Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,373 | Russia-Ukraine war News

Here are the key events from the 1,373rd day of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

This is the situation as of Friday, November 28.

fighting

• Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Russian forces have “completely surrounded” the embattled Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk and taken control of 70 percent of it.
• Putin also said that once Ukrainian troops withdraw from their positions in key areas, the fighting will stop. But if they do not do so, Russian forces will achieve their objectives by force.
• The Russian President said that the pace of Russia’s advance in all directions on the front line is “significantly increasing”.
• Ukraine’s top commander Oleksandr Syrsky painted a different picture, saying on social media that Ukrainian troops were blocking attempts by Russian forces to launch new attacks on Pokrovsk and Mirnorad. Sirsky also said that Russia was forced to bring reserve forces into the fight.
• The Defense Ministry in Moscow said Russian air defenses shot down 118 Ukrainian drones overnight, including 52 in Russia’s Belgorod region bordering Ukraine.

peace process

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the Ukrainian delegation would meet with the United States people this week to work on the formula discussed at the talks in Geneva to bring peace to Kiev and provide security guarantees for Kiev.
• Putin said the draft peace proposals discussed by the US and Ukraine could form the basis of future agreements to end Moscow’s war on Ukraine, but if not, Russia would fight over it.
• Putin also called the Ukrainian leadership illegitimate and said it would be foolish to sign any peace document with them.
• The Russian President said the Ukrainian leadership lost legitimacy after refusing to call elections when Zelensky’s elected term ended. Kiev says it cannot hold elections while under martial law and defending its territory against Russian attacks.
• Ukrainian presidential chief of staff Andriy Yermak told the American magazine The Atlantic that Zelensky would not agree to cede land to Russia in exchange for peace.
• Yermak said, “As long as Zelensky is president, no one should count on us leaving the region. He will not sign the region.”
• German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that even after a peace agreement with Russia, Ukraine will need strong armed forces and security guarantees, while no territorial concessions should be imposed on the country.
• Merz said, “We view very positively the US government’s efforts to find a solution here. However, we also say that the security interests of the Europeans and the security interests of Ukraine must also be protected.”
• Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Ukraine’s membership in NATO is unacceptable for Moscow.
• “The threat to us is still NATO expansion,” he told reporters. “NATO’s desire to draw Ukraine into its orbit remains a threat to us.”

restrictions

• The United Kingdom issued a temporary license allowing the companies to continue trading with Lukoil International, a subsidiary of Russia’s sanctioned Lukoil, which is based in Austria. The license, effective until February 26, allows payments and other transactions under certain conditions, including for funds owed to Lukoil.
• Belgian Prime Minister Bart de Wever said an EU plan to use frozen Russian state assets to help Ukraine stay solvent could jeopardize the prospects of a potential peace deal to end the nearly four-year war.
• “By moving hastily on the proposed repayment debt plan, as collateral damage, we as an EU are effectively preventing ourselves from reaching a peace deal,” De Wever said in a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, seen by the Financial Times.
• Putin said Russia was preparing a package of countermeasures in response to the possible seizure of Russian assets in Europe. He warned that any move to seize Russian assets would amount to “asset theft” and harm the global financial system.

regional security

• German federal prosecutors said a Ukrainian man suspected of coordinating sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipeline in 2022 has arrived in Germany after Italy’s top court approved his extradition last week. The explosions that destroyed the pipeline in the Baltic Sea three years ago largely disrupted Russian gas transit to Europe.
• Hungarian President Viktor Orban said he planned to hold talks on Friday to ensure Hungary gets enough Russian crude oil and gas supplies to also provide crude to neighboring Serbia.
• Russia said it would close the Polish Consulate in Irkutsk in late December in retaliation for Warsaw’s decision to close the Russian Consulate in Gdansk.

Russian politics

• A Russian military court sentenced eight people to life in prison for their alleged role in a deadly Ukrainian truck bomb attack on a bridge linking southern Russia to Crimea.
• The eight men convicted on terrorism charges were accused of being part of an organized criminal group that helped carry out the Ukraine bombing.
• Ukraine’s SBU domestic intelligence agency claimed responsibility for the attack, which collapsed part of a 19 km (11.8-mile) bridge in October 2022, killing five people and damaging a key supply route for Russian forces fighting in Ukraine.