❗️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.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

⚡️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.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

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

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🪖 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?

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇵🇸🇮🇱 Negotiations on the exchange of hostages in the Gaza Strip continue despite the resumption of hostilities, media reported, citing a source familiar with the talks.

Earlier in the day, the Israel Defense Forces said that Hamas broke the humanitarian pause, prompting Israel to resume combat.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

💉 Texas attorney general sues Pfizer for lying about COVID-19 vaccine

Ken Paxton accuses Pfizer of having used fake statistics to promote the vaccine and trying to intimidate anyone who doubted its effectiveness.

The Republican demands that the pharmaceutical giant be fined $10 million and that the company be banned from publicly speaking about the effectiveness of its own vaccines.

The Texas attorney general also claims that the coronavirus pandemic worsened after people started taking the Pfizer vaccine. Paxton criticized the Biden administration's handling of the pandemic:

"We are pursuing justice for the people of Texas, many of whom were coerced by tyrannical vaccine mandates to take a defective product sold by lies," Paxton said.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️ Israel plans to launch operation in southern Gaza Strip in parallel with operation in northern part of enclave, Financial Times reports

❗️ Somalia expresses gratitude to Russia for humanitarian aid, country's minister of information, culture and tourism tells Sputnik Africa

🗣 "We are thankful for the delivery of 25,000 tons of grain, which will greatly benefit the thousands of Somali people affected by the current floods resulting from El Nino. This assistance arrives at a crucial moment, and once more we commend Russia for its substantial support and unwavering commitment to helping Somalia overcome this challenging period," Somalia's Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism Daud Aweis stated.

Subscribe to @sputnik_africa

🔸 Sputnik Africa | TikTok | Twitter 🔸

🇷🇺 Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken “ran away” from the OSCE Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Skopje because he was “afraid of an honest conversation with facts in hand.”

“I think they are cowards,” the minister said.

Blinken left Skopje for the Middle East before the Russian foreign minister had even arrived in the North Macedonian capital.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

💥 The Russian military destroyed a Ukrainian German-made tank Leopard 2A4 in the Rabotino area of the Zaporozhye region

Subscribe to @SputnikInt