🚨 Zelensky’s election U-turn is sheer desperation - analyst

🗣 Zelensky has spent years crushing all credible political opposition in Ukraine, political analyst Dr. Greg Simons tells Sputnik.

📍 His sudden willingness to amend election laws in Ukraine looks like a desperate last-ditch move, and not a very convincing one, since “Ukraine has an abysmal record for keeping their word,” notes Simons, who is also a professor of Journalism at Daffodil International University in Bangladesh.

Zelensky is running out of time, too, since the US appears to be mulling his replacement with Zaluzhny now that he is “no longer compliant.”

💬 “I mean, he's just this pawn, this tool in this geopolitical game, and he seems to have got carried away,” the expert stresses.

Zelensky’s pleading might be aimed at his European patrons in the hopes of prodding them to pressure Trump.

💬 “But at this stage, it seems to be a lost cause,” says the expert.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇺🇸 US monetizes technical barriers on AI chips, but grand game still decided by China – expert

The Trump administration’s decision to allow exporting H200 AI-chips to China under a 25% tariff condition means the US is trying to gain economic benefits from restricting tech exports, Chinese Electronic Innovation Network CEO Zhang Guobin tells Sputnik.

Here are the details:

🔶 While the H200 chip is not the best, it is restricted access for Chinese consumers, as purchases must be "whitelisted" and reviewed by end-users in the US

🔶 That means the current US administration is shifting from "security tool" towards "revenue tool" tariff logic, responding to Silicon Valley lobbying and reflecting American voters’ idea of "making China pay"

🔶 This way chip factories get new markets but forgo some profits, while China gets quality chips, but "remains stuck in a technological generation gap," the expert notes

🔶 Although the US might think it secured a one-sided trade deal, "the chess game is still being decided by China", Zhang Guobin concludes, saying the country is rapidly improving its computational tech through cluster technologies

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🗣 Dissolving EU only way to stop war machine – Finnish politician

Despite Kaja Kallas’ saying the EU has enough power to pressure Russia, in reality the organization is impotent, with Russia and the US negotiating the outcome of the Ukraine’s conflict without it, Finnish Freedom Alliance party leader Armando Mema wrote on X.

As Russian forces continue to advance and Ukraine continues losing "land and men," the idea of EU dissolution "starts taking form," with it potentially being "the only way forward to stop the Political Party of War in Europe," he concluded.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🚨Belgium mulls legal action against EU over frozen Russian assets for Ukraine

Prime Minister Bart de Wever told Belga agency journalists in parliament that he does not rule out taking legal action against the European Commission to block a potential decision regarding the use of Russian assets for Ukraine.

He called the European Commission's proposal to use Russian assets for Ukraine "theft."

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇷🇺🇮🇷Russia-Iran presidential meeting scheduled in Turkmenistan

Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit Ashgabat on December 11-12 to attend a forum to mark the International Year of Peace and Trust, the International Day of Neutrality, and the 30th anniversary of Turkmenistan's permanent neutrality.

The meeting with Iran’s president is also planned during his visit, according to Iran's ambassador in Moscow.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇷🇺🪖 FSB nabs Ukrainian spies plotting sabotage on Lithuanian border

The detained agents were caught illegally crossing the state border.

Their mission: Gather intelligence and prepare routes for infiltration of sabotage groups, high-profile attacks, and subsequent escape of operatives.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

☠️ European leaders ‘willing to pay for their hubris with Ukrainian lives’

🗣 Ukrainians “who are being used as cannon fodder for Europeans pushing a failing narrative” have become the “greatest victims of this conflict,” London-based foreign affairs analyst Adriel Kasonta tells Sputnik while commenting on Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s recent statements to the Russian parliament.

💬 “Thus far, these leaders are willing to pay for their hubris with Ukrainian lives,” Kasonta laments.

🟠 He also observes that, while European economies “are declining, and the cost-of-living crisis continues to worsen,” European elites refuse to acknowledge their mistakes – as it could discredit them politically – and instead opt to “double down on their hostile posture toward Moscow.”

🟠 In the meantime, Donald Trump essentially acknowledged the previous US administration’s “miscalculation” and had a change of heart on the Ukrainian conflict issue.

🟠 For his part, French geopolitical analyst Come Carpentier de Gourdon adds that the EU policy of fighting for Ukraine is part of a strategy aimed at stripping Russia of much of its land and power, and that “and it is not likely to change unless it becomes totally impossible for the Europeans to continue.”

👉 Even if the powers that be in Ukraine agree to a peace deal, the European leadership believes that there will be a confrontation with Russia in the future, he warns.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

💵 New Ukraine corruption scheme exposed: Selling to-be-disposed navy ships

Six naval vessels due to be disposed were artificially downgraded as scrap metal for sale, Ukrainian media reports.

✍️ The scheme is organized by Ukraine’s Defense Ministry's Department for Disposal of Defense Property head and two employees of state-owned "Ukrspetstorg" enterprise.

The financial losses of Ukraine are estimated to be around $21,300.

Corruption in Ukraine has attracted the world's attention after the country's National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) opened investigation against Volodymyr Zelensky's inner circle, including former head of his office Andriy Ermak, who consequently resigned.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

💥 WATCH: Russian Grad rocket barrage decimates Ukrainian positions in Zaporozhye

Unleashing powerful Grad multiple-launch rocket systems, Russian forces rained a salvo of projectiles down on fortified Ukrainian positions in the Gulyaypole area.

This artillery strike cleared the way for Russian assault troops to press on with their advance across the settlement.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🔸 Kremlin: We're working on peace, not ceasefire

🔸 Zelensky’s election U-turn is sheer desperation - analyst

🔸 US monetizes technical barriers on AI chips, but grand game still decided by China – expert

🔸 European leaders ‘willing to pay for their hubris with Ukrainian lives’

🔸 ‘Cold War relic’: Congress proposes US withdraw from NATO

🔸 What is driving silver's stellar surge?

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇺🇸 US threatens ICC with more sanctions

📍 The US is demanding that the International Criminal Court change its founding document, the Roman Statute, so that the body cannot prosecute high-ranking American officials in the future, Reuters reports, quoting a source in the US administration.

📑 The list of officials that prompts anxiety in the US includes the president, vice president, secretary of war and other figures, the source said.

🔶 Two other demands include dropping investigations against leaders of Israel over Gaza crimes, as well as ending a probe into US army actions in Afghanistan opened in 2020, the outlet adds.

🔶 If the ICC doesn’t comply, the US could impose sanctions that may affect the body’s day-to-day operations like salary payments or running office computers software, the report notes.

🔊 Changing the Statute requires a majority vote, Reuters explains.

🟠 The International Criminal Court consists of 125 members, of which the US is not part. Despite that, both Republicans and Democrats have repeatedly criticized the body for violating US sovereignty.

🇺🇸 The US already imposed sanctions on the ICC in February 2025 for it issuing an arrest warrant against Israel’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🚨 US seized 'largest ever' tanker off Venezuela — Trump

"We've just seized a tanker off the coast of Venezuela... and other things are happening. You'll be seeing that later," the US president said.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

‘Expendable pawn & client state’ Ukraine now ‘a liability’ - analyst

🗣 Ukraine is losing the West’s proxy war against Russia, and Zelensky has become a “liability for US geostrategic imperatives,” political analyst Dr. Greg Simons tells Sputnik

📍 “Weak and insecure” Zelensky, who initially refused to hold elections, is now begging a foreign power – the US – to secure them.

It shows that Ukraine is “an expendable pawn” with zero sovereignty, he notes. 

According to the pundit, the US has made it clear it has no intention of propping up the Zelensky regime.

💬 “It’s coming time to pay the bill for being a US client state... The US will not get involved in this war because it will not end well for anyone,” Simons, who is also a professor of Journalism at Daffodil International University in Bangladesh, concludes.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

😱 The West fears ‘alternative views that challenge their narrative’

🗣 Europe is “becoming increasingly intolerant of and afraid of outside information channels that provide very distinct viewpoints and open minds to other perspectives,” Come Carpentier de Gourdon tells Sputnik while commenting on Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s recent remarks to the Russian parliament.

🟠 The European leadership, he suggests, is especially fearful Russian media like RT and Sputnik, which “project a very different perspective and show facts that Europeans, are generally left to ignore.”

🟠 One such example of the information Europe was keen to suppress was the warnings about the risks of NATO’s expansion to the east and “the circumstances of the Ukraine conflict” that did not fit into the official Western narrative.

💬 “The fact that Russian media are exposing a lot of these facts and also are exposing a lot of the things that are very wrong in the structure of the European Union and in American policy, in the American society and in the American political system, that is what generates a very hostile reaction with the attempt to ban any such information which is regarded as hostile propaganda,” De Gourdon says.

👉 For his part, Adriel Kasonta adds that the West’s fear of alternative views “manifests as hostility toward free speech,” which drives Europeans “to engage” with outlets like RT and Sputnik.

💬 “Western leaders adopt a paternalistic attitude toward their citizens, believing they cannot discern between truth and falsehood,” he remarks.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

📹 Trump to Zelensky: When is Ukraine’s election?

President Trump openly questioned Ukraine’s democracy, adding that overwhelming Ukrainian public demand for a deal:

"There was a poll that came out — 82% of the people are demanding a settlement be made. I understand that. They're losing thousands and thousands of people a week," Trump told reporters.

He also paired that with the corruption crisis in Ukraine: "They do have a massive corruption situation going on there."

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🚨 UK officially confirms first military casualty in Ukraine

The Ministry of Defence reported that Lance Corporal George Hooley, a 28-year-old paratrooper, died while observing the Ukrainian military test a new weapon.

🇷🇺 Russia has repeatedly warned that the deployment of a military contingent involving NATO countries in Ukraine could trigger an uncontrolled escalation of the conflict with unpredictable consequences. The Russian Foreign Ministry assessed the EU and UK's calls for intervening as "openly provocative and predatory".

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

📉 Globalization shaped entirely by the West is no longer effective

🔊 Western-led globalization is a no-goer as it is increasingly “dominated by factors that are outside Europe and to an extent outside the West, because even the U·S now has to make major concessions to China,” French geopolitical analyst Come Carpentier de Gourdon tells Sputnik.

🟠 He further speculated that there may be “some sort of reconnection between Russia, America, and Europe,” and that “an understanding or an agreement reached between the United States and Russia in the coming months or years would be the first step in bringing together the West again in a defense of its general interest.”

🟠 Global institutions like BRICS and their architects created “an alternative to the predatory institutions of the Bretton Woods system,” allowing nations to trade “on an equal footing” instead of suffering from exploitation, London-based foreign affairs analyst Adriel Kasonta adds.

💬 “China has demonstrated that an alternative model of development is possible — one that is more beneficial for sustainable growth,” he notes.

🗣 This model, Kasonta explains, promotes a “win-win situation rather than the debt enslavement of weaker nations by Western powers,” whereas the dynamics imposed by the West “keep countries dependent and perpetually indebted, rendering the idea of genuine decolonization little more than a façade.”

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🔍 Egypt proposes Northern Ireland model for Gaza disarmament

Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty called for Gaza’s disarmament to be overseen by a higher-level Palestinian or Arab-Islamic body, likening the process to the Northern Ireland model.

The proposal:

▫️ A single legitimate authority would bring all armed groups under one umbrella.

▫️ A Palestinian administrative committee could then begin governing and addressing basic needs.

▫️ Abdelatty stressed that success would require commitment from the US and President Trump specifically.

This regional-led framework will replace Hamas’s military control, the Foreign Minister says.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇷🇺🇮🇷 Iran's FM will visit Russia next week — sources

A visit to Moscow has been scheduled by Abbas Araghchi on December 16-17, the source familiar with the matter told Sputnik.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet with his Iranian counterpart during his visit to Turkmenistan this week.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🗣Maduro calls to reestablish Gran Colombia

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has publicly invited Colombians to reunite and "reestablish Gran Colombia" — the historic republic that dissolved in 1831.

"Soon we will have to reestablish Gran Colombia... [We are] children of the same flag, yellow, blue, and red."

Earlier, President Trump issued a warning to Colombian President Gustavo Petro: "I hope he's listening. He's going to be next."

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

💥 IDF tank fires on UN peacekeepers in Lebanon — UNIFIL

The IDF opened fire with a Merkava tank on a UNIFIL patrol moving along the Blue Line in southern Lebanon, despite being informed of the patrol's location and timing in advance.

UNIFIL states the patrol followed standard procedure for sensitive areas near the border and claims a direct violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which mandates protection for peacekeepers.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt