Friday, November 15

Russia’s war against Ukraine

A residential building in Odesa damaged by a mass Russian drone strike on Nov. 14, 2024. (Hennadiy Trukhanov / Telegram)

Ukraine repels Russian attempt to enter Kupiansk, military says. “The city is under the control of Ukraine’s Armed Forces,” General Staff spokesperson Andrii Kovalev told Ukrinform.

Ukraine’s ‘internal resilience plan’ to be presented next week, Zelensky says. The government’s latest plan will focus on internal solutions and is not an alternative to a victory plan oriented toward Kyiv’s partners.

EU pushing Biden for last-minute measures to support Ukraine, Bloomberg reports. Some EU officials are urging the U.S. to provide more weapons and artillery to Ukraine, as well as permissions to carry out long-range strikes on Russia, sources told Bloomberg.

Trump wants to bring Ukraine, Russia to negotiating table, national security advisor nominee says. Speaking to a VoA correspondent, the Florida Congressman said that Trump is interested in ending the war instead of continuing it.

Ukraine’s sovereign bonds surge after Trump victory as investors expect peace talks, FT reports. Ukraine’s sovereign bonds rose in price after Donald Trump’s win in the U.S. presidential elections as investors expect a quicker end to the war, the Financial Times reported on Nov. 14.

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Trump’s victory offers chance for renewed dialogue with US, Russia’s UN envoy says. “Regardless of domestic political shifts, (Washington) consistently pursues a sense of containing Moscow…the change of administration does little to alter it,” Ambassador Gennady Gatilov said.

Ukraine needs ‘fast and focused’ help with energy security, ERBD Ukraine head says. Arvid Tuerkner’s first winter in charge of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in Ukraine comes with a daunting task: swiftly mobilize investment into energy companies crippled by two years of Russian attacks.

Construction of 2 new power units underway at South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant. Ukraine relies on nuclear power for more than half of its energy production, which is increasingly in demand amid Russia’s attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

Russia threatens to expel UN monitors from Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. IAEA experts may only remain at the occupied nuclear facility “as long as our country considers their stay there to be justified,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry warned.

Defense Ministry pledges to draft bill on demobilization by Dec. 18, official says. It is not yet clear what conditions the Defense Ministry will propose for discharging military personnel from service, secretary of the parliamentary defense committee Roman Kostenko said.

Read our exclusives

‘We are exhausted’ — how Ukrainians cope with nightly Russian drone attacks

Marharyta Koldanova was standing at a bus stop in a residential area in Kyiv when a sudden loud noise went off, prompting her to take out a tourniquet from her bag and prepare to quickly apply it in case she got injured by an aerial attack. “I was overwhelmed with adrenaline and stress,” Koldanova told the Kyiv Independent.

Photo: Kostiantyn Liberov/Libkos/Getty Images

Ukraine war latest: Ukraine repels Russian attempt to enter Kupiansk, military says

“All Russian attacks in this direction were successfully repelled. Russian invaders failed to enter Kupiansk. The city is under the control of Ukraine’s Armed Forces,” General Staff spokesperson Andrii Kovalev told Ukrinform. The statement came after reports that some Russian units managed to enter Kupiansk.

Photo: Gian Marco Benedetto/Getty Images

**Kremlin finds new enemies to target — Russians without kids  **

More than a decade since Russian lawmakers banned “LGBTQ+ propaganda,” the Kremlin’s self-declared crusade for “traditional values” has found a new target — Russians who don’t want children.

Photo: Contributor/Getty Images

We asked experts to review Russia’s Su-57 fighter jet performance

The long and troubled history of Russia’s prized Su-57 fighter jet appeared to take another turn for the worse in recent days when an opportunity for the Kremlin to flex some military muscle turned into global ridicule and embarrassment.

Photo: Chen Xiao/VCG via Getty Images

Human cost of war

Mass Russian drone strike on Odesa kills 1, injures at least 8. One woman was killed and at least eight others were injured, including a 9-year-old boy, Governor Oleh Kiper said. The attack destroyed an apartment building in the city center.

Russian attacks against Ukraine kill 2, injure 28. Ukrainian air defenses shot down 21 of the 59 drones launched by Russia overnight, while 38 others were “lost” across Ukraine, the Air Force said.

Russian soldiers murdered civilian in Donetsk Oblast village, prosecutors say. Pictures shared on the prosecutor’s office’s Telegram channel show a woman in a pink jacket walking on the outskirts of the village, with a subsequent picture showing her lying on the ground with her face in the mud.

General Staff: Russia has lost 716,070 troops in Ukraine since Feb. 24, 2022. This number includes 1,690 casualties Russian forces suffered just over the past day.

Opinions and insights

Opinion: Aid to Ukraine is now a 2-way street for US drone warfare

“The nature of warfare has fundamentally changed over the past year, and Ukraine’s aid no longer needs to be a one-way street. Ukraine can now offer its expertise and technology to the U.S. in return,” Ukrainian policy analyst Olena Kryzhanivska and defense analyst Paul Schwennesen write.

Photo: Sean Gallup/Getty Images

Opinion: How EU nations can prevent the worst-case outcome for Ukraine

“Russian President Vladimir Putin clearly hopes to exploit any effort by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump to enforce a de facto capitulation of Ukraine. How might this plan unfold, and what should EU countries do now?” writes Jakub Janda, director of the European Values Center for Security Policy.

Photo: Hauke-Christian Dittrich/POOL/AFP/Getty

Opinion: Trump could actually be good for Europe

“With Trump, it is difficult to predict anything, especially now that he is no longer surrounded by serious, reasonable advisors and seasoned politicians. … But Trump’s unpredictability may have a silver lining,” writes Sławomir Sierakowski, a senior fellow at Mercator.

Photo: Thierry Charlier/AFP via Getty Images

International response

European Commission approves $4.3 billion for Ukraine under Ukraine Facility program. “As we’re approaching the 1000th day of Russia’s atrocious war, we will help keep the Ukrainian state running while the country fights for survival. We are in it for the long haul,” Ursula Von der Leyen said.

European officials opening up to ‘land-for-security’ deal in Ukraine, WP reports. While publicly declaring full support for Ukraine’s territorial integrity, the idea of ceding territory is gaining more traction among Western officials, even though the details of such an agreement remain unclear, the Washington Post wrote.

EU preparing more sanctions against Russia’s shadow fleet, Bloomberg says. EU member nations hope to approve the package by the end of the year, in time to adopt the sanctions on Feb. 24, 2025 — the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

I can’t imagine Trump abandoning Ukraine, Polish president says. “President Donald Trump — I cannot imagine that he would allow Russia to destroy Ukraine, a Ukraine in which the United States, in which the American taxpayer, for whose money President Donald Trump will soon be held accountable when he takes office, has invested such huge amounts,” Polish President Andrzej Duda said.

Abandoning Ukraine would be worse for US than Afghanistan withdrawal, ex-UK chief diplomat says. “(Donald) Trump highlighted (Joe) Biden’s humiliation over Afghanistan… but if he ends up with the collapse of Ukraine, that’ll be a far bigger humiliation for the U.S. and the power of the U.S. in the world,” former U.K. Foreign Secretary William Hague said at the Daily T podcast.

Trump’s nominee for UN envoy dodges question on earlier support for Ukraine’s NATO accession. When asked about the matter again by CNN after Trump tapped her for the U.N. job, Stefanik’s office said the Congresswoman’s views fully align with those of the president-elect, without going into details.

Chinese oil refinery buys West African crude instead of Russian, Iranian, Bloomberg reports. Private Chinese oil refinery Landbridge Petrochemical Co. has made a rare purchase of a shipment of West African oil instead of typical import from sanctioned Iran and Russia, Bloomberg reported on Nov. 14.

Germany orders port to reject Russian LNG deliveries. Germany’s Economy Ministry instructed its state-operated import terminal “to reject LNG deliveries from Russia until further notice.”

In other news

Marco Rubio confirmed as Trump’s secretary of state pick. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Nov. 13 officially confirmed Republican Senator Marco Rubio as his nominee for the secretary of state, the U.S.’s top diplomacy job.

Hegseth’s nomination for defense secretary ‘shocks’ Pentagon officials, Politico reports. Pentagon officials are “shocked” and “alarmed” by President-elect Donald Trump’s decision to nominate Fox News anchor and veteran Pete Hegseth as U.S. defense secretary, Politico reported on Nov. 13.

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