Introducing the main events of the 1,359th day of Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Published November 14, 2025
Here’s what happened on Friday, November 14th.
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Russian forces launched a “massive” assault on Kiev early Friday, with air defense systems activated and a series of explosions reported in the capital, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. Klitschko said falling objects hit a five-story apartment building in the Dniprovsky district on the east side of the Dnipro River, and a fire broke out in a high-rise building in the Podil district on the opposite bank. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy visited troops near the front lines in southeastern Ukraine and warned of the need to strengthen defenses after his forces were outnumbered by intensifying fighting far from Russia’s main offensive in the country’s east. President Zelenskiy said the situation near the city of Olikhiv in the Zaporizhzhya region was “one of the most difficult” on the vast front, and that stopping Russian forces there was the key to protecting the city. The Ukrainian military said its forces attacked a Russian oil terminal in occupied Crimea and an oil depot in the occupied Zaporizhzhya region. The General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said Russian oil facilities and other military targets were attacked by indigenous weapons, including Flamingo ground-launched cruise missiles, unmanned missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles. The Russian Ministry of Defense announced that Russian forces had captured two more Ukrainian settlements: Sinelnykove in the Kharkiv region and Danilivka in the Dnipropetrovsk region. Russian air defense forces destroyed or intercepted 130 Ukrainian drones over Russian skies overnight, state news agency TASS reported, citing daily data from Moscow’s Ministry of Defense.
peace negotiations
The Kremlin said Ukraine would have to negotiate an end to the war “sooner or later” and predicted that Kiev’s negotiating position would worsen by the day. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he hoped Washington would not take any action that could escalate the conflict in Ukraine. Lavrov said US President Donald Trump has long advocated dialogue with Russia to fully understand Russia’s position on Ukraine and has “demonstrated his determination to find a sustainable and peaceful solution.” “We hope for common sense and that the maintenance of that position will prevail in Washington and refrain from actions that could escalate the conflict to a new level,” Lavrov said.
Ukraine energy scandal
The German government said in a statement that Chancellor Friedrich Merz and President Zelenskiy discussed the $100 million energy corruption scandal involving Kiev. According to the statement, President Zelensky promised full transparency, long-term support for independent anti-corruption authorities, and further swift steps to restore the trust of the Ukrainian people, European partners and international donors. Ukraine’s Prime Minister Yulia Sviridenko also announced an audit of all state-owned enterprises, including those in the energy sector, following a scandal that led to the suspension of two ministers. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said it is lending 22.3 million euros ($26 million) to a Ukrainian energy company as part of a deal pipeline, signaling continued support for the sector despite corruption scandals. The EBRD’s cash will go to Ukraine’s private energy company PowerOne to finance a new gas piston power plant and battery energy storage system, the financier said in a statement.
aid to ukraine
International Monetary Fund (IMF) spokeswoman Julie Kozak said she would soon begin sending staff to Ukraine to discuss financial needs and the possibility of a new financing program. Ukraine is in talks with the IMF about a new four-year loan program to replace the country’s current four-year $15.5 billion loan program. Ukraine has already received $10.6 billion of this amount. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told the European Parliament that the bloc could either use its long-term budget to borrow the funds needed to cover Kiev’s financial needs in 2026 and 2027, or EU countries could borrow on their own and provide subsidies to Ukraine. The third option was a proposal from the European Commission to organize a loan, in effect a subsidy, based on Russian central bank assets frozen in the EU. European finance ministers agreed that financing Ukraine with a compensation loan based on stuck Russian assets would be the most “effective” of the three options being considered. Europe’s top development bank and Ukrainian energy company Naftogaz have signed a deal to provide the company with an additional 127 million euros ($127 million) in funding from the European Union, on top of a 300 billion euro ($349 billion) loan outlined last month to secure Ukraine’s natural gas supplies as Russia continues to attack Ukraine’s infrastructure. In a joint statement, the Nordic and Baltic states announced that they will jointly contribute $500 million to the Ukraine Priority List Weapons Initiative.
russia sanctions
About 1.4 million barrels a day of Russian crude, nearly a third of the country’s seaborne export potential, remains on tankers as U.S. sanctions on energy companies Rosneft and Lukoil delay unloading, according to U.S. financial services firm JP Morgan. Bulgaria’s parliament overrode the president’s veto of a bill that would have allowed the government to take control of and sell the Lukoil refinery to protect the asset from looming US sanctions. Bulgarian President Rumen Radev had sought to veto a move by lawmakers to give a government-appointed commercial administrator the power to oversee the continued operation of Bulgaria’s Lukoil refinery and sell the company if necessary after U.S. sanctions take effect on Nov. 21. Russia’s Port Alliance Group, which operates a network of maritime cargo terminals, said foreign hackers targeted its systems over three days with distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks and attempted hacking. The group said key elements of digital infrastructure were targeted with the aim of disrupting export shipments of coal and mineral fertilizers at maritime terminals in the Baltic Sea, Black Sea, Far East and Arctic regions. The attack was successfully repelled and operations were not affected, Port Alliance said.
