This is the situation as of Saturday, November 29.
fighting
- Russian drones struck six sites in Kiev’s city center and eastern suburbs early Saturday, wounding four people as apartment buildings and other residences were struck, said the head of Kiev’s military administration, Timur Tkachenko.
- Ukraine’s top military commander, Oleksandr Syrsky, said Ukrainian forces were defending their positions in the northeastern city of Kupyansk and hunting down subversive groups, despite Moscow’s claim that its troops are in full control of the area.
- Russia captured Kupyansk in the first weeks of a full-scale offensive in 2022, but Ukrainian troops recaptured it later that year. Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed on Thursday that the city was “completely in our hands”. Sirsky immediately rejected the claims and said that “the scale of the Russian leadership’s lies about the situation in Kupyansk is astonishing”.
- The Russian Defense Ministry claimed that Russian forces evacuated Ukrainian troops from 6,585 buildings in the Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk last week amid fierce fighting.
- Ukraine said its forces attacked Russia’s Saratov oil refinery and the Saki airbase in the Russian-occupied Crimea peninsula. “A series of explosions were recorded, followed by a fire in the targeted area,” the Ukrainian military said in relation to the refinery attack.
- Moscow’s Defense Ministry said Russian air defense systems intercepted and destroyed 136 Ukrainian drones overnight.
Ukrainian politics
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, a close ally who led Ukraine’s negotiating team in United States-backed peace talks, has stepped down hours after anti-corruption agents searched his home. Yermak was leading Ukraine’s effort against US-proposed peace terms that would meet many of Moscow’s regional and security demands.
- Zelensky said he would consider a replacement for his chief of staff on Saturday. “Russia is eager to make mistakes for Ukraine. We will not make any mistakes,” Zelensky said in a video address, calling for unity. He said, “Our work continues. Our struggle continues.”
- The high-level corruption probe comes just weeks after Ukraine’s justice and energy ministers resigned amid a sweeping investigation, sparking a public outcry and throwing the government leadership into crisis at a time when the country is fighting for its survival.
ceasefire talks
- In a video address to the nation, Zelensky said senior Ukrainian officials representing the military, intelligence and foreign ministry would soon take part in talks with Washington officials about ending the conflict.
- Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia hoped to have information on agreed points of the proposed peace plan by the time the US delegation arrived in Moscow next week. Peskov said Moscow was working on the assumption that it was fully negotiating the plan with the US.
restrictions
- An EU spokesman said “intense discussions” were continuing, including with Belgium, on using frozen Russian assets to help keep Ukraine afloat. Belgian support for the plan is crucial because the assets the EU hopes to access are held by Belgium-based financial institution Euroclear.
- The talks come as Belgian Prime Minister Bart de Wever warned in a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen that the use of the assets could derail the Ukraine peace deal.
- German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he found the need to use frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine “increasingly urgent” and hoped an agreement would soon be reached.
- Hungary’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto said after a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban that Russia will supply crude oil and gas to Hungary in accordance with existing contracts.
- Two ships of Russia’s shadow fleet of oil tankers have exploded in the Black Sea near the Bosphorus Strait off Turkey. Turkey’s transport ministry said the 274-metre-long (898 ft) tanker Kairos exploded and caught fire in the Black Sea while en route from Egypt to Russia. It said emergency response vessels were immediately dispatched to the scene and the 25 crew members on board were rescued safely.
- Turkey’s Directorate General for Maritime Affairs said the Kairos was en route to the Russian port of Novorossiysk when it reported that “external influence” caused the fire 28 nautical miles (51.8 km) off the Turkish coast.
- A second Russian tanker, Viraat, was reportedly hit in the Black Sea about 35 nautical miles (64.8 km) to the east. The cause of the explosions was not immediately clear, but there have been incidents of ships hitting mines in the Black Sea in recent years.
- Russia has failed to win enough votes to rejoin the UN shipping agency’s Governing Council despite urging countries to support its nomination for the seat she lost in 2023. The result is a blow to Russia, which failed to win enough support to be elected to the UN aviation agency’s Governing Council in September, in another diplomatic rebuke of Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
regional security
- US Secretary of State Marco Rubio plans to skip next week’s NATO foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels, the Reuters news agency reported, citing two unnamed US officials, a highly unusual absence of Washington’s top diplomat from a major transatlantic gathering at a crucial time for peace talks in Ukraine.
- US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau will represent Washington, one of the officials said. It was unclear why Rubio planned to skip the December 3 meeting. But there is likely to be no showdown as US and Ukrainian officials struggle to bridge differences over US President Donald Trump’s plan to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
- Poland has detained two Ukrainians and three Belarusians on charges of working on the orders of foreign intelligence services, as Warsaw warns of Russian efforts to destabilize countries that support Kiev. Poland says it has been the target of arson and cyber attacks as part of a “hybrid war” waged by Russia to undermine support for Ukraine.
- Germany recorded the highest number of drone sightings over military targets in October, with a focus on naval installations, a senior intelligence official said. Previously, drones were often seen at army and air force bases, including those training Ukrainian troops.
- Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla, the daughter of former South African President Jacob Zuma, has resigned from parliament amid allegations that she lured 17 people to fight for Russia in Ukraine. Zuma-Sambudla was a lawmaker in the opposition party Umkhonto wesizwe (MK), led by her father. MK officials said he had resigned voluntarily and his departure from the National Assembly and all other public roles is effective immediately.
- Russian state news agencies reported that Putin would visit India on 4–5 December at the invitation of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
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