Ukraine

Moscow blames Kyiv for a series of car bombings that have targeted people linked to the war with Ukraine.

A car bombing in Moscow has critically injured an adviser to Ukraine’s former prime minister a day after a similar attack killed a military officer in St Petersburg.

The explosion on Friday was the latest in a series of bombings and shootings that have targeted people involved in the fighting in Ukraine. Moscow has blamed Kyiv for the attacks.

The Moscow explosion struck a car driven by Sergei Zavorotnyi, who previously worked as an adviser to former Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov, according to Russia’s Investigative Committee.

Zavorotnyi was hospitalised with injuries, the committee added. It did not identify possible suspects pending a criminal inquiry.

Azarov served as prime minister under Ukraine’s Moscow-friendly President Viktor Yanukovych, who was forced from office by protesters and fled to Russia in February 2014.

Azarov, who also lives in Russia, told state-run TV that he was “shocked” by the attack that left his former adviser critically injured. He said he believes Zavorotnyi was targeted because of his criticism of the Ukrainian government.

Zavorotnyi. 72, had worked as a journalist for Russia’s daily Komsomolskaya Pravda before becoming Azarov’s adviser. He wrote a book about Yanukovych’s ouster and ran an online outlet critical of Ukrainian authorities.

Russia’s REN TV channel said he lost his left arm, suffered multiple other injuries and was in a coma after the explosion.

Explosive devices triggered remotely

Al Jazeera’s Yulia Shapovalova, reporting from Moscow, said an explosive device was reportedly planted under the man’s car and detonated remotely as he was driving on Friday.

“The investigative committee has already launched a criminal case into this explosion,” she said.

A day earlier, in St Petersburg, a military serviceman was killed by a bomb in his vehicle, according to Russia’s Investigative Committee. It did not identify the victim or say who could be behind the bombing.

The Fontanka news outlet said Thursday’s victim was a colonel, while other Russian online media said the victim was a senior air force officer.

Shapovalova said preliminary reports indicated that the victim was a military serviceman, rather than a colonel of the Russian Air Force.

Like the attack on Friday, he was also driving the car when the bomb went off, she added.

“In both cases an explosive device was triggered remotely, and it was planted under their car,” Shapovalova said. “Here in Russia, all the attacks are considered to be orchestrated by the Ukrainian side.”

Ukrainian authorities have not commented on either bombing.

For the second time in a month, Ukrainian officials and military personnel are complaining that weapons using SpaceX’s vital Starshield satellite communications system have had limits placed on the speeds at which they can operate. The officials say the latest Starshield issues are impairing Ukraine’s ability to defend against Russian missile barrages and strike targets far behind the lines in Ukrainian territory that Russia holds. Ukrainians made similar claims in October, and the service was eventually restored.

The complaints, from President Volodymyr Zelensky, one of his main advisors, and frontline troops, are being made as U.S. negotiators met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in another White House-brokered effort to end the war. Some Ukrainians are reportedly even claiming the Starshield system is being impacted to pressure Ukraine to bend to Russian demands to give up territory. 

SpaceX denied the allegations.

“This is false,” a SpaceX official told us. “There has been no change.”

While TWZ cannot independently verify the Ukrainian claims about Starshield, the issue again highlights the challenges Kyiv faces fighting a war while relying on donated equipment and services. The country is working on alternatives, including developing its own satellite communications system. However, even Ukrainian officials acknowledge that it won’t come close to replacing the SpaceX system.

What Is Starshield?

Starshield is the SpaceX satellite communications system designed specifically for government and military clients, including the Pentagon.

“Starshield leverages SpaceX’s Starlink technology and launch capability to support national security efforts,” according to the company. “While Starlink is designed for consumer and commercial use, Starshield is designed for government use, with an initial focus on three areas: Earth observation, communications and hosted payloads.”

In addition, “Starshield uses additional high-assurance cryptographic capability to host classified payloads and process data securely,” the company adds. This allows military users, like Ukraine, to communicate securely, though Russia is working on methods of jamming the signals.

Starshield “is the version where you have much higher speeds, you have better connectivity and it’s not available for civilians; it’s available only for the military,” Olena Tregub, founder and secretary-general of Ukraine’s Independent Anti-Corruption Commission, told The Associated Press.

Tregub said reliable, high-speed connectivity was essential for Ukrainian military operations involving drones and units moving rapidly on the ground and in the air. Operators need clear, real-time video feeds to identify what is happening and make decisions, she added.

Ukraine has a large number of aerial, sea and land drones equipped with the SpaceX terminals for communications. As we have noted in the past, a limit on how fast Starshield terminals on vehicles can travel before the feed is cut off in certain areas impacts a slew of weapons and campaigns, especially strikes on Russian logistics behind enemy lines and in the Sea of Asov, as well as the control of defensive interceptor drones critical for taking down Russian long-range one-way attack drones, like the notorious Shahed-136.

What Ukraine Is Claiming

“Unfortunately, our units have been recording significant disruptions to Starshield’s operations over the territory of Ukraine for several days now – along the entire front line and in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine,” Zelensky stated Thursday on X. “Specifically, systematic speed restrictions are being imposed on Starshield, limiting it to 161 kilometers per hour (100 miles per hour).”

“The Ukrainian military have already investigated the circumstances, and these are not random errors but systematic speed restrictions,” the Ukrainian leader added. “For us, this primarily means a significant complication in intercepting Russian jet-powered drones. Unfortunately, there have already been strikes that got through because our interception systems cannot reach sufficient speeds and are unable to intercept in time. Unfortunately, this is helping the Russians kill more Ukrainians and carry out more accurate strikes against Ukraine. We are trying to establish all the circumstances with the American side.”

Serhii “Flash” Beskrestnov, the presidential advisor on defense technology, noted glumly that Starshield limits are affecting aircraft used to shoot down Russian Shahed drones.

“The operational speed of the Starshield system has once again been restricted while in motion,” he stated on Telegram. “We didn’t enjoy that for long. Consequently, problems have re-emerged with communication with helicopters tracking Shahed drones, and with interceptor aircraft that shoot down these drones.”

Frontline troops say the Starshield issue is affecting their ability to use so-called mid-range strike drones to hit Russian logistics targets deep behind the lines in Ukrainian territory that Moscow’s forces currently hold.

“I spoke to a unit on Monday who told me the same thing about the 160 km/h limit for Star Shield, in particular, in occupied areas,” Rob Lee, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute and Marine veteran, stated on X. “This is affecting their middle strike drones, making them easier to intercept.”

“Some of their middle strike drones operate at higher speeds so they have to fly slower than necessary leaving them vulnerable to interceptors,” Lee told us when we asked for more details. “More of the middle strike drones are being intercepted.”

Lee added that so far, it is difficult to determine how battlefield operations are being affected.

“It just started,” he pointed out.

As we have previously reported, the First Corps Azov of the National Guard of Ukraine installed Starlink systems on its mid-range strike drones, helping to dramatically boost the range to as far as 150 miles.

The following video shows some of those strikes.

After the previous Starshield issue in October, SpaceX founder Elon Musk said the decision to place a limit on the system was up to the U.S. military and the Trump administration to decide. However, the Wall Street Journal reported last month that Musk gave the order to slow down Starshield, with the paper’s sources in disagreement over whether this was made in concert with President Donald Trump. The paper also reported that the president had asked Musk to restore the service, with Trump later telling reporters the system was “back.”

Last month, TWZ editor-in-chief Tyler Rogoway questioned how Musk would be able to order any changes to the way Starshield operates, given contracts SpaceX has with the Pentagon.

“I have real reservations about this claim,” he stated on X. “Starshield is bound by mountains of terms of service between the Pentagon on SpaceX. The idea that Musk just pulled and Office Space in Starlink HQ and told the watch worker to put up a speed gate on terminals around Ukraine sounds like a massive problem for the Pentagon as well as Ukraine. So yeah, I have real questions here.”

“Basically, this would mean DoW has no control over its proprietary critical communications networks that it is paying mountains of money for,” he added. “Literally a gigantic strategic issue that would undermine future investment in Starshield.”

The Russians also faced limits on how they could use the SpaceX system. We reported in February that Russia was frantically trying to plug massive communications gaps after Musk, working with Ukraine’s Defense Ministry, restricted the Starlink satellite communications system in and around Ukraine to only registered users. Russians had been installing unregistered Starlink terminals on drones to provide beyond-line-of-sight connectivity and resistance to jamming.

As we noted at the top of this piece, some Ukrainians say the claimed current Starshield issues are tied to the ongoing peace talks.

“Senior Ukrainian officials told the FT they believed the speed restrictions were imposed in an effort to pressure Kyiv during the latest peace talks with Russia, which just concluded in Abu Dhabi,” the Financial Times reported on Thursday.

Among the major roadblocks to a deal is that Russia is seeking permanent control over Crimea, as well as four other regions in eastern and southern Ukraine, including large chunks of territory still held by Ukraine. Zelensky so far has been unwilling to agree to those demands.

What’s The Latest On Negotiations?

The two-day trilateral negotiations between the U.S., Russia and Ukraine in Abu Dhabi concluded on Wednesday, with just an agreement on a large-scale prisoner exchange, but no big breakthroughs on ending Moscow’s full-on invasion.

On Thursday, U.S. special envoys Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner met with Putin in Moscow, according to Russian media. The U.S. is seeking to add the Europeans to the negotiating process.

“We see some progress on the European side, we see that they express a desire to participate in the negotiations, they express the desire to end this conflict. We hope that if we manage to involve them in this multilateral format, we will be able to successfully end this conflict,” Kushner told Putin, according to the official Russian TASS news outlet.

Putin, for his part, “reaffirmed Russia’s readiness for dialogue with European nations,” according to the pro-Kremlin Izvestia news outlet. The Russian leader also “noted that the humanitarian mission in Oleshky had been a positive experience for Moscow; he proposed organizing a similar mission in Konstantinovka—with invitations extended to foreign media.”

As we reported yesterday, Ukraine has expressed regrets over that temporary ceasefire because it allowed Russian forces to move back into positions they had previously abandoned under withering drone strikes.

Ahead of the meeting, Zelensky said he had low expectations.

“The Americans have flown to meet Putin with concrete proposals. I would very much like them to arrive in Dublin with concrete answers. I don’t really believe they will, but there is hope,” he told reporters.

Contact the author: howard@twz.com

As Ukraine, Russia and the United States engaged in their first peace talks since February this week, the front lines continued to deteriorate for Moscow as its casualties rose to a possible new record without any significant territorial gains.

Ukraine’s military said it had caused more than 26,000 Russian casualties – meaning those killed and seriously wounded – in the first 10 days of November, suggesting this month’s figure could mark a new record topping October’s 54,400.

On November 9, Ukraine also claimed a new daily record of 2,980 Russian soldiers killed or wounded. That marked the fourth reported daily record this year.

Al Jazeera cannot independently verify casualty claims by either side.

This cluster of new casualty records in the autumn, accompanied by a lack of any significant territorial gains by Russia, suggested that Moscow was not coming any closer to its goal of seizing the last remaining quarter of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region this year.

A group of pro-Ukrainian hackers from Belarus said they had accessed records of the Russian state statistical service, Rosstat, and discovered an official tally of 450,000 Russian fatalities for the entire full-scale invasion, since 2022.

Independent assessments indicate that Russia has seized a net 117sq km (45sq miles) this year, a poor showing for its pains.

Yet, Russia was as defiant as ever at peace talks in Abu Dhabi on November 10-11.

Presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, who headed the Russian delegation, told Vesti television after the talks concluded that he would be satisfied “only when we win and sign a peace agreement on our terms”.

Russia has demanded territory Ukraine is not willing to surrender, and said NATO needs to pull out of all the former Soviet bloc countries which joined it since 1997.

Medinsky called for “a new, comprehensive, and just security system in Europe,” because the one put in place after World War II “is functioning very poorly, and, in fact, the entire system is sick. In Ukraine, a festering wound has simply burst.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy saw it differently.

“When the Russians now talk about a security architecture for themselves … What they really want is to freely interfere in the affairs of other countries, and to use force whenever they want, and to make sure that no one can support liberty inside Russia,” he told the Danish parliament, the Folketing, on the day the talks concluded.

Although US negotiators agreed to table the subject of a European security architecture at Abu Dhabi, the three European powers present – Germany, France and the United Kingdom – did not, and they were excluded from the proceedings.

“We did not communicate with them. We don’t really understand what their status is here,” Medinsky said.

Europe agrees with Ukraine that such a discussion puts the cart before the horse.

“The idea of discussing European-Russian security infrastructure is a complex and potentially dangerous one,” Zelenskyy said on the eve of the talks. “First, we must discuss how to end Russia’s war against Ukraine. Second, what the security infrastructure will be for Ukraine.”

Ukraine has asked for an ironclad guarantee of military intervention if it is attacked again, as offered in NATO’s Article 5.

Instead, Zelenskyy said, the Trump administration offered “something similar to NATO”.

Russian President Vladimir Putin received the US negotiating team in Saint Petersburg after talks in Abu Dhabi, and repeated the Russian position that the presence of European peacekeepers in a post-war Ukraine would also be “absolutely unacceptable”.

Zelenskyy attributed Russia’s absolutism to its inaccurate understanding of realities on the ground.

“Putin lives in a different reality,” he told journalists in Copenhagen on November 11. “When I received the second report from our negotiating group after the meetings in Abu Dhabi, they told me that the Russians believe and claim that they have already occupied half of the [part of the] Donbas region which is actually under our control. These were military officers, Russian intelligence.”

Russia’s defence ministry has claimed to have seized 3,600sq km (1,400sq miles) of Ukraine this year, and Putin has repeated the claim.

Still, Abu Dhabi did produce some results.

Russia and Ukraine said there would be a new POW exchange of at least 1,000 or possibly 1,500 prisoners on each side. And Zelenskyy said de-escalation steps were discussed.

‘Ukraine faced constant alarms’

In the run-up to Abu Dhabi, Russia pounded Ukraine’s cities.

“For 10 days and nights, Ukraine faced constant alarms,” said its General Staff. During that period, Russia launched 3,519 drones, and Ukraine managed to intercept 3,068 of them, they said, including 83 percent of the jet-powered drones, which now comprise roughly half of the swarm.

On the night of November 7, Russia unleashed 36 ballistic missiles into Ukraine, including some reportedly manufactured by North Korea, striking energy infrastructure.

Prime Minister Serhiy Koretskyi has asked European allies to provide generators and battery packs for homes, as well as mobile shelters and buses to keep urban transport moving during blackouts.

On November 12, Ukraine reported it was experiencing renewed restrictions on its use of the Starlink satellite service, which it needs to coordinate interceptors to incoming Russian drones.

“This directly impacts our ability to intercept Russian kamikaze drones,” said Zelenskyy. “Due to the speed limitations, we simply cannot intercept them in time.”

This came as Ukraine continued its own strikes inside Russia, targeting ballistic missile launchers and factories as a forward defence.

On November 7, a fire burned almost a hectare of storage space next to an Almaz factory in Rostov, which makes communications equipment. It was unclear whether Ukraine caused it. On the same day, Ukraine fired Neptune missiles into the Proton-Electrotex conglomerate which makes parts for Kormoran cruise and Iskander ballistic missiles, and destroyed two ballistic missile launchers.

On November 9, Ukraine struck the Morozov plant near St Petersburg, which makes solid rocket fuel for ballistic missiles, and the Redkino plant in Tver, which makes chemical products used in missiles.

On November 10, Ukraine struck the 123rd Aircraft Repair Plant in Novgorod, which services Russia’s increasingly rare A-50 early warning and targeting aircraft.

On November 11, Ukraine struck the Naro-Forminsk cruiser, which launches Kalibr and Onyx cruise missiles.

“We are acting asymmetrically,” Ukrainian defence minister Yevhenii Khmara told his Dutch counterpart. Ukraine had struck a total of 12 ballistic missile launch sites inside Russia, he said without specifying the timeframe, and said the strikes on factories were reducing Russian production capacity.

Zelenskyy renewed his call for German Taurus missiles with which to strike Russian launchers.

Ukraine also struck a series of refineries during the past week, including the Afipsky, Saratov, Kirishi, Ust-Luga and Omsk refineries. Russian military reporters said three Russian helicopters had been downed by friendly fire during attempts to defend the Ust-Luga refinery.

Since the end of October, its General Staff said, Ukraine had struck Russia’s five biggest refineries.

Sources told Reuters that Ukraine has destroyed at least 30 percent of Russia’s refining capacity.

The purpose of refinery strikes is to diminish Russian export revenue for petroleum products and to disrupt its economy. Those goals appeared to be working last week, as Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service reported Moscow projecting a $63bn-$67bn deficit for 2026, double its intended figure, and Russian media reported staff layoffs at the parliament, or Duma, and the Russian Federation Council.

Prosecutors say the woman shared security details with Ukraine, while her lawyers argue the information wasn’t secret.

A court in Russia’s Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad has sentenced a 66-year-old rights lawyer to 12 years in prison for treason, after prosecutors accused her of passing sensitive information to Ukraine.

The court imposed the sentence on Thursday on Maria Bontsler, according to the rights group Slovo Zashchite, which said she had worked with a number of defendants accused of political offences in Kaliningrad.

The territory sits on the Baltic Sea between Lithuania and Poland.

A court statement posted on Telegram did not name her, but said she had been detained by the FSB intelligence agency on allegations of passing information to Ukraine beginning in 2024 about security officers in Kaliningrad.

Prosecutors also alleged she gave Ukraine information on criminal cases in the exclave that were of interest to Kyiv, the statement said.

She was also given an extra year of restrictions on her activity. Prosecutors had sought 15 years, according to Slovo Zashchite.

Closed trial

Slovo Zashchite said the trial was held behind closed doors, with Bontsler and her lawyers prevented from attending, and that she was allowed only to make a closing statement. It said her lawyers argued that none of the information cited by prosecutors was secret, and that she had been in ill health in detention.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, parliament has approved laws that make public actions aimed at “discrediting” the army illegal and ban the spread of “fake news” about the armed forces.

Russian courts have also jailed lawyers who took on politically sensitive cases. In January 2025, a court sentenced three lawyers of the late opposition leader Alexey Navalny to between three and a half and five and a half years on “extremism” charges, in a case widely seen as an effort to discourage defence lawyers from taking political cases.

The Czech Republic could supply Ukraine with up to 16 Aero L-39NG Skyfox aircraft, potentially giving Kyiv another option for countering Russia’s Shahed-type attack drones. The proposal includes four aircraft previously agreed for transfer and 12 more that Czech officials are now discussing with their Ukrainian counterparts.

Czech Deputy Prime Minister and Industry and Trade Minister Karel Havlíček raised the expanded arrangement during a visit to Kyiv yesterday, where he met Ukrainian Prime Minister Serhiy Koretskyi. Havlíček described the discussions as encouraging but did not announce a finalized agreement for the additional aircraft.

Skyfox is based on the Cold War-era Aero L-39 Albatros jet trainer, a rugged and reliable Soviet aircraft that was produced in the thousands and served all over the globe. The new L-39NG was reworked and modernized in the 2010s in an effort to recapture jet trainer market share that had waned as the Soviet design was increasingly passed over for more modern alternatives. Many L-39s are also flown by privately in the United States and are used for contracted air support services for the U.S. military. One of the firms that uses them, Draken International, actually assisted in the L-39NG project and acted as a U.S. anchor for the program.

The Skyfox’s redesigned structure makes use of modern materials, reducing weight and increasing structural lifespan to 15,000 flight hours. The American Williams FJ44-4M turbofan, a very widely used jet engine that is found on many private jets, replaces the original Soviet-designed engine, offering far better fuel efficiency, digital engine control, updated ejection seats and improved maintenance support. In contrast to the old Albatros, the Skyfox has a modern glass cockpit and an updated flight control system. The Skyfox has a maximum speed of approximately 560 miles per hour, a service ceiling of 38,000 feet, and five external hardpoints for carrying weapons and other mission equipment. Like its predecessor, although primarily a jet trainer, it also has light combat capabilities.

L-39NG – Nová generace

Its potential counter-drone role is tied to Aero Vodochody’s Drone Hunter concept, which is being developed specifically to engage uncrewed aerial vehicles. The proposed L-39NG configuration features an electro-optical targeting system and launchers for 70mm laser-guided rockets. Gun pods would be another potential option for the counter-drone role.

Drone Hunter would provide Ukraine with a reliable airborne platform for rapidly engaging attack drones, reducing reliance on more expensive surface-to-air missiles and conventional fighter aircraft. However, the system has not yet entered operational service, and its effectiveness will depend on the results of further testing and integration work. Aero Vodochody is working with Belgian defense company Thales on the guided rocket system.

A dedicated counter-drone aircraft in this class would also help preserve Ukraine’s more capable fighter fleet for other missions. Its F-16s, along with the country’s remaining MiG-29 Fulcrums, Su-27 Flankers, and French-supplied Mirage 2000s, are needed for a much wider range of tasks, including counter-air operations, air-to-ground strikes, and intercepting more challenging Russian cruise missiles and jet-powered one-way attack drones. Using these aircraft extensively to hunt relatively inexpensive and slower one-way attack drones adds flight hours, increases maintenance demands, and consumes finite stocks of air-to-air weapons.

Ukraine’s F-16 fleet is already under considerable strain. As TWZ recently reported, more than half of the aircraft were reportedly stuck in maintenance limbo, while shortages of AIM-9 Sidewinder and AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles were further complicating operations. The fighters have also been increasingly tasked with countering Russia’s expanding use of faster, jet-powered attack drones. A separate aircraft optimized for engaging slower uncrewed targets could help ease some of that burden.

The potential economic advantage is also significant. Laser-guided 70mm rockets are a much less expensive means of engaging drones compared to conventional air-to-air missiles. Already, Ukraine appears to have introduced the U.S.-made 70mm Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System II (APKWS II) rockets to the arsenal available for its F-16s. The Thales 70mm laser-guided rocket is very similar, as you can read about here, and is already being employed by Ukraine in ground-based applications.

As we have reported in the past, guided rockets offer clear cost advantages over traditional air-to-air missiles:

Each APKWS II consists of three core components: a 70mm rocket motor, one of several standard warhead options, and a guidance and control section in between. The guidance and control element is by far the most costly of the three, with a unit price of around $15,000. The warhead and motor add another few thousand dollars to the total cost, which is generally in the $20,000 to $25,000 range. By comparison, current-generation variants of the AIM-120 are in the $1 million unit cost range, with the latest versions of the AIM-9X also being priced at around $500,000.

Aside from the effectors, operating the Skyfox is an entirely different cost proposition than the F-16, for example.

Aero Vodochody puts the Skyfox’s operating costs at approximately $1,700 to $2,300 per flight hour, compared with around $22,000 for an F-16-class fighter. The Skyfox also requires a much less demanding maintenance and logistical support footprint than a frontline fighter. It can fly from rough strips and roadways with ease and can be more readily hidden from view due to its small size.

Ukraine has also previously shown that it is more than willing to adopt less-conventional aerial platforms for countering the drone menace.

One notable example is the Antonov An-28 twin-engine turboprop utility aircraft that has been adapted into a Shahed hunter. The aircraft has been equipped with M134 Miniguns and, more recently, underwing launchers for Ukrainian-made interceptor drones. This approach allows the aircraft to act as an airborne launch platform, bringing interceptors closer to incoming threats while using its own sensors and crew to help locate them. The An-28’s relatively long endurance and short takeoff and landing capabilities also make it well suited to sustained patrols from austere airfields.

The Skyfox would offer a different approach, using a jet-powered platform and guided rockets and gun pods rather than relying on trainable guns or air-launched interceptor drones.

In terms of crewed aircraft being used or considered for counter-drone missions, the L-39NG Skyfox would occupy something of a middle ground. At the higher end are aircraft like the F-16 and other combat jets, which offer substantially greater performance and broader combat capabilities but are also more valuable assets that require much greater levels of support. At the lower end are platforms such as the An-28, helicopters, and even repurposed propeller-driven training aircraft, which offer relatively inexpensive ways to patrol for and engage slower-moving drones.

The requirement for additional counter-drone capabilities is becoming more pressing as Russia continues to evolve its Shahed-family weapons. Alongside the familiar propeller-driven Geran-2, which was derived from the Iranian Shahed-136, Moscow has increasingly employed jet-powered variants, including the Geran-3 and newer Geran-4 and Geran-5. These drones fly faster and at higher altitudes, making them significantly more challenging to engage with the relatively inexpensive interceptor drones Ukraine has relied on heavily.

The Geran-4, for example, is reported to reach speeds of around 280 to 310 miles per hour and operate at altitudes of up to 26,000 feet. Newer variants are also incorporating improved navigation, cameras, and communications equipment, potentially allowing for greater autonomy and more flexible targeting. Russia’s growing use of these weapons is placing additional pressure on Ukraine’s already stretched air-defense network.

Speaking to TWZ, Justin Bronk, Senior Research Fellow for Airpower and Military Technology at RUSI, noted that the L-39NG “offers an unusually attractive combination of attributes as a dedicated counter-drone interceptor; being fast enough to easily intercept Geran-3 and Geran-4 jet-powered drones, very cheap and simple to operate compared to frontline fighters and even other advanced trainer jets, already having targeting pod, gunpod and rocket pod options integrated, and being available quickly due to a small existing order book.”

“It also has impressive endurance for an aircraft of its size and weight, so it can stay on station longer than most other jet options without air-to-air refuelling,” Bronk added.

This is largely thanks to its FJ44 engine and is critical to being able to rapidly respond to new inbound threats while remaining airborne for extended periods during raids.

However, Bronk also pointed to its primary limitation: having a radar. “While this makes it harder to acquire the drones during an intercept, it is not as problematic in Ukraine given the extensive existing network of radar-equipped ground-control stations to help guide interceptors to the rough vicinity of the target,” he said.

In addition, Ukraine already has large numbers of pilots and maintenance personnel who are familiar with the previous-generation L-39, so training should be very straightforward to operate the L-39NG. Ukraine’s L-39s have even flown combat operations during the war.

The new Czech proposal follows Ukraine’s unsuccessful effort to obtain L-159 ALCA light combat aircraft from Prague. Czech President Petr Pavel previously supported transferring some of the aircraft to Kyiv, and the Czech military indicated it could release up to four. However, Prime Minister Andrej Babiš’s government rejected the proposal, arguing that the aircraft were needed by the Czech Armed Forces.

The L-159 has a radar, the Italian FIAR Grifo L, which was eyed as a highly beneficial tool for crews independently detecting and engaging inbound drones, even in all weather conditions. But as Bronk explained, this can be overcome to a degree thanks to Ukraine’s vast drone detection and tracking network.

Already in service with the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Vietnam, the Skyfox is also on order for Angola and Armenia.

Aero Vodochody currently produces approximately 12 Skyfox aircraft annually, with the potential to increase output to 18. However, the company’s production schedule was reportedly booked through the second quarter of 2027, potentially complicating deliveries to Ukraine.

Whatever happens next, the development is indicative of how drone-hunting aircraft are increasingly becoming a feature of the evolving air defense landscape, as militaries look for more economical ways to counter the proliferation of one-way attack drones. It also highlights the possibility that other trainer types could be used to help reduce costs and save the higher-end fighters for more complex missions. Such a strategy could become more widely adopted globally as the threat of one-way attack drones continues to metastasize.

Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com

President Volodymyr Zelensky has said Ukraine’s military is again facing “systematic” restrictions to Starlink’s military-grade service, meaning Kyiv is struggling to intercept Russian jet-powered drones.

Starshield is owned by Elon Musk’s SpaceX company and plays a vital role in front-line military operations.

Ukraine was trying to clear things up with the American side, Zelensky told a European Political Community summit in Dublin, as US envoys met Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

But Zelensky added “some things” were already clear: “If someone in America is making decisions that basically treat Ukrainian territory as if it is not Ukrainian, then this tell us where things are going.”

He did not elaborate further.

A similar issue with Starshield connectivity affected the front line in late October and lasted about a week before it was fixed. It remained unclear who had ordered the temporary restrictions on Starshield services at the time, with US officials and SpaceX offering differing explanations.

Zelensky said the current disruption had been ongoing for several days and was “helping the Russians kill more Ukrainians and carry out more accurate strikes against Ukraine”.

His comments come as US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff meet Putin in Moscow, a day after the latest talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine wrapped up in Abu Dhabi.

Kushner and Witkoff are then expected to travel to Dublin to meet Zelensky.

Videos shared by Russian media on Thursday showed Kushner and Witkoff disembarking a plane and being welcomed by Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev with handshakes and hugs.

Later, they headed to the Kremlin where they met Putin and three of his senior advisors.

In remarks broadcast by Russian media, Putin asked the US envoys to convey his “gratitude” to US First Lady Melania Trump for her involvement in last month’s Kherson region ceasefire, which allowed for the evacuation of hundreds of civilians from the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky.

The Russian president then proposed organising a similar five-day ceasefire for Kostyantynivka, a contested front-line Ukrainian city in the eastern region of Donetsk. It is unlikely that Ukraine would accept: It disputes that Russia fully holds the town, and a truce might result in Moscow’s troops making a final push to seize it.

The separate in-person meetings with the Russian and Ukrainian presidents were only announced on Wednesday after two days of talks which were framed as centred around the postwar security architecture of Europe.

Nearly five years since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Moscow shows no sign of backing down from its maximalist demands for sovereign Ukrainian territory and for Western countries to give up any future commitment to protecting Kyiv in case of further attacks.

On Thursday, Putin again repeated that the presence of foreign troops in Ukraine was “unacceptable” to Russia, and said Russia would like the Americans to engage with Europe “so that the Europeans can decide what they truly want: peace or war”.

During the first years of the war, Europeans cut communications with the Kremlin and refused to engage with Russia directly.

However, in recent times many have grown concerned about the current US administration’s commitment to European security and its softening towards the Kremlin, and have been pushing for a seat at the negotiating table.

The talks in Abu Dhabi were led by the Americans and only included Russia and Ukraine, but Kushner said he and Witkoff would ask Putin to “give his blessing” to invite European representatives in future discussions – particularly with regards to the future configuration of their continent’s security architecture.

Kushner also urged Europe to “identify one person to speak on their behalf” in the negotiations.

But the Russians have been opposed to the idea, citing Europe’s support for Kyiv as an obstacle.

Vladimir Medinsky, who headed the Russian delegation in Abu Dhabi, said he thought all parties had “moved closer to achieving peace” but that now “a lot depends on Ukraine, on the position of the United States, and on whether Europe comes to its senses”.

Ukrainian officials are expressing major regrets about a White House-brokered temporary ceasefire in Oleshky, which sits on the Russian-held side of the Dnipro River, the body of water that serves as a dividing line between the opposing forces. Kyiv is concerned Russian forces will once again use this decimated locale to bombard Kherson City with cross-river drone and artillery attacks. 

As many as 2,000 Ukrainian citizens were left in this town at the edge of the front line, caught between drone and artillery volleys launched by both sides. Intensive Ukrainian drone operations had largely ran the Russians out of Oleshky and a wide swath of territory as far as 30 km behind the lines, according to the Kyiv Post, citing Russian sources. This had reduced, but not prevented, Russian attacks against the Ukrainian side of the river. As we reported last year, Moscow’s forces have been carrying out widespread drone strikes on largely civilian targets in this region for quite some time in order to wear down the population, primarily in the large city of Kherson just across the river.

The military governor of the Kherson region has claimed that Russia took advantage of the ceasefire, brokered by First Lady Melania Trump to restore its forces in the bombed-out town. The statements by Oleksandr Prokudin follow comments made by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and a Ukrainian military officer that the Russians moved troops and equipment into the area under the cover of the ceasefire and will use them to step up attacks across the Dnipro.

“It took us about a year to eliminate what they have now restored during the ceasefire,” Prokudin told Ukrainian Pravda. “They have restored almost everything. They used this time very effectively: they carried out personnel rotations, rebuilt completely destroyed positions, and resupplied themselves with food, generators, and fuel.”

During the ceasefire, the Russians moved drones, artillery and ammunition into Oleshky, Prokudin stated. 

“Furthermore, enemy troops searched Oleshky for basements to set up new hideouts for drone operators,” the Ukrainian official noted, adding that an increase in enemy strikes should be expected. 

“Currently, the occupiers are launching approximately 700–800 drone attacks per day, deliberately terrorizing the civilian population of Kherson and the coastal communities,” he said. “They will 100% increase.”

A video of Russian forces moving back into Oleshky, which you can see below, emerged on social media on Nov. 2, the day after the ceasefire ended.

Russia has not officially commented on these claims, which TWZ cannot independently verify. We reached out to Melania Trump’s office for comment about the Ukrainian claims.

How Did The Ceasefire Come To Be?

Home to some 24,000 people before the all-out Russian invasion, Oleshky was captured as the Russians pushed toward the Dnipro River. With the city now largely in ruins after more than four years of conflict, the population, as we noted earlier in this story, had dwindled to fewer than 2,000, mostly senior citizens and children unable to get out, according to the White House. In October, First Lady Melania Trump brokered a deal that would allow many of those residents to leave.

“The situation in Oleshky is dire. Oleshky is a front-line war city on the brink of disaster. Oleshky’s remaining population is comprised primarily of elderly residents who urgently need medical attention, medicine, food, and clean water,” the First Lady said in announcing that the localized ceasefire, the first of its kind, would commence Oct. 29. “The people of Oleshky have limited electricity, live amid mined roads, and endure regular military attacks. It was abundantly clear that without my intervention, the possibility to bring humanitarian aid into the city and to evacuate the elderly would be impossible.”

The First Lady and her representative “worked directly with Russian and Ukrainian leadership to define the terms of the localized ceasefire,” the statement added. “The First Lady initiated discussions with both nations and aligned the parties on the agreement’s objectives, technical procedures, timing, processes, and terms, in her formal role as Exclusive Intermediary.”

After several rounds of negotiations, the ceasefire ultimately began at 3 a.m. Kyiv time on Oct. 27 and ended late on Nov. 1, said Ukrainian human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets, who called it the longest such arrangement since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. Lubinets and David Arakhamia, head of Zelensky’s parliamentary faction, were the Ukrainian negotiators. After the ceasefire ended, both men praised the operation and Melania Trump held a press conference at the White House to announce the results.

How The Ceasefire Worked

The operation unfolded in several stages, Lubinets said, according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL). 

“After the cease-fire took effect, Russian forces began demining roads leading to Oleshky, a process that continued through Oct. 29,” the publication stated. “Humanitarian supplies, including food, medicine, drinking water, and specialized hospital equipment, were then delivered.”

Lubinets and his Russian counterpart, Yana Lantratova, accompanied by their teams and journalists from Ukraine, the U.S., and Russia, “subsequently entered the occupied city to oversee the distribution of aid and assist residents seeking evacuation,” the outlet added. “Residents were given three options: remain in Oleshky and receive humanitarian assistance, leave for Ukrainian-controlled territory, or travel to Russia or territory under Russian control.”

During this effort, the Ukrainian delegation “experimented with drone surveillance and direct communication between Ukrainian and Russian military representatives to monitor compliance,” the news outlet noted. “Arakhamia said the experience had helped demonstrate how localized cease-fires could be verified rather than relying solely on competing military intelligence claims.”

“All people who wanted to be evacuated from Oleshky to Ukraine are now in Ukraine,” Lubinets said, adding that he had “personally overseen the evacuation process and spoken with residents to establish whether their decisions were voluntary.”

Lantratova concurred that the ceasefire went off as planned in terms of the humanitarian goals.

“I can state that there were no incidents or violations of the ceasefire,” she said, according to Russian media. “Everything went exactly as planned.”

Ukraine Soon Expressed Regret

As noted earlier in this story, Ukrainian officials began to express concerns about the military results of the ceasefire about a week after it ended.

Russia brought more than 1,000 troops into the area under the cover of the ceasefire, an officer with the unit defending the Ukrainian side of the Dnipro claimed on Nov. 6. 

“Russian forces have massed in positions from which they had been driven out over the past six months, effectively moving about 20 kilometers closer to the line of contact,” Yaroslav Moroz, head of the Unmanned Systems Department of the 34th Separate Marine Brigade of the Ukrainian Navy, told RFE/RL. “Prior to the ceasefire, the situation on the left bank of the Kherson region was different: the Armed Forces of Ukraine had expanded their engagement zone, pushed the enemy back, and severed their logistics.”

“There are no massive assault operations at the moment. However, we are prepared for them,” Moroz added. “Russian forces have brought a large quantity of equipment and ammunition into the Oleshky hospital, knowing that the Armed Forces of Ukraine would not attack the building, as local residents are receiving medical treatment there.”

Two days later, Zelensky complained about the Russian advances in the region.

“Unfortunately, under the cover of a humanitarian operation in Oleshky, the Russian army carried out a major rotation of personnel and equipment on the left bank,” the Ukrainian leader stated on X. “Additional occupation forces were brought into Oleshky and the surrounding community. The command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine must present proposals for additional protection of lives in Kherson from Russian terror.”

Ukrainian officials took the calculated risk that making a deal with Russia would benefit a large number of people caught in the middle of a brutal conflict. After what Ukrainians claimed transpired following the ceasefire, the future of such endeavors is unclear.

Contact the author: howard@twz.com

As the Russian-Ukrainian war, which long ago entered a phase of attrition, grinds on, Russia, Ukraine and the United States began a new round of US-brokered trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, on November 10. The talks are scheduled to continue on November 11.

The talks follow a successful humanitarian operation in Oleshky, a southern Ukrainian town that has been occupied by Russian forces since 2022.

Starting in December 2025, Oleshky experienced a food crisis that worsened dramatically in the summer of this year. Over the years under Russian occupation, its population declined from 25,000 to 2,000 people, and the food crisis threatened the survival of those who remained. In the summer, however, Ukrainian and Russian intelligence services agreed to work on a local ceasefire in order to evacuate Oleshky’s inhabitants – if they wanted to leave – either to Ukraine or to Russia.

The humanitarian mission went surprisingly smoothly. Both sides stood by the ceasefire agreement, hundreds of people were successfully evacuated (mostly to Ukraine) from the long-suffering town, and it was extraordinary to see the Ukrainian and Russian human rights representatives, Dmytro Lubinets and Yana Lantratova, coordinating the humanitarian mission peacefully and with mutual respect.

Can this successful mission lay the groundwork for – or at least contribute to – progress in the Abu Dhabi peace negotiations brokered by the US between Russia and Ukraine? Several factors suggest that this is unlikely.

One immediate indicator is that the success of the mission in Oleshky was driven not by Moscow’s desire for peace but by its willingness to pander to Donald Trump’s vanity against the background of his animosity towards Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

It has long been known that Trump wanted to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. However, despite his claims that he has ended countless wars around the world, Trump is unlikely to receive this prestigious award. Today, it seems that the Trump family’s plan is to try to secure the Nobel Peace Prize for Melania Trump.

The Oleshky humanitarian mission seems to be a case in point. A few days before the ceasefire, the White House announced that it was Melania Trump – in “her formal role as Exclusive Intermediary” – who had initiated discussions on the ceasefire agreement between Russia and Ukraine, thus dismissing not only the Vatican’s efforts to secure the Oleshky ceasefire, but also the fact that Ukrainian and Russian intelligence services had already begun discussing the temporary armistice in the summer. Moscow, however, readily backed Washington’s version of Melania Trump’s critical role in the agreement, and Kyiv had to align with that version, too.

Both Russia and Ukraine are seeking to win Donald Trump over to their side, but while both countries eventually agreed to play along with the White House’s promotion of the US first lady as a “peacemaker”, Moscow presumably considered that the success of the Oleshky humanitarian mission would benefit it more than Kyiv. Putin’s apparent reasoning here is that Moscow’s apparent willingness to cooperate may deepen Trump’s disaffection with Zelenskyy and strengthen his delusion that it is Ukraine rather than Russia that is blocking the path to the end of the war. For Putin, winning Trump over would be a way to continue the aggression against Ukraine under more favourable circumstances – not a way to come to peace with Ukraine.

Another factor suggesting that the Abu Dhabi talks are unlikely to result in progress towards lasting peace is that Moscow appointed Vladimir Medinsky, Putin’s aide, as the head of the Russian delegation for the talks in the UAE. Medinsky headed the Russian delegations for the negotiations with Ukraine in Istanbul in 2022 and 2025, and his reappointment as the delegation’s leader for Abu Dhabi suggests that the Russian position on Ukraine has not changed since the Istanbul negotiations. The only acceptable outcome of the war for Russia remains Ukraine’s surrender, and surrender was unacceptable to Ukraine in 2022 and 2025, and remains so today.

However, Putin appears to believe that Russia is in a stronger negotiating position than Ukraine, and his belief is grounded in both erroneous and realistic assumptions.

On the one hand, it is a mistake on Putin’s part to assume that the constant Russian attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure, including energy and water supplies, can undermine Ukrainians’ resilience to the point where they will demand that the authorities surrender to Russia or rebel against the government. Ukraine is fighting an existential war, in which surrender means death, torture and ethnic cleansing – practices characteristic of Russian rule in the currently occupied Ukrainian territories. Ukrainians simply have no choice other than to resist the Russian aggression.

On the other hand, Moscow is correctly assessing developments across the West, where continuing support for Ukraine is being challenged on several fronts. While European nations keep financing weapons supplies for Ukraine’s defence, a large share of the weapons the country needs comes from the US. The joint US-Israeli war against Iran depleted some US stockpiles, and US capacity to restock them is limited, which creates a significant gap in Ukraine’s offensive and defensive efforts, especially when it comes to air defence. The Democratic Party’s victory in the US midterm elections will hardly change the situation, even though the party has been more favourable to Ukraine than the Republicans: the shortage of weapons that the US can sell to Ukraine via its allies is a material rather than a political issue.

Moreover, the continued military and economic support that Ukraine receives from its European and other allies depends not only on the political consensus among those allies about the need for such support, but also on the individual positions of those allies. France will hold a presidential election in the first half of 2027, potentially followed by snap parliamentary elections, and the right-wing nationalist party National Rally has a good chance of securing both the presidency and the premiership of the French Republic. Its informal leader, Marine Le Pen, who has announced that she will stand for the presidency in the spring of next year, has already said that France can no longer provide financial assistance to Ukraine, implying that she would stop that financial aid if elected president. Despite the fact that France is the second-largest economy in the EU, it is only the fifth-largest bilateral EU donor to Ukraine; but France is an influential European country, and if it stops financial support for Ukraine, this may produce a domino effect among some other EU countries and create more economic and internal political pressure on those EU governments that continue to aid Ukraine.

Marine Le Pen, whose party received financial support from Russia in 2014 and who met Putin personally in Moscow in 2017, is most likely Russia’s best bet for 2027 with regard to weakening Ukraine’s defence. But this is not the only bet. In Germany, the right-wing nationalist party Alternative for Germany is surging in the polls, and it is the largest openly pro-Putin and pro-Trump party in the EU. And Trump himself, despite his Republican Party’s losses in the 2026 US midterm elections, remains one of Russia’s important bets in the context of the Russian war.

The fact that Russia participated in the trilateral negotiations in Abu Dhabi is not a sign that it is ready for peace with Ukraine. It is not – Russia hopes that Western support for Ukraine will wither away, and believes it has the resources to wait for that hypothetical moment.

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

PARIS — Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven industrialized democracies began two days of talks in Paris on Monday as they grapple with multiple unresolved global crises amid questions about how President Trump will approach foreign policy after his Republican Party’s heavy losses in the midterm elections.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is likely to face questions about whether the administration will shift its positions on the Russia-Ukraine war, the Iran conflict, energy security and artificial intelligence. Those issues will dominate discussions among top diplomats from the U.S., Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan on Monday and Tuesday.

It is Rubio’s first overseas trip since last week’s midterm elections that dealt Republicans severe losses and cost them control of Congress, partly because of deeply unpopular policies such as the Iran war. The talks also come amid major protests across Europe, including in the French capital.

U.S. politics likely to surface at allies’ meeting

Asked about allies wanting to know what comes next after the elections, Rubio told reporters that the countries he is meeting with this week understand American politics and “they, too, have experienced divisions in government and divisions in their own system.”

Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand, whose country has faced withering criticism and insults from Trump, said it remains an open question as to how Washington will proceed.

“In terms of the U.S. and its approach I will say that the president has executive powers,” she told reporters in Paris. “The House and the Senate have changed leadership so it’s very much a question of what the approach will be.”

Yet there has been little sign that the Democrats’ gains will affect Trump’s strategy, and his first major personnel decision has installed Stephen Miller, a hard-line supporter who has advocated extreme positions on both domestic and foreign policy, as chief of staff.

America’s top diplomat is seen by many as presenting a gentler side to Trump’s often brusque approach to both friends and foes, but there has been speculation — that he has denied — that he might choose to leave the administration early to prepare for a 2028 presidential run.

Wars in Iran and Ukraine will be major topics

Trump has floated the idea of a partnership with Europe to bring Russia’s war in Ukraine to an end. The president’s envoys, Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner, are set to meet both Ukrainian and Russian officials in the United Arab Emirates starting Tuesday to discuss potential compromises.

Rubio said postwar security guarantees for Ukraine and the rest of Europe have been a top concern for allies.

“There’s been some advances made in what that architecture could look like post-conflict,” Rubio said. “Nothing’s been finalized yet, and maybe some progress can be made in Abu Dhabi.”

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, who met separately with Rubio on Monday, said he welcomed the Abu Dhabi talks but stressed that Europe must be part of any resolution.

“I am still very grateful to the United States of America for making every effort to get the parties to the conflict to the table,” Wadephul said. “But I made clear again here that Europe belongs at this table. There can be no solution without Europe, only with Europe.”

Anand also said the Abu Dhabi discussions could yield results.

“I want to underline the importance of the talks,” she said. “It has been some months since the parties have met … and I would like to underscore the importance of this discussion in Abu Dhabi,” she said, adding that it would be critical to get “specific aspects” of a peace proposal clarified.

At the same time, Qatari and other mediators have proposed an interim solution to end the deadlock over the conflict with Iran that has sent fuel prices soaring amid instability in key shipping lanes in the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea.

Rubio said the sides are not on “the verge of a breakthrough,” while reiterating that Trump prefers a diplomatic solution. But he noted of diplomacy that “right now, it hasn’t been very productive because the Iranian demands are simply not just unacceptable but, in some cases, outrageous and ridiculous and really not realistic.”

He said he expects allies to have a lot of questions about the conflict and next steps.

Uncertainty about consensus, even among allies

France has invited Brazil, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Ukraine to participate in some discussions. Its other priorities include Africa, China, Cuba and Haiti. The French Foreign Ministry said there will be a meeting on artificial intelligence and a separate session on support for Ukraine.

Shortly after arriving in Paris on Monday, Rubio posted on X that one of his priorities would be “pushing for real accountability at the U.N.” The comment suggested the administration would maintain its demands for reform at the United Nations. It has already withdrawn from several U.N. and other multilateral bodies.

Trump and his administration have unsettled America’s G7 partners over issues including support for Ukraine and NATO and opposition to the International Criminal Court. All G7 members except Japan, which has a separate treaty alliance with the U.S., belong to NATO.

The administration is pushing to dismantle the ICC, an international war crimes court to which all G7 members except the U.S. belong. It has imposed severe sanctions on the court and several of its employees, saying the ICC is trying to investigate Americans.

Lee writes for the Associated Press.

About 850,000 people lose power after Russian attacks on energy infrastructure in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv.

More than 600,000 people in Ukraine’s eastern Dnipropetrovsk region are without electricity after a Russian overnight attack on an energy facility, a Ukrainian energy provider has said.

Residents across the Pavlohrad, Samarivskyi, Kamianske and Dnipro districts, as well as the city of Dnipro, faced electricity outages on Sunday, power company DTEK wrote in a Telegram post.

Engineers were at the scene attempting to restore the damaged facility, but “repairs are being complicated by repeated attacks”, DTEK said.

Ukraine is bracing for yet another harsh winter of war as Russia ramps up daily aerial attacks, raining down drones and missiles on the power network.

Another 250,000 Ukrainians were left without power in the Kharkiv region in northeastern Ukraine on Sunday after Russia struck an infrastructure facility there.

“No casualties have been reported, ” said Mykola Baksheyev, mayor of Zlatopil city, on Telegram.

“Power engineers are currently working to repair the damage; however, the exact timeframe for restoring the electricity supply remains unknown.”

The attacks came a day after Ukraine’s Ministry of Energy said a massive attack on energy facilities had plunged residents in five regions into darkness and significantly hampered electricity transmission in Kyiv.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Russia of intensifying attacks to put pressure on Kyiv at United States-brokered trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday.

Russia’s Ministry of Defence stated on its Telegram channel that its forces will “continue to carry out strikes against Ukrainian fuel and energy infrastructure facilities” that they say are used to aid the Ukrainian military.

Rybakina pulled out on the eve of the Indian Wells tournament, with Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk replacing the top seed.

Defending champion Elena Rybakina has pulled out of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) Finals, saying she was not physically ready to compete, allowing Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk to take her place in the eight-player field at Indian Wells.

Organisers on Saturday cited a viral illness as the official reason for the world number one’s “disappointing” withdrawal, but said the world number one needs time to recover from the physical toll of a demanding year.

Tournament director Garbine Muguruza, a former world number one and two-time Grand Slam champion, said she had spoken with Rybakina and that the Kazakh had been unable to recover in time after struggling with physical problems late in the season.

“We love Elena, and we know that she was feeling so-so in Tokyo as well,” Muguruza told the Reuters news agency. “I spoke to her today, and she really couldn’t recover on time.

“What we want is for her to feel good, to go rest, to recover. We don’t want her to feel like she has to play — only if she’s ready to.”

Rybakina, who won two Grand Slam titles this year, also withdrew from ⁠the quarterfinals of the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo last month because of a neck injury.

‘Amazing field’ despite Rybakina absence

Rybakina’s absence deprives the event of some star power, but Muguruza said the round-robin format and depth of the field would ensure a high-quality tournament.

“We have the best players,” said Muguruza, who triumphed at the WTA Finals in Guadalajara in 2021.

“I know our world number one is not going to be able to play, but we have an amazing field, the very best,” she added.

“Every match could be a Grand Slam final. You really need to be ready. You cannot give one inch.”

Kostyuk, who is making her WTA Finals debut after a breakthrough season that included the Madrid title and a rise into the top 10, was already in Indian Wells as an alternate and practising when Rybakina withdrew.

Muguruza said the Ukrainian, known for her signature post-match backflip celebrations, had earned her opportunity.

“Marta is great. She’s had a breakthrough year,” Muguruza said. “With this year, we have many first-time players in the Finals, and that’s very exciting. It’s very hard to qualify.”

Kostyuk has been outspoken about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and does not shake hands with Russian or Belarusian opponents. Muguruza said the tournament would support players in making their own decisions.

“They’re free to do whatever they feel,” she said. “We are open and supporting them.”

Opportunity for Sabalenka

Rybakina’s withdrawal could create an opening for world number two Aryna Sabalenka to make inroads in the rankings.

Sabalenka, who won the Indian Wells title earlier this year, has the chance to reduce the gap at the top of the rankings, according to Muguruza, who highlighted Russian teenager Mirra Andreeva as a player comfortable in the California desert.

“Of course, Aryna might be thinking that this can be a good opportunity,” she said.

The WTA moved the finals to Indian Wells from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with Muguruza saying player safety had been the decisive consideration amid conflict in the Middle East region.

“It clearly felt no longer safe to be in a region where there is conflict,” she said. “Taking care of the players and looking ahead to what could be safe, comfortable and secure, relocating felt the best decision.”

Muguruza said players had responded positively to the switch to Indian Wells, where she competed regularly during her career.

“When we knew that Indian Wells could be the next venue, it was just a joy,” she said, adding that ticket sales have been strong. “The whole thing is just perfect.”

Months into Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Palantir’s CEO Alex Karp became the first chief of a major Western Big Tech company to personally visit Kyiv.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in June 2022 that he was “delighted” to receive the support of such a company in the fight against Russia “on the digital front line”.

The Florida-based software development firm’s partnership has paid off.

Ukraine has since become the first nation in modern history to systematically collect battlefield data, a crucial asset for training military artificial intelligence (AI) to recognise patterns and make predictions.

The trove of real-world combat data obtained from video and sensor feeds over four years of conflict is helping Ukraine monitor, predict and respond to Russian attacks with the help of Palantir’s products.

Yet observers say the data is also boosting the capabilities of the United States corporation whose technologies are implicated in human rights abuses, including in Israel’s genocide in Gaza, raising questions about the growing leverage that private tech corporations are acquiring over sovereign states.

A ‘strategic advantage’

Palantir was founded in the aftermath of the 2001 attack on New York’s World Trade Center to help the US defence industry build a single data environment from which to monitor and respond to incoming threats.

To reflect such a mission, the company was named after a stone in JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings that grants powers that border on omniscience.

Yasir Atalan, deputy director of the Futures Lab at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), said Palantir makes “different forms of data talk to each other”.

In the military context, data from missiles, radars, the automatic identification system (AIS) and open sources is gathered on one screen, offering a “larger view of the battlefield”, Atalan said.

Similar solutions are available to governments for civil purposes, including border control, health services, tax and revenue – and mass surveillance.

With more data, systems use statistical learning to recognise patterns to make accurate predictions, enabling military systems to make split-second, automated tactical decisions.

Under this premise, large datasets based on real-life scenarios are coveted by companies aiming to outperform their competitors.

“Good battlefield data is extremely rare and hard to come by,” Elke Schwarz, a lecturer focusing on digital technologies at Queen Mary University of London, told Al Jazeera. Because of its scarcity, “those with access to [it] have a strategic advantage”.

Data originating from Ukraine may not be directly applicable to another conflict but is still crucial for training, Schwarz said.

“Building a system that correctly identifies a tank, for instance, requires a large volume of tank images, ideally in all kinds of weather conditions,” she explained.

Similarly, large volumes of behavioural data – information on how people react to a given scenario – are key in tracking, profiling and predicting human activity in mass surveillance systems.

Ukraine’s invaluable battlefield data

The pinnacle of the collaboration between Palantir and Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence came in January with the launch of a specialised software platform, the Brave1 Dataroom, which uses battlefield data to train artificial intelligence for military applications.

But prominent figures in Ukraine’s defence sector have questioned their government’s decision to share the country’s valuable asset with a private tech company under undisclosed terms.

“Ukraine has something that no other country in the world has,” Valerii Markus, a serviceman and former chief sergeant, wrote on Facebook. “We are paying with blood for data that someone else can convert into capital, international influence, and big money.”

The company maintains it does not acquire customer data.

In an emailed statement to Al Jazeera, it said that “customers own and control their data”.

Palantir’s software helps them “integrate and analyse their existing data sets,” the company said, adding: “Palantir never uses or retains customer data for its own purposes.”

Schwarz, at Queen Mary University London, said Palantir does not need to possess the data to benefit from it. “Rather, it works with the data that is made available,” she said.

Civil liberties and data protection

Palantir’s technologies, contracted by private clients and government agencies around the world, are known to have been implicated in human rights abuses.

Its core software platforms, ICM and FALCON, facilitated the administration of US President Donald Trump in detaining and deporting thousands of people, including asylum seekers, since January 2025. Amnesty International found the company aggregated massive amounts of data, built detailed individual profiles to track migrants and asylum seekers and assisted with deportations, contrary to its obligations to avoid causing or contributing to human rights abuses under international law.

The company has also assisted Israel in its war in Gaza, which a United Nations inquiry found bears the hallmarks of genocide.

Last year, UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese found “reasonable grounds” to believe Palantir provided AI platforms used for battlefield data integration and automated decision-making in the war that has killed more than 74,500 Palestinians since October 2023.

In the United Kingdom, the National Health Service (NHS), police, military and local councils all signed multimillion-pound contracts with Palantir to integrate user data, but the agreements have been met with public backlash.

Nonprofit organisation Corporate Accountability launched a campaign against the 330-million-pound ($440m) contract between the NHS and Palantir to provide a new data platform. The watchdog warned the company is “at the heart of the dystopian marriage of Big Tech, the surveillance and detention industry, and rising fascism”.

Palantir in April published a 22-point summary of Karp’s coauthored book on X, which was widely criticised for promoting an authoritarian, antidemocratic worldview by questioning the efficacy of liberal democracy and arguing that some cultures produce vital advances while others are regressive.

Fatimah Shaikh, Corporate Accountability’s deputy campaigns director, said, “Palantir is not a corporation we can trust” to hold British citizens’ sensitive personal information.

“We should all be able to get medical care without fearing for our safety or privacy,” she told Al Jazeera.

Ilia Siatitsa, senior legal officer at Privacy International in the UK, said tech companies like Palantir blur the line between military and civil applications. They are also opaque about how they use customers’ data by virtue of their involvement in national security, she added.

Siatitsa argued the company could potentially use personal information to train its products – including those with a military application – without explicit consent from the users.

“If my data is going to be feeding into a war machine, I want to know about it,” she said. “I need to have the choice, not only [as a matter of] privacy, but also from an ethical point of view.”

In June, Britain announced it was reviewing the NHS’s data contract with Palantir after parliamentary pressure.

Growing dependencies

Private tech companies are supporting military and civil infrastructure, to the point where governments may become reliant on them to conduct military operations or run national services, experts say.

Anna Nadibaidze, researcher at the Center for War Studies at the University of Southern Denmark, said the balance of power has been shifting.

“We’re used to state armies, nations’ armies being the main players,” Nadibaidze said, adding that now those players are reliant on products supplied by the private sector. “So what if they choose to not supply this infrastructure any more?”

She argued Elon Musk’s SpaceX offered a valid example.

Ukraine has come to rely heavily on the company’s Starlink satellites for communications on the battlefield and effective warfare, but in late September 2022, during a pivotal push by Ukraine to retake Kherson from Russia, the tech billionaire suddenly provoked a communications blackout.

Amid tensions between Washington and Europe, several countries are now refraining from using Palantir’s products. France’s Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu in June said domestic intelligence services would ditch Palantir’s products in an effort to avoid “strategic dependency”. Germany’s military also said it would no longer use the company’s products.

Spanish publication El Confidencial revealed in July that Spanish authorities quietly instructed state-backed companies to avoid signing new contracts with Palantir, citing concerns that sensitive national security information could be exposed.

Palantir’s reliability as a partner has also been called into question in Ukraine after the company finalised in September a strategic partnership with Nebius, a Dutch company founded as an offshoot of Russian technology giant Yandex.

Denys Shtilerman, chief designer and co-owner of Fire Point, a Ukrainian defence-tech company that develops and produces UAV and missile systems, said “the very same Palantir that works with Ukrainian combat data” had struck a deal with Yandex cofounder Arkady Volozh.

Volozh’s description of Russia’s war as “barbaric” has not eased Shtilerman’s concerns.

“Our combat data is not free raw material for Western technology corporations. It is a strategic asset of the state,” he wrote on X in a response to Kyiv’s collaboration with Palantir.

“Ukraine has paid for it with blood. We have no right to simply hand over the most valuable asset we possess.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has expressed hope that Democratic gains in the United States midterm ⁠elections will bring ⁠more help for Kyiv, as European officials urged the new US Congress to ramp up pressure on Russia to end Europe’s bloodiest conflict since World War II.

Zelenskyy’s comments on Wednesday came after American voters rebuked US President Donald Trump and his Republican Party, handing control of both the Senate and the House of Representatives to the Democratic Party.

In an interview with German broadcaster ZDF, Zelenskyy said the Democratic gains could work to Ukraine’s advantage.

“I am also grateful to the Republicans, but the Democrats speak very clearly about supporting Ukraine and providing assistance to Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said.  “They speak about renewing the connection between the United States and Europe… Therefore, there is hope that a balance of power will emerge, and that we will receive more support.”

Zelenskyy said more US aid could have an effect ‌on Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“If Congress now speaks of strong financial support or military assistance, as Europe is doing and demonstrating today, then that will be something positive that will have an impact on Putin,” he told ZDF.

Zelenskyy has worked to repair a rocky relationship with Trump since an Oval Office meeting in February 2025 at which the US president accused his Ukrainian counterpart of being “ungrateful” for Washington’s aid.

Pressure on Russia

In recent weeks, Trump has made several moves favourable to Russia, including a deal to import Russian diesel.

Last month, he waived sanctions on Russia that Congress had overwhelmingly approved as part of legislation supporting Ukraine.

Ukraine has also accused Washington of delaying deliveries of interceptor missiles.

Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, said she hoped the new Congress would “continue supporting Ukraine and also putting more pressure on Russia”.

“Europe as well as US, we are much stronger together,” Kallas said, expressing hope that joint pressure would force Moscow to end the war.

In Germany, leaders were divided. Chancellor Friedrich Merz expressed scepticism on Wednesday that Trump would change course despite the Democrats’ sweeping victory.

“Quite frankly, over the last two years, Trump has largely governed by bypassing Congress. Why should that be any different now?” Merz said at an event in Berlin, a day after US voters handed Republicans a historic defeat.

His foreign minister, Johann Wadephul, was more hopeful. He said the “very clear” Democratic victory could create “a new opportunity to launch a fresh initiative” to end the wars in Ukraine and Iran. He added that he was “quite optimistic” that aid to Ukraine, which has been slashed under Trump, would get “more discussion” from US lawmakers of both parties.

Scepticism

Others in Europe cautioned that with Trump in office for two more years, Washington’s foreign policy was unlikely to change quickly.

The US president has berated European leaders, roiled their economies with tariffs, threatened to pull the US out of NATO, and said he wants to take over Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of Denmark.

“Our security and prosperity in Austria and Europe must not depend on how people in Kansas or Iowa vote,” Austria’s foreign minister, Beate Meinl-Reisinger, said. “That’s why we are strengthening our own defence capability and our own competitiveness.”

In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia hoped Trump “will continue his peacemaking efforts”, regardless of the election result.

Democratic aides have told US media that helping Kyiv would be a priority when the party takes control of the congressional agenda in January. But diplomacy is moving faster.

Steve Witkoff, Trump’s envoy, said Washington would bring Ukrainian and Russian delegations together in Abu Dhabi on November 10 and 11 to discuss ending the war and security arrangements for Ukraine.

Zelenskyy said on Wednesday that he has had detailed conversations with Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, ahead of the meeting.

“The negotiations must move forward at full throttle to bring this war to an end as quickly as possible. Ukraine is ready to take the necessary steps,” he wrote on X.

Russian strikes also cut power to Ukrainian cities as Moscow claims 700 Ukrainian drones downed across multiple regions.

Ukrainian drone strikes have killed three people in Russia’s Belgorod region, while attacks cut power to multiple cities in Ukraine and parts of Russian-occupied Crimea, officials reported.

Local Russian authorities in Belgorod, which borders Ukraine, announced the three deaths on Wednesday. In Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia’s overnight attacks damaged power generation facilities and substations in nine regions leaving emergency outages in many cities.

Russia’s Defence Ministry confirmed on Telegram that it hit two power stations in Ukraine’s Kyiv and Zhytomyr regions. Ukraine has repeatedly said Moscow is targeting its energy grid as temperatures drop before winter.

Overnight, Russian attacks on critical infrastructure caused hours-long power and water outages across Kyiv and surrounding regions.

Residents in the capital were urged to use public drinking water fountains, and emergency centres offering hot tea and power points to charge devices were set up in the worst-hit areas.

There were also power outages in Crimea, the peninsula Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014, home to approximately 2.5 million residents. Russia’s Ministry of Energy said Ukrainian strikes hit energy infrastructure overnight and that temporary outage schedules were in force. It did not say how many households were affected.

But reports also indicated that Russia-held Crimea ordered power cuts after an accident outside the region, a Moscow-installed ⁠official said, according to the Reuters news agency.

‌In addition to the capital, Kyiv, Russia also hit the regions of Poltava, Dnipro, Kirovohrad and Rivne, Reuters reported, citing Ukraine’s emergency service and local officials.

In southern Russia, a Ukrainian drone attack started a fire at a major warehouse belonging to Ozon, known as Russia’s Amazon. The strikes were on an Ozon distribution facility in the town of Adygeysk, in the Republic of Adygea, regional head Murat Kumpilov said.

Ozon said all workers were evacuated and no one was hurt, and that it had removed damaged goods from its listings and rerouted deliveries.

Russia’s Defence Ministry also said it downed 709 Ukrainian drones across 14 regions, Crimea and the Black and Azov seas.

Kremlin response to US midterms

Amid ongoing fighting between Russia and Ukraine, Russia’s Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Kremlin hopes United States President Donald Trump will continue his peace efforts after a sweeping Democratic victory in the congressional midterms dealt a blow to the president.

“President Trump continues to exercise his powers. We sincerely hope that he will also continue his peacemaking efforts,” Peskov said in a statement.

Whether a change in Congress could hinder Trump’s peace efforts, Peskov said, as cited by the state-run Interfax news outlet, that it was “an internal matter for America”.

Democratic control of the legislature in January is expected to bring a more vocal pro-Kyiv majority in Congress that could pressure Trump to change tack, but there is little hope that the US will return as a major financial backer of Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Zelenskyy awarded US First Lady Melania Trump the Order of Princess Olga, which honours women who have contributed to Ukraine, according to a presidential decree on Wednesday.

The decree noted Melania Trump’s “significant personal contribution” in providing support for humanitarian aid and children in Ukraine.

Ukrainian officials say the US first lady played a pivotal role in organising a six-day local ceasefire to evacuate civilians from the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky, which ended on Sunday.

The CAS ruled last week to overturn governing body’s exclusion of ‌Russia over its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

The International ‌Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) has said it ⁠maintains its ⁠disagreement with a Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) decision to reinstate Russian teams, warning of “significant ⁠practical and sporting challenges”.

The statement on Wednesday follows announcements from Norway, Denmark, Sweden and the Czech Republic that ⁠their national teams will refuse to play against Russia at next year’s men’s World Championships in Germany.

The CAS ruled last week to overturn the governing body’s exclusion of ‌Russia from international competition following its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

“As presented to the CAS, the immediate reintegration of Russian teams presents significant practical and sporting challenges, including visa and entry requirements, security provisions, logistical constraints and consequences for competition formats,” ⁠the IIHF said.

The decision has prompted ⁠widespread backlash. Latvia and Finland have also said their teams will not play Russia, while the Finnish city of Turku threatened to ⁠drop hosting duties for the 2028 World Junior Championship.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark ⁠Carney said Russia and Belarus ⁠will be barred from the upcoming World Junior Championship in Alberta. Moscow criticised the move, with Russian ambassador Oleg Stepanov telling state-run news agency TASS that Canada was “bringing politics even into junior hockey”.

The IIHF said it remains in dialogue with ‌national ‌associations, host authorities and organisers to determine the best path forward.

Czech carmaker Skoda Auto, the main sponsor of the ice hockey world championships, said on Wednesday it would “reassess” its sponsorship if Russia takes part in the annual tournament.

“If the Russian national team takes part in the tournament, we will reassess our involvement in the tournament and take further action,” Skoda told the AFP news agency in a statement.

It added that Russia’s return to the tournament was “incompatible with the values we have consistently upheld”.

Skoda Auto, a unit of Germany’s Volkswagen, has been the tournament’s official main sponsor since 1993. It also sponsors the Tour de France.

Its spokeswoman Ivana Povolna refused to specify the amount Skoda spends on the ice hockey world championships annually.

Skoda’s annual report for 2025 says the company lent 45 electric cars to the organisers, while its designers made the crystal trophy for the most valuable player of the tournament.

The Russian military has not publicly commented.

Zelensky initially put the death toll at 18, but Ukraine’s state emergencies service DSNS later said 24 people, including two rescuers and four police officers, were confirmed to have been killed.

“The Russians could not have been unaware that the local residents who remained in Komyshuvakha received humanitarian aid there every week,” the Ukrainian president wrote in a post on social media.

“This is yet another proof that Russia does not want any de-escalation.”

He said that after a recent successful joint Russian-Ukrainian operation to evacuate civilians from the Russia-occupied southern city of Oleshky during a temporary ceasefire brokered by US First Lady Melania Trump “there was a moment when the next steps could show that peace is possible”.

“With such killings, Russia is sending the exact opposite signal – Russia is counting on further killings,” Zelensky said.

Meanwhile, Semikin described the Russian attack as a “terrible tragedy” for the village, confirming that “people are still under the rubble”.

He said rescue teams were working at the scene, but they had been forced to halt their operation a number of times because of Russian drone attacks in the area.

A day of mourning has been declared for Tuesday across the entire Zaporizhzhia region.

Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.