This week, fierce fighting continued to rage in the country’s east. Russia continued to strike Ukrainian cities and towns far behind the front lines with missiles and drones. The Ukrainian Air Force said on Thursday that it shot down 74 out of 106 drones launched by Russia overnight.
Early in the week, Ukraine reported the first military engagement with North Korean troops in Russia’s Kursk region. A Russian glide bomb attack on Zaporizhzhia on Thursday killed nine, including a one-year-old child, and injured 42 others. Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Colonel Oleksandr Syrskyi summed up three months of Ukraine’s Kursk operation that continues to this day.
In an open letter, more than 100 Western thought leaders have warned against a “new Munich Agreement” for Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi congratulated Donald Trump Wednesday on his “impressive victory” in the 2024 U.S. presidential election. The next day Zelenskyi arrived in Budapest for a meeting of the European Political Community, his first visit to Hungary since the invasion. He was welcomed by the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
Even Trump can’t afford to lose the Ukraine war, according to a Foreign Policy article. “Someone in Donald Trump’s inner circle needs to take him to one side and tell him this home truth: as president-elect, he must immediately explain his plan to end the war in Ukraine,” a column authored by Luke McGee, an Emmy Award-winning journalist covering European diplomacy, states.
“Ideally, his plan should not involve Ukraine giving up territory that has been captured by Russia over the course of the war. Nor should it be based on empty promises from Russian President Vladimir Putin, which he has a history of making,” the article featured in Foreign Policy on Wednesday reads.
“Victory for Putin would be a grave blow to U.S. power,” the column warns.
