Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,373

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.