Zelenskyy comments about Russian-held territory ‘a major concession’, says former UK ambassador to Russia
Former UK Ambassador to Russia Sir Tony Brenton has said Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy is “playing a very sophisticated game” in calling for Ukrainian-controlled territories to come under the Nato umbrella.
“He knows that [Donald] Trump is about to descend on him and on Russia”, Brenton said. “He is already arranging to have something to offer Trump on Trump’s mission to bring the war to an end.
“What he is suggesting in many ways is bringing us much closer to the obvious target area which is a freeze in the fighting where the lines actually currently are and then an eventual negotiation about who retains which bit of territory and then security guarantees for Ukraine in the course of that ceasefire.”
But he added that Zelenskyy had made “quite a major concession“ in stating he is prepared to see a ceasefire and then negotiate the return of Russian-occupied territory in Ukraine over the long term.
“Putin will see this as a concession by Zelenskyy”, Brenton said. “He will say to himself ‘ah, they are feeling weak, I can press for more’. That is a danger as we go into this.”
Former UK Ambassador to Russia Sir Tony Brenton discusses Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s suggestion a ceasefire deal could be struck if Ukrainian territory he controls could be taken “under the NATO umbrella”.
▶️ Full interview: https://t.co/v10zgjsGAL
📺 Sky 501 and YouTube pic.twitter.com/aawhNF5gnu
— Sky News (@SkyNews) November 30, 2024
Key events
Sergey Lavrov, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, has claimed that the Ukrainian security services were directly involved in assassinations of Russian journalists.
Lavrov took part in a roundtable discussion Ukraine Crisis which the Kremlin said was attended by over 70 foreign ambassadors to Moscow on Friday. Videos of the event have been broadcast on state broadcaster RT and show attendees from Lebanon, Yemen, Morocco, Jordan and Guinea Bissau.
He is quoted as saying: “We haven’t heard a word of condemnation of these terrorist attacks from the Western countries.
“The countries of the collective West, which like to speak about freedom of Speech, pluralism and democracy, actually show fierce intolerance of any alternative views.”
💬 FM Sergey #Lavrov: The Ukrainian security services were directly involved in assassinations of Russian journalists:
Dugina, Klokov, Fomin, Zhuravlyov, Maksudov – and many others
❗️ We haven’t heard a word of condemnation of these terrorist attacks from the Western countries https://t.co/VMa3K5q0Os pic.twitter.com/7YcBhZbr0n
— MFA Russia 🇷🇺 (@mfa_russia) November 30, 2024 Police in Moscow raided multiple bars early Saturday and arrested the director of a gay travel agency under laws criminalising “LGBT propaganda”, state media reported.
The raids came on the one year anniversary of Russia’s Supreme Court outlawing the “international LGBT movement”, paving the way for arrests and prosecutions of the country’s already repressed LGBTQ community.
Russian security forces raided at least three bars and nightclubs overnight “as part of measures to combat LGBT propaganda”, the state TASS news agency reported.
The Kremlin has ramped up conservative rhetoric since launching its military assault on Ukraine almost three years ago, casting the conflict as a battleground against the West and its values. Rights groups say the country is waging an unprecedented crackdown on LGBTQ people that has seen the owners of gay bars arrested and anyone associated with promoting LGBTQ rights prosecuted.
Police in Moscow raided a number of queer party venues in the early hours of Saturday morning, exactly a year after Russia’s Supreme Court ruled the “International LGBT movement” to be an “extremist organisation”. ⤵️
📹: Social Media pic.twitter.com/hCl83CLPKo
— Novaya Gazeta Europe (@novayagazeta_en) November 30, 2024 Russian-Uzbek billionaire Alisher Usmanov was elected president of the International Fencing Federation at the body’s congress in Uzbekistan’s capital Tashkent on Saturday, the businessman’s representative said.
Usmanov, who according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index has a total net worth of $14.4 billion, made his fortune in mining, industry, telecoms, and media. He has been a major donor to international fencing through his charity fund. Usmanov was first elected FIE president in 2008 and re-elected in 2012, 2016 and 2021.
The 71-year-old, currently under European Union and United States sanctions and a travel ban, stepped down as president of the federation after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine but was nominated for a return to the post.
His candidacy got the backing of 120 out of 146 federation members who voted, his representative said. Usmanov was running against 58-year-old Swedish former Olympian Otto Drakenberg.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has suggested that Ukrainian territory under his control should be taken under the “Nato umbrella” to try to stop the “hot stage” of the war with Russia. Speaking to Sky News, the Ukrainian president said that such a proposal has “never been considered” by Ukraine because it has never “officially” been offered. Speaking via a translation, Zelenskyy said: “If we want to stop the hot stage of the war, we should take under Nato umbrella the territory of Ukraine that we have under our control. That’s what we need to do fast, and then Ukraine can get back the other part of its territory diplomatically.
Former UK Ambassador to Russia Sir Tony Brenton has said Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy is “playing a very sophisticated game” in calling for Ukrainian-controlled territories to come under the Nato umbrella. “He knows that [Donald] Trump is about to descend on him and on Russia”, Brenton said. “He is already arranging to have something to offer Trump on Trump’s mission to bring the war to an end. What he is suggesting in many ways is bringing us much closer to the obvious target area which is a freeze in the fighting where the lines actually currently are and then an eventual negotiation about who retains which bit of territory and then security guarantees for Ukraine in the course of that ceasefire.”
Ukraine’s air force announced Saturday that the country had come under attack from ten Russian drones, of which eight were shot down over the Kyiv, Cherkasy, Kirovohrad, Dnipropetrovsk, and Kherson regions. One drone returned to Russian-occupied territory, while the final drone disappeared from radar, often a sign of the use of electronic defenses. Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry said that 11 Ukrainian drones had been shot down by the country’s air defense systems. Both the mayor of Sochi, Andrey Proshunin, and the head of Russia’s Dagestan region, Sergey Melikov, both in Russia’s southwest, said that drones had been destroyed in their regions overnight. No casualties were reported.
Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk traveled Saturday to his country’s border with the Russian region of Kaliningrad to inspect progress in the construction of military fortifications along the eastern frontier, calling it “an investment in peace.” “The better the Polish border is guarded, the more difficult it is to access for those with bad intentions,” Tusk said at a news conference near the village of Dabrowka as he stood in front of concrete anti-tank barriers.
Ukraine has asked Latin American parliamentarians and diplomats to assist in its defence in the war with Russia. Representatives of Argentina, Belize, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, El Salvador, Ecuador, Peru, and Costa Rica arrived in Kyiv for a meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, pictures show. The President urged them to join the peace process – according to Ukraine – work together to facilitate the return of illegally deported Ukrainian children, address food security issues and help Ukraine recover from shelling.
Ukranian political analysts have argued Donald Trump’s choice of special envoy for Ukraine and Russia is “acceptable for Ukraine”. Trump announced this week he would appoint Keith Kellogg – who was the chief of staff of the National Security Council from 2017 to 2018 and national security advisor to Vice President Mike Pence from 2018 to 2021 – to the role. “There will be no (outright) pro-Ukrainian appointments (under Trump),” Ukrainian political analyst Volodymyr Fesenko told the Kyiv Independent. “But it’s good if an appointee is not anti-Ukrainian.”
Ukraine’s Defence Ministry claims Russia has suffered an additional 1,740 combat losses. Publishing a graphic today which shows Ukraine’s estimate of Russia’s combat losses from February 24, 2022 to November 30, 2024, the ministry states Russia’s losses include 72 vehicles and fuel tanks, 42 drones and 23 artillery systems. Ukraine claims Russia has lost 740,400 personnel in total, with almost half of that figure accounted for by lost vehicles and fuel tanks.
Peter Ricketts, a former UK national security adviser, warned that Putin coming out of Ukraine with “what feels like a win” would be very risky for the UK. Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme, he agreed with Richard Moore, the head of MI6, that it was currently the most dangerous moment in national security due to the “sheer number of simultaneous threats and crises” the UK is facing. “Putin is now feeling increasingly reckless”, Ricketts said. “There used to be during the cold war and afterwards kind of unwritten rules of the road between the major powers to stop them from colliding together.
The head of MI6 has warned in a speech yesterday – that amounted to a plea to Donald Trump to continue supporting Kyiv – that abandoning Ukraine would jeopardise British, European and American security and lead to “infinitely higher” costs in the long term. Richard Moore, giving a rare speech, said he believed Vladimir Putin “would not stop” at Ukraine if he was allowed to subjugate it in any peace talks involving the incoming US Republican administration. “If Putin is allowed to succeed in reducing Ukraine to a vassal state, he will not stop there. Our security – British, French, European and transatlantic – will be jeopardised,” Moore said during an address given in Paris alongside his French counterpart.
Ukraine’s air force announced Saturday that the country had come under attack from ten Russian drones, of which eight were shot down over the Kyiv, Cherkasy, Kirovohrad, Dnipropetrovsk, and Kherson regions. One drone returned to Russian-occupied territory, while the final drone disappeared from radar, often a sign of the use of electronic defenses.
Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry said that 11 Ukrainian drones had been shot down by the country’s air defense systems. Both the mayor of Sochi, Andrey Proshunin, and the head of Russia’s Dagestan region, Sergey Melikov, both in Russia’s southwest, said that drones had been destroyed in their regions overnight. No casualties were reported.
On Friday, the Ukrainian president announced a number of changes to military leadership, saying that changes in personnel management were needed to improve the situation on the battlefield.
General Mykhailo Drapatyi, who led the defense of Kharkiv during Russia’s new offensive on Ukraine’s second-largest city this year, was appointed the new head of Ukraine’s Ground Forces. Oleh Apostol was named as the new Deputy Commander-in-Chief responsible for improving military training.
Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi also announced Friday that he would bolster units in Donetsk, Pokrovsk and Kurakhove with additional reserves, ammunition, weapons and military equipment.
Former UK Ambassador to Russia Sir Tony Brenton has said Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy is “playing a very sophisticated game” in calling for Ukrainian-controlled territories to come under the Nato umbrella.
“He knows that [Donald] Trump is about to descend on him and on Russia”, Brenton said. “He is already arranging to have something to offer Trump on Trump’s mission to bring the war to an end.
“What he is suggesting in many ways is bringing us much closer to the obvious target area which is a freeze in the fighting where the lines actually currently are and then an eventual negotiation about who retains which bit of territory and then security guarantees for Ukraine in the course of that ceasefire.”
But he added that Zelenskyy had made “quite a major concession“ in stating he is prepared to see a ceasefire and then negotiate the return of Russian-occupied territory in Ukraine over the long term.
“Putin will see this as a concession by Zelenskyy”, Brenton said. “He will say to himself ‘ah, they are feeling weak, I can press for more’. That is a danger as we go into this.”
Former UK Ambassador to Russia Sir Tony Brenton discusses Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s suggestion a ceasefire deal could be struck if Ukrainian territory he controls could be taken “under the NATO umbrella”.
▶️ Full interview: https://t.co/v10zgjsGAL
📺 Sky 501 and YouTube pic.twitter.com/aawhNF5gnu
— Sky News (@SkyNews) November 30, 2024 Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk traveled Saturday to his country’s border with the Russian region of Kaliningrad to inspect progress in the construction of military fortifications along the eastern frontier, calling it “an investment in peace.”
“The better the Polish border is guarded, the more difficult it is to access for those with bad intentions,” Tusk said at a news conference near the village of Dabrowka as he stood in front of concrete anti-tank barriers.
“Everything we are doing here – and we will also be doing this on the border with Belarus and Ukraine – is to deter and discourage a potential aggressor, which is why it is truly an investment in peace,” Tusk said. “We will spend billions of zlotys on this, but right now the whole of Europe is observing these investments and our actions with great satisfaction and will support them if necessary.”
He said he wants Poles “to feel safer along the entire length of the eastern border.” Tusk also said the fortifications would include Poland’s border with Ukraine, a close ally, but did not elaborate.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has suggested that the war in his country could end without totally taking back territories occupied by Russia under Kyiv’s control. Zelenskyy suggested that land controlled by the Ukrainian army could be taken under the Nato umbrella to end the ‘hot war’, and then diplomacy used to regain the remainder.
Ukraine has asked Latin American parliamentarians and diplomats to assist in its defence in the war with Russia.
Representatives of Argentina, Belize, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, El Salvador, Ecuador, Peru, and Costa Rica arrived in Kyiv for a meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, pictures show.
The President urged them to join the peace process – according to Ukraine – work together to facilitate the return of illegally deported Ukrainian children, address food security issues and help Ukraine recover from shelling.
“These are not weapons issues; these are other issues. These are issues of people having something to eat, something to feed their children, something to cook, electricity to keep them warm at night. Especially now, in winter,” Zelenskyy emphasized.
He called the visit of the Latin American delegation to Kyiv important for “countering Russian disinformation”. Zelenskyy urged them to share their experiences and impressions and create platforms that would facilitate the exchange of reliable data on the Ukrainians’ struggle against Russian aggression.
Ukranian political analysts have argued Donald Trump’s choice of special envoy for Ukraine and Russia is “acceptable for Ukraine”.
Trump announced this week he would appoint Keith Kellogg – who was the chief of staff of the National Security Council from 2017 to 2018 and national security advisor to Vice President Mike Pence from 2018 to 2021 – to the role.
“There will be no (outright) pro-Ukrainian appointments (under Trump),” Ukrainian political analyst Volodymyr Fesenko told the Kyiv Independent. “But it’s good if an appointee is not anti-Ukrainian.”
“From this standpoint, if you compare (Kellogg) with others, he’s absolutely acceptable for Ukraine,” Fesenko added. “His position is understandable (for Kyiv), and we can adapt to it.”
Ukraine’s Defence Ministry claims Russia has suffered an additional 1,740 combat losses.
Publishing a graphic today which shows Ukraine’s estimate of Russia’s combat losses from February 24, 2022 to November 30, 2024, the ministry states Russia’s losses include 72 vehicles and fuel tanks, 42 drones and 23 artillery systems.
Ukraine claims Russia has lost 740,400 personnel in total, with almost half of that figure accounted for by lost vehicles and fuel tanks.
“With the possible exception of the equator, everything begins somewhere.” The combat losses of the enemy from February 24, 2022 to November 30, 2024. pic.twitter.com/G4w76XbZRN
— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) November 30, 2024 Russian defence minister Andrei Belousov has said on a visit to Pyongyang, North Korea, that cooperation between the two countries is growing “in all areas” while Kim Jong-un vows North will “invariably support” Moscow’s war.
Read our explainer here for what we know on day 1,011:
Peter Ricketts, a former UK national security adviser, warned that Putin coming out of Ukraine with “what feels like a win” would be very risky for the UK.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme, he agreed with Richard Moore, the head of MI6, that it was currently the most dangerous moment in national security due to the “sheer number of simultaneous threats and crises” the UK is facing.
“Putin is now feeling increasingly reckless”, Ricketts said. “There used to be during the cold war and afterwards kind of unwritten rules of the road between the major powers to stop them from colliding together.
“Now Putin is being staggeringly reckless in the way he continues to expand what he sees as a war on the West now.
“He sees no boundaries and therefore the risk that Putin coming out with what feels like a win from the war in Ukraine would be very risky”, he added. “We will be faced with a larger bill later for trying to contain a rampant Russia.”
The head of MI6 has warned in a speech yesterday – that amounted to a plea to Donald Trump to continue supporting Kyiv – that abandoning Ukraine would jeopardise British, European and American security and lead to “infinitely higher” costs in the long term.
Richard Moore, giving a rare speech, said he believed Vladimir Putin “would not stop” at Ukraine if he was allowed to subjugate it in any peace talks involving the incoming US Republican administration. “If Putin is allowed to succeed in reducing Ukraine to a vassal state, he will not stop there. Our security – British, French, European and transatlantic – will be jeopardised,” Moore said during an address given in Paris alongside his French counterpart.
“The cost of supporting Ukraine is well known,” said Moore. “But the cost of not doing so would be infinitely higher. If Putin succeeds, China would weigh the implications, North Korea would be emboldened and Iran would become still more dangerous.”
“For decades the US-UK intelligence alliance has made our societies safer; I worked successfully with the first Trump administration to advance our shared security and look forward to doing so again,” Moore told his audience at the UK embassy, a short walk from the Élysée Palace, the official home of the French president.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has suggested that Ukrainian territory under his control should be taken under the “Nato umbrella” to try to stop the “hot stage” of the war with Russia.
Speaking to Sky News, the Ukrainian president said that such a proposal has “never been considered” by Ukraine because it has never “officially” been offered.
Speaking via a translation, Zelenskyy said: “If we want to stop the hot stage of the war, we should take under Nato umbrella the territory of Ukraine that we have under our control. That’s what we need to do fast, and then Ukraine can get back the other part of its territory diplomatically.
“This proposal has never been considered by Ukraine because no one has ever offered that to us officially.”
In the same interview, Zelenskyy also said that any invitation should be given “within its internationally recognised border, you can’t give invitation to just one part of a country”.
Welcome to our continuing coverage of Russia’s war on Ukraine. Here’s an overview of the latest news.
North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, vowed his country will “invariably support” Russia’s war in Ukraine as he met Russia’s defence minister and they agreed to boost military cooperation between the two countries, the North’s state media reported on Saturday.
A Russian military delegation led by the defence minister, Andrei Belousov, arrived in North Korea on Friday amid growing international concern about the countries’ expanding cooperation after Pyongyang sent thousands of troops to Russia last month.
Kim and Belousov reached a consensus on boosting strategic partnership and defending each country’s sovereignty and security interests, the Associated Press cited the official Korean Central News Agency as saying. Kim said North Korea “will invariably support the policy of the Russian Federation to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity”, KCNA said.
Belousov said Moscow-Pyongyang ties were “actively expanding in all areas, including military cooperation”, Russian news agencies reported.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, has urged his Nato counterparts to issue an invitation to Kyiv at a meeting in Brussels next week to join the western military alliance, according to a letter seen by Reuters on Friday.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has suggested that Ukrainian territory under his control should be taken under the “Nato umbrella” to try to stop the “hot stage” of the war with Russia. He told Sky News that such a proposal had “never been considered” by Kyiv because it had never “officially” been offered.
In other developments:
Abandoning Ukraine would jeopardise British, European and US security and lead to “infinitely higher” costs in the long term, the head of MI6 warned in a speech that amounted to a plea to US president-elect Donald Trump to continue supporting Kyiv. Richard Moore said he believed the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, “would not stop” at Ukraine if he was allowed to subjugate it in any peace talks involving the incoming US Republican administration.
Moore accused Russia of waging a “staggeringly reckless campaign” of sabotage in Europe while also stepping up its nuclear sabre-rattling to scare other countries off from backing Ukraine. “Our security – British, French, European and transatlantic – will be jeopardised,” he said during an address in Paris alongside his French counterpart.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy appointed Maj Gen Mykhailo Drapatyi as the new commander of Ukraine’s land forces. “The Ukrainian army needs internal changes to achieve our state’s goals in full,” the Ukrainian president said on Telegram on Friday.
The French president vowed to give Ukraine intensive support in its battle against Russia’s “escalation” of its invasion, his office said. Emmanuel Macron condemned Russia’s “indiscriminate” strikes against Ukraine’s cities and power infrastructure in a phone call with Zelenskyy on Friday, the Élysée Palace said. France has said Ukraine’s use of French missiles remains “an option”.
Russia launched more than 100 drones at Ukraine overnight on Thursday and early on Friday, killing one person and injuring eight others, officials said. A drone attack killed a woman in the southern city of Kherson, said the head of the local military administration, Roman Mrochko. A drone attack on the southern region of Odesa damaged 13 residential buildings and injured seven people, the national police said. Fragments from downed Russian drones struck buildings in two Kyiv districts and injured one person, officials said.
At least two Ukrainian regions suffered power cuts on Friday, electricity operator Ukrenergo said. Local media reported 70% of customers in Mykolaiv and the surrounding region had been without electricity for a second day as a result of Russian attacks on energy infrastructure.
Moscow said on Friday its forces had seized the village of Rozdolne in the southern part of Ukraine’s Donbas region, where it has made a string of territorial gains in recent months.
Russia downed 47 attack drones fired by Ukraine overnight to Friday, mainly targeting the Rostov border region, where a major fire broke out at an industrial site, authorities said. Ukraine’s military said it struck the region’s Atlas oil depot, causing a fire. Ukraine also struck a radar station for a Russian Buk air defence system in Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region, the military said.
Russia has sentenced Alexei Gorinov, the first person to be convicted for speaking out against Moscow’s military offensive in Ukraine, to another three years in prison in a second trial. The 63-year-old is already serving a seven-year sentence after a conviction in 2022. He wore a paper badge with a peace sign drawn on it as a court in Vladimir, east of Moscow, handed him the new sentence on charges of “justifying terrorism” on Friday, the Medizazona website reported.
Russian authorities returned more than 500 bodies of Ukrainian soldiers killed in combat, with most having died in the eastern Donetsk region, Ukraine said on Friday. Russia, for its part, does not announce the return of its bodies.
The day so far
Zelenskyy comments about Russian-held territory ‘a major concession’, says former UK ambassador to Russia
C. S. Lewis
Zelenskyy proposes reclaiming lost Ukrainian territory diplomatically
Opening summary
