These were the key developments on the 1,004th day of the Russia-Ukraine war.
Here is the situation on Sunday, November 24:
Diplomacy
- US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives in Italy, before the G7 foreign ministers meeting on Monday, to discuss the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.
- Western allies should not put any limits on support for Ukraine and “not set and express red lines”, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot has told the BBC.
- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will discuss the latest developments in the Russia-Ukraine war with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on Monday during his visit to Ankara, a Turkish official has said.
- Addressing the Third Food Security Summit in Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has expressed confidence that his country has a good chance of ending the war with Russia by 2025, The Kyiv Independent has reported.
- During the same event, Zelenskyy said Russia has damaged 321 port infrastructure facilities and 20 foreign merchant ships since July 2023, the news outlet added.
- Former Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen has emphasised the importance of US support for Ukraine during the Halifax International Security Forum, arguing that Ukraine’s success against Russia would serve “as the most effective deterrent to future aggression”.
Fighting
- Ukraine has lost more than 40 percent of the territory in Russia’s Kursk region that it rapidly seized in a surprise incursion in August as Russian forces have mounted waves of counterassaults, a senior Ukrainian military source told the Reuters news agency.
- Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law on debt forgiveness of up to 10 million roubles ($95,869) for new army recruits signing up to fight in Ukraine, a Russian government website showed.
- Independent Russian media outlet Mediazona, in collaboration with BBC Russia, has released a report with the names of 79,819 Russian soldiers killed since the start of the war.
- Explosions were heard in Kyiv, Reuters and local media in the Ukrainian capital reported, in what sounded like air defence units in operation.
- The Ukrainian capital, its surrounding region and most of northeast Ukraine were under air raid alerts since about 01:00 GMT.
- Russia’s air defence systems destroyed 34 Ukrainian drones overnight, including 27 over the Kursk region bordering Ukraine, Russia’s Defence Ministry has said on Telegram.
- The Kursk governor has said Russian air defence units had destroyed two “Ukrainian missiles” overnight over the region.
- Putin claimed that the mass deployment of the Oreshnik intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) could rival the destructive power of nuclear weapons, highlighting its precision and strategic potential.
