On Saturday, Nov. 29, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that a Ukrainian delegation, led by National Security Council Secretary Rustem Umerov, is traveling to the United States to continue negotiations on an agreement to end the war with Russia.
Umerov was appointed head of the Ukrainian negotiating team after the previous chief negotiator, Zelenskiy’s powerful chief of staff Andriy Yermak, resigned on Friday. Hours before his resignation, anti-corruption investigators searched his apartment.
Zelenskiy stated that he expects the results of talks held in Geneva with the U.S. last weekend to be finalized on Sunday. These talks allowed Ukraine to present a counterproposal in response to a plan proposed by U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll to Ukrainian leadership in Kyiv about two weeks ago.
Zelenskiy wrote on X: “Rustem submitted his report today. The mission is very clear: to quickly and substantively define the steps needed to end the war.”
Ukraine is currently under intense pressure from Washington to agree to the terms of a peace deal, while Zelenskiy himself faces the most difficult political and military challenges since Russia launched its invasion in 2022.
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A corruption scandal in the energy sector, involving as much as $100 million, sparked a strong political backlash that led to the resignation of two ministers. Now, the president’s “right-hand man,” Chief of Staff Yermak, has also stepped down.
On the battlefield, Russian forces are gradually making gains along the front lines, while Ukrainian cities face several hours of daily blackouts due to ongoing attacks on the power grid.
Zelenskiy previously said Ukraine is experiencing one of the most difficult periods in its history. Yet in a recent impassioned speech, he assured the Ukrainian people that he will not betray the country.
Black Sea escalation: Drones strike Russian sanctioned oil tankers
As the Ukrainian delegation prepared to travel to the U.S., tensions in the Black Sea escalated again. On Saturday, a Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) official revealed that Ukrainian naval drones attacked two sanctioned oil tankers—the Kairos and Virat—heading to the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk. Both vessels were empty and preparing to load oil for export.
Video shared with Reuters by the official shows a high-speed drone approaching a massive tanker, followed by a violent explosion that set the ship on fire.
“The video shows that both tankers were severely damaged and are effectively out of operation, delivering a major blow to Russia’s oil transport,” the official said.
The authenticity of the video could not be independently verified.
Turkey’s Ministry of Transport confirmed that the Kairos caught fire on Friday while en route from Egypt to Russia, and the crew was evacuated by lifeboats. Reports indicate that the Virat was attacked again by a drone early Saturday, suffering minor damage above the starboard waterline, but remained stable.
According to data from the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), both tankers were sanctioned following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Ukraine has long urged the West to take stronger action against Russia’s use of a large, old, and largely unregulated “shadow fleet” to continue exporting oil and funding the war.
Additionally, the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), which handles about 1 percent of global oil transport, announced a suspension of operations after a mooring facility at its Russian Black Sea terminal was attacked by drones. The CPC primarily exports oil from Kazakhstan. Kazakh authorities condemned the attack as “unacceptable.”
