Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán with Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin, November 28, 2025
EA-War and Politics 24 VideoCast: Ukraine — Why Is Trump In Putin’s Pocket?
Tuesday’s Coverage: Easing Sanctions on Russia, Trump Speaks With Putin
UPDATE 0943 GMT:
At least four civilians were murdered and 16 injured by a Russian strike on the city of Sloviansk in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine.
Donetsk Governor Vadym Filashkin said Russia dropped three guided bombs on the city. A 14-year-old girl is among those wounded.
UPDATE 0936 GMT:
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky says Ukrainian forces struck a plant producing missile components in the Bryansk region in western Russia on Tursday.
Ukraine’s military said British Storm Shadow missiles were used against the Kremniy El factory.
Bryansk Governor Alexander Bogomaz, said six people were killed and 37 injured.
UPDATE 0836 GMT:
The UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry has reaffirmed that Russia’s abduction and deportation of thousands of Ukrainian children is a crime against humanity.
The Inquiry cited evidence that “Russian authorities have committed the crimes against humanity of deportation and forcible transfer, as well as of enforced disappearance of children”.
The investigators have confirmed 1,205 of the thousands of children seized. They added, “Four years on, 80% of the children deported or transferred in the cases investigated by the commission have not returned.”
Ukrainian officials say they have established almost 20,000 cases of deportation.
ORIGINAL ENTRY: Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has denounced Hungary’s “banditry” with the seizure of 9 kg of gold, worth around $82 million, and $40 million in cash.
The shipment was seized last week by Hungarian authorities as it was being transported by road through the country. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, an ally of Vladimir Putin, ordered that it be held in custody for up to 60 days while his country’s tax authority investigates the case for money laundering.
Facing Parliamentary elections in April and a serious challenge to his 16 years of rule, Orban has taken a hardline stance against any assistance to Ukraine amid Russia’s 4-year full-scale invasion.
Hungary is blocking completion of the European Union’s €90 billion ($104.5 billion) loan to Ukraine, approved in December, and the 20th set of sanctions against Russia. Budapest and Slovakia are also threatening punishment of Kyiv over the shutdown of the Druzhba oil pipeline from Russia, damaged in late January by Moscow’s strikes on western Ukraine.
Zelensky urged European leaders not to stay silent about Hungary’s action.
On Monday, the President said:
We hope that a certain person will not block the €90bn in the EU, or its first tranche, and that Ukrainian soldiers will receive the weapons.
Otherwise, we will pass this man’s address to the armed forces — let them call him and speak to him in their own language.
