صاحب‌خبر -

Here is the situation on Wednesday, November 27:

Fighting

• Russian forces have captured the village of Kopanky in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, Russia’s Ministry of Defence has said.
• Two civilians have died in Russian shelling in the city of Sumy in northeastern Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, adding that a rescue operation is under way and more people could be under debris.
• Ukraine has hit Russia with Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS), produced by the United States, twice over the last three days and Russia is preparing retaliatory measures, according to the Defence Ministry in Moscow. It said both strikes targeted Russian forces in the Kursk region, without reporting any casualties.
• Russia conducted its largest ever drone attack on Ukraine overnight, damaging the grid in Ternopil and cutting power to about 70 percent of the region, as well as damaging residential buildings in the Kyiv region, Ukrainian officials said.
• Of 188 drones used overnight, Ukraine shot down 76 and lost track of 96.
• Russia’s air defence systems destroyed 39 Ukrainian drones overnight over seven regions, the Russian Defence Ministry said.
• Russian forces are advancing in Ukraine at the fastest rate since the early days of the full-scale invasion in 2022, taking an area half the size of London over the past month, independent Russian news group Agentstvo reported. Russian forces captured almost 235sq kilometres (91sq miles) in Ukraine over the past week, a weekly record for 2024, it said.
• A new experimental intermediate-range ballistic missile fired by Russia at the Ukrainian city of Dnipro last week carried multiple warheads but no explosives, and caused limited damage, two senior Ukrainian government sources said.

Firefighters work at the site of a Russian military strike in Sumy, Ukraine, on November 26, 2024 [Handout/State Emergency Service of Ukraine via Reuters]

Politics and diplomacy

• NATO members reaffirmed their support for Ukraine during talks with the country’s officials, held in response to Russia’s launch of the new ballistic missile last week.
• Foreign ministers from the Group of 7 (G7) nations expressed their support for Ukraine and condemned Russia’s “irresponsible and threatening nuclear rhetoric”, in a draft statement issued after a two-day meeting that also warned North Korean support for Russia marks a dangerous expansion of the conflict.
• The United States is continuing to surge security assistance to bolster Ukraine’s defences in the east, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said after the G7 meetings. Russia’s deployment of North Korean troops in its war with Ukraine is a matter of “grave concern” and Washington is watching what Russia is doing for North Korea in return, he added.
• Discussion in the West about arming Ukraine with nuclear weapons is “absolutely irresponsible”, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, following a report in The New York Times last week suggesting President Joe Biden could give Kyiv nuclear weapons.
• Russia opposes simply freezing the conflict in Ukraine because Moscow needs a “solid and long-term peace” that resolves the core reasons for the crisis, President Vladimir Putin’s foreign intelligence chief Sergey Naryshkin said.
• A Ukrainian delegation led by Defence Minister Rustem Umerov is visiting South Korea this week to ask for weapons to be used in its war with Russia, according to South Korean media reports.
• Russia said it is expelling British diplomat Edward Wilkes for spying – an accusation denied by the United Kingdom – in another blow to worsening relations after Ukraine’s use of UK-made Storm Shadow missiles against Russian targets.
• German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said two more IRIS-T air defence systems will be delivered to Ukraine before the end of the year.

Finances

• The Kremlin said Putin will discuss energy ties on a visit this week to Kazakhstan, which exports most of its oil through Russia and depends on it for imports of food, electricity and refined oil products.
• Russian state-controlled gas giant Gazprom is planning for no more gas flows to Europe via Ukraine after December 31 in its internal projections for 2025, a person familiar with the plans told the Reuters news agency. Kyiv has said it wants to end the transit deal, a steady source of Russian revenues, ending more than half a century of gas flows from Siberia to central Europe that began during Soviet times.
• Turkey is in talks with the United States and Russia to secure a US sanctions waiver so it can continue paying Gazprombank for Russian natural gas imports, Turkish authorities said.
• European Union envoys are set to discuss a 15th package of sanctions in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, including on tankers carrying Russian oil and Chinese firms involved in making drones for Moscow, diplomats from the 27-nation bloc said. A total of 29 entities and 54 individuals will be added to more than 2,200 on the existing list.
• Norway has agreed to raise its planned fiscal support for Ukraine next year to 30 billion kronor ($2.7bn) from 27 billion kronor this year, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store said.
• French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said Europe must send Ukraine money from the $50bn loan backed by frozen Russian assets as soon as possible.

∎​