United States officials are holding secret talks with Russia and Ukraine in Abu Dhabi in an attempt to thrash out the peace deal to end the war.
After meeting with a Russian delegation last night, U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll is expected to speak with Ukraine’s military intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov, on Tuesday.
The high-level meetings came as a devastating Ukrainian onslaught hit a major Russian aircraft manufacturing plant, triggering a ‘glow like after a nuclear explosion’.
Initial reports indicate an experimental bulb-nosed A-60 aircraft – a carrier of laser weapons – was ablaze.
Three people were killed and at least 16 injured with residential buildings damaged in the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk and the cities of Rostov-on-Don and Krasnodar, Russian officials said.
The Russian Defence Ministry said that 249 Ukrainian drones were downed over regions overnight, including 116 over the Black Sea, 92 over the southern regions of Krasnodar and Rostov.
The attack on Taganrog came as Russian drones attacking Ukraine’s Odesa region flew over Romanian airspace. NATO scrambled four war planes in response.
Moscow triggered death and terror with new attacks on civilians in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv killing at least six, including an 86-year-old woman pensioner.
A Ukrainian onslaught hit a major Russian aircraft manufacturing plant, triggering a ‘glow like after a nuclear explosion’
Three people were killed and at least 16 injured with residential buildings damaged in the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk and the cities of Rostov-on-Don and Krasnodar, Russian officials said
The Russian Defence Ministry said that 249 Ukrainian drones were downed over regions overnight
Residents were heard screaming for help after a Shahed drone strike ignited an inferno in a tower block, with two power plants supplying piped hot water heating to homes also destroyed.
A Russian drone penetrated some 50 miles inside independent state Moldova before ending up on the roof of a house in the village of Nizhnie Kugureshty.
The Gerbera unmanned plane was pictured by police in the West-leaning ex-Soviet state.
Reports say the unexploded drone was one of six that crossed into Moldovan airspace.
People were ordered not to touch any drones or debris that landed in Moldova.
Neighbouring Romania – a NATO state – was also hit by Russian drone incursions, leading to the scrambling of warplanes.
Separately, dramatic footage indicated a wonky Russian air defence missile struck a residential building in an horrific new friendly fire incident in the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, where a wave of Ukrainian strikes also caused casualties.
The destructive strikes on both sides came as peace moves gathered pace in Abu Dhabi to follow up on this weekend’s talks between the U.S. and Ukraine in Geneva.
Driscoll and the Russians began talks on Monday night and he is expected to meet soon with Ukraine’s Budanov – considered one of Russia’s most wanted men.
In a Truth Social post on Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that ‘something good is happening’ amid his administration’s efforts to broker peace between the warring sides.
‘Don’t believe it until you see it, but something good just may be happening. GOD BLESS AMERICA!’
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday hailed ‘important steps’ after the Geneva summit, but said more was needed to end a nearly four-year war following the Russian invasion.
‘In the steps we have coordinated with the side of the U.S., we’ve managed to keep extremely sensitive points,’ Zelensky told a virtual conference in Sweden, but added that ‘to achieve real peace, more is needed’.
A drone fell on a residential house in Moldova, in the village of Nizhnie Kugureshty
A Ukrainian drone set an experimental bulb-nosed A-60 aircraft – a carrier of laser weapons – ablaze
Moscow triggered death and terror with new attacks on civilians in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv killing at least six, including an 86-year-old woman pensioner
Residents were heard screaming for help after a Shahed drone strike ignited an inferno in a tower block, with two power plants supplying piped hot water heating to homes also destroyed
People take shelter at a metro station during an air attack in Kyiv on November 25, 2025
A broken window and a damaged residential building in the background following an air attack in Kyiv, November 25, 2025
Ukrainians take shelter during an air-raid at the site of a Russian strike on a nine-storey residential building, in Kyiv, Ukraine, November 25, 2025
In Geneva, U.S. and Ukrainian negotiators drew up an ‘updated and refined peace framework’ after a draft of Trump’s 28-point peace plan leaked last week and caused uproar in Europe and Kyiv.
The controversial deal was viewed as offering huge concessions to the Kremlin, fulfilling many of Moscow’s maximalist demands for territorial control while leaving Ukraine vulnerable and defenseless to future aggression.
The Ukrainian strike on Taganrog-Yuzhny airfield hit the Beriev aircraft manufacturing plant, amid indications an A-60 plane designed to carry laser weapons was burning on the tarmac.
Russia has only two such aircraft, based on the Il-76MD.
Unconfirmed reports said a hangar had been hit, believed to be housing a Tu-95MS strategic bomber aircraft undergoing £36 million modernisation, a key part of Vladimir Putin’s nuclear strike fleet.
A fire was seen close to the runway at the plant which is also used to maintain Putin’s Ilyushin Il-80 Maxdome ‘Doomsday’ aircraft designed for use as a Flying Kremlin in the event of nuclear war.
Governor Veniamin Kondratyev called the night attack ‘one of the longest and most massive’ during the full-scale war.
Attacks were also recorded in Gelendzhik, where Putin owns a £1 billion private palace, and Tuapse.
In Kyiv, Russia hit two hot water power plants – CHP-5 and CHP-6, and a hydroelectric power station.
The city was plunged into power and water outages, as well as transport disruptions.
The attack was evidently aimed at pummelling Ukraine into agreeing an unfavourable peace plan.
Putin’s foreign affairs aide Yuri Ushaskov said that British, EU and Ukrainian inspired changes to the original U.S. draft were ‘unconstructive’.
On Saturday, leaders from Europe, Canada and Japan signed a joint statement at the G20 summit in South Africa, saying that the peace deal had elements ‘essential for a just and lasting peace’, but would ‘require additional work’, citing concerns over territory and limits on Ukraine’s army.
US presidential envoy Steve Witkoff (second from the left), and US Secretary of state Marco Rubio (right) at the beginning of talks with the Ukrainian delegation in Geneva
The EU submitted a modified version of the US’s peace plan for Ukraine that pushed back on proposed limits to Kyiv’s armed forces and territorial concessions.
The document, drafted by the so-called European E3 powers – Britain, France and Germany – proposes that Ukraine’s military be capped at 800,000 ‘in peacetime’ rather than a blanket cap of 600,000.
It also says ‘negotiations on territorial swaps will start from the Line of Contact’, rather than pre-determining that certain areas should be recognised as ‘de facto Russian’, as the U.S. plan suggests.
Russian strikes also hit Odesa region, with reports a Putin drone had overflown NATO state Romania in a major security breach, with another crossing Moldova.
A statement from the Romanian air force confirmed NATO fighters were scrambled.
‘The radars of the Ministry of National Defence detected a target heading towards national airspace on the morning of November 25, in the vicinity of Tulcea County, and at 06.28, two German Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft were launched from Mihail Kogălniceanu Air Base to monitor the situation.
‘The target crossed national airspace from the direction of Vâlcove (Ukraine), to the Chilia Veche area, Tulcea County.
‘At 06.55, a Ro-Alert message was transmitted in the Tulcea County area.
‘At 07.11, Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft reported radar contact with the target over the territory of Ukraine, outside Romanian airspace.
‘At 07:37, two F16 Fighting Falcon aircraft were ordered to take off from the ground, from the 86th Air Base in Borcea, and at 07:48, Ro-Alert was also issued for Galați County.
‘At 07:50, radar systems detected a second intrusion into national airspace, in the area of Galați County, and F-16 aircraft had radar contact with it.
‘At the time of issuing the press release, the situation is being monitored by the Ministry of National Defence.’
The air force warned that it has the legal right to shoot down Russian drones in its airspace.
