Category World News

On Thursday, November 27, this is how things are going.

Fighting

• On Wednesday, violent clashes broke out in eastern Ukraine, including those in Slobozhanske, Kupiansk, Lyman, Kramatorsk, Kostiantynivka, Pokrovsk, Huliaipole, and Orikhiv.
• In the strategic town of Huliaipole in the southeast of Zaporizhia, where forces are battling for “every metre” of land amid rising Russian shelling and drone attacks, the Ukrainian military reported some of the fiercest fighting.
• Russian airstrikes in Zaporizhzhia city, which were carried out by Russian drones in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, resulted in the deaths of 12 women and a woman.
• The Ukrainian military claimed that the explosion sparked a fire at a Russian military-industrial complex in Chuvashia.
• The Ukrainian Armed Forces’ General Staff claimed that 1, 140 Russian soldiers had been killed or wounded in the previous day, according to the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Additionally, it claimed to have destroyed two aircraft, three armored combat vehicles, 21 artillery units, 214 drones, and one Russian tank.

Diplomacy

Russian officials expressed caution about the possibility of a quick peace agreement. While negotiations are “ongoing” and “serious,” it is “premature” to suggest a deal is on the table, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
• Sergey Ryabkov, a deputy foreign minister for Russia, stated that Moscow is not interested in discussing the Trump administration’s recently modified peace plan in public but that it will not disagree with its key demands. He claimed that “the success of this process in general is unknown.”
• The exact date of the meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to Russia’s Peskov, is still not known.
• Ursula von der Leyen, head of the European Commission, called the Trump-backed peace plan a “starting point” but called for more work to be done to ensure future Ukrainian and European security.
• Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, once more demanded more sanctions on Russia, accusing it of preventing peace efforts.
• Maria Malmer Stenergard, Sweden’s foreign minister, urged the EU to impose sanctions on Russia as soon as possible.
• Following a meeting of the EU’s foreign ministers, numerous Baltic states declared their support for Ukraine, with Estonia’s Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna stating that peace negotiations must begin with “firm conditions for the aggressor, not the victim.”

Energy

• The Ukrainian Ministry of Energy warned of emergency outages in some areas where Russian attacks have targeted energy infrastructure and urged the general public to conserve energy.
• The state will pay for up to 300 kilowatt hours per family per month to help 280, 000 families living in front-line areas “get through the winter period more easily and meet basic needs,” according to the country’s prime minister.
• Putin made the announcement that Russia’s state nuclear energy corporation is considering constructing a nuclear power plant there during a state visit to Kyrgyzstan.

As Myanmar’s military rulers prepare for the elections in November, 8, 665 people are being held on charges of opposing army rule, according to state media.

The election results on Thursday, which human rights organizations have criticized as a sham process, allowing prisoners to cast ballots in upcoming polls.

In a 2021 coup that sparked a civil war, Myanmar’s military seized power and threw up elections, which were praised as a return to normalcy for the Southeast Asian nation.

3, 085 people who were found guilty of making comments that “could cause fear or spread fake news” are eligible for reduced sentences under the order.

Additional 5, 580 people who are still at large have also been charged.

When the releases would take place, and how many of those who were covered were political prisoners were it not immediately known.

The measures were outlined in a statement from a spokesman for the Myanmar military government, Zaw Min Tun, who spoke on Wednesday before the amnesty was officially announced.

The Associated Press news agency received a message from a Yangon Insein Prison official on Thursday, but he did not specify the names or phone numbers of the prisoners who would be freed.

Releases took several days in some earlier amnesties.

Numerous people gathered on Thursday morning to welcome friends and family members who were being freed under an amnesty outside Insein Prison, which has for decades been the main detention facility for political prisoners.

Aung San Suu Kyi, 80, who has been essentially imprisoned since the military’s military’s seized control in February 2021, was not immediately known for his inclusion in the prisoner release. She is currently serving a sentence of 27 years.

Due to the lack of free media and the arrest of the majority of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party leaders, critics claim that the election will be neither free nor fair.

The director of Burma Campaign UK, Mark Farmaner, wrote on X: “It’s wonderful news for the prisoners.”

However, he added that Burmese military are using political prisoners “as expected” to try to create a false narrative of reform before the elections, “for public relations purposes.”