Vladimir Putin greets UN Secretary General António Guterres at the BRICS Summit, Kazan, Russia, October 24, 2024 (AP)

Thursday’s Coverage: Officials — 7 Countries Holding Out v. NATO Invitation to Kyiv

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1411 GMT:

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has turned down the request of António Guterres to visit Ukraine, following the UN Secretary General’s meeting with Vladimir Putin in central Russia.

A “high ranking source close to the Presidential Office” said, “After Kazan, [Guterres] wanted to come to Ukraine, but the President did not confirm his visit. So Guterres won’t be here, specifically because of the humiliation of sanity and international law in Kazan.”

Without naming Guterres, Zelenskiy said on Thursday, “Although even some of its functionaries prefer the temptations in Kazan to the content of the UN Charter, our world is built in such a way that the rights of nations and the norms of international law matter and will matter.”

UPDATE 0908 GMT:

Six civilians were killed and 16 injured by Russian attacks across Ukraine over the past 24 hours.

Five of the fatalities were in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine.

In the neighboring Kharkiv region, a 73-year-old woman was slain and 10 people injured by an air bomb. The strike partially destroyed a two-story commercial building and damaged 12 stalls, a kindergarten, and several residential buildings.

Ukrainian forces downed 36 of 63 attack drones launched by Russia overnight across 12 regions, the Air Force reported. Sixteen more were lost because of electronic counter-measures.

UPDATE 0830 GMT:

Entrepreneur Elon Musk has been in secret, regular contact with Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials since late 2022.

Musk has claimed he talked with Putin only once, about space-related topics in April 2021.

But former and current European, US, and Russian officials told the Wall Street Journal of Musk’s ongoing conversations with Putin and high-ranking Kremlin officials. They include Sergey Kiriyenko, Putin’s First Deputy Chief of Staff, who oversees Russian propaganda and disinformation operations.

Since acquiring Twitter in April 2022, less than two months after Russia’s full invasion of Ukraine, Musk has enabled the spread of disinformation, hate speech, and pro-authoritarian content across the platform.

Musk is a frequent commenter on the platform, using it to oppose the passage of a $60.8 billion US aid package for Ukraine aid bill earlier this year. He proclaimed that “there is no way in hell” that Russia could lose the war.

At the start of the Russian invasion, Musk gave Ukraine free access to his Starlink satellite internet service. However, he cut the supply of further terminals in September 2022 with a demand that the US Government pay for the provision.

An arrangement was reached to continue the supply, but Musk restricted the Ukrainian’s use of Starlink to control drones. Connection speeds reportedly dropped significantly in early 2024, as Russian units began to use Starlink in their offensives.

Putin asked Musk not to activate the Starlink communications system over Taiwan as a favor to China, which claims sovereignty over the island. Starlink is still not operational in Taiwan.

Musk’s contacts with Russia had been a well-kept secret within the US Government because of his access to sensitive information as a major security and technology contractor. SpaceX, which operates Starlink, was awarded a classified $1.8 billion contract in 2021, reportedly to build a network of spy satellites for American intelligence.

But concerns have risen over Russia’s increasing use of Starlink terminals bought via third-party countries, and over Musk’s fervent support for Donald Trump, who is likely to cut US aid to Kyiv if he become President.

Musk did not respond to the WSJ’s request for comment. He has also not mentioned the issue on Twitter, despite posting disinformation and pro-Trump propaganda every few minutes over the past two hours.

UPDATE 0830 GMT:

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has said about Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s call for an invitation for NATO accession, “A country at war absolutely cannot become a member of NATO. Everyone knows that, there is no disagreement on this subject.”

Scholz told national broadcaster ZDF that NATO allies “have described a perspective” on Ukraine’s eventual accession, “but I think that beyond that, there is currently no need for any new decision”.

He implicitly rejected an invitation since it “is normally quite quickly linked to membership”.

Zelensky set the invitation as a priority in the Victory Plan he presented last week to the US and the European Council.

The US and Germany have publicly expressed reservations.

After a meeting with Scholz, President

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of Slovakia said, “We agreed with the Chancellor that today the issue of Ukraine’s accession is not on the table, and it cannot come to the table.”

UPDATE 0619 GMT:

Moldova’s police chief Viorel Cernăuțeanu says Russia spent $39 million trying to change the outcome of Sunday’s Presidential election and referendum on European Union membership.

The Kremlin used sanctioned Ukrainian oligarch Ilan Shor, who now lives in Moscow, in the effort to undermine the ballot.

Moldovans narrowly voted Yes for EU accession. Pro-European President Maia Sandu led the initial round with 42% and will be in a runoff on November 3 against the pro-Russian Alexandr Stoianoglo.

Moldova’s Foreign Ministry said police raids are ongoing over the Russian operations. On Wednesday, authorities said they arrested individuals found with envelopes with cash, intended to bribe voters in 19 districts.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: UN Secretary General António Guterres has met Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in central Russia.

Guterres told Putin that “the Russian invasion of Ukraine was in violation of the United Nations charter and international law”. He called for a “just peace”.

But at a news conference, the Russian leader gave no indication that he would end the 32-month invasion. While proclaiming that the Kremlin was ready to consider any option to end the assault, he said he was proceeding from “reality on the ground”, and was “not ready for anything else”. He repeated his standard diversion that the West was using Ukraine to “create critical threats to Russia’s security”.

Yulia Navalnaya — the wideo of the late Russia opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died in February from abuse and harsh conditions in a Siberian prison — denounced the meeting.

Putin did not deny that he is now using thousands of North Korean troops to bolster the invasion and to counter Ukraine’s control of part of the Kazan region in western Russia.

Asked about photographs showing the transfer of North Korean troops to Russian territory, Putin responded, “Photos are a serious matter. If there are photos, it means they reflect something.” He emphasized that cooperation between Russia and North Korea is an internal matter between the two countries.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol indicated that in response to the North Korean deployment, Seoul may begin military assistance to Kyiv.

Speaking alongside Polish President Andrzej Duda, Yoon said:

If North Korea dispatches special forces to the Ukraine war, we will provide support to Ukraine step by step and consider taking necessary measures for the security of the Korean Peninsula.

We have adhered to a principle of not directly supplying lethal weapons, but we can review this more flexibly depending on North Korean military activities.