Russia, Ukraine Trade Air Attacks As US-Mediated Talks Fail To Break Diplomatic Deadlock

Russia and Ukraine continued to trade air attacks on November 15, days after a flurry of diplomatic activity mediated by the United States yielded no breakthrough in efforts to bring peace closer.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on X that Russian forces attacked at least nine regions overnight, targeting energy, civilian, and railway infrastructure in some of them and injuring at least 16 people.

In the city of Chornomorsk, in Ukraine's southern Odesa region, local resident Khrystyna told RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service that she has "nowhere to live" following the strikes, with parts of her apartment damaged or destroyed.

"Everything is in ruins," she said while clearing debris at the scene of the aftermath. "Our balcony has been destroyed.... Nothing is left of it. All the windows have been blown out, all the doors destroyed."

The aftermath of Russian strikes in Chornomorsk

Zelenskyy said that Russia had launched more than 2,300 drones, 1,590 guided aerial bombs, and 15 missiles of various types against Ukraine over the previous week.

"Many of these strikes," he added, were getting through Ukraine's air defenses because of restrictions on Kyiv's use of SpaceX's Starshield satellite communications system, regarded as crucial to defending against drone attacks.

The issue has left Ukraine's energy facilities particularly vulnerable, the Ukrainian president said, as restrictions have prevented the country's interceptor drones from maintaining contact with their operators at speeds exceeding 161 kilometers per hour.

Since the beginning of its full-scale invasion, Russia has repeatedly exploited cold weather to intensify its attacks, leaving thousands of Ukrainians without heat or electricity in an effort to pressure Kyiv into accepting its hard-line demands for peace.

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This year, however, Ukraine has increasingly responded with attacks of its own, targeting infrastructure inside Russia that it says fuels Moscow's war effort.

On November 15, Ukraine's General Staff said it had targeted a petrochemical plant and an oil refinery in the city of Nizhnekamsk, in Russia's oil-rich republic of Tatarstan, more than 800 kilometers from the front line, as well as a manufacturing plant in the Bryansk region that produces aircraft.

Videos circulating on social media appeared to show a large fire at an industrial facility in Nizhnekamsk. The footage has not been independently verified.

Local authorities confirmed that Nizhnekamsk had come under drone attack, saying that facilities in the city's industrial zone had been damaged. The city's mayor, Radmir Belyaev, also reported damage to a residential building. Three people were injured, according to regional health authorities.

Russia's Defense Ministry said its air defenses had shot down 533 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions and occupied Crimea overnight. The claim could not be independently verified.

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The latest attacks came after the conclusion of trilateral talks involving US, Russian, and Ukrainian representatives in Abu Dhabi on November 10-11.

Following the talks, US President Donald Trump's diplomatic envoys, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, held separate meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Zelenskyy.