This week, the main topic was the resignation of the head of the Presidentʼs Office Andriy Yermak and the peace negotiations between the American and Ukrainian delegations.
Searches and resignation of Andriy Yermak
On November 28, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutorʼs Office (SAPO) conducted searches at the home of the head of the Presidentʼs Office Andriy Yermak.
In the evening, he wrote a letter of resignation. Zelensky also reported the reboot of the Office of the President. Also, Yermak will no longer participate in negotiations with the Americans — Zelensky had previously appointed him as the head of the Ukrainian delegation. Instead, the Ukrainian delegation is now headed by the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Rustem Umerov.
Russiaʼs massive strikes on Ukraine
After midnight on November 25, the Russian army launched a massive attack on Kyiv and the region with drones and missiles. At least six people were killed.
High-rise buildings were damaged in at least four districts of the capital. In the Darnytsky district, debris fell on the roof of a two-story building.
On the night of November 29, Russian forces again launched a massive attack on Kyiv and the Kyiv region with drones and missiles. During the attack, the Russians hit the energy infrastructure of Kyiv and a number of regions. Energy facilities in Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, Poltava, and Kharkiv regions were damaged.
As a result of the attack, more than 500 000 consumers in Kyiv, about 100 000 in the Kyiv region, and almost 8 000 in the Kharkiv region were left without electricity this morning.
Peace negotiations
On November 24, the US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll held secret talks with a Russian delegation in Abu Dhabi. The talks were a follow-up to US-Ukraine talks in Geneva this weekend aimed at restarting the peace process. He was accompanied on the trip by several senior US generals, but they did not participate in the Geneva talks or the meetings in the UAE.
The Telegraph reported that the United States is ready to recognize Russiaʼs control over Crimea and other occupied Ukrainian territories in exchange for Russia signing a peace agreement.
According to media reports, the US President Donald Trump sent Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner to Moscow to deliver this proposal to Putin personally.
The first version of the 28-point peace plan called for the de facto recognition of Crimea and the Donetsk and Luhansk regions by Russia. It proposed freezing the occupied territories of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia along the contact line.
After a series of talks between the US and Ukraine in Geneva, the plan was reduced to 19 points, but sources told The Telegraph that the idea of recognizing the occupied territories as Russian is still on Washingtonʼs agenda.
On November 30, Ukrainian and American delegations held talks in Miami, Florida, USA. The Ukrainian delegation was led by Rustem Umerov. According to the WSJ, the talks covered the schedule of elections in Ukraine, the possibility of a “territorial exchange” between Russia and Ukraine, and other issues.
The case of the sabotage of the “Nord Stream” pipeline and the arrest of Serhiy Kuznetsov
On November 28, Ukrainian Serhiy Kuznetsov, a suspect in the “Nord Stream” sabotage, was arrested in Germany and extradited from Italy.
On November 27, Kuznetsov was extradited from Italy to Germany.
During the court hearing in Karlsruhe, Germany, where Serhiy Kuznetsov was being held in custody, the prosecutorʼs office asked to take DNA samples from him. The court did not grant permission to take samples.
The Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets wrote letters to the German prosecutorʼs office and the Institute for Human Rights with a request to monitor the observance of the rights of Ukrainian Serhiy Kuznetsov, suspected of blowing up the “Nord Stream” pipeline, after his extradition to Germany.
He asked to provide Kuznetsov with decent conditions of detention, access to medical care, including monitoring of his weight, access to communication with lawyers, family and a Ukrainian priest, full translation and understanding of all procedural actions.
Separately, the Ombudsman emphasized that since the Ukrainian suspect was serving in the military at the time of the “Nord Stream” sabotage, the relevant guarantees of international humanitarian law should apply to this case.
Attacks on tankers of the Russian shadow fleet in the Black Sea
Ukrainian naval drones attacked two sanctioned oil tankers of the Russian shadow fleet in the Black Sea. This was a joint operation of the 13th Main Directorate of Military Counterintelligence of the Security Service and the Naval Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Modernized Sea Baby naval drones were used on the Kairo and Virat vessels. At the time of the attack, the sanctioned tankers were heading for loading at the port of Novorossiysk.
Turkey has expressed concern over yesterdayʼs attacks on Russian shadow fleet tankers in the Black Sea. The countryʼs Foreign Ministry stressed that the strikes "created serious risks" to shipping, human lives, property and the environment.
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