Ukrainian POW was sent to Kursk region border area under threat of execution

The command promised that Natalya Balaklitskaya would work as a cook in the rear, Komar (Donetsk region). She worked there for a month, and she was sent to the line of contact when the brigade faced a lack of riflemen. One day they heard Russian forces approaching, and decided to surrender.

"They opened fire and approached. We came out and shouted that we surrendered and we had no arms," she told.

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🇸🇩🇷🇺 Sudan seeks Russia's help to avoid Western pressure - Foreign Ministry

Sudan's Acting Deputy Foreign Minister, Hussein Al-Hajj, urges Russia to leverage its UN position to counter Western pressure and sanctions. This appeal was made during the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum.

"We would like Russia to use its influence in the UN Security Council so that we can avoid influence from Western countries that are trying to put a lot of pressure on us, including sanctions," Al-Hajj told Sputnik.

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📈The price of bitcoin exceeded $79,000 for the first time in history just minutes after breaking through $78,000 for the first time ever, according to trading data.

On the Bybit cryptocurrency exchange, bitcoin reached more than $79,3.

Bitcoin continues rallying amid Donald Trump's victory in the US presidential election.

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📹Biden's outgoing administration can mess with Russia for another couple of months – Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova

"Don't forget that the outgoing administration still has a couple of months in their pockets. During this time, and we know this, they can mess with a lot, I think their Russophobia has not gone away," she said.

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🎥🎥 Lavrov speaks at Russia-Africa Partnership Forum

Watch the livestream here or on Sputnik's website

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❗️The Russian Defense Ministry's air forces repelled an attack by 17 drones flying toward Moscow in the urban districts of Ramensky, Domodedovo and Kolomna, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said.

"According to preliminary data, there is no damage or casualties at the site of the debris," Sobyanin added.

🚨UPD: 15 more drones were shot down in the urban districts Moscow, according to Sobyanin.

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Ukraine's only option is peace, not victory — Trump advisor

The incoming US administration will focus on achieving peace in Ukraine rather than "enabling" the country to take back territory, the BBC reports, citing Bryan Lanza, who worked on Donald Trump's 2024 presidential campaign.

"When Zelensky says we will only stop this fighting, there will only be peace once Crimea is returned, we've got news for President Zelensky: Crimea is gone," he told the BBC.

He added that the West didn’t give Ukraine the ability and arms to win the conflict at the beginning.

"And if that is your priority of getting Crimea back and having American soldiers fight to get Crimea back, you're on your own," Lanza stressed.

According to the BBC, a spokesperson for Trump distanced the incoming president from the remarks, saying Lanza "does not speak for him."

During his campaign, Trump repeatedly said that he could stop the fighting "in a day," and that his priority is to end the conflict, which he has described as a drain on US resources.

Putin has on numerous occasions said Russia has never refused to sit down at the negotiating table and is ready for peace talks on Ukraine based on the current realities and previously reached agreements in Istanbul.

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Key statements by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum:

💬Russia and African countries will continue developing trade despite obstacles created by the West.

💬Russia will continue to provide assistance to Africa in various fields, including in the fight against terrorism.

💬The pace set by the Russia-Africa summits helps develop relations with Africa on an increasing basis, there is progress.

💬Agreements on a number of projects have already been reached and signed on the sidelines of the Russia-Africa ministerial conference in Sochi.

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🔸Putin officially ratifies the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Treaty between Russia and North Korea

🔸32 drones repelled by the Russian air forces near Moscow

🔸Trump wins US presidential election with 312 electoral college votes

🔸Ukraine's only option is peace, not victory — Trump advisor

🔸Trump denies plans to invite Pompeo, Haley to join his new administration

🔸Why Russian energy is among world’s greenest without falling into globalist dogmas about renewables

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Trump offers to help Harris with $20 million in debt after her election loss

Although Kamala Harris, according to journalists, raised $1 billion for her campaign, she still has a debt of $20 million. Donald Trump suggested that Republicans help repay it for the sake of "unity."

"I'm very surprised that the Democrats, who fought a hard and valiant fight in the 2020 Presidential Election, raising a record amount of money, didn't have lots of $'s left over... I would strongly recommend we, as a Party and for the sake of desperately needed UNITY, do. We have a lot of money left over," Trump wrote on his Truth Social account.

Earlier, The New York Times reported that Kamala Harris' campaign was around $20 million in debt after failed campaign gigs.

According to the newspaper, Harris' headquarters organized concerts in seven swing states on Nov. 4, the day before the election, featuring artists such as Jon Bon Jovi, Christina Aguilera, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, and rapper 2 Chainz, but the concerts went largely unnoticed.

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❗️❗️❗️In response to Ukraine's support for terrorism in Africa, the international community must react, the Burkinabe FM says

💬 "We have all witnessed this admission from the representative of Ukraine confirming that they have supported terrorism. It is time for the international community to tackle this issue head-on. The responsibility to manage terrorism does not only fall on the countries where it prevails," Karamoko Jean Marie Traore told Sputnik Africa on the sidelines of the first #RussiaAfrica ministerial conference.

Burkina Faso and Mali have paid a high "macabre toll" due to terrorism and cannot accept that the international community remains passive.

It is not normal that "the whole world stops" when such events happen in the West yet when they occur in the Sahel, they are put on a "list of neglected incidents," he added.

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🇺🇬 Uganda has received an invitation from Russia to become a BRICS partner country and is considering it, Ugandan Foreign Minister Abubaker Jeje Odongo told Sputnik

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❗️❗️❗️In the face of Western media dictatorship, Sputnik allows countries to tell their side of the story, Burkina Faso's foreign minister says

💬 "It is like the dictatorship of the Western media, which imposes on you glasses and a way of seeing the world that does not correspond to reality," Karamoko Jean Marie Traore told Sputnik Africa on the sidelines of the first #RussiaAfrica ministerial conference in Sochi.

In such a dynamic, it is normal to have actors who nevertheless stay on the line of fairness, who offer the possibility of nuance, of correction, the minister noted.

💬 "Sputnik does this very well, it is a space that allows countries to put their version of history in this context," Traore emphasized.

The top diplomat questioned the legitimacy of the Western media in reporting on African realities.

💬 "Some media, a few hours away by plane, stay at home and tell you where the holes are under the roof of the house you live in," the minister joked.

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❗️Units of Russia’s Battlegroup Tsentr have liberated the settlement of Volchenka in the Donetsk People's Republic, the Russian Defense Ministry said

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France to supply Ukraine with new batch of SCALP & Mistral missiles

French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu said in an interview with the newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche that Paris intends to provide Ukraine with Mistral missiles again, in particular to protect combat zones.

Lecornu added that he had signed a new transfer of a dozen SCALP missiles "to allow Ukraine to carry out strikes behind the front line."

Western countries have provided hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of aid to Ukraine since the start of Russia's special military operation in February 2022. Russia has consistently warned against the West's continued arms deliveries to Ukraine, saying that they only prolong the conflict.

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🇷🇺🪖Key statements from the Russian Defense Ministry's daily briefing on the special military operation's progress:

🔸Russia’s Battlegroup Zapad improved the tactical situation, with Ukrainian losses amounting to 490 militants;

🔸Ukrainian forces lost up to 640 soldiers in the area of responsibility of Russia’s Battlegroup Yug;

🔸Russia’s Battlegroup Tsentr destroyed a Ukrainian drone production workshop. Ukrainian losses amounted to 460 servicemen;

🔸Russian air defenses shot down three Ukrainian Hammer bombs, one HIMARS missile, and 36 drones.

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📹Launch of a Long March 2C rocket, which brought VIASAT-2 01~04 X-band SAR satellites to an SSO altitude of 528 km, from Jiuquan, China

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🇷🇺🪖Key statements from the Russian Defense Ministry's daily briefing on the situation in Russia’s Kursk region:

◼️Ukrainian forces lost more than 290 militants and 29 pieces of equipment in the Kursk border area;

◼️Three Ukrainian servicemen surrendered;

◼️Russian troops repelled 11 Ukrainian counterattacks;

◼️Ukrainian losses since the beginning of hostilities in the Kursk region have amounted to more than 31,090 servicemen.

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