🇷🇺 The Russian Aerospace Forces will begin mass training of pilots to use "smart bombs" in the special operation zone in Ukraine

▪️ Guided bombs, also known as precision-guided munitions, are weapons that combine the accuracy of a missile with the destructive power of a bomb.

▪️ A special module is attached to a conventional free-fall bomb, transforming it into a guided bomb.

▪️ The module has a folding wing and rudders, as well as a control system that automatically guides the munition to the target.

▪️ With the help of such a device, an ordinary FAB-500 aerial bomb, for example, becomes highly accurate.

▪️ At present, 250-, 500-, and 1,500-kilogram bombs equipped with such modules are used in the special operation zone and are dropped from Su-34 fighter-bombers.

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🇯🇵 Japan has suspended operations of the V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft in the wake of a crash off the coast earlier this week. The notoriously unstable aircraft has had dozens of crashes, often triggering similar temporary groundings.

The suspension announcement was made on Thursday by Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s chief cabinet secretary, Hirokazu Matsuno, who said Tokyo had asked the US to temporarily halt non-emergency flights of Ospreys.

On Wednesday, an Osprey carrying six US service members (the US Coast Guard initially told the press it was eight) crashed off the coast of Japan’s Kagoshima Prefecture, one of whom died in the accident.

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❗️Hungary proposes not to put the issue of Ukraine’s accession to the EU on the agenda of the summit in December; it is clear in advance that there will be no agreement among the countries, Prime Minister Viktor Orban says

❗️ A Ukrainian special services agent who used drones to attack the Dyagilevo military airfield in Ryazan in July has been detained, Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) and the Investigative Committee of Russia have reported.

In November, he also blew up a railway track in the Ryazan district, causing 19 carriages to derail and 15 to overturn.

The man, who has Russian and Italian citizenship, was recruited back in February 2023 in Istanbul, and sabotage training was carried out in Jekabpils, Latvia with the direct participation of the Latvian special services, the FSB said.

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

▪️ Israeli Army resumes hostilities in Gaza, claims Hamas broke pause by opening fire on Israel.

▪️ Israel released seventh group of 30 Palestinian prisoners as part of humanitarian pause agreement with Palestine’s Hamas movement, Al Jazeera reports.

▪️ Netanyahu's office has confirmed return of six more hostages to Israel, bringing total number of freed people to 110.

▪️ US exploring possibility of extending the humanitarian pause in Middle East to rescue more hostages, Blinken says.

▪️ United States does not support idea of permanent ceasefire in Gaza, only temporary pauses, White House says.

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Paraguay gov’t official sacked for signing doc with fake ‘nation’

A gullible government official in Paraguay was sacked after he signed a “memorandum of understanding” with a delegation from a fictional country.

Arnaldo Chamorro, who was chief of staff in the South American country’s Agriculture Ministry, put his signature under a “proclamation” with representatives of the “United States of Kailasa,” set up by an infamous “guru” claiming to have supernatural powers.

The “state” brands itself as the "revival of the ancient enlightened Hindu civilizational nation which is being revived by displaced Hindus from around the world."

Paraguayan officials are not the first to be duped by the flock of followers of self-styled “godman” Nithyanand, who is wanted in India on several charges, including sexual assault.

Earlier in the year, local officials in Newark, New Jersey, were conned into signing a “sister city” deal with the fake nation, with Mayor Ras Baraka later apologizing for the "regrettable incident."

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"Look, we are not backing down, I am satisfied," Volodymyr Zelensky said when commenting on the counteroffensive in an interview with AP.

He also touched on the fact that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has already reduced aid supplies to Ukraine.

“We already can see the consequences of the international community shifting [its attention] because of the tragedy in the Middle East,” he said. “Only the blind don’t recognize this.”

Ukrainians understand “that we also need to fight for attention for the full-scale war,” he said. “We must not allow people to forget about the war here.”

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📹 Yuula Benivolski, a Toronto-based Jewish filmmaker, says she is renouncing her Israeli citizenship because of the war on Gaza

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❗️WATCH LIVE: Lavrov holds press conference following OSCE Ministerial Council meeting

👉 Watch the live stream here or follow the link to the Sputnik's website

The top Russian diplomat arrived in Skopje on Wednesday evening. This is Lavrov's first trip to Europe since the onset of the conflict in Ukraine, not counting his visits to Belarus and Turkiye. The minister's previous visit to Europe took place in January 2022, when he traveled to Geneva to meet with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

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⚡️The Ukrainian Armed Forces lost over 125 thousand people and 16 thousand units of various weapons in six months of the so-called counter-offensive, the Russian Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu said.

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📹 Footage of the combat work of Russian UAV operators and artillerymen near Kleshcheevka and Belogorovka against enemy positions

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🪖 Ukraine’s Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Valery Zaluzhny was conspicuously absent when Volodymyr Zelensky met with army commanders yesterday.

Zelensky visited a military command post in Kharkov Oblast on November 30 to discuss strengthening fortifications and other front-line necessities.

Footage accompanying the post showed Zelensky conferring with recently appointed businessman-turned-Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, Ground Forces Commander Oleksandr Syrskyi and others.

However, the no-show by the Commander-in-Chief, coming amid the spiraling Zelensky-Zaluzhny spat, begs the question: is this further proof of bitter behind-the-scenes infighting for control of Ukraine?

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