Ukraine Breaking News Today Live on 11-29-2024

Exclusive report by the Kyiv Post from Sumy, a city near the border with Russia’s Kursk region, subjected to devastating air strikes.

Sumy, a Ukrainian city on the border with Russia – which the Russians tried and failed to capture in the spring – is now subject to continual guided aerial bomb, missile, and drone attacks.

The attacks grew in intensity following Ukraine’s Aug. 6 offensive in Russia’s Kursk region – where Ukrainian troops captured the neighboring town of Sudzha.

397 bodies were reportedly returned from the embattled Donetsk region, where fighting is most intense.

Kyiv on Friday said Russian authorities returned over 500 bodies of Ukrainian soldiers killed in combat, with most having died in the eastern Donetsk region.

Russia and Ukraine have been exchanging bodies and prisoners of war since the first months of the conflict – with casualties estimated to be high on both sides.

Russia’s war on Ukraine is in reality a war against the West by other means that needs to be ended by resolution and firmness.

In recent years, there has been a recurring narrative in the West about the potential for a “war breaking out” with Russia that indicates a fundamental misunderstanding of Moscow’s strategy. While Russia undeniably seeks to weaken the Western order, it is keenly aware that it cannot win a conventional war against the United States and its allies. Instead, Russia has waged what it considers to be World War IV – a war fought on terrain that allows it to benefit from its strengths without entering a conventional war with NATO.

As chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov has argued, Moscow does not view itself to be at war with Ukraine, a country that Moscow considers to be merely a puppet of America, rather Putin believes that he is waging war against the puppet’s master – NATO – whom it blames for having lost World War III, the Cold War.

Richard Moore, the head of the UK’s MI6, warned that Russia’s sabotage campaign was “dangerous and beyond irresponsible.”

Russia is waging a reckless campaign of sabotage in Europe, the British foreign intelligence chief warned on Friday, accusing President Vladimir Putin of showing a mixture of “bluster and aggression.”

In a rare public speech abroad, the head of the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS, also known as MI6), Richard Moore, also said that while Iran had been affected by the degrading of allied militias in the Middle East, its nuclear program “threatens us all.”

In Tbilisi protests start over plans by ruling pro-Russian party to shelve EU accession efforts.

The Georgian president has called on the EU to “not let Russia have a free ride” as police used water cannons and tear gas on demonstrators protesting the government’s decision to postpone membership talks with Brussels until 2028.

The decision, announced on Thursday afternoon, has added to the volatility in Georgia, already high following general elections on October 26.

It’s not just Russia relentlessly attacking. The Ukrainian strike Standard Operating Procedure is to find the Russian air defenses, blow them up, and then send kamikaze drone swarms through the gap.

Dozens of long-range Ukrainian kamikaze drones hit Russian military and infrastructure targets hundreds of kilometers apart on Friday, in one of the most ambitious air strike operations yet launched by Kyiv against its massive eastern opponent.

Hits and damage were confirmed by multiple sources following attacks against a critical Russian air defense site on the western shore of the occupied Crimea peninsula and at a refinery in Russia’s Rostov region, on the other side of the Black Sea.

To base negotiations on the idea that ceding to Russia the Ukrainian territory Moscow now controls will placate Putin is a fool’s errand. The West must understand what Putin really wants.

The result of the presidential election in the US has triggered a few new scenarios of a potential diplomatic ending to the Russo-Ukrainian War. Many experts believe Ukraine will be forced to concede some of its territory. Others claim that swapping land for peace is Ukraine’s sole option to withdraw from a horrific conflict and avoid a complete destruction of its country.

Whereas the above points are worthy of consideration, it is critical to ponder the ramifications of a decision giving Russia jurisdiction over vast areas of Ukrainian land. Should Kyiv be compelled to surrender eastern and southern areas in exchange for peace, Vladimir Putin will have validated his unprovoked full-scale invasion and his imperialistic greed will increase. Any temporary resolution achieved at a cost to Ukraine will be offset by Russia’s continued expansionist efforts which will only make it more expensive to stop an advancing Putin.

The high-tech Zoopark radar complex, valued at Hr.1 billion (around $24 million), was destroyed using four FPV drones costing several orders of magnitude less.

Ukrainian forces have successfully destroyed the Russian Zoopark surveillance and fire-control radar complex, a highly valuable asset frequently showcased by the Russian troops, according to a Telegram post from Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence (HUR).

“The intelligence servicemen burned the expensive Russian radar complex,” read the caption accompanying the video released by HUR.

A HUR special operation destroyed a Russian SUV with drones in Kursk, disrupting enemy logistics and weakening military infrastructure in a successful sabotage mission.

Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR) sabotaged a Russian SUV full of drones in Russia’s Kursk region, a Kyiv Post source in intelligence reported on Friday, Nov. 29, at noon.

Ukrainian partisans in the city of Rylsk discovered the location of a Russian drone crew, the source said.

The 63-year-old Alexei Gorinov is already serving a seven-year sentence following a conviction in 2022.

Russia on Friday sentenced Alexei Gorinov, the first person to be convicted for speaking out against Moscow's military offensive in Ukraine, to another three years in prison in a second trial.

The 63-year-old -- a former Moscow city councillor -- is already serving a seven-year sentence following a conviction in 2022.

Belousov will hold talks with North Korean "military and military-political officials", the Russian defense ministry said in a statement without elaborating.

Russian Defence Minister Andrei Belousov on Friday hailed "expanding" ties with North Korea, after Western countries accused Pyongyang of sending more than 10,000 soldiers to help Russia fight Ukraine.

"Friendly ties between Russia and North Korea are actively expanding in all areas, including military cooperation," he was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying during a visit to the country.

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

Protesters clashed with police in Georgia's capital, Tbilisi on Thursday after the government suspended talks on its bid to join the European Union for four years. The prime minister of Georgia, Irakli Kobakhidze, of the Georgian Dream party announced the decision on Thursday in a press conference, stating the long sought after bid to join the bloc will not be on the agenda until the end of 2028.  Kobakhidze insisted that Georgia is a European country and that "it is our responsibility to make Georgia a full-fledged member of the European family," but that "Georgia-EU relations are bilateral and can only be bilateral." - Euronews. Clashes between protesters and police lasted all night, and police reportedly used water cannons and tear gas. Protesters were beaten and violently and 43 were detained. Police also beat up several journalists. RFE/RL said its Georgian Service journalist, Davit Tsagareli, was punched and thrown to the ground by a riot police officer as he reported live from the scene, while earlier RFE/RL captured footage of a police officer repeatedly hitting TV Formula journalist Guram Rogava on the head.

Hezbollah accused Israel of attacking people returning to border villages, with Israel's military saying it had opened fire on an arrival of "suspects" detected in several areas in southern Lebanon – a violation, it said, of the ceasefire declared the day before. The Lebanese army said that Israel had violated the ceasefire "several times" through both air strikes and attacks on Lebanese territory - France 25

This attack followed Thursday’s attack that involved nearly 200 cruise missiles and drones, leaving more than a million Ukrainians without power amid freezing temperatures.

Russia’s forces launched a massive drone attack on Ukraine in the early morning of Friday, Nov. 29, using a mix of 132 Shahed and other unidentified unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), according to Ukraine’s air forces.

Air defenses are said to have managed to shoot down 88 drones across multiple regions, while 41 drones were “locationally lost” as a result of electronic warfare (EW) action, with one drone reportedly returned to Russia.

Journalists uncovered a filtration camp in Belarus where Russians tortured Ukrainians. Evidence may serve as a basis for international trials against Russia and Belarus.

Journalists from Skhemy (Radio Liberty), together with their Belarusian colleagues, uncovered a filtration camp set up by Russian forces in the Belarusian city of Naroulia, located on the banks of the Pripyat River, about 70 kilometers from the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant.

At the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the camp in Naroulia became a site of unlawful detention for Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilians, including children. Detainees were subjected to torture, beatings, and inhumane conditions.

What European media are saying about the composition of the new EU Commission.

The European Parliament has given its final approval for Ursula von der Leyen's second EU Commission. MEPs voted 370 to 282 in favour of the 26 Commissioners selected in a complex procedure involving national governments, the EU Parliament and the Commission president. "Von der Leyen II" is now set to commence its work on Sunday.

Europe's last stand

Preliminary responses to Trump’s emerging line on Russia and Ukraine.

I am still trying to get my head around Trump’s decision to appoint retired General Keith Kellogg as his special representative to Ukraine.

I don’t know the guy personally so have been scanning social media to get a sense of his views and to be frank he is all over (inconsistent in view but also literally all over the physical place with lots of media activity) the place on Ukraine. He appeared on US TV channels in early 2023 after a trip to Kyiv and he was then calling for a surge in Western military support for Ukraine. That’s good.

According to the local Telegram channels, the blaze continues to burn hours after the strike.

A drone attack early Friday, Nov. 29, caused a major fire at an oil depot in Rostov region, Russia, engulfing two petroleum reservoirs in separate locations. Local governor Yuri Slyusar confirmed that an industrial facility was damaged, sparking what he described as a “large fire.”

According to the telegram channel Baza, an oil depot in the Kamensky district is on fire.

The unrest follows PM Irakli Kobakhidze’s announcement to delay EU accession talks until 2028, citing EU Parliament criticism of Georgia’s October elections.

On Friday night, Nov. 29, Georgian riot police used tear gas and water cannons against protesters in Tbilisi and other cities, as thousands rallied against the government’s decision to postpone pursuing European Union membership.

Demonstrators, waving EU and Georgian flags, gathered outside parliament, blocking Tbilisi’s main street. The protests escalated after midnight when police fired rubber bullets and clashed with protesters, some of whom erected burning barricades.

The United States, which is not, said last week it would transfer landmines to Ukraine, prompting condemnation from rights groups.

A US offer to give Ukraine anti-personnel mines to help battle Russia's invasion has thrown a landmark global anti-landmine treaty into "crisis", campaigners said Friday, urging Kyiv to snub the proposal.

Ukraine is one of 164 signatories to the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, which prohibits the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of landmines.

The poll-topping victory of hard-core nationalist Calin Georgescu in first-round presidential elections in Romania over the weekend can only be described as meteoric

The poll-topping victory of hard-core nationalist Calin Georgescu in first-round presidential elections in Romania over the weekend can only be described as meteoric. Georgescu came from a standing start of a few percentage point poll support just weeks before the election to take more than 23% of the vote.

He vancquished the candidates of the two most established parties, prime minister Marcel Ciolacu from the former Communist but now Socialist PSD party, and former liberal (PNL) prime minister Nicolae Ciuca, to respective third and fifth placed finishes. In every prior election since the fall of Communism in 1989 the PSD and PNL have seen their candidates in/around second round run-offs. As is Georgescu will go head to head in the second round run off with the pro-EU reform candidate from the USR party, Elena Lasconi.

Ukraine has been attacked with dozens of Russian missiles launched from strategic bombers several of which were given to Moscow by Kyiv in the late 1990s to clear its debt for imported Russian gas.

Russian missile attacks against civilian infrastructure targets in Ukraine are using Soviet-era strategic aviation that it received from Kyiv in 1999 to pay for natural gas Moscow had supplied to its neighbor.

An investigation by journalists from Radio Liberty’s “Schemes” team (Radio Liberty) has identified ten former Ukrainian aircraft that Russia has employed in the attacks. These include six Tupolev Tu-160 (NATO: Blackjack)supersonic, nuclear-capable strategic bombers, still operational from an original total of eight that were handed over and four Tu-95MS (NATO: Bear) turboprop-powered strategic bombers.

Latest from the Institute for the Study of War.

Key Takeaways from the ISW:

• Ukrainian forces continue to leverage Western-provided weapons to conduct strikes using more complex strike packages against military objects in Russia's deep rear.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin and Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev met in Astana on November 27 and signed a joint statement deepening the Russian-Kazakh strategic partnership within the framework of Russia's efforts to establish a "new world order."
• The Russian military command may have imposed controversial restrictions on the use of personal vehicles by Russian volunteers delivering military and humanitarian aid to Russian troops on the frontlines, likely as part of an ongoing force centralization effort.
• Ukrainian forces recently advanced within Toretsk, and Russian forces recently advanced in the Pokrovsk and Kurakhove directions, and within the main Ukrainian salient in Kursk Oblast.
• The Kremlin continues to promote the "Time of Heroes" program that aims to militarize the Russian government at the local, regional, and federal levels as a way to prevent the return of "Afghan syndrome" in Russia.

After Moscow’s latest strikes on Ukraine’s power grid, Biden drives home a message of urgency; More drone attacks on Kyiv; As Russian economy goes into full meltdown, oligarchs are furious.

After Russian air strikes hammered Ukraine’s power grid with almost 200 missiles on Thursday, leaving millions without power, US President Joe Biden called for increased support for Kyiv, underscoring the “urgency” of the situation before his successor Donald Trump takes office in January.

“This attack is outrageous and serves as yet another reminder of the urgency and importance of supporting the Ukrainian people in their defense against Russian aggression,” Biden said. “On this day, my message to the Ukrainian people is clear: the United States stands with you,” he added.