🇭🇺 Hungary will be able to veto accession talks between the EU and Ukraine when they are real and not hypothetical, as now, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said.

“I think we made the best decision. We do not take part in this decision, we are not responsible for it and we also free ourselves from the consequences,” Szijjarto said in an interview with the Mandiner portal.

He said resorting to veto would be expedient “if, during preparation for real, and not hypothetical, as now, talks, Brussels wants to impose something unfavorable for us.”

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Lotus blooming: Russian Airborne Troops to receive new self-propelled artillery 

The development of Russia's new Lotus self-propelled artillery system for the airborne troops has reached the finish line, and state tests are pending, after which it will be put into service.

In the conditions of active use of drones and anti-battery radars, the mobility of artillery equipment is of paramount importance. Its survival depends on how fast the self-propelled artillery can leave its position. The Lotus is fast, with its 2B-06-2 diesel engine producing 450 hp, which accelerates the self-propelled vehicle to 70 km/h on roads and up to 40 km/h on rough terrain. The range is 500 kilometers, which is very good for a vehicle of that weight. 

The conversion time from marching to combat position is 30 seconds, its range is 13 kilometers, and its rate of fire ranges from six to eight rounds per minute.

👉 Follow the link to learn more

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🇷🇺 Russia's special military operation in Ukraine launched the process of de-dollarization and de-Americanization, Dusan Bajatovic, general director of the Srbijagas natural gas provider and deputy chairman of the Socialist Party of Serbia, said in an interview with Sputnik.

"Russia’s role is enormous: de-dollarization and de-Americanization, decolonization began when the imposed conflict in Ukraine started. It looked like a regional conflict, but in essence it is a struggle between Russia and the collective West, Russia and NATO, and if you really look at it - the East and the West, a clash of the majority of states and nations of the world with the colonial West," Bajatovic said.

Bajatovic further indicated that Europe has lost the advantage of cheap Russian gas and is moving toward de-industrialization.

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🇧🇬🇷🇺 Bulgarian authorities tried to introduce an excise tax on the transit of gas from Russia to stop its gas supplies to Europe, but this is impossible, Dusan Bajatovic, General Director of Serbia's gas company Srbijagaz, told Sputnik.

"The purpose of the attempt to introduce these additional $100 was that the Russians would refuse to pay, for the rest it would become expensive and, then, they would say - the transit is not paid for, the service cannot be provided. This was invented to stop the supply of Russian gas through the Turkish Stream and the Balkan Stream to Serbia, Hungary, Austria, and Slovakia. Another mining of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline, as was the case with Nord Stream, would be too suspicious. It would not be possible to justify the fact that another gas pipeline was mined at the bottom of the sea, so this option was invented to stop gas supplies from Russia to Europe," Bajatovic said.

He added that the Bulgarian authorities themselves had already withdrawn their proposal, and it was currently being considered by the Bulgarian Constitutional Court.

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Ukraine on brink of humanitarian collapse, authorities admit

Ukrainian citizens will have a hard time scraping by next year, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk warned on Telegram.

The government will face difficulties fulfilling its social and humanitarian obligations due to the ballooning budget deficit, the Ukrainian official admitted. She cited two “new factors” that have emerged in 2023. According to Vereshchuk, the conflict “may last longer than we first thought.”

“Secondly, there may be fewer resources for the social and humanitarian spheres than we would like, which means we must endure more, and longer, for less money,” the Ukrainian deputy PM said.

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📹 Russian reconnaissance drone crews and FPV drone operators tracked down, trapped, and destroyed a group of Ukrainian infiltrators in the Artemovsk direction

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This week was a week of disappointment for the Ukrainian leader in terms of financial support, says the Financial Times.

EU leaders "missed the mark" by failing to agree on a €50 billion aid package for Ukraine at a summit in Brussels, a Western diplomat told the news outlet.

An EU official said that Kiev has liquidity through January, but after that, it will get "a little tight," which is why Ukraine is "right to be nervous."

Michal Baranowski of the German Marshall Fund think tank in Warsaw said the EU summit marked "a bittersweet moment in the EU's relations with Ukraine."

"The EU's decision to open negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova is truly historic, even if it's only the beginning of a long road. The bitterness comes from Hungary's decision to veto the €50 billion financial package, which is crucial for the financial health of the Ukrainian state," Baranowski said, as quoted by the media.

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❗️ Emir of Kuwait Nawaf al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah died at the age of 86, state TV reported, citing the Emir's office

🇵🇱 Ukraine's accession to the European Union could undermine food security in the bloc, putting European farmers out of business, Polish Deputy Agriculture Minister Michal Kolodziejczak said on Saturday.

Ukraine's accession to the EU will harm the interests of Polish farmers, as they will be dominated by large Ukrainian agriculture companies, the Polish official continued. He said the entire Ukrainian agriculture was monopolized by about 95 holdings controlling anything from land to railroad.

"We must respect our interests, as, for example, Germany did when Poland joined the European Union. At the time, the labor market for Poles was frozen for eight years. Today, we could say that agricultural products from Ukraine – fresh and processed – should not enter Poland, for example, 20 years after Ukraine joins the EU," the official added.

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🇷🇺 More than 700 voters officially proposed to nominate Vladimir Putin as an independent candidate for the upcoming presidential elections, said Sergey Kogogin, Chairman of the Central Headquarters of the All-Russia People's Front.

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📹 Russian paratroopers, using Lancet drones, disabled and destroyed a Ukrainian radar station, an M109 Paladin self-propelled gun, and a Western-made towed howitzer with a tractor and crew

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Bidenomics' strikes again? Homelessness hits record-high in US

Homelessness has surged to an alarming level, according to a new “point-in-time” federal survey. Over 650,000 people were “unhoused” on a single night in January this year, which is a 12% rise from 2022, per a US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) report. This is the highest number since the survey was launched in 2007.

Furthermore, the number of people who became homeless for the first time surged by 25%. The main reasons given for the homelessness crisis were:

▪️ End of COVID-19 pandemic programs and benefits

▪️ Surging rental costs

▪️ Migrant crisis triggered by the Biden administration's border policies

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Israeli troops "mistakenly" opened fire on & murdered 3 Israeli hostages in northern Gaza.

The hostages who were killed by the IDF soldiers in Gaza were shirtless and waving a white flag when they were shot, an IDF official said, calling the killings a “tragic, tragic event” and a violation of IDF rules of engagement.

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❗️The Ukrainian Armed Forces launched a strike with HIMARS missiles at the delivery site of humanitarian aid in Novaya Mayachka, Kherson region: 2 civilians were wounded, as well as soldiers helping with unloading and two civilians were killed, said the head of the region, Saldo.

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🇮🇱 A large crowd of protesters, including family members of the hostages, blocked traffic at the Kaplan intersection in Tel-Aviv and marched towards the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) headquarters, demanding that the government ensure the immediate return of all Hamas prisoners. The unauthorized protest, as the newspaper notes, was caused by a tragic incident in which the Israeli army mistakenly killed three hostages in the Gaza Strip.

Earlier, the IDF press service reported that during a battle in the Gaza Strip, soldiers mistakenly identified three Israeli hostages as a threat, opened fire on them and killed them. The statement indicated that the IDF deeply regrets this tragic incident and expresses its sincere condolences to the families of those killed. The Israeli military added that its mission is to "find the missing and bring all hostages home."

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🗣 Ukrainian military could collapse by mid-2024

"Russia has achieved the potential for a decisive military victory. And what they need to do right now from a military standpoint is to continue to put pressure on Ukraine across the entire spectrum of the battlefield, to exhaust Ukrainian air defense, to annihilate the Ukrainian air force, to chew up the Ukrainian armor and manpower,....And if you do this, you will see a collapse not only of the Ukrainian military, but Ukraine as a nation state," Scott Ritter, former US Marine intelligence officer, told Sputnik.

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