WarFronts Weekly 11.28.2025: Friday Blitz.

28.11.2025

Russification Efforts Increase in the Donbas:

As Ukraine and Russia exchange mutually unacceptable amendments on the United States’ controversial peace plan, Russia has announced new measures to extend its social and cultural control over its occupied territories in Ukraine’s Donbas region.

In a new set of orders signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin this Tuesday, Russian authorities in the Donbas are directed to increase the number of people in occupied regions who identify as Russian , and who speak the Russian language . Per the orders, 95% of people in occupied territory are expected to identify as Russian by 2036.

In the Donbas region, Russian self-identification is a mandatory measure , signaled by acceptance of a Russian-issued passport and other papers—which, in turn, entitle a person to access the occupation government’s pension programs and healthcare system. In these parts of the Donbas, where many people still living in the territory are elderly people who were unable or unwilling to leave their homes during Russia’s conquests, access to those services make the difference in averting poverty, protracted illness, and even death.

The orders are the latest acts by the Donbas occupation to “ strengthen overall Russian civic identity ”, but they are far from the only recent measures applied in the region. As Russia works to strengthen its annexation claims to the territory, and ensure that the entirety of the Donbas territory is guaranteed to Russia under the auspices of a peace deal , it’s intensified its efforts to demonstrate the “ Russian-ness ” of Donetsk and Luhansk.

Over the last several weeks, Russian authorities have invested in building new war-tourism attractions, strengthening “patriotic education” youth programs, and expanding the role of the Russian Orthodox Church, especially in youth-outreach efforts. Young people have been placed into compulsory psychiatric care with growing regularity, as punishment for perceived anti-Russian or pro-Ukrainian sentiment, as social resources have been redirected to privilege Russian war veterans, who receive consistent help in settling on large land tracts on occupied soil. Ukrainian children in occupied territory are regularly offered sponsored trips to Russia, and are offered membership in battalions that engage in drone and tactical training.

Around the World:

General Horta Inta-A Na Man was sworn in as Guinea-Bissau’s transitional president, marking him as the leader of a new military junta that took power in the country on Wednesday. Both the nation’s now-former president, Umaro Sissoco Embalo, and his opposition rival were initially placed in military custody, and the country is in a state of partial lockdown. Embalo has since been sent to Senegal, after Senegalese intervention.

A Ukrainian attack on an airfield in Russia’s Taganrog destroyed a one-of-a-kind target , the Beriev A-60, at the Beriev company’s local repair facilities. The A-60 is an airborne testbed for directed-energy weapons, and although it’s not known to have flown recently, it represents a major, now-destroyed investment of Russian research-and-development resources.

An Afghan immigrant shot and critically wounded two US National Guard troops in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, in what city law enforcement called an “ ambush ”. The suspect, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, was a former member of the Kandahar Strike Force, a CIA-affiliated Afghan fighting force that operated alongside US special operators before the 2021 US withdrawal. Lakanwal’s asylum claim had been reviewed and granted this year. One of the targeted National Guard members has since died.

Sudan’s major fighting factions, the SAF and the RSF, appear to each be building up supply lines and surging troops to central Sudan, in preparation for what may be a final showdown in the city of El-Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan State. While El-Obeid will not decide full control of the nation, either side can capture decisive momentum with a clear victory, and may be able to dictate favorable terms in a national partition.

The governor of Yemen’s non-Houthi-controlled Taiz province, Nabil Shamsan, narrowly escaped assassination on Monday, in an attack that left at least five of his bodyguards dead. The ambush took place on a road that connects Taiz to the rest of the territory controlled by the internationally recognized Yemeni government, and represents a likely renewal of Houthi interests in Taiz, which has held out against Houthi conquest for nearly a decade under continuous blockade.

An Israeli raid in the southern Syrian village of Beit Jinn left ten people dead, in one of Israel’s deadliest ground operations in Syria since the fall of Assad. The raid targeted alleged militants loyal to Jaama Islamiya, the armed wing of a Lebanese political party; dozens were injured in the targeted village, due to Israeli shelling.

Also in Yemen, a Houthi-controlled high court in Sanaa issued seventeen death sentences for people convicted of spying for the American, Israeli, British, and Saudi governments, with those sentences expected to be meted out by public firing squad. The truth of the allegations against those defendants is unclear, but it’s not likely that any foreign government will be able to intercede on their behalf.

Far from the Congo’s war-torn eastern regions, a land dispute in a village northeast of Kinshasa left fourteen people dead in intercommunal violence. A group of local insurgents launched an attack on the village and engaged in a gun battle with a small detachment of soldiers from a nearby outpost, in the latest indication of growing security gaps nearer to the Congolese leadership’s center of power.

A rocket attack impacted a storage tank at one of Iraqi Kurdistan’s largest gas fields, Khor Mor, forcing a shutdown of local gas production. A perpetrator in the attack has not yet been named, but Iran-backed militant groups are thought to be responsible. Oil production and overall energy exports have not yet been impacted.

A large explosion in the town of Kafr Takharim, in Syria’s Idlib Province, left at least five people dead and nine others wounded on Wednesday. The explosion was blamed on work at a site near a warehouse ammunition depot, where missiles and ammunition were being stored. This is the second explosion of this kind in Idlib within four months.

In the wake of several recent mass kidnappings and massacres, Nigerian President Bola Tinubu has ordered the recruiting of tens of thousands of new army and police personnel, under a newly imposed state of nationwide security emergency. Tinubu will also work to encourage the establishment of state-by-state police forces, normalize the use of security personnel at religious gatherings, and disarm semi-nomadic herding communities.

In Pakistan, opposition leaders and activists are raising alarms about the health of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, who has not been allowed to see his family or lawyers in several weeks. While Pakistani officials claim Khan is in good health, unfounded rumors of his death have already led to clashes outside the prison where he is being held.

Ugandan opposition leaders claimed on Tuesday that the country’s security forces have detained over 300 party officials and supporters within the last month, after the start of a nationwide presidential campaign that pits opposition leader Bobi Wine against 81-year-old President Yoweri Museveni.

Russia continued its overtures to the nation of Togo , with Togolese President Faure Gnassingbe meeting Putin in Moscow last week. Russia has long been in search of reliable African partners on the Atlantic coast, and have found a willing accomplice in Gnassingbe, who appears to be working to cement his hold on the presidency.

The early fallout from the Dubai crash of India’s Tejas light fighter became clear this week, after Armenia suspended negotiations to purchase twelve copies of the Tejas in what would have been India’s first export deal for the jet. As of now, Armenia’s bid is the only known effort to take the Tejas out of India.

In a report to Sweden’s government submitted this week, the Swedish Armed Forces called for Stockholm to purchase long-range cruise missiles , with a specific range of up to 2,000 kilometers. Those weapons would allow Sweden to target enemy installations deep behind enemy lines—a capability that would serve Sweden well, in a future war against Russia. Stockholm and Moscow are roughly 1,000 kilometers apart.

Poland announced that it will purchase three copies of Sweden’s advanced A26 submarine , a diesel-electric model, to support the Polish Navy. The A26 is a major improvement for Warsaw, not just because it replaces an old and unreliable Soviet model, the Kilo , but because Poland will purchase a trio of subs to replace its single Kilo vessel. We’ve explored the modernization of the Polish Navy further, on Fronts.co .

France unveiled a new voluntary youth military service program , open to 18- and 19-year-olds, in which up to 3,000 volunteers will be paid for a ten-month term in 2026. France aims to include 10,000 volunteers per year in the program by 2030, with the hope that a high proportion of participants will either serve as reservists or remain in the armed services following the end of their ten months. French polling data suggests that the country’s youth are largely in support of the program.

The Franco-German FCAS sixth-generation fighter jet program appears to have some life left in it, as Berlin and Paris urge industry leaders to come to terms on the project by mid-December. The FCAS initiative has been blighted by wide-ranging disagreements between Airbus and Dassault, and is at risk of collapse if compromise is impossible.

Turkey announced the start of construction on a new naval air defense destroyer vessel, as part of the nation’s ongoing effort to build a layered “ steel dome ” air-defense shield. The ship, known as the TF-2000, will be the first of its line, and will likely become an export offering as Turkey works to compete with rising export rival South Korea on the sea.

The daughter of former South African President Jacob Zuma is under investigation in her home country, over allegations that she enticed seventeen men to Russia under false pretenses, only for those men to be forcibly conscripted to fight against Ukraine. Per investigators, efforts to repatriate the men are underway now.

Peace & Progress:

Kurdish disarmament efforts in Turkey continue to progress, with Turkish legislators traveling to visit imprisoned Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan for the first time. According to the nation’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Ocalan may be allowed to address the nation’s legislative bodies, in a major softening of Turkey’s stance toward him.

International Criminal Court prosecutors are seeking justice for the victims of a suspected Central African Republic militia leader, Mahamat Said Abdel Kani, who allegedly ran a prison and oversaw the torture of suspected supporters of the nation’s former president, Francois Bozize.

Myanmar’s military junta released and granted mass amnesty to a cumulative 8,500 political prisoners this week, in advance of an upcoming set of elections in regime-controlled territory. While the releases will most likely focus on low-level activists, and are an apparent attempt to legitimize the regime’s vote and boost turnout, it’s still a rare reprieve for Myanmar’s beleaguered dissidents.

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