Here is the situation on Thursday, November 28:
Fighting
- Russian forces have taken control of the settlement of Nova Illinka, close to the embattled Donetsk region town of Kurakhove in eastern Ukraine, according to Russia’s Ministry of Defence.
- A Russian drone attack on Kyiv has wounded three people, two of whom were hospitalised, officials in the Ukrainian capital said.
- Russia is pressing ahead to put its Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile – part of its strategic nuclear arsenal – on combat duty, according to state-run news agency TASS.
- Ukraine’s air defences downed 36 of 89 Russian drones launched in attacks overnight, while Russian air defence systems destroyed 22 Ukrainian drones overnight, both sides reported.
- Ukraine should consider lowering the age of military service for its soldiers to 18 from 25, an anonymous senior United States administration official has said, adding that Kyiv is not mobilising or training enough new soldiers to replace those lost on the battlefield.
Politics and diplomacy
- Russia’s acts of sabotage against Western targets may eventually prompt NATO to invoke the alliance’s Article 5 mutual defence clause, Bruno Kahl, the head of Germany’s foreign intelligence service, has said.
- Donald Trump has tapped Keith Kellogg, a retired US lieutenant general who presented him with a plan to end the war in Ukraine, to serve as a special envoy for the conflict, the president-elect has announced. Kellogg was chief of staff for the White House National Security Council during Trump’s 2017-2021 term and national security adviser to then-Vice President Mike Pence.
- Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov has said he discussed joint steps to strengthen security with South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol while on a visit to Seoul this week, during which Kyiv’s delegation reportedly requested military assistance.
- Poland has detained a German citizen and charged him with brokering and exporting dual-use goods to Russia that were “illegally sent to Russian military plants involved in the production of weapons”.
- Russia’s Foreign Ministry has said an idea reportedly being floated in the West that Washington should give Ukraine nuclear weapons is “insane” and preventing such a scenario was one reason why Moscow went into Ukraine.
- Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov warned the US to halt what it called a “spiral of escalation” over Ukraine, but said it would keep informing Washington about test missile launches in order to avoid “dangerous mistakes”.
- Russia has said the stationing of US missiles in Japan would threaten Russian security and prompt Moscow to retaliate after the Kyodo news agency reported that Japan and the US aim to compile a joint military plan for a possible Taiwan emergency.
- Moscow district councillor Alexei Gorinov, who is serving a seven-year sentence for criticising Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, staged an antiwar protest from the courtroom cage at the start of a new trial against him on charges of justifying terrorism.
Military aid
- US President Joe Biden’s administration is preparing a $725m weapons package for Ukraine, the Reuters news agency reports, citing two unnamed US officials. The package will reportedly include antitank weapons, including antitank land mines, drones, Stinger missiles and ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS).
- The leaders of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Norway, Poland and Sweden have said in a joint statement they will step up their support for Ukraine and make more ammunition available to it in the coming months.
- Russia’s deputy UN ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy has told the United Nations Security Council any decision by President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration to cut support for Ukraine would be a “death sentence” for the Ukrainian army, while accusing Kyiv of trying to drag NATO countries into direct conflict with Russia.
- President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he will sign Ukraine’s 2025 budget on Thursday, a document that will call for the country’s first wartime tax increases.
