Russia’s war on Ukraine is the driving force behind continued high inflation and a decline in social services in Russa, according to the latest intelligence report from Britain’s ministry of defense. 

Inflation rose to six percent in Russia in September, the ministry said Monday, driven by the rising cost of basic consumer items, like food and fuel. 

The report also found that inflation will likely impact government spending on social services, a move the ministry said “further illustrates the reorientation of Russia’s economy to fuel the war above all else.”

The high inflation rate will also likely influence borrowing costs for Russian consumers and “impact the Russian government’s debt service costs,” according to the ministry. 

On Sunday, the British Defense Ministry said that Russian soldiers in Ukraine are suffering from an “age-old battle against the elements.” 

The Sunday report said that soldiers at a military affairs conference in Moscow complained earlier this month about being “wet from head to toe” for weeks on the front lines and unable to light a fire for “a mug of tea” because that action risked alerting their positions to Ukrainian soldiers. The Russian soldiers also complained about eating monotonous food in pervasive mud. 

The soldiers’ discomfort, according to the report, is likely due to Russia’s inability to enforce basic field administration among its troops. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy asked the U.S. for more funding for to fight off Russian aggression and invited former U.S. President Donald Trump to Kyiv to gauge the scale of the conflict for himself.

Zelenskyy said American soldiers could eventually be pulled into a greater European conflict with Russia if Washington did not increase support.

“If Russia kills all of us, they will attack NATO countries and you will send your sons and daughters [to fight],” Zelenskyy said in an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press show.

The Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives passed a supplemental spending bill last week providing $14.3 billion in aid to Israel, but adding nothing in aid for Ukraine, a large contrast to President Joe Biden’s $106 billion funding request with the bulk of the money going to bolster Ukraine’s defenses and the remainder split among Israel, the Indo-Pacific and U.S.-Mexico border enforcement. 

U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer, majority leader of the Democratic-controlled Senate, said he would not bring the House bill to a vote and Biden has vowed to veto it.

In the interview airing Sunday, Zelenskyy invited former U.S. President Donald Trump, a Republican, to visit Ukraine and experience firsthand the fallout of the conflict initiated by Russia’s President Vladimir Putin in February 2022.

Trump, who is seeking reelection in 2024 and is the leading candidate for his party’s presidential nomination, has been sharply critical of U.S. support for Kyiv and has said he could end the war in 24 hours if he were reelected.

“If he can come here, I will need … 24 minutes to explain to President Trump that he can’t manage this war,” Zelenskyy said. “He can’t bring peace because of Putin.”

Warfront 

Fierce fighting is ravaging east Ukraine’s Donetsk region, where entrenched Ukrainian soldiers told Reuters how Russian artillery has intensified significantly in recent weeks. 

“I don’t know where these shells are coming from, but they are flying in,” the crew’s commander said, he asked to remain anonymous, gesturing in the direction of several recent craters near his position.

Russia’s new strategic nuclear submarine, the Imperator Alexander III, has successfully tested a Bulava intercontinental ballistic missile, the Russian defense ministry said on Sunday.

The missile, which the Federation of American Scientists says is designed to carry up to six nuclear warheads, was launched from an underwater position in the White Sea off Russia’s northern coast and hit a target thousands of kilometers away on the Kamchatka peninsula in the Russian Far East, the defense ministry said.

“Firing a ballistic missile is the final element of state tests, after which a decision will be made to accept the cruiser into the navy,” a ministry statement said.

The Imperator Alexander III is a Borei class submarine armed with 16 Bulava missiles. The 12-meter (40-foot) missile has a range of about 8,000 km (5,000 miles).  

Russia aims to build a total of 10 to 12 Borei-class submarines to be divided between the Northern and Pacific fleets, according to the current plans disclosed by Russian media. 

Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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