❗️Ukraine is not our enemy, but those who want to achieve the strategic defeat of Russia, they are enemies, Putin said at a meeting with the military at the Vishnevsky Military Hospital

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Putin at meeting with military personnel:

◾️They want to divide Russia, the Kiev regime has been nurtured for a long time to escalate the conflict;

◾️The situation on the battlefield is changing, the enemy is being weakened;

◾️Ukraine is running out of military equipment, whereas we will increase production;

◾️The rhetoric in the West is changing and they are looking for a way to end the conflict. Russia also wants to end the conflict in Ukraine, but on our terms;

◾️Kiev wants to intimidate Russia, but Russia will step up attacks on military facilities - not on moms with strollers.

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⚡Putin calls Ukrainian strikes on Russia's Belgorod a terror act, adding that it was a targeted attack on the civilian population

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Earthquakes of magnitude 5.6 and 7.4 occurred a few minutes apart in western Japan, while strong tremors were felt in Osaka and Kyoto. A tsunami warning has been issued.

Sputnik’s correspondent reports that tremors were also felt in Tokyo. The earthquake in Ishikawa, Japan was the most powerful in the region since 1885, when observations began, scientists report.

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The New York Times, commenting on Russian President Vladimir Putin's New Year address, stated that the message reflected his “confidence” in Russia’s ability to continue fighting “without uprooting the lives of its citizens,” amid "the failure of Ukraine’s counteroffensive and the flagging support for Ukraine in the West."

The edition paid attention to the usual scene of Putin's New Year's address – “the nighttime Kremlin illuminated in the background,” and that he didn’t mention Ukraine or the West. The familiar setting signaled a return to the usual course of events, and was strikingly different from the New Year's speech of the Russian leader delivered a year ago.

Speaking of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's New Year address, the NYT provided only two quotes from his 20-minute video address, focusing on instead on Putin's five-minute message.

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🇷🇺Russia’s BRICS presidency to be ‘proactive’ towards goal of multipolarity

It is hoped that Russia’s BRICS presidency will be ‘proactive and dynamic,’ with increased efforts towards achieving ‘multilateralism and multipolarity,’ former ambassador Rajiv Bhatia, Distinguished Fellow for Foreign Policy Studies, Gateway House: Indian Council on Global Relations, told Sputnik.

”The goal of multilateralism is shared with the members of BRICS, and also beyond it. It is not only desirable, it is actually essential,” noted Bhatia.

“What we expect from Russia is to stress to the world that a decision making power cannot be restricted to a few nations... It should be inclusive, it should be representative, and it should be for collective good,” stressed the member of the Confederation of Indian Industry’s Africa Committee and chair of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry’s Task Force on Blue Economy and BIMSTEC WA. The expansion of BRICS will be an important feature of Russia's management of the group, said Bhatia.

Three of the new countries invited to join are from the Gulf region and two are from Africa. That “should indicate to us where the future progress will happen,” he stated, adding that “energy cooperation should become a domain of priority interest to all of us.”

Bhatia also noted the “march towards decreasing dependence on the dollar,” but said that how to achieve this goal “is an issue on which there is no clear consensus among the BRICS countries yet.”

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🇷🇺🪖 Key points of Russian MoD briefing on progress of special military op in Ukraine:

◾️In the Krasny Liman region, Ukrainian losses amounted up to 200 soldiers and a tank;

◾️In the Donetsk region, Russian forces hit three Polish Krab howitzers with counter-battery fire. Ukrainian losses amounted up to 370 servicemen;

◾️ Russian forces hit Ukrainian airfields housing Storm Shadow missile carriers;

◾️Russian air defenses intercepted 16 HIMARS and six Uragan missiles, 46 drones, and shot down an Su-27 aircraft.

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As BRICS chairman Russia may boost efforts to ditch Western hegemony

During its BRICS chairmanship, Russia may expand its diplomatic activities to coordinate ‘strategic thinking about multilateralism,’ Professor Alexis Habiyaremye, Senior Researcher with DSI/NRF, South African Research Chair in Industrial Development, University of Johannesburg, told Sputnik.

Strengthening multilateralism is strongly linked with ditching dependency on the dollar, Habiyaremye stressed.

On the expansion of BRICS, Habiyaremye argued that, considering the economic weight of the new members, it was important to “formulate a new financial system that is based on commodities, on technologies that are available in BRICS countries and in the Global South in general as a partial replacement of the existing financial system that is dominated by the declining Western hegemony.”

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Vladimir Putin held another meeting with the participants of the special military operation.

He wished the servicemen a happy New Year with a glass of champagne and invited them to lunch.

“We are implementing all our previously planned projects," the Russian leader noted.

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🇷🇺 The key statements of the Russian Foreign Ministry:

▪️Russia calls on all responsible governments and relevant international structures to condemn Kiev's crimes;

▪️The criminal regime in Kiev, nurtured and sponsored by the West, will one day turn NATO weapons against the NATO countries themselves;

▪️ Among the victims of the strikes on Donetsk are journalists who were performing their professional duties;

▪️For the Ukrainian neo-Nazis who carried out attacks on Donetsk with the support of the West, there is nothing human;

▪️All those involved in the strikes on Donetsk and other terrorist attacks on the territory of Russia will be punished.

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Fired-up New Year revels in France: 745 cars were burned.

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanen thanked the police for their timely intervention. In total, 389 people were detained while dealing with of the riots.

"Compared to last year, ten percent fewer cars were burned,” Darmanen said. “380 arrests were made across the country, this is also ten percent less," he added.

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Scott Ritter, a former US Marine Corps intelligence officer and UN weapons inspector, responding to Zelensky's New Year's address, said that 2024 would be the last year for Zelensky as president.

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Russia is likely to “champion initiatives for strengthening BRICS security architecture, both economic and political,” during its rotating presidency of the bloc in 2024, Professor Fulufhelo Netswera told Sputnik.

“Multipolarity, an equitable UN System, and counter balancing the US-European hegemony is an interest of all members of the Global South. It is for this reason that Russia has chosen for its presidency the theme of ‘strengthening of multilateralism for a fair global development and security’,” said the Executive Dean of the Faculty of Management Sciences.

Use of the dollar, the Swift international payment system and related monetary instruments against “foes of the US" remains “a sharp thorn in the flesh of poorer, smaller nations and developing nations,” he noted.

“It is only prudent that the Russian BRICS presidency will prioritize practical mechanisms to move completely from the US dollar as a medium of international trade,” Netswera said.

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This attack is pure terrorism, former CIA intelligence analyst Larry Johnson told Sputnik, when asked to comment on the Donetsk attack.

“There was no military target or objective. This is first and foremost a war crime, and it is one that was enabled by the United States and other NATO countries,” Johnson said.

Asked why Ukraine has decided to ramp up its attacks against Russian cities, the observer suggested that it signals growing “desperation” on Kiev’s part as it faces setbacks at the front.

“With the advances that Russian forces are making on the ground, coupled with the effectiveness of the missile strikes [on December 29, ed.], the generals, and the politicians in Kiev, are growing more desperate. The frequency over the holidays is the result of their desperation,” Johnson said.

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Putin 'on the mark' in predicting Russia would overtake Germany's economy - ex-Austrian FM

Ever since Berlin chose to align itself with Washington's policy of sweeping sanctions targeting Moscow, Germany has fallen on hard times. Along with inflation and recession, Germany is facing the stark prospect of widespread de-industrialization.

Ex-Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl lauded President Vladimir Putin’s economic policy forecast in June as spot on. She recalled his words, when he noted that despite Western sanctions over Ukraine, Russia was among the ten largest economic powers, ranking sixth at the time. Putin also suggested that Russia might challenge Germany for fifth place on the list of top economies by purchasing power parity.

That forecast was proven correct just two months later, Kneissl said. By August, Russia had become the fifth-largest economy in the world in defiance of pessimistic projections from the West.

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🇯🇵 Japan records total of 29 earthquakes in 2 hours

A total of 29 earthquakes with a maximum magnitude of 7.6 occurred in the Japanese prefectures of Ishikawa and Niigata in two hours on Monday, according to data analyzed by Sputnik.

The underground tremors started at 4:06 p.m. local time (07:06 GMT).

At least six houses have collapsed following the seismic activity, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said.

The recent earthquake in the Japanese prefecture of Ishikawa has become the strongest on the Noto peninsula since 1885 when record started, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

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

▪️Almost 22,000 Palestinians have died as a result of Israeli bombing and shelling of the Gaza Strip since the beginning of October, 326 doctors among the victims, the enclave's Ministry of Health said, according to Al Jazeera TV channel;

▪️Israeli aircraft attacked the infrastructure of the Shiite Hezbollah movement in Lebanon, the IDF reported;

▪️The IDF reported that it recorded several launches from Lebanon towards Kibbutz Adamit in the north of the country, as a result of the shelling, five reservists were injured and hospitalized;

▪️The army also reported that it had successfully intercepted a suspicious aerial target flying over from Lebanon. It is added that over the past few hours, Air Force fighter jets have struck several targets in Lebanon, including infrastructure, military facilities and launch sites of the Lebanese Hezbollah movement.

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German lawmakers want to send Ukrainian refugees to trenches as NATO proxy war falters

German opposition lawmakers and media are demanding that Berlin reverse course on its policy of not forcing Ukrainian men taking refuge in the country to return home to fight Russia.

“Germany pays significantly more for the living expenses of Ukrainian conscientious objectors than it does investing in the training and equipping of Ukrainian defenders against Russian 'aggression',” FAZ correspondent Peter Carstens wrote, pointing to a campaign by the opposition Christian Democratic Union (CDU) to send Ukrainian men home to be drafted.

German Justice Minister Marco Buschmann announced late last month that Berlin will not force Ukrainians to go home to fight against their will, while CDU lawmaker Roderich Kiesewetter has called on the Olaf Scholz government to reconsider its position.

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Ukraine’s air defenses won’t be in a condition to repel Russian drone and missile attacks this winter due to a shortage of interceptor missiles for its NATO-provided air defenses - experts.

Pointing to the expected dearth of US military support for Kiev amid the ongoing battle in Congress over Biden’s proposed $61 billion aid package, analysts warned that Ukraine’s air defenses may have to resort to rationing.

“There will be some systems where they will have to ration their ammunition even more than they are at the moment,” Kiev-based defense analyst Jimmy Rushton said. “It could be a case that they have to just not engage some targets, because they don’t have enough interceptors to go around.”

Concerns are said to be particularly prescient in relation to the Patriot – the $1 billion Raytheon-made air defense system which the US sent to Kiev last spring, but which has had difficulties intercepting Russian projectiles and been targeted itself.

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New stage of Gaza war: Israel plans partial troop withdrawal, targeted operations

In a move marking a new phase in the ongoing conflict with Hamas, Israel has announced plans for a partial withdrawal of its forces from Gaza over the next few months. The IDF will move to more targeted operations in Gaza, reducing reliance on artillery and air strikes.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu emphasized over the weekend that the war against Hamas is anticipated to persist for several more months.

The decision follows the latest push by Biden’s administration for Israel to de-escalate the offensive in Gaza and take steps to minimize civilian casualties. Despite Israel's control over virtually the entire Gaza Strip, resistance persists in the complex labyrinth of tunnels maintained by Hamas.

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Russian paratroopers received 2,500 units of weaponry in 2023, Russia's Defense Ministry said.

"In 2023, formations and military units of the Airborne Troops received more than 780 new and modern pieces of military and special equipment. Among the newest pieces of heavy weapons received by the troops, it is worth mentioning the most modern tank - the T-90M, as well as proven in the course of the special military operation BMD-4M paratrooper combat vehicles, and BTR-MDM and BTR-82A armored personnel carriers," the Defense Ministry said in a statement.

To strengthen combat capabilities, Airborne Troops units will receive Uragan and Grad MLRS, Solntsepek heavy flamethrower systems, T-72 B3M tanks, modernized Nona-S and Vena self-propelled mortar systems, and improved 120 mm Sani heavy mortar systems.

"Paratroopers successfully use the Verba man-portable infrared homing surface-to-air missile to counter enemy air targets," the Defense Ministry added.

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