As the world waited with bated breath for the result of the U.S. elections, Russia’s war against Ukraine did not relent.
Donald Trump’s sweeping victory no doubt spells an uncertain future for the besieged country.
But Russia’s grinding advances in Donbas, drone attacks, and yet more allegations of war crimes committed by Moscow’s forces all continued no matter who was delivering a victory speech across the Atlantic.
We bring you five stories about Russia’s war in Ukraine that you might’ve missed in the wake of the U.S. presidential election.
Ukraine hits Russian naval base in Dagestan for first time
Ukraine’s military intelligence was behind a drone attack against the city of Kaspiysk in Russia’s Dagestan Republic, targeting a Russian naval base, a source in the agency told the Kyiv Independent on Nov. 6.
At least two vessels – Gepard-class missile ships Tatarstan and Dagestan – were damaged in the attack, and possibly also several small Project 21631 Buyan-M corvettes, sources said.
Dagestan authorities reported intercepting a drone attack over Kaspiysk, a port city at the Caspian Sea around 1,000 kilometers from the front line (600 miles), on the morning of Nov. 6.
Kateryna Hodunova
“Russian Navy ships are stationed in Kaspiysk,” said Andrii Kovalenko, an official at Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council. The base is home to Russia’s Caspian Flotilla, as well as Russian Marines and Coastal Troops.
Based on satellite imagery, at least eight vessels were present at the naval base after the attack, open-source intelligence (OSINT) analysts said. Some reports suggested that Ukraine may have targeted the supply routes of Iranian weapons flowing to Russia via the Caspian Sea.
The strike took place roughly 15 kilometers from a local airport, the Mash news channel claimed, identifying the drone as a Ukrainian A-22 Flying Fox drone. The nearby Makhachkala airport has suspended operations for an indefinite period due to the incident, local authorities said.
Russia has executed at least 124 Ukrainian POWs on battlefield throughout full-scale war, prosecutors say
Kyiv knows of 124 Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) who were executed by Russian forces on the battlefield throughout the full-scale war, a senior representative of the Prosecutor General’s Office said on Nov. 6.
Reports of murders, torture, and ill-treatment of Ukrainian prisoners of war are received regularly by Ukrainian authorities and have spiked in recent months. Most cases were recorded in the embattled Donetsk Oblast.
Speaking on national television, Denys Lysenko, the head of the department focused on war-related crimes, said that 49 criminal investigations were underway regarding the execution of Ukrainian POWs.
The most recent cases include the killing of six captured Ukrainian soldiers near Pokrovsk in Donetsk Oblast, prosecutors reported on Nov. 5.
“We are now analyzing all these cases, looking for patterns… We are considering all these cases comprehensively, and the involvement of a particular armed unit is, of course, analyzed in each case,” Lysenko said.
Former Prosecutor General Andrii Kostin called the killing of Ukrainian soldiers in captivity a “deliberate policy” of Russia.
Some 80% of the cases of executions of Ukrainian POWs were recorded in 2024, but the trend began to appear in November 2023, when “there were changes in the attitude of Russian military personnel towards our prisoners of war for the worse,” said Yurii Belousov, a senior representative of the Prosecutor General’s Office.
Russian drone attack on Kyiv damages buildings, causes fires in five districts
Russia launched a drone attack on Kyiv overnight on Nov. 7, striking a residential building in the capital and injuring at least one person, the Kyiv City Military Administration reported.
According to Kyiv’s military administration, the drone strike caused “significant damage” to a unit in the apartment building in the Holosiivskyi district of the city.
The administration also reported a large fire nearby caused by falling drone debris at a car repair shop.
Multiple explosions were heard in the outskirts of Kyiv around 1 a.m. local time, according to a Kyiv Independent journalist on the ground.
Ukraine’s Air Force warned throughout the night that Russian attack drones were in the vicinity of the city.
Around 6 a.m. local time, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko posted on Telegram that wreckage also fell in the Pechersk district and caused a fire on the 33rd floor of a residential building. The fire was contained shortly after.
Wreckage from the ongoing attack has also fallen in the Podil district, where a two-story house caught fire, in the Obolon district, where a business center caught fire on the upper floors, and in the Solomianskyi district, where debris fell both in a yard of a house and onto a private medical facility.
Germany's governing coalition collapse brings uncertainty to Ukraine support
Germany’s three-party governing coalition collapsed on Nov. 6 after German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced that he had dismissed Finance Minister Christian Lindner, an event that could have a profound effect on the country’s support for Ukraine.
The decision to fire Lindner over economic disagreements will likely propel the country into a snap election in the near term, as it is unlikely that Scholz’s Social Democratic Party (SDP) will have enough votes to pass the 2025 budget.
Under the current ruling coalition, Berlin allocated 7.6 billion euros ($8.2 billion) in military assistance for Kyiv in the 2024 budget. The next year’s budget allocated roughly half of that sum.
In his statement following the dismissal, Scholz partly justified the decision by noting that he had asked Lindner to relax spending rules to allow increased aid for Ukraine, but Lindner refused.
“All too often, Minister Lindner has blocked laws in an inappropriate manner,” Scholz said. “Too often he has engaged in petty party-political tactics. Too often he has broken my trust.”
German media reported last week that Lindner’s proposed policy paper called for significant changes to the country’s economic policy, including reducing regulations on climate policy to stimulate economic growth as well as proposing tax cuts — in deep contrast with Scholz.
Political instability in Berlin may spell trouble for Kyiv amid the rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party — known for its amicable views toward the Kremlin — which has continuously called for cutting funding for Ukraine.
A snap election might not necessarily mean disaster for Ukraine, however. Current polls show that while second, the AfD lags behind the center-right Conservative Christian Union-Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU), whose leader, Friedrich Merz, has called for more decisive steps in support of Ukraine, including the delivery of Taurus missiles.
Scholz said he would ask Merz for parliamentary support to pass the budget.
Elsa Court
South Korea 'not ruling out' supplying arms to Ukraine, president says
South Korea does not rule out providing arms to Ukraine in the light of deepening cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said at a press conference on Nov. 7.
“Now, depending on the level of North Korean involvement, we will gradually adjust our support strategy in phases,” Yoon told the media.
“This means we are not ruling out the possibility of providing weapons.”
Russian-North Korean ties entered a new level when Pyongyang dispatched around 12,000 troops to join Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Yoon said previously that Seoul might revise its ban on supplying direct military assistance to a warzone in response.
South Korea has provided Ukraine with humanitarian and non-lethal aid but refused to provide weapons, citing legislative restrictions. Some media reports from last year claimed that the country secretly supplied artillery shells to Ukraine via the U.S., though the South Korean government denied the reports.
Living in constant tension with its North Korean neighbors, South Korea boasts a powerful military and strong defense industry, making the country a major arms exporter.
It remains unclear what weapons systems South Korea is considering, though Yoon commented that “defensive weapons” would be a priority. A source in South Korea’s Presidential Office told the Yonhap news agency that a direct supply of 155 mm artillery shells is currently not on the table.
Experts told the Kyiv Independent that South Korea could provide the most significant support to Ukraine through ammunition supplies. The country fields not only 155 mm artillery but also stores 3.4 million 105 mm rounds compatible with some of Ukraine’s guns.
Ukrainian officials said that simply holding the front against Russian forces requires 75,000 shells a month. Moscow’s troops can fire several times more shells than Ukraine, with roughly half reportedly provided by North Korea.
Asami Terajima