❗️Two Russians on board the Falcon plane that crashed in Afghanistan have died, emergency services told Sputnik. The bodies of the dead will be picked up by a special flight, which will fly to Kabul on Tuesday.

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Kiev mayor slams Zelensky for turning into dictator in interview with Globe and Mail

"The movement, what we see right now, I can’t say it’s democracy. It smells of the vertical and of authoritarianism," Vitaly Klitschko said.

In an interview with the Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail, Klitschko reproached Zelensky for his dictatorial habits, complaining about the lack of freedom of speech and the persecution of opponents with alternative viewpoints. He also stressed that Zelensky places "exclusively his own people" in government posts.

"Behind this is the wish of some people – I can’t say their names – but they wish everything to be centralized, and that’s why I see centralized media and TV in Ukraine, and they also try to centralize the power, to build a vertical," the Kiev mayor said.

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❗️Kiev's attacks on Donetsk, civilian infrastructure and people are a monstrous act of terrorism, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated.

Putin is receiving reports on the situation in the city, instructions have been given and all services are taking the necessary measures, he noted. The special operation will continue to protect people from such attacks, Peskov stressed.

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Taliban* released new footage of Falcon 10 plane crash survivors. It shows the Russians who survived the plane crash were taken by helicopter to Kabul, where they received first aid.

*the organization is under UN sanctions for terrorist activities

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Russia’s new camouflage to help soldiers become invisible

Work is underway to create a camouflage suit for Russian troops, providing perfect protection from thermal imaging equipment used by Ukrainian forces, a HinderX company spokesperson told Russian media.

“We are developing a brand-new product capable of blurring the silhouette of a person. This is our exclusive know-how based on coating fabrics with a certain composition,” the spokesperson said, declining to elaborate.

Thanks to the state-of-the-art material, the suit weighs merely 350 grams, which means it easily fits into a pocket, something that is of great importance given that the weight of a soldier’s ammunition stands at up to 70 kg, according to the spokesperson.

The firm stressed that all camouflage covers used by the Russian forces in the special operation are much less effective than HinderX’s product, which is expected to be finalized before the end of January.

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Farmers in France began blocking the Golfech nuclear power plant in Tarn-et-Garonne overnight.

Fifty tractors have blocked access to the Golfech nuclear power plant, and the A62 highway is blocked in both directions in Tarn-et-Garonne.

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Is a civil war on the horizon in the US?

Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of RT and Rossiya Segodnya, Sputnik's parent media group, reflects on the most pressing issues within American society that may be paving the way to a civil war.

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❗️In Donetsk, Russian troops hit two US-made M777 artillery systems and destroyed ten tanks, including a Leopard 2A5.

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❗️ Six Storm Shadow missiles were intercepted and one Ukrainian Su-25 was shot down in the Kharkov region during the day.

🇷🇺🪖 Other statements from the Russian Ministry of Defense briefing on the progress of the special military operation in Ukraine:

▪️ In the Kupyansk region, Russian forces repelled nine Ukrainian attacks. Ukrainian losses amounted to up to 180 people and five tanks;

▪️ In the Krasny Liman area, three attacks were repelled. Ukrainian losses amounted to 180 servicemen, two tanks and two infantry fighting vehicles;

▪️ In Zaporozhye and Kherson, Ukrainian losses were up to 205 men and one tank per day.

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Zemledeliye: The weapon that allows Russia to dominate mine warfare

Zemledeliye is a state-of-the-art Russian remote mine-laying system that can create extensive mine fields quickly from a distance of up to 15 kilometers.

ISDM Zemledeliye (which means “agriculture” in Russian, while the acronym ISDM translates as “remote mine-laying engineering system”) operates essentially as a multiple launch rocket system, firing rockets that contain cartridges of anti-personnel or anti-tank mines.

This method of mine laying also allows for the setting up of minefields in a potentially dangerous areas without putting sapper’s lives at risk.

All this, not to mention the ability to pre-program the mines to self-destruct after a certain period of time (thus ensuring that these minefields do not become a threat to civilians when fighting ends) makes Zemledeliye an extremely valuable asset to the Russian Armed Forces.

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The market in Donetsk that was hit by Ukrainian forces: before and after

A market in the Donetsk district of Tekstilshchik came under artillery fire. The market was attacked on Sunday, when it is most crowded. 27 civilians were killed and 25 others injured, including two teenagers.

From 2014 to 2023, more than 9,000 people died in the DPR and more than 3,000 in the LPR as a result of Ukrainian shelling. Many of them are women and children.

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"They hit civilians on purpose. There are no military installations there".

After the shelling of the Kirovsky district by Ukrainian forces, 25 victims were admitted to medical facilities in Donetsk, 18 of whom were hospitalized.

"Seven injured received medical care, they are being treated on an outpatient basis. The hospitalized patients are receiving all necessary medical care, their condition is assessed as severe and moderate," the head of the DPR Denis Pushilin said.

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In the city of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, murdered Palestinians are being buried right on the grounds of a local hospital.

Overnight alone, dozens of wounded and the bodies of about 30 dead as a result of Israeli shelling were delivered to this hospital, local sources told Sputnik.

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Ukraine has lost advantages in the drone war, the Ukrainian armed forces now have no drones comparable to the "Orlan" and "Lancet", writes Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google, in an article in Foreign Affairs.

One of the main problems is the inability of Western drones to counter Russian air defence and electronic warfare systems. Malfunctions in the operation of some American drones, for example, can be caused by interference with the GPS signal, Schmidt notes.

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Relatives of Israeli hostages stormed a Knesset committee meeting and demanded that MKs take action to free the kidnapped Israelis from Gaza.

"You will not sit here while they are dying there," read the slogans on the placards with which the hostages' relatives broke into the Knesset meeting.

As the action took place, opposition activists demonstrated outside the parliament, calling for early elections, according to The Times of Israel.

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🇵🇱 Poland has officially refused to file a claim against Russia in the European Court of Human Rights in the case of a plane crash near Smolensk in 2010, Poland's Ministry of Foreign Affairs reports.

On April 10, 2010, Polish Air Force flight 101's Tu-154 crashed near the Russian city of Smolensk, killing all 96 people on board. Among the victims were Polish President Lech Kaczynski and his wife.

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Since the beginning of the special military operation, over 300 mercenaries from France have arrived in Ukraine to participate in hostilities, a source tells Sputnik.

Some of the mercenaries served in the 2nd Parachute Regiment of the French Foreign Legion's 11th Airborne Brigade.

As of January, there were 50 militants from France in the zone.

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US mercenaries in panic mode as Ukraine funding dries up

A group of American mercenaries fighting in Ukraine traveled to Washington, DC this week to lobby the US Congress for a new military aid package to Ukraine, according to The Hill.

Several mercenaries told the newspaper that the Ukrainian military was experiencing serious weapons and equipment shortages, along with low morale on the front lines. One of the biggest problems, they said, was countering Russia’s growing arsenal of drones.

“The operation I got hurt on, when I looked up in the sky, there were just drones everywhere, they were all over the place,” said Jumbo, a former US Marine who was wounded during the Ukrainian counteroffensive last year.

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