The Ukrainian army struck one of the largest oil refineries in southern Russia on the night of November 29, Russian channels on the Telegram social network reported. Local residents posted photos and videos on social media showing a large fire emanating from the Afipsky refinery in Krasnodar Krai.
14:41 Ukrainian forces successfully hit several key Russian targets on Saturday night. As reported by the Ukrainian Pravda website, the Ukrainian General Staff reported this.
In the city of Taganrog in the Rostov region, Ukrainian troops struck the facilities of the Beriev Aircraft Company, which specializes in the development and production of aircraft, mainly amphibious and watercraft. The plant is also used to modernize Tu-95 strategic bombers and A-50 early warning aircraft.
According to initial reports, a fire broke out in a workshop used to repair Tu-95 aircraft. Ukrainian forces have again struck the Afipsky oil refinery in Krasnodar region, which is one of the key facilities used to supply Russian troops. Explosions were reported from the attack site and a fire broke out shortly afterwards. The extent of the damage is being assessed.
Ukraine also confirmed the successful intervention of a vertical tank type RV-5000 at the Tuapse oil terminal in the Krasnodar region. The destroyed tank with a capacity of up to five thousand cubic meters of oil or oil products was part of the port infrastructure that supports Russian fuel logistics.
14:16 How to approach US President Donald Trump?"I would try to explain to him that he is actually more powerful than Vladimir Putin," former CIA analyst Alex Finley told Pravda. Under this name, the security expert writes books about the world of secret services. She worked in the Central Intelligence Agency's Operations Directorate and served in West Africa and Europe.
13:58 The Ukrainian secret service SBU, together with the navy , used naval drones to strike two tankers of the so-called Russian shadow fleet in the Black Sea. An SBU source told Reuters today.
Merciless strike on shadow fleet: naval drones scatter Russian tankers
13:22 Russia's main oil terminal near the port of Novorossiysk shut down operations early Saturday after a naval drone attack hit one of its three anchorages. The Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), which owns the terminal, said it would resume operations only after the threat of further drone attacks had passed. It did not say who was responsible for the attack in a statement.
Ukraine, which regularly attacks Russian energy facilities in an effort to weaken the Kremlin's ability to finance the war, did not immediately comment on the incident.
The CPC oil pipeline, which begins in Kazakhstan and ends at the terminal near Novorossiysk, is among the largest in the world in terms of the volume of oil transported and provides approximately one percent of global supplies.
A second oil tanker has gone up in flames in the Black Sea. Both ships have been identified as the M/T Kairos and M/T Virat. The destination of both oilers is the Russian port of Novorossiysk.
— (((Tendar))) (@Tendar) November 28, 2025
Shortly after crossing the Bosporus north of Istanbul they were struck by USVs. Both… pic.twitter.com/aN22d7KI7y
"As a result of a targeted terrorist attack by naval drones, the SMP-2 mooring site suffered serious damage at 4:06 Moscow time. Its further operation is impossible," the CPC said on the Telegram communication platform.
According to the Caspian Policy Center, an independent, non-profit think tank based in Washington, D.C., the CPC pipeline transports approximately 80 percent of the oil Kazakhstan exports.
12:30 A team of Ukrainian negotiators traveled to the United States on Saturday to negotiate the American peace plan to end the war with Russia, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced. He appointed Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) Rustem Umerov to lead the delegation, TASR reports.
11:00 Grey Eminence. Unofficial Vice President. The most influential person in the country right after the head of state. These labels in Ukraine belonged to Andriy Yermak, a powerful unelected official alongside Volodymyr Zelensky. What made the now former head of the presidential office so visible?
10:35 After a series of Russian drone and missile attacks on Ukrainian territory, more than 600,000 households were left without electricity on Saturday, the Ukrainian Ministry of Energy announced. Authorities report three dead and approximately 30 injured after the attack on Kiev. TASR reports this based on reports from the AFP and Reuters agencies.
"As a result of the attack, more than 500,000 consumers in Kyiv, more than 100,000 in the Kyiv region and almost 8,000 in the Kharkiv region were left without electricity this morning," the ministry said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says Russia has sent about 36 missiles and nearly 600 drones into Ukraine. It has also carried out extensive attacks on several parts of the Ukrainian capital Kiev, where authorities report three dead and nearly 30 injured."The main targets of the attack were energy infrastructure and civilian facilities, with extensive damage and fires in residential buildings," Zelensky wrote on the X network.
9:25 The Ukrainian army struck one of the largest oil refineries in southern Russia on the night of November 29, Russian channels on the Telegram social network reported. Local residents posted photos and videos on social networks showing a large fire emanating from the Afipsky refinery in the Krasnodar region, the Kyiv Independent portal writes.
The Afipsky refinery, located approximately 200 kilometers from the front line, is a key logistics hub for the supply of diesel and aviation kerosene to the Russian military, explains the Kyiv Independent.
️ Afipsky Oil Refinery in the Krasnodar region of Russia with the capacity of 7 million tons of oil per year was targeted by drones tonight.
— Special Kherson Cat (@bayraktar_1love) November 29, 2025
It accounts for 2.1% of Russia's oil product production and processes approximately 6.25 million tons of oil annually.
The Ukrainian military has not yet commented on the attack. Information on the extent of the damage caused is not yet available.
9:15 The Ukrainian capital Kiev faced a night attack by Russian missiles and drones, which killed two people and injured 13 people, including a child. The Kiev military administration reported this on the Telegram platform, according to its chief Tymur Tkachenko, fires broke out in several residential buildings. Earlier information spoke of one person killed and 11 injured. The attack continues and people should not leave their shelters, Tkachenko wrote in the morning. Russian authorities also report on a night Ukrainian air strike and damage in Volgograd or a fire at the Afipsk oil refinery.
According to the RBK-Ukraine server, the Russians attacked the Ukrainian capital with drones and missiles at night. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the attack was caused by a fire in the lower floors of a high-rise residential building west of the capital's center. He said another fire broke out in a house in the central part of Kyiv, but it was quickly extinguished.
7:30 Ukraine is now facing a situation like in Title XXII. by American writer Joseph Heller, writes the Financial Times. Russia insists that Kiev forces withdraw from all parts of Donetsk that are currently in Ukrainian hands, including the key strongholds of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, which Russia has failed to capture despite almost four years of intense war.
Kiev is right to reject a plan calling for an unopposed surrender – but by continuing to fight, it risks making the fight futile as the military outlook deteriorates, with risks including a shortage of troops, loss of equipment and Russian advance. If Ukraine continues to resist, the deteriorating dynamics of the battlefield could allow Russia to occupy all of Donbas (or even more) by 2026, removing a key obstacle to a ceasefire and leaving Ukraine with the same end result, only under worse conditions, writes military analyst Franz-Stefan Gady in the Financial Times.
Ukraine, like Yossarian in Chapter XXII, finds itself trapped in a logic where every rational choice can lead to the same catastrophic outcome. This dilemma is not new. The Dayton Accords, brokered in 1995, ended the agonizing war in Bosnia after NATO intervention. Alija Izetbegović, the first president of Bosnia and Herzegovina, publicly acknowledged his country’s intractable dilemma – the inability to achieve a good peace, but also the inability to sustain a just war to achieve a better outcome.
Ukraine faces something eerily similar: it is forced to choose between insufficient peace, its precarious maintenance, and the risk of fighting that ultimately leads to a worse deal.
Peace agreements usually work only when both sides can trust each other, or when a strong enforcement agency makes breaking the peace prohibitively expensive. When peace enforcement is weak, “wars of succession” are likely. Today, the US and Europe have no unified will or ability to guarantee Ukraine’s future security. Russia sees the conflict as a regional war against NATO—a supposedly existential battle for which Moscow is willing to endure years of bloodshed until it achieves its goals. The issue of commitments remains fundamentally unresolved.
Accepting a peace plan that now involves giving up hard-won territory, limiting sovereign defense, granting amnesty for war crimes, and waiving NATO protection—all in exchange for uncertain deterrence—could lead to a serious breakdown in civilian-military relations and the destabilization of Ukraine as a whole. The current military situation does not justify giving up these territories, and such concessions would almost certainly fuel a “stab in the back” narrative among officers—undermining trust in Ukraine’s civilian leadership.
However, the military situation is not so dire as to justify “dictatorial measures”. The collapse of the front line is not in danger, and the Ukrainian armed forces remain a formidable fighting machine. Russia will have difficulty successfully capturing Sloviansk and Kramatorsk in 2026. Nevertheless, the overall trajectory of the war remains negative for Ukraine. Russia has suffered heavy losses, but its ability to absorb them and strengthen its forces exceeds that of Ukraine. If Kiev loses even more territory or if its armed forces are exhausted, the negotiations will shift even further in Russia’s favor, writes the Financial Times.
When negotiating from a weakened position, a country often faces a tragic choice: fight on in the hope of a better deal, or accept the losses now and risk internal unrest. Leaders often bet on continuing the fight—hoping to avoid blame at home.
Ukraine’s decisions may be reduced to “bad now, or maybe even worse later.” The Donbas cannot be left without a fight, but the fighting threatens the same concessions forced on much worse terms, while the promise of Western support grows increasingly uncertain and the prospects for a truly just peace recede. Sometimes the cruel logic of war means that the only way out is a bitter compromise – even if you know how untenable it is, Gady adds in the Financial Times.
7:25 The Ukrainian capital Kiev is facing a nighttime attack by Russian missiles and drones that has killed at least one person and injured 11 people, including a child, according to the head of the local military administration, Tymur Tkachenko, who said fires had broken out in several residential buildings.
According to Tkachenko, a dead man was found in the Svyatoshynskyi district of Kiev. Among the 11 injured, one woman is in serious condition. The attack is still ongoing and people should not leave their shelters, Tkachenko wrote in the morning.
Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said the attack started a fire in the lower floors of a high-rise apartment building west of the capital's center. He said another fire broke out in a house in central Kiev but was quickly extinguished. Tkachenko said rescue teams were working at the affected areas.
Ukraine has been fighting a large-scale Russian military offensive since February 2022. The fighting has included airstrikes by both countries. Russia has regularly used drones and missiles to bomb the Ukrainian capital, which has seen dozens of civilian deaths in recent months. The last major attack was reported by Kiev on Tuesday, when officials said Russian strikes overnight killed seven people.
