From: Transform Ukraine By Douglas Landro / November 26, 2025
While seven died in Kyiv’s rubble and Russian drones crossed into NATO territory, Trump’s peace negotiators met in Abu Dhabi to discuss Ukraine’s future—but Moscow’s missiles made clear that Russia negotiates with weapons, not words.
The Day’s Reckoning
The first Kinzhal missile hit Kyiv at 6:47 a.m., punching through the predawn darkness with hypersonic precision. Then another. Then Iskanders rising from ground launchers. Then Kalibrs spinning off naval platforms. Then the drones—250 of them humming through the night sky with their distinctive whine.
Seven people died before breakfast.
In Abu Dhabi’s climate-controlled conference rooms, U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll sat across from Ukraine’s intelligence chief and Russian negotiators, discussing the mathematical reduction of Ukraine’s future. The peace plan that had started at twenty-eight points was down to nineteen. Each deletion presumably represented compromise. Each missile that struck Kyiv’s apartment buildings suggested otherwise.
The Ukrainian Air Force intercepted 438 drones, one Kinzhal, five Iskander-Ks, three Iskander-Ms, five Kalibrs. An extraordinary defensive performance that still left twenty-six weapons on target and debris raining across twelve locations. In the Dniprovskyi district, firefighters pulled an 86-year-old woman from rubble as flames consumed five floors of her apartment building. In Sviatoshynskyi, a follow-on strike killed four more while rescue workers were still searching for survivors from the overnight assault.
Russia’s negotiating technique: discuss concessions while tightening the noose.
The timing wasn’t coincidental. While Vadym Tupchii—stage designer, prop maker, contributor to Ukrainian comedy television—died in the rubble, diplomats argued over whether Ukraine’s post-war army should number 600,000 or 800,000 soldiers. While the Novus supermarket chain’s only logistics hub burned and four truck drivers died during routine unloading operations, Steve Witkoff prepared for his Moscow trip to meet Putin, having already told Russian officials in October: “I know what it’s going to take to get a peace deal done: Donetsk and maybe a land swap somewhere.”
Over 102,000 Ukrainians woke without power. Rolling blackouts would begin the next day.
Day 1,371. Violence and diplomacy happening simultaneously, in parallel universes that occasionally collided when missiles interrupted the mathematics of peace plans.
Dawn’s Catalog of Destruction
Four Kh-47M2 Kinzhal missiles launched from MiG-31K fighters. Three Iskander-M ballistics rising from ground launchers. Eight Kalibr cruise missiles spinning off naval platforms. Seven Iskander-K missiles tracing programmed paths. And approximately 250 Shahed drones humming through predawn darkness with their distinctive engine whine.
The Ukrainian Air Force intercepted one Kinzhal—hypersonic missiles aren’t supposed to be interceptable. They stopped three Iskander-Ms, five Iskander-Ks, five Kalibrs, and 438 drones. An extraordinary defensive performance that would have seemed miraculous in any previous war.
It wasn’t enough.
In Kyiv’s Dniprovskyi district, a nine-story residential building erupted in flames at 6:47 a.m. Firefighters pulled an 86-year-old woman from the rubble, her body joining another victim as the fire consumed five floors with the voracity that only modern building materials achieve when ignited by military-grade explosives. In Pecherskyi, multiple apartment buildings absorbed blast patterns and ignited, morning light revealing the characteristic signatures of high-explosive warheads against structures built for living, not surviving.
Then came the follow-on strike.
Voice of Ukraine 