23 October 2026

Rukla today entered the first phase of a military infrastructure project financed jointly by Lithuania and Germany. The defence ministry said the work will add maintenance and storage facilities for the Geležinis Vilkas brigade’s artillery and logistics battalions and for a NATO multinational battlegroup. A construction tender is under way, the contractor is due by year-end and this phase is scheduled for completion in 2028.

The Giraitė weapons factory is presenting assembled automatic rifles today. The Kaunas district plant has added new bullet-forming presses in recent months, is expanding output and is waiting for decisions on serial production and state buyers. At Pravieniškės 2 prison, staff heard a drone over the grounds last night and later found a package inside the inner perimeter containing two mobile phones and a SIM card. Lithuania’s prison service is checking who the drop was meant for and how the drone reached the site.

In Vilkaviškis district, a munition found at a home site brought in police and ARO bomb disposal officers, who sealed off the area and are preparing to remove it for destruction or technical assessment. Lithuania will change instalment purchases for some phones from November 20, and unpaid instalments could trigger an IMEI block that leaves a handset unusable on any mobile network. TV3 today revisited the killing of paramedic Mantas Sadauskas: his former wife, Justina Sadauskienė, also known as Gaigalaitė, was initially remanded for two months and that detention was later extended. Investigators in the case have cited allegations including unlawful detention, intentional murder and illegal possession of firearms.

Automatic rifles have begun to be assembled at the Giraitė weapons factory. Makutienė lost her council seat after a fraud conviction and was ordered to pay a large sum.

Explosions hit occupied Luhansk early today, knocking out communications in parts of the city and disrupting power supply. The strike at about 4 a.m. appeared to hit telecoms infrastructure near a communications mast and followed similar strikes on the Lugacom building and a telecoms services centre over the past two days.

Ukraine's General Staff said Russian forces lost 1,830 troops in the previous 24 hours, taking total estimated personnel losses to about 1,574,620. The daily tally also included 54 artillery systems, one multiple-launch rocket system and one air-defence system. Kyiv had reported an even higher one-day toll yesterday of 2,250 troops, along with 269 clashes across the front in the previous day.

Ukraine's military intelligence warned today that Russia is preparing false-flag operations and sabotage across Central and Eastern Europe, including the Baltic states. HUR said possible targets included critical infrastructure, border areas near Russia and Kaliningrad, and regions with Russian-speaking populations, with Moscow then seeking to blame Ukraine. In France, a gunman firing from a car in Trappes and La Verriere, west of Paris, killed one person and wounded four others, including a 12-year-old girl. Police arrested the suspect in nearby Coignieres, and France's anti-terror prosecutor opened an inquiry into possible terrorist and racist motives.

Finland yesterday granted Posiva an operating licence for its spent-fuel encapsulation and disposal complex at Olkiluoto in Eurajoki. It is the world's first operating licence for a permanent deep geological repository for spent nuclear fuel, designed to hold up to 6,500 tonnes more than 400 metres underground after 22 years of preparation.

Late attention centred on reports of a ceasefire around Olešk, with the Kremlin and Ukraine's military saying fighting should halt from Tuesday and the Russian side citing 4 a.m. Moscow time. Separately, reports said Ukraine struck an important Russian factory, sending a large plume of smoke into the air.

Jordanian authorities revised down the death toll from the church shooting in Karak governorate to six, with 28 wounded after gunmen opened fire during a funeral at a Greek Orthodox church. State media and security sources had first reported seven dead before the public security directorate updated the figure. The attackers entered the church compound in Hammoud village, about 180 km south of Amman, and police said they were being hunted.

US politics remained dominated by the cost of the Iran war after a new AP-NORC poll found voters in both parties want lower living costs and an end to the conflict. The Atlantic reported that Donald Trump has so far held back from authorising another strike before the Nov. 3 election after fierce Republican blowback. Senate Democrats say the White House has offered neither a clear end state nor a public strategy for the war.

Trump also said Elon Musk had restored Ukraine's Starlink access at full speed after days of confusion over restrictions. Ukraine uses the military Starshield system for frontline communications, strikes in occupied territory and drone interception, so the cap disrupted battlefield operations. AP quoted a senior European official as saying the restriction still appeared to be in place, leaving the chain of command unresolved in Washington.

South Korea proposed military talks with North Korea after Seoul told lawmakers that Pyongyang has likely laid about 960,000 mines along the border since 2024. Seoul linked the estimate to a wider fortification drive after North Korea designated the South a hostile state, and said a Sept. 21 blast in the DMZ had already wounded three South Korean soldiers. In Ukraine, a Russian strike drone hit a residential house in the Zhytomyr community yesterday and injured nine people, including two children.

In Russia's energy sector, Rosneft is pressing ahead with its Arctic Vostok Oil project, with hundreds of kilometres of pipeline now linked to storage sites and a new export port. The project is arriving just as Russia's oil industry is under pressure from sanctions, war-time strains and export limits, raising the cost of any delay or overrun.

The Ukrainian embassy in Washington was temporarily evacuated after a suspicious object was found. A US ambassador said strikes on Iran could come as soon as this weekend.