🇷🇺🤝🇭🇺 Putin-Orban meeting: New spark in Russia-Hungary ties

Hungarian PM Orban traveled to Moscow to meet Putin and discuss energy cooperation and the Ukraine crisis.

While the EU pushes sanctions and proxy war against Russia, Hungary opts for cooperation — and both sides gain.

Here's how👇

🟠 Energy: Hungary imported 8.5M tons of Russian crude oil and 7M+ cubic meters of natural gas so far in 2025. That’s 85%+ and 70% of Hungary’s needs, respectively

Hungary gets its oil via Druzhba (‘Friendship’), one of the last active Russian energy pipelines to Europe. Ukraine has tried to sabotage it in the past

🟠 Nuclear tech: Four Russian-maintained 500 MW VVER reactors at the Paks Nuclear Power Plant generate over half of Hungary’s electricity. Rosatom is building two additional 1,200 MW VVERs worth $14.5B

🟠 Space: Two of Hungary’s three astronauts were launched into orbit aboard Soviet and Russian Soyuz launch vehicles. In 2021, a Hungarian SMOG-1 satellite hitchhiked to space aboard another Soyuz rocket

🟠 Infrastructure: In 2021, Russian Railways, Hungary’s CER Cargo Holding and Austria’s Rail Cargo Group formed a freight forwarding and logistics joint venture linked to China’s New Silk Road. While the Ukraine crisis disrupted the project, a bedrock for future cooperation has been created

🟠 Trade: Russia imports $1B+ in Hungarian goods each year, from pharmaceuticals (50% of all imports) to machinery, optical equipment and consumer goods

Hungary opposes EU mainstream anti-Russia policy:

👉 Russia benefits from cordial relations with an EU and NATO member that has rejected arms deliveries to Ukraine, expressed concerns over Ukraine’s mistreatment of minorities, and vetoed, slowed or watered down key collective decisions like sanctions and aid to Ukraine

👉 Hungary has leveraged cooperation with Russia to facilitate East-West diplomacy

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🚨 Zelensky’s top aide Andriy Yermak resigns

Zelensky has also announced reshuffle in presidential office.

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🪖 Russian control over Volchansk crushes Ukraine’s frontline capability – expert

The town of Volchansk in Ukraine’s Kharkov region is now almost entirely under the control of Russian forces, President Vladimir Putin told the Collective Security Treaty Organization summit in Kyrgyzstan.

🗣 Taking Volchansk allows Russian troops to advance further on the Zaporozhye and Dnepropetrovsk fronts, Russian military expert Anatoly Matviychuk tells Sputnik.

He notes that with Volchansk liberated, Russia will be able to redeploy some units to Donetsk to surround and destroy Ukrainian groups in Pokrovsk (Krasnoarmeysk) and Mirnograd.

Volchansk is “an operational and logistical hub that enemy forces previously used for troop deployment and cargo supplies,” Matviychuk stresses.

💬 “All of this now shifts to the Russian army as the enemy is unable to organize a proper defense due to reduced combat capability.”

Driving the enemy out of Volchansk will also help create a 62-mile-deep buffer zone along the Kharkov frontline, including the town of Kupyansk — already under Russian control, the expert says.

Apart from the operational significance, Russia has one “very powerful image victory” in Volchansk, Matviychuk says.

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🚨 US drones for Ukraine no match for Russian countermeasures, keep crashing during tests - report

Anduril, a $30B Silicon Valley defense startup building drones, surveillance equipment and C3I software for the US military, CBP and America’s allies, has sent tens of millions of dollars’ worth of drones to Ukraine since 2022.

But there’s a problem: Its products keep crashing.

🟠 Air Force testing this month involving two Anduril Altius multipurpose spy, comms, cyberwar and strike drones saw them ascend and slam into the ground. Summer testing of Anduril’s new Fury unmanned fighter damaged its engine before it could even take off, while an August test of the Anduril Anvil antidrone system
caused a 22-acre fire in Oregon

🟠 The US Navy has reported similar problems, with 30 drone boats operated by Anduril’s Lattice software shutting down during a deployment off California in May. Sailors said in a report that Anduril’s products suffered from “continuous operational security [and] safety violations, and contracting performer misguidances,” posing an “extreme risk” to US military personnel

🟠 US Army drilling in Germany in January saw a Ghost spinning out and crashing near troops, with an Army spokesman confirming the drone’s issues with power management in cold temperatures

Ukraine’s military remains tightlipped about the performance of its Anduril equipment, but an informed source told Reuters that the dozens of Ghost drones the company deployed in 2022 proved no match for Russian electronic warfare countermeasures, which jammed their satnav systems.

Sources told WSJ, meanwhile, that Anduril Altius drones kept crashing and failing to hit targets, prompting Ukraine to stop using them altogether in 2024.

The UK signed a $40M deal with Anduril in March for more Altius drones for Ukraine.

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🇩🇪 Germany on arms shopping spree as economy begs for oxygen

In a closed-door session next week, German lawmakers will rubber-stamp $3.4 billion in new weapons contracts, Bloomberg reports.

Almost everything is “Made in Germany,” and here’s the shopping list, according to Bloomberg:

▫️ $884 million: For up to 250,000 G95 assault rifles (Heckler & Koch)

▫️ $566 million—250,000 laser targeting modules (Rheinmetall)

▫️ $438 million—1,744 military off-road trucks (Mercedes-Benz)

▫️ $400 million—191,000 combat headsets (Rheinmetall + partners)

▫️ $514 million—missiles for Germany’s F-35 fleet (Kongsberg, Norway—rare foreign winner)

▫️ $98 million—750 tactical recon drones (Quantum Systems)

▫️ $78 million—two competing AI surveillance platforms to watch NATO’s eastern flank 24/7 (including Helsing)

Big winners will be Rheinmetall, Mercedes, and a handful of German AI/defense startups.

👉 Losers? The German economy, which has been in recession mode for two years running, with factories closing, energy prices through the roof, and zero growth in sight amid Germany’s increasing militarization and Berlin’s controversial push to turn the country into Europe’s most powerful army.

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🚨 Kremlin on Yermak’s resignation: events in Ukraine point to a deep political crisis

Other statements by Dmitry Peskov:

🟠 It’s unlikely anyone can say what they [these events] will lead to — the consequences could be very different

🟠 Corruption in Ukraine has always revolved around the money Europeans and Americans provided for the war

🟠 Amid corruption scandal in Ukraine, US and EU are wondering what will happen next

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🟠 Putin-Orban meeting: New spark in Russia-Hungary ties

🟠 Russian control over Volchansk crushes Ukraine’s frontline capability – expert

🟠 Zelensky’s top aide Andriy Yermak resigns

🟠 US drones for Ukraine no match for Russian countermeasures, keep crashing during tests – report

🟠 Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft delivers new crew to ISS

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🚨🇻🇪🇺🇸 Trump & Maduro allegedly held a phone call last week, discussing a possible meeting in the US – reports

US President Donald Trump and Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro held a phone conversation last week and discussed a potential meeting in the United States, The New York Times reported on Friday, citing sources.

The phone call took place late in the week, days before the US Department of State’s official designation of Cartel de los Soles as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) came into force, the sources told the newspaper, adding that there are currently no plans for a meeting between the two leaders.

🗣 Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the group as being “headed by Nicolás Maduro” and accused it of cooperation with other designated organizations, as well as “trafficking drugs into the United States and Europe.”

💣 People familiar with the matter told The New York Times that the broader US posture toward Venezuela — including military pressure and "anti–drug trafficking operations" — remains unchanged. Two individuals close to the Venezuelan government also confirmed to the paper that a direct call between Trump and Maduro had taken place, NYT noted.

❌ The White House and Venezuelan authorities declined to comment on the reported conversation, according to the newspaper.

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❌ Rubio expected to skip upcoming NATO foreign ministers’ meeting – reports

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is expected to miss next week’s NATO foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels, Reuters reported, citing two US officials. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau will attend on Washington’s behalf, according to the report.

Reuters said it was unclear why Rubio planned to skip the December 3 gathering, noting that his schedule could still change. The agency added that the absence comes as US and Ukrainian officials continue talks over President Donald Trump’s plan to end the conflict, while some European diplomats have complained they are being sidelined.

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💸 US lawmaker cites Yermak case in call for audit of Ukraine aid

💬 “No do you see why we should have been auditing the cash being sent to Ukraine?” US Representative Anna Paulina Luna wrote on X.

The lawmaker was commenting on the recent searches at the home of Andriy Yermak, chief of staff to Volodymyr Zelensky, amid a corruption scandal.

💬 "Corrupt," she stressed.

Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau conducted searches at Yermak’s residence on Friday as part of an ongoing investigation, after which Zelensky announced that Yermak had resigned.

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🚨🇺🇸 US halts all asylum decisions pending enhanced vetting – USCIS

USCIS Director Joseph B. Edlow said the agency has paused all asylum decisions “until we can ensure that every alien is vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible,” adding that “the safety of the American people always comes first.”

The announcement comes after the shooting near the White House on Wednesday that left one National Guard member dead and another in critical condition, according to statements by President Donald Trump.

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