In late 2023, the first reports emerged that Ukraine had shot down a Shahed-238 drone equipped with a jet engine. As The Insider later discovered, Russia has purchased American-inspired, Chinese-made Swiwin engines for use in such drones.

In Russia, pro-war bloggers are grumbling (albeit cautiously), and society at large is showing increasing signs of war fatigue . While few are predicting an imminent end to Putin’s war in Ukraine, Russian history demonstrates that failed military campaigns can cause even the most devoted supporters of the country’s leadership to lose their loyalty — most notably in 1905, when Russia’s defeat in the Russo-Japanese War turned staunch supporters of the autocracy away from the tsarist government.

In the parliamentary elections in the Netherlands, the best results were shown by the left-liberal party “Democrats 66” (D66) of Rob Jetten and the far-right Freedom Party of Geert Wilders. According to Reuters, after counting 98% of the votes, they receive 26 mandates each (there are 150 seats in the lower house of the Dutch parliament). Compared to the previous elections held in November 2023, D66 significantly improved its result, almost tripling the number of seats.

A German court has sentenced the main defendant in a high-profile espionage case to six years in prison for spying and planning sabotage operations on behalf of Russian intelligence, according to a report by Deutsche Welle . Two co-defendants received suspended sentences. The Higher Regional Court of Munich found Dieter S. guilty of working for Russian security services and preparing attacks on military infrastructure in Germany.

In the district council of Vorpommern-Greifswald (a region that is part of the federal state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern), the Christian Democratic Union faction voted in favor of the proposal of the far-right Alternative for Germany party. NDR reports this.

Five new suspects have been arrested in connection with the Louvre robbery, French radio station RTL reports . Law enforcement sources said that they were all detained simultaneously on the evening of October 29 in different areas of Paris. The prosecutor's office said yesterday that two previously arrested suspects "partially confessed" to the robbery.

The Swiss Gunvor Group, founded by Russian oligarch Gennady Timchenko and his Swedish partner Thorbjörn Törnqvist, sent Lukoil an offer to purchase LUKOIL International GmbH, through which the Russian oil giant manages its foreign assets. The deal is being prepared against the backdrop of US sanctions against Lukoil. The Russian company agreed to the deal and pledged not to negotiate with other potential buyers, the press service reported .

A Russian serviceman was detained in the Belgorod region and is suspected of murder and rape, reports the regional department of the Investigative Committee. According to investigators, private Alexey Kostrikin entered a private house in the border village of Novaya Tavolzhanka, killed the man who lived there and raped his wife. “In a matter of hours, Kostrikin’s whereabouts were established.

North Korean men's participation in compulsory community service has increased markedly in recent years, demonstrating how the country's long-standing patriarchal customs are beginning to crumble amid a worsening economic situation, Daily NK writes . A publication source in Yangangdo province said that previously only one-eighth of public works participants were men, but now it is one in four.

A group of deputies introduced a bill to the State Duma introducing an annual quota of 25% until 2033 of the total number of registered taxis for self-employed taxi drivers working on cars that do not meet the requirements for localization of production, which should come into force on March 1, 2026. The text of the bill has already been posted in the State Duma database.

Switzerland’s Gunvor Group, founded by Russian oligarch Gennady Timchenko and his Swedish partner Torbjörn Törnqvist, has submitted an offer to Lukoil to acquire LUKOIL International GmbH, the company through which the Russian oil giant manages its foreign assets. The deal is being prepared against the backdrop of U.S. sanctions announced against Lukoil on Oct. 22. The Russian company has accepted the offer and pledged not to hold talks with other potential buyers, its press service said .

When major chatbots are asked questions about Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, nearly one in five answers include references to Russian state-controlled outlets — including media banned in the European Union — new research from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) has found. Researchers tested ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok, and DeepSeek, analyzing how they responded to 300 prompts written in English, Spanish, French, German, and Italian.

For the second day in a row, the Russian authorities are inviting some foreign journalists to Pokrovsk, where the Ukrainian military is allegedly surrounded, and spreading the narrative that the Ministry of Defense will provide them with safe passage. However, in reality there is not a single evidence of any surroundings, although the situation on the spot is indeed critical.

Contents 1. Musicians online and in the street 2. Viral tracks and growing support on social media Доступно на русском Russian street singer Diana Loginova — better known by her stage name Naoko — has been arrested yet again, this time receiving two consecutive 13-day sentences. One charge accuses her of “organizing the mass presence of citizens in public places,” a common pretext used by authorities to punish participation in unsanctioned gatherings.

Russian military aircraft have resumed flights to Khmeimim airbase after a nearly six-month break, Bloomberg writes . According to the flight tracking service Flightradar24, the An-124-100 Ruslan heavy military transport aircraft landed three times at a base in Syrian Latakia between October 24 and October 29. In addition, on October 26, the Il-62M arrived from Libya to Syria, and then went to the Moscow region.