Ukraine, beyond the headlines.

A Russian drone struck Kyiv’s Northern Bridge on October 3 — the fifth attack on the capital’s bridges in three days. Three of six road bridges over the Dnipro are closed or partially closed, and Russia’s Foreign Ministry has warned foreign diplomats and nationals to leave Kyiv, threatening “massive retaliatory strikes.”

The New York Times and Reuters report that U.S.-Russia peace talks on Ukraine now include a multibillion-dollar oil deal involving Lukoil's international assets — proposed by Putin and advanced by Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. Kyiv has issued no official reaction.

The ICC terminated its contract with French insurer Axa over US sanctions risks — one episode in a systematic Trump administration campaign that has already sanctioned the court's president and judges, and now threatens the very existence of the only permanent tribunal that issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin.

Ukraine has shown European partners an intercepted Russian plan for a winter campaign: up to 1,000 strikes, three nuclear plants disconnected from the grid, and a 90% cut to power and heating in Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Odesa. The strikes have already begun.

France faces its biggest unrest since the Yellow Vests: over 900 protests, fires in high schools, 1,949 arrests in a single day — and a government blaming the far-left while teacher shortages and crumbling schools remain unaddressed.

Overnight into September 30, Russia launched 188 attack drones and ballistic missiles at Ukraine, killing at least five people and damaging the Trypilska thermal power plant. The same day, NATO confirmed it had responded to a Russian warning that Moscow would use "its entire arsenal, including nuclear weapons," if the alliance tried to blockade Kaliningrad.

Kirill Dmitriev, Putin's special envoy, held talks with Trump administration officials in Washington that both sides called “constructive” — on ending the war and postwar energy projects. No Ukrainian representatives were present. The same day, a Russian drone struck the National Academy of Sciences in central Kyiv, killing at least two people, and the Kremlin said Ukraine would “pay a price.”

Estonia has formally accused Russian intelligence of ordering the August arson at Milrem Robotics in Tallinn, a supplier of THeMIS unmanned ground vehicles to Ukraine. It is the first successful Russian-ordered attack on Estonia this year, per the security police. Three suspects were extradited from Latvia, the Kremlin denies involvement, and NATO's response so far remains declarative.

NABU and SAP suspect Bohdan Lvov, former head of the Cassation Commercial Court of the Supreme Court, of laundering assets worth about 26 million hryvnias registered to his subordinate's mother. It is his second suspicion; the SBU has confirmed he holds Russian citizenship.

A new KMIS survey puts corruption at the top of Ukrainians' list of problems for the first time since the full-scale invasion — ahead of missile and drone strikes. 72% hold President Zelensky personally responsible for corruption in his circle. The poll lands amid NABU's Operation Carthage, the resignation of Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko and his registration in Vienna.

NABU and SAP have named new suspects in a $1 million bribery case around a drone supply tender for Ukraine's State Border Guard Service. According to investigators, the money was extorted by the bidder who lost the tender, while a border service official received payments in USDT. The new charges cover bribery and money laundering.

Journalists of Schemes found a $670,000 Dubai villa registered in 2023 to the then mother-in-law of Ruslan Kravchenko, when he headed the Kyiv regional military administration. Two years later he became Prosecutor General; a year after that, he left Ukraine on a self-signed business trip to Paris and registered in Vienna. As of 29 September 2026, no criminal investigation has been reported into either the villa or his failure to return.