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As a result of Washington’s attacks on so-called “drug trafficking vessels” and other international military exercises, dozens of people have died in international waters as a result of US forces’ deployments to the Latin American region, including an aircraft carrier group, stealth fighter jets, and thousands of troops.

In a video message he delivered to US forces over the Thanksgiving holiday, Trump said, “You really are the backbone of America’s air force, and you’ve been working in recent weeks to deter Venezuelan drug traffickers, of which there are many.

Trump remarked, “Of course, there aren’t any coming in by sea any more.” We will start preventing them by landing on land as a result of the people’s refusal to deliver goods by sea.

The land is simpler, but that will start very soon. We issued a warning. Stop poisoning our nation.

“But we’re going to handle that,” he said. Already, we are exerting a lot. Nearly stopped, we think. The US president continued, “It’s about 85 percent stopped by sea.”

At least 83 people have been killed by US military strikes on ships in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean since September, totaling more than 20. The campaign of attacks has been characterized by legal experts and governments in Latin America as extrajudicial killings.

Regional leaders claim that the attacks have resulted in the deaths of primarily fishermen despite Washington’s lack of proof that the vessels attacked were drug traffickers.

Trump claimed Maduro and senior Venezuelan government officials are involved in the drug trade and previously warned of potential military action against sites there.

Officials in Caracas claim that the US is using drug trafficking as a pretext to impose military rule in Venezuela in order to overthrow Maduro.

Despite weeks of US threats, Maduro said Venezuelans wouldn’t be intimidated.

Foreign and imperialist forces have been threatening to end the peace in Venezuela, the Caribbean Sea, South America, and Venezuela for 17 weeks using false and extravagant claims that no one believes, including in the powerful Venezuelan public opinion.

In his speech, which was broadcast on national television, Maduro stated, “Today, we say that there is no threat or aggression that frightens our people or takes us by surprise.”

On Friday, November 28, this is how things are going.

Fighting

• According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Russian forces have “completely surrounded” and “controlled” the troubled Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk.
• Additionally, Putin asserted that the fighting would stop once Ukrainian troops left their posts in crucial areas. However, Russian forces will forcefully accomplish their goals if they don’t.
• The Russian president added that it was “noticeably increasing” the pace of Russia’s rapid advance on the front line from all angles.
• The top commander of Ukraine, Oleksandr Syrskii, claimed on social media that Ukrainian troops had been preventing Russian forces from launching fresh assaults on Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad. Additionally, Smyrskii claimed that Russia had to use reserve forces.
• Over the course of one day, Russia’s air defenses shot down 118 Ukrainian drones, including 52 over the country’s Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, according to the Moscow-based Ministry of Defense.

Process of peace

• Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, stated that Ukrainian delegations and Americans will work together this week to find a solution to the conflict in Geneva and offer security guarantees for Kyiv.
• Putin claimed that Russia would continue to fight if the draft peace proposals that the US and Ukraine discussed could serve as the foundation for upcoming agreements to end Moscow’s conflict with Ukraine.
• Putin also referred to the Ukrainian leadership as illegitimate and said signing any peace agreements with them was absurd.
• After Zelenskyy’s elected term expired, the Ukrainian leadership, according to the Russian president, ceased to hold elections. Under martial law and defending its territory from Russian attacks, Kyiv claims it cannot hold elections.
• Andriy Yermak, the chief of staff for the Ukrainian president, told the US magazine The Atlantic that Zelenskyy would not agree to give up land to Russia in exchange for peace.
• No one should bet on us giving up territory as long as Zelenskyy is president. He won’t leave any territory unmarked, Yermak said.
• German Chancellor Friedrich Merz argued that Ukraine will still require strong security guarantees and strong armed forces even after a peace deal with Russia, and that no territorial concessions should be made.
• “We are very pleased with the US government’s efforts to solve this problem. However, Merz added that both the security interests of Europeans and Ukraine must be protected.
• Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, stated that Moscow finds NATO membership unacceptable.
• She told reporters, “The threat is still the NATO expansion,” for us. “We are still concerned about NATO’s desire to bring Ukraine into its orbit.”

Sanctions

• Companies can continue doing business with Lukoil International, a subsidiary of Russia’s sanctioned Lukoil, which has its headquarters in Austria, thanks to the United Kingdom’s temporary license. Payments and other transactions are permitted under certain conditions, including that Lukoil’s funds remain frozen, as per the licence’s effective date of February 26.
• The EU’s plan to use frozen Russian state assets to aid Ukraine’s solvability, according to Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever, could stifle the development of a potential peace deal to put an end to the nearly four-year conflict.
• In a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, which the Financial Times obtained, De Wever stated that “having to advance the proposed reparations loan scheme would have as collateral damage that we as EU are effectively preventing reaching a final peace deal.”
• Putin claimed that Russia is developing a series of retaliatory measures in response to potential European asset seizures. He warned that any attempt to seize Russian assets would constitute “a theft of property” and harm the world financial system.

Regional security

• German federal prosecutors reported that a Ukrainian man who is alleged to have organized the Nord Stream gas pipeline’s sabotage in 2022 has arrived in Germany following his extradition’s approval last week. Russian gas was largely cut off from Europe by the explosions that destroyed the Baltic Sea pipeline three years ago.
• Viktor Orban, the president of Hungary, announced plans to discuss the situation on Friday to ensure that Hungary receives sufficient Russian crude and gas supplies, which would also allow it to supply the neighboring Serbia.
• Russia announced at the end of December that it would retaliate against Warsaw’s decision to close the Russian consulate in Gdansk by closing the Polish consulate in Irkutsk.

Russian politics

Eight men allegedly participated in a deadly Ukrainian truck bomb attack on a Russian bridge that connects southern Russia and Crimea, and were given life sentences by a Russian military court.
• The eight men who had been found guilty of terrorism-related terrorism ties to an organized crime organization that assisted Ukraine in carrying out the bombing are charged with helping.
• The attack, which left five people dead and damaged what was a crucial supply route for Russian forces fighting in Ukraine, was blamed on Ukraine’s SBU domestic intelligence agency.

After being ambushed, Trump claimed that Sarah Beckstrom, a member of the West Virginia National Guard, was shot in the double shooting on Wednesday evening and later died from wounds.

Beckstrom, 20, was described by President Trump as a “highly respected, young, magnificent person.”

He claimed that Andrew Wolfe, a 24-year-old fellow service member, is still in critical condition.

Trump addressed troops in a video call to mark the US Thanksgiving holiday, telling them, “He’s in very bad shape.”

The main suspect in the shootings of the two National Guard members is Afghan national Rahmanaullah Lakanwal, 29.

Before emigrating to the US in 2021, shortly after the withdrawal of Western forces from Afghanistan, Lakanwal was reportedly employed by the US spy agency there.

Beckstrom left high school and joined the West Virginia National Guard two years ago, according to Rosiland Jordan, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Washington, DC.

She and her partner were ambushed by a man, according to Jordan, who was also a member of the West Virginia National Guard, on Wednesday afternoon, mid-afternoon.

If either or both of the victims did not survive the gun attack, according to US Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro, who confirmed on Thursday that Lakanwal would face first-degree murder charges against her.

According to Pirro, “We are praying that they survive and that the first-degree murder will not be the highest charge.”

Make no mistake, she said, “But if they don’t, that will undoubtedly be the charge.”

The Trump administration announced following the attack that it was reexamining all green cards issued to people who immigrated to the US from 19 nations, including Afghanistan.

According to Joseph Edlow, the head of US Citizenship and Immigration Services, the president ordered a “full scale, rigorous re-examination of every green card for every alien from every country of concern” on Thursday night.