Russia has begun using North Korean troops in significant numbers for the first time to conduct assaults on Ukrainian forces battling to hold an enclave in the country’s Kursk region, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
Ukraine’s air defences shot down 58 of 132 Russian drones, the Ukrainian air force said. It said 72 Russian drones were “lost” due to the use of electronic warfare interference tactics. There were no immediate reports of damage.
Russia’s air defence systems destroyed 15 Ukrainian drones overnight, the Ministry of Defence announced. Thirteen of the drones were downed over the Black Sea and one each over the Russian border regions of Kursk and Belgorod, it added.
A nine-year-old child was killed in a Ukrainian drone attack on Belgorod, regional Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said. Two other people, including another child, were injured in the attack.
A Ukrainian serviceman and drone pilot of the 12th Special Operations Brigade ‘Azov’ inspects a Ukrainian unmanned aerial system before an aerial reconnaissance mission in Donetsk [Maria Senovilla/EPA]
Ukrainian drones carried out an attack on the Steel Horse oil facility in Russia’s Oryol region which is a crucial source of fuel supplies for Russian troops, Ukraine’s military announced.
Ukrainian drones struck a “fuel infrastructure facility” in Orlov, the local governor said, causing a fire to break out. Governor Andrei Klychkov said 11 drones had been shot down over the region. No casualties were reported.
Politics and diplomacy
Zelenskyy said he had instructed his government to set up mechanisms to supply food to Syria in the aftermath of the fall of President Bashar al-Assad. Since al-Assad’s fall, Russia’s wheat export to Syria has been suspended.
Ukrainian General Oleksandr Tarnavskiy, 54, has been appointed to head the operational and tactical group Donetsk, replacing General Oleksandr Lutsenko, the military announced, as Russia makes swift advances in the Donetsk region.
PARIS — British Army troops fired a high-energy laser from an armored vehicle for the first time, using beams of infrared light to destroy dozens of flying drones, in what may be a cost-effective way to address the threat of unmanned aerial systems, the Ministry of Defence said.
Soldiers from the U.K.’s 16th Regiment Royal Artillery, which specializes in providing air defense for ground troops, used the laser mounted on a Wolfhound armored personnel carrier to destroy drones at a variety of distances and speeds, the MoD said in a statement on Wednesday.
The ubiquity of drones over the battlefield in Ukraine, where infantry typically operates under a constant buzz of multiple UAVs overhead, has Western armies racing to find countermeasures. The U.S. Army in September tested laser-equipped Stryker combat vehicles to destroy drones, while France deployed a vehicle-mounted prototype anti-drone laser during the Paris Olympic Games.
“This is still an emerging technology, but the world has changed and we are seeing more use of drones in the battlespace,” said Stephen Waller, directed-energy weapons team leader at the MoD’s Defence Equipment & Support organization, or DE&S. “This requires a more cost-effective solution to protect our troops.”
Ukrainian troops are using thousands of drones every week, including first-person view drones that can cost as little as a few hundred dollars apiece but can be lethalwhen packed with explosives, while small commercial quadcopters costing a few thousand dollars are used for scouting and adjusting artillery.
The “virtually limitless” ammo supply of laser weapons could make them more cost-efficient than some alternatives, the MoD said. This year’s Eurosatory defense show in Paris featured counter-UAS measures ranging from cannons with airburst munitions to net-firing drones, rockets packed with metal balls, jammers and spoofers.
The British Army’s experimental laser weapon uses advanced sensors and tracking systems to maintain lock on target, according to the MoD, which has said the setup is fully portable and easy to operate. As part of its Land Laser Directed Energy Weapon Demonstrator program the ministry in July tested the laser on enemy drones at distances of more than 1 kilometer at its testing range in Porton Down.
“Having the capability to track and eliminate moving drones will give U.K. troops a better operational advantage and these successful trials have demonstrated that we are well on our way to achieving this,” Waller said.
The MoD will now assess the steps needed to develop laser weapons for future frontline use by the British Army, the ministry statement said.
The 16th Regiment Royal Artillery tested the laser, developed in cooperation between the Ministry of Defence and an industry consortium led by Raytheon UK, at Radnor Range in central Wales. The weapon is being developed under a £16.8 million (US$21.4 million) contract from the British government.
In the live test, the soldiers destroyed dozens of quadcopter drones within the constraints of the Radnor range, the MoD told Defense News, without providing details. Radnor, situated in a steep valley, features a 5-kilometer-long testing range for 40mm cannons and aerial countermeasures.
Every engagement using the laser weapon removed a drone from the sky, and what was notable was “how quick a drone can be taken out,” Warrant Officer Matthew Anderson, trials manager for the Army’s mounted close combat trials and development group, said in the statement.
The U.K. is working on other laser weapons, and earlier this year fired the DragonFire laser weapon against aerial targets for the first time. That weapon is being developed within a £100 million program with industry partners MBDA, Leonardo and QinetiQ, and the ministry said the technologies employed between the two weapon systems differ.
Firing the DragonFire laser typically costs less than £10 a shot, with both the Army and the Royal Navy considering the technology for future air defense, according to the MoD.
Rudy Ruitenberg is a Europe correspondent for Defense News. He started his career at Bloomberg News and has experience reporting on technology, commodity markets and politics.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said he, along with his Iranian and Turkish counterparts, are calling for “an end to hostile activities” in Syria, where opposition fighters have made a rapid advance in a major challenge to President Bashar al-Assad.
Speaking to Al Jazeera at the Doha Forum in the Qatari capital on Saturday, Lavrov said Russia, Iran and Turkiye expressed support for “dialogue between the government and legitimate opposition” in Syria.
The three countries have been involved since 2017 in the so-called Astana Format talks seeking a political settlement in Syria, and their top diplomats – Lavrov, Iran’s Abbas Araghchi and Turkiye’s Hakan Fidan met in a trilateral format on the sidelines of the Doha Forum.
“We called for [an] immediate end to hostile activities. We stated, all of us, that we want the [United Nations] Resolution 2254 to be fully implemented, and for this purpose, called for the dialogue between the government and legitimate opposition,” Lavrov said.
Syria-led process
Resolution 2254 (PDF) outlines a commitment to the “sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity” of Syria and says the only solution to the years-long conflict will be through “an inclusive and Syrian-led political process”.
Asked whether Moscow – a key backer of al-Assad and the Syrian army – believes the Syrian president can hang on to power, Lavrov said he was “not in the business of guessing”.
“We agreed today with Iran and Turkiye to issue a strong call, which I described, and we will be doing some specific steps to make sure that this call is heeded,” he said.
Minister of Foreign Affairs @HakanFidan attended the Astana-format meeting at the 22nd Doha Forum, with his Iranian and Russian counterparts. 🇹🇷🇮🇷🇷🇺 pic.twitter.com/1lA7HIg4XL
Lavrov’s comments came as fighters led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) armed group have made a lightning advance in Syria over days, taking control of key cities, including Aleppo and Hama.
Late on Friday, the rebels said they had reached the edge of Homs, a strategic city linking the capital Damascus to coastal parts of the country where al-Assad enjoys support from the Alawite community.
In a post on Telegram on Saturday afternoon, an opposition commander said the HTS-led group’s forces had begun “operations” inside Homs.
Opposition fighters have also made gains in Deraa and Sweida, in southwestern Syria near the border with Jordan, and taken control of some towns in the Damascus countryside.
‘Much weaker’
Reporting from Kilis, near Turkiye’s border with Syria, Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar said the Syrian government has lost control of a majority of the country’s territory.
“We are seeing a Syrian government that is much weaker than in 2016, when it was backed strongly by Russia, by Iran, by [Lebanese group] Hezbollah on the ground,” he said.
“Russians are extremely busy in Ukraine. They have withdrawn a majority of their military equipment and personnel from the Khmeimim airbase [in Syria] to Ukraine,” Serdar explained, while Iran and Hezbollah have also been embroiled in fighting against Israel.
“All of these factors have created such a vacuum.”
At Saturday’s Doha Forum, Lavrov said Russia was “absolutely convinced of the inadmissibility to use terrorists like HTS to achieve geopolitical purposes”.
“We’re trying to do everything not to allow terrorists to prevail; even if they say they are no longer terrorists,” he said.
Downplaying fears
Samuel Ramani, an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, said the Russian foreign minister “was trying to project an image of strength and being in control”.
“He was trying to downplay fears that al-Assad’s regime in Syria is on the imminent brink of collapse, instead talking about how he’s doing all he can to promote the sovereignty of Syria and to try to stabilise the situation,” he told Al Jazeera.
Ramani said the opposition forces’ rapid advance appears to have caught Moscow off-guard.
“They have been watching and they have been spectators just like us to what’s unfolding in Syria, and they don’t really seem to have a very clear game plan to keep al-Assad in power.”
Donahue’s confirmation, which includes a promotion to a four-star rank, had been blocked for several weeks for unspecified reasons. On Monday, that hold was lifted, and Donahue was approved by a unanimous voice vote for the new role.
Numerous news outlets had reported that Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., had blocked Donahue’s advancement. His office never publicly confirmed the hold, and did not release any statement on Monday regarding the Senate vote.
Donahue currently serves as the commander of the 18th Airborne Corps at Fort Liberty in North Carolina. But he is more widely known for overseeing the final withdrawal of all U.S. forces from Afghanistan in 2021.
On Aug. 30 of that year, he was the last American servicemember to leave the country, boarding a C-17 plane at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul. Photos released by the Defense Department marked the moment and raised Donahue’s public profile.
Numerous Republican lawmakers — including President-elect Donald Trump — were harshly critical of the withdrawal, and have promised continued investigation into missteps surrounding the final days of the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan.
But Donahue’s nomination was seen as largely noncontroversial until mid-November, when he was singled out for a hold amid 984 other military promotions approved by the Senate.
With Monday’s resolution, Donahue is expected to be sworn into his new role in coming days.
According to his official biography, Donahue spent several decades in the special operations community before taking command of Army Infantry School in 2017. He then served as deputy director for special operations and counterterrorism for the Joint Chiefs of Staff before becoming commander of Special Operations Joint Task Force-Afghanistan in May 2019.
Donahue then became commander of the 82nd Airborne Division in July 2020, and later assumed command of XVIII Airborne Corps at Fort Liberty in March 2022.
Reporter Todd South contributed to this story.
Leo covers Congress, Veterans Affairs and the White House for Military Times. He has covered Washington, D.C. since 2004, focusing on military personnel and veterans policies. His work has earned numerous honors, including a 2009 Polk award, a 2010 National Headliner Award, the IAVA Leadership in Journalism award and the VFW News Media award.
WARSAW, Poland — The Latvian Ministry of Defence has selected the Ascod infantry fighting vehicle for the country’s armed forces, and officials expect procurement negotiations with manufacturer GDELS-Santa Bárbara Sistemas to conclude by the end of this year or early next.
In a statement, Latvian Defense Minister Andris Sprūds said the tracked vehicle will bolster the operational capacities of the Baltic state’s military.
“Experts from the Ministry of Defence and the Armed Forces have conducted a thorough analysis to select the combat vehicles that are most suitable for our needs,” Sprūds said.
The minister did not disclose the number of vehicles to be purchased nor the estimated value of the planned contract. However, a spokesperson for the Defence Ministry told Defense News the country aims to spend around €250 million (US$265 million) on new fighting vehicles.
“Latvia’s Ministry of Defence is planning to purchase new infantry fighting vehicles to increase the mobility, protection level and firepower of the Land Forces,” the spokesperson said.
Meanwhile, the Latvian ministry is also advancing other acquisitions for the country’s military. For example, Riga is planning to buy wheeled, self-propelled howitzers, according to the spokesperson.
Based in Spain, GDELS-Santa Bárbara Sistemas is part of General Dynamics European Land Systems.
Ascod vehicles “are currently operated by the armed forces of Spain, Austria, the United Kingdom, the United States and the Philippines,” the Latvian ministry said.
Jaroslaw Adamowski is the Poland correspondent for Defense News.
WARSAW, Poland — The government of Croatia has signed a letter of intent with Germany under which Zagreb aims to acquire up to 50 new Leopard 2A8s tanks for the country’s armed forces.
The tanks are to be purchased under a reduced price to compensate the Croatian Army for its planned transfer of used M-84 tanks and M-80 infantry fighting vehicles to Ukraine.
The agreement was signed during an official visit by Croatian Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Ivan Anušić to Germany during which the official met with his German counterpart, Boris Pistorius, on Oct. 28.
“This is one of the largest and most significant modernization projects of the Croatian military, along with all the modernization projects of the Croatian Air Force and the Croatian Navy. We have reached the point of strengthening our armored forces, our tank battalions,” Anušić was quoted in a statement released by his ministry.
The talks in Berlin were accompanied by various initiatives to tighten the cooperation of Germany’s and Croatia’s defense sectors. On Oct. 29, Rheinmetall announced it had signed a memorandum of understanding to establish a joint venture with Croatian company DOK-ING, a manufacturer of unmanned ground systems (UGS).
“The agreement provides for joint development and subsequent marketing of the new DOK-ING Komodo platform. Rheinmetall AG is contributing various capability modules/upgrade kits … as well as its international market access and industrial capacities,” the German vendor said in a statement.
Croatia is joining a growing number of NATO’s Eastern European member states that plan to buy German-made tanks. The Croatian ministry’s decision to purchase tanks made by KNDS follows Lithuania’s announcement last week that it also intends to acquire Leopard 2A8s for its military.
On Oct. 22, the Lithuanian State Defence Council approved the Defence Ministry’s plans to purchase the weapons. The Baltic state aims to establish a new division within the country’s military in response to Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine. The unit will comprise infantry fighting vehicles and a tank battalion, among other elements.
Lithuanian officials have suggested they are eying a purchase of up to 54 Leopard 2A8s.
Jaroslaw Adamowski is the Poland correspondent for Defense News.
London, United Kingdom – Britain is debating the issue of assisted dying after a bill to legalise it in England and Wales was formally introduced in parliament last week – the first attempt to change the law in a decade.
If it were enacted, assisted dying would legally give terminally ill, mentally competent adults with six months or less to live the right to choose to end their lives with medical help.
Since the 1961 Suicide Act, it has been illegal in England and Wales to encourage or assist suicide, and those found guilty face up to 14 years in prison.
Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, who is behind the bill introduced on October 16, said in a statement that it was “important” to get the legislation right with “the necessary protections and safeguards in place” so those with disabilities or mental illnesses do not feel pressured into taking the decision – which opponents of the bill argue could happen.
The debate over the polarising issue has moved religious figures and bodies.
“Legalising assisted suicide would disproportionately impact many millions of vulnerable people who might perceive themselves as a burden on those around them and the health service,” said Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury.
The British Islamic Medical Association said: “Alongside religious objection, many of us will have objections based on professional ethical code of conduct. We also see how this can be dangerous for vulnerable individuals and marginalised communities who already struggle to access healthcare in a system that is not able to respond to complex healthcare needs efficiently.”
Here’s what we know about the bill:
What is assisted dying?
Assisted dying is when terminally ill people receive lethal drugs from a medical practitioner to end their lives.
It is not to be confused with euthanasia, which is a similar process of ending a life by receiving lethal drugs from a doctor, but in this case, the person does not need to be terminally ill to choose to die.
What’s the bill about?
While many details of the bill have not yet been finalised, it’s expected to be similar to an assisted dying bill introduced in the House of Lords in July. That bill has since been withdrawn to make way for the new bill.
In the former bill, those who are terminally ill with only six months or less to live would be able to access medical help to end their lives after the decision is signed off on by two doctors and a High Court judge.
The last vote on legalising assisted dying in Britain was in 2015, but it was overwhelmingly rejected by British lawmakers: 330 voted against to 118 for.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who supported a 2015 assisted dying bill, said lawmakers should have a “free vote” and not be compelled to cast their ballots along party lines.
“There are grounds for changing the law,” he has said.
A debate and the first vote on the bill are expected to take place on November 29.
A small demonstration by people advocating assisted dying is held outside the Houses of Parliament in London on October 16, 2024 [Alberto Pezzali/AP]
What do campaigners for the bill say?
The arguments for assisted dying include self-determination, the alleviation of pain and suffering, and peace of mind.
Hundreds of Britons have spent thousands of pounds travelling to Switzerland to facilities like Dignitas, an organisation providing assisted dying.
According to Dignity in Dying, which carried out a poll, 84 percent of Britons support the legalisation of assisted dying.
Across political party lines, the highest support was recorded among Green voters with 79 percent backing a change in legislation. This was followed closely by Conservative voters with 78 percent support, Labour voters at 77 percent support and Liberal Democrats at 77 percent.
A spokesperson for Dignity in Dying told Al Jazeera that the new bill would bring “hope” to those who have called for a “compassionate choice at the end of life”.
“Under the current system, there are no upfront checks or balances to prevent a terminally ill Briton being coerced into travelling to Dignitas or taking their own life at home. We urgently need greater scrutiny, accountability and protection. That is what this bill will bring,” the spokesperson said.
Who opposes assisted dying and why?
Those against assisted dying have warned that marginalised groups, including disabled people and low-income households, will be disproportionately affected and put at risk.
Some religious groups are against the bill, arguing that life is sacred and ending it prematurely is morally wrong.
Others said improving palliative care should be the focus instead.
Disabled People Against Cuts have called on MPs to vote against the Assisted Dying Bill after they said it would put “disabled people under pressure to prematurely end their lives”.
“Initial good intentions to provide choice at the end of life can lead to disabled people without terminal illnesses being pushed to an early death because the support to live with dignity is not available,” it said.
The group pointed out the lack of state funding for hospices and palliative care, which provide support for terminally ill people.
Alistair Thompson, a spokesperson for Care not Killing, said the group against assisted dying has for years pushed for the palliative care system to be fixed.
“We know one in four people who would benefit from it don’t currently receive it,” he told Al Jazeera.
“But the reality is, it is incredibly expensive to fix the palliative care system. A huge amount of the funding from the palliative care system, which goes to the hospice movement, is raised by members of the public. It’s not centrally funded. So to fix the palliative care system means giving more money to the hospice movement, … and that’s going to be a multibillion-pound question,” Thompson explained.
Because Britain has an ageing population with complex needs, a legal route to assisted dying would lead to “more and more people feeling pressured into ending their lives early”, he said.
“The safeguards will be eroded and will simply be expanded.”
Where is assisted dying legal?
In Canada, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium and some states in the United States.
For those opposing the bill, Canada has become an example of why the Assisted Dying Bill in England and Wales should not be passed.
Assisted dying was legalised in Canada in 2016. The law was then broadened in 2021 to allow people with incurable but not terminal conditions, including disabilities, to seek a way to die.
But according to a recent investigation by The Associated Press, medical workers are “grappling with requests from people whose pain might be alleviated by money, adequate housing or social connections”.
Figures from Canada’s most populous province suggest a “significant number of people euthanised when they are in unmanageable pain but not about to die live in Ontario’s poorest areas”, The Associated Press revealed.
Thompson urged the British government to “look very, very carefully at [Canada] before going down this very dangerous route”.
Daniel Gover, senior lecturer in British politics at Queen Mary University of London, wrote about what could happen next for The Conversation.
There are many steps ahead that are likely to take months, if not longer, he said.
“Despite these procedural hurdles, the assisted dying bill has a reasonably good chance of passing into law,” he wrote. “In the end, much will depend on whether MPs are willing to back this change, and how determined they are to do so.”
Andriy Kostin steps down after corruption scheme involving false disability diagnoses for draft exemptions is uncovered.
Ukrainian Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin has announced his resignation amid a scandal involving dozens of officials alleged to have abused their position to receive disability status and avoid military service.
In early October, it emerged that dozens of public prosecutors in the western region of Khmelnytskyi had falsely been awarded disability permits and were receiving special pensions.
Kostin said on Tuesday he was taking responsibility for the scandal and announced his resignation. He called the situation around the false disability diagnoses “clearly amoral”.
“In this situation, I believe it is right to announce my resignation from the position of prosecutor general,” Kostin said.
The announcement followed a meeting of the National Security and Defence Council.
After the meeting, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky issued a decree to dismantle the current system of medical and social commissions responsible for registering individuals as disabled by the end of the year, eliminating a loophole that allowed draft evasion through bribery.
‘Hundreds’ of cases
After the scandal erupted earlier this month, Kostin ordered an investigation, which he said had discovered the number of prosecutors in the Khmelnytskyi region with disabilities was 61, and that 50 of them had been registered disabled before the war.
“It is very important to establish why they were granted disability status, because the share of such employees in Khmelnytskyi region is very high,” he said.
The chief prosecutor’s resignation still needs to be approved by parliament, where Zelenskyy’s party holds a majority. Following the president’s public call for accountability, it is widely expected that parliament will endorse it.
In his evening address, Zelenskyy told the nation that such corruption extended much wider than just to prosecutors.
“There are hundreds of such cases of obviously unjustified disabilities among customs, tax, pension fund and local administration officials,” he said.
“All of this needs to be dealt with thoroughly and promptly,” he said. The whole process must be digitalised, he added, saying that currently “people who have received a real disability, particularly in combat, often cannot get the appropriate status and fair payments”.
The Security Services of Ukraine (SBU) had earlier issued a statement saying 64 officials within the Medical and Social Expert Commissions had been notified they were being investigated for illegally issuing disability certificates.
“Another nine people have already been convicted,” the SBU said in their statement, adding that 4,106 disability certificates “were cancelled”.
Mobilisation in Ukraine is a hotly contested and controversial issue that has polarised society after a large-scale military recruitment drive earlier this year to bolster Ukraine’s struggling forces as they fight against Russia’s invasion. Since the president signed a renewed mobilisation law in April 2024, men between the ages of 25 and 60 are now eligible. Previously, the range was 27 to 60.
Soldiers have reported difficult conditions including relentless days of heavy fire without relief due to a lack of reinforcements. Front-line troops have shared with the media that they have been moving from one battle to the next with minimal rest.
Prosecutions for desertion from Ukraine’s army are thought to have hit at least 30,000 already this year. This is several times the number in 2022, the year the war began when citizens and foreigners voluntarily poured into the military.
