Zelenskyi reiterates importance of a NATO invitation to Ukraine in a phone call with the NATO chief. Russia uses civilians as \u201ctarget practice\u201d for killer drones, the Financial Times reveals in a report. Ukraine will not settle for Yalta-2 or Minsk-3 peace deals, Ukraine\u2019s Foreign Minister says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a phone call with NATO Secretary General, Mark Rutte, on Thursday, President Zelenskyi reiterated the importance of extending an invitation to Ukraine to join NATO. He also thanked Rutte for hosting a meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Council in Brussels at the level of foreign ministers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI reiterated the importance of inviting Ukraine to NATO and ensuring the timely reinforcement of our combat brigades with ammunition, weapons, and equipment, as well as strengthening Ukraine\u2019s defense against Russian air terror this winter,\u201d Zelenskyi said on X.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe coordinate our positions to bring closer a just and stable peace, as supporting Ukraine is crucial not only for our country but for all partners in Europe, because the security of one is the foundation for the security of all,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Earlier this week, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Ukraine will not settle for any security guarantees other than full NATO membership. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ukraine is not making a push for NATO membership as some nations oppose the idea, Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Andriy Subiha told reporters on the sidelines of the NATO Foreign Ministerial in Brussels on Wednesday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Russia trains new drone operators and refines their combat techniques by targeting Ukrainian civilians with drones, a Financial Times report from Kherson reveals. The paragraphs below are quoted from the article.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kherson\u2019s civilians have been, since midsummer, the target of an experiment without precedent in modern European warfare: a concerted Russian campaign to empty a city by stalking its residents with attack drones. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The killer machines, sometimes by the swarm, hover above homes, buzz into buildings and chase people down streets in their cars, riding bicycles or simply on foot. The targets are not soldiers, or tanks, but civilian life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey are hunting us,\u201d said Oleksandr Prokudin, head of the Kherson regional military administration. \u201cImagine what that does to a person, the psychological impact.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since mid-July, Kherson and its neighbouring villages along the western side of the Dnipro river have suffered more than 9,500 attacks with small drones, killing at least 37 people and injuring hundreds more, according to Prokudin, regional prosecutors and police.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Prokudin told the Financial Times that Russia had deployed some of its \u201cbest drone units\u201d across the Dnipro river, which bisects Kherson and serves as the front line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From the bank opposite the city centre, he said, the Russians were launching advanced drone models, refining combat techniques and training new operators for their intensifying invasion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Scores of videos of drone attacks on civilians are posted on Russian military and pro-war Telegram channels. The Eyes on Russia project by the Centre for Information Resilience (CIR), a London-based non-profit focused on exposing human rights abuses and war crimes, analysed and verified 90 of them in a new report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The CIR found that the \u201coverwhelming majority\u201d of attacks were either against moving or stationary vehicles \u2014 targets that are \u201cdifficult to replicate in a test environment\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The suspicion, on the Ukrainian side, is that Kherson was also being used for \u201ctarget practice\u201d, Prokudin and other officials said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The devices used, including first-person view (FPV) drones, Chinese over-the-counter Mavics and sometimes larger Russian military Lancets, zero in on vulnerable, everyday locations: crowded markets, petrol stations, caf\u00e9s, post offices and humanitarian aid centres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The drone attacks have accelerated a civilian exodus from the area. Kherson region\u2019s 1mn population has plummeted to just 158,000 since Russia\u2019s invasion. Kherson city had 250,000 residents; today, there are just 60,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Russia wants \u201ca second Yalta or at least a third Minsk,\u201d Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha said at the OSCE Ministerial Council in Malta on Thursday, referring to the 1945 Yalta Conference and the Minsk accords from 2014 and 2015. Ukraine will never accept such a peace, he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAs long as Russia violates OSCE principles and commitments, this organization should remain a platform for Russia\u2019s accountability,\u201d Sybiha said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Malta hosts the Ministerial Council in Valletta on December 5-6 that brings together foreign ministers and senior officials of the 57 OSCE participating States. Ukraine\u2019s Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha and the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken are among the participants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sybiha and scores of diplomats walked out of the room for the speech of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Sybiha, in his comments, called Lavrov a \u201cwar criminal.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tuesday marked 30 years since the Budapest Memorandum was signed. Ukraine will not accept \u201cany alternatives, surrogates or substitutes for Ukraine\u2019s full membership in NATO,\u201d the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Yalta Conference took place on February 4\u201311, 1945. At Yalta, leaders of the U.S., the UK, and the Soviet Union made important decisions regarding the postwar world. They agreed that the Polish eastern border would follow the Curzon Line, and Poland would receive territorial compensation in the west from Germany. Poland\u2019s new government would be called the Polish Provisional Government of National Unity and would include various political groups. It had already been decided that Germany would be divided into occupied zones administered by U.S., British, French, and Soviet forces. The determination of reparations was assigned to a commission. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"