🇪🇺 EU Summit fails to confiscate Russian assets: Here's what you need to know

🔸 EU members could not reach a consensus to expropriate Russian sovereign assets for a proposed €140 billion loan to Ukraine.

🔸 Instead, the bloc approved a €90 billion, 0% interest loan to finance Ukraine for the next two years, funded by joint EU borrowing.

🔸 Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia have legally opted out of participating in and funding this common European loan for Ukraine.

🔸The approved €90 billion is €50 billion less than the failed "reparations" scheme.

🔸 EC President von der Leyen stated the EU "has no intention" of returning the blocked Russian assets unless Russia pays reparations to Ukraine.

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🔸 BEHIND THE SCENES: How Putin’s year-end press conference is prepared

🔸 'I hope Ukraine moves quickly because Russia is there' - Trump on Ukraine settlement

🔸 EU to provide Ukraine €90 billion loan backed by EU budget — European Council

🔸 Orban slams EU’s €90B Ukraine loan as 'lost money,' warns of asset risks — reports

🔸 Trump signs record $901B US defense bill, with $400M in Ukraine aid

🔸 TikTok signs deal to sell US operations – reports

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💵 EU sanctions cost France billions in lost exports with Russia

Sanctions imposed by the EU on Russia have cost France at least 55% of its exports to the Russian market, according to a Sputnik analysis based on Eurostat data.

Over the first ten months of the current year, France has exported goods and services worth $3.6 billion to Russia, down from $8.5 billion in 2021.

France’s average monthly export revenue from trade with Russia fell by 2.2 times. While in 2021 France earned an average of $859.9 million per month from shipments to the Russian market, this year's revenues dropped to $387.5 million.

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📹 WATCH LIVE: Putin Holds Year-End Press Conference

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🚨The burning question: war or peace?

💬 “Russia still sees no readiness from Ukraine to discuss the territorial issue,” Vladimir Putin says.

He adds that Kiev is essentially refusing to end the conflict by peaceful means.

Read about the origins of Russia's special military op HERE

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🇷🇺Frontline update from Putin

🔶Putin says he has just received a frontline report from the Chief of the General Staff.

🔶Russian forces are advancing along the entire line of contact as the enemy pulls back.

🔶Slavyansk, Kramatorsk, and Konstantinovka remain Ukraine’s key fortified strongholds.

Read about the origins of Russia's special military op HERE

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🚨 Putin confident: Krasny Liman to be taken soon

🔶With Seversk taken, new routes toward Slavyansk are opening for Russian forces.

🔶Troops are advancing actively and effectively on the South Liman axis.

🔶Krasny Liman will be taken very soon, Putin says with confidence.

Read about the origins of Russia's special military op HERE

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🚨 Putin: Ukraine is essentially refusing to end the conflict by peaceful means

Read about the origins of Russia's special military op HERE

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🚨 Putin: Seversk’s liberation opens the path toward Slavyansk; with Slavyansk, Kramatorsk and Konstantinovka now Ukraine’s main strongholds

👉Seversk’s strategic value lies in the fact that its liberation opened the road for Russian forces toward Slavyansk — the core of the largest Kiev-held urban cluster in Donbass.

📍On December 11, Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov reported to President Vladimir Putin that Seversk had been taken.

The strategic importance of Seversk's liberation lies in the fact that it opened the road for the Russian army to advance on Slavyansk — the center of the largest Kiev-controlled agglomeration in the Donbass.

On December 11, Chief of the Russian General Staff Valery Gerasimov reported to President Vladimir Putin that Seversk had been liberated.

Read about the origins of Russia's special military op HERE

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🚨 Putin confirms Kupyansk is under Russian control, saying 3,500 encircled Ukrainian troops "virtually have no chances left"

Read about the origins of Russia's special military op HERE

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🇷🇺 Putin: Ukraine refuses to end conflict by peaceful means

The Ukraine crisis started with 2014 Euromaidan coup, the Russian president pointed out at his year-end presser.

◻️ In 2022, Ukraine threw the peace deal agreed at Istanbul into the dustbin of history

◻️ Nevertheless, Russia sees certain “signals” from the Kiev regime on readiness to hold dialogue

◻️ Russia is ready to resolve the conflict through talks, on the basis of principles laid out by President Putin at a Foreign Ministry briefing in June 2024

Russia has the strategic initiative 👇

Russian forces are advancing in all directions, taking the strategic initiative after the liberation of occupied areas of Kursk in April, Putin said.

🟠 Russian forces are advancing in Krasny Liman

🟠 The taking of Krasnoarmeysk is a key bridgehead for future advances

🟠 Ukrainian forces in Dimitrov are “completely surrounded,” and trying to evacuate in small groups

🟠 Russian forces in Zaporozhye region are advancing steadily, with enemy-held settlements falling “one by one”

🟠In Sumy region, Volchansk has been taken

🟠 In Kharkov region, Kupyansk is under Russian control

🟠 The latter two operations are part of Russia’s broader efforts to create a security perimeter

❗️ Putin expressed confidence that before the end of the year, new victories will be seen.

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🇷🇺 At Putin’s year-end conference, the commander of the unit that liberated Seversk said retreating Ukrainian forces acted “like Nazis,” shooting civilians as they fled.

👉Seversk’s strategic value lies in the fact that its liberation opened the road for Russian forces toward Slavyansk — the core of the largest Kiev-held urban cluster in Donbass.

📍On December 11, Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov reported to President Vladimir Putin that Seversk had been taken.

Read about the origins of Russia's special military op HERE

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt