Volodymyr Zelensky

Nov. 30 (UPI) — Top Ukrainian and American leaders are scheduled to meet late Sunday to renew talks about a plan to end the latest chapter in the decades-long battle between Russia and Ukraine.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and President Donald Trump‘s special envoy Steve Witkof are set to meet with a Ukrainian delegation to discuss details of the U.S. backed plan to bring the violence to an end.

Ukraine seeks international security guarantees as part of the agreement, as well as a ceasefire based on the existing frontlines, and has refused to cede any Ukrainian territory that is not already under Russian control.

Russian President Vladimir Putin does not appear set to offer any concessions, instead demanding that any military aggression will end “once Ukrainian troops withdraw from the territories they occupy,” according to CNN.

Rubio met with the Ukrainian delegation in Geneva last week to discuss a 28-point plan to end the war, which included demands by Putin that Russia regain its standing on the international stage and that Ukraine be forbidden from joining NATO, a group to which it has long sought membership.

Ukraine said then that the plan was highly favorable to Russia, and that it required “additional work.” The plan ultimately fell by the wayside, prompting the need for the Sunday meeting between the U.S. and Ukrainian delegations.

Russian officials have said they have received some details of the new plan, but have not disclosed them.

“This isn’t an official one, but we do have the document,” Putin aide Yuri Ushakov said. “We haven’t discussed it with anyone yet because the points in it require truly serious analysis and discussion.”

Trump suggested a Thanksgiving Day deadline for a deal to be signed, but later backed away from that, or any, timeline for the war to end.

“You know what the deadline is for me? When it’s over,” Trump said.

The negotiations are happening amidst Russian missile and drone attacks on key infrastructure in cities across Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed Sunday that over the last week, Russia has launched at least 1,400 drone attacks, 1,100 guided aerial bomb strikes and carried out 66 missile attacks on Ukraine.

Ukraine has responded by targeting Russian energy and military infrastructure outposts, striking them with long-range drones and missiles. It also launched drone attacks over the weekend on two tankers shipping oil to Russia in the Black Sea.

Nov. 28 (UPI) — Andriy Yermak, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky‘s chief of staff, resigned Friday after a raid on his home in a sweeping corruption scandal.

Yermak had led Ukraine‘s negotiating team in peace talks with the President Donald Trump administration. He was the most powerful political figure in Ukraine behind Zelensky.

“This is the perfect storm. There is a lot of uncertainty right now,” a Ukrainian official told Axios.

He was scheduled to travel to Miami on Saturday for talks with Trump’s team, but that meeting has been canceled.

On Friday, Hungarian President Viktor Orban met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow in defiance of the rest of the European Union members. Orban said his visit was an attempt to secure Russian energy supplies for the winter for Hungary, Slovakia and Serbia.

Zelensky announced Yermak’s resignation and said he will appoint a new chief of staff soon.

No charges have been filed as of this writing.

“Russia really wants Ukraine to make mistakes. There will be no mistakes on our side,” Zelensky said in a video on X. “We do not have the right to ease the pressure. We do not have the right to retreat or to quarrel among ourselves. If we lose our unity, we risk losing everything.”

Investigators from Ukraine’s National Anti-corruption Bureau and Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office did the searches Thursday morning targeting Yermak, the Kyiv Post reported.

In a Telegram post, Yermak confirmed the searches.

“Today, NABU and SAPO are indeed conducting procedural actions at my home. There are no obstacles for the investigators,” he said.

Yermak said investigators were given full access to his apartment.

“My lawyers are on site, interacting with law enforcement officers. From my side, I am providing full assistance,” he added.

While officials have not confirmed why the searches were conducted, reporter Christopher Miller of the Financial Times said that his sources confirmed it was part of Operation Midas, an investigation into large-scale bribery in the energy sector in Ukraine.

NABU also confirmed the searches.

“NABU and SAPO are conducting investigative actions (searches) at the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine. The investigative actions are authorized and are being carried out within the framework of the investigation. Details to follow,” the agency said on Telegram.

Justice Minister Herman Halushchenko and Energy Minister Svitlana Hrynchuk resigned Nov. 12 after investigators uncovered that officials at the state nuclear energy company Energoatom had manipulated contracts to generate bribes and laundered about $100 million.

On Nov. 13, Zelensky sanctioned his former business partner Timur Mindich over his role in the scandal.

1 of 3 | South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa, right, talks with European Council President Antonio Costa during a G20 Leaders’ Summit plenary session at the Nasrec Expo Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa, of Saturday. Photo by EU Press Service/UPI | License Photo

Nov. 22 (UPI) — The South Africa-hosted G20 summit began Saturday with some member states weighing a proposed peace plan to end the Russian-Ukraine war.

The two-day event is being held in Johannesburg amid a U.S. boycott due to South Africa’s policies toward Afrikaners.

The 28-point plan would require Ukrainian leaders to concede territorial gains by Russia, which they previously rejected, and limit the size of their military, The New York Times reported.

The proposed plan would give Russia some parts of the eastern Donbas region and force Ukraine to forego any possibility of joining NATO, according to The Guardian.

President Donald Trump presented the peace plan to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier this week and advised him to decide whether to accept or reject it by next week.

European leaders attending the G-20 conference held a side meeting to review the plan and generally agreed that it needs to be revised to gain their support.

The plan “includes important elements that will be essential for a just and lasting peace,” they said afterward in a joint statement.

“But it is a basis that will require additional work,” they said, adding: “Borders must not be changed by force.”

Representatives from Britain, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain and the European Union signed the joint statement.

The peace plan is not a final offer, though, Trump said on Saturday.

While several participating nations weighed the peace proposal, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa delivered the opening speech for the gathering of the world’s 20-largest economies, minus the United States.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi lauded the summit being held in South Africa and said it’s time for the world’s leading economies support sustainable development.

“With Africa hosting the G-20 summit for the first time, now is the right moment for us to revisit our development parameters and focus on growth that is inclusive and sustainable,” Modi said in a post on X.

“India’s civilizational values, especially the principle of integral humanism, offers a way forward,” he added.

Nov. 21 (UPI) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told his people that the country “may soon face an extremely difficult choice” in response to the peace plan put forward by the President Donald Trump administration.

“Either the loss of dignity or the risk of losing a key partner. Either 28 complicated points or the hardest winter yet — and the risks that follow,” the Kyiv Independent reported Zelensky said on Telegram.

The speech came just one day after U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll delivered the plan to Zelensky, who said he is willing to negotiate with Trump.

The president on Thursday indicated that he is giving Ukraine until Thanksgiving to accept the plan. He said on Fox News Radio’s Brian Kilmeade Show, “Well, we have, you know, I’ve had a lot of deadlines, but if things are working well, you tend to extend the deadlines,” Trump to a question about the deadline. “But Thursday is, we think, an appropriate time.”

The administration has said that if Zelensky doesn’t accept by the deadline, Ukraine will lose U.S. support, The Washington Post reported.

The plan asks Ukraine to allow Russia to take some Ukrainian territory in the Donbas region in southeast Ukraine. Zelensky has in the past refused any effort to give Russia land. It would also require Ukraine to significantly cut the size of its army and give up many of its weapons.

“Ukraine’s national interest must be taken into account,” Zelensky said in his speech. “We will pursue a calm dialogue with America and all of our partners. There will be a constructive search for solutions with our main partner.”

He also said that the country needs more unity.

“We need to pull ourselves together, stop the quarrels, stop the political games. The state must function. The parliament of a country at war must work in unity. The government must work effectively,” he said.

Some European leaders have voiced their support of Ukraine since the details were released. They’ve insisted that any decisions must be made by Kyiv.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer had a joint call with Zelensky Friday and, “agreed to continue to pursue the goal of safeguarding vital European and Ukrainian interests in the long term,” CNN reported.

A German press office statement said that includes “ensuring that the line of contact is the starting point for an understanding and that the Ukrainian armed forces remain capable of effectively defending Ukraine’s sovereignty.”

Zelensky told his people that he would work around the clock and would not betray his country.

“I will present arguments, I will persuade, I will offer alternatives, but we will definitely not give the enemy any reason to say that Ukraine does not want peace, that it is disrupting the process, and that Ukraine is not ready for diplomacy,” he said.

Nov. 19 (UPI) — At least 20 people were killed and more than 100 injured after Russian forces unleashed more than 500 drones and missiles against targets across Ukraine overnight.

The deadliest strike was in the western city of Ternopil, 70 miles southeast of Lviv, where 20 people died and 66 were injured, including 16 children, when a nine-story apartment building was almost completely destroyed, according to Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko.

Images and footage from the scene show the residential building reduced to smoldering rubble above the third floor.

Emergency rescue teams were continuing to search the wreckage for victims Wednesday morning and local authorities ordered residents to stay in their homes and keep windows closed due to the presence of harmful gases and particulates in the air at six times the normal levels.

The neighboring Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Khmelnytskyi provinces were also hit in attacks targeting energy, transport and other civilian infrastructure. Three people were injured in Ivano-Frankivsk while in Khmelnytskyi, damage to power-generating and distribution facilities left as many as 2,000 people without electricity in sub-zero temperatures.

At the other end of the country, at least 30 people were injured after drones attacked three districts of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, setting buildings and cars on fire.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a post on X that the Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Cherkasy, Chernihiv and Dnipro regions were also struck in the attack, which he said involved more than 470 attack drones and 48 missiles, mostly cruise missiles.

In a social media update, the Ukrainian military said that while 442 of the drones and 41 cruise missiles were intercepted, seven missiles and 34 drones were able to penerate air defenses, successfully targeting 14 locations. A further six locations were impacted by falling debris from downed drones and missiles.

The attacks came as Zelensky headed to Turkey from Spain on Wednesday to meet with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, saying he was seeking to “reinvigorate” peace talks with Moscow which have been stalled for months.

Reports have emerged that U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff has been engaging behind the scenes with his Russian counterpart, Kirill Dmitriev, to work toward a peace plan.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov would not confirm the U.S.-Russia negotiations and said Moscow would not be sending any representative to Wednesday’s talks in Ankara.

The move was linked to a meeting between Zelensky and U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll and U.S. Army Chief of Staff General Randy George in Kyiv on Thursday. Driscoll and George are the most senior U.S. officials to visit Ukraine in nine months.

Nov. 5 (UPI) — European lawmakers have agreed to a fifth disbursement of $2 billion for Ukraine, supporting its financial stability and government as its defense against a Russian invasion nears its fourth year.

The European Council, the collegiate body of the 27-member bloc, adopted a decision Monday to disburse the funds under its Ukraine Facility, the EU’s main framework for sustaining Ukraine’s economy, governance and reconstruction.

The disbursement comes after Kyiv’s successful completion of nine steps required for the money to be released and one outstanding step from the fourth disbursement of $3.6 billion in August.

“The funding aims primarily to bolster Ukraine’s macro-financial stability and support the continued operation of its public administration,” the council said in a statement.

The Ukraine Facility was adopted in February 2024 and came into force the next month to provide Ukraine with up to $57.4 billion in stable financing in the form of grants and loans through 2027.

Up to $36.7 billion of the funds are earmarked for reforms and investments established in the Ukraine Plan, which will also accelerate Kyiv’s EU accession.

Under the Ukraine Facility, the EU has disbursed about $6.8 billion in bridge financing, $2.1 billion in pre-financing and now five installments of $4.8 billion, $4.1 billion, $4 billion, $3.6 billion and $2 billion on Tuesday.

The disbursement came as the European Commission, the executive branch of the bloc, published a report assessing that Ukraine has made progress in its accession process.

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said in a statement that the report “is the best assessment to date — proof that even as we defend against Russia’s full-scale aggression, Ukraine continues to reform and transform according to European standards.”

“Ukraine’s progress on the path to the EU is achieved by efforts of millions of our people,” he said.

“We are committed to working together to strengthen Europe and our shared values.”