Just a few months ago, European leaders tried to sell war with Russia by claiming that drones from Moscow were violating their airspace, and the situation was urgent because the Russians were using these violations to collect data to find weak spots.
The Ukrainian military carried out a new strike on Russian infrastructure last week, this time striking a plant in Stavropol Krai that produces chemicals used in artillery.
Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, seemed to cast doubt on the viability of the Washington-backed peace proposal if the document undergoes any edits that erase “key understandings” that he said Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed with President Donald Trump during their Alaska summit in August.
Ukraine acknowledged last week that it fired U.S.-provided ATACMS into Russia on Tuesday for the first time since the Trump administration lifted the ban, which was seen as a significant escalation because these systems require targeting and intelligence guidance to fire.
Global oil prices shot up 2 percent Friday, 14 November, after Ukraine bombed a Russian oil export terminal in the Black Sea, damaging an oil depot, a ship in port, and apartments.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said last week that Russia has been ramping up its weapons production to levels that make it seem that the Kremlin has no intention of stopping in Ukraine and is, in fact, girding for a wider war against Europe.
Ukraine’s state electricity transmission company announced Sunday that Russian attacks on energy infrastructure have left power-generating capacity inside the country at zero, and it was compelled to cut off power across most areas inside the country for up to 16 hours.
Germans are forced to spend more on their energy demands because of Berlin’s decision to cut off Russian gas, and have seen their heating bills increase by 82 percent since 2021, Euronews reported.
Economic output across the 20-country Eurozone edged up 0.2 percent in the third quarter, doubling the second quarter’s 0.1-percent rise but falling far short of the 0.6-percent expansion in this year’s first three months, the European Union’s statistics agency reported.
The Trump administration has lifted some previous restrictions that were placed on Western-provided long-range missiles given to Ukraine, which will allow Kyiv to reach deeper inside Russia—which was seen as a notable escalation.