The Trump peace plan: Crimea and Donbass to Russia against security guarantees. Moscow: no proposal from US

Moscow has not received any information from the US through official channels about the peace plan in Ukraine that several international media have written about. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Rbc. The spokeswoman, Rbc adds, said that "if the American side had any proposal, they would have communicated it through the channels in use between the foreign ministries of the two countries", but the foreign ministry in Moscow "has not received anything like that from the State Department".

Berlin is not standing idly by. According to German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, Germany has not been informed about alleged secret talks between the US and Russia concerning a peace plan for Ukraine. With regard to the so-called '28-point plan' reported in the US media, Wadephul explained: 'We have not been informed about this plan'. The minister emphasised the 'ongoing efforts of all international partners to finally ensure that President Putin sits at the negotiating table'. Referring to the ongoing joint meetings in Istanbul, Wadephul added: "We understand and fully support them". However, he pointed out, Germany focuses its efforts on supporting Ukraine and thus intends to make it clear to Putin "that there is no alternative to a negotiation process". 'Germany will support Ukraine permanently, militarily, politically and economically,' the minister reiterated.

The Kremlin, meanwhile, let it be known - via spokesman Dmitry Peskov - that Moscow is ready for talks on the Ukrainian solution and that the pause in the negotiation process was caused by Kiev. If necessary, Peskov added, a telephone conversation between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Donald Trump can be arranged immediately.

Also yesterday, from the early hours of the alaba, the entire Ukrainian territory was on a state of air alert: the authorities of several cities in the western part of the country also urged their citizens to pay the utmost attention. "The enemy is attacking western Ukraine with drones. Do not ignore the alarm! Stay in shelters," wrote the mayor of Leopolis on Telegram. Nine people died in a Russian airstrike in western Ukraine (in the western town of Ternopil, ed.), Zelensky said. Victims then rose to 26, including three children, although the toll is still provisional. A further 93 people, including 18 children, were injured. This was announced by Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko, quoted by Ukrainska Pravda. "There is a lot of work to be done. The main thing is to find everyone who might be under the rubble. Tonight there are reports of 26 people missing in the destroyed building. Three are children. We are looking for them,' the minister said. Emergency operations will continue throughout the night.

In the face of the Ukrainian accusations,the Russian Defence Ministry replied that in the "massive attack" launched last night "on the western regions of Ukraine" military targets were hit. "The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation inflicted a massive attack with long-range air- and naval-based precision weapons, including Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, and attack drones against targets of the military-industrial and energy complex that ensured their operation, as well as long-range drone depots," the ministry wrote on its Telegram channel.

In eastern Ukraine,Kharkiv was also hit by a 'massive attack' by the Russians, according to police reports, which counted 36 wounded. The drones were aimed at the Slobidsky and Osnovyansky districts of the city. The attack damaged 'more than ten buildings', according to a message posted on Telegram. According to the governor Oleg Synegoubov, Russian forces directed 19 drones at this city near the Russian border, the second most populous in the country before the invasion launched by Moscow in February 2022, and 'a nine-storey building was hit and then caught fire'.

 A new package of laws and security measures has been adopted in Russia to strengthen internal defences against drone attacks and sabotage operations attributed to Ukraine. This is highlighted by an article in the Guardian, according to which almost four years after the start of the large-scale invasion of Ukraine - which Moscow believed would last a few weeks - Russian territory is being struck almost daily by drones targeting energy infrastructure, while operations claimed by Ukrainian intelligence services have led to the elimination of high-ranking officers far from the front line. These attacks deep inside Russian territory, the British newspaper points out, have highlighted the country's vulnerability.

To reinforce the protection of critical locations, Putin signed a decree in early November, which did not get much press coverage, authorising the deployment of reservists to guard sensitive facilities, including refineries, increasingly targeted by Ukrainian drones, whose attacks have also caused fuel prices to rise. The measure allows the Kremlin to mobilise a pool of about two million reservists without resorting to a new general mobilisation, a very unpopular measure. Reservists receive one-year training and a monthly allowance to remain in the active reserve, but so far have not been involved in combat except on a voluntary basis.

Ukraine's Council of Ministers has appointedArtem Nekrasov as Ukraine's acting minister of energy following the dismissal of the head of the department,Svitlana Grynchuk, over the corruption scandal in the energy sector. This was reported by sources quoted by the Ukrainian media Ukrainska Pravda. At Justice, however, also on an interim basis, will go Lyudmila Sugak, reports RBC-Ukraine. Sugak served at the Ministry of Justice as Deputy Minister of Justice for European Integration and was responsible for the harmonisation of Ukrainian legislation with European legislation and cooperation with international partners.

According to a Kiev government official, Ukraine has asked the Vatican to formalise its role as 'facilitator' in negotiations for the return of Ukrainian children and civilians taken from Russia during the war. Volodymyr Zelensky made the request in a letter to Leo XIV ahead of Friday's audience between the Pope and a delegation of Ukrainian children and civilians returned from Russia. The missive requested that the pontiff formalise the informal agreement initiated by Pope Francis, in which Cardinal Matteo Zuppi had acted as papal envoy for humanitarian issues. The deputy head of Zelensky's office, Iryna Vereshchuk, told reporters in Rome thatUkraine wanted the Holy See to act as an intermediary, or "platform", through which Ukraine and Russia could discuss the return of civilians. "It is one thing when we have their POWs and the Russians are interested in getting them back. They have our POWs, we have theirs. There is interest in the exchange."But Ukraine does not hold any Russian civilians to exchange, he added. It is unclear whether children or civilians were returned through the Vatican's informal channel.

Vereshchuk said that in the context of Zuppi's mission,Russia used a "grey area" not to respond to lists of civilians that Ukraine wanted released, as the process was not formalised. "Once the process is formalised we can have proper communications with the Russians and when we send a letter through the platform they will have to respond," he said. Neither the Vatican nor the Russian embassy to the Holy See immediately responded to requests for comment. Vereshchuk accompanied a delegation of Ukrainian children, parents and grandparents who have lived in parts of Donetsk controlled or occupied by Russia or who have been detained elsewhere by Russian forces and now live in Ukrainian-controlled territory. According to current data published by the Ukrainian presidential platform 'Bring Kids Back', 19,546 Ukrainian children have been officially registered as deported or forcibly transferred from Russia. Members of the delegation meeting Leo on Friday described being subjected to Russian propaganda while living in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, where Ukraine has been fighting Russian-backed forces since 2014. The young men recounted being bullied at school by Russian students and teachers and being forced to learn the Russian national anthem, speak Russian and write letters of support for Russian soldiers.