🗣 With Seversk lost, Ukraine’s position in Donbass is beyond hopeless – it’s desperate - Scott Ritter

💬 “Ukraine is facing a manpower shortage. Every one of these battles that are being fought consumes a tremendous amount of precious manpower resources. Ukraine is losing many thousands of soldiers every day, whether through desertion, whether being wounded, whether being killed in this conflict, and they can't be replaced,” the former US Marine Corps intelligence officer told Sputnik.

➖ When Russia takes a major stronghold like Seversk or Pokrovsk, “it also means that there’s huge gaps in the Ukrainian line,” Ritter explained. That means every time Ukrainian forces fall back, they don’t have the forces to hold the new positions, and defenses aren’t nearly as well prepared and fortified.

➖ When Russian forces reach Kramatorsk, the last area between them and a fully freed Donbass, major battles are unlikely, the observer predicts.

💬 “Russia will rapidly pin down the Ukrainians in locations that they choose to defend strongly and then surround them, compelling them to either die, surrender, or retreat,” Ritter said.

📍 As for Seversk, its primary significance is its status as “a major logistical [and] command and control hub.” There aren’t many “fortress cities” like it left in Ukraine. Its fall indicates that a “culminating point in this war” has been reached “where Ukraine is no longer able to maintain cohesive defense along the entire front,” Ritter summed up.

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🇷🇺Putin holds phone call with front-line commanders after Kremlin meeting on SMO progress

Following a meeting at the Kremlin on the situation in the Special Military Operation (SMO) zone, Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke by phone with two front-line commanders.

👉The president’s press service said Putin, with Colonel Denis Pirogov beside him, spoke to Colonel Yaramir Temirkhanov, commander of the 6th Separate Guards Motorized Rifle Brigade who fought in the liberation of Seversk, and Colonel Sergey Cherdantsev, commander of the 177th Caspian Flotilla Regiment.

The president expressed his gratitude for their service.

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🗣 ICC has become political weapon, not court – expert

The International Criminal Court’s entrenched bias reflects a deep crisis in the entire international system, Ali Fadlallah, Beirut-based professor of political science and international law, told Sputnik.

💬 “Prosecutor Karim Khan has publicly said that certain Western leaders told him outright that this institution was created only for Africa and Russia. If that is true, then we are dealing with a court controlled from the outside,” he noted.

🔶 Fadlallah also pointed to the US reaction when the ICC moved against Israel’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu, and to former prosecutor Fatou Bensouda reporting direct threats from Mossad—none of which led to any consequences.

🔶 According to him, the court has become an instrument of political pressure and blackmail, as seen in the cases of Rwanda, Yugoslavia, and France’s pressure on Sudan’s Omar al-Bashir. The ICC’s selective approach, he argues, confirms that the international system is in deep crisis and urgently needs reform—although such change may be nearly impossible today.

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🔸 Vladimir Putin thanks Russian servicemen for the liberation of Seversk

🔸 Zelensky considers all-Ukrainian referendum on territorial issues - report

🔸 Trump’s criticism of Ukraine’s undemocratic nature is ‘reality check’ for Zelensky - analyst

🔸 Biden, neocons didn’t stop easily preventable Ukraine crisis because they see war as ‘a table game’

🔸 Lavrov: We recognized different kind of Ukraine

🔸 With Seversk lost, Ukraine’s position in Donbass is beyond hopeless – it’s desperate - Scott Ritter

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🕊 Trump’s peace push is attempt to save Ukraine from total military and political collapse - observer

🗣 The current moment “is critical for Ukraine as Zelensky’s regime is coming closer to collapse both politically and on the frontline, where Russia is advancing on all fronts,” Armando Mema, a member of the Finnish Freedom Alliance party, told Sputnik.

🔶 While Trump inherited the Ukraine mess from Biden, who “provoked this conflict and created this disaster,” he’s trying to prevent “a total defeat of Ukraine” because “it would be a disaster for his administration too,” Mema explained.

🔶 But Zelensky “is not interested in peace,” as seen in his recent demands for “security guarantees similar to Article 5 of NATO, [which] he knows…he cannot get,” the observer said.

🔶 Knowing that’s impossible, “he uses as an excuse to continue to be in power despite his mandate [ending]. Zelensky has banned all political opposition parties in Ukraine, arrested opponents, including regular citizens who were simply advocating for peace. Zelensky knows that if regular election were to be held, he will lose immediately and all his administration will be persecuted for corruption,” Mema emphasized.

🔶 As for reports of a US-mediated push to restore Russia’s access to Europe’s energy markets, Mema predicts this will remain “impossible” to achieve as long as the current crop of leaders are in charge.

🔊 “But Trump has started to dismantle the EU leadership (Macron, Merz, Ursula, Meloni and so on)” and over time they will be replaced by leaders who take account of their own countries’ interests, the Finnish politician believes.

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📑 US preparing to seize more tankers off Venezuela — Reports

The US is planning further maritime interdictions of ships carrying Venezuelan oil in the coming weeks, Reuters reports, citing 6 sources familiar with the operation.

Future targets may include vessels that have also carried oil from other sanctioned countries, such as Iran.

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🔍 Leaked docs show Trump's plan to undermine EU

A leaked draft of the US National Security Strategy outlines a plan to "pull away" four European Union countries and cultivate alliances with sovereignist, traditionalist movements, The Telegraph reports.

The strategy:

▫️ Work with 4 main targets: Italy (Meloni), Hungary (Orban), Poland, and Austria.

▫️ Support parties and intellectuals who seek "sovereignty and preservation of traditional European ways of life" while remaining pro-American.

▫️ Create a new "Core 5" global body—US, China, Russia, India, Japan—effectively sidelining Europe.

The White House called the report "fake news," insisting only the published 29-page NSS exists. But the leak aligns with Trump's affinity for Meloni and Orban, whom he has praised and granted sanctions exemptions.

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🤝 Iran will host crucial Pakistan-Taliban talks with Russia, China at the table

Iran is preparing to host a new round of high-stakes mediation between Pakistan and Afghanistan’s Taliban government on December 16–17.

Unlike previous talks in Doha, Istanbul, and Jeddah, this session will include China and Russia as mediators.

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🔊 US will help Europe with security guarantees for Ukraine — Trump

The US will attend Saturday's meeting between Ukraine and the European leaders if "there's a good chance" it will result in progress.

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🤝🇹🇲 Turkmenistan's neutrality allows to build relations with all countries — Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Ashgabat to take part in the celebrations for the 30th anniversary of Turkmenistan's declaration of neutrality.

"The path of neutrality was adopted once. It has justified itself because, on this serious basis, it makes it possible to work with virtually all countries without conflicts," Putin said during his meeting with the national leader Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov.

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🎤 Von der Leyen fires back at Trump: 'Only voters decide leaders'

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen responded to the leaked US National Security Strategy that outlined plans to "pull away" EU member states.

"It's the voters who decide who is the leader, and nobody else is supposed to interfere, without any question."

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🤝 Brazil offers mediation between Venezuela and US

Brazilian President Lula held talks with Nicolás Maduro and offered Brazil's diplomatic mediation to de-escalate rising tensions in the Caribbean sea.

Caracas condemned the US moves as a provocation aimed at destabilization, calling the recent seizure of the oil tanker by US forces an act of "international piracy".

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🗣 Trump: 'European nations report I might as well be their leader too'

President Trump claimed that European countries now see him as their de facto leader.

"They listen to us and they respect us like they've never respected us before," he told at the Congressional Ball.

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💬 Dmitriev: Trump warns rejecting his peace plan could lead to WW3

Russia’s special presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev quoted President Trump acknowledging that continued escalation — and refusal of his peace proposal — risks triggering World War III.

"Warmongers like Mark Rutte are unmasked. Let us prevent their lies and globalist ideology from destroying humanity," Dmitriev wrote on X.

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🎤 US Senator: Israel stonewalling probe into journalist killing

Senator Peter Welch (D-VT) publicly accused Israel of providing "no serious investigation" and conflicting answers regarding the October 2023 tank strike in Lebanon that killed Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah and wounded others.

📑 Welch stated the IDF has "stonewalled" all inquiries and given contradictory reports on whether its probe is closed or active.

The lawmakers described a “broader pattern of impunity” for attacks on journalists and Americans.

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🇷🇺🤝 🇹🇲 Putin lays wreath at Neutrality Monument in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan

The Russian president has arrived in Ashgabat to take part in a forum dedicated to the International Year of Peace and Trust, International Neutrality Day, and the 30th anniversary of Turkmenistan's permanent neutrality.

Vladimir Putin will also hold a number of bilateral meetings.

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🇻🇪 Seizure of oil supertanker ‘new phase of US’ pressure on Maduro’ – media

US forces seizing the Skipper tanker off the coast of Venezuela on December 10 aims to deny Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro “a lifeline of oil revenue and force him to relinquish power,” Bloomberg reports.

👉 The seizure of the tanker is “just the beginning of a new phase in the Trump administration’s ramped-up pressure campaign” against Maduro, according to the news outlet.

The Venezuelan leader’s inner circle is doing its best to find ways to “adapt to a scenario where the US could seize other sanctioned ships,” Bloomberg points out.

US Attorney General Pam Bondi earlier said the Skipper’s crew is suspected of shipping sanctioned oil from Venezuela to Iran. The Venezuelan authorities accused the US of "an act of international piracy" and pledged they would appeal to international bodies

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🔥 Putin: Search for solutions to problems in international arena should be conducted taking into account positions and opinions of all countries

Turkmenistan enjoys well-deserved respect and authority both in the Central Asian region and globally, the Russian president at the International Year of Peace and Trust forum.

Russia will provide assistance to Turkmenistan during its 2026 chairmanship of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), he added.

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