Handzyuk's case
Kherson activist Kateryna Handzyuk was attacked after she had found out that the Oleshky Forest was deliberately set on fire to be felled later. According to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), the exposure was one of the key motives behind the attack. The SBU confirmed that a gang of Serhiy Torbin, who carried out the attack on Handzyuk and was convicted, was involved in the arson.
The suspects in the Handzyuk case were paid for silence on the instruction of Oleksiy Levin, who is suspected of organizing the crime against her, the SBU said. Levin is on an international wanted list. According to the SBU, there is no evidence that the money came from Vladyslav Manher, who may have ordered the attack among others.
NATO
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told the TSN TV news programme that Ukraine "will be a NATO member, as allies have repeatedly said, but it has to focus on reforms".
Russia
Russian chauvinist Rodina party MP Aleksey Zhuravlev visited pro-Russian militants' positions in Zolote, Luhansk Region on 1-2 November. He confirmed that there were "indeed" no Ukrainian troops in the area because they had been pulled back.
Russian opposition journalist Arkadiy Babchenko has left Ukraine fearing his extradition home under the new Ukrainian authorities. However, he added that he would return to Ukraine later.
Gas
Ukraine started lifting up gas from underground storage facilities. At the time, there were 21.785bn cu.m. of gas, which is 26.9% more than on the same day in 2018.
The Ukrainian oil and gas company Naftogaz Ukrayiny filed a new lawsuit against the Russian gas giant Gazprom in the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce, Naftogaz's managing director Yuriy Vitrenko has said. The new lawsuit involves the contract for gas transit.
Crime
The High Anticorruption Court of Ukraine has allowed MP Yaroslav Dubnevych to be released on bail of 100m hryvnyas. The MP, who is suspected of inflicting losses of over 93m hryvnyas on the Ukrainian railway company Ukrzaliznytsya, will have to wear a monitor.
A forestry director, Viktor Sysa, was detained on 30 October when he was attempting to bribe a detective of the National Anticorruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) with 100,000 dollars. In exchange, he wanted an embezzlement case against him to be closed.