Ukraine’s Power Scandal: “The Rot Runs Deep”
As 430 drones and missiles rained down on Kyiv - killing four, injuring dozens, and even striking the Azerbaijani embassy — Ukraine reels from a corruption scandal that’s eroding trust at home
Live on CNN from Asia, I unpack one of the most explosive scandals to hit Ukraine since the full-scale invasion began. As rolling blackouts deepen and missiles pound the grid, allegations now suggest that more than $100 million meant to protect power plants — including nuclear facilities — was siphoned away.
At least four people were killed after Russia launched a massive combined attack on Kyiv early on Friday, sparking fires and damaging residential buildings across many districts of the capital, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. Klitschko added that more information was still being gathered about the victims as rescue workers were unable to retrieve two bodies from the rubble. At least 27 people were injured as emergency crews responded to multiple strikes, according to officials. In all, Russia fired 430 drones and 18 missiles. The Embassy of Azerbaijan in Kyiv sustained damage from falling debris.
Political pressure is mounting on Belgium to lift its reservations and agree to a bold plan to issue an unprecedented reparations loan for Ukraine using the Russian frozen assets. The proposal would see a €140 billion loan issued as the main financing vehicle to fund Ukraine’s military and budget needs for the next two years. The idea is groundbreaking and support for it is intensifying after the European Commission and finance ministers praised its merits as the best option available. Valdis Dombrovskis, the European Commissioner for the Economy, said the unprecedented plan would secure Ukraine’s funding without “placing additional burden” on member states with limited fiscal capacity. Ukraine will need a fresh injection of foreign aid in the second quarter of 2026. Still, Belgium has not signaled it will sign off the plan any time soon. As the host of Euroclear, the depository that houses the immobilised Russian assets, the country fears it would be the prime target of the Kremlin’s retaliation. Belgium and Russia are bound by a Soviet-era investment treaty that foresees arbitration - Euronews
Russia’s military isn’t just targeting Ukrainian drones; it’s going after their pilots, too. An elite unit called Rubikon has made it its mission to track, hunt, and kill Ukraine’s drone operators, who have emerged as a scrappy and effective force in Kyiv’s war effort. “It’s easy to replace a drone, but it’s hard to replace a drone pilot,” one Ukrainian rapper-turned-operator said. It marks a “chilling reversal on the digital battlefield,” the Financial Times wrote, and suggests Russia’s typically sclerotic military is finding ways to innovate as the war approaches its fourth anniversary. “It’s a cat-and-mouse game with physics as the umpire,” an electronic warfare expert said - Semafor
More than 1,400 citizens of 36 African states - including Uganda, Kenya, Togo and South Africa - are currently fighting for Russia, according to Ukraine’s foreign ministry. There has been a flood of mercenaries over the past year; most don’t survive more than a month. Active duty servicemen in Africa are targeted by Russian recruiting entities and are promised salaries up to 10 times what they can earn at home, Russian passports, and sign-up bonuses upwards of $2,000. Watch a PBS The Newshour report on this subject here
The BBC apologized to Donald Trump on Thursday for a selective edit of his speech on Jan. 6, 2021, but argued the president’s legal threats toward the network don’t rise to the level of a defamation lawsuit. Trump’s legal team sent the BBC a letter earlier this week demanding it retract any “false, defamatory, disparaging, and inflammatory statements” about the president from a 2024 documentary by Friday, or face a $1 billion lawsuit. In a statement posted by the BBC on Thursday, the network said its chair, Samir Shah, had sent a personal letter to the White House apologizing for the edit and that the network has “no plans” to rebroadcast the program. “While the BBC sincerely regrets the manner in which the video clip was edited, we strongly disagree there is a basis for a defamation claim,” an unnamed spokesperson wrote in the statement. The White House deferred a request for comment to Trump’s outside counsel. Alejandro Brito, the attorney who sent Trump’s demands, did not immediately respond to a request for comment - Politico
BBC Newsnight also doctored footage of a Donald Trump speech and ignored concerns that were raised about it, according to The Telegraph. Spliced footage of the speech. The clip aired on Newsnight in 2022, and a guest on the live programme challenged the way it had been cut together. In response to Thursday’s story in the Telegraph, a BBC spokesperson said: “The BBC holds itself to the highest editorial standards. This matter has been brought to our attention and we are now looking into it.” A spokesman for Trump’s legal team told The Telegraph it was “now clear that BBC engaged in a pattern of defamation against President Trump”.
The European Parliament has agreed to roll back corporate sustainability reporting rules, after center-right lawmakers teamed up with the far right. It marked the first time the legislative body has sent a major proposal to final EU negotiations because of such an alliance, showing a willingness from Europe’s leading conservative politicians to abandon their traditional centrist partners in service of an aggressive deregulation agenda, Politico EU wrote. The bill, which scraps companies’ mandatory climate transition plans, is the first landmark legislation under European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s second term; she is pursuing a “simplification” agenda aimed at improving the bloc’s business environment and innovation. One academic criticized the vote as a “self-inflicted wound that will define our era.” - Euronews
JD Vance has revealed Donald Trump’s extreme nocturnal demands for White House staff traveling with him. The vice president, 41, and the president, 79 do not fly together to minimize the risk of an accident that could incapacitate both of them. Speaking on Hannity on Thursday, Vance said other members of the Trump administration are jealous of the specific travel arrangements exclusive to his job. “They are always like, ‘You’re so lucky because if we go on a 20-hour trip somewhere, he does not sleep the entire time,’” Vance said, without naming his colleagues. “And of course if he’s not sleeping, if he’s working, he expects everybody else to be working too.” MAGA-friendly host Sean Hannity added his own memories of going on a destination golf trip with Trump. “Seventeen hours there, 17 hours back, and he’s awake the whole time,” Hannity bragged. “And he expects you to be awake!” - The Daily Beast
A controversial 2pm to 5pm alcohol sales ban, apparently aimed in part at Russian drinkers, is set to be terminated by the Thai Government. Thailand is struggling to boost tourism numbers after cancellations by Chinese tourists and a weakening global economy. A 15-day consultation period will be held before the decision is enacted, The Bangkok Post reported. It is not clear whether any adjustments will be made to the ban on alcohol sales from midnight to 11am. Signs posted at 7-11 and other popular alcohol sales points appear in English, Thai and Russia. However, the deputy prime minister said the afternoon sales ban was originally introduced decades ago to stop civil servants from imbibing during the afternoon. “That era is over. No civil servant today spends their afternoon drinking. It is an outdated measure that should be abolished,” Sophon Zarun said.
The journals….
