Volodymyr Zelenskyy News

Russia launched 122 missiles and 36 drones against Ukrainian targets, officials said Friday, killing at least 13 civilians in what an air force official said was the biggest aerial barrage of the 22-month war. The Ukrainian air force intercepted 87 of the missiles and 27 of the Shahed-type drones overnight, Ukraine's military chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi said. Air Force commander Mykola Oleshchuk wrote on his official Telegram channel: «The most massive aerial attack» since Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Pensions plans made the political headlines in 2023 like seldom before, from Alberta’s threat to pull out of the Canada Pension Plan with more than half of the fund’s assets to Ottawa’s desire, stated in the fall fiscal update, to have the globetrotting trillion-dollar asset managers invest more at home. The Financial Post spoke to Alberta Investment Management Corp. chief executive Evan Siddall about these issues, geopolitics and how AIMCo is evolving its investment strategy for 2024 and beyond. This interview has been edited and condensed for space.

Narendra Modi has become the sole global leader with 20 million subscribers on his personal YouTube channel, as per latest data collated by Viennese startup Tubics. With 224 million views in December 2023 alone, Modi's YouTube channel had 43 times more views than Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's channel. Overall, with 4.5 billion video views, Modi's YouTube channel leads the pack, both in terms of subscribers and video views among top world leaders. Brazil's former president Jair Bolsonaro is at the second spot with a modest 6.4 million followers on his personal YouTube channel, which is less than a third of followers on Modi's channel. Modi, in fact, leads other global leaders on the subscribers/video viewership sweepstakes on personal YouTube channels by a mile. For instance, US President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron are at a distant fourth and sixth places with 789,000 and 316,000 subscribers, respectively, on their personal YouTube channels, as per Tubics data. Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is way down in the pecking order, at 10th place with under 70,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel. Video views and subscribers on Modi's YouTube channel are also way ahead of those recorded by the YouTube channels of other Indian political leaders.

Ukrainian Defence Ministry has been apprehended on charges of embezzling USD 40 million (1.5 billion Ukrainian hryvnia) related to a contract for artillery shells, CNN reported the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU). The SBU alleged that the official, in December of the previous year, entered into an agreement with a specialised export company for the procurement of a substantial batch of artillery shells. Subsequently, a more advantageous contract for the supply of these shells, excluding intermediaries, thereby reducing delivery time and costs, was later signed with the same manufacturer, CNN reported. According to the SBU, the defence official extended the original, costlier contract, resulting in the transfer of funds amounting to USD 40 million to the accounts of a connected foreign intermediary firm. The SBU claimed that it is in possession of documents substantiating these illicit activities, with the accused facing a potential prison sentence of up to 15 years if proven guilty. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defence has initiated efforts to recover the misappropriated funds.

Vladimir Putin has been quietly signaling that he is open to a ceasefire in Ukraine despite publicly refusing to back down from the ongoing conflict between the two nations, The New York Times reported. The United Nations reported that more than 10,000 civilians have been killed and over 18,500 injured since the war began between Russia and Ukraine. Former senior Russian officials close to the Kremlin and other American and international officials said Putin has been signaling since September that he is open to stopping the fight at the current boundary lines, as per NYT reports.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he's certain the United States will make good on its promise of further billions of dollars for Kyiv to continue its fight against Russia

Less than two years after nearly being killed by a Russian bomb while reporting, Fox News' Benjamin Hall returned to Ukraine this week

Russian attacks in Ukraine have wounded at least 14 civilians as the president of the European Union's executive returned to the Ukrainian capital to meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

Malta on Saturday, with the participation of more than 65 countries — but not Russia, Maltese and Ukrainian officials said. The two-day meeting of national security delegates is the third round of such talks in recent months.

The European Union summit showed that Ukraine will be facing tougher times to get all the attention and political, economic and military aid that it wants

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban will be the center of attention at an EU summit on Thursday following his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin last week

Ukraine’s leader says Russian naval assets are no longer safe in the Black Sea near Crimea

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claims that recent Ukrainian attacks have denied the Russian fleet safe bases and secure maritime corridors in the western part of the Black Sea

missile strikes killed at least six postal workers and wounded 17 others Saturday when they hit a mail depot in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, officials said. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shared a video on social media of what appeared to be a heavily damaged warehouse surrounded by rubble and a container with the logo of the Ukrainian postal operator Nova Poshta. The six killed in the attack were all workers at the Nova Poshta depot, located in the village of Korotych, regional governor Oleg Sinegubov said. “The victims, aged between 19 and 42, received shrapnel wounds and blast injuries,” he said. Of the injured being treated in hospital, seven were in a serious condition, Sinegubov said, adding that “Doctors are fighting for their lives”.

Ukraine claims to have carried out one of the most destructive attacks on Russian air assets since the beginning of the war

Also Read: ‘…Putin is an evil dictator does not mean that Ukraine…’: Vivek Ramaswamy slams Zelenskyy for seeking more US funds Earlier on Thursday, Ramaswamy has strongly criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's request for additional financial support from the United States to conduct elections in their conflict-affected nation. The 38-year-old biotech entrepreneur confidently stated that he is in the process of securing the party's nomination for the 2024 presidential elections. During an interview with Fox News, Ramaswamy defended his previous statement in which he expressed his intention to reduce aid to Ukraine if he were to be elected as the President of the United States.

Almost 50 European leaders are using a summit in southern Spain’s Granada to stress that they stand by Ukraine at a time when Western resolve appears somewhat weakened

Almost 50 European leaders are using a summit in southern Spain’s Granada to stress they stand by Ukraine at a time when Western resolve appears somewhat weakened

Ukrainian officials say at least 51 civilians were killed in a Russian rocket strike on a village store and cafe in the eastern part of the country in one of the deadliest attacks in recent months

Ukraine, one of the deadliest attacks in recent months that came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attended a summit of around 50 European leaders in Spain to drum up support from the country's allies. Zelenskyy denounced the attack on the store and cafe in the village of Hroza as a «demonstrably brutal Russian crime» and «a completely deliberate act of terrorism».

Hardeep Singh Nijjar. «We remain in close coordination with our Canadian colleagues on this question,» US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said while responding to a question related to Nijjar's killing in Canada. Miller's remarks came during a daily press briefing on Monday (US local time). Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently alleged that the Indian government was behind the fatal shooting of Nijjar. Nijjar, who was a designated terrorist in India, was gunned down outside a Gurdwara, in a parking area in Canada's Surrey, British Columbia on June 18. Trudeau, during a debate in the Canadian Parliament, claimed his country's national security officials had reasons to believe that «agents of the Indian government» carried out the killing of the Canadian citizen, who also served as the president of Surrey's Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara. However, India has outrightly rejected the claims, calling it 'absurd' and 'motivated'. Notably, Canada has yet to provide any public evidence to support the claim about the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar. Miller said the US has engaged with the Indian government on a number of occasions to urge them to cooperate with Canada's investigation. He said US State Secretary Antony Blinken had an opportunity to discuss the issue with Foreign Minister S Jaishankar during their meeting on Friday. Meanwhile, Trudeau has said that Ottawa wants to «work constructively with India» regarding the allegations. While addressing a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Trudeau said, «In regards to India, Canada has shared the credible allegations that I talked about on Monday. With India, we did that many weeks ago.