Hungarian Parliament Speaker: West’s Push to Turn Ukraine Into Anti-Russian Bridgehead is ‘Mistake’

Hungarian Parliament speaker Laszlo Kover has lashed out against Western governments’ “hypocritical” behavior in Ukraine, and warned that the West’s attempts to pry Kiev out of Russia’s orbit and turn it into an armed base against Russia has proven to be a “strategic mistake.”

💬 “I think the Western world made a strategic mistake when it tried to not only take Ukraine out of Moscow’s sphere of interest, but also turn it into a large military base against Russia,” Kover said in a broad ranging interview with a Hungarian radio station on Tuesday.

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Volodymyr Zelensky would not be going to the US for a visit amid the ongoing conflict at home if there were no signs of US support weakening, former White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said on Wednesday.

She expressed confidence that Zelensky will see "many well deserved standing ovations" during his address to the US Congress later in the day. The former spokeswoman also called the visit a "sales pitch to Congress and public."

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📍Russia’s special operation in Ukraine: Check out Sputnik’s new interactive map for daily updates on the situation on the front lines

⚡Biden directs drawdown of up to $1Bln in defense articles for Ukraine, White House announces

❗US Senate confirms Lynne Tracy's nomination as ambassador to Russia

⚡ US announces $1.85Bln in new military aid for Ukraine, including Patriot system, Blinken says

⚡Russian Foreign Ministry summons French ambassador to protest Foreign Minister Colonna's statement on assassination attempt on head of Russian House in Central African Republic

❗️The office of the Red Cross in Donetsk has been hit by shelling for the third time in recent days, with the attack damaging the building and several vehicles, according to the latest ICRC press release.

The ICRC strongly condemned the shelling of their office and called for “respect of the humanitarian space.”

Authorities in Donetsk, which became part of Russia on September 30, have said repeatedly that Ukrainian forces shell civilian infrastructure in the region on a regular basis.

US Oil Stockpiles Tumble as Fuel Demand Jumps Amid Holiday Travel, Package Delivery

Crude inventories fell by 5.894 million barrels for the week ended December 16, versus a drawdown of 10.231 million during the previous week to December 9, the EIA said in its Weekly Petroleum Status Report. Analysts polled by US media had expected a smaller drawdown of 1.657M barrels for last week.

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Zelensky’s DC Christmas Visit Meant to Evoke Churchill, Comes at End of Scrutiny-Free Aid: Experts

💬 “Ever since Winston Churchill came to the US for Christmas after the attack on December 7, 1941 at Pearl Harbor, foreign leaders have felt this time of the year was a good time. Like Churchill, Zelensky is coming to make future plans and to say 'Thank You' for past aid. The timing is good, the president has just survived a midterm election referendum and Congress is in the last days of its session,” Professor David Woodard, Clemson University political scientist and former political consultant for Republican congressmen, told Sputnik.

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💬 “This is not some right wing trope. Big tech works with the Democrats. They're an arm of the Democratic Party, and that's a problem. So I don't have a problem with this coming out. I worry about people, liberals who say, oh, it's nothingburger, there's nothing here, you already knew this. I'm glad that we know that it's official and we know how this is done,” says Margaret Kimberley, an editor and senior columnist at Black Agenda Report.

🎧 Listen to more of Kimberley’s analysis in our podcast: Jan 6 Criminal Referrals for Trump, Fed Budget Agreement Reached

📹 Russian Grad MLRS in action as part of the special military operation in Ukraine (video courtesy of Russia’s MoD)

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'There Can't Be Any Just Peace': Zelensky Urges Biden to Up Ukraine Aid in First Joint Presser

At a joint press conference with US President Joe Biden at the White House Wednesday, Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky claimed “there can’t be any just peace” in Ukraine, pressuring the US government to provide even more weapons and cash to his notoriously-corrupt regime in Kiev.

Zelensky offered “all my appreciations [sic]” to Biden for his efforts in NATO’s ongoing proxy war against Russia at an earlier address on the White House South Lawn, the first of his inaugural trip, but added in the joint conference several hours later that “we would like to get more Patriot missiles.”

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💬 “Anything that helps make the case for their candidates or their policy, all they have to do is scream out the word Russia, and that's supposed to end any conversation. So Russiagate is going, unfortunately, I think it will be haunting us forever because of that. That's the collusion that everyone should be concerned about. But I hope people learn a lesson about what happens when liberals don't behave in the way they claim and in the way the things they claim to believe in they don't act on,” says Margaret Kimberley, an editor and senior columnist at Black Agenda Report.

🎧 Listen to more of Kimberley’s analysis in our podcast: Jan 6 Criminal Referrals for Trump, Fed Budget Agreement Reached

The role of US and British political and business interests in financing the Nazi Party and later bankrolling the Third Reich has been well documented by Soviet, American and British historians and documentary filmmakers.

This week, newly declassified and digitized Russian archival documents shed new light on what Moscow knew about these activities at the time.

👉 Read more here

💬 “This is all about this futile attack on China, on China's economic prowess. You're not going to end it by banning Tik Tok. And people need to understand where this is coming from. This is nothing but an attack or an attempted attack on China. And that's all it is. But it's the latest in a long list of dangerous and stupid acts,” says Margaret Kimberley, an editor and senior columnist at Black Agenda Report.

🎧 Listen to more of Kimberley’s analysis in our podcast: Jan 6 Criminal Referrals for Trump, Fed Budget Agreement Reached

📹 Russian Su-35S and Su-30SM fighters in action as part of the special military operation in Ukraine (video courtesy of Russia’s MoD)

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US lawmakers have given up on efforts to label Russia a "state sponsor of terrorism" over its military operation in Ukraine. Instead, they're now looking to slap an "aggressor state" label on Moscow.

That's rich coming from a country that has launched nearly 470 military interventions across the globe since the late 1700s.

👉 Read up on which country, if any, truly deserves the "aggressor state" brand

A pipeline belonging to state company Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) exploded on Wednesday in the state of Hidalgo. According to local media, emergency units are working at the scene

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⚠️WARNING: some viewers may find this content disturbing

Ukrainian "Right Sector" neo-Nazi movement tortured people in the LPR by drowning them alive in gasoline storage tanks

👉 Follow our LIVE UPDATES on the Ukrainian crisis

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