Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a military operation in Ukraine Thursday. Kiev has confirmed war has broken out between Russia and Ukraine, and Moscow has launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The White House has made an urgent appeal to American lawmakers to approve additional aid for Ukraine, saying the country is “nearly out of time” as US agencies spend the last remaining funds from previous security packages.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is bypassing General Valery Zaluzhny, the country’s top military leader, to give orders directly to commanders, the Ukrainskaya Pravda news outlet has reported, citing sources close to the leadership in Kiev.
US and British officers helped plan the Ukrainian spring-summer campaign against Russia and provided all the asked-for vehicles, but Kiev decided to divide its forces in three directions, while Washington wanted a single focused advance sooner, according to a Washington Post feature.
The White House urgently needs supplemental funding to continue supporting Ukraine, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby has admitted. The official stated that the administration of President Joe Biden effectively only has until the end of the year until it gets “really hard” to continue propping up Kiev.
In the six months since Kiev launched its push against Russian defensive lines, it has lost over 125,000 troops and 16,000 heavy weapons, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu has estimated during a ministerial meeting on Friday. In recent weeks, top Ukrainian officials admitted the counteroffensive had failed to reach the desired outcome, and they seemed to shift blame for the failure on each other.
The Russian military has amassed a large stockpile of missiles in preparation for strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure over the winter, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has stated.
NATO has promised to develop a roadmap toward Ukraine’s “full interoperability” with the bloc’s militaries. While Kiev has welcomed the announcement, it fell dramatically short of the membership invitation that Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky sought earlier this year.
Russia launched 21 drones and three cruise missiles at Ukraine overnight, but all the drones and two of the missiles were destroyed before reaching their targets, Ukraine's air force announced on Wednesday.
NATO is sticking to its plan to contain Russia by sacrificing countless Ukrainian lives, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has stated after the military bloc’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg argued that the alliance was trying to prevent further escalation of tensions with Russia.
Kiev could have stopped the conflict in April 2022 by recognizing the independence of the two Donbass republics and Crimea as Russian territory, the head of Moscow’s negotiating team, Vladimir Medinsky, has stated.
Several EU member states are seeking to soften proposals by the European Commission, aimed at preventing sanctions on Moscow being circumvented via third nations, Bloomberg has reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
The Russian Embassy in London is asking the United Kingdom to comment on the statement by a senior Ukrainian lawmaker who said that former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson was the one who convinced Kiev in 2022 not to talk with Moscow and continue the fighting instead.
Ukraine has targeted the Russian capital in an attempted coordinated drone attack, with at least 20 UAVs intercepted over Moscow, Bryansk, Kaluga and Tula regions early Sunday morning, according to the city's mayor and the Defense Ministry.
The United States and Germany want to push Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky toward talks with Russia by providing Kiev with only just enough weapons to hold the current frontline, the Bild newspaper has reported, citing sources in the German government.
Americans would overwhelmingly support a ceasefire in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, according to the results of an Economist/YouGov poll. The survey also found that US residents trust Israel more than Russia not to target civilians during the hostilities.
Moscow has never rejected peace talks with Kiev, whereas Ukraine has publicly withdrawn from the process, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated during his online address to an extraordinary G20 summit on Wednesday.
Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov has refused to comment on US accusations that Tehran is mulling the possibility of sending ballistic missiles to Moscow for use in the Ukraine war.
Kiev’s threats to assassinate Russian President Vladimir Putin are nothing new, but have mostly remained in the realm of narratives as opposed to reality, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has stated.
Ukraine has lost more than 13,700 soldiers and about 1,800 units of various weapons and military equipment since the beginning of November, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has claimed.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has flatly rejected any idea of launching peace negotiations with Russia despite the Ukrainian army’s difficult situation at the combat line of engagement.
The government in Kiev is worried that its Western backers are calling for peace out of an irrational fear of Russia, Aleksey Danilov, the head of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, has stated.
If the US Congress fails to pass a bill which includes funding for Ukraine this year, the chances of it doing so at a later point will fall significantly, NBC News has reported, citing sources on Capitol Hill. A clash on supplemental spending is expected after the Thanksgiving recess.
