Thursday, November 14

Russia’s war against Ukraine

Ukrainian emergency services extinguish a fire in a house after Russian shelling in the city of Kostiantynivka, Ukraine on Nov. 13, 2024. (Diego Herrera Carcedo/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Ukrainian FM meets Blinken in Brussels as new US administration looms. The topic of the discussions was not made public, but the officials met as the U.S. administration pledges to ramp up support before President Joe Biden leaves the White House on Jan. 20, 2025.

Military donations in Ukraine plummet as war pressure mounts, Bloomberg reports. Prominent organizations such as Come Back Alive and the Serhiy Prytula Foundation, headed by the well-known Ukrainian TV personality of the same name, have seen contributions decrease by approximately one-fifth in 2024, Bloomberg reports.

Putin cuts payments for wounded in war against Ukraine. The current maximum amount of compensation is 3 million rubles (nearly $29,000), but the severity of the injury is not considered for its allocation. The change approved by Putin classifies injuries into three categories.

Moscow court issues arrest warrants for ICC judges involved in Russia-linked cases. The case against Reine Alapini-Gansou was launched under the article of “illegal detention,” Mediazona reported without providing additional details. She has also been placed on the wanted list, the court told the Interfax news agency.

Foreign Ministry responds to rumors of Kyiv’s plans to build nuclear bomb. “Ukraine is committed to the NPT (the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons); we do not possess, develop, or intend to acquire nuclear weapons,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi said via X.

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Trump to appoint Ukrainian peace envoy ‘soon’ to lead talks on ending war with Russia, Fox News reports. “You’re going to see a very senior special envoy, someone with a lot of credibility, who will be given a task to find a resolution, to get to a peace settlement,” one of the sources said.

Donald Trump tells New York Post he and Biden discussed Ukraine war at DC meeting. President-elect Donald Trump told The New York Post on Nov. 13 that he and President Joe Biden discussed the war in Ukraine during their historic post-election meeting in the Oval Office.

Trump taps Ukraine-skeptic Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence. President-elect Trump announced on Nov. 13 that Tulsi Gabbard would take on the role of director of national intelligence, marking a notable shift for the former Democrat who has opposed U.S. support for Ukraine and had previously been accused of promoting Russian narratives.

Trump nominates loyal backer Matt Gaetz as attorney general. Gaetz promptly resigned from Congress, though his selection will need further confirmation by the Republican-controlled Senate.

Trump team plans to fire Pentagon officers, Reuters reports. The list of those to dismiss may include the Joint Chiefs of Staff, sources said, but the plans for the firings are still in the early stages of development.

Read our exclusives

Trump’s administration picks – what do they mean for Russia’s war?

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s first team picks have both positive and negative implications for Ukraine, with Kyiv left guessing what kind of policy they will pursue, according to Ukrainian and Western analysts. Some appointments seem to lean in Kyiv’s favor, while others hint at a more Moscow-friendly stance.

Photo: Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images

Trump’s appointments stir optimism, worry in Ukraine

Ukrainians awoke on Nov. 13 to news that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump had tapped Fox News host Pete Hegseth as his defense secretary — the most eyebrow-raising appointment announced so far by the incoming administration. Some expressed shock at the appointment of the 44-year-old with little military leadership experience.

Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Ukraine war latest: Trump to appoint Ukrainian peace envoy ‘soon’ to lead talks on ending war with Russia

“You’re going to see a very senior special envoy, someone with a lot of credibility, who will be given a task to find a resolution, to get to a peace settlement,” a source said, indicating the appointment will happen “in short order.”

Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

With Scholz’s government in shambles, conservative rival touts more decisive Ukraine strategy

Losing the fight to control the Christian Democratic Union in 2002 to future Chancellor Angela Merkel and forced to retire from politics a few years later, Friedrich Merz is now the frontrunner to lead the Union back into government.

Photo: Alexandra Beier/Getty Images

Human cost of war

2 injured in Kharkiv after Russian drone hits apartment building. The drone struck the building in the city’s Saltivskyi district near a shopping center at around 11:30 a.m. Several cars, public transport infrastructure equipment, and facades of nearby buildings were damaged, but no fire was reported.

Russian attacks against Ukraine injure 15 over past day. Russia reportedly launched 90 Shahed and other drone types overnight, as well as two S-300 missiles, two Kh-101 missiles, and two Iskander-M/KN-23 missiles.

Russian navy officer responsible for strikes on civilians killed in SBU operation, source says. Valery Trankovsky was a “war criminal who has ordered cruise missile launches from the Black Sea against civilian sites in Ukraine,” the SBU source said.

International response

6th German IRIS-T to arrive in Ukraine by end of 2024, Zelensky says. Ukraine will receive the sixth German IRIS-T air defense system by the end of the year, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Nov. 13 after a call with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

Ukraine receives $1.35 billion US grant for humanitarian, social programs. Ukraine has received a $1.35 billion grant from the U.S., which will be allocated to humanitarian and social programs, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal announced on Nov. 13.

Blinken meets NATO’s Rutte, pledges to ‘shore up’ Ukraine support before Trump transition. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken also issued a stern warning regarding North Korea’s recent deployment of troops to support Russian forces, stating this “demands and will receive a firm response.”

In other news

Notorious Ukrainian judge temporarily suspended from justice administration. The Third Disciplinary Chamber unanimously decided on Pavlo Vovk’s future dismissal, according to the Dejure Foundation.

Nearly 30 Russian airlines may go bankrupt in 2025, media reports. About thirty Russian airlines, accounting for 26% of domestic passenger traffic, may go bankrupt in 2025, Russia’s Izvestia newspaper reported on Nov. 13.

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