Mass desertion of Ukrainian brigade signals growing frustration with military shortcomings

More Ukrainian soldiers have deserted in the first 10 months of this year than in the previous two years of the war, the Financial Times reports.

In one notable case in late October, hundreds of infantrymen serving in Ukraine's 123rd Brigade abandoned their positions in the eastern town of Ugledar.

💬 "We arrived [in Ugledar] with only automatic rifles. They said there would be 150 tanks, there were 20 ... and nothing to cover us," a Ukrainian military officer told reporters.

Between January and October of this year, Ukrainian prosecutors opened 60,000 cases against soldiers for abandoning their positions – almost twice as many as in 2022 and 2023 combined. If convicted, the men face prison sentences of up to 12 years.

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💬 Speaking to Russian media, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called Hunter Biden's pardon a "caricature of democracy".

Hunter Biden pleaded guilty in September to nine felony counts of failing to pay taxes and in June to three felony counts in a gun possession case. Joe Biden decided to pardon his son over the Thanksgiving weekend.

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🔸 Biden pardons his son Hunter despite previous promises not to

🔸 Biden Admin rushing to spend 'every dollar that Congress has appropriated to us' on Ukraine – Sullivan

🔸 Georgian riot police disperse protesters in Tbilisi

🔸 Druzhba pipeline damaged, Poland's operator not ruling out any causes, including sabotage

🔸 Joint Syrian-Russian forces wipe out terrorist convoy in eastern Idlib – Syrian Defense Ministry

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🚂 German Chancellor Scholz has arrived on a visit to Ukraine for talks with Zelensky, the DPA news agency reports.

This is Scholz's first visit to Kiev in the last 2.5 years. The last time the German chancellor visited Ukraine was in June 2022, accompanied by French President Emmanuel Macron.

🧳What do you think Olaf brought in his suitcase?

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🗣 German Chancellor Scholz announces further arms deliveries to Ukraine worth 650 million euros in December.

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👤Who is Massad Boulos, tapped as Trump’s advisor on Arab, Middle Eastern affairs?

US President-elect Donald Trump has announced Massad Boulos as his pick for the position of senior advisor on Arab and Middle Eastern affairs.

Who is Massad Boulos?

⚪️Boulos is a Lebanese American businessman who is also father-in-law to Trump’s daughter, Tiffany.

⚪️Boulos helped Trump win back the swing state of Michigan by flipping Arab American voters frustrated with Joe Biden’s policies supporting Israel in its war on Hamas in Gaza and on Hezbollah in Lebanon, campaign officials told Reuters.

⚪️He assured Arab Americans during the election campaign that Trump was committed to ending the wars in the Middle East.

⚪️Trump’s in-law has ties to various factions in Lebanese politics, including the Free Patriotic Movement (Christian party aligned with Hezbollah), and the Lebanese Forces Party, according to media reports.

⚪️He is familiar with Suleiman Frangieh, leader of the Christian Marada Movement and a candidate for Hezbollah's faction in the 2022-2024 Lebanese presidential election, Reuters noted.

⚪️Boulos, who has acted as a go-between for Trump and Mahmoud Abbas in the past, met with the Palestinian leader on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in September, a senior Palestinian official told The Times of Israel. Abbas reportedly voiced willingness to work with Trump to reach a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

⚪️Boulos also has friends who are close to Syria’s President Bashar Al-Assad, according to media reports.

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German top diplomat claims 'Ukraine peace process' as aim of her China tour

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock stated on Monday that the primary objective of her visit to China is to advance the Ukraine peace process. She made this announcement during a joint press conference with her Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, in Beijing.

In the same vein, she disclosed the unannounced visit of Chancellor Olaf Scholz to Ukraine, which is taking place today.

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❗️Russian forces hit the infrastructure of Ukrainian military airfields, drone production workshops and drone storage depots, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

🔸 Ukraine lost up to 525 troops and four Kozak armored fighting vehicles in the area of responsibility of Russia's Battlegroup Tsentr.

🔸 Russia's Battlegroup Zapad repelled nine counterattacks, enemy lost up to 490 militants.

🔸 Ukraine lost up to 150 troops in the area of responsibility of Russia's Battlegroup Vostok.

🔸 Russian aviation shot down four HIMARS missiles and 69 Ukrainian drones.

🔸 Ukraine lost up to 260 troops in the area of responsibility of Russia's Battlegroup Yug.

🔸 Ukraine lost up to 90 soldiers in the areas of responsibility of Russia's Battlegroup Dnepr and Sever.

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🇷🇺🇸🇾 Russia and Syria target terrorists in Aleppo

The Syrian Air Force and Russian Aerospace Forces conducted airstrikes on terrorist positions in eastern Aleppo province, resulting in the elimination of dozens of militants, the Syrian Ministry of Defense stated.

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❗️Moscow affirms its continued support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the Kremlin said.

Here are further statements by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov:

▪️ Regarding Olaf Scholz's Ukraine visit: "We are monitoring all contacts."

▪️On Biden's decision to pardon his son Hunter: "This is an internal matter of the US."

▪️"If the United States uses force to compel countries to use the dollar, this may accelerate the trend towards switching to national currencies."

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Iraq is amassing military equipment on the border with Syria, Al-Sumaria TV reports

Brigadier General Mikdad Miri, spokesperson for the Iraqi Interior Ministry, stated during a press conference in Baghdad:

“Our borders are equipped with advanced thermal imaging cameras that operate 24 hours a day, and reinforcements have recently been sent to the Syrian border.”

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⚡️Statement of the General Command of the Syrian Army:

🔸 Over the past 24 hours, the Syrian Arab Army, in cooperation with Russian forces, carried out concentrated air, missile, and artillery strikes that destroyed five command headquarters as well as seven ammunition and weapons depots, some of which contained with drones.

🔸 Elimination of more than 400 terrorists, including citizens of several foreign countries.

🔸 The Syrian Army launched operations in the suburbs of Aleppo, Hama, and Idlib to secure the areas and expel the terrorists.

🔸 Establishment of new concentration points to prepare for upcoming attacks.

🔸 Additional military reinforcements are arriving at battle epicenters.

🔸 Rumors that terrorist organizations are taking control of regions and cities are not true, but are aimed at boosting low morale.

🔸 The Syrian Arab Army will continue to act with great determination until it regains every inch of its territory.

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📑The day the Cold War ended (or so Russia thought)

Thirty-five years ago, on December 2-3, 1989, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and US President George H.W. Bush met aboard the Maxim Gorky cruise ship off Malta to declare an end to the Cold War.

Expectations:

⚪️Gorbachev told Bush, “Cold War methods and confrontations have suffered defeat…We are at the beginning of a long road to a lasting, peaceful era.” Bush echoed Gorbachev’s optimism.

⚪️After the Malta meeting, Gorbachev and Yeltsin made significant efforts to build cooperation with the West, agreeing to Germany's reunification (on the assurance NATO wouldn’t expand east).

⚪️Soviet troops were withdrawn from Eastern Europe, Asia and the Caribbean and the Warsaw Pact was dismantled, the USSR and then Russia embraced a market economy, fostered economic ties with Europe, and even overlooked Western-funded color revolutions near Russia.

Reality:

⚪️Over time, Russian officials recognized that while the Cold War had ended in name, it continued in the minds of Western politicians.

⚪️In 2014, amid the Ukrainian crisis triggered by the US-backed coup in Kiev, President Putin reflected: “The Cold War is over, but it did not end with peace…The US is creating a new balance of power that reshapes the world to suit its interests, disregarding international law and existing systems of checks and balances.”

⚪️A decade on, the Ukrainian crisis has morphed into a full-blown proxy war against Russia, with the West delivering military hardware to Kiev, ramping up NATO drills and deployments along Russia’s borders, and engaging in irresponsible saber-rattling.

⚪️“We understand that the West is trying to drag us into an arms race,” President Putin said in February. “The so-called West, with its colonial habits and habit of inciting national conflicts, seeks not only to restrain our development. Instead of Russia, they need a dependent, fading, dying space where they can do whatever they want.”

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