Russian Authorities Say They Detained Uzbek Man in Probe of General’s Death
Russia’s Federal Security Service did not name the suspect but said he was an Uzbek man who had been recruited by Ukrainian intelligence agencies for yesterday’s killing of Russian Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov in Moscow (AP)
Apparent Ukrainian Attack Kills Russian General in Moscow
Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, the head of Russia’s nuclear, biological, and chemical defense forces, was killed alongside his assistant in an explosion in Moscow this morning; an unnamed Ukrainian official told multiple news outlets that Kyiv had carried out the killing (WaPo)
Yesterday, Ukraine’s domestic security service charged Kirillov in absentia for using banned chemical weapons against Ukrainians; he is the highest-ranking Russian general to be killed outside the battlefield since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine (NYT)
While the Ukrainian official said Kirillov was a “legitimate target,” Russia’s investigative service classified the killing as a suspected “terrorist act” (BBC)
The deputy head of Russia’s Security Council pledged “inevitable retribution” on Ukraine’s senior military-political leadership (WSJ)
The assassinations come as U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is trying to coax talks to end the war; Trump said yesterday in his press conference that Ukraine needs to be prepared to make a deal with Russia (Bloomberg)
Russia Launches Sweeping Attack on Ukrainian Energy Facilities
The air attack came as Russian forces advanced toward the city of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine (WaPo,Reuters)
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) chief Mark Rutte warned yesterday that Russia is preparing for “long-term confrontation” with Europe and called for an increase in European countries’ military spending (AP)
His speech came as the United States unveiled a $500 million aid package for Ukraine yesterday (Reuters)
European Countries Hold Parallel Talks on Ukraine
The leaders of France and Poland are meeting today to discuss the possibility of sending European troops to Ukraine in the case of a cease-fire, and the leaders of Hungary and Turkey are gathering to discuss prospects for a peace deal (Reuters, Bloomberg)
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán met with Donald Trump and then spoke separately with Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier in the week (Politico)
Orbán posted on social media yesterday that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy rejected a proposal for a Christmas cease-fire and prisoner swap (AFP)
Washington Uses Profits From Frozen Russian Assets to Transfer $20 Billion For Ukraine
The U.S. Treasury Department moved $20 billion yesterday to a World Bank fund for Ukraine’s economic recovery; the funds are part of a long-negotiated effort by Ukraine’s backers, including Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the European Union, to use the profits from some $300 billion in frozen Russian assets to pay for reconstruction (Reuters)
The loan was designed to provide support without burdening taxpayers in donating countries; Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen hailed the “creative policymaking and unity of the [Group of Seven]” to make “Russia increasingly bear the costs of its illegal war” (NYT)
The U.S. government had for a while considered earmarking $10 billion of the $20 billion total for military aid, but opted against it as it would require congressional approval—a permission that has been increasingly difficult to reach on Ukraine aid (Reuters)
At the two-year mark of the war, a February report by the World Bank, United Nations, and European Commission estimated it would cost around $486 billion to rebuild Ukraine over the next decade(World Bank)
Washington Announces $988 Million in New Military Assistance for Ukraine
The package includes drones, ammunition for rocket launchers, and equipment for artillery systems, tanks, and armored vehicles (CBS/AFP)
Meanwhile, Donald Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday at talks facilitated by French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris; Zelenskyy called the meeting “constructive” without giving further details (AP)
In an interview, Trump said Zelenskyy “would like to make a deal and stop the madness” (CBS)
WSJ: Ukrainian Presidential Advisor Meets With Trump Team
Advisor to the Ukrainian presidency Andriy Yermak met with Vice President JD Vance as well as President-Elect Donald Trump’s nominees for national security advisor and special envoy for Russia and Ukraine, unnamed sources told the Wall Street Journal; special envoy choice Keith Kellogg has signaled support for rushing arms to Ukraine in order to give it leverage in peace talks, but the peace plans discussed by Trump’s team do not include Kyiv joining NATO (WSJ)
Yale Report: 314 Ukrainian Children Placed in “Systematic Program of Coerced Adoption and Fostering”
The report by a Yale research lab and backed by the U.S. State Department said the program received direct support from the Russian presidency since February 2022; it adds to evidence about deportations that are already the source of an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin (NYT)
NATO Foreign Ministers Weigh War in Ukraine at Brussels Meeting
The United States and Germany approved new rounds of military support to Kyiv worth hundreds of millions of dollars before the two-day summit kicked off today (VOA)
Ukraine’s foreign minister requested a full North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) membership invitation in a letter late last week, but the alliance lacks consensus on the issue; Secretary-General Mark Rutte said the meeting will focus on “how to make sure Ukraine, whenever it decides to enter into peace talks, will do so from positional strength” (Reuters)
NATO has called Ukraine’s path to membership “irreversible” without specifying a timeline (Reuters)
As the inauguration of U.S. President-Elect Donald Trump—who has pledged a quick deal to end the war in Ukraine—approaches, Rutte traveled to Florida to meet with Trump late last month (AFP)
Rutte emphasized that pushing Ukraine into a bad deal would pose a “dire threat” to the United States given the increased cooperation of U.S. adversaries, he told the Financial Times(FT)
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz Makes Surprise Visit to Kyiv
Scholz pledged more than $680 million in additional military support for Ukraine (Le Monde, AFP)
Russia Deploys Largest Drone Attack of War
Russian forces launched a record 188 drones into Ukraine overnight, Ukraine’s military said; many were shot down, but energy infrastructure in the Western city of Ternopil was damaged (ABC)
NATO, Ukraine to Meet in Response to Russian Ballistic Missile Strike
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and Ukrainian officials will hold talks in Brussels next week over Russia’s firing yesterday morning of a hypersonic missile, unnamed diplomats told AFP (AFP)
A NATO spokesperson said Russia using the weapon would not deter NATO allies from supporting Ukraine, and a White House spokesperson said Russia was escalating “at every turn” (AFP)
Yesterday, the U.S. sanctioned Gazprombank, which had been the last major Russian bank it had not penalized over Russia’s war (Bloomberg)
Russia and Ukraine Step Up Aerial Attacks
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russia fired a new rocket overnight at Ukraine that has “all the characteristics” of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM); Russia, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and the U.S. Defense Department did not immediately comment, while two unnamed U.S. officials told CBS News that the missile was not an ICBM (CBS)
Ukraine, for its part, has now reportedly used U.S.- and UK-provided missiles to strike inside Russia (Bloomberg)
Report: U.S. Will Give Anti-Personnel Land Mines to Ukraine
The White House authorized the transfer of the weapons to Ukraine to blunt Russia’s attacks on its front lines, unnamed U.S. officials told the Washington Post; more than 160 countries have signed an international treaty banning the use of such weapons (WaPo)
Kyiv has committed not to use them in densely populated areas, the officials said; the Kremlin has already been deploying these mines against Ukraine (BBC)
Shifts in Ukraine’s Missile Use, Russian Nuclear Doctrine Mark One Thousand Days of War
Russia updated its nuclear doctrine in a decree today, saying that Moscow could consider using its nuclear weapons in response to a large-scale conventional attack; it also said Russia would view any conventional attack backed by a nuclear-armed power as a joint attack (AP)
Russia’s shift came as its war in Ukraine passed the one-thousand-day mark; in response to the deployment of North Korean troops in Russia, Ukraine used a U.S.-provided Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) missile against Russia for the first time, unnamed sources told the Financial Times (FT)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the European Parliament today as the war meets new thresholds of both length and international involvement; he called on European countries to “push harder” against Russian President Vladimir Putin to coax Moscow into “meaningful negotiations” to end the war (EuroNews)
The war also featured in yesterday’s leaders’ communiqué of the Group of Twenty (G20) summit—though with a much shorter mention than the previous year and omitting Russia entirely—which welcomed “initiatives that support a comprehensive, just, and durable peace” (FT)
Reports: Biden Approves Kyiv’s Use of U.S.-Provided Missiles to Strike Inside Russia
The Joe Biden administration shifted its stance on Ukrainian use of its long-range Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) to allow Kyiv to use them to target certain sites inside Russia, unnamed senior U.S. officials told multiple news outlets; the deployment of thousands of North Korean troops to Russia affected Washington’s change in stance, U.S. officials said anonymously (WaPo)
Ukraine celebrated the decision that it has long sought in response to Russia’s invasion, while a Kremlin spokesperson said the move marked a “new situation in terms of U.S. involvement in this conflict” (NYT)
Russia carried out one of its heaviest air bombardments across Ukraine of the entire war over the weekend, causing widespread blackouts and killing at least eleven people (CNN)
While Deputy U.S. National Security Advisor Jon Finer did not confirm the reports of Washington’s decision, he said today that battlefield circumstances shape U.S. policy decisions, and in recent days and weeks those include “a significant Russian escalation that involves the deployment of a foreign country’s forces on its own territory” (WSJ)
Russia Has Deployed Almost Fifty Thousand Troops to Kursk Region Where Ukraine Holds Territory
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has previously said thousands of those troops fighting for Russia in Kursk are North Korean soldiers (CNN)
Pyongyang and Moscow ratified their mutual defense treaty in recent days (AP)
Putin, Zelenskyy Weigh in on Trump’s Pitch to End War in Ukraine
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy separately responded to U.S. President-Elect Donald Trump’s ambitions to bring the Russia-Ukraine war to a close yesterday, with Zelenskyy calling for “a fair ending” to the war and Putin saying that Trump’s desire to restore relations with Moscow and help end the war “deserves attention;” Trump has spoken with Zelenskyy but not Putin in his initial phone calls since his victory (Bloomberg)
He previously claimed he could end the war within twenty-four hours, but did not give details of how he would approach this in an interview with NBC yesterday (Bloomberg)
Zelenskyy met with European leaders at a Budapest summit yesterday, where he told reporters a “quick ending” to the war “will be a loss;” many of Zelenskyy’s European counterparts voiced backing for Ukraine against Russia’s aggression, but Hungarian President Viktor Orbán said that U.S. and European aid that had already been agreed for Kyiv is now an “open question” (AP)
White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre yesterday said that Washington was focused on making sure Ukraine had what it needed for its defense (White House)
European Countries Talk Security and U.S. Election Aftermath in Budapest
The summit is the fifth meeting of the European Political Community; the grouping was founded on the heels of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and many attendees today voiced their own commitment to keep supporting Kyiv, urging Washington to continue doing the same (BBC)
Ukraine’s Military Says It Fought North Korean Troops in Russia’s Kursk Region
While the U.S. Defense Department said it could not immediately corroborate reports that North Korean troops had engaged in combat, Group of Seven (G7) countries as well as Australia, New Zealand, and South Korea said today that they condemned the increased military cooperation between Russia and North Korea “in the strongest possible terms” and would coordinate a response (Bloomberg, Reuters,Reuters)
Washington Warns North Korean Troops Are Approaching Ukraine Border
As many as eight thousand North Korean troops are in the Russian border region of Kursk, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said; he added that Washington and Seoul agreed that China should “do more” to curb North Korea’s efforts to aid Russia (Nikkei)
U.S. officials have assessed that China is uneasy about North Korea’s strengthening security partnership with Russia and State Department officials have raised the issue with Beijing in recent days, the New York Times reported (NYT)
Report: Ukraine and Russia Weigh Talks on De-escalating Energy Attacks
Kyiv and Moscow are in preliminary discussions about a potential deal to stamp out strikes on each others’ energy facilities, unnamed sources including senior Ukrainian officials told the Financial Times; such a deal was reportedly under consideration before Ukraine’s push into Russia’s Kursk region, but was then sidelined upon the Ukrainian offensive (FT). Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy did not immediately comment on the matter, while a Kremlin spokesperson dismissed the report as fake news when questioned (Reuters)
Last week, Zelenskyy said that a bilateral deal to stop hitting energy infrastructure was needed as a first stop to wind down the most aggressive phase of the war; Zelenskyy’s comments last week and the report of preliminary talks underscore Ukrainian concerns over the vulnerability of its energy grid as winter approaches (Politico)
Russian missile strikes have destroyed half of Ukraine’s energy generation capacity, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said last month; the European Union (EU) hopes to help restore capacity that would serve around 15 percent of the country’s energy demand, she added (European Commission)
Meanwhile, Ukraine and its allies continue to sound the alarm about North Korean troops in Russia, and Russia test-fired missiles in what it called a simulated response to a nuclear attack (AFP)
North Korea’s Top Envoy Visits Russia Amid Reports of Troop Surg
North Korea’s foreign minister left for a trip to Russia that comes on the heels of multiple countries’ warnings of North Korean troop activity in the country (ABC)
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was the latest to issue such a warning (BBC)
The U.S. Department of Defense said that if North Korea joins Russia’s fight in Ukraine, it will put no new limits on Ukraine’s use of U.S. weapons (Reuters)
Kyiv Says North Korean Forces Reached Russia’s Kursk
North Korean fighters have been detected in the Kursk region where Ukrainian forces pushed into Russia in recent months, Ukrainian intelligence said; Russian President Vladimir Putin did not deny that North Korean forces were in Russia when asked about it at the BRICS summit (CNN)
Ukrainian forces held around 600 to 700 square kilometers (230 to 270 square miles) in Kursk in October, down from 1,000 in August following their incursion, the Financial Times reported (FT)
Washington Signs Deal to Finalize Its $20 Billion Portion of $50 Billion Loan Package
Western allies are putting together an aid package for Ukraine with the backing of frozen Russian assets; the Joe Biden administration wants $10 billion of the U.S. support to go to military aid, which would require U.S. congressional approval (Politico)