Translated material
War
One thousand and fifteen days. The Russian Ministry of Defense accidentally disclosed data on how many Russian military personnel are wanted as missing in action in Ukraine - 48 thousand
Since February 24, 2022, Meduza has been broadcasting live about the Russian-Ukrainian war. Our chronicle is published once a day, in which we dwell in detail on several key stories that are affecting the course of the war right now. We also publish your letters in these materials, because we are sure that we need to continue talking about the war. Please share your personal war stories with us. Find the feedback form at the end of this article. You can read the previous day's review here .
World
Trump was offered three options for ending the Russian-Ukrainian war. All of them exclude Ukraine's entry into NATO
US President-elect Donald Trump, who promised to end the Russian-Ukrainian war in 24 hours if he returned to the White House, has not yet assembled a working group to develop a peace plan, Reuters sources say . But his advisers presented three main proposals to resolve the conflict between Moscow and Kyiv.
Keith Kellogg, a contender for the post of US special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, proposed a ceasefire plan based on the “existing front line.” He believes that the United States should threaten Ukraine with the deprivation of military assistance, and Russia, on the contrary, with an increase in American support for Kyiv, if the parties do not begin peace negotiations.
The second plan, from Vice President J.D. Vance, would create a demilitarized zone along the existing front line that would be “heavily fortified” to prevent further Russian incursions. In turn, Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell proposes creating “autonomous regions” in eastern Ukraine.
All three plans agree on one thing - the issue of Ukraine’s membership in NATO should be excluded from the current agenda. This directly contradicts the “victory plan” of Vladimir Zelensky, in which the invitation of Ukraine to NATO is stated as the first point.
The other day, Zelensky said that the “hot phase” of the war can be ended if the Ukrainian territory controlled by Kiev is taken “under the NATO umbrella.” Later he clarified that it is impossible to invite Ukraine into the military alliance partially, without the occupied territories.
Russia
Deputy Minister of Defense (Putin's niece Anna Tsivileva) said that the Ministry of Defense received 48 thousand applications for DNA tests to search for those missing in action during the war
The Russian Ministry of Defense has received 48 thousand applications for DNA testing from relatives of Russian military personnel missing in action during the war in Ukraine. This was stated at a round table in the State Duma by Deputy Minister of Defense and head of the Defenders of the Fatherland state fund Anna Tsivileva, who is Vladimir Putin’s cousin.
This statement was drawn to the attention of a subscriber of the Astra telegram channel, who saved and sent to journalists a recording of the event broadcast. A round table dedicated to “social support measures for SVO participants and their families” was held in the State Duma on November 26. It was broadcast live on the parliament website, but the video recording of the results was not made publicly available.
In a fragment published in the media, Tsivileva says, among other things: “I have already said, we take DNA from relatives, they give it for free. The Ministry of Internal Affairs accepts this from them - absolutely free, it does it at its own expense and also includes in its database all the relatives who contacted us. I already said 48 thousand.”
After these words, the head of the State Duma Committee on Defense, Andrei Kartopolov, asked those gathered not to mention this figure anywhere, since this is “classified information.”
“One moment, colleagues. Here Anna Evgenievna named the numbers, including those who were missing. I kindly ask you not to appear anywhere with these figures. This is classified information and quite sensitive. And when we draw up the final documents, we will also make sure that these numbers don’t appear anywhere,” the deputy said.
To this, Tsivileva replied that she named precisely the number of requests from relatives, and not the statistics of missing persons. “They [relatives] will find many,” she added.
As Astra notes, journalists have previously received complaints that only relatives of military personnel officially declared missing can take DNA tests for free. But this practice does not apply in all regions of the Russian Federation.
According to the publication “Verstka”, in 2024, Russian regions spent 182.9 million rubles on the purchase of reagents and equipment to identify unidentified bodies, including participants in the war in Ukraine. This amount has almost doubled compared to 2023. Similar purchases were carried out in at least 18 Russian regions, most of which are leaders in the number of deaths in the war, the publication calculated.
The Russian Ministry of Defense does not officially disclose data on dead, wounded and missing military personnel in the war in Ukraine. The Mediazona and BBC Russian Service publications, together with a team of volunteers using open sources, identified the names of at least 80,973 Russian military personnel who died in the Russian-Ukrainian war since the start of hostilities in February 2022.
Ukraine
The mayor of the Ukrainian city of Dneproprudnoye, Evgeniy Matveev, died in Russian captivity.
The death of Evgeny Matveev was announced by the head of the military administration of the Zaporozhye region, Ivan Fedorov. The Russian army captured the city of Dneproprudnoe at the beginning of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. At the same time, the Russian military kidnapped the mayor of the city. Matveev spent two years and eight months in Russian captivity. The mayor's body was returned to Ukraine in the last exchange in late November, when Russia handed over 502 bodies to Ukraine.
“Evgeniy Sergeevich was a true patriot, not indifferent to the fate of his country and his community. He always worked with people and for people, listened and helped everyone who needed it. He was strong-willed and principled. During the occupation, he did not leave either the city or the people, did everything to ensure the life of the community, constantly informed the population about the progress of events and supported them,” writes Fedorov.
War through the eyes of Meduza readers
Natalia (Odessa) . For our family, the war began in 2014. We left for 10-15 days, but it turned out to be forever. Life in a new place began from scratch, since the property remained in the occupied territory. But they found the strength to organize their lives, although the trauma remained forever.
In 2022, we decided not to leave. We don’t want to live with an outstretched hand in a foreign country, looking for work somewhere. Here you can also realize yourself, make an effort!
I remember in 2014 we were looking for housing in Italy. A wonderful place, wonderful people, sun and sea, we admired the roses near one house. An old man sitting next to us asked us why we left our homeland? And he said: we also had wars, there were juntas, houses were destroyed, and we rebuilt them and planted roses.
I felt ashamed. I remember these words forever, so I will walk this path with my country, I will restore houses and plant roses.
And the slogan “We will not forget - we will not forgive,” which is hung throughout the occupied territory, is not Christian. We must learn to live in peace even with the burden of memory. The fact that we are reading your publication is proof of this.
Why did this section appear?
Meduza talks about the war every day - but we are sure that reports from the front, photographs of destruction, reports of shelling and news about politicians’ attempts to agree on something alone are not enough. The story of the war is incomplete without the stories of the people whose destinies it affected, and without their opinions about what was happening.
Tell us and our readers what you think about the latest events unfolding in and around the war. We will publish some of your letters.
Please also share with us your thoughts about our new format of military chronicles. Tell us what topics you think are especially important right now. Explain what journalists don't see and what gets lost in the news. Thank you!