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Belarus pardons 31 Ukrainians under Lukashenko-Trump pact
Belarus, a close Russian ally, pardoned 31 Ukrainian citizens, state TV said on Saturday, as part of an agreement between President Alexander Lukashenko and US counterpart Donald Trump.
Trump has pushed Belarus to free political prisoners in contacts with Lukashenko, who has ruled since 1994 and stamped out free media and political opposition. In exchange, Washington has partly lifted sanctions on Belarus’s state carrier Belavia, allowing it to service and buy parts for its fleet, which includes Boeing aircraft.
“The president has pardoned 31 Ukrainian citizens who committed criminal offences on the territory of our country,” Lukashenko’s spokesperson Natalia Eismont told state TV, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The pardon, which was requested by Ukraine, was a result of “the agreements reached between US President Donald Trump and President of the Republic of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko,” she said.
The move was aimed at “creating conditions for the settlement of the armed conflict in the neighbouring state,” the spokesperson added, referring to the war in Ukraine.
The Ukrainians, who were not identified, are being handed over to Kyiv “right now,” according to Eismont.
Belarus has typically charged people who oppose or criticise the government with “extremism”, meting out years-long prison sentences. It was not immediately clear what the freed Ukrainians had been charged with, reports AFP.
Earlier, Lukashenko had freed dozens of political prisoners, including prominent dissidents, journalists and clerics. There were more than 1,000 political prisoners still remaining in Belarusian prisons, according to rights groups.
The Russian defence ministry said on Saturday that its forces had captured two villages in eastern Ukraine.
It said Russian forces had taken control of the village of Zvanivka in Ukraine’s Donetsk region as well as the settlement of Nove Zaporizhzhia in the Zaporizhizhia region.
Reuters could not independently verify battlefield reports.
UK prime minister Keir Starmer will not visit Washington next week, it is understood, amid reports that European leaders are considering visiting Donald Trump to discuss his Ukraine peace plan, reports the PA news agency.
France’s Emmanuel Macron, Germany’s Friedrich Merz and Italy’s Giorgia Meloni are among the leaders who are considering a trip, Sky News reported citing European diplomatic sources. But it is understood the UK was not involved in such discussions.
Ukrainians are struggling against the Russian assault on its power network, reports Luke Harding in Chernihiv. Residents there have told him how they are without power for 14 hours a day as they gather in “invincibility points” to charge up and warm up.
You can read his full report here:
Two people killed in Ukraine drone attack on energy facilities in Russia's Samara region, governor says
A Ukrainian drone attack targeted energy facilities in Russia’s Samara region, killing two people in the southern city of Syzran, the region’s governor said on Saturday.
The attack was repelled by air defence forces, Vyacheslav Fedorishchev wrote on Russia’s state-backed Max messenger app, reports Reuters.
Two more people were injured and were receiving medical care, the governor said.
Jakub Krupa
In case you missed Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s reaction to the call yesterday with western allies including France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, Germany’s chancellor, Friedrich Merz, and the UK’s Keir Starmer, here is a post from my colleague Jakub Krupa:
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has posted his reaction to the call too, thanking the leaders for their “principled support for Ukraine and for all our people”.
He says the leaders “appreciate the efforts of the US, president Trump and his team aimed at ending this war,” and are working on the US document.
“This must be a plan that ensures a real and dignified peace,” he says, adding – again, pointedly – that the four leaders want to ensure that Ukraine’s “principled positions are taken into account.”
“We coordinated the next steps and agreed that our teams will work together at the corresponding levels,” he said.
Ukraine's allies to meet at G20 summit to 'strengthen' US plan as Zelenskyy says his country faces impossible choice
UK prime minister Keir Starmer is expected to meet Ukraine’s allies at the Johannesburg G20 summit on Saturday to seek to “strengthen” a US-drafted plan to end the war with Russia.
It comes as Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Friday that Ukraine faces one of the most difficult moments in its history, after Donald Trump demanded Kyiv accepts within days a US-backed “peace plan” that would force it to give up territory to Russia and make other painful concessions.
Western allies including France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, Germany’s chancellor, Friedrich Merz, and the UK’s Keir Starmer spoke to Zelenskyy on Friday in a show of solidarity. They reaffirmed their support for Kyiv and said any agreement to end the conflict had to be genuinely fair and take into account Ukraine’s own red lines.
The US president is pursuing an “aggressive timeline” to end the conflict, US officials indicated, and intends to heap unprecedented pressure on Kyiv. Trump confirmed on Friday morning that next Thursday – Thanksgiving in the US – would be an “acceptable” deadline for Zelenskyy to sign the deal, which European and Ukrainian officials have said amounts to a “capitulation”.
Trump is also threatening to cut vital intelligence sharing and weapons supplies for Ukraine if it fails to agree, reports suggest.
We will bring you updates from the meeting at the G20 summit, plus other Ukraine-Russia news as it comes in.
Here are some other key developments:
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Vladimir Putin says Ukraine is being unrealistic if it does not accept the US plan to end the war, declaring: “Ukraine is against it. Apparently, Ukraine and its European allies are still under illusions and dream of inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia on the battlefield”. The positive response from the Russian president adds weight to the views of European and Ukrainian officials that the deal amounts to a “capitulation”.
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Volodymyr Zelenskyy has reacted to the deal by saying Ukraine faces one of the most difficult moments in its history. Agreeing to the US-Russian plan, which would force it to give up territory and make other painful concessions, could leave Ukraine “without freedom, dignity and justice”, Zelenskyy said in a sombre 10-minute speech outside the presidential palace on Friday.
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EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has warned that how the Ukraine war ends matters. She said: “Russia’s war against Ukraine is an existential threat to Europe. We all want this war to end. But how it ends matters. Russia has no legal right whatsoever to any concessions from the country it invaded. Ultimately, the terms of any agreement are for Ukraine to decide.”
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A Ukrainian drone attack targeted energy facilities in Russia’s Samara region, killing two people in the southern city of Syzran, the region’s governor said on Saturday. The attack was repelled by air defence forces, Vyacheslav Fedorishchev wrote on Russia’s state-backed Max messenger app.
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US officials and lawmakers are increasingly concerned about a meeting last month in which representatives of the Trump administration met Kirill Dmitriev, a Russian envoy who is under US. sanctions, to draft a plan to end the war in Ukraine, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter. The meeting took place in Miami at the end of October and included special envoy Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and Dmitriev, who leads the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), one of Russia’s largest sovereign wealth funds.
