The British government has secretly delivered another batch of Storm Shadow cruise missiles to Ukraine so that Kiev can continue its attacks on targets in Russia before winter sets in, Bloomberg reported, citing sources. On the night of November 3, Ukrainian defense forces struck the Saratov refinery in Russia.
15:02 Belgian Defense Minister Theo Francken on Monday described a series of unidentified drone flights near the Kleine Brogel air base as part of an espionage operation. The base houses American nuclear weapons. TASR reports on this based on an article by the AP agency.
Francken confirmed that over the weekend, drones arrived in the area near the base in northeastern Belgium in two phases - on Saturday and Sunday evening.
In the first phase,"small drones tested the radio frequencies of Belgian security forces" and in the second phase,"large drones arrived with the aim of destabilizing the area and the people," Francken told RTBF television station.
"It looks like an espionage operation. I don't know who is behind it. We have some ideas, but I would be careful with speculation," said Francken. A month ago, several drones flew over a Belgian military base near the German border. Their operators could not be identified with certainty. Francken ruled out that the drone flights over the weekend could have been a prank.
"The security forces' jammer didn't work because they tested our radio frequency and changed the frequency. They have their own frequencies. An amateur wouldn't be able to do that," Francken said. Asked if the drones could not be shot down, he replied:"If they are over a military base, we can shoot them down. If they are nearby, we have to be very careful because they can fall on a house, a car or a person. That is a completely different situation." According to him, Belgium is not prepared for the threat posed by drones.
"We should have purchased air defense systems that can deal with drones five or ten years ago," he added.
14:48 Russian authorities in the Moscow region arrested an activist a few days ago on suspicion of child trafficking, who also took in minor Russians who were taken away after the capture of Mariupol, Ukraine. The BBC Russian service reports this. Irina Rudnitskaya is currently in the care of one girl from Mariupol.
The arrest of this psychologist, who is the head of the Association of Surrogate Families in the Moscow Region, was reported by the Russian state agency TASS. Apart from the fact that she is suspected of child trafficking and faces up to ten years in prison, she did not disclose details of her case. Rudnická's lawyer requested that she not have to spend her time in prison, but the court rejected this. In addition to her, several other people were arrested.
The Vjorstka server wrote about Rudnická that in the past she was described as a"fellow fighter" of the Russian Commissioner for Children's Rights Maria Lvov-Belova, for whom the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant in March 2023.
Rudnická is in charge of 12 children and teenagers aged between three and 17, including a girl taken from Mariupol in 2022, the BBC reports. She also previously had a Ukrainian orphan, Bohdan Yermochyn, who was deported from Mariupol by the Russians when he was 17. The authorities granted him Russian citizenship, but he also retained his Ukrainian citizenship. He had repeatedly said he wanted to return to Ukraine, where he had an adult sister, and even tried unsuccessfully to flee to his homeland via Belarus. His case became more widely known when he was summoned to a military commission in Russia to report for military service. He returned to Ukraine in November 2023.
14:36 The British government recently secretly delivered another shipment of Storm Shadow cruise missiles to Ukraine so that Kiev can continue attacks on targets in Russia before winter sets in. This was reported by the Bloomberg agency, citing its sources.
"The delivery of missiles was made to ensure that Ukraine has sufficient supplies ahead of the winter months, during which the British government believes the Kremlin may intensify attacks on Ukrainian civilians," the article states.
The specific number of missiles delivered was not disclosed, but Bloomberg emphasizes that the UK and its allies are trying to send a clear signal to Vladimir Putin that Western support for Ukraine will outweigh the ability of the Russian economy to sustain the war effort.
Storm Shadow in action: Russian Black Sea Fleet headquarters in ruins
14:12 Ukrainian families in the Transcarpathian region are sending their children to Hungarian schools in order to receive financial support of up to tens of thousands of hryvnias from the association supporting the Hungarian minority, regional parliament member Roland Ceber said today. According to the Interfax-Ukraine agency, he warned of the threat of children becoming Hungarian. The Hungarian minority living in western Ukraine has long been a bone of contention between Kiev and Budapest.
"A farmer who has ten hectares submits a written request that he needs agricultural machinery to cultivate the fields and receives a tractor or a cash grant. Ukrainian families who send their children to schools with instruction in the Hungarian language receive financial support of up to 30,000 hryvnias and school supplies. When times are tough in Ukraine, when the father is at the front or the family lives in poverty, the child is sent to a Hungarian school for support. But it's not just about education, but also about gradual integration into a different cultural environment," Ceber told the agency.
The Hungarian minority in the Transcarpathian region has all the opportunities for its development, preservation of its identity and involvement in Ukrainian politics, the Ukrainian politician claimed. According to him, it is appropriate to ask whether the Ukrainian diaspora living in Hungary has the same opportunities, whether dozens of Ukrainian schools are operating there and whether Ukrainians have their representatives in Hungarian politics."The answer is no!" he emphasized.
According to Ceber, the Hungarian government's complaints that the Ukrainian authorities are violating the rights of the Hungarian minority can be satisfied very easily - it would be enough for Budapest to stop opposing Ukraine's accession to the European Union, but instead support it."Ukraine's accession to the EU is not only about geopolitics, but it is also a guarantee of the protection of the rights of national minorities," he said. At the same time, he concluded that the Hungarian complaints and accusations have no basis in reality.
The association that pays the support and unites Hungarians living in Ukraine is, according to the MP, connected to the government of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and the Prime Minister's Fidesz party. Ukrainian Hungarians are represented in regional, city and village authorities, have their own schools and kindergartens, and cultural centers, Ceber recalled. According to him, the majority of Ukrainian Hungarians are normal people who long for a normal life, and the"revisionists" who long for the region to be annexed to Hungary are rather an exception.
"I am a Hungarian politician from Zakarpattia, not a Ukrainian James Bond," Ceber himself explained to the Hungarian media when he faced accusations in Hungary in the summer that he was a Ukrainian spy. The Hungarian media described him as a Ukrainian politician.
13:27 Authorities in Latvia have detained another citizen of an EU and NATO member state suspected of spying for Russia, the DPA agency reported on Monday, TASR reports.
A statement released by the Latvian State Security Service (VDD) on Monday said the detained person is accused of collecting information about the Latvian defense sector for the Russian military intelligence service (GRU). The alleged activities included gathering details about private aviation infrastructure and the presence of NATO troops in Latvia.
Further information about the suspect has not been released. A detailed examination of the data carriers seized during the search of his apartment is currently underway. The suspect was taken into custody as part of security measures.
The Baltic News Network (BNN) reported on Monday that the suspect was detained as a result of a joint operation by the VDD and the Military Intelligence and Security Service (MIDD). The arrest took place in mid-October and was immediately followed by charges of espionage for Russia.
12:13 Police in Gdynia, Poland, have detained a man who repeatedly posted anti-Ukrainian and anti-Israeli videos on social media. Police in the Pomeranian Voivodeship reported this. The 44-year-old streamer is suspected, among other things, of violating the law prohibiting support and promotion of Russian military aggression against Ukraine.
Police detained a man, identified by Polish media as Paweł N., who goes by the nickname Nazar, on Friday during a roadside check. His behavior raised suspicions and tests showed that he had taken several narcotics. Police accused him of spreading content inciting national and religious hatred or promoting symbols supporting the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
According to the fakt.pl server, the police detained Paweł N. while he was broadcasting live on the Internet. Other media outlets report that he is a man who has been tearing down Ukrainian flags from buildings in Gdynia and its surroundings and replacing them with Polish ones. He is responsible for the attack on a Ukrainian restaurant or the assault on a woman who was displaying Ukrainian flags. His videos on social networks are full of anti-Semitic and xenophobic content, and he speaks of Ukrainians as a threat to Poland, Gazeta Wyborcza wrote about"Nazar".
Sześć zarzutów dla 44-latka- groźby, mowa nienawiści, propagowanie przemocy
— PomorskaPolicja (@PomorskaPolicja) November 3, 2025
Policjanci from Komenda Miejskiej Policji w Gdynia zatrzymali 44-letniego mężczyńę dopezzanego o popełnienie szeregu przeżby. pic.twitter.com/Y8drKAlWQV
11:17 Russian troops are making intensive efforts to capture Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine. They have already penetrated practically all the city districts, but it is not yet possible to speak of complete control over the city, the Unian agency reported on Monday, November 3, citing one of the Ukrainian defenders of this strategic location – a soldier of the 68th separate brigade, known only by the call sign Hus. According to him, the city has turned into a"gray zone", that is, a no-man's land.
10:51 Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán harshly criticized the European Union on Facebook on Monday for its plans to finance Ukraine. He recalled an analysis by The Economist weekly, according to which Ukraine would need 400 billion USD (346 billion euros) in the coming four years, which Brussels says would be paid by Europe, reports a TASR correspondent in Budapest.
"Weapons, reconstruction, pensions, salaries - and the bill would be on Europe. There were no other fools who would join in," Orbán wrote. According to him, this is the reason for Brussels' nervousness and that is why it wants to reach for frozen Russian assets, that is why it wants to reform the EU subsidy system and take out new loans. However, Hungary refuses this, it has no reason to finance Ukraine either politically, economically or morally, Orbán emphasized.
"We are not alone in Europe (in this), but we are the most open. That is why they are constantly attacking from Brussels. They need an obedient government with a European Public Prosecutor's Office, an economic policy in line with the EU, Brussels experts and an installed prime minister," he added.
10:40 Two North Korean soldiers captured by Ukrainian forces in January in Russia's Kursk region have requested to be transferred to South Korea. The South Korean human rights group Gyeore-eol Nation United told AFP on Sunday. The prisoners made their request during an interview for a documentary film produced by Gyeore-eol Nation United. The interview took place on October 28 at an undisclosed location in Kiev where the two prisoners of war are being held.
"They asked the journalist to promise to come back for them and take them to South Korea," said Gyeore-eol Nation United head Jang Se-yul, who is a North Korean defector.
Under South Korea's constitution, all Koreans, including those in the North, are considered citizens of the Republic of Korea, and Seoul has said that rule also applies to soldiers captured in Ukraine. The interview will be released in the coming weeks, Jang Se-yul said.
North Korean soldiers are ordered to commit suicide if they are captured, South Korean intelligence has said. A South Korean lawmaker who met with the two captives said they witnessed their wounded comrades commit suicide with grenades. He added that if the soldiers return to North Korea, it will be “essentially a death sentence.”
One of the two North Korean soldiers captured by Ukrainians has confirmed heavy losses among his compatriots fighting alongside the Russian army against Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky posted a video of the next part of his interrogation on Twitter.
10:33 On the night of November 3, units of the Ukrainian Defense Forces on Russian territory struck the Saratov refinery, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported. They recorded a strike on the facility and a fire in the area of the ELOU AVT-6 oil processing complex.
The Saratov Refinery is one of the oldest oil processing plants in Russia. As of 2023, its processing capacity will reach 4.8 million tons per year. The enterprise is involved in supplying the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, the UNIAN agency recalls.
The General Staff also reported that strikes were carried out on the occupiers' logistical facilities in the occupied Luhansk region.
"We struck a warehouse of material and technical resources in the village of Rozkišne and a mobile supply convoy with fuel and lubricants in Dovžansko. The Defense Forces are systematically implementing a set of measures aimed at eliminating critical elements of the military-industrial base of the terrorist state with the aim of depriving it of the ability to continue its aggression," the statement said.
“Oh, I'm so scared, f*ck.” Residents of Saratov spent the night filming explosions instead of sleeping
Preliminarily, the local oil refinery came under attack. 2025
9:35 A Russian Border Guard Service (FSB) boat flying the flag of the mercenary Wagner Group was spotted on the Narva River, which forms the natural border between Estonia and Russia.
8:30 One person was killed in a Russian drone attack in the Sumy region of Ukraine overnight, authorities in the region bordering Russia reported today, according to the Ukrainska Pravda server. The Ukrainian side also reports damage from the Mykolaiv and Dnepropetrovsk regions. According to various Telegram channels, the Ukrainian army has launched an attack on a refinery in Saratov, Russia.
According to the head of the Sumy region's military administration, Oleh Hryhorov, Russian drones attacked the area around the village of Trostyanets in the southeastern part of the region."The Russians cynically attacked people - targeted, at night, while they were sleeping," Hryhorov said. One person died and a search and rescue operation continued at the scene in the morning.
Russian drones also attacked the Mykolaiv region in southern Ukraine overnight, and the head of its military administration, Vitaly Kim, reported that a supermarket in Mykolaiv was set on fire and parts of a car repair shop were damaged. No one was injured. In 12 villages in the region, which is partially occupied by Russia, electricity was cut off after the drone attack, but supplies were later restored.
This morning, Russia fired missiles at Dnipro, the head of the regional council, Mykola Lukashuk, said on Facebook. Damage was caused to the premises of an unspecified company and one person was injured. On Sunday evening and overnight, the Russian army fired artillery at Nikopol and its surroundings, Lukashuk also said, adding that no one was hurt.
According to the Astra Telegram channel, residents of Saratov in southwestern Russia reported hearing explosions at night. The target of the attack was a refinery, Astra reports. Although the plant is protected by an anti-drone network, a fire broke out in its western part, apparently near the tanks. The Russian-language BBC service writes that the plant is one of the oldest in Russia and was last attacked by the Ukrainian army on October 16.
Russian authorities did not report the Saratov refinery's intervention, but the airport there temporarily suspended operations, which usually happens at a time when drone attacks are threatened, the BBC notes.
Over the Saratov region, Russian air defenses neutralized 29 drones out of a total of 64, the Defense Ministry in Moscow announced.
6:30 At least two people died on Sunday as a result of Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities in the Dnipropetrovsk and Kherson regions.
The head of the regional military administration in the Dnipropetrovsk region, Vladyslav Haivanenko, said on the Telegram social network that a 55-year-old man was killed and three other civilians, including an eight-year-old girl, were injured in a drone strike in the city of Pavlohrad. Several houses were also damaged as a result of the attacks.
Kherson region governor Oleksandr Prokudin reported the death of a woman in a Russian artillery attack, while another 82-year-old woman was seriously injured. According to the Ukrainian news agency UNIAN, at least seven other people were injured in the region during the day.
6:20 The airport in the German city of Bremen had to temporarily suspend its operations on Sunday evening after an unidentified drone was spotted in its vicinity.
Police said they spotted an unidentified drone near the airport around 7:30 p.m. and immediately suspended all departures and arrivals. Normal operations resumed at 8:22 p.m.
It was not immediately clear who was flying the drone. According to local news website buten un binnen, one flight from London had to be diverted to Hamburg airport and one flight to London was delayed due to the restrictions.
On Friday, Berlin's international airport was closed after a drone was spotted. There have been several similar incidents in Germany and other European countries in recent months. In early October, drones disrupted operations at Germany's second-largest airport in Munich.
Drone flights are prohibited within 1.5 kilometers of airports in Germany to prevent collisions during departures and arrivals. The sighting of an unknown drone can lead to a partial or complete suspension of operations. Unauthorized flights near airports are considered a dangerous disruption to civil aviation and can be severely punished.
6:00 US President Donald Trump has ruled out providing Ukraine with the long-range Tomahawk missiles that Kiev has been requesting. Trump told reporters on board the presidential plane on Sunday, according to news agencies. The Pentagon approved the deliveries a few days ago, according to CNN, but Trump has the final say. Moscow has warned against deploying missiles capable of destroying targets deep in Russia's interior.
"No, not at all," Trump replied to a journalist's question about whether he was considering delivering Tomahawks to Ukraine.
Washington has been negotiating with Kiev for the requested weapons for a long time, with President Volodymyr Zelensky requesting the missiles during his October visit to the White House. Trump had previously said it was necessary to check whether the delivery to Ukraine would endanger supplies for the US military. The American television station CNN reported on Friday that the Pentagon had given the green light to the provision of Tomahawks to Ukraine, having assessed that the deliveries would not have a negative impact on the US stockpile of these weapons.
But Washington has already received several warnings from Russia. Trump initially promised Ukraine the Tomahawks in principle in early October, but later, after a phone call with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, indicated that he was no longer considering providing the missiles to Kiev, saying it could lead to escalation. Putin later said that attacks against targets deep inside Russian territory using Tomahawks or other long-range weapons would trigger a response he described as overwhelming.
"Western sanctions and Ukrainian attacks on Russian military targets have so far failed to deter Russia from continuing its military invasion of Ukraine. Now that the Pentagon has announced that potential deliveries of Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine would not harm current US stockpiles, Putin and Zelensky will be eagerly awaiting Trump's decision on these long-range missile deliveries. The upcoming outcome of Trump's second review and decision on Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine, after the Pentagon's new approval, will not only affect the future of the Russo-Ukrainian war, but will also signal how the US will continue to engage in the effort to achieve peace between Russia and Ukraine," said the American magazine Forbes.
5:55 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that the country has more Patriot systems and thanked Germany.
"Today we can already say that we have achieved a good result for our air defense - Ukraine now has more Patriot systems. Thank you to Chancellor Merz, thank you to Germany and everyone who is helping - our agreements have been fulfilled. Ukraine now has more Patriot systems and they are being put into operation. Of course, more systems are needed to protect key infrastructure facilities and our cities throughout Ukraine, and we will continue to work on their acquisition - not only at the political level with states and their leaders, but also directly with the manufacturers of all the necessary air defense systems and missiles for them.
