Here is the situation as it stands on Monday, November 28:
Fighting
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned Russia was “planning new strikes” on his country, urging defence forces and citizens to be prepared to withstand a new week of strain on the power grid amid freezing temperatures.
- “We understand that the terrorists are planning new strikes. We know this for a fact,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address. “And as long as they have missiles, they, unfortunately, will not calm down.”
- The General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said Russian troops shelled a dozen villages in Donetsk in Ukraine’s east, including the main targets of Bakhmut and Avdiivka.
- Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said Russian forces launched several failed attacks on the town of Soledar, near Bakhmut, and had taken heavy losses in a separate push towards Avdiivka.
- Heavy fighting was also going on in the northeastern Kharkiv region, near areas recaptured by the Ukrainian army in September and October, Zhdanov said.
Blackouts
- In Kyiv, snow fell and temperatures hovered around freezing as millions in and around the Ukrainian capital struggled with disruptions to the electricity supply and central heating caused by waves of Russian air strikes.
- City authorities said workers were close to completing the restoration of power, water and heat, but high consumption levels meant some blackouts had been imposed.
- After Zelenskyy criticised Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko – saying he had not done enough to help beleaguered residents – Klitschko hit back, saying the comments were out of place during Russia’s military campaign.
Nuclear plant and grain
- The head of Ukraine’s state-run nuclear energy firm said there were signs that Russian forces might be preparing to leave the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, which they seized in March.
- A Russian official denied the military was planning to leave the plant, calling it “fake” news.
- Ukraine accused the Kremlin of reviving the “genocidal” tactics of Josef Stalin as Kyiv commemorated a Soviet-era famine that killed millions of Ukrainians in the winter of 1932-33.
- Exports of Ukraine’s grain will not reach 3 million tonnes in November as Russia tries to limit ship inspections at ports, Ukraine’s Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said. In October, some 4.2 million tonnes of grain left Ukrainian ports, Kubrakov said on his Facebook page.
