Ukraine’s military received drones from a European partner at heavily inflated prices, with losses reaching tens of millions of dollars. Czech company Reactive Drone spent roughly 36 million Czech koruna on Chinese-made drones and resold them to the Armed Forces of Ukraine for 692 million koruna - about $28 million - nearly 20 times the purchase price, according to iRozhlas . Reporters say the company paid almost nothing into the Czech budget. Most of the profits were routed to accounts in China, and the firm did not pay corporate income tax, the outlet reported. Detectives from the National Center for Combating Organized Crime have charged Reactive Drone’s leadership and its accountant with tax evasion. The state’s losses are estimated at about 130 million koruna and are still rising, authorities said. Reactive Drone is registered to a residential building on the outskirts of Prague. Residents told reporters they had never heard of the company, which was established in June 2022. Police have arrested the company’s director and accountant and seized 384 million koruna from company accounts. Investigators say that amount should be enough to fully cover the damage to the state budget.

OSINT tools to archive, document and debunk the Russian War against Ukraine This project is a Telegram Archive, a News aggregator & publishing engine designed to support Ukraine and keep Ukraine information in the News cycle.

Ukraine has agreed to limit the size of its Defense Forces to a proposed 800,000 personnel, Financial Times reports, citing high-ranking officials. However, key issues—territorial questions and…

White House was preparing to present a peace proposal with Russia, which US officials reportedly expected to become the basis for a peace deal.

Ukrainian company Fire Point is preparing to field a ballistic missile in two variants for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and the system bears a strong visual resemblance to a well-known Russian design. A domestically produced ballistic missile is expected to enter service with Ukraine’s military soon. The missile closely resembles one of Russia’s own, Defence Express reports . Fire Point, the Ukrainian manufacturer, has officially confirmed that its new ballistic missiles in many respects borrow the external design features of Russian munitions used with the S-400 air defense system. The similarities are primarily in shape and aerodynamics, which clearly echo the 48N6 series. The company says the borrowing from Russia is a deliberate move to shorten development timelines and speed delivery of indigenous long-range missiles to Ukraine. According to Fire Point, development of the FP-7, with a stated range of up to 200 kilometers, will be completed by year’s end. Once formalities are finalized, deliveries to the Ukrainian military will begin. Next up is codification of the FP-9, a longer-range missile that developers say can strike targets up to 855 kilometers away. The visual resemblance is explained pragmatically: the 48N6 system was created in the Soviet era and is still used by Russia, including not only in air-defense mode but also for strikes on Ukrainian cities. Adopting proven aerodynamic solutions, they argue, makes sense. Fire Point stresses that the Ukrainian missiles use all-composite structures, making them lighter and able to travel farther. The guidance, control and onboard electronics in the FP-7 and FP-9 are Ukrainian-made and entirely different from Russian counterparts. Fire Point also disclosed some FP-7 specifications: a range of more than 200 kilometers, a warhead of up to 150 kilograms, and a top speed of about 1,500 meters per second. The average speed is lower than that of Russian missiles, which the company attributes to a different propellant type and engine burn time. Even so, the country’s first modern ballistic system appears highly promising technologically.

Russian political figure and Kremlin ideologue Alexander Dugin, whose daughter was killed in a car bombing, said Ukraine will be Russian “completely within two years at most” and that there will be “no sovereignty,” commenting on a new U.S. peace plan. Dugin said the plan proposed by U.S. leader Donald Trump “raised serious doubts,” and after Kyiv and European representatives are brought into it, “it will become clearly unacceptable” for Russia. He wrote that on his Telegram channel. “Ukraine will be ours completely within two years at most. Possibly much sooner,” Dugin said. He criticized calls to respect Ukraine’s sovereignty, insisting there would be “no sovereignty whatsoever,” arguing Ukrainians “do not know how to use it.” At the same time, the Kremlin ideologue claims another plan is being developed — the “integration of Ukrainian society” into Russia. “As far as I know, work is in full swing on a detailed plan to integrate Ukrainian society into the unified space of the ‘Russian World.’ Work is underway on textbooks, emergency programs for mass treatment and psychological rehabilitation,” Dugin said. He also writes that a project for “administrative restructuring” is reportedly ready, and that Ukrainian territories would likely receive a new name. “Most likely these territories will receive a new name. Possibly ‘Old Lands,’” the Kremlin ideologue noted. Dugin has repeatedly amplified Kremlin propaganda. In September 2009, he said Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” had already ended and that a full-scale war between Russia and Western countries had begun. Back in 2006 Kyiv declared Dugin persona non grata for promoting the idea of destroying Ukraine as a state. In August 2022, the Russian outlet RIA Novosti reported that Dugin’s daughter, Darya Dugina, was killed in Moscow. At her funeral, Dugin said his daughter died in the name of “Orthodoxy, the state and Russian victory.”

The situation in Kupyansk and the nearby settlement of Kupyansk-Uzlovoy remains stable and is generally shifting in favor of Ukraine’s Defense Forces. There is currently no threat of the city being captured, as Russian troops have not achieved significant gains on the flanks. According to Ukrainian intelligence, roughly 40 Russian soldiers may be inside Kupyansk, their communications intercepted by signals intelligence, said Viktor Tregubov, head of communications for the Joint Forces grouping. While there may be more Russian troops on the outskirts, their presence inside the city is extremely limited. Tregubov said Russian forward elements in Kupyansk are facing serious supply problems. The only available delivery method is airdropping cargo from drones. In other words, the enemy is dealing with logistical difficulties: for Russian forward groups in Kupyansk, only so-called “air bridges” exist, with everything dropped by UAVs. Even then, assault units struggle to pick up the cargo because Ukrainian drones control the city. At the same time, he noted, it is not easy to dislodge even that number of soldiers from entrenched positions. “Urban combat is a terrifying thing, and in the current situation it’s a two-star task. So the enemy can remain in such positions for quite a while, until they die from drone strikes or from lack of provisions,” he said. After failing to take Kupyansk by direct assault, Russian forces are attempting to bypass the settlement. However, a large ring-shaped area around the district center complicates such maneuvers. “The enemy is trying to press to the east of it, trying to push Ukrainian troops off the left bank of the Oskil River. Not very successfully, but there is real pressure there, serious attempts. Unlike the city itself, getting in there is not especially easy. As for Kupyansk-Uzlovoy, despite Putin’s claims that 15 battalions are encircled there - which physically can’t even fit - the settlement itself is holding and well fortified. But to the east of it, the Russians are trying to push, to break through that way if they can’t do it otherwise,” Tregubov said. He also said that worsening weather - such as heavy fog - could partly help Russian units move covertly. However, under current conditions, it is difficult for them even to approach the city. Fighting continues in Kupyansk between Ukraine’s Armed Forces and Russia’s military. Military observer Bogdan Miroshnikov said that despite the tense situation, conditions for the Russian troops in the city are worse than before.

Russia’s forces are continuing to apply pressure along the Pokrovsk axis, the command of Ukraine’s Air Assault Corps said. The occupying troops are attempting to cut the road between Mirnohrad and neighboring Pokrovsk, creating a risk of an operational encirclement. Units of Russia’s military are steadily moving toward two small settlements northeast of Pokrovsk, in what the 7th Rapid Response Corps of Ukraine’s Air Assault Forces says is an effort to encircle Mirnohrad. “The nature of the enemy’s actions indicates an intention to sever the land route between Mirnohrad and Pokrovsk in the near future. The Russians aim to encircle the city by moving toward the settlements of Rovno and Svetloye,” the statement said. The most active assault operations are being recorded near Krasny Lyman, where Ukrainian air assault units continue to hold back Russian advances. The northern part of the city remains among the most vulnerable, according to the report. Russian forces are attempting to advance in small infantry groups around the clock, actively using drones to adjust routes and locate Ukrainian positions. Ukraine is reinforcing its grouping in the city to defend the southern outskirts, where the enemy is also concentrating personnel for further breakthrough attempts. According to mapping data from the DeepState resource, on November 24 Russian troops had virtually taken control of the villages of Novoekonomicheskoye and Nikolaevka, while almost all territory around Mirnohrad was marked as a “gray zone.” Ukraine’s 7th Corps of the Air Assault Forces released a video showing the capture of Russian assault troops. Northeast of Mirnohrad, service members of the 38th Separate Marine Brigade named after Hetman Petro Sahaidachny detained four Russian soldiers who were attempting to storm the city. Among them were three former convicts mobilized on contract after being released from prison. According to the detainees, before the assault they spent four days in the basement of a building in a nearby settlement. The prisoners claim they were provided with neither food nor water, and that their commanders left them without any support. Earlier, a Ukrainian soldier with the call sign “Muchnoy” wrote about the situation in Pokrovsk. According to him, the city center is under the control of Russia’s Armed Forces, and he called all official statements about stabilizing the situation “babble for kids.”