Kiev bombed while the US and Russia negotiate peace in Abu Dhabi: six dead overnight and tensions over the new 19-point plan.

The war in Ukraine has reached day 1.371 with a dramatic paradox: while a new 19-point peace plan is being discussed in Geneva and Abu Dhabi, waves of missiles and drones have returned overnight to Kiev and other Ukrainian regions. At least six civilians have died in the capital and dozens have been injured; at the same time, US, Russian, and Ukrainian officials continue to hold confidential talks to determine whether the conflict can finally find a path to negotiation.

Nighttime raid on Kiev leaves six dead and civilian infrastructure damaged.

On the night of November 24-25, Russian forces launched a massive combined attack on all of Ukraine.

Kiev has been hit hard. In the Svyatoshynskyi district, according to data provided by the capital's military administration led by Tymur Tkachenko, four people were killed and at least three injured. In another district, Dniprovskyi, a nine-story residential building was hit, starting a fire that claimed further victims, including an 86-year-old woman. A second 22-story skyscraper was hit in the Pechersk district.

The toll, updated by Mayor Vitali Klitschko in the early hours of the morning, speaks of at least six deaths and more than a dozen injuries. It is expected to be confirmed only after the completion of the search operations among the rubble, with firefighters still busy dismantling the unsafe structures and checking for any trapped people.

President Volodymyr Zelensky, in a message posted on social media, described a picture of destruction that extends beyond the capital: "significant damage" has been recorded in the Odessa region—with ports, food depots, and energy infrastructure targeted—and in the Dnipro, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, and Cherkasy regions. The primary targets, he warned, remain the energy sector and "everything that maintains normal life" for millions of civilians.

According to Ukrainian authorities, on the night of the attack alone, Russia launched 22 missiles of various types and over 460 drones, most of which were intercepted by air defense, but not enough to avoid further casualties and widespread damage to the electricity grid, water supplies, and heating in the dead of winter.

Putin's "terrorist response" to the American peace plan

In Kiev, no one doubts the connection between the wave of missiles and the delicate diplomatic moment. Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha called the attack a "terrorist reaction" by the Kremlin to American peace proposals. "Putin has given his terrorist response to the peace proposals of the United States and President Trump with a barrage of missiles and drones against Ukraine," Sybiha wrote, emphasizing that the targets hit were once again "ordinary residential buildings and critical civilian energy infrastructure," far from the front lines and any declared military objective.

Ukrainian counterattack in Russia: three dead in Taganrog and 249 drones downed

On the other side, Moscow also claims it has been targeted by a Ukrainian attack. In the Rostov region of southern Russia, a drone strike on the port city of Taganrog left at least three dead and eight injured, with two apartment buildings and a private home hit.

The Russian Defense Ministry also claims to have downed 249 Ukrainian drones in a single night, spread across several regions: 116 over the Black Sea, 76 in the Krasnodar region, 23 in Crimea, and 16 in the Rostov region itself. These numbers cannot be independently verified, but they confirm the growing intensity of the "drone war," which is increasingly central to the military strategy of both sides.

The new peace plan: from 28 to 19 points

As the raids continue, a new draft peace plan is taking shape in diplomatic circles. The original document, drafted by the Trump administration in 28 points, was met with strong skepticism both from Kiev and from several European capitals, which deemed it unbalanced and too favorable to Russian demands.

After a marathon series of meetings—between Switzerland, South Africa, and finally Angola—that text was "drained" and transformed into a 19-point draft. European Council President Antonio Costa spoke of a "positive" direction, while admitting that "issues remain to be resolved" before a shared agreement can be considered.

The Ukrainian presidency, while emphasizing that the new text has "little in common" with the original version, considers it a starting point for further negotiations. Many of the most controversial elements—from territorial issues to future relations between NATO, Russia, and the United States—remain in parentheses and will be left to the final political decision.

Moscow's reactions: between denials and accusations of "information delirium"

From the Kremlin, however, contradictory messages are coming in. Spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that Russia has not received any "19-point plan," characterizing the current situation as a veritable "information frenzy," with too many leaks and entirely media-driven statements.

Moscow continues to contest the European counterproposal to the American plan, deeming it "unconstructive" and "unsuitable" for Russian interests. Kremlin foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov described the text as full of "speculation" and unclear in its objectives, while Vladimir Putin, in a phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, formally kept the door open to dialogue, calling the American plan—in the version presented to Moscow—"a basis for a definitive peaceful resolution."

Putin reiterates that Russia is "interested in a diplomatic solution" and that the American proposals can be a "basis" for a final agreement. These statements, however, coexist with the reality of a conflict that continues to consume lives and infrastructure, and with the Kremlin's reluctance to publicly recognize the new 19-point draft.

Behind the diplomatic formulas, the same old strategy can be seen: publicly appreciating the negotiating efforts, but without renouncing military service or offering, for now, any concrete signs of willingness to make substantial concessions.

Abu Dhabi, Geneva, Luanda: Diplomacy on the Move

On the operational level, the United States is trying to weave a negotiating framework that directly involves both Kiev and Moscow, with the support – not always straightforward – of the Europeans.

Geneva. This is where the central round of talks between US and Ukrainian delegations took place, from which the new 19-point plan emerged, later revised with European input.

Abu Dhabi In the United Arab Emirates, closed-door talks have been held in the past few hours between US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll and Russian officials. According to some reports, Driscoll also met with Ukrainian military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov, essentially working at a trilateral level. The meetings, which lasted several hours, are aimed at establishing the scope of possible future agreements and preparing for a possible move to a higher political level. The Kremlin has officially maintained silence on this meeting.

Luanda. On the sidelines of the EU-Africa summit in Angola, European leaders discussed at length the draft and the necessary adjustments to make it acceptable to Kiev and compatible with the continent's security priorities.

Added to this intense diplomatic work is a virtual meeting, scheduled for this afternoon, of the Coalition of Volunteers, chaired by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer along with Emmanuel Macron and attended, among others, by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. On the table, once again, was the new US peace plan and the joint request that Moscow finally demonstrate a concrete willingness to sit down at the negotiating table.

Trump, Zelensky and the role of the United States

At the heart of everything remains the relationship between Kiev and Washington. Donald Trump, through his spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt, expressed "confident and optimistic" about the possibility of reaching an agreement and hinted that he was willing to grant more time beyond the initial deadline of November 27, while claiming strong pressure was being applied to both sides, Putin and Zelensky.

The White House, however, specifies that at the moment "no meeting is planned" between Trump and Zelensky to finalize the plan. Ukrainian authorities, for their part, continue to hope for a face-to-face meeting by the end of November: Security and Defense Council Secretary Rustem Umerov has explicitly stated his intention to organize a visit by Zelensky to the United States as soon as possible to "complete the final stages and reach an agreement with Trump."

Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof summed up the stakes this way: “Zelensky now has to make big decisions,” but Russia’s response will decide whether the plan can evolve into a real negotiation process or whether it will be yet another confirmation that Moscow “is not really interested in peace.”

Between bombs and drafts: Ukraine's crossroads

The picture that emerges from this day is that of a double pressure On Ukraine: on the one hand, Russian military pressure, which continues to target cities, energy infrastructure, water networks, and civilian residences, leaving the country increasingly weakened and dependent on Western aid; on the other, diplomatic and political pressure, with successive peace plans requiring Kiev to make extremely difficult decisions regarding territory, neutrality, the size of the Armed Forces, and its relationship with NATO.

Zelensky, in his night message, tried to keep these two plans together: he thanked all the partners who support Ukraine and relaunched the need to continue with both the pressure from weapons and air defenses both with that of the sanctions and diplomacy“There can be no pause in assistance,” he warned, recalling that every day lost on the ground or in negotiations risks being paid for with more civilian lives.

While we wait to see whether the 19-point plan will become the basis for real negotiations or yet another diplomatic exercise destined to fail, the war continues to speak primarily through the language of missiles and drones.