Overview
- Moscow daily Moskovsky Komsomolets reported the thwarted assassination at Troyekurovskoye cemetery was aimed at Security Council secretary Sergei Shoigu, after the FSB said it foiled a Ukrainian-directed plot against a senior official.
- Russia’s Defense Ministry released footage from Kupyansk showing troops sweeping basements and utility spaces in the Zapadnaya‑Vtoraya district and said drone operators recently struck a group of Ukrainian soldiers near the Oskil River.
- Field commanders said Ukrainian units in Rog, Donetsk region, were left almost without communications during the settlement’s capture, and an assault leader described offering surrenders before using force in Yablokovo, Zaporizhzhia.
- Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia will not be represented at Ukraine-related talks in Istanbul on November 19, reiterated openness to talks, and argued France’s Rafale and SAMP‑T plans for Kyiv would not alter the battlefield.
- After NABU and SAP launched the 'Midas' energy corruption case, an EU commissioner warned graft undermines rule of law in candidate countries, and Russia’s Rosfinmonitoring added opposition figures Mikhail Kasyanov, Sergei Guriev and Kirill Martynov to its terrorist and extremist lists.