🇷🇺 Main statements by Vladimir Medinsky, President Putin's aide, who headed the Russian delegation at the talks with Ukraine in 2022:

▪️Russia, during the negotiations with Ukraine in the spring of 2022, in addition to demanding the neutrality of Ukraine, sought sovereignty over Crimea and independence of the Donbass republics in order to protect people

▪️Russia never had the goal of conquering Ukraine, but the West and Zelensky dragged our two countries into hostilities.

▪️Russians and Ukrainians are one people; we have a common past and future, but Zelensky does not want peace.

▪️Ukrainian authorities themselves admit that they are controlled "from outside".

▪️Ukraine, by signing a peace treaty with Russia in April last year, would have saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of its soldiers.

▪️Russia has never refused negotiations with Ukraine.

▪️Reaching peace between Russia and Ukraine is possible if the goals of the special military operation are fulfilled.

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🇮🇱🇵🇸 Latest updates on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict:

▪️Hamas will discuss the possibility to extend the ongoing truce with Israel for two days and release of 50 more Palestinian prisoners, the movement stated.

▪️The IDF says that the pause in the Gaza Strip was violated and that some Israeli soldiers were injured.

▪️Palestine wants truce between Israel, Hamas to turn into permanent ceasefire - envoy to UN.

▪️The NATO secretary general welcomes the extension of the pause in hostilities in Gaza to allow time for humanitarian activities.

▪️Blinken and the Qatari prime minister held a phone talk on the situation in Gaza, state department stated.

▪️The CIA head arrives in Qatar for secret talks with an Israeli counterpart on hostages, according to reports.

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🇵🇸 Hamas invites American billionaire Elon Musk to visit the Gaza Strip to see the scale of crimes against Palestinians, a spokesman for the organization said.

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🇷🇺 Putin: Russia is waging battle for freedom of whole world

Russian President Vladimir Putin outlined the vision for Russia's role in the global fight for sovereignty as the old unipolar world collapses while addressing the World Russian People's Council plenary session.

"The concept of the Russian World made possible the peaceful coexistence of different ethnic groups, different religions and, in general, very different people for many centuries," Oleg Matveychev, political analyst, told Sputnik. "Not someone's dictate, which they are now trying to present to us in the West, such as hegemonism, exploitation, and so on, but a 'symphony' of different peoples and different cultures."

"The collective West is attacking traditional national, religious, cultural and spiritual values," Sergey Perevezentsev, Lomonosov Moscow State University professor, told Sputnik.

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🇩🇪 German Chancellor Olaf Scholz dropped from 13th to 17th place out of 20 in the ranking of the most popular politicians over the past week, according to a survey conducted by the Institute for New Social Answers (INSA) for German newspaper Bild.

German Economy Minister and Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck occupies 16th place. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has been ranked first since his appointment in 2022, followed by a number of opposition politicians from the Christian Democratic Union of Germany and the Christian Social Union in Bavaria center-right alliance (CDU/CSU). Sahra Wagenknech, a former member of the Left Party who advocates stopping arms supplies to Ukraine and for a diplomatic solution to the conflict, is in fifth place, according to the survey.

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🇨🇳 China calls on Japan to immediately stop illegal activities in the waters of the disputed Diaoyu Islands in the South China Sea, also known as the Senkaku Islands, the Chinese army's Eastern Theater Command said.

The command said several Japanese vessels entered the waters of China's Diaoyu Islands earlier in the day, while Chinese coast guard vessels took the necessary control measures in accordance with the law and warned the Japanese ships to leave the said waters.

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🇵🇸 New Gaza aid flotilla attempts to break Israeli siege

A veteran US peace campaigner has told of the latest attempt by citizens to break the Israeli siege of the Gaza Strip.

The four-day ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement, brokered by Qatar, was extended for two more days.

The death toll in the tiny Palestinian enclave after almost two months of Israeli bombing and ground incursions has reached 16,000, according to the Palestinian Authority, with 35,000 wounded and 6,000 still missing under the rubble. Gaza's 2.3 million inhabitants have been subjected to a total siege by Israel, which has cut off supplies of electricity, running water, food, fuel and medicine.

Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin told Sputnik that media reports of a flotilla of 1,000 small craft heading from Turkiye to Gaza were exaggerated.

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🇨🇳 China’s new Loonsong processor blows Intel out of water, secures Beijing’s tech sovereignty

Beijing has launched a new generation of homegrown computer CPU, China Central Television (CCTV) reported.

China's Loongson Technology Corp unveiled the Loongson 3A6000 desktop-grade CPU on Tuesday.
The company, which was added to a US trade blacklist this year, claimed that in performance tests, the Loongson 3A6000 rivals Intel’s 10th generation quad-core processors.

Thus, in defiance of Washington’s crusade to hinder Beijing’s technological rise, China has taken a stride towards achieving tech sovereignty.

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US Refrains from Sanctioning India's Acquisition of Russian Oil to Support Domestic Oil Prices Ahead of Polls

🇷🇺🛢🇮🇳 The United States is holding back from applying secondary sanctions against India for exceeding the price ceiling in its acquisition of Russian oil, aiming to control fuel prices ahead of the country's presidential elections, according to Mikhail Zhuravlev, an expert at the Institute for Energy and Finance (IEF), as reported by Sputnik.

However, according to Zhuravlev, there is a risk that the United States, if necessary, may impose restrictions against India due to violation of anti-Russian sanctions.

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🇮🇱🇵🇸 Israel and Palestinian movement Hamas, through the mediation of Qatar, Egypt and the United States, reached a preliminary agreement to extend the humanitarian pause for another two days, the Al Araby Al Jadeed newspaper reported Wednesday, citing unnamed Egyptian officials.

The sides have agreed to extend the humanitarian pause for another two days on the same conditions, the report said.

The newspaper cited sources as saying that Hamas has hinted it had contacts with other groups in the enclave, which still have women and children in captivity.

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🇺🇳 The UN General Assembly renewed its resolution demanding that Israel withdraw from Syria’s Golan Heights.

The resolution says that United Nations member states are "deeply concerned that Israel has not withdrawn from the Syrian Golan, which has been under occupation since 1967, contrary to the relevant Security Council and General Assembly resolutions."

The document also emphasizes "the illegality of the Israeli settlement construction and other activities in the occupied Syrian Golan since 1967."

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👀 Signs are everywhere

The wind blew down Washington's main Christmas tree, which is set to be lit by Biden on Thursday.

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📹 A frigate of the Russian Black Sea Fleet launched a successful strike on the infrastructure of Ukrainian forces with four Kalibr cruise missiles, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported.

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🇸🇴 What Does Somalia's Acсession to EAC Mean for Nation & Bloc?

Conflict-torn Somalia has become the eighth member of the East African Community (EAC), a bloc that aims to expand free trade across the region.

Kenyan Professor Macharia Munene told Sputnik Africa what Somalia's acсession to EAC means for both the nation and the bloc.

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🇵🇸 Musk refused an invitation from Hamas to follow Israel in Gaza.

He said that it now seems dangerous to him. But he believes Gaza's long-term prosperity will benefit all parties.

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🇭🇺 Viktor Orban accuses European Commission of trying to run Europe

"The reality I see is that ever more decisions are being taken by Brussels institutions instead of national leaders. The problem is that bureaucrats don’t represent the people," Orban said on X (formerly Twitter).

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Ukraine Loses First Leopard 1A5 Tank After Only Two Weeks' Combat Use – Forbes

The Ukrainian Armed Forces have lost the first German-supplied Leopard 1A5 tank, according to US business magazine Forbes.

The publication acknowledges that this machine has vulnerabilities describing it as “the least protected tank with thin armor”, yet questions the care with which Ukrainian commanders look after their weaponry.

"It’s worth asking why that Leopard 1A5 was moving across an open field in broad daylight," the magazine pointed out, adding that “it is not only the tank that is to blame for the recent first loss.”

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An American Osprey tiltrotor crashed into the sea near Kagoshima Prefecture in Japan, with eight people on board, online news publication, Kyodo News has reported

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🇷🇺 Ukraine itself has finally recognized that the Zelensky regime is no more than a puppet government, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said, commenting on statements from Ukrainian politician and negotiator David Arakhamia about talks in 2022.

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❗️ Several Russian journalists were not allowed to cover the OSCE Ministerial Council events in Skopje, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said