraine amid a barrage of Russian strikes on key energy infrastructure, the Ukrainian leader is keen for the West to give further support to try to change the balance on the battlefield.
“The next peace summit has to be in November. The plan will be on the table .... early November the plan will be with all the details,” Zelensky told reporters in Paris when asked about a potential peace conference. He dismissed any talk of a ceasefire.
He gave no specific details either in London or Paris on the “victory plan”.
Zelensky earlier held talks with Nato chief Mark Rutte and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. In addition to the “victory plan” they discussed whether Ukraine could use Western missiles against targets in Russia.
Zelensky has pushed for the US and Britain to join France in letting it use long-range missiles donated by its allies inside Russian territory, something Rutte said had come up at the meeting.
“We discussed it today, but in the end it is up to the individual allies,” Rutte told reporters in Downing Street after the talks.
Starmer’s spokesperson said there had been no change to the UK government’s position on the use of long-range missiles.
Russia has previously said it would respond if Western countries allowed Ukraine to strike Russia with their missiles. President Vladimir Putin said last month that such a decision would mean Nato countries were directly fighting with Russia and that “the very essence of this conflict will be changed”.
Unlike Britain and the United States, France has said Ukraine should be allowed to use its Scalp cruise missiles, the French version of Britain’s Storm Shadow, to strike legitimate targets in Russia. It is unclear whether Ukraine has already done so.
Another ally, Italy, where Zelensky will meet Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni later this week is staunchly against Ukraine using its Storm Shadows to hit Russia.
The meetings on Thursday, along with one in Berlin on Friday, were aimed at outlining Ukraine’s position and possibly outlining its requirements for accepting future peace negotiations after a summit in Germany of its main backers was cancelled when USPresident Joe Biden pulled out to focus on Hurricane Milton.
Zelensky said after the London meeting that he had outlined how to create “the right conditions for a just end to the war”, without going into detail.
‘Nuclear Five’ states to meet soon in New York, says Russia
A group of five nuclear weapons states will hold a meeting in New York in the next two weeks, Russian state media quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying on Thursday.
The group brings together Russia, the US, China, France and Britain, all of which are nuclear-armed states and permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.
Ryabkov did not announce a specific date or say what level of officials would attend.
The meeting is potentially significant because of a significant escalation in nuclear tensions between Russia and the West since the start of the Ukraine war.
In January 2022, weeks before Putin sent his army into Ukraine, the “nuclear five” issued a joint statement saying they considered the avoidance of war between nuclear powers and the reduction of strategic risks to be their foremost priorities.
“We affirm that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought,” they said at the time.
Russia calls on BRICS partners to create alternative to IMF
Russia, which chairs the BRICS group this year, has called on its partners to create an alternative to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to counter political pressure from Western nations ahead of the BRICS summit later this month.
BRICS, originally comprising Brazil, Russia, India and China, has expanded to include South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Top BRICS finance and central bank officials are meeting in Moscow this week.
Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, who is hosting the meeting, said the global financial system was controlled by Western countries and that the group, which represents 37% of the global economy, needed to create an alternative.
“The IMF and the World Bank are not performing their roles. They are not working in the interests of BRICS countries,” said Siluanov at an event on the first day of the meeting.
“It is necessary to form new conditions or even new institutions, similar to the Bretton Woods institutions, but within the framework of our community, within the framework of BRICS,” added Siluanov.
Russia had its forex reserves in dollars and euros frozen and its financial system was heavily hit by sanctions by the West after it invaded Ukraine in February 2022. The country is cut off from international capital markets.
The only financial institution the BRICS countries have established so far is the New Development Bank, created in 2015 to finance infrastructure and sustainable development projects in BRICS members and other emerging economies.
Chechen leader accuses Russian MPs of plotting his murder
Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of Russia’s Chechnya region, has accused Russian legislators from neighbouring regions of attempting to commission his assassination, and threatened them with a “blood feud”, the state news agency Tass reported on Thursday.
The dispute has its origins in a corporate merger involving Russia’s largest online retailer, Wildberries, outside whose Moscow office two people were killed in a shootout last month.
Kadyrov has described Wildberries’ merger with outdoor advertising firm Russ Group as an “asset grab”.
Tass cited Kadyrov, in comments made on Wednesday, as naming three legislators behind the alleged plot to kill him. “If they do not prove otherwise, I will officially declare a blood feud,” he was quoted as saying at a meeting with security officials.
In Chechnya, blood feuds are pursued by killing an enemy or his male relatives in response to a perceived offence.
Tatiana Kim, Russia’s richest woman, held 99% of Wildberries and now has around 65% of the merged company, RVB. She has filed for divorce from Vladislav Bakalchuk, a minority stakeholder in Wildberries who opposed the merger, and whom Kadyrov is backing in the dispute.
One of those named by Kadyrov in connection with the alleged assassination plot is Suleiman Kerimov, a wealthy businessman and Russian senator from Dagestan, whom Bakalchuk has accused of “seizing” Wildberries.
Kadyrov was handpicked by Putin to run Chechnya and has become a significant player in Russian politics and the military, including by providing soldiers for Russia’s war effort in Ukraine.
Russia to raise foreign company ‘exit tax’ to 35% from 15%
Russian authorities are set to raise the one-off contribution that foreign companies leaving the country must make to the state treasury to as high as 35% from 15%, the RBC business daily reported on Thursday, citing three unnamed sources and a lawyer.
Russia has steadily tightened exit requirements for foreign companies since Western sanctions were imposed over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, demanding sharp discounts on any foreign asset sales before giving approval, and taking a portion of the sale price to bolster state coffers, dubbed an “exit tax” by Washington.
RBC reported, citing two of the sources, that 25% of the deal’s value will have to be paid to the Russian treasury within a month of the transaction closing, with 5% to be paid within a year and the remaining 5% within two years.
Reuters confirmed RBC’s report with a source involved in Russian mergers and acquisitions.
It was not clear when the tax increase would take effect.
Nato to hold annual nuclear drill from Monday, says Rutte
Nato would begin its annual nuclear exercise on Monday, said alliance Secretary-General Mark Rutte on Thursday, against a backdrop of heightened nuclear rhetoric from Putin.
F-35A fighter jets and B-52 bombers would be among some 60 aircraft from 13 nations taking part in the Steadfast Noon exercise, hosted by Belgium and The Netherlands, said Nato officials.
“In an uncertain world it is vital that we test our defence and that we strengthen our defence so that our adversaries know that Nato is ready, and is able to respond to any threat,” said Rutte.
“The whole exercise will particularly focus on the United Kingdom, the North Sea, but also Belgium and the Netherlands,” he added.
The exercise does not use any live weapons. But some 2,000 military personnel taking part in the drills will simulate missions in which warplanes carry US nuclear warheads, said officials.
The exercise will start on Monday and last for about two weeks, according to officials from the 32-member transatlantic military alliance.
Hungary says TurkStream could help supply Europe with gas
The TurkStream pipeline that ships Russian gas to Turkey via the Black Sea could help Europe cope with the expected loss of gas pumped via Ukraine, said Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto on Thursday.
A five-year deal between Kyiv and Moscow on Russian gas transit via Ukraine to Europe will expire on 31 December. An extension is seen as unlikely, given the military conflict between the two countries.
Szijjarto said the loss of Russian gas routed via Ukraine would not hurt Hungary as the country received Russian gas via the TurkStream pipeline.
“This alternative route may help not only Hungary, but other countries of Central Europe if they face a serious situation in case there is no transit via Ukraine,” he told the St Petersburg International Gas Forum.
Hungary, in contrast to most European Union countries, seeks to maintain close political and business ties with Russia.
Ukraine has said it will not renew its deal with Russia, and Moscow has said the decision lies with Ukraine and Europe.
Ukraine’s Parliament approves first wartime tax hikes
Parliament approved Ukraine’s first major wartime tax increases on Thursday to shore up its finances as the war with Russia drags on with no end in sight.
Yaroslav Zhelezniak, a legislator from the Holos party, said 247 of 450 deputies in the Verkhovna Rada had approved the increase.
Ukraine spends the bulk of its revenue on funding its army, and the current level of taxation has been insufficient to cover rising defence spending, which has boomed since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, said the finance ministry.
The finance ministry said that the new level of taxation would bring 23.2 billion hryvnias ($563-million) to the budget this year and 141.1 billion hryvnias next year.
Foreign financial aid remains vital for Ukraine to be able to balance its budget in the coming year.
“All non-military state budget expenditures are financed exclusively with the support of Ukraine’s international partners. These funds cannot be used to finance defence needs,” said the ministry.
Since the start of Russia’s invasion, Ukraine has received nearly $100-billion in Western economic aid, which helps to pay pensions, public sector wages and other social spending.
Kyiv needs another $12-billion by the end of 2024 to spend on defence. Next year’s budget deficit is expected to total about $38-billion.
The new law includes an increase in war tax from 1.5% to 5% for residents, higher taxes for individual entrepreneurs and small businesses, a 50% tax on banks’ profits, and a 25% tax on the profits of financial companies.
Ukraine strikes airfield in Russia’s North Caucasus
The Ukrainian military said on Thursday it had struck an ammunition depot overnight at an airfield in Russia’s Adygeya region in the North Caucasus, about 450km from the frontline in eastern Ukraine.
The military was still assessing the damage caused after a fire broke out at the facility, it said in a statement.
Some 57 Russian combat and training aircraft and helicopters, including Su-34s, Su-35s and Mi-8s, were stationed at Khanskaya airfield during the drone attack, a source in Ukraine’s State Security Service (SBU) told Reuters.
“Russia is using this airfield in Krasnodar Krai ... for refuelling and missile and bomb attacks on the units of the defence forces and Ukrainian settlements,” said the source.
Adygeya regional head Murat Kumpilov said on Telegram that the village of Rodnikovy had been evacuated due to the fire that followed the drone attack. He said there were no casualties in the attack.
Ukraine’s military also said it struck late on Wednesday a base in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region, where Shahed drones are stored. The previous night it hit a Russian weapons arsenal in the Bryansk region that borders northern Ukraine. DM