The chances of reaching a peace agreement on the Ukrainian conflict under Trump will be "greater than ever", Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told RIA Novosti.

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❗️Ukraine mounted three waves of drones to attack civilian infrastructure in Russian city of Kazan
 
Kiev used three waves of drone attacks from different directions to hit civilian targets in Kazan; three drones were destroyed, and three more were suppressed by electronic warfare, the Russian Defense Ministry informed.
 
As a result of the attacks, a fire broke out in houses in three districts, Sovetsky, Kirovsky and Privolzhsky, the mayor's office said.
 
Operational services are working at the site of the fire; all necessary assistance is being provided, and evacuated residents will be provided with food and accommodation.

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Nobody knows why Oreshnik missile is named that way, but Pink Floyd legend may have a clue

We bet anyone in the know about the new Russian nuclear-capable intermediate-range ballistic missile Oreshnik (lit. hazelnut tree) ponders why it got such a name. Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters shares his own inkling on the matter.

🔸Hazelnut tree resemblance

Speaking to Sputnik, the UK rock group legend suggested the missile was called “Oreshnik” because it drops several “nuts” when the weapon hits the target, in an apparent reference to the missile’s submunitions, which resemble clusters of hazelnuts.

Waters added jokingly that he cannot think of another reason for a missile to be named after a tree.

🔸Even Putin wonders

Answering the same question during his annual "Direct Line" question-and-answer session and end-of-year press conference on December 19, Russian President Vladimir Putin admitted to being in the dark about it.

🔸A sobering strike on Dnepropetrovsk

This came after Waters told Sputnik earlier this month that he thinks Russia’s recent use of the Oreshnik missile made Volodymyr Zelensky think once or twice about what he might do in the next two months.

The remarks followed Putin’s statement that Russia has successfully test-fired the Oreshnik missile on November 21, hitting a Ukrainian defense industry complex in the city of Dnepropetrovsk, in response to Kiev using the US- and UK-supplied missiles to strike facilities in Russia's Kursk and Bryansk regions.

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🔸Pepe Escobar, veteran geopolitical analyst, weighs on Putin’s address
 
🔸British car industry experiences worst month since 1980
 
🔸What is known about terror attack in Magdeburg

🔸Rock music legend shares his theory why Oreshnik missile is named that way

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⚡️The death toll from the terrorist attack in Magdeburg has increased to 4; 205 people were injured, German media reported.

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❗️Russian troops have liberated the village of Ostrovskogo in the Donetsk People's Republic, the Russian Defense Ministry announced

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❗️Russian aviation and artillery has destroyed energy facilities that support the operation of Ukrainian military industrial complex enterprises and the infrastructure of military airfields.

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

🔸 Ukrainian forces lost 110 militants in the area of responsibility of the Russian Sever and Dnepr Battlegroups

🔸 Ukrainian losses amounted to 440 soldiers and an ammunition depot from the actions of the Russian Zapad combat group;

🔸 Russian Tsentr Battlegroup continued to advance into the depth of the enemy's defense; Ukrainian troops lost up to 580 soldiers and a Leopard tank;

🔸 Russian air defense systems destroyed eight HIMARS shells and Ukrainian 89 drones.

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Nazi apologizer and shrewd relations spoiler: Check out the profile of new Ukrainian envoy to UN

Volodymyr Zelensky hasn’t thought twice before appointing Andriy Melnyk, who is notorious for his rude and controversial remarks, as Ukraine’s new representative to the UN. Let’s check out Melnyk’s record.

🔸In May 2022, then-Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany Melnyk slammed German Chancellor Olaf Scholz for not yet visiting Kiev in a show of support as other European leaders had done.

🔸“Acting like a sulky liver sausage doesn’t sound very statesmanlike,” Melnyk said at the time, referencing Scholz’s reluctance to visit Ukraine weeks after Kiev refused to invite German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

🔸Several months later, Melnyk used obscene language toward billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk over the latter’s plan on a peaceful settlement of the Ukraine conflict.

🔸“F**k off is my very diplomatic reply to you elonmusk”, the 49-year-old wrote on his X (formerly Twitter) page back then. Musk responded by switching off Ukraine's access to the Starlink satellite network.

🔸Also in 2022, Melnyk provoked public uproar by claiming that Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera “was not a mass murderer of Jews and Poles” during the Second World War and that “there is no proof that Bandera supporters killed hundreds of thousands of Jews."

🔸And last year, Melnyk, then-Ukrainian Ambassador to Brazil, said that his country is not supported by "naughty Brazilian land.”

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❗️Ukrainian losses in the Russian Kursk region amounted to more than 300 soldiers per day, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
 
Among the destroyed vehicles are one tank and two Bradley infantry fighting vehicles manufactured in the USA.

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❗️🇨🇳 China protests Pentagon report on it's military development

Beijing's Defense Ministry has accused Washington of using military superiority to maintain unipolar hegemony and provoke "color revolutions", adding that US military strategy is becoming increasingly confrontational and that it has become the biggest threat to global security.

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New Syrian authorities appoint Assad Hassan al-Shibani as foreign minister in the interim government, according to Sana news agency.

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Russian FPV drones destroyed a Leopard tank of the Ukrainian forces in the Kharkov region, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

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❗️Five people were killed and more than 200 injured in a terror attack in Magdeburg, Germany, Saxony-Anhalt MP Reiner Haseloff confirmed

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Cutting-edge Tucha missile ship admitted to Russian Navy – Russian Defense Ministry

“In Kaspiysk, at the naval base of for the Caspian Fleet, a grand ceremony of admission of the Project 22800 'Tucha' missile ship to the Russian navy has taken place. The admission to the Russian Navy and rising of the St. Andrew’s Flag has been held under the leadership of deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy, vice-admiral Igor Mukhametshin,” the ministry said.

At the ceremony, Mukhametshin thanked the staff of the Zelenodolsk Shipyard for their contribution and expressed certainty that the ship’s crew will successfully perform all the tasks.

The ceremony was also attended by Commander of the Caspian Flotilla Oleg Zverev and Zelenodolsk Shipyard CEO Alexander Filippov.

Tucha is the fourth ship of Project 22800. Its construction was launched in 2019 and finished in 2023. The ships of this type have high-precision rocket weapon complexes.

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How the US uses ‘spy craze’ to crack down on Chinese high-tech firms

As relations between the US and China soured amid the trade war started by Washington during Trump’s first presidency, US authorities became increasingly prone to accusing Chinese companies of posing a threat to national security.

🔸Router manufacturer TP-Link has become one of the latest victims of this trend as US authorities now investigate allegations of TP-Link supplying routers containing security flaws that supposedly allow malicious actors use them to conduct cyberattacks.

🔸TP-Link currently controls about 65% of the “US market for routers for homes and small businesses,” The Wall Street Journal notes, not to mention that it “powers internet communications for the Defense Department and other federal government agencies.”

🔸Meanwhile, a Microsoft report unveiled in October alleged that Chinese hackers employed a network comprised of compromised devices that consisted mostly of TP-Link routers to carry out cyberattacks.

🔸Commenting on the TP-Link case, a spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington told The Wall Street Journal that the United States seeks to “suppress Chinese companies” under the pretense of protecting its national security.

In 2022, the US banned the import and sale of communications and video surveillance equipment produced by five Chinese companies – ZTE, Huawei, Hikvision, Dahua and Hytera – claiming that these pose a risk to US national security. Huawei was also prohibited by the United States and some of its allies like Japan from building 5G networks on their soil as they supposedly could be used for espionage by you-know-who.

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❗️The attack on the capital of Tatarstan is revenge for the successful BRICS Summit, commented Russian FM spokeswoman Maria Zakharova regarding the drone attacks on the Russian city of Kazan.

"We call on the world community to assess the crimes of Zelensky's junta," said Zakharova, outraged by the demonstrative hypocritical silence of the "collective West."

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Lessons never learned: How US pushes Taiwan's militarization

Taiwan has received a first batch of 38 US-made Abrams tanks, with 70 more such armored vehicles due to be delivered to the island before the end of 2026.

Let’s delve into what other military equipment Washington sold to Taipei under outgoing US President Joe Biden between 2021 and 2024, and what American weapons Taiwan plans to purchase. Information is based on open sources and media reports.

Already bought (approved deals are worth about worth $7 billion):

Missile systems

🔸3 National advanced surface-to-air missile systems (NASAMS)
🔸29 M142 high mobility artillery rocket systems (HIMARS)
🔸Undisclosed number of MGM-140 army tactical missile systems (ATACMS)

Missiles:

🔺100 AGM-88B HARM and 23 HARM training missiles
🔺AGM-84L-1 Harpoon Block II anti-ship missiles
🔺AIM-9X Block II Sidewinder air-to-air missiles.
🔺spare parts for F-16 fighters and radars

Communications

⚪️ The AN/TPS-77 and AN/TPS-78 radar systems

Plus

🔹720 Switchblade loitering munitions
🔹An M136 Volcano vehicle-launched scatterable mine system
🔹spare parts for F-16 fighters and radars

To be purchased (package is worth more than $15 billion):

▪️60 F-35 fifth-generation fighter jets
▪️4 E-2D Hawkeye tactical airborne early warning aircraft
▪️10 retired unspecified warships
▪️400 interceptor missiles for the Patriot missile systems
▪️An Aegis destroyer

Beijing, which considers Taiwan an essential part of China, has repeatedly lashed out at America’s weapon sales to Taiwan, which it says undermines Chinese-US relations and jeopardizes peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.

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Brazil has unveiled the logo to be used during its 2025 BRICS presidency: the sumauma cotton tree that grows in the Amazon rainforest.

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🇷🇴 Bucharest should explain itself and take back its words, Russian FM spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Sputnik amid the results of the investigation in Romania into "interference" of the Russian Federation in the presidential elections.

The Romanian tax service previously established that the TikTok campaign of the winner of the cancelled first round of the elections, Calin Georgescu, was paid for by the National Liberal Party of Romania. At the same time, Romanian authorities have repeatedly hinted at the possibility of Moscow interfering in the elections at the official level.

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