Ukraine Breaking News Today Live on 11-26-2024

Ukraine’s news media is irate that one of the Ukrainian army’s key munitions to stop Russian infantry attacks, is often proving more dangerous to the troops that fire it than it is to the enemy.

Domestically manufactured mortar rounds are substandard and sometimes cannot be relied on to hit what they’re aimed at. On Tuesday the Ukrainian military issued a recall of tens of thousands of rounds of ammunition in the hands of at least seven combat brigades, news reports and official statements said.

The Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) announcement said Ukraine-manufactured 120mm mortar rounds issued to troops had been recalled because of quality issues, without specifying the numbers of munitions or the units affected.

Explore how Ukraine’s 47th Brigade leveraged Bradley Fighting Vehicles to outmaneuver Russian defenses in Kursk. Former Navy SEAL Chuck Pfarrer analyzes the tactics, technology, and victories.

The regional prosecutor’s office stated that Russian soldiers captured them, forced them to leave the shelter unarmed, and lie on the ground before shooting them.

Kyiv said on Tuesday that Russian forces had shot dead five Ukrainian servicemen who had surrendered in the eastern Donetsk region, building on previous war crimes allegations levied against Moscow.

Ukrainian prosecutors in the war-battered Donetsk region said the incident had taken place on November 13 near the village of Petrivka in Pokrovsk district.

Russia claimed its air defenses shot down eight Ukrainian ballistic missiles on Nov. 25 but provided no details on the missile types or locations of interception.

The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed that on Nov. 25, Ukraine launched another strike with eight ATACMS operational-tactical missiles at the Kursk-Vostochny airfield in the Russian settlement of Khalino, vowing “response actions.”

“Over the past three days, the Ukrainian Armed Forces (AFU) launched two strikes with long-range Western weapons on targets in the Kursk region,” the report said.

Yevhen Shcherban’s son discusses new details of his father’s murder, the world view of Ukraine’s foremost entrepreneur at the time, Russia’s role, and why his assassination was a game changer

On Nov. 3, 1996, Yevhen Shcherban, a Ukrainian lawmaker, one of the leaders of the newly formed Liberal Party, a top businessman, one of the wealthiest individuals in the country, and a prominent figure among the “Donetsk elite,” was assassinated at Donetsk Airport along with his wife Nadiya.

The Biden administration has reportedly lifted existing restrictions on US defense contractors sending employees to help maintain US-built weaponry in Ukraine.

The White House has reportedly greenlit plans for US defense contractors to send their civilian employees to Ukraine to help maintain US-provided weaponry, according to unnamed Pentagon officials.

As the New York Times (NYT) reported on Thursday, the restrictions were lifted sometime this month. The contractors would work far from the front to help maintain and repair weapons such as F-16 fighters and Patriot air defense systems. They will not be engaged in combat.

The delegation plans to meet South Korean officials “as early as Wednesday” with a request for anti-air missiles and artillery systems.

A Ukrainian delegation led by Defense Minister Rustem Umerov is expected to visit South Korea to request weapons aid, according to a source cited by the South China Morning Post.

The delegation plans to meet South Korean officials “as early as Wednesday” with a request for anti-air missiles and artillery systems, the source said, speaking anonymously. South Korea’s defense ministry declined to comment on the visit.

The US President-elect will face choices that will determine both the success or failure of his administration and the fate of the entire free world - victory is achievable, defeat catastrophic.

The US President-elect will face choices that will determine both the success or failure of his administration and the fate of the entire free world - victory is achievable, defeat catastrophic.

There is a large faction within the Trump camp that has been shouting from the rooftops for some time that the West needs to accept defeat in Ukraine effectively allowing Russia to conquer that country. At various times during the campaign, Trump himself has made statements that align with such sentiments.

The main political forces in Poland have just selected their candidates to run in the presidential election expected in May 2025. What does this mean for European security?

Donald Tusk’s government in Poland is facing a major test with a critical presidential election on the horizon. This follows a challenging first year in power, marked by conflicts with President Andrzej Duda and divisions within the governing coalition, which includes his liberal Civic Platform party, the Left, and the center-right Polish People’s Party.

The biggest opposition party, the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS), announced on Sunday that historian Karol Nawrocki will challenge Warsaw’s liberal mayor, Rafał Trzaskowski, in Poland’s presidential election next year.

Seasonal demand growth will still cause electricity shortages in Ukraine. Russia’s missile strikes on energy infrastructure has damaged 85% of thermal generation, impacting energy security.

During winter 2024-2025, Ukraine’s energy system will need to cope with challenges of strikes on energy infrastructure, limited electricity imports, a shortage of hydropower resources, and high demand that could reach up to 19 GW, DiXi Group wrote in its Winter Outlooks report.

Despite a large-scale repair campaign for the Ukrainian energy infrastructure over the summer and autumn, Russia’s missile strikes in spring 2024 significantly worsened the situation, analysts wrote.

Another Ukrainian official told the conference in Cambodia that Kyiv will not fulfil a commitment to destroy around six million landmines left over from the Soviet Union because of Russia’s invasion.

Russia is carrying out "genocidal activities" by laying landmines on Ukraine's territory, an official from Kyiv's defence ministry told a landmine conference in Cambodia on Tuesday.

Russian forces were planting landmines "in cities, farming households, public transport stations, remotely by means of artillery, helicopters, multiple rocket launch systems and drones", said Oleksandr Riabtsev of Kyiv's defence ministry.

Russia launched a record 188 drones at Ukraine and four Iskander ballistic missiles overnight.

Russian forces launched a massive attack on Ukraine early morning on Tuesday, Nov. 26,  deploying 188 drones and four Iskander ballistic missiles, according to the Ukrainian Air Force. The number of drones used, including both strike and unidentified types, set a new record.

"During the night attack, the enemy launched a record number of Shahed strike unmanned aerial vehicles and unidentified drones," the air force said Tuesday, referring to Iranian-designed drones and putting the overall number fired at 188.

No. At this stage it is merely a groundless claim made by some US officials, and the nuclear arsenals Ukraine once possessed are not in Washington’s hands to begin with.

Since Thursday there have been rumors that the Biden administration could return nuclear weapons Ukraine gave up in the 1990s as a form of deterrence against Russia continuing its invasion.

However, Kyiv Post ascertained that it was an extrapolation of a groundless claim made by some US officials cited by the New York Times.

Surprisingly, a far-right candidate, Călin Georgescu—charged with Holocaust denial in 2022 and critical of Romania’s NATO membership—has won the election.

Before the Romanian presidential election, speculation was rife about whether George Simion of the far-right AUR party would make it to the runoff vote. Now, another far-right candidate has surprisingly taken the lead: Călin Georgescu, who was charged with Holocaust denial in 2022 and has sharply criticised Romania's Nato membership. Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu apparently came in third, just a few votes behind the centre-right candidate Elena Lasconi, which means he won't be in the runoff vote.

The result of frustration and poor governance

In an interview with Kyiv Post, CEO of Poland’s "W MIĘDZYCZASIE" Foundation discusses what he and the group’s 40 paramedics have experienced at the front lines where nationality doesn’t matter.

Over 1,000 days have passed since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, and nearly 4,000 since the beginning of the war itself. While the entire world contemplates what a potential end to the war in Ukraine might look like in the context of a second Trump presidency, its fate is determined every day by the efforts of Ukrainian soldiers.

Kyiv Post correspondent Michał Kujawski spoke with Damian Duda, CEO of the "W MIĘDZYCZASIE" Foundation – a group of paramedics who help Ukrainian defenders at the front lines. Duda is himself a Polish combat medic who saves wounded Ukrainian personnel.

The world in focus, as seen by a Canadian leading global affairs analyst, writer and speaker, in his review of international media.

The European Union has proposed for the first time to target Chinese companies and individuals with visa bans and asset freezes over their dealings with Russian firms linked to Moscow's war effort in Ukraine, according to RFE/RL. The new measures, which are laid out in a draft proposal reviewed by RFE/RL, are part of a proposed 15th sanctions package recently put forward by Brussels that aims to target six China-based companies with asset freezes and one Chinese citizen with a visa ban, among other entities. While the EU has hit Chinese entities in the past with sanctions as part of Brussels' effort to curtail evasion, those measures have consisted of bans that prevent EU companies from having business dealings with those firms. This proposal marks the first effort to blacklist Chinese companies or individuals with visa bans and asset freezes over helping Russia procure dual-use goods that can be used on the battlefield. If approved, such a move would prevent individuals associated with the company from entering the EU and would freeze each firm's EU-based funds - RFE/RL

Group of Seven allies are set to step up pressure on China while offering Kyiv “unwavering commitment” amid accusations that Beijing has increased support for Russia in its war against Ukraine. The G-7 foreign ministers, who are meeting in Italy on Monday and Tuesday, are expected to vow “appropriate measures consistent with our legal systems, against actors in China and in other third countries” who are supporting Russia’s “war machine” in Ukraine, according to an early draft of the communique seen by Bloomberg. The language on China, if adopted, would represent an escalation compared with the previous foreign ministerial meeting in April, when the club of nations called on China to “ensure” that it stops its support for Russia with dual-use weapons. North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies in July called China a “decisive enabler” of Russia’s war against Ukraine. The G-7 allies are also expected to “continue to apply significant pressure on Russian revenues from energy, metals and other commodities through the effective implementation of existing measures and further actions against the ‘shadow fleet’.” The new measures would seek to curb the use of a covert fleet of tankers Russia has assembled to get around a price cap and restrictions that target Russia’s ability to get its oil to market - Bloomberg

The plane, which had arrived from the German city of Leipzig, crashed about one kilometre (0.6 miles) from the Vilnius airport, hitting several buildings as it skidded several hundreds metres.

Germany's foreign minister said Monday that the deadly crash of a cargo plane near the Lithuanian capital's airport could have been an accident or a "hybrid incident" with outside involvement.

"We must now seriously ask ourselves whether this was an accident or whether it was another hybrid incident," Annalena Baerbock told reporters at a G7 foreign ministers' meeting in Italy, alluding to the recent severing of telecom cables in the Baltic Sea that officials have said could have been sabotage.

Le Monde reported that London is in talks with Paris about deploying troops to Ukraine as a form of security guarantee, but nothing is known about the details surrounding the alleged discussions.

The UK and France might deploy troops to Ukraine in light of Donald Trump’s upcoming return to the White House in January.

As reported by French news outlet Le Monde on Monday, citing an unnamed British military source, the discussions to deploy Western troops rekindled in November when British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer visited France for WWI commemorations.

President Vučić to visit Moscow in May while Serbia attempts to integrate with Europe. At the same time, Serbians and the Serb diaspora seem unmoved about Ukraine and joining the West.

At “SerbFest” in Clearwater, Florida, over the weekend, none of the ethnic Serb-Americans on hand felt much like discussing the war in Ukraine.

“We don’t really like talking politics,” said a Serbia-born woman in her 30s, as she and her family stood by a food stand serving cevapi sausages and burek cheese pies, when asked about their position.

During the IDEAS 2024 defense exhibition Turkey’s Repkon and Pakistan’s Wah Industries signed an agreement to set up a 155mm artillery shell facility in Pakistan.

The Turkish defense company Repkon and Pakistan’s Wah Industries Limited (WIL) signed an agreement on Thursday to develop a production line to produce 120,000 155mm artillery projectiles each year. This is against a background of reported worldwide shortages of the munition brought about by the war in Ukraine, according to Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency.

Repkon, a leading metallurgical technology company supports the defense, aviation and space sectors and has partnerships with defense manufacturers in the US and Europe. WIL, a major defense contractor for Pakistan Ordnance Factories, supplies weapons and ammunition both to the Pakistani Armed Forces and internationally.

Ukrainian partisans report that Russia is preparing for a Ukrainian airborne landing in Yevpatoria, Crimea

Ukrainian partisans reported that Russia is expecting a Ukrainian airborne landing in Yevpatoria, on the west coast of Russian-occupied Crimea.

An agent of the “Atesh” partisan movement, from the Yevpatoria National Guard of Russia (Rosgvardia), said that the Russians are anticipating a Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance group landing in the area.

Latest from the Institute for the Study of War.

Key Takeaways from the ISW:

• Russian forces continue to make significant tactical advances in western Donetsk Oblast and are coming closer to enveloping Velyka Novosilka and advancing towards important Ukrainian ground lines of communication (GLOCs) supplying the rest of western Donetsk Oblast and running into eastern Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhia oblasts.
• Russian advances in western Donetsk Oblast may become operationally significant if the Russian command properly exploits these recent tactical successes, which is not a given. Russian advances in western Donetsk Oblast do not automatically portend the collapse of the Ukrainian frontline.
• Ukrainian forces struck a Russian oil depot in Kaluga Oblast and an airbase in Kursk Oblast on the night of November 24 to 25.
• Ukrainian military officials continue to warn of potential Russian ground operations against Zaporizhzhia City, though the timeline and scale of this offensive operation remain unclear due to the operational constraints imposed by ongoing Russian operations in Kursk and Donetsk oblasts.
• North Korea is reportedly expanding a key weapons facility likely used to supply Russia with ballistic missiles.
• The Kremlin signaled that it would remove the Taliban from its list of prohibited organizations amid intensified Russia-Taliban rapprochement.
• Russian forces recently advanced in southwestern Toretsk and south and southeast of Pokrovsk.
• Russian command posts are reportedly relying on Chinese-made radios for internal communications because Russia cannot domestically produce enough quality radios for the Russian military.

G7 to meet Tuesday with Ukraine Foreign Minister as NATO discusses Russia’s new “hazel tree” missiles; Two more German air defense systems on the way; Pope slams “invaders” in Ukraine and Palestine.

Italian officials said that on Tuesday, G7 foreign ministers will meet with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha to discuss ways to continue supporting Kyiv, prospects for peace, and initiatives for reconstruction.

Sybiha is scheduled to participate in a special session of the G7 ministerial meeting on Ukraine, as well as several bilateral talks with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, French Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Noël Barrot, Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly, and German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry announced in a release.