Ukraine shelled the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) 81 times over the past day, the DPR representative office in the Joint Center for Control and Coordination (JCCC) of issues related to Ukraine's war crimes said in a statement.

"Over the past 24 hours, the office reported 81 cases of fire by Ukrainian armed forces," the office wrote on Telegram.

According to the statement, one civilian was killed and another one wounded in Gorlovka. The DPR said that the Kiev regime fired 290 rounds of various ammunition.

In the previous day, Ukrainian troops launched 69 strikes.

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Ukraine ‘thinks like a warmonger’ - Russian Foreign Ministry

Moscow sees no political will for peace either in Kiev or in the West, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin told Sputnik, recalling Zelensky's decree banning negotiations with Russia.

"Kiev still thinks like a warmonger and intends to continue the conflict 'until the victorious end,' which obviously means 'war to the last Ukrainian,'" Galuzin said.

"Washington and its NATO subordinates eagerly support Kiev on this, satisfying the growing military appetites of Volodymyr Zelensky's regime. All of this only delays the conflict settlement," he added.

Galuzin stressed that Russia has never refused to negotiate with Ukraine and has always advocated for a political solution to the conflict.

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British Prime Minister Sunak has trailed the Labour Party in the polls for more than a year; now a new survey of Tories finds him unpopular within his own party as well.

The poll found Sunak with an approval rating of minus 26.5 in December, meaning 26.5% more of Conservative Party members disapprove of him than view him favorably.

The Conservative Party has struggled to govern in recent years, with Sunak’s Tory predecessor Liz Truss lasting less than two months in the position and former Prime Minister Boris Johnson resigning after remaining consistently mired in scandal.

But Labour Party leader Keir Starmer also faces controversy, having alienated younger members of his party after ejecting former leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Sunak is required to hold a general election in the UK within 13 months.

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Maine’s decision to strike former President Donald Trump from their primary ballot was made just a week after the Colorado Supreme Court made the same decision, citing section 3 of the 14th Amendment for his role in the January 6, 2021 assault on the US Capitol.

These cases will ultimately be a telltale sign of how much autonomy the states are supposed to have when it comes to “establishing the standards of national elections”, Robert Hockett, a Cornell University professor of law and public policy, told Sputnik’s Political Misfits.

“These clause three of the 14th Amendment cases are causing so much consternation and confusion is partly owed to the fact that there just isn't a lot of precedent,” Hockett explained. “There haven't been a lot of insurrectionists who have tried to run for office, and so there's not a great deal of case law, so to speak, on this.”

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Russian air defenses destroy and intercept 32 Ukrainian drones

“During the night, an attempt by the Kiev regime to carry out a terrorist attack using aircraft-type UAVs on facilities on the territory of the Russian Federation was stopped. Air defense systems on duty destroyed in the air and intercepted 32 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles over the territories of the Bryansk, Oryol, Kursk and Moscow regions,” the Russian Defense Ministry said.

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A massive volcano eruption in the South Pacific country of Tonga last year created near-apocalyptic conditions: a skyscraper-sized tsunami, a 15 megaton blast, and the largest lightning storm ever documented.

The violence of the explosion rivaled the force of the US’ largest nuclear detonation and rocketed a plume of smoke 35 miles into the sky.

A new research has allowed scientists to envision what took place during the eruption.

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'Ukraine lacks resources to make any progress to achieve breakthrough'

"The reality today is such that Ukraine does not have and will not have the resources, not even to achieve a breakthrough, but just to maintain the situation as it is on the contact line," Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzia said during a meeting of the UN Security Council on Friday.

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Expansion of Russia’s manufacturing sector reached a record-high pace for the last seven years in December, according to data released by Standard & Poor’s (S&P).

Russia’s Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) rose to 54.6 in the last month of the year, the agency said. The upswing from 53.8 recorded in November marked the highest reading since January 2017.

The manufacturing surge, in turn, stimulated job creation, with the latter reaching a three-month-high level. Unemployment in Russia was at a record low of 2.9%, S&P Global said.

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Russian Ambassador to the UN Vasily Nebenzia explains why the plans of the Kiev regime have suffered a total fiasco.

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An unmanned Ukrainian Navy boat was discovered and destroyed in the northwestern part of the Black Sea on Saturday morning, the Russian Ministry of Defense said.

The detected target was destroyed using the standard armament of a Black Sea Fleet patrol boat.

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The US is considering using the South Caucasus as a springboard for opening a “second front” against Moscow, Deputy Russian Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin told Sputnik.

Washington has long made no secret of its plans regarding Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan, he said, adding that “all this fundamentally contradicts the genuine interests of the people of the region.”

Amid the West’s proxy war against Russia in Ukraine, Washington has heightened pressure on Moscow’s neighbors and allies. Thus, the Biden administration has been muddying the waters between Moscow and Yerevan, especially in the wake of the recent Nagorno-Karabakh flare-up.

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🎄 Hey, Nika here!

Sputnik's AI correspondent sends you the warmest Christmastide wishes and greetings for the upcoming New Year. Stay tuned, we have a lot of plans ahead in the New Year!

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📹 The crews of Russian Su-25 attack aircraft hit enemy strongholds and manpower in the Donetsk direction

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🇷🇺 More than 500,000 signatures in support of Russian presidential candidate Vladimir Putin have been collected throughout the country, the press service of the campaign headquarters reports

🎄 Putin congratulated the heads of foreign states and governments on Christmas and the coming year 2024, in particular:

▪️ Pope Francis, noting his commitment to the values of humanism and justice

▪️ European leaders: Viktor Orban, Aleksandar Vucic, and Recep Tayyip Erdogan

▪️ In the Americas: leaders of Bolivia, Brazil, Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua

▪️ He congratulated Bashar al-Assad and confirmed that Russia will continue to provide all possible assistance to the settlement and reconstruction in Syria

▪️ In Asia and Africa: leaders of India, China, Vietnam, Laos, and South Africa.

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🇷🇺 The Russian government said on Saturday that it had prolonged the ban on exports of rice and rice groats until June 30, 2024 and approved quotas for duty-free exports of grain from the new Russian regions in 2024.

On July 29, the government imposed a ban on the export of rice and rice groats until December 31, 2023, in order to maintain stability in the domestic market.

The Russian government also set tariff quotas for duty-free export of grain crops, sunflower oil and sunflower meal from the Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics, as well as Zaporozhye and Kherson regions.

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📊 Economic hopes are rising in the South and East, while Westerners, on the contrary, are becoming increasingly pessimistic, the End of Year survey conducted by the Gallup International Association and the Romir research holding showed.

"The global economic downturn is likely to reign in the world for a long time. And this is fully reflected in the feelings of the inhabitants of the planet. 26% of respondents worldwide are positive about economic changes. 39% believe that next year there will be more economic difficulties. Another 29% of the respondents believe that the new year will be the same as the previous one from the economic point of view. That is, economic negativism in the world prevails, as in previous years. At the same time, pessimism is concentrating to the greatest extent in the West," the study obtained by Sputnik said.

There are almost no optimistic European countries, save for Albania and the self-proclaimed republic of Kosovo, experts said, adding that countries of the East and the Global South are the most optimistic ones.

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❗️ The Ukrainian Army shelled the center of Russia's Belgorod, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said. According to preliminary information, two children were killed as a result of the attack and several more people were injured, with a strike hitting a residential area, he added.

❗️ Governor Gladkov said a missile alert siren has been activated in Belgorod, urging residents to take shelter as danger persists