Ukrainian delegates began their meeting with U.S. officials in Florida on Nov. 30 to continue negotiations on the latest Washington-backed peace plan on ending the Russia-Ukraine war.

In the latest episode of Ukraine This Week, the Kyiv Independent’s Anna Belokur covers leaked calls showing U.S.-Russia coordination on a controversial peace plan and reports on backlash to Reese Witherspoon’s Moscow-set novel.

Cutting Ukraine's military might has been raised as among the key points in U.S. President Donald Trump's latest push to end the war at all costs. The original 28-point peace proposal, criticized in Ukraine for aligning with Russia's sweeping demands, envisioned a 600,000-cap for the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Within days, European leaders sent a counterproposal, which reportedly included a push to increase the limitation to 800,000 instead. While imposing such restrictions on Ukraine, a country

According to Bloomberg's sources, Russia and India are expected to discuss the potential purchase of the fifth-generation Su-57 aircraft and the S-500 air defense system.

Nawrocki and Orban were set to meet a day after the upcoming Visegrad Group summit in Hungary.

HUR and Ukrainian partisans orchestrated two explosions at a site where Chechen fighters fighting for Russia sold stolen diesel, the military intelligence agency claimed.

Markarova's advisory role will cover topics such as the "business climate, enhancing our state's financial resilience, attracting investment, and planning reconstruction together with our strategic partners," Zelensky said.

The comments come as Zelensky grapples with one of the most politically turbulent moments of his presidency.

While Ukraine will share its experience and innovations, Norway will provide a "strong production base, as well as research and development cooperation with leading Norwegian institutions," Defense Minister Denys Shmyhal said.

The Ukrainian Air Force reported intercepting 104 of the 122 drones launched by Russia overnight. Russia also launched two ballistic missiles from occupied Crimea.

The attack seriously damaged the mooring point two (SMP-2), prompting port authorities to halt all loading operations and order tankers out of the water area.

The operation targeted ships that, according to the source, could have transported nearly $70 million worth of oil and helped Moscow bypass international sanctions.

A Russian drone attack killed a man and injured 19 people in the town of Vyshhorod in Kyiv Oblast overnight on Nov. 30, local authorities reported.

Ukrainian officials will meet with Marco Rubio, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in Florida on Nov. 30. Zelensky said a final agreement could be ready "in the coming days."

Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla, the daughter of former South African President Jacob Zuma, resigned from parliament after being accused of helping lure 17 South African men to fight for the Russian military in Ukraine, her party announced on Nov. 29.

Russia’s Ministry of Justice has designated Human Rights Watch an “undesirable organization,” effectively banning the group from operating in the country, on Nov. 28.

Moldova was forced to temporarily close its airspace, President Maia Sandu said. The incident marks the third such violation in nine days.

Ukraine's Air Force said Russia launched 596 Shahed-type attack and decoy drones and 36 missiles of various types overnight.

The leaders will discuss "the conditions of a just and durable peace" in Ukraine, according to French President Emmanuel Macron's office.

"The course of military operations has demonstrated what should become the new priorities," President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

Ukraine's military reportedly struck one of southern Russia's largest oil refineries overnight on Nov. 29, Russian Telegram media channels reported.

"I'm going to the front and am prepared for any reprisals... I am an honest and decent person," Former Presidential Office head Andriy Yermak said.

A Russian military victory in Ukraine would cost Europe twice as much as a Ukrainian victory, according to a new study by Corisk and the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs published on Nov. 25.

Orban reiterated his readiness to hold the peace talks on Ukraine in Hungary, even as plans for a summit in Budapest between Putin and Trump have been scrapped.

Vasyl Verameichyk, a Belarusian soldier who previously served as a volunteer fighter for Ukraine, was sentenced to 13 years in prison in Belarus, independent outlet Belsat reported on Nov. 28.

Hello, this is Kateryna Hodunova reporting from Kyiv on day 1,374 of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Today's top story: Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces took out $60 million worth of Russian air defense systems over the course of three days, it claimed in a social media post on Nov. 28. "The Buk-M1, Buk-M2, and Tor-M2 air defense systems were hit. The total cost of these weapons is estimated at $60 million," it said. "These complexes are key elements of the enemy's air defense syst

Andriy Yermak, head of the President's Office, submitted his resignation following searches by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) at his premises earlier on Nov. 28, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced.

Editor's Note: This story was originally published in The Kyiv Independent's first-ever print edition, titled "The Power Within." You can order a copy in our e-store. Carrying a portrait of Ukrainian artist Alla Horska at her funeral, poet Vasyl Stus, who would himself perish in a Russian labor camp 15 years later, did not shy away from calling her death a murder. On that mournful day, when it fell to Stus to speak, he delivered a poem written in Horska’s memory. Its stark opening line — “Toda

The Czech foundation Gift for Putin will no longer buy Flamingo cruise missiles from Ukrainian weapons maker Fire Point due to connections to a recent corruption scandal, local media reported. "We collected the money very quickly, but serious doubts arose that it would not go to the product for which the collection was made. So we did not go to them and now we are looking for a suitable alternative," Dalibor Dědek told Idnes, as reported on Nov. 28. The decision apparently came after Dědek rece

Editor's note: Andriy Yermak submitted his resignation following searches by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) at his premises, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Nov. 28. President Volodymyr Zelensky's chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, has consolidated an unprecedented level of power within Ukraine's government — wielding influence across parliament, the Cabinet, and key state institutions. Despite his dominance, however, Yermak has remained a controversial figure, often viewed w

As Russia bombards Ukraine with Shahed drones almost every night, the 12th Army Aviation Brigade takes to the skies in decades-old helicopters to intercept them. The Kyiv Independent’s Kollen Post joined the pilots to understand how they fly, maneuver, and shoot down drones in darkness — and what keeps them going.

As law enforcement raids the house of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s closest aide, European officials are voicing support for Ukraine's anti-corruption agencies — with one even expressing relief that a figure seen a toxic among some in Europe is being investigated.