Victory Chronicles-DAY 1374

Ukraine’s military says its forces hit several Russian military sites overnight on Nov. 28, including an oil refinery in Russia’s Saratov region and a drone storage facility at the Saky airfield on the occupied Crimean Peninsula. The refinery is one of the plants that feeds Russia’s war effort, and videos posted online showed multiple explosions followed by a large fire.

The General Staff said Ukrainian units first suppressed air defenses around the Saky base, knocking out systems including a Pantsir-S1 and a Tor-M2. With those defenses disabled, a hangar storing Orion and Forpost attack drones was destroyed. A Russian command post and a KamAZ military truck were also struck, though damage assessments are still underway.

In addition to these targets, Ukraine also reported strikes on logistics hubs and fuel infrastructure at several sites across Russia’s interior, including in the Bryansk and Lipetsk regions. 

Farther east, Ukrainian forces hit concentrations of Russian troops and fuel depots in occupied parts of Donetsk and Luhansk. These sites help sustain Russian operations along the front, where Moscow has been pushing for incremental gains.

Ukraine says existing bomb shelters can protect only half the population. Ukraine has about 62,000 bomb shelters, enough for only roughly half of the country’s people, according to Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko. Speaking at a briefing, he said the shortage is felt most acutely in regions that are close to the front line, where Russian missile and drone strikes are part of daily life.

His deputy, Oleksii Serheiev, said the shelter network has grown by 2,685 sites since early 2025, but the gap remains wide. Ukraine’s Interior Ministry, along with ministries that oversee communities, health, the economy and education, has approved a long-term plan to expand the protective infrastructure through 2034. That strategy calls for state funding to build shelters at schools and hospitals, support from international donors, and upgrades to underground spaces such as parking garages that could serve as dual-use purposes as shelter areas.

The first phase of the plan runs through 2027 and seeks to retrofit all suitable underground spaces, add 2,300 new shelters and update building rules to require shelters in new housing, public buildings and critical infrastructure. Serheiev said the goal is to ensure protection for about 74 percent of Ukraine’s population by that point. Later phases envision constructing another 11,000 structures that will ultimately encompass about 91 percent of the country.

Russian troops beat, execute Ukrainian prisoner on Pokrovsk front. Ukrainian investigators say Russian soldiers beat and then executed a captured Ukrainian serviceman during fighting near the village of Hnativka in eastern Ukraine’s Pokrovsk district. The case has become the latest example of what officials describe as systematic brutality against Ukrainian prisoners of war.

The Donetsk Regional Prosecutor’s Office said the incident occurred in November 2025, when Russian troops surrounded a Ukrainian position and seized a soldier. According to the investigation, one Russian tied the captive’s hands while another struck him repeatedly in the head with a rifle butt. When the wounded and unarmed soldier stopped reacting, he was shot and left on the ground.

Prosecutors noted that the intentional killing of prisoners of war violates the Geneva Conventions and is treated under international law as a serious war crime. Ukraine has documented dozens of similar executions since Russia’s full-scale invasion began.

Drone strikes military base in Chechen capital. A drone slammed into a military base in Grozny, the capital of Chechnya in southern Russia, damaging one of the buildings and causing a plume of smoke to emanate into the night sky. Videos posted online show a flash, then a dark plume rising over the base. Independent outlet Kavkaz.Realii said it verified the footage and confirmed the location.

The base is home to the 141st Motorized Regiment “Sever(North),” a unit of Russia’s National Guard known for fighting in Ukraine. In 2023, Chechen strongman leader Ramzan Kadyrov publicly honored the regiment’s commanders there, underscoring the unit’s status within his security structure.

Neither Chechen authorities nor Russia’s Defense Ministry acknowledged the strike. But the attack rippled across the region: airports in Chechnya, Dagestan, North Ossetia and Ingushetia temporarily suspended operations, a sign that air defenses were on alert.

Key Takeaways

1. Data on Russian forces’ rate of advance indicates that a Russian military victory in Ukraine is not inevitable, and a rapid Russian seizure of the rest of Donetsk Oblast is not imminent.
2. Recent Russian advances elsewhere on the frontline have largely been opportunistic and exploited seasonal weather conditions.
3. Ukrainian forces have proven effective at constraining Russian advances and conducting successful counteroffensives, particularly when well-staffed and well-equipped.
4. Kremlin officials continue setting conditions to reject any peace deal that does not concede to all of Russia’s maximalist demands.
5. The Kremlin is reportedly concerned that the United States will correctly interpret Russia as unwilling to meaningfully engage in negotiations and accept any peace deal that compromises its ability to achieve its maximalist claims.
6. Recent Ukrainian counterattacks may further delay Russian forces’ seizure of Pokrovsk, though the situation in Pokrovsk remains serious and dynamic at this time.
7. Russia continues setting conditions to deploy active reservists to combat against Ukraine.
8. Russia’s long-range strike campaign is increasingly killing and injuring civilians.
9. Ukrainian forces recently advanced near Hulyaipole. Russian forces recently advanced near Lyman.

• UK intelligence says Russia is extirpating Ukrainian identity in occupied territories
• EU commissioner urges G7 to speed up disbursement of $50 billion loan for Ukraine
• Russia not elected to UN ship agency’s governing council
• EU responds to Putin’s claim about Zelenskyy’s legitimacy: He is democratically elected
• UK at OSCE: Peace deal must guarantee Ukraine reliable security mechanisms
• Ukrainian forces hold back Russian advance near Huliaipole and regain control in this area