Members of the pro-Ukrainian partisan group Atesh say they sabotaged railway equipment in Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia this weekend. It comes amid reports that a power plant in Odesa was damaged by Russian drones overnight. Follow the latest and watch this week’s Ukraine Q&A below.
Sunday 16 November 2025 09:43, UK
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Finland’s President Alexander Stubb says he’s “not very optimistic” that peace talks will begin in Ukraine this year, but says it would be good to “get something going” by March.
Speaking to the Associated Press, Stubb said European leaders and US President Donald Trump must maximize pressure on Russia and Vladimir Putin to change his strategic thinking.
Putin “basically wants to deny the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine,” aims that have not altered since the war began nearly four years ago, Stubb said.
He suggested using tools such as the hundreds of billions of dollars in frozen Russian assets held in Europe as collateral to fund Ukraine, as well as increasing military pressure on Moscow.
Stubb praised Trump for sanctioning the major Russian energy companies in October, saying he did “an excellent job,” but argued more must be done to give Ukraine the capacity to hit Russia’s “military or defence industry”.
Looking at Europe as a whole, Stubb said Russia is now conducting a hybrid war across the continent.
“The line between war and peace has been blurred,” he said, adding that Russia is trying to destabilise Europe and “cause havoc and panic,” with attacks including arson, vandalism and propaganda.
Members of the pro-Ukrainian partisan group Atesh say they sabotaged railway equipment in Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia this weekend.
Atesh operatives set fire to a relay cabinet on a key section of the railway near Novobohdanivka in the Melitopol district, only 31 miles from the front line, the group said.
The sabotage operation “instantly stopped the movement of the occupiers’ military trains,” the group wrote on Telegram, adding images which it said showed the attack taking place.
With the disrupted railway line so close to the front line, Ukrainian forces were able to target the blocked trains with a “precise missile and artillery strike,” Atesh said.
Sky News could not verify these claims at the time of publication.
For context: The Atesh movement regularly commits sabotage attacks on Russian territory and in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine.
In October, partisans reported a sabotage operation against railway infrastructure in Russia’s Rostov region. The group said it destroyed a traffic control cabinet, delaying the transport of military personnel and supplies to the front.
Ukraine’s air force says 177 drones and missiles were launched at the country by Russia overnight.
It says 138 drones were shot down, while 37 drones hit targets at 14 different locations, with the fragments of two other drones also causing damage.
“The attack continues, new groups of enemy drones are in the airspace,” the air force warns.
Russian air defence systems destroyed 57 Ukrainian drones overnight, the TASS news agency reports, citing Russian defence ministry data.
Moscow does not publish details of the total number of drones and missiles launched by Ukraine – only the number it shoots down.
Kyiv has expanded its strikes inside Russia during 2025, striking several energy sites that play a key role in fuelling Moscow’s war machine.
Ukraine’s army said yesterday it struck a Russian oil refinery in the Ryazan region near Moscow, as “part of efforts to reduce the enemy’s ability to launch missile and bomb strikes”.
Ukraine is working to resume the exchange of prisoners with Russia, hoping for the release of 1,200 Ukrainians.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy said “many meetings, negotiations and calls are now devoted” to achieving this.
Rustem Umerov, Ukraine’s security chief, said yesterday that he had held consultations in Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, with the support of Kyiv’s partners, on resuming the process of exchanges.
“As a result of these negotiations, the parties agreed to return to the Istanbul agreements,” he said, referring to the prisoner-exchange understandings brokered by Turkey in 2022, setting out rules for large prisoner swaps between Russia and Ukraine.
Thousands of prisoners have been released under the agreement, though these have been sporadic and often disrupted by frontline escalation.
Umerov said that consultations would take place in the near future to decide the procedural and organisational details of the process.
“We are working without pause so that Ukrainians who are to return from captivity can celebrate New Year and Christmas at home – at the family table and with their loved ones.”
There was no immediate comment from Moscow to Ukraine’s statements.
An overnight Russian drone attack in Ukraine’s southern Odesa region sparked fires at energy infrastructure facilities, officials said.
Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said firefighters quickly extinguished the blaze and no casualties or injuries were reported.
A solar power plant was also damaged during the attack, it added.
The report comes after Volodymyr Zelenskyy earlier announced a deal with Greece on a new route for gas supplies, helping compensate for the losses caused by Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure (see last post).
Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Ukraine and Greece have agreed on a new route for gas supplies, helping compensate for the losses caused by Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
“This will be another route for gas supply – to maximise the security of import routes for Ukraine during winter,” the president said in a video released this morning.
He says the deal will provide nearly €2bn (around £1.76bn) needed to compensate for Ukrainian gas production losses brought on by Russian attacks.
Kyiv and Athens have also made agreements on financing gas imports, Zelenskyy added.
The gas deal comes as Russia continues to batter Ukrainian cities and energy infrastructure as part of a campaign to plunge the country into darkness and cold ahead of winter.
Good morning and welcome back to our live coverage of the war in Ukraine.
This morning, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has announced Ukraine and Greece have agreed on a new route for gas supplies.
It comes as Russia continues to target Ukraine’s energy infrastructure as part of its campaign to plunge the country into darkness and cold ahead of winter. Officials report a solar power plant was damaged during overnight strikes in Odesa.
Zelenskyy also says Ukraine is working towards an exchange of prisoners with Moscow, hoping for the release of 1,200 Ukrainians.
We’ll bring you more on those stories, plus reports of overnight drone attacks and the latest from the battlefield, right here in the live blog, so stay tuned.
That’s all for now of our live coverage of the war in Ukraine.
We’ll be back soon, but before we go, here’s a rundown of the day’s developments:
Earlier tonight, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has released his nightly address. We’ll summarise some of the key points here:
‘Protect the sky’
“Last night, Patriots performed well, successfully intercepting Russian ballistic missiles,” the Ukrainian leader said of Russia’s overnight attacks.
However, he warned the country still needs more support – even with its own Neptune missiles (see our 8.54 post) doing well.
“Russia will find it harder and harder to turn a blind eye to this war,” he added.
He also said the following places were facing the “greatest” threats: Chernihiv region, Sumy region, Kharkiv and the surrounding region, Donetsk region, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipro region and Kherson and the surrounding region.
‘Special solutions’, ‘human safaris’ and Magyar’s Birds
But in spite of the Russian attacks, Ukraine is preparing “special solutions” to help its fight, Zelenskyy said.
Part of this seems to be the deployment of Magyar’s Birds – a specialised Ukrainian drone division – to new parts of the fighting.
Zelenskyy also claimed Russia is “organising human safaris” in training drone operators to kill “Ukrainians on the streets”. But he offered no more information on this.
Diplomacy as usual…
Zelenskyy also thanked the Baltic and Nordic countries that committed another $500m to the PURL initiative, and said a “major deal” with France will be finalised soon.
He also outlined agreements with other nations to keep Ukraine powered through the winter.
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