A winter storm blanketed much of the central Midwest with snow on Sunday at the end of the Thanksgiving weekend, bringing blizzard-like conditions that grounded hundreds of flights and forced the closure of major highways on one of the busiest travel days of the year.
“It’s going to be messy,” said Todd Kluber, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service who is based in suburban Chicago.
With much of the central Plains and Great Lakes region under blizzard or winter storm warnings, about 1,200 flights headed to or from the U.S. had been canceled as of Sunday evening, according to the flight-tracking website FlightAware.
Most were supposed to be routed through Chicago or Kansas City, Mo. — areas forecast to be hit hard by the storm.
Strong winds and snow created blizzard conditions across much of Nebraska and parts of Kansas, Iowa and Missouri. The National Weather Service was warning that those conditions would make travel difficult in places.
By midday, the blizzard warning was extended to parts of eastern Illinois near Chicago, where snow is forecast to fall at a rate of about 2 inches an hour.
Other parts of the central Plains and Great Lakes region were under a winter storm warning that could see a foot or more of snow dumped in some places by the end of the day.
In eastern Nebraska, part of Interstate 80 between Lincoln and Omaha was closed Sunday morning because of multiple accidents after snow blanketed that area. That included semitrailer trucks jackknifed across the highway. It was reopened by Sunday afternoon.
In Kansas, Gov. Jeff Colyer issued a state of emergency declaration. The action came as a large stretch of Interstate 70, spanning much of the state, was closed between Junction City and WaKeeney.
in Missouri, a portion of Interstate 29 was shut down near the Iowa border.
As much as a foot was expected in Chicago. Four to 6 inches of snow was expected in the Kansas City area. Forecasters predict more than a foot of snow is likely in southeastern Nebraska, northeastern Kansas, northwestern Missouri and southwestern Iowa.
By Monday morning, the storm was expected to hit parts of northern Indiana and southern Michigan.
Kluber said that the storm was expected to hit the Chicago region Sunday night and that rain will give way to heavy snowfall and “near whiteout conditions” that will make for dangerous travel.
Nov. 21 (UPI) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told his people that the country “may soon face an extremely difficult choice” in response to the peace plan put forward by the President Donald Trump administration.
“Either the loss of dignity or the risk of losing a key partner. Either 28 complicated points or the hardest winter yet — and the risks that follow,” the Kyiv Independent reported Zelensky said on Telegram.
The president on Thursday indicated that he is giving Ukraine until Thanksgiving to accept the plan. He said on Fox News Radio’sBrian Kilmeade Show, “Well, we have, you know, I’ve had a lot of deadlines, but if things are working well, you tend to extend the deadlines,” Trump to a question about the deadline. “But Thursday is, we think, an appropriate time.”
The administration has said that if Zelensky doesn’t accept by the deadline, Ukraine will lose U.S. support, The Washington Post reported.
The plan asks Ukraine to allow Russia to take some Ukrainian territory in the Donbas region in southeast Ukraine. Zelensky has in the past refused any effort to give Russia land. It would also require Ukraine to significantly cut the size of its army and give up many of its weapons.
“Ukraine’s national interest must be taken into account,” Zelensky said in his speech. “We will pursue a calm dialogue with America and all of our partners. There will be a constructive search for solutions with our main partner.”
He also said that the country needs more unity.
“We need to pull ourselves together, stop the quarrels, stop the political games. The state must function. The parliament of a country at war must work in unity. The government must work effectively,” he said.
Some European leaders have voiced their support of Ukraine since the details were released. They’ve insisted that any decisions must be made by Kyiv.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer had a joint call with Zelensky Friday and, “agreed to continue to pursue the goal of safeguarding vital European and Ukrainian interests in the long term,” CNN reported.
A German press office statement said that includes “ensuring that the line of contact is the starting point for an understanding and that the Ukrainian armed forces remain capable of effectively defending Ukraine’s sovereignty.”
Zelensky told his people that he would work around the clock and would not betray his country.
“I will present arguments, I will persuade, I will offer alternatives, but we will definitely not give the enemy any reason to say that Ukraine does not want peace, that it is disrupting the process, and that Ukraine is not ready for diplomacy,” he said.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks during the press briefing in the James S. Brady Briefing Room at the White House on Thursday. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo
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Russia has created a new branch of its military to oversee the production, operation, and testing of uncrewed systems and the tactics and techniques for using them. Called the Unmanned Systems Forces (USF), the new branch mirrors a similar one Ukraine created last year, even using the same name. Its work will encompass aerial, land and surface drones.
In history’s most drone-saturated battlefield, both sides are seeking to streamline operations to better use the resources they have and stay ahead of the never-ending technology development cycle. The objective of the Russian USF is to do just that, according to its deputy chief.
“We have already formed established regiments, battalions, and other units,” Lt. Col. Sergei Ishtuganov told the Russian KP.Ru media outlet. “Their combat operations are conducted according to a unified plan and in coordination with other units of the troop groups. At the same time, the expansion of existing and the creation of new units… continues. We are assigning operators, engineers, technicians, and other support specialists to these units.”
“Have you noticed what the enemy complains about most when surrounded in the Pokrovsk-Myrnohrad agglomeration? That’s right – drones,” exclaimed Ishtuganov. “Just a year ago, our troops weren’t so saturated with drones of all types. But gradually, Russian units managed to turn the tide in the skies and effectively ‘squeeze’ them from the Ukrainian Armed Forces.”
Beyond the battlefield, the USF is “conducting combat testing of both drones and electronic warfare systems, working closely with manufacturers,” the USF deputy chief noted.
“If necessary, we modify these or other products, taking into account the rapidly changing situation,” Ishtuganov explained. “The enemy plays with frequencies; we reconfigure our electronic warfare systems. The enemy begins to suppress us with electronic warfare; we switch to other frequencies. And this is an ongoing process, requiring, among other things, technical expertise.”
A Ukrainian serviceman tests an anti-drone backpack. (Photo by YURIY DYACHYSHYN / AFP) YURIY DYACHYSHYN
While procurement is a major effort of the new military branch, Ishtuganov offered no details about the process. It is important to note that Russia is now receiving a good deal of assistance from Beijing, now producing drones completely made up of Chinese components. Overall, Moscow has announced lofty intentions for producing new drones. It has a factory where the goal is to build 6,000 Shahed-type drones per month. Russia also has plans to make a total of 2 million first-person-view (FPV) drones this year.
Equipment is just part of the equation. The USF is also recruiting top military talent, Ishtuganov said.
“The effectiveness of this new branch of the armed forces, which is still in its infancy, is demonstrated by its personnel approach,” he suggested. “The best service members are selected, taking into account their combat achievements, among other things.”
The USF was created at the behest of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who in December 2024 ordered the Defense Ministry to establish a dedicated branch for drone warfare. While Putin shrugged off concerns about the capabilities of his drone operations, one Russian military observer said a combination of issues had impeded operations. One is how troops are deployed, explained the Forces Group “ZAPAD” | News Telegram channel. The other is how they have been equipped.
“Drone operators should not be sent as assault troops, as some commanders do,” the Telegram channel pointed out. “Otherwise, the whole process loses its meaning. Patching holes is a consequence of problems. And the existence of such problems is a result of careless command actions. There is hope that the (USF) troops will become a kind of ‘shield’ for all successful drone operators.”
Resources have been another big issue.
“In combat conditions, losing a drone is very easy, and if you have a strict limit on the number of drones — you are limited in your capabilities,” Forces Group posited. “It is no secret that drones are currently in short supply almost everywhere. Especially night drones. Especially our equivalents of Baba Yaga.” Baba Yagas, as we have explained in the past, are large industrial quadcopter drones armed with guided munitions.
Engineers of the Achilles drone battalion testing night bomber drone Vampire (Russians also call it Baba Yaga) before the night mission on the Chasiv Yar direction in Donetsk region. (Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images Serhii Korovayny) Serhii Korovayny
The only Russian unit immune to this concern is Rubicon, a secretive force of drone operators that helped Russia push back Ukraine’s Kursk invasion.
“There is hope that the UAV Forces are being created, among other things, to solve the supply problem so that each unit can eventually call itself at least a mini-Rubicon,” Forces Group “Zapad” postulated.
Samuel Bendett, a drone expert and researcher with the Center for Naval Analyses think tank concurred with much of the Telegram channel’s hypothesis.
“There are no official standards today for many tactical drone R&D and uses in the Russian military,” he told us. “There are uneven supplies, there are issues with UAV pilots treated as typical infantry used for assaults, uneven supplies of qualified pilots and drones, etc. There is hope from many in the Russian military that USF will solve many of these issues.”
The USF is not Russia’s first attempt to wrangle its drone operations. As we reported earlier this year, the Russian Navy dedicated regiments to operate uncrewed surface, undersea, air and land systems.
Ukraine, as we noted at the top of this story, created its own USF to address many of the same issues. The reaction in Kyiv toward the Russian version is one of concern.
“Heard a detailed intelligence report on the development of the enemy’s unmanned forces,” Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, noted on his Telegram channel. “The occupiers are following our experience, particularly in creating regiments of unmanned systems and interceptor drones, and are directing significant resources towards this. We must constantly improve to maintain technological superiority.”
“Special attention,” he added, “is given to scaling the [Ukrainian] Unmanned Systems Forces units: increasing the number of trained crews, involving personnel, and creating infrastructure for their effective operation.”
One Ukrainian official posited that Russia’s following Kyiv’s lead presents a real danger.
“They copied our successful solutions,” Andrii Kovalenko, the head of Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation, stated on Telegram. “It was we who created strike UAV companies, which in 2023 allowed us to have an advantage over the enemy. And now the SBS operates very effectively. But the Russians copy and try to scale our innovations by quantity. This is a threat, of course.”
