Russia HAS increased it’s civilian Ukraine attacks in what would seem to be a connection to pressuring Ukraine to accept the US/Russian ‘Deal’ that would allow Russian to keep the Donetsk, Luhansk and Crimea area’s formally of the Ukraine….
(This is only 20% of country after Four years)
The “Deal’ is surely set up to limit the military of the Ukraine also….
(Surrender?)
The ‘Deal’ particulars will leak out over the next week or so…..
Zelensky IS going to have to be on his best game and Trump and Putin try to muscle his country to ‘Give In’ to a solution that will safe face for Putin and in that?….make Trump happy….
The American President has ‘had it in’ for Zelensky and the Ukraine every since they failed to help Trump against Joe Biden back in the day.…
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A Russian drone and missile attack in western Ukraine, has killed at least 26 people, including three children, amid reports that a new US- and Russian-drafted peace proposal would see Kyiv ceding land and slashing the size of its military. Many more people were listed as missing and nearly 100 had been hurt in the overnight strike that hit apartment buildings in the city of Ternopil, Ukrainian interior minister Ihor Klymenko said on Wednesday. Russia fired 476 drones and 48 missiles at Ukraine, striking energy and transport infrastructure and forcing emergency power cuts in a number of regions in frigid temperatures. The upper floors of a residential building in Ternopil were torn away in the attack. Klymenko said on Telegram that said emergency crews were working through the night, combing the site. “The main thing is to find those who could still be under the rubble … Flames flared up instantly and engulfed the building in a wave. People were terrified and tried to jump out of windows.”
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US and Russian officials have quietly drafted a new plan to end the Ukraine war that would require Kyiv to surrender territory and severely limit the size of its military, it was reported on Wednesday. The draft plan – which was reportedly developed by Donald Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, and the Kremlin adviser Kirill Dmitriev – would force draconian measures on Ukraine that would give Russia unprecedented control over the country’s military and political sovereignty, write Luke Harding, Pjotr Sauer and Andrew Roth. It was unclear whether the Trump administration had formally backed the proposal, which according to the reports would require Ukraine to cede territory it controls in the east of the country and halve the size of its military. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has previously called those conditions non-starters.
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Zelenskyy travelled for talks in Turkey intended to help revive peace negotiations with Russia, after his short tour to European capitals. The Ukrainian president urged allies to increase pressure on Moscow to end the war, including by providing Kyiv with more air-defence missiles. “Every brazen attack against ordinary life shows that the pressure on Russia is insufficient,” he said on X. “Effective sanctions and assistance to Ukraine can change this.”
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Energy infrastructure was hit in seven Ukrainian regions in Russia’s overnight attacks, officials said. Restrictions were placed on power usage for consumers across the country. A Reuters witness in the western city of Lviv reported hearing explosions and the north-western city of Kharkiv came under fire. Residents took cover in metro stations in Kyiv.
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Poland’s foreign minister, Radosław Sikorski, has described last weekend’s sabotage attack on Poland’s rail system as “an act of state terrorism” ordered by Russia, as he announced that Poland was closing the last remaining Russian consulate in the country. “The clear intention was to cause human casualties,” he said of the weekend bomb attack. Shaun Walker and Jakub Krupa also report that the Polish security services said they were in the process of arresting several people linked to the incident.
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Italy’s top court has approved the handover to Germany of a Ukrainian man suspected of coordinating the 2022 sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipeline, his lawyer said on Wednesday. The suspect, identified only as Serhii K under German privacy laws, has been fighting attempts to transfer him to Germany since he was detained on a European arrest warrant in the Italian town of Rimini in August over the explosions, which largely severed Russian gas transit to Europe. The decision by the court of cassation in Rome means the suspect will be transferred to the German authorities in the next few days…..
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ISW….Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, November 19, 2025
- Russia killed at least 26 Ukrainian civilians and injured at least 139 on the night of November 18 to 19 during its combined missile and drone strikes that disproportionately impacted civilian areas.
- US and Russian officials reportedly drafted a 28-point peace plan that amounts to Ukraine’s full capitulation and would set conditions for renewed Russian aggression against Ukraine.
- The reported proposed peace plan would deprive Ukraine of critical defensive positions and capabilities necessary to defend against future Russian aggression, apparently in exchange for nothing.
- This reported peace plan is fundamentally the same as Russia’s 2022 Istanbul demands, which Russia presented to Ukraine when the circumstances on the battlefield appeared to favor Russia more heavily.
- Russia’s long-held demands are dependent on the false premise that a Russian battlefield victory is inevitable.
- Ukraine’s interdiction efforts are preventing Russian forces from using vehicles and concentrating manpower in Pokrovsk and are likely slowing down Russia’s rate of advance within the town.
- Russian forces recently advanced near Borova and Hulyaipole.
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US Army Sec and his Chief of Staff make the trip to Kyiv…..
Army Secretary Dan Driscoll and chief of staff Gen. Randy George became the highest-level Trump Pentagon officials to visit Ukraine when they arrived on an unannounced trip this week, as the U.S. moves to find a way to speed the end of the war.
The duo are slated to meet with Ukrainian military leaders, lawmakers and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, starting Wednesday. The tour comes at a time when Russia has stepped up its deadly missile and drone campaign against civilian targets in Ukraine and western allies are scrambling to come up with new ways to keep supplying weapons to the embattled nation.
The focus of the trip will be to engage Ukrainian leadership on the stalled peace process with Russia, even though Moscow has rebuffed all previous attempts by the U.S. and Ukraine to bring the fighting to a halt.
The U.S. and Ukraine have also been working on a major deal to exchange drone and autonomous munitions technologies, and this trip in part is meant to bolster that effort. Ukraine has emerged as a leader in developing — and improving — long- and short-range armed drones that have changed the face of the battlefield and struck targets deep inside Russia.
The trip was described by two people familiar with the planning who were granted anonymity to discuss sensitive national security issues.
At first blush it would seem an unusual choice to send Driscoll, the Army secretary, to Kyiv on a sensitive peace mission. But the Army vet and Yale law school friend of Vice President JD Vance has emerged as a major figure in the Pentagon and could now be moving into a more prominent role.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has not traveled to Kyiv….
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Seeing top officials head to Kyiv to talk about weapons development and partnerships would have been unthinkable just a few months ago, after Trump and Vice President JD Vance got into a shouting match with Zelenskyy in the Oval Office.
Vance lashed out at the Ukrainian leader, saying he had not sufficiently thanked the U.S. for tens of billions in military aid, and Zelenskyy and Trump sparred over the direction of the conflict….
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Since then, Trump has warmed to Zelenskyy and has enthusiastically backed NATO and its effort to arm Ukraine, as his efforts to engage in diplomacy with Russia have been rebuffed by Vladimir Putin. Meanwhile, Russia has continued to pound Ukraine with aerial attacks, firing 430 drones and 18 missiles into Kyiv on Friday…
Daily Kos grunt report for Today…
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