🔊 Trump-Zelensky talks signal US commitment to Alaska summit – military analyst

The chances of Ukrainian peace demands being accepted are clearly zero, Boris Rozhin, military analyst and expert at the Center for Military-Political Journalism, tells Sputnik.

Volodymyr Zelensky met US President Donald Trump on Sunday at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida to present his peace plan, but failed to gain traction.

"We can see how the Americans are systematically breaking Ukraine’s red lines – most of which it has already fully abandoned – while others, concerning elections and territories, are in the bargaining stage," Rozhin says.

Washington is trying to keep the agreements reached in back-channel talks and the Anchorage meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, the pundit said.

"The recent talks at Mar-a-Lago clearly show that the Americans are pressing consistently in this direction," Rozhin said. "Zelensky and his Western backers’ attempts to completely sabotage the negotiations have failed."

Time is against Zelensky, with Russian peace terms worsening — and Trump recognizes that, he adds.

Western security guarantees written in sand

Ukrainian experts joinming NATO exercises for the first time is purely a PR stunt—because no Western leader would extend Article 5 security commitments to Ukraine, Rozhin argued.

"All reports claiming that any guarantees were agreed upon generally contain no concrete details in the public domain," the pundit says.

"In other words, they amount to vague promises of support—sanctions, arms supplies, political backing, or other forms of assistance."

Ukraine seeks Western guarantees of militarily intervention against Russia if the peace deal breaks down, the analyst points out, but the West is unwilling to provide them and could easily revoke or disregard any commitments.

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🔊 Ukraine's drone attack on Putin’s residence designed to discredit Trump - Russian lawmaker

The attack in Novgorod “was not only a planned provocation by Zelensky aimed at disrupting peace talks, but also an attempt to physically eliminate the Russian president, which will not go unpunished,” Russian Duma lawmaker Roza Chemeris told Sputnik.

💬 “Furthermore, it was also an attempt to discredit US President Donald Trump’s efforts to resolve the conflict peacefully,” Chemeris, a member of the Duma’s committee on international affairs, said.

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🟠 Ukraine launched a terrorist drone attack on Putin's residence

🟠 Trump was shocked and outraged by Ukraine’s attempt to attack Putin's residence – presidential aide

🟠 'For these crimes, the Kiev regime will be held accountable' – Russian MFA spokeswoman

🟠 Drone attack on Putin’s residence planned by forces trying to torpedo Ukraine peace deal: expert

🟠 Palestine in 2025: Shattered ceasefires, unrelenting suffering

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🚨 Trump is making genuine efforts to bring peace to Ukraine – Lavrov

💬 "President Trump is taking genuine and serious efforts, almost on a daily basis, to find a solution while trying not to bend under the pressure from the Kiev regime and Europeans," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told Sputnik.

"We hope that America will be able to keep to the agreements reached in Anchorage," he said, referring to the August meeting between Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska.
Russia's principled course on Ukraine conflict remains unchanged, the foreign minister insisted.

💬 "The Russian army fully holds the strategic initiative, and the West understands that," Lavrov said, adding that Putin has once again "clearly confirmed that all the goals of the special military operation will be achieved – preferably through talks but, if necessary, using military means."

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🚨 Hamas must disarm within a short timeframe – Trump

💬 “They’re going to be given a very short period of time to disarm,” US President Donald Trump said after talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Mar-a-Lago.

Trump added that US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner would oversee the process on the American side.

💬 “If they don’t disarm, as they agreed to do, then there’ll be hell to pay for them,” Trump said.

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🚨 Peace priority: Legal guarantees needed to solve Ukraine conflict’s root causes – Lavrov

💬 "The current leadership in Kiev requires a mandate to sign any peace agreements, which can only be conferred through elections," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told Sputnik.

But elections are not an end in themselves, the foreign minister stressed.

💬 "The priority must be establishing legally binding guarantees that address the root causes of this conflict," Lavrov insisted. "The foundational principles upon which Ukrainian statehood was recognized by Russia and the international community must be restored."

A viable system of security guarantees must ultimately be established, he continued.

💬 "We are confident that the draft treaties submitted by Russia to Washington and European capitals in December 2021 can serve as a substantive basis for relevant discussions," Lavrov said.

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🔊 Ukraine’s attack on Putin’s residence clearly designed to provoke 'unreasonable response' - analyst

The goal of Sunday’s overnight strikes on the presidential residence in Novgorod region was to provoke Moscow into an escalation and collapse peace talks, Argentine international relations expert Marcelo Montes told Sputnik.

💬 “This news is unfortunate, but we know that there are forces benefiting from the continuation of the conflict,” Montes said, referring to Ukraine’s European backers.

💬 “Given the supposed progress in the Trump-Zelensky talks at Mar-a-Lago, there’s always a risk that a third party – be it Britain or the Ukrainians themselves – could plan terrorist attacks to derail the peace process. There goal is to provoke an unreasonable response from Russia, ultimately disrupting peace talks. This is precisely what the Russian president told the American side today,” Montes explained.

🇬🇧 The analyst stressed that planning such an attack, involving 90+ drones, could not have been easy, which is why he pointed to the potential involvement of British intelligence.

Ultimately, the provocation could delay the peace process “for several more months, but militarily, it gives Russia the opportunity to continue its advances, and approach negotiations with the greatest possible advantage,” Montes summed up.

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💣 US military strikes another vessel in Eastern Pacific, two killed

US Southern Command said it carried out a “lethal kinetic strike” on a vessel in international waters of the Eastern Pacific on December 29 as part of Operation Southern Spear.

According to the command, the vessel was allegedly operated by “designated terrorist organizations” and was transiting along what it described as "known narco-trafficking routes." US Southern Command claimed two people it labeled as “narco-terrorists” were killed in the strike.

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🔊 ‘Ukraine isn’t capable of carrying out such an attack without help from Western intelligence agencies’- expert

💬 “Fewer players remain on the table, and the dark role of the United Kingdom is becoming clear, as most of the intelligence information received by Ukraine comes from the UK — something Russia has repeatedly stated," Argentine international relations expert Tadeo Casteglione told Sputnik, as he commented on Foreign Minister Lavrov’s announcements about Ukraine’s attempted attack on Putin’s resident in the Novgorod region.

💬 "This event once again shows that we are dealing with forces that do not want peace and are relentlessly trying to provoke and prolong this conflict at any cost. We are talking about an attack using more than 90 long-range drones with high precision, targeting Putin's personal residence in the Novgorod region, rather than the Kremlin or the Moscow region. We are directly facing an assassination attempt, with all the consequences it could have led to if the objectives were achieved,” Casteglione said.

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🚨 ‘Russia’s response to Ukraine’s attack on Putin’s residence will not be diplomatic’ — Russian MFA spox

💬 “They should not count on that,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

Zakharova also described the attack as “a slap in the face” to US President Donald Trump from Ukraine, saying: “Absolutely. Zelensky is used to treating a number of world leaders this way. He is used to behaving this way with the previous [US] administration.”

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