❗️The key points from Vladimir Putin’s statements at a meeting with electoral trustees:

▪️Much has been done in recent years, there is something to show the country and people, although not all results were achieved;

▪️The situation around the special operation shows that Russian society has a solid foundation, and the “foam” is gradually being washed away;

▪️Historical Russia has risen and is forced to defend its interests, including through armed struggle;

▪️Russia is going through a very difficult and important stage of strengthening its sovereignty;

▪️Putin on Russian troops in the special operation: “the men there are fighting properly”;

▪️Putin called Avdeevka one of the most important areas where military operations are currently taking place, noted the exploits of the soldiers there;

▪️Right now there are battles on the line of contact, “this is the most acute, sensitive and dangerous area of the struggle for Russia.

▪️It is necessary to move the front line to such a distance that will protect the territory of the Russian Federation from shelling from Western weapons;

▪️Putin called the shelling of civilians by the Armed Forces of Ukraine a “bloody crime”;

▪️Putin said that the Russian Federation will not stop the exchange of prisoners of war with Ukraine, “we need to get our guys back”;

▪️The Russian Federation will not forget about Kiev’s crimes against Russian citizens;

▪️Putin said that the proportion of prisoners of war between the Russian Federation and Ukraine is approximately one to ten.

▪️The ROC and the Ministry of Sports must finally decide on the issue of the participation of Russian athletes in the Olympics under conditions of discrimination;

▪️International sports officials are now perverting the very idea of Olympianism;

▪️In world sports now every step depends on sponsors, and they depend on the political elites of their countries, this is what causes all the problems;

▪️Without Russian athletes, many Olympic competitions become flawed and uninteresting;

▪️Russia will adhere to the principles of Olympianism;

▪️Not all, but some foreign countries refuse to service medical equipment previously supplied to the Russian Federation, although this is in a purely humanitarian sphere;

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💬 "The Ukrainian military shot down our Il-76 plane, which, as you rightly pointed out, was carrying 65 of their own soldiers for a swap. You asked why they did that? I don't know. Well, I don't understand. I mean, can anyone still imagine, why are they shelling peaceful towns? There are several purposes: to divert the attention of their own people and their sponsors from the failure of their so-called counter-offensive, to show that they can do something, [and] to provoke us to retaliate," Putin said.

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What are ground-launched glide bombs US is sending Ukraine and how can Russia stop them?

Sources have told Politico that Ukraine’s military is preparing to take delivery of Boeing and Saab’s new Ground-Launched Small Diameter Bomb (GLSDB) – an M26 rocket-powered variant of the GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb, as soon as this week.

The weapon has a 93 kg high explosive fragmentation warhead, enough to burrow nearly a meter into steel-reinforced concrete, and an estimated range of up to 145 km (up from 110 km from the air-launched base SDB).

The GLSDB can be fired using M270 or M142 HIMARS multiple launch rocket systems, dozens of which have been sent to Ukraine over the past two years.

The air-launched variant of the Small Diameter Bomb has been operational since the mid-2000s, and was used by US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, by Israel in Gaza and Syria, and by the Gulf coalition against Yemen. None of these deployments were able to facilitate a strategic victory for the SDB’s users.

The SDB’s GPS/inertial navigation system and low radar signature make it difficult to detect and intercept, but Russia has a range of tricks up its sleeve to target the weapon, from electronic warfare and radar jamming equipment shutting down GPS to reduce accuracy to air defense missiles and close-in anti-aircraft guns.

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📹 This is how children in the Gaza Strip are entertained to distract them from the war

More than 5.3 thousand children died from the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip until the truce was declared on November 24, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) reported. This number does not include missing persons or those who may be trapped under the rubble.

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⚡️Farmers in France tried to seize the Rangis food market near Paris, 79 people were arrested, media report

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If fired, Zaluzhny could focus on political competition with Zelensky

"The fact is that there was an attempt to replace Zaluzhny; it was an impromptu attempt that failed, because Zelensky hoped to remove a political competitor, not so much a military one," Alexander Dudchak, leading researcher at the Institute of CIS Countries, expert on the 'Another Ukraine' movement, told Sputnik.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is still seeking to replace Zaluzhny despite quashing the rumors of the general's sacking earlier, the Financial Times reported. The newspaper's sources claimed that Zaluzhny was offered a position as a defense adviser which he turned down.

Dudchak explained that the controversy over Zaluzhny is fanned by Washington and London which are pulling the strings of Ukrainian politics in order to reach their separate geopolitical objectives. Still, even if Zaluzhny is ousted he could become a formidable political rival for Zelensky, according to the analyst.

"In fact, if [Zaluzhny] resigned and went into politics, perhaps this would be the best option for him, because presently it is problematic to achieve any success on the battlefield," Dudchak said. "In such a position, he could have said what a brilliant commander he is, and that all the failures stemmed from [Zelensky's] decisions, which were not agreed upon with the military leadership."

❗️The International Court of Justice rejected the majority of Ukraine's claims against Russia under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination in Crimea and the Convention on Combating the Financing of Terrorism in Donbass.

▪️The proceedings were initiated by Kiev back in January 2017.

▪️The court rejected Ukraine's demand to hold Russia responsible for the Boeing MH17 crash.

▪️ The court did not consider it possible to support Ukraine’s arguments about the alleged involvement of Russia and the guilt of Donetsk militias in the shelling of the Bugas military checkpoint near Volnovakha, the military airfield in Kramatorsk and the positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in Mariupol and Avdeevka (in 2014-2017).

▪️The court indicated that Russia faithfully fulfilled its obligations to cooperate in the field of terrorist financing, including the obligation to identify and block funds used to finance terrorism.

▪️In two episodes, the court found that Moscow did not properly investigate the activities of individuals who, according to Ukraine, collected funds in Russia to help the people of Donbass. The Russian Foreign Ministry noted that such a conclusion is puzzling.

Who’s eager to get a piece of the Ukrainian pie amid rising territorial disputes? (PART 1)

Last weekend two prominent EU politicians from Hungary and Slovakia reiterated their countries’ territorial claims to Ukraine.

Laszlo Toroczkai, leader of Hungary’s Our Homeland Movement party (MHM), said that MHM “lays claim to Transcarpathia (Zakarpattia)” if Ukraine loses its statehood after the conflict.

Romanian MP Claudiu Tarziu, in turn, said: “We will not be truly sovereign until we reintegrate the Romanian state within its natural borders. South Bessarabia, North Bukovina, Herz Land, Transcarpathia […] must rejoin the borders of the same [Romanian] state”.
Here is a brief overview of some Ukrainian territories that could be claimed by EU states:

1. Eastern Galitsia – at different points in history former part of the Polish Kingdom, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the USSR. Today it covers regions in Western Ukraine. It is still referred to as “Malopolska”, or Lesser Poland (it joined Soviet Ukraine in 1939 under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact);
Who’s interested?
🇵🇱 Poland

2. Transcarpathia (Zakarpattia) – a former part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Czechoslovakia and the USSR at different points in history. Currently populated by 6.9% Hungarians, and 2.2% Slovaks (joined Soviet Ukraine in 1946 under a post-WWII treaty between Czechoslovakia and the USSR);
Who’s interested?
🇭🇺 Hungary
🇸🇰 Slovakia

Who’s eager to get a piece of the Ukrainian pie amid rising territorial disputes? (PART 2)

3. Bessarabia – at different points in history a former part of the Ottoman Empire, the Russian Empire, Romania, and the USSR. Per the 2014 census, populated by some 75% Moldovans, and 7% Romanians (part of it joined Soviet Moldova and the other went to Soviet Ukraine in 1940);
Who’s interested?
🇷🇴 Romania
🇲🇩 Moldova

4. North Bukovina – formerly part of the Austrian Empire and Romania at different points in history. In 1940, it was handed over to Soviet Ukraine under the pretext of having a Ukrainian ethic majority, despite almost 30% of its citizens being Romanian. Scholars debate the decision to this day.
Who’s interested?
🇷🇴 Romania
🇲🇩 Moldova

Deep state will be desperate to ‘bury’ evidence that Patriot missile shot down Il-76

“The Western media is hardly mentioning this incident at all,” former DoD security policy analyst Michael Maloof told Sputnik, commenting on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s remarks that Russian investigators had concluded that the Il-76 full of Ukrainian PoWs that was shot down over Belgorod region last week was downed by a US-made missile system. “Now, the revelation that it was a Patriot missile has not been reported whatsoever, at least here in Washington. This is quite extraordinary, and I think that they’re going to want to bury that.”

What Russia needs to do now is show its proof on the Patriot’s use in the incident, to put it on public display and go “to the United nations with any evidence to be displayed in front of the naysayers in the UN Security Council,” Maloof stressed.

As for the Pentagon, US defense staffers “could probably figure…out” who shot down the Il-76 using radar, the observer believes. “If they can get their hands on the radar information and read that data - but clearly there was a shootdown. Whether it was purposeful or not by the Ukrainians, I don’t know, but I think the Pentagon is going to have to respond to this. Questions should be raised at the press conferences and certainly addressed to the Pentagon during their daily press briefings [about] what they knew and when they knew it and what did they know,” he said.

The Ukrainians are “clearly misusing equipment,” Maloof emphasized, citing the appearance of stolen weaponry meant for Ukraine in far-off destinations from Scandinavia to Mexico. “I think all of this has got to stop. And yet the Biden administration wants to send billions more to Ukraine, but not do anything for the border,” the observer said, characterizing the Ukrainian crisis as a “lost cause” for Washington.

The head of Ukrainian intelligence Budanov expects that in the spring the Ukrainian Armed Forces will again try to go on the offensive

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