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.
Denys Shmyhal, Ukraine’s minister of defense, said last week that the country will need $120 billion for its defense against the Russian invasion in 2026, stating that Kyiv will be able to cover about half from its own national resources, but will need assistance from its partners to cover the other half.
The Trump administration has been providing the Ukrainian military with intelligence to help it carry out massive strikes on Russian energy infrastructure with the hopes of forcing Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table, the Financial Times reported on Saturday.