Ukraine Breaking News Today Live on 11-30-2024

The details of the plan have yet to be officially confirmed or discussed publicly by Trump’s team or US officials.

Donald Trump’s newly appointed special representative for resolving the war between Russia and Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, has proposed a peace plan that reportedly includes allocating a share of Russian energy sales to Ukraine for its post-war recovery, CNN reports. The exact percentage of the proposed allocation is not specified.

Kellogg, who outlined aspects of this plan in April through the America First Policy Institute, envisions a multi-stage resolution process.

Stefan Korshak, Kyiv Post’s senior military correspondent, shares his perspective on the developments during a bountiful news week in Russia’s war in Ukraine.

This week saw plenty of Ukraine-related news. Overall, the superficial way it looks is that this was one of those weeks when Decisive Important Things happened. But I think perspective and time will show us, there was more noise than real change.

That being said, it is reasonable to state that if you are watching the Russo-Ukrainian War, then the theme “Peace Talks and Ceasefires” is now formally something that will deliver news and that it probably makes sense to pay attention to. So I’ll start off with that.

The visits generally centre around Kyiv and its suburbs that saw alleged massacres from Russian troops in the early 2022.

Spanish traveller Alberto Blasco Ventas looked out at Ukraine's destroyed Irpin brige, blown up to stop Russian troops in 2022 and now a hotspot for thrill-seeking tourists visiting the country.

Russian forces had planned to cross the bridge in their attempts to seize the Ukrainian capital Kyiv at the beginning of the war.

Kellogg was security advisor for the White House during Trump’s first term in office - and presented a plan last spring for ending the war in Ukraine.

Retired General Keith Kellogg is to become US special envoy for Ukraine and Russia under Donald Trump. Kellogg was security advisor for the White House during Trump's first term in office - and presented a plan last spring for ending the war in Ukraine according to which the US would bring the parties to the conflict to the negotiating table by exerting pressure on both sides.

Not a plan for sustainable peace

A Russian military lawyer told pro-Moscow news sites that the unnamed sailor suffered severe radiation poisoning after apparently washing his clothes in contaminated water.

Russian military lawyer Petr Portnyagin was quoted by the URA.ru and Lenta.ru news sites as saying that a sailor, from Yekaterinburg, was deployed from the aircraft carrier “Admiral Kuznetsov,”  which has been out of commission and undergoing refitting in Murmansk since 2017, to serve in President Vladimir Putin’s special military operation (SVO).

As Kyiv Post reported in September, families of the crew of the Russian cruiser who were sent to Ukraine to serve as mechanized infantry were seeking information on the fate of their loved ones.

Georgia’s and Ukraine’s Pro-European ‘Maidan’ Protest Compared and Contrasted

Although the pro-European mass protests in Ukraine (2013) and Georgia (2024) share many similarities in their underlying factors and early stages — including the curious coincidence that both began at the end of November — there are several crucial differences that will shape the future dynamics of the current protests in Georgia.

Firstly, unlike Ukraine in 2013, pro-European activists in Georgia lack parliamentary allies upon which they can rely. While pro-EU opposition parties do exist, they have refused to take their seats in parliament, asserting that the 2024 elections were unfair.

He said that only two and a half of the ten brigades planned with Western allies have been fully equipped, despite agreements made over a year ago.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky emphasized that the shortage of weapons and equipment—not personnel—is the main challenge facing the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Speaking to Sky News, he addressed calls from allies to lower the country's draft age to increase troop numbers.

He said that only two and a half of the ten brigades planned with Western allies have been fully equipped, despite agreements made over a year ago.

65% of Ukrainian refugees have decided to stay in Germany, which has welcomed over 1.1 million Ukrainians who are integrating, learning the language, and seeking jobs.

An increasing number of Ukrainian refugees who fled the war are choosing to stay in Germany permanently. The head of the German Refugee Agency, Markus Seibert, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur that about 65% of them now plan to remain in the country. By comparison, a year and a half ago, the majority expressed intentions to return to Ukraine.

This shift in sentiment highlights changing priorities: Ukrainians are actively learning German, seeking employment, and striving for integration. These findings are based on regular surveys of residents in Berlin’s refugee shelters, where 9,000 Ukrainians currently live. In total, between 50,000 and 60,000 Ukrainians reside in the German capital.

Ukraine’s president updates the leaders of Germany and France of the status of the war with Russia and what Ukraine needs to force Russia to the negotiating table.

The official site of the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, reports that he had telephone separate calls on Friday, Nov. 29, with the Chancellor of Germany Olaf Scholz, and the Presidents of France, Emmanuel Macron.

Their purpose was to update the European leaders on the state of Ukraine’s resistance against Russia’s armed aggression and stress the need for continued unflagging support for Ukraine from its supporters, coordination of their responses, and expediting Ukraine’s accession to NATO.

Latest from the British Defence Intelligence.

• On 21 November 2024 Russia targeted a Ukrainian munitions factory in Dnipro with the first ever operational use of an intermediate range ballistic missile (IRBM), codenamed Oreshnik. An IRBM is classified as having a maximum range of between 3,000-5,500km. In this instance, the missile only travelled just over 800km to its target.
• Russia announced its withdrawal from the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty in February 2019, which banned the development and production of IRBMs. However, the development of Oreshnik almost certainly occurred before this. The system is highly likely a variant of the Rubezh RS-26 ballistic missile, which was first tested in 2011.
• The missile payload was observed as six groups of six warheads, for a total of 36 submunitions. These submunitions travel at hypersonic speeds (greater than Mach 5) before impact, as is typical for a missile of this class. All IRBM and intercontinental ballistic missile warheads will travel at hypersonic speeds when re-entering the atmosphere.
• The use of this experimental system against Ukraine was almost certainly intended as strategic messaging tollowing the use by Ukraine of Western missiles into Russia. Russia highly likely only has a handful of Oreshnik missiles, which are yet to enter serial production. This missile is highly likely to be far more expensive than other missiles Russia is currently using against Ukraine.

Half of Ukraine’s state budget is reliant on financial aid from other countries because of defending itself against Russia, and returning to pre-war normal is “impossible” during wartime.

Defending against Russia’s war is resource-intensive and will not allow a return to the low level of debt Ukraine’s GDP had before the full-scale invasion or become less dependent on foreign aid, the Minister of Finance Serhiy Marchenko said in response to a Kyiv Post question during his press briefing on Thursday.

Ukraine’s state budget deficit was only 3.8% of GDP, while during Russia’s full-scale invasion it increased to 24%, decreasing to 19% after a successful debt restructuring deal.

Rebels launched a swift offensive against Iranian- and Russian-backed Syrian forces since Wednesday, coinciding with a fragile ceasefire in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah.

A monitor of Syria's war said on Saturday that jihadist rebels now control a majority of Aleppo city, reporting Russian air strikes on parts of Syria's second city for the first time since 2016.

The rebels have pressed a lightning offensive against forces of the Iranian- and Russian-backed Syrian government since Wednesday, the same day a fragile ceasefire took effect in neighbouring Lebanon between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah group, a Damascus ally, after two months of all-out war.

The protests have seen clashes between demonstrators and police, with local media reporting beatings of protesters and journalists.

The Georgian Interior Ministry announced the detention of 107 people during the second night of protests against the suspension of negotiations on the country’s accession to the European Union.

The arrests were made under charges of disobeying police orders and petty hooliganism, according to the ministry.

The United States and South Korea have accused the nuclear-armed North of sending more than 10,000 soldiers to help Russia fight Ukraine, with experts saying Kim is eager to gain advanced technology.

Russian Defence Minister Andrei Belousov met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and agreed to boost military cooperation between the two isolated nations, Pyongyang state media said Saturday.

The United States and South Korea have accused the nuclear-armed North of sending more than 10,000 soldiers to help Russia fight Ukraine, with experts saying Kim is eager to gain advanced technology, and battle experience for his troops, in return.

Titled ‘How Good It Is I Have No Fear of Dying,’ Marlowe’s book centers itself on the life of Yulia Mykytenko, a 29-year-old lieutenant commanding a frontline reconnaissance and attack unit.

As Russia continues to pound Ukraine, efforts to defy Vladimir Putin’s war machine have been boosted by the presence of 60,000 women serving in the country’s armed forces, with 10,000 in combat roles.

Now, the story of one of these women has been turned into a book by the acclaimed journalist Lara Marlowe.

This missile is highly likely to be far more expensive than other missiles Russia is currently using against Ukraine, according to British intelligence.

The missile Russia used to strike the city of Dnipro is reportedly a variant of the Rubezh RS-26 ballistic missile, first tested in 2011. Russia likely possesses only a limited number of Oreshnik [Hazel tree] missiles, and it’s unlikely to have entered serial production, the UK Ministry of Defence stated on X (formerly Twitter).

The Oreshnik missile, classified as an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) with a maximum range between 3,000 and 5,500 kilometers (approximately 1,864-3,418 miles), only traveled approximately 800 kilometers (497 miles) to its target in the Dnipro strike.

Latest from the Institute for the Study of War.

Key Takeaways from the ISW:

• Russian President Vladimir Putin continues to laud the technical specifications of the recently launched Oreshnik ballistic missile and threaten additional Oreshnik strikes against Ukraine as part of an intensified Russian reflexive control campaign aimed at forcing the West and Ukraine into self-deterrence.
• There is nothing particularly novel about the capabilities of the Oreshnik missile, and US and Ukrainian officials indicated that the Oreshnik missile does not portend a Russian escalation in the war. Putin's constant flaunting of the Oreshnik and Russian missile capabilities therefore remains part of the Kremlin's reflexive control information operation and is unlikely to presage the development of particularly novel Russian deep strike capabilities.
• The Russian military is considering establishing a separate service branch for unmanned systems, likely as part of the Russian Ministry of Defense's (MoD) in a belated effort to catch up to the establishment of the Ukrainian Unmanned Systems Forces (USF) in February 2024.
• Russian forces conducted a large series of drone and missile strikes against Ukraine’s energy grid and major defense industrial facilities on the nights of November 27 to 28 and 28 to 29.
• Ukrainian forces conducted a series of strikes against four Russian air defense systems and radars in occupied Ukraine and two oil depots in Russia on November 28 and 29.
• Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov made an unannounced visit to Pyongyang, North Korea on November 29 amid intensifying Russian-North Korean cooperation.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly appointed Colonel General Rustam Muradov as First Deputy Commander of the Russian Ground Forces.
• The Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office opened additional investigations on November 28 into the apparent Russian execution of Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) in Donetsk and Zaporizhia oblasts.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky the appointment of Major General Mykhailo Drapatyi as Ukraine's new Ground Forces Commander on November 29, replacing Lieutenant General Oleksandr Pavlyuk.
• Georgians protested in Tbilisi, Georgia in response to an initiative by the ruling pro-Kremlin Georgian Dream party to delay European Union (EU) accession negotiations, prompting the Russian information space to resurrect information operations falsely framing the protests and Georgian opposition parties as potential threats to Georgian sovereignty.
• Ukrainian forces recently advanced northeast of Vuhledar.
• Russian forces recently advanced near Kupyansk, in Toretsk, near Pokrovsk, and near Velyka Novosilka.
• Russian opposition outlets Mediazona and BBC Russian Service reported that they have confirmed that at least 80,937 Russian soldiers have died in Ukraine since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Zelensky suggested a ceasefire could be possible if NATO protects Ukraine’s controlled territories in an interview aired Friday, signaling a shift in strategy to end the war.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has suggested that a ceasefire could be achievable if NATO extends its protection to the parts of Ukraine under Kyiv’s control. This would allow for a temporary resolution to the war, with hopes of negotiating the return of occupied territories through diplomatic means in the future.

In an interview aired Friday night with Sky News’ chief correspondent, Stuart Ramsay, Zelensky was asked about reports claiming that one of US President-elect Donald Trump’s proposed strategies for ending the conflict could involve Ukraine conceding the territories seized by Russia in exchange for NATO membership. Zelensky responded that the key to ending the “hot phase of the war” would be ensuring that the unoccupied parts of Ukraine are brought under NATO’s umbrella, provided the alliance recognizes Ukraine's internationally recognized borders.