❗️ Su-35S fighters accompanied Putin’s plane throughout the flight to Abu Dhabi, Peskov said.

To escort the presidential plane, special permissions were obtained from the countries over which the flight took place; the Kremlin is grateful to them for their cooperation, the presidential press secretary said.

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The Russian Ministry of Defense published a video of the Russian President's plane being escorted by Su-35S fighters

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NATO statements about need to prevent a “direct clash” with Russia is a distraction, aimed at whitewashing alliance leaders before their votes, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday.

In late November, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that the alliance’s main goal is to prevent a war between NATO and Russia.

“Everything that NATO members, including Secretary General Stoltenberg, say, that their main task is to prevent a direct clash, is all hypocrisy … Some kind of a game for distraction. I think in order to somehow whitewash the regimes that are members of NATO in the face of their voters, saying that they have nothing to do with it, that they are not participants, that they are simply helping the Kiev regime,” Zakharova told a briefing.

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❗️ Su-35S fighters will accompany Putin's plane throughout his current foreign trip - including to Riyadh and then to Moscow, Peskov told Sputnik

🇺🇳 "The situation in the world that I am describing is grim because these are dark times. Today there are 55 conflicts in the world, which is a record since the Second World War," UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said at a briefing in Geneva.

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🇮🇷🇺🇸 A Tehran court has ruled that the US government must pay approximately $50 billion in damages for the 2020 assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani.

The Tehran court, acting on a lawsuit filed by over 3,300 Iranians, held 42 entities, including Trump, the US government, and former officials Mike Pompeo and Mark Esper, accountable for "material, moral, and punitive damages."

This decision, announced by the Iranian judiciary, comes nearly four years after Soleimani and his Iraqi associate Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis were killed in a US drone strike near Baghdad airport, an operation ordered by then-President Donald Trump.

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🇷🇺 Vladimir Putin has finished the negotiations in the UAE; later today he will visit Saudi Arabia.

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🇺🇸🇸🇪 According to a press release from the State Department, the United States and Sweden have reached a defense cooperation agreement. This deal will be in effect both before and after Stockholm's NATO entry is finalized.

Under the new Defense Cooperation Agreement (DCA) with Sweden, the US will now be granted access to military facilities at 17 Swedish locations throughout the Scandinavian country.

"On December 5, the United States and Sweden signed a Defense Cooperation Agreement," the release said on Tuesday. "This agreement... will empower our two countries to expand our close security partnership, enhance our cooperation in multilateral security operations, and strengthen transatlantic security together. By design, the DCA will apply seamlessly before and after Sweden’s accession to the NATO Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA)."

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🇷🇺 How Putin was greeted during his visit to the UAE.

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🇷🇺🇸🇦 Putin has finished his visit to the UAE, next destination is Saudi Arabia.

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Russia’s upgraded ‘Privet-82’ budget drones compound Kiev’s problems at the front

St. Petersburg-based drone maker Oko (lit. ‘Eye’) has unveiled a modernized variant of its Privet-82 (‘Hello-82’) budget fixed-wing kamikaze drone. The base model features a 5.5 kg payload, electronic warfare-resistant radio channel, and has a 30 km range and has a flight speed of up to 140 km per hour. The upgraded Privet-82M1, built after extensive testing of the base model at the front, features an improved control system, autonomous power supply, remaining charge indicator, new directional antennas, new cold-resistant components, increased toughness, quick-release hood and new, more aerodynamic camera module.

“From the start, when we were developing the Privet-82, we set ourselves the task that the drone should use exclusively civilian production technologies. All of the components of our product can be obtained in any large city by civilian contractors,” Oko CEO and co-owner Vadim Zhernov told Sputnik. “Civilian companies produce components for us. There are a lot of them. Therefore, the price is accordingly very low. Also, we do not use any specialized electronics, but generally available consumer electronic [parts], which also greatly reduces the price.”

Given their cheap cost (as little as $1,200 US), the new drones can be mass produced, making them a potent threat in overwhelming Ukrainian lines and causing severe damage to infrastructure, armored vehicles and artillery.

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Zelensky critic found dead

The body, presumably of ex-member of the Ukrainian parliament Ilya Kiva, was found in a village near Moscow, emergency services told Sputnik.

In Ukraine, an ex-parliamentarian, who has repeatedly criticized the Kiev regime, has been charged with high treason and threatening the territorial integrity of the country. In April last year, he turned to Vladimir Putin with a request for political asylum and Russian citizenship.

In his latest post on his Telegram channel, Kiva spoke about Zelensky’s failure and suggested that he commit suicide.

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Amid Germany’s admission that Ukraine is not its “ally,” who else has turned their back on Kiev?

German defense minister Boris Pistorius responded to criticism about the slow pace of the delivery of arms aid to Ukraine this week by stressing that Berlin and Kiev are “not partners in an alliance,” and that “peacetime” defense sector needs more time to ramp up production to match Russia’s. Germany is not the first country to change its tune on Ukraine.

🇵🇱 Poland pulled a dramatic reversal on its ‘friends forever with Ukraine’ stance this fall, characterizing its neighbor as a “dangerous drowning man” threatening to pull others down with it, and at least temporarily halting weapons deliveries over a trade dispute.

🇸🇰 The new Slovak government which took power last month after snap elections in September announced an immediate halt to weapons deliveries to Kiev, and called on the EU to change its tune “from an arms supplier to a peacemaker.”

🇪🇺 In Western Europe, nations have taken a series of measures indicating cooling support, from measures designed to convince Ukrainian refugees to go home, to expressing concerns related to the blowback from Kiev’s corruption problems.

🇺🇸 Last but not least, in the US, the Biden administration fears an escalation of its standoff with MAGA Republicans in the House could mean that Kiev won’t find tens of billions more dollars in expected aid under the Christmas tree this year.

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Scott Ritter: There will be no operational pause for Zelensky this winter

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has found himself between the devil and the deep blue sea, as US lawmakers have engaged in an internal spat and have once again delayed aid for Kiev.

"[The Kiev regime] is now literally grabbing teenagers and pregnant women and putting them on the battlefield to fill the holes in the lines. There's nothing coming behind. And the West is out of money. There's no equipment. The Russians are not going to hit the pause button to give Ukraine a chance to catch their breath," Scott Ritter, former Marine intelligence officer and UN weapons inspector, told Sputnik's Fault Lines podcast.

In contrast to last year, when Kiev had the luxury of time to build up, train, and equip new divisions, there will be no operational pause now, Ritter stressed.

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🇷🇺🇸🇦 Putin has arrived in Riyadh for talks with Saudi King.

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🇷🇺🇸🇦 Footage of Russian President Vladimir Putin arriving in Riyadh.

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🇮🇱🇵🇸 Netanyahu says Israeli forces are surrounding the house of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in the Gaza Strip, and his capture is only a matter of time.

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🇷🇺🇸🇦 Russia and Saudi Arabia have good relations in all sectors, including the economy, Putin said, adding that it's important to exchange views on the situation in the region.

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⚡️Biden says that Congress must pass supplemental funding for Ukraine before recess, adding that he is not prepared to walk away from Ukraine.

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