🇸🇰🇪🇺 Slovak PM Fico says ‘no’ to EU Ukraine aid

💬 “I told [European Council President Antonio] Costa that I will not support anything, even if we have to sit in Brussels until the New Year, which would lead to support for Ukraine’s military expenditures,” Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico wrote on X.

He referenced his recent letter to Costa, in which Fico made it clear that at an upcoming European Council session, he is “not be in position” to support any solution on Ukraine’s financial needs that could include covering the country’s military expenses.

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🪖🇰🇵 Kim Jong-un: Western forces 'cannot match' North Korea's army

💬 "The armed villains of the West, armed with whatever latest military hardware they are, cannot match this revolutionary army with an unfathomable spiritual depth," Kim Jong-un said, per KCNA.

Mass heroism is a powerful weapon of the North Korean army, which cannot be replicated by any other army, even "at any exorbitant cost," he added.

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📹 Venezuelan army shares videos of soldiers preparing hallacas, a traditional Christmas dish

Despite the ongoing tensions fueled by American rhetoric, the holiday spirit remains strong as Christmas approaches.

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🇨🇳 🔥🚀 China launches Kuaizhou-11 Y8 rocket with experimental spacecraft

The rocket lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, taking its payload into orbit, China Daily reported.

The experimental spacecraft on board features an advanced cargo-bay management system that can handle more than 100 individual payloads.

👉 This milestone marks a new phase in China’s private space sector, supporting space science, technology, and commercial operations.

It’s the fourth flight of the Kuaizhou-11 Y8 and 37th in the Kuaizhou series.

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🪖 Cracking of Seversk fortress is ‘catastrophe’ for Ukraine’s military - expert

💬 “The taking of Seversk is a catastrophe for Ukraine’s armed forces, as it will allow [Russia] to advance on Kramatorsk and Slavyansk,” the last major heavily-fortified agglomeration in the Donbass under Ukraine’s control, military expert Evgeny Mikhailov says.

According to Mikhailov, Seversk’s liberation:

1️⃣ Cuts off logistics and supply routes to Ukrainian forces in nearby areas, which means “a shortage of combat kits, adequate food, and the impossibility of rotation”

2️⃣ “Impacts the Ukrainian military’s defensive capabilities, and makes it impossible to redeploy well-trained units, which simply don’t exist anymore” anyway, as evidenced by the reported deployment of Ukrainian GUR special forces units to try to recapture Kupyansk, and General Syrsky’s orders to throw deserters into assault units

3️⃣ Undermines plans to condition Ukrainian troops’ withdrawal from the remaining Ukrainian-occupied areas of the Donbass on some kinds of concessions in peace negotiations

4️⃣ Weakens Ukrainian morale, already falling over the policies and scandals surrounding the country’s leadership. “Morale is low, and if the morale for conducting military operations is low, it will collapse from a lack of will to resist, from fatigue, no matter how well-fortified an area is,” Mikhailov summed up

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