RussiaUkraine

American and Ukrainian officials are engaged in talks aimed at creating “reliable security guarantees” for Ukraine as part of a US-backed peace plan ahead of a critical visit to Moscow by United States special envoy Steve Witkoff.

At the meeting in Florida on Sunday, a Ukrainian delegation led by Rustem Umerov, head of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council, sat down with Witkoff and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who said the talks are aimed at “creating a pathway” for a sovereign Ukraine.

“We have clear directives and priorities: safeguarding Ukrainian interests, ensuring substantive dialogue, and advancing on the basis of the progress achieved in Geneva,” Umerov wrote on X.

He added negotiators want to “secure real peace for Ukraine and reliable, long-term security guarantees”.

The talks come a week after Rubio and Ukrainian negotiators met in Geneva, Switzerland to revise US President Donald Trump’s peace plan, which initially was criticised as a Russian wish list. The sit-down sets the stage for Witkoff’s planned meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which Trump earlier signalled would take place this week.

Putin said the US draft – which has not yet been published – could serve as a “basis for future agreements”, adding his talks with Witkoff should focus on the Russia-controlled Donbas and Crimea regions.

Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who is participating in the Florida talks, may also be present in Moscow.

“This is about ending a war in a way that creates a mechanism for a way forward that will allow them [Ukraine] to be independent and sovereign and never have another war again, and create tremendous prosperity for its people – not just rebuild the country but to enter an era of extraordinary economic progress,” said Rubio.

Talks between US and Ukrainian officials got off to a “good start” and are taking place in a “warm atmosphere conducive to potential progressive outcome”, said Ukraine’s first deputy Foreign Minister Sergiy Kyslytsya on X.

‘Important days’

The negotiations come at a sensitive moment for Ukraine as it continues to push back against Russian forces that invaded in 2022, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reeling from a corruption scandal that led to the resignation of his chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, this week.

It was Yermak who sat down with Rubio in Geneva last week to make amendments to Trump’s original 28-point plan, which initially envisioned Ukraine ceding the entire eastern region of the Donbas to Russia, limiting the size of its military, and giving up on joining NATO.

The US pared back the original draft to 19 points following criticism from Kyiv and Europe, but the current contents remain unclear.

Zelenskyy wrote on X that the United States is “demonstrating a constructive approach”.

“In the coming days, it is feasible to flesh out the steps to determine how to bring the war to a dignified end,” he said.

On Sunday, the Ukrainian president said he spoke with NATO chief Mark Rutte and noted, “These are important days and much can change.”

I spoke with Mark Rutte @SecGenNATO, and we will continue our conversation in the coming days. These are important days, and much can change. We are coordinating closely, and in our efforts – and in the efforts of all our partners – it is our joint measures and shared positions…

— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) November 30, 2025

On Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron hosts Zelenskyy for talks in Paris, the French presidency announced.

As Russia advances on the front line, its forces have targeted Ukraine’s capital and the region for two nights in a row ahead of the talks in the US.

Russian attacks on Ukraine overnight on Saturday killed six people and wounded dozens of others across the country, and cut power to 400,000 households in Kyiv.

A drone attack on the outskirts of Kyiv killed one person and wounded 11, the regional governor said.

Hours earlier, a Ukrainian security source said Kyiv was responsible for attacks on two oil tankers in the Black Sea that it believed were covertly transporting sanctioned Russian oil.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s top aide resigned this week amid a growing corruption scandal.

Andriy Yermak had been due to lead key talks with the US on the war with Russia this weekend.

So, what does this mean for Ukraine?

Presenter: Bernard Smith

Guests:

Olena Tregub – Secretary-general of Ukraine’s Independent Anti-Corruption Commission

Leonid Ragozin – Independent journalist and political analyst

Donnacha O Beachain – Professor of politics at Dublin City University

Two people were killed in the strikes on the capital, and a woman died in a combined missile and drone attack on the broader Kyiv region, officials said.

Russian drone and missile strikes in and around Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, have killed at least three people and wounded dozens of others, officials said, as Ukrainian representatives travelled to the United States for talks on a renewed push to end the war.

“Russia shot dozens of cruise and ballistic missiles and over 500 drones at ordinary homes, the energy grid, and critical infrastructure,” Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha wrote on X on Saturday.

“While everyone is discussing points of peace plans, Russia continues to pursue its ‘war plan’ of two points: to kill and destroy,” he added.

The Kyiv City Military Administration said two people were killed in the strikes on the capital in Kyiv. A woman died, and eight people were wounded in a combined missile and drone attack on the broader Kyiv region, according to the regional police.

Mayor Vitali Klitschko said 29 people were wounded in Kyiv, noting that falling debris from intercepted Russian drones hit residential buildings. He also said the western part of Kyiv had lost power.

Kyiv’s military administration head, Tymur Tkachenko, said in a social media post that a 42-year-old man was killed by a drone, while the man’s 10-year-old son was taken to hospital with “burns and other injuries”.

“The world should know that Russia is targeting entire families,” Tkachenko said, adding that the son was the only child recorded among the injured so far.

Following the attacks on Kyiv, EU Ambassador Katarina Mathernova cast doubt on Russia’s stated interest in a peace deal.

“While the world discusses a possible peace deal. Moscow answers with missiles, not diplomacy,” Mathernova said in a post on X.

Ukraine team heads to US

On the diplomatic front, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that his negotiators had left for Washington to seek a “dignified peace” and a rapid end to the war begun by Russia in 2022.

Zelenskyy is under growing pressure from Washington to agree to a US proposal to end the war that critics say heavily favours Moscow.

The Ukrainian team is being led by former defence chief Rustem Umerov, following the resignation on Friday of his chief of staff Andriy Yermak amid a corruption probe.

“The task is clear: to swiftly and substantively work out the steps needed to end the war,” he posted on X.

Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine and head of the Ukrainian delegation Rustem Umerov, together with the team, is already on the way to the United States. Rustem delivered a report today, and the task is clear: to swiftly and substantively work out…

— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) November 29, 2025

“Ukraine continues to work with the United States in the most constructive way possible, and we expect that the results of the meetings in Geneva will now be hammered out in the United States.”

At Kyiv’s insistence, US President Donald Trump’s initial 28-point plan to end the war was revised during talks in Geneva with European and US officials. However, many contentious issues remain unresolved.

Black Sea attacks

Separately on Saturday, an official from the SBU security service said that Ukraine had hit two tankers used by Russia to export oil while skirting Western sanctions with marine drones in the Black Sea.

The joint operation to hit the so-called “shadow fleet” vessels was run by the SBU and Ukraine’s navy, the official told the Reuters news agency on condition of anonymity.

Turkish authorities have said that blasts rocked two shadow fleet tankers near Turkiye’s Bosphorus Strait on Friday, causing fires on the vessels, and rescue operations were launched for those on board.

The SBU official said both tankers – identified as the Kairos and Virat – were empty and on their way to the port of Novorossiysk, a major Russian oil terminal.

“Video [footage] shows that after being hit, both tankers sustained critical damage and were effectively taken out of service. This will deal a significant blow to Russian oil transportation,” the official said. They did not say when the strikes took place.

Ukraine has consistently called for tougher international measures for Russia’s “shadow fleet”, which it says is helping Moscow export vast quantities of oil and fund its war in Ukraine despite Western sanctions.

Authorities also designate Anti-Corruption Foundation as ‘terrorist’ group and consider total ban on WhatsApp.

Russian authorities have outlawed Human Rights Watch as an “undesirable organisation”, a label that, under a 2015 law, makes involvement with it a criminal offence.

Friday’s designation means the international human rights group must stop all work in Russia, and opens those who cooperate with or support the organisation to prosecution.

HRW has repeatedly accused Russia of suppressing dissenters and committing war crimes during its ongoing war against Ukraine.

“For over three decades, Human Rights Watch’s work on post-Soviet Russia has pressed the government to uphold human rights and freedoms,” the executive director at Human Rights Watch, Philippe Bolopion, said in a statement.

“Our work hasn’t changed, but what’s changed, dramatically, is the government’s full-throttled embrace of dictatorial policies, its staggering rise in repression, and the scope of the war crimes its forces are committing in Ukraine.”

The decision by the Russian prosecutor general’s office is the latest move in a crackdown on Kremlin critics, journalists and activists, which has intensified since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

In a separate statement on Friday, the office said it was opening a case against Russian feminist punk band Pussy Riot that would designate the group as an “extremist” organisation.

Separately, Russia’s Supreme Court designated on Thursday the Anti-Corruption Foundation set up by the late opposition activist Alexey Navalny as a “terrorist” group.

The ruling targeted the foundation’s United States-registered entity, which became the focal point for the group when the original Anti-Corruption Foundation was designated an “undesirable organisation” by the Russian government in 2021.

Russia’s list of “undesirable organisations” currently covers more than 275 entities, including prominent independent news outlets and rights groups.

Among those are prominent news organisations like Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, think tanks like Chatham House, anticorruption group Transparency International, and environmental advocacy organisation World Wildlife Fund.

Founded in 1978, Human Rights Watch monitors human rights violations in various countries across the world.

WhatsApp might be ‘completely blocked’

Meanwhile, Russia’s state communications watchdog threatened on Friday to block WhatsApp entirely if it fails to comply with Russian law.

In August, Russia began limiting some calls on WhatsApp, owned by Meta Platforms, and on Telegram, accusing the foreign-owned platforms of refusing to share information with law enforcement in fraud and “terrorism” cases.

On Friday, the Roskomnadzor watchdog again accused WhatsApp of failing to comply with Russian requirements designed to prevent and combat crime.

“If the messaging service continues to fail to meet the demands of Russian legislation, it will be completely blocked,” Interfax news agency quoted it as saying.

WhatsApp has accused Moscow of trying to block millions of Russians from accessing secure communication.

Russian authorities are pushing a state-backed rival app called MAX, which critics claim could be used to track users. State media have dismissed those accusations as false.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s chief of staff has resigned after investigators searched his home, as a widening corruption scandal engulfs one of Ukraine’s top negotiators in efforts to end the war. Al Jazeera’s Rory Challands reports from Kyiv with what we know.

Here’s where things stand on Saturday, November 29.

Fighting

• Russian drones struck six locations in Kyiv’s city centre and eastern suburbs early on Saturday, injuring four people, as apartment buildings and other dwellings were hit, said the head of Kyiv’s military administration, Tymur Tkachenko.
• Ukrainian forces are defending their positions and hunting down sabotage groups in the northeastern city of Kupiansk, despite Moscow’s claims that its troops are fully in control of the area, Ukraine’s top military commander, Oleksandr Syrskii, said.
• Russia seized Kupiansk in the first weeks of its 2022 full-scale invasion, but Ukrainian troops recaptured it later that year. Russian President Vladimir Putin then claimed on Thursday that the city was “fully in our hands”. Syrskii swiftly rejected the claims, saying that “the scale of lies from the Russian leadership about the situation in Kupiansk is astonishing”.
• Russian forces cleared Ukrainian troops from 6,585 buildings in the Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk in the last week amid fierce fighting, the Russian Ministry of Defence claimed.
• Ukraine said its forces have hit Russia’s Saratov oil refinery and the Saky airbase in the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula. “A series of explosions was recorded, followed by a fire in the target area,” Ukraine’s military said regarding the refinery strike.
• Russian air defence systems intercepted and destroyed 136 Ukrainian drones overnight, Moscow’s Defence Ministry has said.

Ukrainian politics

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, a close ally who has headed Ukraine’s negotiation team at fraught United States-backed peace talks, has quit, hours after anticorruption agents searched his home. Yermak was leading Ukraine’s effort to push back against peace terms proposed by the US, which would satisfy many of Moscow’s territorial and security demands.
• Zelenskyy said he would consider a replacement for his chief of staff on Saturday. “Russia is eager for Ukraine to make mistakes. We won’t make any,” Zelenskyy said in a video address, calling for unity. “Our work goes on. Our struggle goes on,” he added.
• Investigations into high-level corruption, coming just weeks after Ukraine’s justice and energy ministers resigned amid a wide-reaching probe, have sparked public outrage and thrust government leadership into crisis at a time when the country is fighting for its very survival.

Ceasefire talks

• In a video address to the nation, Zelenskyy said that senior Ukrainian officials representing the military, intelligence and Foreign Ministry would soon participate in talks with Washington officials on how to end the conflict.
• Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said that Russia expects to have information on the agreed points of a proposed peace plan by the time a US delegation arrives in Moscow next week. Peskov said that Moscow is working on the assumption that it is negotiating the plan solely with the US.

Sanctions

• A European Union spokesperson said that “intensive discussions” are ongoing, including with Belgium, on using frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine stay afloat. Belgium’s support for the plan is crucial as the assets the EU hopes to use are held by Belgium-based financial institution Euroclear.
• The talks come as Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever warned in a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen that using the assets could derail a Ukraine peace deal.
• German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he saw the need to use frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine as “increasingly urgent” and hoped there would soon be an agreement.
• Russia will deliver agreed crude and gas supplies to Hungary according to existing contracts, Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto said after a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
• Blasts have rocked two vessels from Russia’s shadow fleet of sanctioned oil tankers in the Black Sea, near Turkiye’s Bosphorus Strait. The 274-metre-long (898 ft) tanker Kairos suffered an explosion and caught fire in the Black Sea while en route from Egypt to Russia, Turkiye’s Ministry of Transport said. It said emergency response vessels were immediately dispatched to the scene, and the 25 crew members on board were safely rescued.
• The Kairos was heading to Russia’s Novorossiysk port when it reported “an external impact” causing a fire 28 nautical miles (51.8km) off the Turkish shore, Turkiye’s Directorate General for Maritime Affairs said.
• A second Russian tanker, Virat, was reportedly struck some 35 nautical miles (64.8km) offshore, further east in the Black Sea. The cause of the blasts was not immediately clear, but there have been incidents of ships hitting mines in the Black Sea in recent years.
• Russia has failed to win enough votes to rejoin the United Nations shipping agency’s governing council despite urging countries to back its nomination for a seat it lost in 2023. The outcome is a blow for Russia, which also failed to secure enough support in September to get elected to the UN aviation agency’s governing council, in another diplomatic rebuke of Moscow over its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Regional security

• US Secretary of State Marco Rubio plans to skip a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels next week, the Reuters news agency reports, citing two anonymous US officials, in a highly unusual absence of Washington’s top diplomat from a key transatlantic gathering at a crucial time for peace talks in Ukraine.
• US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau will represent Washington instead, said one of the officials. It was unclear why Rubio planned to skip the December 3 meeting. But his likely no-show comes as US and Ukrainian officials have been scrambling to narrow gaps over US President Donald Trump’s plan to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
• Poland has detained two Ukrainians and three Belarusians on charges of acting on the orders of foreign intelligence services, as Warsaw warns of Russian attempts to destabilise countries backing Kyiv. Poland says it has been targeted with arson and cyberattacks in what it calls a “hybrid war” waged by Russia to undermine support for Ukraine.
• Germany recorded its highest number of drone sightings over military bases in October, a senior intelligence official said, with a growing focus on naval installations. Previously, drones had often been spotted over army and air force bases, including those training Ukrainian troops.
• Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla, the daughter of former South African President Jacob Zuma, has resigned from parliament amid allegations that she lured 17 men to fight for Russia in Ukraine. Zuma-Sambudla was a lawmaker in the Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) opposition party led by her father. MK officials said she resigned voluntarily and that her departure from the National Assembly and all other public roles was effective immediately.
• Putin will visit India on December 4-5 at the invitation of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russian state news agencies reported.

Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla’s resignation comes amid an investigation into her role in luring South Africans to fight for Russia in war on Ukraine.

A daughter of former South African President Jacob Zuma has resigned from parliament amid allegations that she lured 17 men to fight as mercenaries in Russia’s war against Ukraine.

Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla’s resignation on Friday comes after police said she was under investigation for her alleged role in luring South Africans to Russia. The police announcement came after a group of men aged 20 to 39 ended up on the front lines of the conflict in Ukraine.

Zuma-Sambudla had served as a member of parliament since June 2024 for uMkhonto weSizwe (MK), an opposition party created by her father in 2023 following his expulsion from South Africa’s then-governing African National Congress.

“The national officials have accepted comrade Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla’s decision to resign and support her efforts to ensure that these young South Africans are brought back safely to their families,” the MK Party’s national chairperson, Nkosinathi Nhleko, told a news conference.

MK officials said Zuma-Sambudla’s resignation was voluntary and that her departure from the National Assembly and all other public roles was effective immediately.

The MK’s Nhleko also said that the party was not involved in luring the men to Russia and that Zuma-Sambudla’s resignation was not an admission of guilt, but added that MK would help support the families of the men stranded in Ukraine.

Zuma-Sambudla was present at the news conference but did not speak, and has not publicly responded to the accusations from her half-sister.

South Africa’s government said earlier this month that 17 of its citizens were stuck in Ukraine’s Donbas region after being tricked into fighting for mercenary forces under the pretext of lucrative employment contracts.

Then, last weekend, police said they would investigate Zuma-Sambudla after her half-sister made a formal request for the probe into her and two other people.

According to police, an affidavit submitted by Zuma-Sambudla’s half-sister, Nkosazana Bonganini Zuma-Mncube, alleged that Zuma-Sambudla and two other people tricked the South Africans into fighting by promising to provide them with security training in Russia. The identities of the other two people were unclear.

The affidavit alleges the South Africans were handed over to a Russian mercenary group and forced to fight in the conflict. It also says that eight of the 17 men were members of Zuma-Sambudla’s and Zuma-Mncube’s extended family.

South African presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya told Al Jazeera that the government had received “distress calls” from the group caught up in the Ukraine war, and authorities were “working ever so quietly” at all levels “to secure their safe return”.

“But also, there is an investigation that is ongoing, that’s looking at how they were recruited, who was involved, and what were they promised?” Magwenya said.

On Thursday, Jordan became the latest country to rebuke Russia for recruiting its citizens to fight, following the killing of two Jordanian nationals.

While Jordan did not specifically reference Russia’s war on Ukraine, the Jordanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it would “take all available measures” to end the further recruitment of Jordanians, and called for Moscow to terminate the contracts of its currently enlisted citizens.

Ukraine says Moscow has recruited at least 18,000 foreign fighters from 128 countries, according to figures shared by Ukrainian Brigadier General Dmytro Usov, who also said that almost 3,400 foreigners have died fighting for Russia.

Michael Appel, reporting for Al Jazeera from Johannesburg, said Zuma-Sambudla is seen as a divisive political figure in South Africa, and is already facing “serious charges” related to unrest in South Africa in 2021 that led to the deaths of hundreds of people.

She has denied any wrongdoing in that case and has pleaded not guilty to inciting violence through social media posts.

Ever since Donald Trump declared that he could end the war in Ukraine “within 24 hours”, much of the world has been waiting to see whether he could force Moscow and Kyiv into a settlement. Millions of views and scrolls, miles of news feeds and mountains of forecasts have been burned on that question.

Trump fed this expectation by insisting that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was running out of options and would eventually have to accept his deal. In reality, the opposite is true. It is Trump who has no leverage. He can threaten Nicolas Maduro with potential military action in or around Venezuela, but he has no influence over Vladimir Putin. Any sanctions harsh enough to damage Russia would also hit the wider Western economy, and there is not a single leader in the West willing to saw off the branch they are sitting on.

Armed intervention is even more implausible. From the first days of the full-scale invasion, NATO decided to support Ukraine with weapons and training while avoiding steps that could trigger a direct NATO–Russia war. That position has not changed.

As a result, Ukraine has been left in a position where, with or without sufficient support from its allies, it is in effect fighting Russia alone. All talk of peace or a ceasefire has proved to be a bluff, a way for Vladimir Putin to buy time and regroup. Putin’s strategy relies on outlasting not only Ukraine’s army but also the patience and political unity of its allies. The United States has now circulated a revised version of its peace framework, softening some of the most contentious points after consultations with Kyiv and several European governments. Yet the Kremlin continues to demand major territorial concessions and the withdrawal of Ukrainian forces. Without this, Russia says it will not halt its advance. Ukraine, for its part, maintains that it will not surrender territory.

Once it became clear that the diplomatic track offered no breakthrough, the United States all but halted arms deliveries to Ukraine. Officials blamed the federal government shutdown, although the real cause was unlikely to be a shortage of movers at the Pentagon. Either way, American military assistance has dwindled to a trickle, consisting mostly of supplies approved under the Biden administration. At his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Defense Secretary-designate Austin Dahmer said: “I’m not aware of any pause in [US military] aid to Ukraine.” It sounded less like a serious assessment and more like an admission of ignorance. Every Ukrainian soldier can feel the consequences of the sharp reduction in American weapons. Every resident of Kyiv and other cities can feel the shortage of air defence systems.

Europe has not filled the gap. The European Union’s defence industry and joint-procurement schemes have produced many promises but little real money. A few billion euros have been formally committed and far less has been delivered. Member states prefer to rearm themselves first and Ukraine second, although their own programmes are moving slowly. The EU remains divided between governments willing to take greater risks to support Kyiv and others that fear provoking Russia or weakening their own budgets. Brussels is now pushing a plan to use frozen Russian assets to back a loan of up to 140 billion euros ($162bn) for Ukraine, which could support Kyiv’s budget and defence spending over the next two years. Several key member states that host most of those reserves remain cautious, and without unanimity, the plan may stall.

This leaves Ukraine expanding its own production and fighting with whatever arrives and whatever is not siphoned off by corrupt figures such as Tymur Mindich, who is under investigation in a major procurement case. For now, Ukraine can slow the enemy at enormous cost, but this is nowhere near enough to win.

The army is under-supplied. The government has failed to sustain motivation or mobilise the country; in fact, it has achieved the opposite. Men are fighting their fourth year of war, while women cannot wait indefinitely. Divorces are rising, exhaustion is deepening, and morale is collapsing. Prosecutors have opened more than 255,000 cases for unauthorised absence and more than 56,000 for desertion since 2022. In the first 10 months of 2025 alone, they registered around 162,500 AWOL cases and 21,600 desertion cases. Other reports suggest that more than 21,000 troops left the army in October, which is the highest monthly figure so far. Social injustice is widening.

Demographically, the picture is equally bleak. Ukraine’s population has fallen from more than 50 million at independence to about 31 million in territory controlled by Kyiv as of early 2025. Births remain below deaths and fertility rates have dropped to about one child per woman.

Against this backdrop, Ukraine is left with three strategic options.

The first option is to accept Putin’s terms. This would mean capitulating, losing political face and giving up territory, but it would preserve a Ukrainian state. It would also lock the country into long-term vulnerability.

The second option is a radical overhaul of Ukraine’s political and military leadership. This would involve rebuilding mobilisation, restructuring the command system and re-engineering the war effort from the ground up. Ukraine cannot fight a long war with institutions that were designed for peacetime politics and rotational deployments.

The third option is to change nothing and maintain the status quo. Ukraine would continue launching precision strikes on Russian oil infrastructure in the hope of grinding down the Kremlin’s economy and waiting for Putin to die. This is an illusion. If such strikes could not break a smaller Ukraine, they will not break a country many times larger in economic, territorial and demographic terms. Damage will be inflicted, but nowhere near enough to force Russia to stop.

Judging by recent statements from Zelenskyy and several of his European partners, Ukraine has effectively committed itself to the third option. The question is how long this approach can be sustained. Even setting aside morale and exhaustion after four years of war, the financial outlook is bleak. Ukraine faces a vast budget deficit and public debt that is likely to exceed 100 percent of gross domestic product. Europe has failed to assemble the necessary funds, Belgium has not released frozen Russian assets and economic growth across much of the continent remains weak. Any significant increase in support would require political courage at a time when voters remain sensitive to the recent inflation surge. The EU is also unable to tie the United States to long-term commitments in the current political climate in Washington.

All this leads to an unavoidable conclusion. If Ukraine intends to survive as a state, it will eventually have to take the second path and undertake a radical restructuring of its political and military leadership. Once that moment arrives, Moscow’s terms will be harsher than they are now. The Russian ultimatum is likely to expand from claims on four regions to demands for eight, along with strict control mechanisms, demilitarisation and further concessions.

Radical change is needed immediately, before Ukraine’s strategic options narrow further and before its ability to resist collapses with them.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial policy.

Ukraine has mounted a fierce defence of Pokrovsk for the fifth straight week since Russia’s concerted offensive began to take its eastern city, while at the same time it tries to finesse a Russian-inspired United States peace plan heavily criticised by US lawmakers.

The Russian Ministry of Defence said on Monday its “assault groups of the 2nd Army have completely liberated the Gornyak and Shakhtersky microdistricts in Pokrovsk.

On Tuesday, it said its forces were fighting in the Vostochny and Zapadny districts of Myrnohrad, to the east of Pokrovsk.

Both cities, in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, lie within an envelope which Russian forces have gradually tried to seal shut. Supplies and reinforcements can currently only reach Ukrainian forces from the west – and Russia claims to have effective fire control over those supply routes.

Ukrainian officials insisted the defence of Pokrovsk was still very much a contest. “Our positions are held in the centre of Pokrovsk, shooting battles continue, and the enemy fails to consolidate,” said Ukraine’s head of the Center for Countering Disinformation Andriy Kovalenko on Sunday, citing the 7th Air Assault Brigade fighting there.

Ukraine has evidently strained its resources to defend the Pokrovsk-Myrnohrad enclave, whereas the concentration of Russian offensive forces in Pokrovsk has not compromised their ability to assault elsewhere.

During November 20-27, Russia claimed to have seized Petropavlovka in Kharkiv, Novoselivka, Maslyakovka, Yampol, Stavki, Zvanovka, Petrovskoye, Ivanopolye and Vasyukovka in Donetsk, Tikhoye and Otradnoye in Dniperopetrovsk, and Novoye Zaporozhiye and Zatishye in Zaporizhia.

The Russian forces’ recent rate of advance has amounted to about half a dozen villages a week.

But Ukraine disputes some of Russia’s claims.

On November 20, Russian chief of staff Valery Gerasimov said his forces had seized the city of Kupiansk in Ukraine’s northern Kharkiv region, and were setting upon retreating Ukrainian units on the left bank of the Oskil River.

But Kovalenko replied on the Telegram messaging service: “Russia did NOT occupy Kupiansk. Gerasimov is just a liar,” and he repeated the claim a week later.

Ukraine has also had successes on the ground, according to its commander-in-chief, Oleksandr Syrskii. “Despite enemy pressure, the Defence Forces of Ukraine managed to carry out counteroffensive actions in the Dobropillia direction from the end of August to October this year,” he said, referring to a failed Russian flanking manoeuvre towards a town northwest of Pokrovsk.

“As a result, the units split the enemy’s offensive group and liberated over 430 square kilometres [166 square miles] north of Pokrovsk. Russian losses amounted to more than 13,000 killed and wounded.”

Russia also kept up pressure on Ukraine’s rear, launching 1,169 drones and 25 missiles at its cities during the week of November 20-26. Ukraine downed 85 percent of the drones and 14 of the missiles, but Zelenskyy called for more short- and medium-range defences.

Questionable diplomacy

Europe, Ukraine and members of the US Congress have all pushed back against a 28-point peace plan presented by the US administration of Donald Trump last week, describing it as too Russia-friendly.

In its original form, the plan granted key points that Russia has demanded. That included a promise from Ukraine never to join NATO and the surrendering of almost all the territory Russia has taken by force, along with the unoccupied remainder of Donetsk. The US and Ukraine’s other Western allies would have to recognise those annexations as legal.

Ukraine would have to hold an election within 100 days of the plan’s signature – one that Russia seems to believe would unseat Zelenskyy.

Russia has also demanded that Ukraine effectively disarm. The 28-point plan suggests reducing its armed forces by about a third, to 600,000 personnel.

“Right now is one of the hardest moments in our history,” Zelenskyy told the Ukrainian people after seeing the plan, describing it as a choice between “either the loss of our dignity or the risk of losing a key partner”.

The Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee Senator Roger Wicker said in a statement: “This so-called ‘peace plan’ has real problems, and I am highly skeptical it will achieve peace.”

Polish Premier Donald Tusk politely said on social media: “It would be good to know for sure who is the author of the plan and where was it created.”

The plan drew heavily from a Russian non-paper submitted to the White House in October, said the Reuters news agency.

“Trump’s 28-point plan, which we have, enshrines the key understandings reached during the Alaska summit,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters.

“I would say not all, but many provisions of this plan, they seem quite acceptable to us,” Putin aide Yury Ushakov told the TASS Russian state news agency.

The United Kingdom, France and Germany drafted a counter-proposal on Sunday, and a Ukrainian delegation led by former Defence Minister Rustem Umerov met with US negotiators under Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Geneva to discuss both documents.

Europe ruled out accepting territorial exchanges resulting from aggression, and suggested territorial negotiations begin from the line of contact without prior Ukrainian concessions. It also suggested Ukraine maintain a strong army of no fewer than 800,000 people, and receive an effective NATO security guarantee.

Their joint statement on Monday simply said they would “continue intensive work”, with final decisions to be made by Trump and Zelenskyy.

Much had been done to refine the original 28 points into a workable agreement, said Zelenskyy. “Now the list of necessary steps to end the war can become doable,” he told Ukrainians somewhat cryptically, describing the work that remained as “very challenging”.

Ukraine has pushed for a meeting between Zelenskyy and Trump before December to thrash out the plan’s final form, but on Tuesday, Bloomberg released transcripts of a leaked telephone conversation between Trump confidant Steve Witkoff and Putin aide Yury Ushakov, in which Witkoff advised Ushakov to have Putin call Trump before Zelenskyy had a chance to meet him. Witkoff suggested that Putin flatter Trump as a peacemaker to win his favour and shape the peace plan directly with him.

That leak prompted opposition to Witkoff travelling to Moscow next week to discuss the reworked plan with Russian officials. The White House said he is to replace General Keith Kellogg, who resigned as mediator for Ukraine after seeing the original 28-point plan.

“It is clear that Witkoff fully favors the Russians. He cannot be trusted to lead these negotiations. Would a Russian paid agent do less than he?” wrote Republican Congressman Don Bacon on social media.

For those who oppose the Russian invasion and want to see Ukraine prevail as a sovereign & democratic country, it is clear that Witkoff fully favors the Russians. He cannot be trusted to lead these negotiations. Would a Russian paid agent do less than he? He should be fired. https://t.co/dxMsda0YV5

— Rep. Don Bacon 🇺🇸✈️🏍️⭐️🎖️ (@RepDonBacon) November 25, 2025

In his first extensive remarks on the peace proposal, in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin backed away from an agreement with Ukraine, saying, “Signing documents with the Ukrainian leadership is pointless,” because Zelenskyy was a president who had outlived his mandate.

“I believe that the Ukrainian authorities made a fundamental and strategic mistake when they succumbed to the fear of participating in the presidential elections,” he said, referring to the spring of 2025, when Zelenskyy’s four-year term expired.

Zelenskyy was elected in 2019, and the parliament has twice extended his tenure under the constitutional provision of a national emergency.

Putin said the 28 points did not amount to a peace treaty, calling them “a set of questions that were proposed for discussion and final wording”.

“In general, we agree that this can be the basis for future agreements,” Putin said.

President Vladimir Putin has said he is ready to guarantee in writing that Russia will not attack another European nation, as he dismissed claims that Moscow intends to invade another country as a “lie” and “complete nonsense”.

Speaking on Thursday in Kyrgyzstan’s capital, Bishkek – where he attended a summit of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), a Russia-led military alliance that includes some former Soviet republics – Putin branded claims Moscow is planning to attack Europe as “ridiculous”.

“The truth is, we never intended to do that. But if they want to hear it from us, well, then we’ll document it. No question,” the Russian president told reporters.

Putin’s denials that Moscow is planning another invasion have been met with scepticism from European leaders, who point to the fact that he repeatedly denied Russia would invade Ukraine before doing so in February 2022.

Responding to questions about efforts to end the war in Ukraine, Putin expressed optimism about a draft United States-backed peace plan, saying it could serve as the “basis for future agreements”.

While Putin said Russia is ready for a “serious” discussion to end the war, he also warned that Moscow was prepared to fight on if necessary and take over more of Ukraine.

A basic prerequisite to end the fighting, he reiterated, was that Ukrainian troops withdraw from Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region, including leaving areas that Russian troops do not currently control.

“Ukrainian troops must withdraw from the territories they currently hold – then the fighting will stop. If they do not pull back, we will achieve this by military means,” he said.

Ukraine has said that such a withdrawal would leave the way open for a Russian assault on its capital, Kyiv.

‘The president has lost his legitimate status’

Putin also suggested that he was open to a negotiated settlement with Kyiv, but once again branded Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government illegitimate, adding that it was “legally impossible” to sign any agreements with them.

“Broadly speaking, of course, we ultimately want to reach an agreement with Ukraine. But right now, this is practically impossible,” Putin said, repeating previous unfounded claims that Kyiv had lost the right to govern after failing to hold elections when Zelenskyy’s presidential term expired in May 2024.

“The Ukrainian leadership made a fundamental strategic mistake when it feared presidential elections, because since then, the president has lost his legitimate status,” Putin added.

Kyiv has maintained it could not hold elections while under martial law and defending its territory against Russian attacks. In February, lawmakers in Ukraine’s parliament overwhelmingly approved a resolution affirming Zelenskyy’s legitimacy to stay in office.

Putin also claimed that, due to the Zelenskyy government’s purported illegitimacy, any peace deal must be recognised by the international community, and that the international community must also recognise Russian gains in Ukraine.

The Ukrainian president’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, reiterated on Thursday that Zelenskyy “will not sign away territory”.

“As long as Zelenskyy is president, no one should count on us giving up territory,” Yermak told US magazine The Atlantic.

Last week, the US revealed a 28-point peace plan for Ukraine that was widely viewed as extremely favourable to Russia. It called for Kyiv to make major concessions, including ceding territory and abandoning its NATO ambitions.

The plan has since been altered with Ukrainian input, Ukrainian First Deputy Foreign Minister Sergiy Kyslytsya said, nixing a 600,000-member cap on Ukraine’s army and a general war crimes amnesty.

On Thursday, Zelenskyy said Ukrainian delegations are set to meet with Washington officials to work out a formula discussed at previous talks in Geneva to bring peace and provide security guarantees for Kyiv.

He added, without providing details, that there would be further talks next week.

US representatives, including Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, are also set to travel to Moscow next week to continue discussions on key issues, including security guarantees for Ukraine and Europe.

Putin said his delegation intends to raise its own “key issue” with the US delegation, specifically a passage in the peace plan stating that Washington only intends to recognise Russia’s de facto control over Crimea and other Ukrainian territory, which Moscow claims as its own.

“That is precisely what our talks with the American side will be about,” Putin said.

Aman says it will take ‘all available measures’ to stop Russian authorities from recruiting its citizens to fight in war.

Jordan has demanded that Russian authorities stop illegally recruiting its citizens after two Jordanians were killed fighting in the Russian military.

Jordan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued the warning on Thursday against Moscow and external “entities” working online to recruit people on Moscow’s behalf.

The ministry did not mention Russia’s almost four-year-long war on Ukraine, where thousands of paid foreign fighters have joined Moscow’s side.

In a statement shared on X, the Jordanian Foreign Ministry said it would “take all available measures” to end the further recruitment of Jordanians and called for Moscow to terminate the contracts of its currently enlisted citizens.

The recruitment is a violation of both Jordanian domestic and international law, the ministry said, and “endangers the lives of [its] citizens”.

The statement did not provide any further identifying information or say where or when the two citizens were killed, though Russia has a track record of recruiting foreigners to fight in Ukraine.

Ukraine says Moscow has recruited at least 18,000 foreign fighters from 128 countries, according to figures shared by Brigadier General Dmytro Usov. In a post on the Telegram messaging app, he said another 3,388 foreigners have died fighting for Russia.

Usov did not provide a breakdown of the foreign soldiers fighting in Ukraine for Russia, but the vast majority were likely from North Korea.

The New York-based Council on Foreign Relations said Pyongyang sent between 14,000 and 15,000 soldiers to fight for Russia in 2024, citing Western officials.

Moscow has also recruited at least 1,400 Africans from more than 30 countries, using methods ranging from deception to duress, according to Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha.

Sybiha said previously that signing a contract with the Russian military was “equivalent to signing a death sentence” for foreign recruits.

“Foreign citizens in the Russian army have a sad fate. Most of them are immediately sent to the so-called ‘meat assaults,’ where they are quickly killed,” Sybiha said in a November 9 post on X.

“The Russian command understands that there will be no accountability for the killed foreigner, so they are treated as second-rate, expendable human material,” he said.

Here are the key events from day 1,373 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Here’s where things stand on Friday, November 28.

Fighting

• Russian forces have “completely surrounded” the embattled Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk and control 70 percent of it, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said.
• Putin also said that once Ukrainian troops withdraw from their positions in key areas, then the fighting will stop. But if they do not, then Russian forces will achieve their objectives by force.
• The Russian president added that the pace of Russia’s advance in all directions on the front line was “noticeably increasing”.
• Oleksandr Syrskii, Ukraine’s top commander, painted a different picture, saying on social media that Ukrainian troops had been blocking attempts by Russian forces to stage new assaults on Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad. Syrskii also said that Russia had been forced to bring reserve forces into the fight.
• Russia’s air defences shot down 118 Ukrainian drones overnight, including 52 over Russia’s Belgorod region bordering Ukraine, the Ministry of Defence in Moscow said.

Peace process

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukrainian delegations will meet with those from the United States this week to work out a formula discussed at talks in Geneva to bring peace and provide security guarantees for Kyiv.
• Putin said that the draft peace proposals discussed by the US and Ukraine could become the basis of future agreements to end Moscow’s war on Ukraine, but if not, that Russia would fight on.
• Putin also called the Ukrainian leadership illegitimate and said it was senseless to sign any peace documents with them.
• The Russian president said the Ukrainian leadership lost legitimacy after refusing to hold elections when Zelenskyy’s elected term expired. Kyiv says it cannot hold elections while under martial law and defending its territory against Russian attacks.
• Zelenskyy will not agree to give up land to Russia in exchange for peace, the Ukrainian president’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, told the US magazine The Atlantic.
• “As long as Zelenskyy is president, no one should count on us giving up territory. He will not sign away territory,” Yermak said.
• German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that even after a peace agreement with Russia, Ukraine will need strong armed forces and security guarantees, while no territorial concessions should be forced on the country.
• “We view the efforts of the US government to find a solution here very positively. However, we also say that the security interests of Europeans and also the security interests of Ukraine must be safeguarded,” Merz said.
• Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Ukraine’s membership in NATO remains unacceptable to Moscow.
• “For us, the threat is still the expansion of NATO,” she told reporters. “NATO’s desire to pull Ukraine into its orbit remains a threat to us.”

Sanctions

• The United Kingdom issued a temporary licence allowing companies to continue doing business with Lukoil International, a subsidiary of Russia’s sanctioned Lukoil, which is based in Austria. The licence, effective until February 26, permits payments and other transactions under certain conditions, including that funds due to Lukoil remain frozen.
• Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever said the European Union’s plan to use frozen Russian state assets to help Ukraine stay solvent could endanger the chances for a potential peace deal to end the nearly four-year war.
• “Hastily moving forward on the proposed reparations loan scheme would have, as a collateral damage, that we as EU are effectively preventing reaching an eventual peace deal,” De Wever said in a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, seen by the Financial Times.
• Putin said Russia is preparing a package of retaliatory measures in response to potential seizures of Russian assets in Europe. He warned that any move to confiscate Russian assets would be “a theft of property” and harm the global financial system.

Regional security

• A Ukrainian man suspected of coordinating the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipeline in 2022 has arrived in Germany after Italy’s top court approved his extradition last week, German federal prosecutors said. The explosions that destroyed the pipeline in the Baltic Sea three years ago largely severed Russian gas transit to Europe.
• Hungarian President Viktor Orban said he plans to hold talks on Friday to ensure that Hungary gets adequate Russian crude and gas supplies, which would also allow it to provide crude to neighbouring Serbia.
• Russia said it will shut the Polish consulate in Irkutsk at the end of December in retaliation for Warsaw’s decision to close the Russian consulate in Gdansk.

Russian politics

• A Russian military court sentenced eight men to life in prison over their purported role in a deadly Ukrainian truck bomb attack on the bridge that links southern Russia to Crimea.
• The eight men, convicted on terrorism charges, were accused of being part of an organised criminal group that helped Ukraine carry out the bombing.
• Ukraine’s SBU domestic intelligence agency claimed responsibility for the attack, which in October 2022 ripped through part of the 19km (11.8-mile) bridge, killing five people and damaging what was a key supply route for Russian forces fighting in Ukraine.

Finland’s Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen speaks to Talk to Al Jazeera about the prospects for a Russia-Ukraine peace deal, whether Trump can bring Putin and Zelenskyy to the negotiating table, and why Europe insists on clear red lines. From frozen Russian assets to NATO deterrence and Finland’s unique position as a NATO member sharing a long border with Russia, Valtonen explains what a realistic settlement would require, and why she believes Moscow is still not interested in genuine peace.

Here are the key events from day 1,372 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Here’s where things stand on Thursday, November 27.

Fighting

• Intense clashes took place across eastern Ukraine on Wednesday, including in Slobozhanske, Kupiansk, Lyman, Kramatorsk, Kostiantynivka, Pokrovsk, Huliaipole and Orikhiv.
• Ukraine’s military said some of the fiercest fighting was in the strategic town of Huliaipole in the southeastern region of Zaporizhia, where forces are battling for “every metre” of land amid increased Russian shelling and drone attacks.
• A Russian drone attack on the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson killed a woman and a young child, while Russian air strikes in Zaporizhzhia city injured 18 people, including 12 women, according to local authorities.
• Ukraine’s military claimed it struck a Russian military-industrial complex in the region of Chuvashia, sparking a fire.
• Early on Thursday, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces claimed its forces killed or wounded 1,140 Russian soldiers over the last day. It also claimed it destroyed one Russian tank, three armoured combat vehicles, 21 artillery units, 214 drones and two aircraft.

Diplomacy

• Russian officials expressed caution over the prospect of a quick peace deal. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that while negotiations are “ongoing” and “serious”, it is “premature” to suggest a deal is imminent.
• Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said Moscow is not ready to publicly discuss the Trump administration’s recently modified peace plan, but that it will not budge on its key demands. “The overall success of this process is not guaranteed,” he said.
• Still, US special envoy Steve Witkoff is set to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow next week, the exact date of which is yet to be confirmed, according to Russia’s Peskov.
• European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said the Trump-backed peace plan is a “starting point” but requires more work to ensure future Ukrainian and European security.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reiterated his call for further sanctions on Russia, accusing the country of obstructing peace efforts.
• Sweden’s Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard also urged the EU to immediately enact a 20th round of sanctions on Russia.
• Numerous Baltic states issued strong statements of support for Ukraine after a meeting of EU foreign ministers, with Estonia’s Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna saying peace talks must begin with “firm conditions for the aggressor, not the victim”.

Energy

• Ukraine’s Ministry of Energy urged the public to conserve electricity and warned of emergency outages in some regions where energy infrastructure has been targeted by Russian attacks.
• Ukraine’s prime minister said the state would provide targeted energy assistance to 280,000 families living in front-line areas to help them “get through the winter period more easily and meet basic needs”, including by paying for up to 300 kilowatt hours per family monthly.
• Putin, on a state visit to Kyrgyzstan, announced Russia’s state nuclear energy corporation is considering building a nuclear power facility in the former Soviet state.

Russian “shadow vessels” are using false flags to skirt sanctions imposed on Moscow over its war in Ukraine, according to a new report.

A total of 113 Russian vessels have flown a false flag in the first nine months of this year, transporting some 11 million tonnes of oil valued at 4.7 billion euros ($5.4bn), according to the report published on Thursday by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), a Helsinki-based think tank.

“The number of Russian ʻshadowʼ tankers sailing under false flags is now increasing at an alarming rate,” said report co-author Luke Wickenden.

“False-flagged vessels carried 1.4 billion euros ($1.6bn) worth of Russian crude oil and oil products through the Danish Straits in September alone.”

Russia’s clandestine shadow fleet transports sanctioned commodities, especially oil, under non-Russian flags to evade scrutiny.

Every vessel sailing on the open seas is required to fly a flag that provides it with legal jurisdiction for its operations in international waters.

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea allows countries to grant their nationality to ships and fly their flag.

Some countries provide open registries that allow foreign-owned or controlled vessels to use their flag, a practice favoured by some shippers due to lower regulatory burdens and registration costs.

In its report, CREA said that 96 sanctioned vessels had flown a false flag at least once this year as of the end of September.

A total of 85 vessels registered at least two flag changes six months after being sanctioned by the European Union, the United States Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) or the United Kingdom, according to the think tank.

Six flag registries that had not flagged a Russian ship before Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 had at least 10 such vessels each in their fleet in September 2025, according to CREA, for a total of 162 shadow vessels.

“In addition to the risks of false flagging, we also see that ʻshadowʼ vessel operators are taking advantage of capacity limitations of economically weak nations to exploit their flags and existing regulations to gain passage rights to deliver blood oil,” said co-author Vaibhav Raghunandan, calling on the EU and the UK to reform their flagging regulations and practices.

CREA said it based its report on vessel ownership and flag registry records obtained from maritime safety platform Equasis.

It said it cross-referenced the data with the IMO Global Integrated Shipping Information System (GSIS), a global shipping industry database.

‘More evasive techniques’

Rachel Ziemba, adjunct senior fellow at the Washington-based Center for a New American Security, said the CREA’s findings aligned with previous reports on Russia’s shadow fleet.

Ziemba said Moscow had resorted to “more evasive techniques” on the back of increased pressure from the EU, as well as moves by China to block so-called “zombie vessels”, which use the registration numbers of retired vessels.

While the US and the EU have continued to roll out new sanctions on Russian oil, “there is an open question about enforcement”, Ziemba said.

With sanctions enforcement becoming more difficult due to the growing illicit trade, countries would need to target vessels, intermediaries and buyers to significantly reduce Russia’s oil sales, she said.

“But that comes with costs,” Ziemba said, suggesting that China, a major buyer of Russian oil, could retaliate against countries that tightened sanctions.

“Plus, actual enforcement might mean more quasi-military stoppages of vessels to check papers, something that these countries might be wary of doing,” she added.

LONDON — President Trump’s efforts to broker an end to the Russia-Ukraine war closely mirrors the tactics he used to end two years of fighting between Israel and Hamas: bold terms that favor one side, deadlines for the combatants and vague outlines for what comes next. The details — enforcing the terms, guaranteeing security, who pays for rebuilding — matter less.

“You know what the deadline is to me? When it’s over.” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One Tuesday.

The formula has worked so far in the tense Middle East, though its long-term viability remains in question. Trump got his moment to claim credit for “peace” in the region from the podium of the Israeli parliament. Even there, he made clear that next on his priority list was resolving the largest armed conflict in Europe since World War II.

“Maybe we set out like a 20-point peace proposal, just like we did in Gaza,” U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff told Yuri Ushakov, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s foreign policy adviser in a phone call the day after Trump’s speech, on Oct. 14. A recording of that call leaked to Bloomberg News.

They did just that, issuing a 28-point plan heavily tilted toward Russia’s interests that set off alarms in Europe, which had not been consulted. Trump insisted Ukraine had until Nov. 27 — Thanksgiving in the U.S. — to accept it.

But by Tuesday, Trump had eased off the hard deadline. It seemed clear, even to Trump, that the Israel-Gaza model doesn’t fully apply in Russia and Ukraine as long as Putin refuses to be flattered, pushed or otherwise moved to take the first step of a ceasefire, as Israel and Hamas consented for different reasons on Oct. 9. Making the point, Putin launched waves of bombings on Ukraine Tuesday and Wednesday even as American negotiators renewed Trump’s push to end the war.

“I thought (a Russia-Ukraine deal) would have been an easier one, but I think we’re making progress,” Trump said during the annual White House turkey pardon to mark the Thanksgiving holiday. Hours later, he told reporters that the 28-point plan actually “was not a plan, just a concept.”

The president’s goal may not be a formal, long-lasting peace treaty, one expert said.

“Trump’s approach emphasizes the proclamation of a ceasefire, not its observance,” Mariia Zolkina, a political analyst at the Kyiv-based Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation, wrote on Liga.net, a Ukrainian news outlet, adding: “Donald Trump is not interested in whether the ceasefire will be sustainable.”

Similarities to the tactics and style used in the Israel-Gaza talks

Fresh off the Gaza deal and coveting the Nobel Peace Prize, Trump named his next priority before he’d even left the Israeli Knesset.

“If you don’t mind, Steve, let’s focus on Russia first, All right?” Trump said, turning to Witkoff.

Where the Gaza ceasefire agreement had 20 points, the Russia-Ukraine proposal would start with 28 items and include more detail on who would pay for reconstruction. They envision “peace” boards headed by the president to lead and administer the aftermath. Both lack detail on incentives for complying and enforcement. And both depend on a ceasefire.

Fabian Zuleeg, chief executive of the Brussels-based European Policy Centre think tank, said the proposals for Gaza and Ukraine show a kind of “naivete by believing that by intervening at that level, by imposing your will on something like this, that you will reach some form of long-term conclusion.”

He said both proposals reflect Trump’s political and personal self-interest.

“In the end, the focus is solely on what Trump thinks he will get out of this in terms of reputation and money,” Zuleeg said.

Each Trump administration plan to end the wars heavily favor one side.

The Trump plan for Gaza leans to Israeli terms. It makes disarming Hamas a central condition for any progress in rebuilding the devastated territory. It also lays out no strict timetable for a full Israeli troop withdrawal, making it conditional on deployment of an international security force.

For Russia and Ukraine, Witkoff looked to open peace plan talks with terms skewing toward Russia. He quietly hosted Kirill Dmitriev, a close ally of Putin’s, for talks in south Florida to help launch the plan that opened talks in Geneva, according to a senior administration official and a U.S. official familiar with the matter who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity. The White House insists that the plan was U.S.-authored with input from both the Ukrainians and Russians.

But that’s where the similarities end. The differences are buy-in — and Putin

The draft that was formally presented to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky decidedly favored the Russians, with no European input. In contrast, the Gaza ceasefire talks got buy-in from Egypt, Qatari, Jordanian, Saudi and other regional powers.

The 28-point Russia-Ukraine plan called for Ukraine to give up land in the industrial Donbas region that the Russians currently don’t control and dramatically shrink the size of its military. It also effectively gave Russia oversight of both NATO and EU expansion. The draft has narrowed by a few points since it was first presented, and Trump is sending his envoys on a bit of shuttle diplomacy to “sell it,” as he said. He said Witkoff will visit Moscow next week — perhaps joined by his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who was also involved in the Gaza plan. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll will meet with the Ukranians.

European leaders worried that Trump is leaving them out of high-level discussions and vulnerable to Russian aggression.

“He appears perfectly ready to sacrifice Ukraine’s security and Europe’s in the process,” Hannah Neumann, a German member of the European Parliament, said of Trump on Tuesday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu resisted Trump’s pressure to agree to a ceasefire, for a time. But Putin refuses to concede anything on Ukraine.

He’s appeared to be considering the matter, notably when Trump rolled out a red carpet for the Russian leader at a summer summit in Alaska — an old front line of the Cold War. Trump left without an agreement from Putin to end the bloodshed. The Russian leader walked off with long-sought recognition on the world stage.

To the horror of Ukraine and the vexation of Trump, Putin has stood firm.

As the envoys flew home from Geneva last week without any agreement, the White House scrambled to explain. One U.S. official argued that the 28-page plan, which calls on Ukraine to cede the Donbas region and bar Ukraine from joining NATO, represents considerable concessions from Putin because he would be agreeing to give up on his claim, once and for all, that all of Ukraine should be part of Russia.

Putin, the official noted, has long grumbled that the West doesn’t respect Russia’s position in the global world order. The official added that the Trump White House in its approach is not affirming Putin’s position but trying to reflect the Russian perspective is given its due in the emerging peace plan.

It’s not for the administration to judge Putin’s positions, the official said, but it does have “to understand them if we want to get to a deal.”

Kellman, McNeil and Madhani write for the Associated Press. McNeil reported from Brussels and Madhani from Washington. AP writer Lee Keath in Cairo contributed to this report.

US President Donald Trump is sending senior negotiators to meet Vladimir Putin to push for a deal to end Russia’s war with Ukraine. Special envoy Steve Witkoff is expected to travel to Moscow next week, with Jared Kushner also involved in the process.

Here are the key events from day 1,371 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Here’s where things stand on Wednesday, November 26.

Fighting

• Russian attacks on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv killed seven people and injured 21, the state emergency service said in a post on Facebook on Tuesday. Emergency services also pulled at least 18 people from the rubble, officials said.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the missile and drone attacks on Kyiv and surrounding areas caused “extensive damage to residential buildings and civilian infrastructure”.
• Russia’s Ministry of Defence claimed that Russian forces launched a “massive strike” targeting military installations in Ukraine, including “defence industry facilities, energy facilities and drone storage sites”, according to Russia’s TASS state news agency.
• A Ukrainian drone attack on Russia’s Krasnodar region injured at least nine people, TASS reported, citing the regional task force.
• A Ukrainian attack left about 40,000 people without electricity in a Russian-occupied area of Ukraine’s Zaporizhia region, Yevgeny Balitsky, a Moscow-installed official in the region, said in a post on Telegram.
• Ukrainian battlefield analysis site DeepState said that Russian forces have advanced near the city of Siversk and the villages of Novoselivka, Zatyshya, Novoekonomichne and Myroliubivka in the east of the country.
• Russian forces shot down four long-range missiles and 419 drones launched by Ukrainian forces in a 24-hour period, TASS reported, citing Russia’s Defence Ministry.

Peace plan

• United States President Donald Trump said that “tremendous progress” had been made in negotiations on a peace plan, with “only a few remaining points of disagreement” remaining.
• In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump added that he had directed his special envoy, Steve Witkoff, to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow and his army secretary, Dan Driscoll, to meet at the same time with Ukrainian officials “in the hopes of finalising this Peace Plan”.
• Trump later on Tuesday backed away from his earlier deadline of Thursday for Ukraine to agree to the US-backed peace plan, saying “the deadline for me is when it’s over”.
• President Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, later said he had spoken to Driscoll on the phone and expected him in Kyiv this week, adding: “We are ready to continue working as quickly as possible to finalise the steps necessary to end the bloodshed.”
• In his nightly address, Zelenskyy said he hopes to see “continued active cooperation with the American side and President Trump”, noting that “much depends on the United States because it’s America’s strength that Russia takes most seriously”.
• The latest update on the peace talks came as representatives from the US, Ukraine and European countries met in Geneva to continue talks on ending the war.
• The United Kingdom, France and Germany issued a joint statement after the meeting, saying that “meaningful progress” had been made and that they had agreed for their militaries to begin “planning on security guarantees”. However, they also reiterated that any resolution to the war should preserve Ukraine’s sovereignty and its long-term security.
• They also confirmed that long-term financing will be made available for Ukraine, including the use of frozen Russian assets to fund reconstruction.
• Ukraine’s Deputy Presidential Chief Ihor Zhovkva met with the European Commission’s Gert Jan Koopman to discuss progress on European Union membership. The proposed peace plan reportedly leaves the door open for Ukraine to join the EU, but not NATO.

Ukraine says it supports the “essence” of a United States plan to end its war with Russia, as US President Donald Trump said “progress” is being made on securing a deal and that he would dispatch his special envoy to Russia for talks with President Vladimir Putin.

Tuesday saw a flurry of diplomatic activity after US and Ukrainian negotiators met two days earlier in Geneva to discuss Trump’s initial peace plan, which had been seen in Ukraine as a Russian wish list calling on Kyiv to cede territory to Moscow, limit its military and give up on joining NATO.

The plan has since been modified, with the emerging proposal reportedly accomodating concerns of Ukraine and its European allies.

Speaking at a video conference of the so-called coalition of the willing – a group of 30 countries supporting Ukraine – President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Kyiv was ready to “move forward” with the as-yet-unpublished “framework”, though he still needed to address “sensitive points”.

Earlier, a Ukrainian official had told the Reuters news agency that Kyiv supported “the framework’s essence”. Building on that sense of momentum, Andriy Yermak, Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, who led negotiations in Geneva, told US news website Axios that the security guarantees Ukraine was seeking looked “very solid”.

Speaking at the White House, Trump conceded that resolving the Ukraine war was “not easy”, but added, “We’re getting close to a deal.”

“I thought that would be an easier [deal], but I think we’re making progress,” he said.

Taking to his Truth Social platform later on, he said that he would send envoy Steve Witkoff to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow to iron out “a few” remaining differences over the deal.

He said he hoped to meet “soon” with Putin and Zelenskyy, “but ONLY when the deal to end this War is FINAL or, in its final stages”.

Russia, which had hammered Ukraine’s capital Kyiv with a deadly barrage of missiles the previous night, seemed unconvinced of progress.

Russia has not yet seen the modified plan, which remains unpublished, but Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov underlined that it should reflect the “spirit and letter” of an understanding reached between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin at their Alaska summit earlier this year.

“If the spirit and letter of Anchorage is erased in terms of the key understandings we have established, then, of course, it will be a fundamentally different situation [for Russia],” Lavrov warned.

Reporting from Moscow, Al Jazeera’s Yulia Shapovalova said there was a lot of “uncertainty” at the Kremlin, though there had allegedly been “behind-the-scenes interactions” between Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev and US counterpart Steve Witkoff, “who reportedly worked on the initial stage” of Trump’s plan.

The Russian side, she said, was not happy about revisions to the peace plan.

“Unlike the initial American plan presented by Donald Trump, which consisted of 28 points, the so-called European version doesn’t include withdrawing the Ukrainian armed forces from Donbas, it allows Kyiv to join NATO, and it doesn’t limit the size of its armed forces,” Shapovalova said.

Still, US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll had earlier emerged upbeat from meeting with Russian officials in Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates, with his spokesman saying: “The talks are going well and we remain optimistic.”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on X that there were “a few delicate, but not insurmountable, details that must be sorted out and will require further talks between Ukraine, Russia and the United States”.

Reporting from Washington, DC, Al Jazeera’s Kimberly Halkett said it was “unclear when those talks will happen, who will be involved, and what they will look like”. But, she added, it was clear they would not be imminent, given the upcoming American Thanksgiving holiday on November 27.

Macron urges ‘pressure’ on Putin

As the US strained to bridge the gap between Ukraine and Russia, leaders in the coalition of the willing, who have pledged to underwrite and guarantee any ceasefire, moved fast on security guarantees and a reconstruction plan for Ukraine.

In the video meeting, co-chaired by French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, with Zelenskyy and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in attendance, the leaders decided to set up a task force between the US and coalition countries to “solidify” security guarantees.

Trump has not committed to providing back-up for a post-ceasefire “reassurance force” for Ukraine. The plan for the force involves European allies training Ukrainian troops and providing sea and air support, but would be reliant on US military muscle to work.

Speaking after the video call, Macron said discussions in Geneva had shown that there should be no limitations to the Ukrainian army, contrary to what had been outlined in the initial draft of the US plan.

He also said a decision on using frozen Russian assets for Ukraine’s reconstruction, at the heart of a political and legal impasse in a Europe seeking funding for Ukraine, would be “finalised in the coming days” with the European Commission.

Western countries froze approximately $300bn in Russian assets in 2022, mostly in Belgium, but there has been no consensus on how to proceed. Some support seizing the assets, while others, like Belgium, remain cautious owing to legal concerns.

According to reports, Trump’s plan would split the assets between reconstruction and US-Russia investments.

Macron hit out at Russia, saying “continued pressure” should be put on Moscow to negotiate. “On the ground, the reality is quite the opposite of a willingness for peace,” he said, alluding to Russia’s overnight attacks on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, which left seven dead and disrupted power and heating systems.

In his daily evening address, Zelenskyy said: “What is especially cynical is that Russia carried out such strikes while talks are under way on how to end the war”.