Ukrainian soldiers should be banned from entering Poland — Polish Sejm MP
 

"We know perfectly well what happens to soldiers who stop being on the front. Unfortunately, they tend to organize crime, so we cannot allow them to come to Poland," Polish Sejm deputy Witold Tumanowicz said.

 
He also noted that not a single Polish soldier should be in Ukraine.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️Ukrainian forces attacked settlements in the Belgorod region using more than 30 ammunition and more than 20 drones; one person was injured, Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Ukraine’s ‘second front’ in Africa: Zelensky ‘will bite the dust’ there – analyst

The Kiev regime opening a “second front” in Africa is “a desperate move aimed at media sensation, with no clear vision and strategy,” Professor Alexis Habiyaremye, Research Chair in Industrial Development at the University of Johannesburg, told Sputnik.

Context for Ukraine in Africa:

🟠It is unclear what Ukraine's strategy in Africa is “beyond participation in destabilization” of the continent, he said, mentioning the Confederation of Sahel States, which are “led by a vision of sovereignty that is stronger than Ukrainian hatred and racism.”

🟠“African countries are motivated by the determination to wrest their full independence from the neocolonial Western powers, while Ukraine is acting erratically based on anger and frustration. [Volodymyr] Zelensky and his agents will certainly bite the dust in Africa,” Habiyaremye stressed.

🟠Ukrainian intelligence services “have unashamedly claimed to collaborate” with terrorist groups in Africa, “hoping to destabilize Russian security partners, and by doing so, to discredit Russia,” the analyst added, pointing to “the blanket impunity granted to Ukraine by its Western backers.”

Why is the effort fruitless?

👉The professor singled out the Sahel region, where he said the Kiev regime relied on “French logistics and American satellite technology” to help “terrorists ambush troops of Malian Armed Forces.”

👉“By allying itself with terrorists to attack African countries, Ukraine has squandered any possible goodwill it could hope to get from Africa and the rest of the Global South. It is therefore unlikely to achieve anything of significance as it tied its lot with that of the terrorists,” Habiyaremye concluded.

The Russian Foreign Ministry earlier said that, unable to defeat Russia on the battlefield, Ukraine decided to open a “second front” in Africa, pandering to terrorist groups in such countries as Mali and Niger, which have severed diplomatic relations with Kiev.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️Russian forces have liberated the settlement of Novoolenovka in the Donetsk People's Republic, the Russian Defense Ministry announced

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🎄🎉 Russia's president congratulated a number of foreign leaders on New Year and Christmas, the Kremlin said.
 
However, Putin did not congratulate Biden and other leaders of the largest unfriendly countries.
 
Of the European leaders, Vladimir Putin only delivered New Year greetings to Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Hungarian PM Viktor Orban, as well as Pope Francis.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇷🇺🪖More statements from the Russian MoD daily briefing on the special military operation's progress:    
 
▪️Ukrainian forces lost up to 530 soldiers, a tank, an infantry fighting vehicle and four armored personnel carriers in the Zapad battlegroup’s combat zone;
 
▪️ As a result of the actions of the Russian Sever and Dnepr battlegroups, Ukrainian forces lost up to 140 servicemen;
 
▪️ Ukrainian forces lost up to 175 servicemen in the Russian Vostok Battlegroup's area of responsibility;
 
▪️ As a result of the actions of the Tsentr Battlegroup, Ukrainian losses amounted to more than 420 soldiers, two tanks, two infantry fighting vehicles, and a number of armored personnel carriers and Snatch armored vehicles;
 
▪️ Russian air defense systems shot down four HIMARS missiles and 65 Ukrainian drones.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Israel considers remaining in southern Lebanon after the 60 days stipulated in the ceasefire agreement - report
 
The IDF may extend its presence in the country due to the slow deployment of the Lebanese army and the presence of a significant number of weapons and Hezbollah infrastructure, the Israel Hayom newspaper reports.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Arrest warrant sought for South Korean president on charges of treason
 
The Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) has requested an arrest warrant for ousted President Yoon Suk Yeol over his short-lived imposition of martial law, the Korea Times reports.
 
Yoon is accused of insurrection and abuse of power, the article notes.
 
Previously, the CIO had already summoned President Yoon three times for questioning, but he failed to appear in court.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️Poland plans to build a road to the border with Russia's Kaliningrad region in 2025 to enable the rapid transfer of troops and security forces if necessary, according to an interview with the Financial Times by Deputy Minister of the Interior Maciej Duszczyk.

*the picture is AI-generated

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Biden announces nearly $2.5 billion in aid to Ukraine, the White House informed

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

📹🇷🇺Footage of Russia's Tsentr Battlegroup hoisting the Russian flag in the recently liberated Novoolenovka in the Donetsk People's Republic

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

‘Trump effect’: How new POTUS beat Harris, could bolster ties with Russia and may hasten NATO's decline

The 2024 US presidential race came to a dramatic conclusion when Donald Trump convincingly upset Kamala Harris, a win that took place not least because Democrats “clearly had no policies that the American people wanted”, Michael Maloof, former senior security policy analyst in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, tells Sputnik.

Trump vs Harris

⚔️When it comes to Democrats’ pre-election efforts, they “always wanted to make this more of an anti-Trump campaign as opposed to coming up with policies that would remedy the higher inflation, the open borders” as well as “the increase in crime and drugs.”

⚔️Harris “just spoke in terms of platitudes” as she “sounded more like a cheerleader rather than someone wanting to be president with definitive policies; […] she had no answers for the increasing difficulties.”

US-Russia ties under Trump

🤝There will be “more opportunity” to try to resolve Russia-US problems that were in place under the Biden-Harris administration because Trump is “more than willing to meet with Mr. Putin, just as Mr. Putin says he's willing to meet Trump.”

🤝Both are “very strong leaders” with “healthy respect” toward each other would manage to reach “some accommodation” on pressing issues, especially on Ukraine. “I think Trump will acknowledge that Russia has achieved what it wants to achieve.”

End of NATO?

🟠Under Trump, “you're going to see perhaps the demise of NATO altogether”.

🟠NATO’s four-year aid to Ukraine “actually crippled them [the bloc’s members] economically, and I think that this is the beginning of the end, not only of NATO as a so-called ‘defense’ alliance, but also the EU itself.”

#2024Overview

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt