Friday, November 29

Russia’s war against Ukraine

A cashier uses his phone torch to serve customers in a restaurant with no electricity during a partial blackout in Kyiv on Nov. 28, 2024, following Russian strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure. (Roman Pilipey/AFP via Getty Images)

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Netherlands hands over 3 Patriot air defense launchers to Ukraine. “This saves lives and protects vital infrastructure. It is and remains in our common interest to stop Russian aggression,” Dutch Defense Minister Ruben Brekelmans said.

Ukraine destroys Russian $5 million radar system in Crimea, military intelligence claims. Podlet is a modern mobile radar system designed to detect air targets at low and extremely low altitudes. The system has an estimated price tag of around $5 million.

Putin threatens to target ‘decision-making centers’ in Kyiv with Oreshnik missile. Speaking at the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) summit in Astana, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia’s military leadership is now “choosing targets” in Ukraine to hit them with Oreshnik.

‘Putin wants to escalate’ before Trump takes office — Zelensky hits back at Oreshnik threats. “Putin wants to escalate the situation now so that President Trump fails to end the war,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

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Russia ‘unlikely’ to launch nuclear attack despite Putin’s threats, US intelligence says. Intelligence assessments over the past seven months have shown that a nuclear escalation is unlikely to result from a decision to ease restrictions on Ukraine’s use of U.S. weapons.

Drones reportedly attack Krasnodar Krai, woman suffers injuries. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) reportedly attacked two settlements in Russia’s Krasnodar Krai on Nov. 28, Governor Veniamin Kondratiev claimed on his Telegram channel.

Ukraine withdraws over 20,000 mortar shells due to malfunction. Out of 54,000 120 mm mortar shells suspected of having defects, about 24,000 are to be withdrawn, Strategic Industries Minister Herman Smetanin said on Nov. 28.

Russian troops operated torture chamber for Ukrainians in Belarus in 2022, media reports. The chamber was located on Belarusian government-owned property in the town of Naroulia, not far from the border with Ukraine, the Belarusian Investigative Center reported

Read our exclusives

Ukraine war latest: Russia’s large-scale attack strikes a ‘massive blow’ at Ukraine’s energy system

Russia launched a large-scale missile and drone attack against Ukraine on the morning of Nov. 28, targeting energy infrastructure across the country, including the far-western regions.

Photo: State Emergency Service

‘It’s excruciating’ – Ukrainians describe surviving Russian attacks that cost them health, loved ones, and homes

Anna Kotova was chatting with her sister on a video call, admiring her image on the screen. It was her 19th birthday, and for the first time in a while, she was feeling good about how she looked. Then, in an instant, everything went dark. “The missile hit right after I thought that.”

Photo: Gaelle Girbes/Getty Images

Trump ally Tucker Carlson slams Biden for giving Ukraine land mines, says ‘killing is the point’

Conservative talking head with Donald Trump’s ear describes Volodymyr Zelensky as a dictator, claiming that helping Ukraine is not about defending democracy. Ukraine pushes back.

Photo: Gian Marco Benedetto/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Human cost of war

Russia’s drone attack damages children’s medical center in Kyiv, injuries reported. Russian forces launched attack drones targeting Kyiv and other regions on the evening of Nov. 28. In one district of the capital, debris from a drone caused a fire on the facade of a children’s medical center.

Russian soldiers suspected of executing 4 more Ukrainian POWs near Pokrovsk. Four unarmed Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) were apparently shot and killed by Russian forces in Donetsk Oblast earlier this November, adding to the five previously reported executions of Ukrainian soldiers, the Prosecutor General’s Office said on Nov. 28.

Opinions and insights

Ukraine’s fight against Russian invasion undermined by draft-dodging graft

Zelensky’s administration is accelerating reform of medical commissions gauging whether men are fit to fight after some officials were exposed for corruption and fake disabilities.

Photo: Sergei Supinsky /AFP via Getty Images

Can Russia sustain its war effort as ruble plummets, inflation soars?

With the purchasing power of the Russian ruble hitting the lowest point since March 2022, the economic toll of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine becomes glaring.

Photo: Sergei Guneyev / AFP via Getty Images

International response

Monthly inflation in Russia accelerates, hitting a record number in 2.5 years. According to the Federal State Statistics Service (RosStat), during the week of Nov. 19-25, the consumer price index increased by 0.36%, up 1.15% from the beginning of the month, and over 8% from the beginning of the year.

Ukraine maintains ‘good dialogue’ with potential Trump’s peace envoy, Kyiv says. “Keith Kellogg is not a new person for Ukraine. The Embassy of Ukraine in the U.S. has maintained close ties with him, in particular within the framework of expert diplomacy in recent years, and has developed and maintained a good dialogue with him during this time,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi said.

Foreign Ministry says Kyiv discusses mobilization strategy with partners, calls on faster military aid. “We are now in the situation when we need more equipment to arm all the people that have already been mobilized, and we think the first priority is to send quicker, faster military aid,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi said on Nov. 28.

Boris Johnson calls for British, European peacekeepers in Ukraine as part of potential peace deal. “I don’t think we should be sending in combat troops to take on the Russians,” former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said. “But I think as part of the solution, as part of the end state, you’re going to want to have multinational European peace-keeping forces monitoring the border, helping the Ukrainians.”

In other news

Zelensky signs law on ‘historic’ tax increase. The bill, which was passed by the Ukrainian parliament on Oct. 10, will raise taxes by Hr 8 billion ($192 million) in 2024 and Hr 141 billion ($3.4 billion) in 2025, lawmaker Yaroslav Zhelezniak said, as the country struggles to shore up its budget deficit amid Russia’s ongoing full-scale war.

Russian lawyer sentenced to 7 years in prison for publicly speaking out against Ukraine war, media reports. Russian lawyer Dmitry Talantov, who once chaired the regional lawyers’ association in Udmurtia, was accused of posting several social media comments condemning Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

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