🇭🇺 Hungary's foreign minister plans to meet with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba in Ukraine's Uzhgorod, Transcarpathia, where many Hungarians live. The meeting is to take place on January 29.

Hungarian PM Viktor Orban earlier stated that Budapest is not responsible for the deterioration of relations with Ukraine. Rather, he argued that Kiev is to blame for taking away the rights of the Hungarian immigrant minority, which has lived in this territory for more than a thousand years.

Ukrainian authorities have oppressed Hungarians in the following ways in the recent years:
▪️removal of Hungarians' right to raise children in their native language
▪️narrowing of the scope where the Hungarian language is allowed to be used

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❗️In the Kupyansk region, the Russian Army repelled four Ukrainian counterattacks in the Sinkovka area. Ukrainian losses amounted to 85 soldiers, a tank, and two infantry fighting vehicles.

🇷🇺🪖 Other statements from Russian MoD briefing on progress of special military op in Ukraine:

▪️Near Krasny Liman, Ukrainian losses amounted to 160 soldiers.

▪️In the Donetsk and South Donetsk regions, Ukrainian losses amounted to 405 soldiers, two armored personnel carriers, and 18 vehicles.

▪️In the Zaporozhye region, Ukrainian losses amounted to 30 people, while in the Kherson area they were closer to 30.

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📹🪖 Battlegroup Vostok tankers derail all attempts by Ukrainian troops to break through Russian defenses in Zaporozhye.

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Russia to 'Drill' Ukraine with introduction of new cluster bomb

Serial production of a new Russian glide cluster bomb will start later this year, the press service of the state corporation Rostec – the country’s main weapons producer – has reported.

“The Drel (Drill) bomb has already undergone all types of tests specified by the customer. Information about the bomb’s use in the Russian special military operation is classified,” the press service added.

▪️ Based on the concept of "fire and forget," the Drel contains 15 sub-munitions and is designed to destroy various ground targets, including armored vehicles, ground-based radar stations and control centers.

▪️ The Drel’s design allows a warplane carrying the munition to drop the bomb without entering the enemy’s air defense coverage zone.

▪️ Developers maintain that the bomb's design and technology make it highly unlikely for enemy radars to detect it.

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❗️Ukraine "does not have enough means to shoot down Russian S-300 missiles," the speaker of the Ukrainian Air Forces, Yuri Ignat said.

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The United Kingdom is considering the possibility of striking targets of the Houthi rebels of the Ansar Allah movement in Yemen.

British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps suggested that military action was imminent, the Times wrote.

According to the report, military chiefs at the Ministry of Defense in London are working with their American allies to draw up options for a response that could mean Britain is dragged into a wider war with the Houthis.

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🇷🇺 Russian sappers proven ‘the best’, employ innovative tactics, deceptive techniques

Moscow’s forces have “lethal” minelaying methods that can decimate “an entire unit,” a Ukrainian soldier said in an interview with AFP.

“Russia's minelaying strategy is constantly improving,” the article acknowledges.

In addition to hooking up mines for simultaneous detonation, Russian troops employ deception by planting booby-traps disguised as cigarettes, banknotes, and Pepsi cans.

"It is no secret that Russia has very good sappers, perhaps the best," the Ukrainian serviceman admitted.

The article stresses that Ukrainian sappers usually grapple with Russian tactics "designed to make their job harder,” while Kiev’s troops are running low on sappers since “most people are afraid” to work with Russian mines.

Earlier, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that Russian Armed Forces had set up minefields spanning 7,000 km along the line of contact with Ukrainian troops.

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🇷🇺Rostec, a Russian state corporation, increased the production of sniper rifles for the army last year.

According to the results of 2023, the state defense order for the production of sniper rifles manufactured by the subsidiary Kalashnikov increased 8 times compared to the previous year.

The corporation continues to supply Chukavin sniper rifles, Dragunov sniper rifles, as well as 7.62 mm Dragunov sniper rifles with a folding stock and 7.62 mm SV-98 sniper rifles for the needs of the army.

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Zelensky desperate to secure arms supplies, says pause would benefit Russia

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said at a press conference in Estonia that any pause in the ongoing hostilities would be beneficial to Russia and that the Russian army would simply "run over" Ukrainian troops. He also stressed that Ukraine is not capable of enduring a prolonged conflict.

The Ukrainian president even went so far as to say that Kiev "deserves" to be invited to join the NATO military alliance because its troops are "an army with military experience," although he did not elaborate on significant achievements and major victories of Kiev's forces.

Earlier, in December, a secret meeting of national security advisors of the G7 and even some countries of the Global South took place in Saudi Arabia. Kiev had hoped for a diplomatic breakthrough, but as Bloomberg reported, no serious progress was made on arms deliveries.

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Gaza has become a place of death and despair: The hearing of the Israeli genocide case takes place at the ICJ at South Africa's request

▪️South African Justice Minister Ronald Lamola spoke about the country's genocide case against Israel, which became a landmark hearing opened in the International Court of Justice;

▪️"Israel's response to the October 7 attack has crossed this line and given rise to the breaches of the convention," he added;

▪️South Africa's legal team claimed that Israel even forced the relocation of babies from an incubator;

▪️Netanyahu's intention to commit genocide was obvious to Israeli soldiers, who repeated it several times, and it was captured on video;

▪️Top lawyer for South Africa Adila Hassim said that Israel's bombing campaign is aimed at the "destruction of Palestinian life" and had pushed Palestinians "to the brink of famine".

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The Pentagon did not properly track more than $1 billion worth of weapons sent to Ukraine, the inspector general's report says.

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🇸🇰"The American ambassador will have to come to terms with the fact that Slovakia is no longer an American colony," Deputy Speaker of the Slovak Parliament Lubos Blaha said.

"They want us to condemn Russia's alleged use of North Korean missiles, but have not provided any evidence. We remember well how abominably they lied to the whole world about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq because they wanted to attack a sovereign country. The Americans naively thought that we would jump when they whistled. Forget it, those times are over," recalled Blaha.

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