Here’s where things stand on Monday, December 1.

Fighting

• The number of casualties from a Russian attack on Ukraine’s Kyiv on Sunday rose to one person killed and 18 wounded, according to regional Governor Mykola Kalashnyk.
• In southern Kherson, at least two people were killed, and seven others were wounded in more Russian attacks, Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on Telegram.
• In the Donetsk region, at least two people were killed, and five were injured in Russian attacks on Saturday, according to Governor Vadym Filashkin.
• In Russia, a Ukrainian drone attack killed two men in the Belgorod region, the region’s operational headquarters said in a post on Telegram.
• The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) claimed that Russian forces shot down 309 drones over the Donbas region, using the “Donbas Dome electronic warfare system” over the past week, according to Russia’s state TASS news agency.

Peace talks

• Officials from the United States and Ukraine hailed “productive” talks on a deal to end Russia’s war on Ukraine following a meeting in the US state of Florida on Sunday.
• US Secretary of State Marco Rubio expressed optimism, while also saying the negotiations remain difficult. “We continue to be realistic about how difficult this is, but optimistic, particularly given the fact that as we’ve made progress,” he said.
• Rubio added that the talks would continue later in the week, when US envoy Steve Witkoff travels to Russia. “There are a lot of moving parts, and obviously, there’s another party involved here [Russia] that will have to be a part of the equation, and that will continue later this week, when Mr Witkoff travels to Moscow,” he said.
• Ukraine’s new chief negotiator, National Security Council secretary Rustem Umerov, said Washington had been “super supportive” during the discussions. The “US is hearing us, US is supporting us, US is walking beside us”, he said.
• Ukraine’s First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergiy Kyslytsya, who was also participating, also praised the US, saying that “it’s been a good start of the ongoing meeting” and that Rubio showed “great leadership”.

Diplomacy

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he thanked European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in a call on Sunday. “Ursula is paying close attention to the need to strengthen our resilience amid Russia’s constant strikes on our infrastructure and the energy sector,” he said on X.
• German Federal Minister of Defence Boris Pistorius said that Berlin needs to be prepared for shifting alliances as “we don’t know which alliances we can still rely on in the future and how long they will last”.
• In remarks at the German parliament, he said: “The geopolitical chessboard is changing rapidly – its patterns, its arrangement. Alliances are shifting faster than would have been conceivable before.”
• Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Hakan Fidan expressed Turkiye’s support for peace efforts between Russia and Ukraine during a meeting with his Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi, in Tehran on Sunday, according to Turkiye’s Anadolu news agency.

Weapons

• Ukrainian Defence Minister Denys Shmyhal announced in a post on X that Ukraine and Norway will jointly produce Ukrainian drones, after he signed an agreement with his Norwegian counterpart, Tore O Sandvik.

Regional Security

• Lithuania’s Vilnius airport said on Sunday it had temporarily halted operations due to suspected balloons in its airspace, the latest in a series of flight disruptions across Europe, some of which have been linked to Russian drone activity.
• Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oncu Keceli expressed concern about attacks on two vessels in the Black Sea on Friday, which were reportedly by Ukrainian forces targeting Russia’s shadow fleet of sanctioned oil tankers.
• “These incidents, which occurred within Turkiye’s Exclusive Economic Zone in the Black Sea, have posed serious risks to the safety of navigation, life, property, and the environment in the region,” Keceli said in a statement on Saturday.