The European Commission declined to comment on reported disruption to Starlink’s services in Ukraine, but said there are “no indication that [US] intelligence sharing has stopped.”
Repeatedly asked about the issue, the commission spokespeople said they were “aware of the report” on Starlink, but declined to comment “until we have more information.”
“[It is] important also to say that we have no indications that, intelligence sharing has stopped,” the chief spokesperson, Paula Pinho, said.
Andy Burnham will host Volodymyr Zelenskyy at Downing Street on Wednesday as the UK seeks to further underline its support for the Ukrainian president, in contrast to his difficulties with Donald Trump.
The UK prime minister said his message to Zelenskyy and his country would be: “We are with you for as long as it takes.”
To coincide with the visit, the UK has said it will move more rapidly in providing Ukraine with British-made lightweight multi-role missiles (LMMs) to help protect it from attacks by a new generation of Russian jet-powered drones.
In parallel, Burnham and his ministers will push for a full international maritime services ban on exports of Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG).
The pair have already met twice since Burnham took office in July, when Zelenskyy visited a naval base in Portsmouth in the same month and when Burnham travelled to Kyiv in August.
Zelenskyy’s latest visit comes as Ukraine faces increased Russian missile and drone attacks, and after Donald Trump made a deal to buy Russian diesel, called for Ukraine to have a new leader, and announced a supposed ceasefire connected to energy infrastructure that the Ukrainian president said “was news to him”.
UK prime minister Andy Burnham said he will seek to “repair bridges” between US president Donald Trump and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy amid strained ties between the pair, AFP reported.
Burnham made the comments before he was due to welcome Zelensky to his official Downing Street residence, in a show of support for Ukraine’s president after new criticism by Trump.
“What I have to do in my role is try and repair bridges so that the support comes back,” Burnham told the British parliament.
“Therefore I should, at this moment in time, be careful in terms of laying the ground to bring people back together. That is the role I intend to play.”
The pair is expected to meet this afternoon, and the Ukrainian president is also expected to meet King Charles III.
Interestingly, Zelenskyy departed for London from the Polish city in Rzeszów reverting to flying from Poland after months of flying from Moldova’s Chișinău during a period of strained relations with Poland over history.
In pretty pointed remarks against the surging far-right Alternative fur Deutschland, Merz also recalls the opening line from the 1950 Schuman declaration, which said:
“World peace cannot be safeguarded without the making of creative efforts proportionate to the dangers which threaten it.”
Adapting it to today’s Germany and Europe, Merz urges parties to recommit to that “creative effort” and not “a scornful desire for disintegration, a delight in division, or exclusion or fear of others.”
“We must summon that effort and we will – not least in the face of the extremism that has always been a part of our society and is now surging with full force into this parliament, into state parliaments, and into the everyday life of our country.”
He acknowledges that “this extremism … has roots in legitimate dissatisfaction and legitimate feelings of injustices,” but insists it would not resolve any of the people’s problems.
And on that note, he ends the statement.
Over in Berlin, Germany’s embattled chancellor Friedrich Merz is addressing the Bundestag, talking about his government’s plan of reforms, his plans for this week’s EU summit in Brussels and Ukraine.
He warns lawmakers that Germany faces “a time of upheaval, with crises and wars, some of which lie beyond our control.”
Merz repeats his key lines on the much-needed investment in Germany’s defence capabilities, and doubles down on his support for Ukraine.
He dismisses any suggestion that Germany’s support for Ukraine comes at an expense of social and welfare spending.
“This is simply not a case. Not a single euro flowing to Ukraine is being diverted from social or educational spending in our own country. Not a single euro,” he said.
Merz warns that “the danger is very real and concrete,” as Russia continues to show “willigness to escalate: against Ukraine, against our eastern European neighbours, and indeed against our own country.”
“Against this backdrop … it is incomprehensible to me how those on the far left and far right continue to play down the situation,” he said.
He says some comments were almost “deliberately driving the division … and disinformation” to “derivse partisan, political advantages from it.”
Turning to this week’s EU summit, Merz says the discussions will focus on the next EU budget with “negotiations now entering a decisive phase.”
He stresses Germany’s priorities of security and competitiveness, with a call to “further cut back EU bureaucracy and accelerate approval processes to boost and enable investment across Europe,” particularly in decarbonisation, AI and defence.
He also talks about the importance of a new legal regime for pan-European startups, advancing the EU’s capital markets union, and on developing new trade relationships with global partners while reducing “one-sided dependencies” with existing partners.
“We will no longer stand idly by while other states harm our economy through heavy subsidies, artificially devalued currencies, overcapacity, and aggressive pricing. We will not stand idly by any longer.”
(Yep, he probably means China.)
His comments come ahead of his planned trips to Japan, South Korea and Singapore.
He says the European Council will discuss creating “a new trade defence instrument” to respond “swiftly and forcefully to targeted attacks on our industries and supply chains.”
“These decisions would, among other things, provide the European Commission with a tool to react rapidly without needing to consult the European Council first. The European Council, for its part, would then have the power to reverse such a move by a qualified majority. This makes us faster and more effective, and gives the Commission a powerful tool.”
Over in Germany, we have an update on the Nord Stream trial which began in Hamburg earlier today (10:43).
Defence lawyers for a former Ukrainian army officer charged with damaging the Nord Stream gas pipelines in blasts four years ago have called for the dismissal of charges in the first day of his trial.
Moving to have the case dismissed, Serhii Kuznetsov’s lawyer Nicola Canestrini argued that the pipeline — which provided half of Germany’s imports of natural gas before Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine — was a “Russian weapon” and therefore potentially a legitimate target, Reuters reported.
“Is it unlawful to destroy an aggressor’s infrastructure without harming any human beings?”
Kuznietsov’s lawyers also argued that he was still an active duty solider an as such was obligated by Ukrainian law not to speak about anything during his service for reasons of secrecy linked to national security, AP reported.
Protesters gathered outside the Hamburg court in support of the defendant, with a sign that read: “What are war crimes?”
“Russia is the only war criminal that belongs in the dock,” said one of the dozens of protesters.
The trial continues.
In the Bulgarian parliament, prime minister Rumen Radev has said that Russia was most likely behind drone attacks in the Black Sea that sank two ships, but that “we cannot prove it”.
AP quotes Radev saying “There is no logic in Ukraine attacking its own ships and crews, given that the outcome of all these attacks favours Russia, and indeed, the logic points in that direction. The problem is that we cannot prove it.”
The Russian ambassador to Bulgaria was summoned yesterday over the issue, and Bulgarian president Iliana Yotova has called for an immediate halt to hostilities in the Black Sea and a moratorium on drone attacks against commercial and civilian infrastructure.
Bulgaria is investigating a report that several antennas used for communication with the Starlink satellite network were deliberately set on fire, prime minister Rumen Radev has said.
“The investigation is extremely intensive. We are working with partner services to successfully carry out this operation,” AFP reports Radev said in parliament, without confirming or denying the claim.
A Bulgarian opposition MP has claimed 11 telecommunications antennas linked to the Starlink network were set on fire over the weekend “at a secret facility near Sofia”.
A spokesperson for the Sofia prosecutor’s office confirmed to AFP that an investigation was under way but said no one has been charged.
A fire broke out at a Starlink satellite communications station in central Poland in September, with the country’s digital affairs minister calling the blaze an act of “sabotage” and prime minister Donald Tusk describing it as an “act of hybrid warfare”.
Germany’s foreign minister, Johann Wadephul, has said his country has not observed a substantial reduction in US support for Ukraine, and does not expect to. The statement comes amid the US and Russia having secured a diesel supply deal, and reports that Elon Musk’s Starlink service has been reduced for Ukrainian forces.
Moscow has said that the US-Russia deal over diesel “will open other opportunities as well”.
Reuters reports Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev said Moscow would overcome any sanctions-related difficulties to ensure the diesel supplies were delivered, and that the deal could pave the way for further economic cooperation between the two nations.
Reuters, citing local media, reports that Bulgaria expects to join a Nato anti-drone initiative by the end of October. The news comes a day after a drone attack sank a cargo vessel off the country’s Black Sea coast for the second time in a week.
Defence minister Dimitar Stoyanov said “Bulgaria will be part of this project as soon as possible. Expectations are that by 30 October, we will already be part of the project.”
And Reuters is reporting that shares in European satellite operator Eutelsat rose sharply on Wednesday after Ukraine said SpaceX’s Starlink had introduced restrictions on its military-grade service, fuelling investor bets that European providers could benefit from growing strains between Washington and Kyiv.
Eutelsat shares were up 11.6% by late morning, while Luxembourg-based rival SES, which also provides satellite connectivity services, gained 2.7%.
The European Commission declined to comment on reported disruption to Starlink’s services in Ukraine, but said there are “no indication that [US] intelligence sharing has stopped.”
Repeatedly asked about the issue, the commission spokespeople said they were “aware of the report” on Starlink, but declined to comment “until we have more information.”
“[It is] important also to say that we have no indications that, intelligence sharing has stopped,” the chief spokesperson, Paula Pinho, said.
The European Commission has warned that the EU is “headed for a very, very difficult winter” with high energy prices expected to cause an affordability crisis and “a very volatile” in the energy markets.
The warning was delivered by the EU’s energy spokesperson Anna-Kaisa Itkonen when answering questions about proposed changes adding flexibility to rules on methane imports to help save costs.
She stressed the EU was “not facing a security supply issue for the time being,” but it faced a “very unpredictable” situation in the coming months.
“We do not have visibility, for example, what and when something will happen in the Strait of Hormuz, where 20% of gas and oil is being blocked since many, many months,” she said.
The commission’s chief spokesperson, Paula Pinho, added that the changes are needed as “we could not anticipate that we would have a crisis in the Strait of Hormuz,” which continues to affect prices and supply of energy.
This summer in Germany, Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) booked a historic state election victory in Saxony-Anhalt. Meanwhile, support for far-right parties has been growing across Europe.
There are now radical right, populist parties in coalition governments in Croatia, Czechia, Italy and Finland, and leading in the polls in Austria, Belgium, France and Germany.
The coming months will see further crucial elections, beginning in Spain in November and continuing in France, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Slovakia, Poland and Italy next year. How might these elections shape the political future of the continent?
Jon Henley and Ashifa Kassam, our European correspondents, will be answering your questions live on Reddit r/geopolitics from 4pm CEST.
Drop them a question here.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: theguardian.com
