Russian military killed eight people in Ukraine in shelling on November 25
According to the National Police, Russian shelling on November 25, 2025, killed eight civilians in Kyiv and the Chernihiv region, with more than four dozen others injured, including those in the Dnipropetrovsk, Kherson, Odesa, and Zaporizhzhia regions.
On the evening of November 24, rescuers retrieved the body of a man from under the rubble in the Desnianskyi District of Kyiv. That brought the death toll from the Russian strike on the capital to seven, with 21 others wounded, including one childThe fatalities recorded on November 25 included:
- seven residents of Kyiv;
- a 25-year-old woman from the Kriukivskyi District of the Chernihiv Oblast, who was killed by enemy drones hitting her house.
In Kyiv, at least 21 more people were injured in the Russian shelling. Russia struck residential buildings in several districts of the capital, and the number of casualties increased throughout the day as rescuers searched for the missing under the rubble.
The Odesa region also came under attack, where six people were injured, including two children.
In the Zaporizhzhia region, Russian forces wounded two dozen civilians the day before, most of whom were residents of Zaporizhzhia city. Another man was wounded in the village of Barvinivka, which was struck by a multiple launch rocket system (MLRS).
A police officer walks out of a house shelled by Russian forces in Zaporizhzhia.In the Donetsk Oblast, which the Russian military shelled more than 2,100 times on November 25, nine people were injured.
Seven of them are residents of Sloviansk, where the Russian army dropped two guided aerial bombs. Eight private houses, three educational institutions, several administrative buildings, a rescue unit, a trolleybus, and four civilian cars were damaged in the city.
Two other victims in the region are residents of Kostiantynivka, which was targeted by drones, bombs, and artillery.
Firefighters extinguish a fire in an apartment building in the Donetsk Oblast hit by Russian forces on November 25, 2025In the Kherson region, Russian strikes on November 25 wounded two adults and an 11-year-old boy.
During the day, an artillery strike on Zolota Balka hit the yard of a 42-year-old woman, leaving her with blast injuries and facial wounds, as well as a damaged house. Later, Russian forces hit apartment buildings and a gas pipeline in Bilozerka, wounding a child. The boy was hospitalized with a mine-blast injury, an acute stress reaction, and a shrapnel wound to the arm.
In the evening, Kherson came under Russian artillery fire, injuring a 46-year-old man in the head.
A hole in the ceiling of a house in the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast hit by Russian forcesRussian forces launched nearly 100 drone and artillery strikes on the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast on November 25, targeting the regional center among other areas.
In Dnipro, a 21-year-old mother and her 4-year-old daughter were injured. A 68-year-old woman was wounded in the Pishchanska hromada, and two 56-year-old men were injured in Nikopol.
A house in the Chernihiv region damaged by a Russian strike that killed its ownerOn November 24, Russians killed five people with their shelling, bringing the total death toll since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine to at least 14,500.
Since last year, civilian casualties from Russian strikes have increased by more than a quarter, with the primary cause of death being the use of indiscriminate weapons.
Meanwhile, diplomatic talks have continued after the 28-point draft plan was criticised by Ukrainian and European leaders as being too favourable to Russia. Earlier, ZMINA reported that this plan would be altered; however, it is unclear whether two of Ukraine’s security guarantors under the Budapest Memorandum — the United States and the Russian Federation –would ultimately violate the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Ukrainian state.
The plan has since been revised to better reflect Ukraine’s interests and those of its European allies. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has stated that he is ready to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump to discuss outstanding “sensitive points.”
The Washington Post reported that Donald Trump has not been involved in the details of the drafted 28-point plan as part of efforts to address Russia’s war against Ukraine.
An unnamed US official described Trump’s level of awareness as minimal: “You tell him, ‘I’m going to try to get a deal.’ He will say, ‘Great, go see what you can do..’ And that’s the level of detail he has”. The official also said that “chaos” had prevailed within the administration. “It’s been absolute chaos all day because even different parts of the White House don’t know what’s going on. It’s embarrassing.”
Read also: We cannot allow war to become humanity’s everyday reality again — Volodymyr Zelenskyy
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen outlined five core priorities in the EU’s approach to a peace agreement for Ukraine on November 26.
“I would like to outline some of the core principles for Europe as we work with Ukraine, the United States, and the Coalition of the Willing on the way forward. The first priority is that any agreement should deliver a just and lasting peace. And it should ensure real security for Ukraine and Europe,” she said.
Read also: Imposing neutrality on Ukraine contradicts international law – scholars
Von der Leyen emphasized that, as a sovereign nation, Ukraine cannot have its armed forces subject to any limitations.
“Ukraine needs robust, long-term and credible security guarantees as part of a wider package… And it is equally clear that any peace agreement needs to ensure that European security is guaranteed for the long term,” Von der Leyen stated.
The second priority is to uphold Ukraine’s sovereignty.
“If we legitimise and formalise the undermining of borders today, we open the door to new wars tomorrow, and we cannot allow this.”
The European Commission president added that “the future of Ukraine is in the European Union” and that this is a core and essential element of any security guarantee system.
The third priority is to meet Ukraine’s financial needs.
“In the last European Council, we committed ourselves to covering the financial needs of Ukraine for the years 2026 and 2027. On this topic, we, the Commission, have presented an options paper [for financing – ed.]. This includes an option on immobilised Russian assets,” she elaborated.
Von der Leyen also stressed that the next step would be for the European Commission to present draft legal texts on financing support for Ukraine.
The fourth priority set out by von der Leyen is “nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine, nothing about Europe without Europe, nothing about NATO without NATO”.
The fifth priority is the return of every Ukrainian child abducted by Russia.
Valeriy Chalyi, former Ambassador of Ukraine to the United States, assessed life for the Fifth Channel, stating that European governments were effectively leaving key decisions to chance and would later claim they had been unable to act because of political developments in the United States, which had tied their hands. He argued that European capitals had the ability to take strong, concrete steps that could already shift public sentiment, yet were choosing not to.
He stressed that nothing prevented EU countries from unfreezing Russian assets and allocating them to Ukraine as compensation for wartime losses. According to him, this could be done immediately, without waiting for complex negotiations between Washington and Moscow.
Chalyi also said European states could deploy units not to the front line, but to Ukrainian industrial facilities, where they could temporarily replace local personnel and strengthen site security. He noted that Ukraine now permits factories, including those with German and French investment, to be protected by air-defense systems, following a government decision allowing private enterprises to use such measures. Chalyi argued that Europe could either contract private security firms or deploy its own units, which would also gain practical training in operating relevant equipment.
He maintained that such actions would demonstrate a tangible European contribution. Merely issuing statements or relying solely on diplomacy, he said, would not produce results. Diplomacy, in his view, had to be reinforced with concrete measures, and Europe is passive in taking them.
Responding to reports regarding the widespread discussion of the draft plan, Amnesty International Secretary General Agnès Callamard said:
“The news coming out of Ukraine daily is a constant tragedy and suffering for its people. And yet, Ukrainians continue to demonstrate courage and resilience in the face of Russia’s crimes. Any realistic prospect of ending Russia’s war of aggression is welcome. At the same time, a sustainable end to hostilities must not come at any cost — especially if the price of a cease-fire is amnesty and impunity for those who committed the crime of aggression and other crimes under international law, or a compromise on the fundamental principles of the international legal order.”
NBC News, citing two sources speaking on the condition of anonymity, reported that US Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll while presenting a 28-point plan to Ukrainian officials during his visit to Kyiv, warned them that Ukrainian troops would suffer an “imminent defeat” against Russian forces, and stressed that Kyiv’s negotiating position could weaken if the war continues.
Bloomberg published a script of the call phone of the US President’s Special Envoy Steve Witkoff with Putin’s aide Yuri Ushakov on October 14, during which he offered advice on how Russia could better present its proposals for “agreement” to Donald Trump.
US President has defended Witkoff as doing the “standard thing” after a leaked recording appeared to show him advising a Russian official on how to appeal to the president.
On November 21, the United States was expected to impose secondary sanctions on China, Türkiye, and India for purchasing Russian oil transported by its shadow fleet and funding killings of Ukrainians. However, the U.S. Treasury declined to do so, citing an alleged breakthrough in negotiations regarding the war. Retired U.S. Navy Admiral Mark Montgomery said that no such breakthrough had occurred.
Meanwhile, Andrii Klymenko, the editor-in-chief of BlackSeaNews, stated that Russian seaborne crude oil exports from Baltic Sea ports during the first 25 days of November are narrowing the gap with October volumes and have already surpassed the figures for the first 25 days of September 2025.
