Bohdan Bondar, the Deputy Commander of the Joint Forces Operation, said that the Ukrainian Armed Forces would not surrender their  their positions, reports Hromadske TV channel.

"We will not surrender and will not give up our positions. What is being carried out now and what is proposed to be carried out in the future are certain steps towards a real cessation of hostilities. Five years is a period that has sufficiently shown that it is necessary to use other options to end the hostilities," …

"Naftogaz of Ukraine intends to demand from Gazprom compensation for alleged losses from the termination of gas transit from Russia to Europe. On November 1, we will send our claims to Gazprom for more than $11 billion," wrote Chief Commercial Officer of Naftogaz Yuriy Vitrenko on his Facebook page.

A day before, during a meeting with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Gazprom's CEO Alexey Miller stressed the need to settle legal disputes before the conclusion of a new contract with Kyiv. …

An unnamed Kurdish politician in an interview with the Israel Army Radio (Galey Tzahal or IDF Radio), appealed to the Israeli government for help. According to the Kurdish politician, "the whole region will suffer" if no one stops the Turkish operation in Syria.

He also warned of severe consequences not only for the Middle East but for the whole world if former militants of the Islamic State group, who fled because of the Turkish invasion, will get out of Syria.

Earlier, representatives of …

Russia is continuing to tumble into the demographic abyss. Between January and August, the natural population loss accelerated by a further 30%, the Russian Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat), announced on Thursday.

Over eight months, 994,300 people were born and 1.21 million died. Although mortality fell (by 33,700 people), the birth rate declined more than two and a half times faster (by 83,900 people).

Overall, the number of deaths exceeded the number of births by 20%. In 32 of …

13 members of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, have created an interparty coalition called “Kuban”. The new group will work on the return of Ukrainian ethnic territories and ethnic Ukrainians to the cultural and social field, MP Oleksiy Honcharenko, elected head of the union, wrote on Facebook.

“First and foremost, we will work on Kuban. But other regions that are densely inhabited by Ukrainians will also be under our close attention,” Honcharenko wrote.

The MP also published a copy …

After the meeting of the Ukrainian delegation with the World Bank's representatives, the press service of the Ukrainian Finance Ministry reported that Ukraine might receive financial support from the World Bank Group in early 2020 if it carries out several reforms, including privatization and the continuation of a balanced fiscal policy.

The Ukrainian delegation headed by Finance Minister Oksana Markarova and Economy Minister Tymofiy Mylovanov presented the agenda for the Ukrainian government. …

Vietnam is suspending its imports of Russian wheat. Rosselkhoznadzor, Russia’s federal veterinary and phytosanitary supervisory authority, has received a letter from Vietnam containing a request to stop issuing phytosanitary certificates to suppliers of wheat to Vietnam, said department’s spokesperson Yulia Melano as reported by finanz.ru.

Russia is the world’s largest wheat exporter, and Vietnam is a major buyer, although it cut back on its purchases a year ago, when it began to combat wheat …

Serbia will buy from Russia Pantsir-S air-defence missile-gun system, reports Interfax news agency, citing a source in Belgrade.

Pantsir-S air defense systems are designed for short-range protection of civilian and military facilities from the air attacks.

Russian military also use Pantsir-S missile systems in Syria. They are used to protect the Khmeimim Air Base, as well as the Russian Navy base in Tartus.

The Russian military expert Alexander Golts doubts the feasibility of the acquisition …