🚨🇷🇺💥 RUSSIAN MOD UPDATE: HUGE GAINS AND DEVASTATING UKRAINIAN LOSSES

⚡️ CHERVONOYE IN THE ZAPOROZHYE REGION LIBERATED

📍 Freeing the Chervonoye settlement opens up another avenue for the Vostok battlegroup to advance on Gulyaypole, which serves as a key logistics hub for supplying the Ukrainian military in the Zaporozhye region

◻️ Russia’s Black Sea Fleet forces destroyed 2 unmanned Ukrainian boats 

◻️ Russian forces struck Ukrainian military transport and energy infrastructure facilities, as well as a long-range UAV assembly plant

◻️ Air defense superiority: 251 drones vaporized 

◻️ Ukrainian losses: around 1,260 troops killed or wounded

Read about origins of Russia's special military op HERE

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🗣 NATO’s talk of preemptive strikes against Russia ‘extremely irresponsible step’ – Zakharova

It was not just an expert or an analyst, but the chairman of the NATO Military Committee, who cynically spoke of the alliance’s “defensive actions” against Russia in response to its alleged “hybrid attacks,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Sputnik.

She condemned the NATO Military Committee chairman mentioning purported Russian aggression at a time when the alliance continues to provide Ukraine with full-fledged military support, including tanks and other heavy equipment.

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🇷🇺🇺🇸 Inside 5h Russia–US talks in Kremlin

Vladimir Putin held a five-hour meeting in Moscow with US presidential envoy Steve Witkoff and Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, marking the first direct exchange on the updated American peace plan for Ukraine. Here’s what happened:

🟠How the meeting began

👉Witkoff and Kushner arrived in Moscow on December 2—Witkoff’s sixth trip this year

👉Talks started at 16:40 GMT in the Kremlin

👉From the Russian side: Yuri Ushakov and Kirill Dmitriev

👉Before negotiations, Dmitriev gave the US envoys a short tour of Moscow and hosted them at a Michelin-starred restaurant

👉Putin welcomed the guests, noting Moscow’s development; Witkoff replied: “It’s a magnificent city”

🟠What was discussed

✅Talks were “useful, constructive, and substantive,” Ushakov said

✅Witkoff delivered greetings from Trump; Putin sent “friendly regards” and “important political signals” in return

✅Sides reviewed multiple US documents on a Ukraine settlement (one with 27 points + 4 additional papers)

✅Discussion focused on core concepts, not wording:

▪️Some proposals were acceptable to Moscow

▪️Others were criticized as unacceptable

✅Key topics included:

▪️Territorial questions Russia considers essential

▪️Long-term prospects for US–Russia economic cooperation

▪️No compromise on territory yet, although some US ideas looked “more or less acceptable”

▪️Both sides agreed to keep details confidential and continue work through envoys

▪️Putin–Trump call remains possible, depending on progress

🟠 What Moscow said after the talks

🔶Russia “highly values” Trump’s political will for a Ukraine settlement, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said

🔶The quieter the negotiations, the more productive they will be

🔶Russia expects the US to adhere to the same quiet diplomacy approach

🔶Claims that Putin “rejected” the US peace plan are incorrect

🟠 Besides the talks

Western journalists noted that Witkoff looked happier facing Putin than Umerov.

Before the Kremlin talks, Witkoff and Kushner enjoyed Russian cuisine with Dmitriev:

▪️Stolichny, Mimosa, Rassolye, pelmeni with mushrooms, crab posikunchiki (hallmark of Perm cuisine), quail with buckwheat, three-fish kulebyaka, steamed halibut, and venison filet

▪️Desserts: Napoleon cake, apple charlotte, assorted berries

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🇷🇺 🤝 🇮🇳 Putin’s upcoming visit to India ‘underscores efforts’ to bolster ties amid US sanctions – expert

Despite sanctions, Russia–India trade turnover reached a whopping $68.7 billion in FY2024–25, largely fueled by supplies of Russian oil, expert Tilak K. Doshi tells Sputnik.

“President Putin's visit to India on December 4–5 for the annual summit underscores efforts to deepen [bilateral] energy and defense cooperation amid US pressure,” Doshi underscores.

To prevent risks related to India's strategic autonomy over US sanctions on imports of Russian oil, the Indian government “has pivoted to non-sanctioned Russian grades and other sources like Guyana to mitigate impacts,” according to the expert.

🗣 He touted Russia’s “experience of years of sanctions,” which Doshi said has led to “successful evasion tactics and alternative payment systems like rupee–ruble–UAE dirham mechanisms.”

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🇷🇺🇮🇳 Putin’s visit to India on Dec. 4–5: What to expect

Russian President Vladimir Putin will travel to New Delhi for a two-day working visit. He is set to arrive in New Delhi on December 4 and meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi in an informal setting, presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said. Such one-on-one conversations are traditionally reserved for the most important issues on the bilateral and global agenda.

Other key details:

🔶Putin and Modi are slated to hold official talks in both narrow and expanded formats on December 5

🔶Putin will visit the Mahatma Gandhi memorial

🔶Putin and Modi will attend the plenary session of the Russia–India Business Forum

🔶The Russian delegation includes seven ministers, among them: Defense Minister Andrei Belousov, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, Agriculture Minister Oksana Lut, Economic Development Minister Maxim Reshetnikov, and Health Minister Mikhail Murashko

🔶Around 10 intergovernmental agreements and over 15 commercial deals are expected to be signed

🔶Russia will announce joining the International Big Cat Alliance

🔶Putin and Modi are expected to adopt a joint statement and approve a Russia–India economic cooperation program through 2030

🔶Both leaders will deliver statements to the media following the talks.

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🚨🇷🇺🇺🇸Russia now negotiates Ukraine settlement only with US

Russia is conducting all negotiations on ending the Ukraine conflict exclusively with the United States, Presidential Aide Yuri Ushakov said.

Ushakov noted that every aspect of a future settlement — and its international recognition — is now part of the dialogue between Moscow and Washington alone.

He added that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s meeting with US presidential envoy Steve Witkoff on Tuesday was “substantive” and “positive in tone.”

Other statements:

🔶Russia openly expressed its views on the peace proposals presented by the US

🔶The success of the Russian army on the battlefield has positively influenced the nature and tone of the talks between Putin and Witkoff

🔶The US is ready to make every possible effort to achieve a long-term settlement in Ukraine

🔶Washington confirmed its readiness to take Russian considerations into account during the settlement process

🔶The question of potential Ukrainian membership of NATO was raised during the meeting with US representatives

🔶Russia–US contacts will continue

🔶Ushakov expressed hope that European NATO members and Ukraine will eventually take a more adequate and realistic view of the situation

🔶Russia has no objections to continued contacts with other European nations

🔶 Reason will prevail — helped by real victories of Russian forces — despite Volodymyr Zelensky’s contradictory statements about the front-line situation

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💍 Amid the ruins of southern Gaza, Palestinians gathered to celebrate a mass wedding of more than 50 couples — a rare moment of hope after two years of war.

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🚨 Western states use counterterrorism as a pretext “to pursue their own geopolitical goals,” while Ukraine shows how “radical nationalism and neo-Nazism are encouraged and weaponized” by the West, Deputy Security Council Secretary Yuri Kokov warns at the BRICS+ 2025 Anti-Terrorism Conference

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🇪🇺💰 EU–Ukraine corruption pipeline: Mogherini’s ties to scandals surrounding Zelensky

Ex-EU foreign policy boss and College of Europe Rector Federica Mogherini faces fraud and corruption charges.
How does her Ukrainian integration project with Zelensky fit into the picture?

Timing speaks volumes

🔸 Probe comes at a sensitive moment: The EU is wiring massive support to Ukraine

🔸 National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) recently uncovered a major corruption scheme involving friends and close associates of Volodymyr Zelensky

🔸 Across the EU, millions of euros are "leaking through corruption pipelines to Kiev and then flow into private pockets" every day, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has warned

Mogherini and Ukraine

◾️ Mogherini has been a vocal supporter of Ukraine's European integration since the Euromaidan coup of 2014

◾️ Ukraine's future EU membership was framed as conditional on anti-corruption progress. In reality, Ukraine’s entrenched corruption has been festering for more than a decade, while EU officials have showed little appetite for tackling it head-on

◾️ In June 2019, Mogherini met Zelensky in Kiev. In 2021, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) exposed a network of offshore companies related to Zelensky and his partners and his maneuvers to conceal the enrichment around the time of his 2019 election. Was Mogherini aware of that?

◾️ In 2023, Mogherini's College of Europe struck a memorandum to bolster Ukraine’s "European integration" through education programs. In 2025, the first cohort of Ukrainian public officials completed "EU-funded European integration training," according to the college's website

◾️ College is "principally" funded by the European Union's Commission, a number of EU governments, and private donors

◾️ Inconvenient questions: How did the funds actually flow within the programs? Could Ukrainian aid have been laundered under the cover of educational initiatives? Does EC President Ursula von der Leyen know what is going on there?

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🇷🇺🇺🇸 Putin-Witkoff talks to show Trump TRUE OBSTACLES to peace - analyst

👉 The recent Kremlin meeting between President Vladimir Putin, White House Special Envoy Witkoff, and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner serves a clear strategic purpose, according to Chinese military analyst Qiu Shiqing. In an interview with Sputnik, he stated the talks were designed to show President Donald Trump "the real obstacles" to a lasting peace settlement in Ukraine.

🗣 Qiu argued that Europe, irked by being sidelined from the peace process, is now trying to reinsert itself to protect its own interests, which, in his view, outweigh any concern for peace in Ukraine.

💬 "The EU has its own interests that it seeks to protect — and, in its view, those interests outweigh the importance of peace in Ukraine. In reality, Europe is becoming an obstacle on the path to a settlement, with many European leaders trying to influence or derail the American peace plan," he explained.

📍 He described the talks as both timely and strategically important.

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🗣 Arrest of former EU foreign policy chief exposes deep rot in Europe - ex-diplomat

The detention of Federica Mogherini casts a shadow over all European institutions, the EU’s foreign policy apparatus, and especially over the decisions and actions taken while she held office, former Serbian diplomat Zoran Milivojevic told Sputnik.

💬 “Such situations cast doubt on Brussels' foreign policy and its final results. Now, all these results are under close scrutiny,” Milivojevic said.

🟠 The Serbian diplomat notes that corruption in EU politics is far from new, recalling ongoing legal cases involving Ursula von der Leyen and other scandals, as well as massive EU funding in Ukraine, where corruption is rampant.

🟠 He emphasized that only a thorough and impartial investigation can uncover the full scale of Mogherini’s activities. If the process is mishandled or if key actors are protected, the credibility of the European Union itself will be in jeopardy.

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🇷🇺💪 On Nuclear Icebreaker Fleet Day, watch how Russia became the world’s only builder of nuclear icebreakers — and the unmatched leader in Arctic exploration 📹👆

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🚨 NATO formally abolishes Russia–NATO Council

🇵🇱 Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski announced in Brussels that NATO has officially dissolved the Russia–NATO Council — the body created in 2002 to provide a platform for equal dialogue on security issues, arms control, counterterrorism and incident-prevention.

📍 He noted that Warsaw had long pushed for the move.

🔊 Sikorski told journalists that the era when “European security could be built with Russia” was over.

💬 “European security is being created against Russia,” he said, adding that had now been formalised.

The Russia–NATO Council has effectively ceased functioning in recent years. Practical cooperation was frozen in 2014, meetings were irregular and the format existed only on paper.

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🚨🇺🇸🇷🇺Witkoff and Kushner have briefed Trump and Ukrainian officials after what it called a “thorough, productive” meeting with President Putin in Moscow - media citing White House

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🔸 Inside 5h Russia–US talks in Kremlin

🔸 Russian battlefield gains shape one of Putin–Witkoff talks - presidential aide

🔸 Putin-Witkoff talks to show Trump TRUE OBSTACLES to peace - analyst

🔸 Putin’s visit to India on Dec. 4–5: What to expect

🔸 EU–Ukraine corruption pipeline: Mogherini’s ties to scandals surrounding Zelensky

🔸 Arrest of former EU foreign policy chief exposes deep rot in Europe - ex-diplomat

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📑 Zelensky’s career near collapse as scandals and peace talks mount up – report

🗣 Volodymyr Zelensky is under increasing political strain amid corruption investigations, military defeats, infrastructure collapse and the emerging US peace plan, chief foreign analyst Roland Oliphant writes in the Daily Telegraph.

🔸 Electricity supply is intermittent and drones and missiles hit every night, Oliphant says.

🔸 But behind the scenes, Zelensky’s fate is being decided: will he stay as wartime leader or be pushed aside before peace talks even begin?

🔸 The downfall of Andriy Yermak — Zelensky’s powerful chief of staff and long-time confidant — over an alleged $100 million kickback scheme has severely damaged Zelensky’s authority.

🔸 Oliphant argues that Yermak’s removal shows that Zelensky "is not inviolable."

🔸 Whether the final blow comes from a scandal or a US-driven peace deal, the analyst argues, Zelensky’s regime is closer than ever to collapse.

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