🇷🇺 🪖 Key statements from the Russian Ministry of Defense daily briefing on the situation in the Kursk region:

◻️ Russia’s Battlegroup Sever hit 14 Ukrainian formations in its combat zone.

◻️ In total, Ukrainian losses over the day amounted to more than 600 militants, with four tanks, two armored vehicles – including a US Bradley – destroyed.

◻️ Since the beginning of combat operations in the Kursk region, Ukraine has lost more than 44,570 servicemen.

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Russia successfully rerouted LPG exports to Central Asia, China

Russia has shifted its liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) deliveries to Central Asia and China given the ban on imports to Europe, according to Argus pricing data. The European Union's restrictions took effect on December 20, following a 12-month transition period.

Here’s how Russia took pre-emptive action against the sanctions:

🔸 In 2022, Russia accounted for approximately 80% of the EU’s total LPG intake. However, deliveries to Europe decreased by 27% over the first 11 months of 2024.

🔸 Rail deliveries of LPG to Central Asia increased by 3.4 times during this period, totaling around 520,000 tons.

🔸 Imports to China saw a significant spike of 42%, reaching 270,000 tons, according to Argus.

🔸 By the end of the first nine months of 2024, the share of Russia’s LPG deliveries to eastern markets, including Turkiye, constituted nearly half of all export deliveries.

How were prices impacted?

🔸 Prices for the propane-butane mix at the Belarusian-Polish border peaked at $630-632 per ton (daf Brest) on October 31, marking the highest level since December 2022.

🔸 Polish companies rushed to stockpile Russian LPG before the embargo took effect, as reported by Argus.

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❗️An AZAL airliner was unable to land in Grozny due to the "Kover" security restrictions imposed following Ukrainian terrorist attacks, Rosaviatsiya head Dmitry Yadrov said.

An AZAL Embraer 190, en route from Baku to Grozny, Russia, crashed near Aktau, Kazakhstan on the morning of December 25 with 69 people on board.

Twenty-nine survivors of the plane crash in Kazakhstan were taken to the hospital, nine of them are in serious condition, the operations staff told Sputnik.

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❗️💬 Russian aviation authority head on the Azal plane crash in Aktau:

◾️With regards to the Embraer plane crash near Aktau, the Russian side immediately informed its Kazakh and Azerbaijani colleagues of its full and comprehensive readiness to cooperate in the investigation of this tragedy.

◾️The situation on that day and at those hours in the vicinity of Grozny airport was very complicated.

◾️ Ukrainian combat drones were launching terrorist attacks on civilian infrastructure in the cities of Grozny and Vladikavkaz at that time.

◾️ As a result, a regime dubbed 'Carpet' was introduced in the vicinity of Grozny Airport, which required the immediate departure of all aircraft from the area.

◾️ There was dense fog around Grozny airport and visibility was non-existent at an altitude of 500 meters

◾️The pilot made two attempts to land the plane in Grozny, which were unsuccessful.

◾️ The pilot was offered alternative airports but decided to proceed to Aktau Airport.

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✅South Korean lawmakers vote to impeach incumbent president

The majority of South Korean legislators have voted to impeach incumbent President and Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, South Korean National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-sik said.

"The motion to impeach the prime minister passed with 192 votes," the speaker said.

South Korea's ruling People's Power Party boycotted the vote.

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok has reportedly been appointed acting president. Choi is expected to meet with Han and call the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as well as deliver a written address to the public and convene the National Security Council, Yonhap reported, citing the finance ministry.

On December 14, South Korea's parliament voted to impeach suspended President Yoon Suk-yeol over his controversial declaration of martial law. The Constitutional Court will make a final decision on the matter by June 11, 2025. Yoon will be suspended from office pending the ruling, while an interim president will serve until the final verdict.

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❓What links war in Gaza and Israel's plans for mega canal to rival Suez?

International shipping lanes have landed back on the front pages amid Trump’s threats to seize the Panama Canal, and Egypt’s estimate that the Red Sea crisis cost the Suez Canal $7 bln in lost revenue.

Behind the headlines, a lesser-known but no less important Israeli project known as the Ben Gurion Canal is in the works, and tied to both the Gaza crisis and the global competition between the US and China.

🔸 Conceived in 1963 amid raging tensions between US-aligned Israel and Soviet-backed Egypt, the project envisions a 260-300 km long canal running through the Negev Desert, linking the Mediterranean to the Gulf of Aqaba and the Red Sea.

🔸 An array of maps of the canal’s proposed route are available, including versions running adjacent to or through Gaza.

🔸 The project envisions two lanes of traffic (each 50 m deep and 200 m wide) to accommodate the world’s largest ships. The Suez, by comparison, has one lane – meaning costly delays when jammed. The March 2021 run aground of the Ever Given container ship stranded $9.6 bln in cargo for 6 days.

🔸 The proposed waterway has seen eccentric construction pitches – including a 1960s Lawrence Livermore Labs ‘nuclear excavation’ plan to detonate 520 two-megaton nukes (over 1 gigaton total) under the Project Plowshare program.

🔸 The idea would have cost $5 bln in today’s money – pocket change compared to the $55-$100 bln cost using conventional construction. But there was one ‘small’ problem: nuclear radiation.

🔸 Besides cost, security headaches also plague the idea – with Houthis proving the skilled use of a handful of drones and missiles can wreak havoc on shipping in the Red Sea – into which the new canal would flow.

🔸 The upside (for Israel and allies) would be the chance to grab a share the 12% of shipping passing through the Suez, and strike a blow against China’s Belt and Road, which uses the Suez, while giving Israel-aligned countries preferential transit rates.

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🔍BRICS to build UAE-based logistics hub: Why it matters?

The BRICS Business Council is discussing a logistics platform based in the UAE, revealed Sergei Katyrin, chairman of the council’s Russia Chapter, when speaking to Russian media.

🔸The concept of establishing a logistics hub for the group was first introduced at the BRICS Kazan Summit, where the significance of enhancing cooperation was articulated in a subsequent declaration.

🔸The UAE's strategic position at the intersection of key trade routes between the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic Oceans, along with its infrastructure—including ports, airports, and an extensive highway network—makes it preferable for the logistics hub.

🔸Several crucial transport corridors facilitate connections among BRICS countries and enhance their mutual trade:

▪️The International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) spans 7,200 km, linking Russia, Iran, India, China, and Kazakhstan.

▪️The East-West transport corridor, approximately 10,000 km in length, connecting China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Turkey to Europe, is aligned with China's "One Belt, One Road" initiative.

🔸According to the latest WTO data, the trade volume between BRICS nations and their global partners, as well as within the group itself, reached $10.4 trillion by the end of 2023. This figure represents 21.6% of total world trade.

🔸Russia's trade turnover with the BRICS countries climbed 6.3% higher in the first five months of 2024 than the same period in 2023, as reported by Russia’s Minister of Industry and Trade Anton Alikhanov in August.

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🇷🇺 The Russian Federation did not hold any negotiations with the foreign ministries of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan regarding the development of versions of the plane crash in Aktau, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated.

No negotiations on the matter were held with the foreign ministries of the mentioned countries, the ministry stressed.

The ministry highlighted that such malicious disinformation is politically motivated, and attempts to use a tragedy for propaganda purposes are both unworthy and unacceptable.

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📹Robo-Dogs hit the tracks: Russian railways tests high-tech helpers

Russian Railways (RZD) is currently testing robotic dogs to enhance railway operations. These innovative "pets" are designed to monitor workplace safety, ensure transportation security, and inspect infrastructure and rolling stock conditions.

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US spy gathered bio-data on Russian civilians for the Pentagon: what do we know?

US citizen Eugene Spector, convicted of espionage in Russia, gathered data for the Pentagon to create a high-speed system for genetically screening Russians, according to the Federal Security Service (FSB).

🔸 Spector collected and transmitted biotechnical information, including state secrets, to the Pentagon and its contractor

🔸 He did so while serving as chairman of the board of directors of the Medpolymerprom Group, a company specializing in cancer drugs

🔸 Spector admitted his guilt in spying for the US, the Russian newspaper Kommersant reported. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison

Why is the West interested in Russian DNA?

Russian politicians, scholars and military officials have repeatedly questioned the purpose of the extensive collection of biological materials from Russians by the US and its allies.

◾️ Before the start of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine, the US had obtained up to 16,000 biological samples there, late Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, head of the Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defense Troops said in August 2024

◾️ The samples were collected to create bacteria and viruses particularly dangerous to ethnic Russians and Ukrainians, Kirillov explained

◾️ He warned that the US had been developing bio-agents capable of selectively affecting various ethnic groups. Kirillov was assassinated in a bombing on December 17.

◾️ In 2021, Mikhail Kovalchuk, President of the Kurchatov Institute, exposed a US program aimed at collecting synovial fluid samples from Russian citizens

◾️ In 2017, Russian President Vladimir Putin questioned why Western nations were collecting biological samples from Russia's ethnic groups through NGOs and other entities

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❗️Airline crash in Aktau caused by external factor – Azerbaijani transport minister

The wreckage of the airliner that crashed in Aktau and witness testimony suggest that the deadly accident was caused by outside interference, the Minister of Transport of Azerbaijan said.

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🇨🇳 China enhances patrolling around disputed islands in South China Sea - Coast Guard

China intensifies patrols around the Huangyan Islands, also known as Scarborough Reef and disputed between Beijing and several countries in the region, the Chinese Coast Guard said.

Since December, the Chinese Coast Guard "continued to strengthen patrols in the territorial waters and adjacent areas of Huangyan, preventing and dislodging illegally intruding vessels, so as to further strengthen control over relevant maritime areas and resolutely safeguard China's territorial sovereignty and maritime rights."

The territorial affiliation of several islands in the South China Sea has been the subject of disputes between China and several other Asia-Pacific countries for decades. Significant oil and gas reserves have been discovered on the continental shelf of those islands, including the Paracel Islands, the Spratly Islands, Thitu Island, and Scarborough Shoal. Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan, and the Philippines are part of the disputes.

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Why has Danish PM hoarded essentials for three days?

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has stocked up on food and other essentials to survive three days without electricity and the internet and called on the citizens to do the same, Danish radio reported.

She also urged Danes to follow the Emergency Agency recommendations to keep safe as "the risk of a different type of attack is there, like hybrid attacks or cyberattacks," the broadcaster said.

Frederiksen claimed that the country must be prepared for any type of threat, including the possibility of a Russian attack on NATO countries as "Russia is ramping up so fast."

That comes as Russia has repeatedly stressed that will not attack NATO countries, and that such a move would be senseless.

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☣️ 'Targeting Russians but safe for Americans': what bioweapons is the Pentagon developing?

The US is conducting military biological research aimed at discovering new harmful bacteria and viruses tailored to infect certain races, nationalities and even residents of specific regions, Igor Korotchenko, military analyst and editor-in-chief of "National Defense" magazine told Sputnik.

The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) disclosed on December 27 that convicted US spy Eugene Spector had gathered and transmitted biotech data to the Pentagon to aid in creating a high-speed system for genetically screening Russians.

The Pentagon's apparent goal is to develop a bioweapon that would affect Russians but remain harmless to Westerners, Korotchenko said. To that end, the US needs to collect bio-material and genetic samples from various ethnic groups living in Russia.

"[Spector] aided the Pentagon’s military biological branches in collecting and transferring relevant samples with the aim of identifying potential vulnerabilities in the genetic code of certain categories of the Russian population," Korotchenko explained.

The Russian counter-intelligence services are aware of and actively preventing the Pentagon's bio-research activities within Russia, the expert noted.

Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, head of the Russian Armed Forces Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defense Troops, had previously exposed the Pentagon's sophisticated bio-weapon program operating in Ukraine.

In August, Kirillov revealed that prior to 2022, the US had obtained up to 16,000 biological samples from Ukraine with the aim of developing viruses and bacteria dangerous to ethnic Ukrainians and Russians. General Kirillov was assassinated in a bombing on December 17.

Russian investigators stated that the terror attack was carried out on orders from Ukrainian special services.

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THROWBACK: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a speech at the 78th UN General Assembly on achieving peace across the Middle East, in particular between Israel and Palestine.

He also brought a map pointing out that all barriers must be removed between Asia and Saudi Arabia by implementing a plan to build a "corridor" that would unite the neighbors.

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🇷🇺 Russian Tricolor in Kharkov Region

Russian soldiers who fought for the liberation of the village of Lozovaya in Kharkov region raised the flag of the Russian Federation in the center of the settlement.

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Where’s the proof? EU frames Russia for sabotage over sea cable incident

The EU made a new round of groundless charges against Russia, blaming its alleged ‘shadow fleet' for damage to an undersea power cable connecting Estonia and Finland.

The claim was made by European Commission foreign relations head Kaja Kallas – an outspoken Russophobe.

◾️ The Commission and Finnish authorities, operating on “assumptions” but offering no proof, names or documents, have launched a probe into the oil tanker Eagle S for "aggravated sabotage.”

◾️ The Cook Islands-flagged vessel, on its way from St Petersburg to Egypt, was boarded in the Gulf of Finland after the Estlink 2 electricity cable was cut on December 25.

Russophobia in action?

🔸 The incident follows the severing of several underwater cable, prompting a wave of anti-Russian hysteria. Possible causes such as heavy shipping traffic, improper anchoring or wear and tear were disregarded.

🔸 Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused the usual suspects of engaging in professional Russophobia after the last incident in November.

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