President Donald Trump says his plan to end the war in Ukraine has been “fine-tuned.” He said Tuesday that he is sending envoy Steve Witkoff to meet with the Russian president and Army Secretary Dan Driscoll to meet with Ukrainian officials. (AP Production: Marissa Duhaney)
President Donald Trump says his plan to end the war in Ukraine has been “fine-tuned.” He said Tuesday that he is sending envoy Steve Witkoff to meet with the Russian president and Army Secretary Dan Driscoll to meet with Ukrainian officials. (AP Production: Marissa Duhaney)
KYIV, Nov 29 (Reuters) – Ukraine hit two tankers used by Russia to export oil while skirting Western sanctions with marine drones in the Black Sea, an official from the SBU security service said on Saturday.
The joint operation to hit the so-called ‘shadow fleet’ vessels was run by the SBU and Ukraine’s navy, the official said on condition of anonymity.
Turkish authorities have said that blasts rocked two shadow fleet tankers near Turkey’s Bosphorus Strait on Friday causing fires on the vessels, and rescue operations were launched for those on board.
The SBU official said both tankers – identified as the Kairos and Virat – were empty and on their way to the port of Novorossiysk, a major Russian oil terminal.
“Video (footage) shows that after being hit, both tankers sustained critical damage and were effectively taken out of service. This will deal a significant blow to Russian oil transportation,” the official said.
They did not say when the strikes took place.
Ukraine has consistently called for tougher international measures for Russia’s ‘shadow fleet’, which it says is helping Moscow export vast quantities of oil and fund its war in Ukraine despite Western sanctions.
(Reporting by Tom Balmforth, writing by Max Hunder; Editing by Toby Chopra, Kirsten Donovan)
MOSCOW, Nov 29 (Reuters) – Falling drone debris sparked a blaze at the Afipsky oil refinery in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region, but the fire has been put out, regional authorities said on Saturday.
Some technical equipment on the premises was damaged but no one was injured, the local taskforce said.
The Russian Defence Ministry said that air defence units had intercepted and destroyed 103 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions overnight, including 11 over the Krasnodar region.
(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Kirsten Donovan and Toby Chopra)
KYIV, Nov 29 (Reuters) – A vast Russian overnight attack on Ukraine killed two people and wounded two dozen, Ukraine’s foreign minister said on Saturday, adding that Moscow continued to “kill and destroy” while the world was discussing peace plans for the conflict.
“Russia shot dozens of cruise and ballistic missiles and over 500 drones at ordinary homes, the energy grid, and critical infrastructure,” Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha wrote on X.
Explosions could be heard in the capital city, Kyiv, throughout the night.
(Reporting by Max Hunder; Editing by William Mallard)
Three powerful businessmen—two Americans and a Russian—hunched over a laptop in Miami Beach last month, ostensibly to draw up a plan to end Russia’s long and deadly war with Ukraine.
But the full scope of their project went much further, according to people familiar with the talks. They were privately charting a path to bring Russia’s $2 trillion economy in from the cold—with American businesses first in line to beat European competitors to the dividends.
Another corruption scandal is roiling Ukraine, and there’s no denying corruption exists there as it does in most of the former Soviet states. The question is whether this should override U.S. strategic interests in supporting Ukraine, especially if there are reasonable safeguards against the theft of U.S. assistance.
President Volodymr Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, resigned Friday after corruption authorities conducted a search at his home.. He said in a Telegram post he is cooperating with investigators, but his resignation comes as the Kremlin and Trump Administration are raising the pressure on Ukraine to cede territory to Russia. Mr. Yermak has been Ukraine’s toughest negotiator in peace talks, holding out against bad ideas.
(Reuters) -A Ukrainian delegation is heading to the U.S. for further discussions over a peace plan pushed by President Donald Trump, Bloomberg News reported on Friday, citing a person familiar with the matter.
The Ukrainian group, including senior Ukrainian security official Rustem Umerov and First Deputy Foreign Minister Sergiy Kyslytsya, is expected to meet with U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner in Florida, Bloomberg News reported.
Reuters could not immediately verify the report.
(Reporting by Rhea Rose Abraham in Bengaluru; editing by Diane Craft)
A 28-point plan and President
Vladimir Putin’s response to it have offered some of the best clues yet to a fundamental question bedeviling peace talks: What does the Russian leader want?
The plan, which has been revised since it was leaked last week, drew pushback from Ukraine and its supporters in Congress and Europe for hewing to Moscow’s uncompromising vision for a postwar settlement. Still, Putin has shown little interest in signing it.
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) -Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla, a daughter of former South African president Jacob Zuma, has resigned from parliament amid allegations that she lured 17 men to fight for Russia in Ukraine, her party said on Friday.
Zuma-Sambudla was a lawmaker in the Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) opposition party led by her father. MK officials said she resigned voluntarily and that her departure from the National Assembly and all other public roles was effective immediately.
Nathi Nhleko, MK party national organiser, told reporters MK was not involved in luring the men to Russia and that Zuma-Sambudla’s resignation was not an admission of guilt, but added that MK would help support the men’s families.
“The national officials have accepted comrade Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla’s decision to resign and support her efforts to ensure that these young South Africans are brought back safely to their families,” he said.
Zuma-Sambudla was present at the press conference but did not speak, and has not publicly responded to the accusations from her half-sister.
South Africa’s government said this month that 17 of its citizens were stuck in Ukraine’s Donbas region after being tricked into fighting for mercenary forces under the pretext of lucrative employment contracts. It said it was working to bring them home and investigating how they got there.
On Sunday, police said they would investigate Zuma-Sambudla after her half-sister made a formal request for the probe into her and two other people, accusing them of being involved.
More than 1,400 citizens from three dozen African countries are fighting alongside Russian forces in Ukraine, Kyiv’s foreign minister said this month, urging countries to warn their citizens about recruitment.
(Reporting by Siyanda Mthethwa; Editing by Nellie Peyton and Alison Williams)
Ukrainian anti-corruption units have raided the home of Andriy Yermak, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, amid a major investigation into a $100 million energy sector corruption scandal involving top Ukrainian officials. Two national agencies fighting entrenched corruption in Ukraine said they had searched Yermak’s office.
“The investigators are facing no obstacles,” Yermak wrote in a post on the messaging app Telegram. He added that he was cooperating fully with them and his lawyers were present.
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office are Ukrainian anti-corruption watchdogs.
Andriy Yermak was present at top-level peace negotiations between U.S. and Ukraine in Geneva this past weekend.
Martial Trezzini/AP
Two of Yermak’s former deputies — Oleh Tatarov and Rostyslav Shurma — left the government in 2024 after watchdogs investigated them for financial wrongdoing. A third deputy, Andrii Smyrnov, was investigated for bribes and other wrongdoing but still works for Yermak.
The scandal has heaped more problems on Zelenskyy as he seeks continued support from Western countries for Ukraine’s war effort and tries to ensure continued foreign funding. The European Union, which Ukraine wants to join, has told Zelenskyy he must crack down on corruption.
Zelenskyy faced an unprecedented rebellion from his own lawmakers earlier this month after investigators published details of their energy sector investigation.
In July, Zelenskyy faced the first major protests against himself and his government since Russia launched its full-scale invasion over a bill he signed into law giving Ukraine’s prosecutor general, a political appointee roughly equivalent to the U.S. attorney general, more power over the two anti-corruption agencies.
Some critics argued that the new law was political retribution following the charges being filed against his former deputy Smyrnov, and the move fueled concern that Ukraine could backslide into some degree of the authoritarianism that was the default under former, pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych, who was known for his close ties to oligarchs.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (center) meets with U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (3rd from right), Sen. Richard Blumenthal (4th from left) and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (3rd from left) in Kyiv, Ukraine, Jan. 20, 2023. Head of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine Andriy Yermak (2nd from left) and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleba (right) also attended the meeting.
Ukrainian Presidency/Handout/Anadolu Agency/Getty
Although Yermak has not been accused of any wrongdoing, several senior lawmakers in Zelenskyy’s party said Yermak should take responsibility for the energy sector scandal in order to restore public trust. Some said that if Zelenskyy didn’t fire him, the party could split, threatening the president’s parliamentary majority. But Zelenskyy defied them.
The president urged Ukrainians to unite and “stop the political games” in light of the U.S. pressure to reach a settlement with Russia.
Yermak met Zelenskyy over 15 years ago when he was a lawyer venturing into the TV production business and Zelenskyy was a famous Ukrainian comedian and actor. He oversaw foreign affairs as part of Zelenskyy’s first presidential team and was promoted to chief of staff in February 2020.
LVIV, Ukraine (Reuters) -After losing her son to Russia’s war in Ukraine, Olya Kachmaryk hopes a new U.S.-backed peace plan can finally end the fighting – even if it could mean giving up land he fought for as a soldier.
“The more they (the Russians) come this way, the more they’ll want,” said Kachmaryk, 50, visiting his grave in the western city of Lviv as Russia pushed forward on the battlefield hundreds of miles to the east.
Her son Oleksandr is among the more than 1,000 fallen troops buried in a quiet corner of Lychakiv Cemetery, where officials say only a handful of spaces remain as casualties mount from nearly four years of war.
On a recent afternoon, a thick sea of blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flags fluttered in the frigid air as mourners bade farewell to another fighter – one of the last burials as authorities rush to prepare a new cemetery nearby.
SCALE OF LOSS ‘REALLY STRIKING’
Ukraine is under pressure from the Trump administration to accept an agreement that could force Kyiv into painful concessions, such as ceding an eastern region it still partly controls, where Russian forces are advancing slowly.
In a sombre address last week, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned his country faced its most difficult moment yet, but said he would not betray Ukraine’s interests by signing a bad deal.
Oksana Rymaruk, 25, whose husband was killed in June and is buried at Lychakiv, said she was in favour of negotiations to end the war as soon as possible.
“Let them do what it takes for our kids to be able to run around on free land – and to freely visit their fathers’ and mothers’ graves,” she said.
Rymaruk, holding her 1-1/2-year-old child swathed in a puffy white jacket, said the scale of losses on display at Lychakiv was “really striking.”
‘WHAT DID MY SON DIE FOR?’
Local officials have selected a new location to accommodate future casualties. Earlier this week, workers were clearing the vacant plot circled by tall trees amid the din of excavators.
Despite Ukraine’s staggering losses – numbering in the tens of thousands of dead – a narrow majority of Ukrainians still rejects territorial concessions, according to a recent poll by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology.
On Thursday, Zelenskiy’s top aide and chief negotiator Andriy Yermak told the Atlantic magazine that “no one should count on us giving up territory”.
Standing with her back to long rows of graves, 68-year-old Antonina Ryshko, who lost her son Marian, 41, said there was “no way” Ukraine should surrender any more land.
“What did my son die for?” she asked.
Dismissing the peace deal currently on the table, Ryshko added: “Let them rewrite it.”
(Writing by Dan Peleschuk in Kyiv; Editing by Conor Humphries)
BRUSSELS—In the accelerating contest between great powers, Europe is struggling to keep up.
The continent’s leaders have long worried they will be left behind as the U.S., China and Russia vie for economic, technological and military dominance.
U.S. proposals to end the war between Russia and Ukraine offer a starting point for talks, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday.
“We need to sit down and discuss this seriously,” Putin told reporters at the end of a three-day visit to Kyrgyzstan. He described U.S. President Donald Trump’s 28-point peace plan as “a set of issues put forward for discussion” rather than a draft agreement.
“If Ukrainian troops withdraw from the territories they occupy, hostilities will cease. If they don’t withdraw, we will achieve this by force,” the Russian leader said.
Kremlin officials have had little to say so far about the peace plan put forward last week by Trump. Since Russia’s invasion of its neighbor, Putin has shown no willingness to budge from his goals in Ukraine despite Trump’s push for a settlement.
Putin has previously demanded that Ukraine completely withdraw from the entirety of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhia regions before Russia considers any sort of “peace negotiations” – notably including areas of each of those oblasts that Russia does not occupy. He also wants to keep Ukraine from joining NATO and hosting any Western troops, allowing Moscow to gradually pull the country back into its orbit.
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during his press conference after the Summit of Collective Security Treaty Organization, on November 27, 2025 in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.
Getty Images
U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff is set to visit Moscow next week, the Kremlin says, while U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, who in recent weeks has played a high-profile role in the peace efforts, may be heading to Kyiv.
The initial U.S. peace proposals appeared heavily skewed toward Russian demands, but an amended version emerged from talks in Geneva on Sunday between American and Ukrainian officials. Sidelined European leaders, fearing for their own security amid Russian aggression, are angling for deeper involvement in the process.
Analysts say Putin is attempting to outwait the commitment of Western countries to supporting Ukraine’s war effort. Trump has previously signaled he could walk away from efforts to stop the fighting if there is no progress. European officials say Putin is stalling because Russia wants to grab more of Ukraine before accepting any deal.
Russian officials have claimed they have battlefield momentum in Ukraine, even though their slow progress has been costly in terms of casualties and armor.
The Institute for the Study of War on Wednesday cast doubt on Russian claims that its invasion is unstoppable as it is still struggling to capture cities in the eastern Donetsk region.
“Data on Russian forces’ rate of advance indicates that a Russian military victory in Ukraine is not inevitable, and a rapid Russian seizure of the rest of Donetsk Oblast (region) is not imminent,” the Washington-based think tank said. “Recent Russian advances elsewhere on the front line have largely been opportunistic and exploited seasonal weather conditions.”
The diplomatic developments have come against a backdrop of continued fighting.
BERLIN (Reuters) -Ukraine will need strong armed forces and security guarantees after any peace deal with Russia is agreed and Kyiv should not be forced to surrender territory, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Thursday.
Stressing that European as well as Ukrainian security interests were at stake, Merz said guarantees were being discussed with the U.S. and Ukraine.
“Ukraine needs strong armed forces, and if a peace agreement is reached … Ukraine will continue to need strong armed forces and reliable security guarantees from its partners,” said Merz at a press conference with his Estonian counterpart.
The most important guarantee, he said, was a well-equipped Ukrainian army.
“That is why we are also discussing the future target size of the Ukrainian army,” Merz said, adding it was too early to discuss any deployment of international troops.
European countries have insisted that the upper limit for Ukraine should be 800,000 soldiers rather than 600,000.
Merz also said Ukraine should not be forced to accept territorial concessions and that the front line must be the starting point for any negotiations.
(Reporting by Madeline Chambers and Andreas Rinke; editing by Matthias Williams and Ros Russell)
BISHKEK (Reuters) -President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that the outlines of a draft peace plan discussed by the United States and Ukraine could become the basis of future agreements to end the conflict in Ukraine but that if not then Russia would continue to fight.
“In general, we agree that this can be the basis for future agreements,” Putin said, adding that the variant of the plan discussed by the United States and Ukraine in Geneva had been passed to Russia.
Putin said that the United States was taking into account Russia’s position but that some things still need to be discussed. He said that if Europe wanted a pledge not to attack it, then Russia was willing to give such a pledge.
Russia, Putin said, was still being told it should cease the fighting.
“Ukrainian troops must withdraw from the territories they hold, and then the fighting will cease. If they don’t leave, then we shall achieve this by armed means. That’s it,” Putin said. Russian forces, he said, were advancing in Ukraine at a faster pace.
Putin said that he considered the Ukrainian leadership to be illegitimate and so it was legally impossible to sign a deal with Ukraine, so it was important to ensure any agreement was recognised by the international community – and that the international community recognised Russian gains in Ukraine.
Putin rejected the suggestion that U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff had shown himself to be biased towards Moscow in peace talks over Ukraine, describing it as nonsense.
(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin Writing by Maxim Rodionov; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)
ANKARA (Reuters) -Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan praised Pope Leo’s stance on the Palestinian issue after meeting him in Ankara on Thursday, and said he hoped his first overseas visit as Catholic leader will benefit humanity at a time of tension and uncertainty.
“We commend (Pope Leo’s) astute stance on the Palestinian issue,” Erdogan said in an address to the Pope and political and religious leaders at the presidential library in the Turkish capital Ankara.
“Our debt to the Palestinian people is justice, and the foundation of this is to immediately implement the vision of a two-state solution based on the 1967 borders. Similarly, preserving the historic status of Jerusalem is crucial,” Erdogan said.
Pope Leo’s calls for peace and diplomacy regarding the war in Ukraine are also very meaningful, Erdogan said.
In September, Leo met at the Vatican with Israeli President Isaac Herzog and raised the “tragic situation” in Gaza with him.
Turkey has emerged as among the harshest critics of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, in its conflict there with Palestinian militant group Hamas.
(Reporting by Huseyin Hayatsever and Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by Jonathan Spicer and Daren Butler)
The International Judo Federation has decided to allow Russian athletes to compete under their national flag again in its competitions starting this weekend, the IJF said Thursday, despite the ongoing war in Ukraine that, for years, had forced them to take part under a neutral banner.
The IJF executive committee voted to “reinstate full national representation” of Russian athletes, with their anthem and symbols, beginning with the 2025 Abu Dhabi Grand Slam, taking part from Nov. 28 – 30.
“Athletes have no responsibility for the decisions of governments or other national institutions, and it is our duty to protect the sport and our athletes,” the IJF said in a statement.
Contacted by CBS News, the IJF declined to offer any further explanation for the reversal in policy.
Following President Vladimir Putin’s orders to launch the ongoing full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022 — escalating the war he refers to as only a “special military operation” — many Russian athletes have been banned from entering competitions in various sports, or barred from competing under the Russian flag.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is known to be a keen judoka. FILE PHOTO
Mikhail Svetlov / Getty Images
The Russian Olympic Committee has been suspended since 2023 by the International Olympic Committee for breaking the Olympic charter by using an administrative land grab to incorporate regional sports bodies in occupied eastern Ukraine.
Russians will be allowed to compete at next year’s Milan-Cortina Winter Games, but the IOC will maintain the system it used at the 2024 Paris Games, permitting them to compete only as individual, neutral athletes, not for Team Russia.
Sergey Soloveychik, president of the Russian judo federation, praised what he called an “historic decision.”
“Thanks to the IJF for this long-awaited, fair and courageous decision,” he said in a statement.
The IJF said it had previously reinstated full national representation for Belarusian athletes. Belarus has allowed Moscow to use its territory as a staging ground for the invasion of Ukraine, and later allowed the deployment of Russian tactical nuclear missiles on its soil.
The IJF said it now considers it “appropriate to allow the participation of Russian athletes under equal conditions,” emphasizing that the sport “cannot allow itself to become a platform for geopolitical agendas.”
Mirra Andreeva and Diana Shnaider became silver medallists as Team Individual Neutral Athletes during the Tennis Women’s Doubles at the Paris 2024 Olympics Games.
Oscar J Barroso/Europa Press/Getty
“Historically, Russia has been a leading nation in world judo, and their full return is expected to enrich competition at all levels while upholding the IJF’s principles of fairness, inclusivity and respect,” the federation said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is a keen judoka and attended events in the sport at the 2012 London Olympics.
Soon after Russia launched its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, however, the IJC stripped the Russian leader of his most senior title in world sports.
The IJF cited “the ongoing war conflict in Ukraine” in suspending Putin’s honorary president status in the federation, and Soloveychik, who at the time was president of the European Judo Union, resigned from his post.
MOSCOW/WARSAW (Reuters) -Russia on Thursday ordered Poland to close its consulate in the Siberian city of Irkutsk in retaliation for Warsaw’s decision to close the last Russian consulate in Poland after a railway explosion that was blamed on Moscow.
Poland, a former Warsaw Pact member which joined the U.S.-led NATO military alliance in 1999, said two Ukrainians working for Moscow were behind a blast earlier this month on the line that links Warsaw to the Ukrainian border.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the blast was an “unprecedented act of sabotage” and Poland’s special services said evidence pointed to Russian intelligence being behind it.
Moscow denied that, saying levels of “Russophobia” were so high in Europe that it was routinely blamed for any incident without any evidence being presented.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry summoned Polish Ambassador Krzysztof Krajewski and handed him a note explaining that the Irkutsk consulate would be closed from December 30 in response to Warsaw’s decision to close the Gdansk consulate.
“The curtailment of the Russian consular presence in Poland under an absurd pretext is an openly hostile, unjustified step by the Polish leadership,” the Foreign Ministry said.
Moscow said it wanted to issue a reminder that any attacks on Russia would elicit “an adequate, painful response.”
Poland said it saw no basis for closing its consulate in Irkutsk.
“We accepted Russia’s decision to withdraw consent, although we believe there were no grounds for it because it is not Poland that is organising acts of terror in Russia,” Maciej Wewior, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, told reporters.
He said there were three employees at the consulate and they would leave Russia by the end of next month.
(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge in Moscow, Maxim Rodionov in London and Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk and Pawel Florkiewicz in Warsaw; editing by Mark Trevelyan)
FRANKFURT (Reuters) -A Ukrainian man suspected of coordinating the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipeline in 2022 will be flown to Germany on Thursday after Italy’s top court approved his extradition last week, a spokesperson for Germany’s federal prosecutors said.
Described by both Moscow and the West as an act of sabotage, explosions in the Baltic Sea three years ago largely severed Russian gas transit to Europe, squeezing energy supplies on the continent, although Russia had already largely stopped deliveries.
Investigators spent years piecing together the mystery of who was behind them.
SUSPECT DENIES ROLE IN ATTACKS
The suspect, identified as Serhii K. under German privacy laws, denies any role in the attacks. His lawyer Nicola Canestrini has said he is confident that his client will be acquitted after a trial in Germany.
German prosecutors accuse him of belonging to a group of people who planted devices on the pipelines near the Danish island of Bornholm in the Baltic.
He faces charges of collusion to cause an explosion, anti-constitutional sabotage and destruction of important structures.
The suspect was detained on a European arrest warrant in the Italian town of Rimini in August but fought attempts to transfer him to Germany.
Last month, a court in Poland ruled against handing over another Ukrainian suspect wanted by Germany in connection with the explosions and ordered his immediate release from detention.
(Reporting by Tilman BlasshoferWriting by Madeline ChambersEditing by Ludwig Burger)
