Introducing the main events of the 1,367th day of Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Published November 22, 2025
Here’s what happened on Saturday, November 22nd:
finding
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said about 5,000 Ukrainian troops were trapped by Russian troops on the east bank of the Oskir River in Ukraine’s eastern Kharkov region. There was no immediate comment from the Ukrainian military. The Russian Ministry of Defense announced that Russian troops have captured the villages of Yampil, Stavki, Novoselevka and Maslyakivka in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region, as well as the village of Radysne in the neighboring Dnipropetrovsk region. The Russian Ministry of Defense announced that 33 Ukrainian drones were intercepted and destroyed overnight in five Russian regions, Crimea and the Black Sea. At least eight Russian airports were forced to suspend operations during the nighttime attacks, according to Russia’s aviation watchdog. Ukraine said its troops were holding a line north of Pokrovsk in the contested eastern region and blocking further attempts by Russian forces to advance. Russian troops have been fighting for months toward Pokrovsk, a Ukrainian military logistics hub, to capture the town, which Russian media calls the “gateway” to Ukraine’s industrial Donbas region.
peace plan
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has until Thursday this week to approve a U.S.-backed peace plan with Russia, President Donald Trump has said. “We have a way to make peace, or we think there is a way to make peace. (Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy) will have to approve,” Trump said Friday in the Oval Office after meeting with New York Mayor-elect Zoran Mamdani. President Zelenskiy promised to work quickly and constructively with Washington on a peace plan, but said he would not betray his country’s interests. In a video statement, President Zelensky urged Ukrainians to remain united in what he described as one of the most difficult times in Ukraine’s history, adding that further political pressure was expected next week. After an hour-long telephone conversation with US Vice President Vance, President Zelensky also said that Ukraine would work with the US and Europe at an advisory level on a peace plan. President Zelenskiy then said he had discussed with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte “the available diplomatic options” to end the war with Russia, including “the plan proposed by the American side.” Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti reported that Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the Russian government had not yet officially received a peace plan from the United States. Russian President Vladimir Putin told senior officials at a meeting of Russia’s Security Council that the U.S. proposal could form the basis for resolving the conflict, but that Russian forces would advance further if Kiev rejected the plan. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said after a phone call with Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Zelenskiy that a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine must ensure Kiev’s future security. Starmer’s office said the two leaders “underscored their support for President Trump’s peace efforts and agreed that any solution must fully involve Ukraine, preserve its sovereignty and ensure its future security.” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Karas said the bloc and Ukraine want peace but will not succumb to Russian aggression. “This is a very dangerous moment for everyone,” Karas said. “We all want this war to end, but how it ends is important. Russia has no legal right to any concessions from the country it invaded. Ultimately, it is up to Ukraine to decide what the deal is.”
sanctions
According to the Treasury Department, the United States has issued a Russia-related general license that allows certain transactions with Hungary’s Paks II civil nuclear power project. The license allows transactions related to nuclear power plant projects involving some Russian banks, including Gazprombank, VTB Bank and the Central Bank of Russia. Teboil, a Finnish fuel station chain owned by Russia’s Lukoil, has filed for corporate restructuring, news agency STT reported. It becomes the first international company owned by a major Russian oil company to announce closure as a result of sanctions imposed on Lukoil by the United States last month. Lithuania’s state railway group LTG has announced that it will stop transporting oil cargoes by Lukoil to the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad in response to US sanctions. Located on the Baltic Sea coast, Kaliningrad receives much of its supplies from Russia via rail transit through NATO member Lithuania, but it can also receive shipments directly from home via the coast.
corruption
Ukraine’s government will appoint a new supervisory board for Energoatom, the state nuclear company at the center of a corruption scandal, by the end of this year, Economy Minister Oleksiy Sobolev said. Ukraine is rocked by a scandal over a $100 million kickback scheme involving senior energy sector officials and former business associates of Mr. Zelensky.
economy
Ukraine will significantly increase gas imports through the southern Balkans route to Greece to replenish supplies lost due to Russian aggression, transport operator import data showed. Kiev has been stripped of at least half of its gas production in recent months by Russian drone and missile attacks on the country’s energy infrastructure, and is forced to import an additional 4 billion cubic meters of gas for the winter heating season to make up the difference.
regional security
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the Russian-inspired and organized sabotage was aimed at destabilizing and weakening Poland and had the characteristics of “state terrorism.” Last weekend, an explosion damaged the Warsaw-Lublin railway line linking the Polish capital to the border with Ukraine, in what Tusk described as an “unprecedented sabotage.” Nathan Gill, a former British member of the European Parliament and former leader of Wales’ populist Reform UK party, has been jailed for more than a decade after admitting accepting bribes of around 40,000 British pounds ($52,344) to deliver pro-Russian speeches and statements.
