The European Union will study the possibility of paying Ilon Musk for Starlink terminals for Ukraine, and Exxon Mobil “safely left” Russia after terminating its participation in Sakhalin-1 – these and other important news for Tuesday morning, October 18, in our daily review.

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has instructed diplomats to develop plans to protect Internet communications in Ukraine. He gave this instruction after US billionaire Ilon Musk threatened to stop financing the operation of Starlink satellite communication terminals, which he donated to Kiev. This was reported by the Financial Times with reference to three employees with data on the choice of options for providing Ukraine with Internet connection.

Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) said on Monday, October 17, that it had fully exited Russia after seven months of discussions over the orderly transfer of its 30% stake in the major Sakhalin-1 oil project and the “unilateral termination” of its participation by Russian authorities. Exxon did not say whether it had received any compensation for the assets, which it valued at more than $4 billion, Reuters reports.

The European Union will strengthen the protection of critical infrastructure to nullify the threat of sabotage, writes Bloomberg, which has familiarized itself with the draft version of the relevant document. It follows that the European Commission will recommend EU member states to strengthen cooperation and conduct stress tests of facilities. First of all, it concerns energy infrastructure, followed by other sectors with high risk: communications, transportation and space, the agency says.

Spanish fashion group Inditex (BME:ITX) (which owns the brands Zara, Pull & Bear, Oysho, Bershka, Massimo Dutti, Stradivarius and others) plans to transfer its Russian structure – Zara CIS – to a third company registered in a jurisdiction that the Russian authorities do not consider “unfriendly”. This is reported by Kommersant with reference to the materials of the Arbitration Court of the Samara Region. It is considering the claim of the owner of the Cosmoport shopping center in Samara against Zara CIS.

DocMed chain of clinics of evidence-based medicine has attracted 200 million rubles from the investment fund “TealTech Capital” of the founder of “VkusVilla” Andrei Krivenko, chairman of the board of directors of GC “Agama” Yuri Alasheev and the head of “Himrar” Andrei Ivashchenko. About it writes Forbes with reference to the representative of the fund. The parties do not disclose the terms of the deal and the valuation of the startup. According to SPARK, TilTech Capital has owned 49.9% of the company since September 2019.