Kyiv has seen €85 billion in EU aid since war began, Estonian volunteer killed in Ukraine, Moscow man arrested on suspicion of recruiting for far-right Azov Brigade

It’s day 586 of the war in Ukraine. The European Union has donated a total of €85 billion to Ukraine since the war began, foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell says.

Tannel Kriggul, an Estonian fighter with the Ukrainian Foreign Legion, has been killed in Ukraine.

A Moscow man has been placed in pre-trial detention on suspicion of recruiting people into the Azov Brigade, a far-right Ukrainian military unit.

The National Bank of Ukraine has issued a set of coins honouring borscht, the traditional soup both Ukraine and Russia claim to have invented.

Novaya-Europe’s news roundup will brief you on the main developments overnight.

EU sends €85 billion to Ukraine over 18 months of war

The EU and its various institutions have donated a total of €85 billion to Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in February 2022, top EU diplomat Josep Borrell said on Monday, RBC-Ukraine reported.

Borrel said Brussels felt “proud” that the bloc’s total support for Kyiv had reached €85 billion, making it the “highest amount” of foreign aid that the union had ever allocated.

The EU’s foreign affairs chief arrived in Ukraine on Saturday to visit Odesa and Kyiv, and will host a surprise EU foreign ministers summit in Kyiv on Monday.

Borrell also shared details of his meeting with Rustem Umerov, Ukraine’s recently appointed defence minister, saying that they had discussed the situation on the frontlines.

Estonian volunteer fighter killed in Ukraine

Tanel Kriggul, an Estonian national who joined Ukraine’s International Legion, has been killed in Ukraine, Estonia’s Postimees newspaper reported on Monday.

The newspaper said that Kriggul joined the legion last year and served near the town of Lyman, in Ukraine’s Donetsk region. The house where he and his fellow fighters were stationed was reportedly attacked by a Russian kamikaze drone.

In early March, Ivo Jurak, a former officer in the Estonian armed forces, who died in artillery shelling near Bakhmut, became the first Estonian volunteer to die in Ukraine.

Russian man arrested on suspicion of recruiting for Ukraine’s Azov Brigade

A 47-year-old man from the Moscow region has been placed in a detention centre on suspicion of recruiting fellow Russians to join Ukraine’s far-right Azov Brigade, state-affiliated TASS news agency reported on Monday.

Mikhail Dariy is now facing criminal charges of using the internet to make public calls for terrorism and has been remanded in custody until 9 November.

Ukraine’s Azov Brigade, which came to global prominence when it resisted the Russian military onslaught on Mariupol’s Azovstal Iron and Steel Works for several months in 2022, has ultra-nationalist leanings and its volunteers have been accused of having neo-Nazi sympathies.

Russian investigators, who suspect Dariy was a member of Azov himself, believe the suspect tried to recruit 12 Muscovites to join the unit between 2022 and 2023.

Investigators in the case also said that Dariy has been assisted by as-yet-unidentified accomplices. While Dariy has reportedly admitted his guilt, he has rejected the idea that he was a member of the Azov Brigade or of any other terrorist organisation.

However, Russian media outlet Mediazona reported on Monday that TASS distorted the court decision, falsely attributing the accusation that Dariy had been a member of the Azov Brigade.

Dariy was arrested on 11 September for the public justification of terrorism online and for participating in a terrorist organisation. The court subsequently published the ruling where the names of organisations the man is accused of joining are redacted.

Dariy himself noted in a letter to Mediazona that he is charged with involvement in Freedom of Russia, a Russian paramilitary group fighting alongside Ukrainian forces, along with the Neo-Nazi National Socialism/White Power extremist group. TASS replaced these groups with Azov in a news article published Monday morning.

Ukraine mints new coins celebrating borscht

The National Bank of Ukraine has introduced five and ten hryvnia commemorative coins honouring borscht, the traditional vegetable soup considered a staple in several cultures of Eastern Europe, the bank’s press-service reported on Monday.

Renowned Ukrainian artist Mykola Kochubey designed the coins, on one side of which a Ukrainian woman is depicted by the stove making the soup, while the other side pictures the soup itself.

Both Russia and Ukraine consider borscht to be their own invention, and for years there have been claims and counterclaims regarding its origin. In 2022, UNESCO added the “culture of Ukrainian borscht cooking” to its list of the world’s intangible cultural heritage, much to Kyiv’s delight.