Russian has designated the Central European University (CEU) in Vienna, founded by billionaire financier and civil society activist George Soros, as an “undesirable organisation”, according to a list on its website.

Prosecutors had accused the CEU of discrediting Russia’s political leadership and the Russian forces that have invaded Ukraine in what Moscow calls a “special military operation”, and of recruiting staff to formulate a global anti-Russian agenda in the media, the Russian daily Vedomosti reported.

Since its foundation in 1991, CEU has been a gateway to the West for thousands of students from eastern Europe, offering U.S.-accredited graduate degree programs in an academic climate that celebrates free thought.

The university, which does not have a branch in Russia, rejected the accusations and said it was committed to academic excellence and critical independent inquiry.

It said the move would restrict its freedom to cooperate with Russian institutions and individuals, prevent Russian citizens from cooperating with it, and put its Russian students and employees at risk of political persecution.

It has therefore ceased cooperating with Russian partners and promoting its degree programmes in Russia.

CEU in 2019 moved the bulk of its courses from Budapest, Soros’s birthplace, to Austria after a long struggle with Hungary’s right-wing leader Viktor Orban, who accused it of encouraging mass immigration to Europe.

French investigative judges on Wednesday put Russian tycoon Alexey Kuzmichev under formal investigation, a source at the financial prosecutor’s office said.

Kuzmichev has been held for questioning since Monday and was put under formal investigation over allegations of laundering of tax evasion proceeds, money laundering and concealed work, the source said.

A lawyer for Kuzmichev declined to comment.

Ukraine‘s commander-in-chief said on Wednesday the war with Russia was moving to a new stage of positional warfare involving static and attritional fighting, a phase he warned could benefit Moscow and allow it to rebuild its military power.

In an article for The Economist, top general Valery Zaluzhnyi said the Ukrainian army needed key new military capabilities and technology, including air power, to break out of that kind of war.

He also called for Ukraine to build up its army reserves and expand the categories of Ukrainian citizens who can be called up for training or to be mobilised.

More than 260 civilians have been killed in Ukraine after stepping on landmines or other explosives during the 20-month-old war with Russia, Ukraine‘s military said.

Kyiv estimates that 174,000 sq km of the country - about a third of its territory - is potentially strewn with mines or dangerous war detritus.

At least 571 people have received injuries during more than 560 incidents involving mines or explosive objects left behind by the fighting, the General Staff said on Telegram messenger.

Almost a quarter of the incidents occurred in fields, it added.

Some farmers take risks trying to work in areas thought to be contaminated with mines. On Wednesday, a tractor hit an unidentified explosive in southern Mykolaiv region, leaving two men wounded, the Interior Ministry said.

“One of them had two legs amputated, the other refused to be taken to hospital after being examined,” it added on Telegram.

Ukraine is in critical need of sappers. It now has about 3,000 specialists operating, but it needs 7,000 more to fully clear all the mines, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal was quoted as saying by Suspilne media.

That process would require around $37 billion in funding, a sum Kyiv is seeking to raise with the help of international partners.

Mr Zelensky also warned against expecting instant success in Ukraine’s counter-offensive campaign as Russian forces showed signs of amping up fresh attacks on different sections of the frontline.

“We live in a world that gets used to success too quickly. When the full-scale invasion began, many people around the world did not believe that Ukraine would survive,” the war-time president said in his nightly video address.

He added: “Glory to all those who do not retreat, who do not burn out, who believe in Ukraine just as they did on February 24, and who have been fighting unwaveringly.”

Read the full report by Arpan Rai here...

A Russian tycoon has been arrested in France in connection with alleged tax evasion and money laundering and for violating international sanctions, prosecutors have said.

Searches took place on Monday at Kuzmichev’s Paris home and in the Mediterranean Var region as part of the investigation, the French Financial Prosecutors office said, confirming a report in the French daily newspaper Le Monde.

The search was carried out during a dramatic raid involving 60 officers.

Kuzmichev was still being held in custody on Tuesday but has not yet been charged in the case.

French customs agents last year seized the oligarch’s 27-metre yacht “La Petite Ourse”, as part of sanctions by the European Union for his ties to president Vladimir Putin.

Read the full report by Tom Watling here...

Bulgaria has expelled a Russian journalist for allegedly engaging in activities that pose a threat to the country’s national security, authorities said. The State Agency for National Security said Alexander Gatsak, a correspondent for Russian state-run newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta, was stripped of his residency rights and barred from entering Bulgaria and other European Union member nation. The agency said Gatsak was summoned Sept. 29 to receive the expulsion order at the Interior Ministry migration office, but he did not show up and instead took refuge inside the Russian Embassy in Bulgaria’s capital, Sofia.

The mercenary group Wagner may have resumed recruiting soldiers under the leadership of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s son, Pavel Prigozhin, according to reports.

The organisation has become a unit of the Russian National Guard, hiring soldiers from Perm and Novosibirsk, Ukrainska Pravda said.

It quoted the Novosibirsk office of the Wagner Group as saying recruitment had been taking place for two or three days.

Russia has shelled over 100 settlements within the last 24 hours, more than in any single day so far this year, Ukraine said.

“Over the last 24 hours, the enemy shelled 118 settlements in 10 regions,” Ukraine’s interior minister, Igor Klymenko, said on social media.

“This is the highest number of cities and villages that have come under attack since the start of the year,” he added.

The second largest problem in Ukraine after Russia’s invasion is corruption, according to research.

“The war is definitely the biggest problem of Ukraine and Ukrainians. However, if you ask what problems outside of the war are the most worrying for Ukrainians, then among the specified list, 63 per cent talk about corruption,” the research’s authors said.

The third largest problem is low salaries and pensions at 46 per cent, the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology said.