Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians without power after massive Russian attack

While Zelensky insists on the need to maintain and increase pressure on Russia, Washington is reportedly preparing the $725 million in additional aid, but is asking Kyiv to lower the age of mobilization from 25 to 18 years.

At dawn on Thursday, November 28, the Ukrainian Air Force reported the takeoff of seven Russian Tu-95MS strategic bombers from the Olenya airfield (in the Murmansk region) and, after 5:30 a.m. , Russian missiles were spotted over Ukrainian territory.

In addition, Kalibr cruise missiles were additionally launched from the Black Sea. Groups of Russian drones were observed in the Kyiv, Poltava, Zaporizhzhia, Chernihiv, Sumy and Dnipro regions.

The explosions were then heard in Odessa, Lutsk and Kharkiv, as well as in the Volhynia region.

More than 280,000 homes in the country’s northwest Rivne region are currently without power due to the attack, the region’s head, Oleksandr Koval, said. Water supply is also interrupted in the affected areas. Some schools in the city of Rivne were ordered to study remotely on Thursday.

The bordering Volyn region was also affected, where 215,000 homes are without electricity, said administration head Ivan Rudnytskyi. All critical infrastructure that was without power was plugged into generators.

Local authorities have ordered the opening of “invincibility points,” shelters where residents can charge their phones and other devices and cool off during power outages.

In Kyiv, where the air raid warning lasted more than nine hours, missile debris fell in one of the city’s districts, local authorities said. No casualties have been reported.

According to Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko, “the energy sector is under massive attack by the enemy… throughout Ukraine.”

“The Russians are continuing their terror tactics. They stockpiled missiles to hit Ukrainian infrastructure, to wage war against civilians in cold weather, during winter. They were helped by their crazy allies, especially North Korea. At the moment, the Russians are carrying out an all-out shelling of the country. They are waging war even on children,” wrote the head of the presidential administration, Andriy Yermak, on his Telegram channel.

Ukraine, he stressed, “will be able to respond” to Russian attacks.

Rosemary DiCarlo, the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs and Peacebuilding, denounced this month the increasing number of civilian casualties in the conflict that has pitted Ukraine and Russia for nearly three years. years, pointing out that Moscow’s targeting of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure could make this winter “the harshest since the start of the war”.

Attacks on Krasnodar and Crimea in Russia

Also, last night, “public” Telegram channels reported explosions in the southern Russian territory of Krasnodar. Subsequently, Krasnodar Governor Veniamin Kondratiev confirmed a “massive drone attack”, calling it a “terrorist attack”. A woman was reportedly injured by shards that fell on her house. Some buildings were also damaged.

Air defense assets shot down 25 Ukrainian drones last night, the Russian Defense Ministry reported.

According to this information, 14 drones were destroyed over the territory of the Krasnodar region, six over the Bryansk region, three over the annexed Crimea and two over the Rostov region.

In addition, Ukrainian forces carried out a “complex drone and missile attack” on Wednesday against Sevastopol, in occupied Crimea, targeting the Belbek military airfield and a naval school, according to Russian and Crimean sources cited by the Institute for the Study of War. Kyiv reportedly used Ukrainian-made Neptune cruise missiles, Soviet-style S200 missiles, Western-supplied Storm Shadow missiles, 40 strike drones and unspecified ballistic missiles. The Washington-based think tank suggests this strengthened the case for “providing long-range strike weapons to Ukrainian forces.”

Zelensky calls not to reduce pressure on Russia

Following his meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that pressure on Russia must be maintained and strengthened at different levels.

“We discussed contacts with our partners, with America and other countries, our coordinated work with them to achieve what we have already agreed, and for the necessary additional strengthening, both military and political,” he clarified.

At a two-day security summit in Sweden, leaders of the Nordic and Baltic countries as well as Poland decided to increase their support for Ukraine.

In particular, they declared that they would endeavor to provide more ammunition. The leaders also discussed transatlantic relations and regional security in the Baltic Sea region.

Biden prepares new aid package for Ukraine

The outgoing administration of President Joe Biden is preparing a new military aid package for Ukraine worth $725 million, according to two sources cited by Reuters.

According to one of them, the United States plans to supply various equipment from American stocks, including anti-tank weapons, drones, anti-personnel mines, Stinger missile systems and ammunition for MLRS HIMARS.

According to one of these officials, official notification of the aid package to Congress could come as soon as Monday. The contents and size of the package could change in the coming days, Reuters reported.

This package will be the largest under the Presidential Decision Authority (PDA), which allows the United States to use existing weapons stockpiles to assist allies in emergencies.

Previously, these measures typically amounted to $125 million to $250 million. Mr. Biden now has access to an additional $4 billion to $5 billion under the PDA approved by Congress, which he is expected to use before Republican President-elect Donald Trump takes office on January 20.

Washington asks Kyiv to mobilize 18-year-olds

US authorities have urged Ukraine to urgently revise its legislation and lower the age of mobilization from 25 to 18 in order to more quickly increase the size of its armed forces to confront Russia in the event of war, a senior official in Joe Biden’s administration announced to the Associated Press and the Financial Times on condition of anonymity.

“The truth is that Ukraine is not mobilizing and training enough soldiers to compensate for its losses on the battlefield while keeping up with the ever-growing Russian army,” the FT quotes him as saying. .

Kyiv estimates its needs at 160,000 troops, but according to the Biden administration, this is only the “lower limit” of what the Ukrainian military actually needs.

The understaffing of the FAU means that the Russian army is now advancing faster on the front line than in the previous two years of the war, the FT concludes.

The communications advisor to the Ukrainian president, Dmytro Lytvyn, noted in response that the promised weapons are not arriving on time and that there are not enough weapons to equip the already mobilized soldiers.

“It is absurd to hear calls for Ukraine to lower the mobilization age, allegedly to enlist more people, when we see that previously announced equipment is not arriving on time.

Due to these delays, Ukraine lacks weapons to equip the soldiers already mobilized.”

As Meduza reminds, according to the current law adopted in the spring of 2024, the age of mobilization in Ukraine was lowered from 27 to 25 years. Men aged 18 to 25 deemed suitable for military service will not be mobilized, but will be called to carry out their compulsory military service.

However, Kyiv fears that lowering the conscription age to 18 would worsen Ukraine’s demographic crisis.