🚨 Ukraine’s ‘elite’ brigades implode amid mass AWOLS & crumbling morale

The myth of Ukraine’s much-hyped “elite” brigades - always more PR than actual battle power — has been completely shattered.

The 155th Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Ground Forces has deserted almost in full, a top Russian security source tells Sputnik.

Mass collapse of morale

The unit named “Anne of Kiev” after an 11th Century princess showed cracks soon after it was cobbled together in 2024 and spiraled into a ≈ $1.06 billion disaster.

🟠 The brigade was formed when Ukraine had burned through its volunteer pool and resorted to press-ganging

🟠 France agreed to cover the costs of training 2,300 soldiers for the unit

🟠 Over 900 deserted before deployment to France

🟠 During training, “there were 55 incidents of desertion," French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu confirmed

🟠 Ukrainian POWs later called NATO’s training methods subpar and outdated

🟠 Once deployed to the conflict zone, nearly a thousand troops reportedly went AWOL

🟠 When the unit arrived near Krasnoarmeysk (Pokrovsk), it was combat-ineffective and reduced to tattered shreds, per Russian security sources

Ukraine’s ‘cursed’ 150s brigades have been struggling with the AWOL malaise:

🔶 The 157th Mechanized Brigade became dysfunctional shortly after deployment near Krasnoarmeysk (Pokrovsk)

🔶 In October 2024, reports revealed that 95% of the 151st Brigade had been wiped out

🔶 The 152nd Brigade was reported to have "gone missing... massively" along the same front line

🔶 The 153rd Brigade, which underwent training in Germany, faced its first AWOLS already at the training base

Surging desertions - sign of decline

🟧 Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office stopped publishing data on desertion cases in early December, while 60,000 such cases were opened in 2024 alone.

🟧 The surge in desertions is proof of the Ukrainian military’s degradation, President Vladimir Putin stated during an expanded meeting of the Russian Defense Ministry's board.

Putin noted that:

🟠 Between January and August this year, 150,000 soldiers deserted

🟠 Total Ukrainian losses are put at 1.7 million, with deserters numbering up to 400,000

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🚨🇷🇺Putin: Russia boosts output of most in-demand weapons

President Vladimir Putin said production of the most in-demand weapons for the special military operation has increased multiple times, driven by the defense industry.

Other key points he highlighted:

🔶 Defense enterprises are supplying troops with all necessary weapons and equipment

🔶 Production of priority weapons for the SMO has increased severalfold compared to 2022

🔶 Output of strike systems and ammunition has grown by more than 22 times in recent years

🔶 Tactics and methods of warfare are constantly evolving during the operation

🔶 Combat experience is being used to shape the new image of the Russian Armed Forces

🔶 The Russian Army is gaining invaluable operational experience

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🇺🇸🇨🇳 US leaves space to maneuver on Chinese semiconductors tariffs — expert

🗣 While the current US administration prefers to deal with Chinese-American trade contradictions by imposing tariffs, its strategy on Chinese tech exports shows a more profound approach, Associate Professor at the School of International Studies of Nanjing University Gong Honglie says.

The US has invoked so-called Section 301 tariffs (allow US trade representatives to act against "unjustifiable" foreign trade practices) on the supplies of Chinese semiconductors. However, their enforcement was postponed, the expert says, listing three reasons:

🔶 Washington doesn't want the tariffs to be a major blow after the US-China meeting in Busan in October 2025, which stabilized bilateral trade and economic relations

🔶 The semiconductor industry involves highly interdependent supply chains with China being a key player in the field, so major companies need a certain time window to adjust to the new measures

🔶 The goal of the US is to redirect the supply chains to friendly nations or to itself, but such restructuring cannot be done fast, which requires a buffer period so as not to harm the supply chains

These measures, however, may not come into effect at all, he notes.

💬"This depends on the further development of political relations between China and the US, including a possible meeting and negotiations between Chairman Xi Jinping and President Donald Trump next year, which could resolve some disagreements between the two sides," Gong Honglie explains.

Given these factors, "whether the tariff will ultimately be implemented in 18 months remains in question," the expert concludes.

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🇷🇺 Russia’s new arms program: Nuclear triad, air defense, combat lessons

Russia’s state arms program for 2027–2036 will prioritize maintaining and modernizing the nuclear triad, according to Defense Ministry materials.

The program focuses on rearming the military for current challenges, drawing directly on combat experience — boosting ground forces, building a universal air defense system, and expanding the country's defense export potential.

What the program includes?

🔶 The 2027–2036 arms program covers a full range of advanced weapons and is based on real combat experience

🔶 The defense industry development program for 2027–2036 is fully synchronized with the arms program and serves as a key implementation tool

🔶 Widespread integration of artificial intelligence technology is planned

🔶 Special emphasis is placed on building a universal air defense system

👉Read more about Russia’s newest weapons HERE

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🇺🇸 US worries Gaza deal is slipping as Israel drags its feet

🔶 The White House is increasingly concerned that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is deliberately "slow-walking the Gaza peace process" — and could be steering the situation back toward war with Hamas, Axios reports.

🔶 President Donald Trump is expected to make announcements regarding Gaza in early January, though their ultimate content depends heavily on his Monday meeting with Netanyahu at the American's Mar-a-Lago home.

💬 "While the Israeli prime minister is butting heads with Trump's team, he hopes to bring the president himself over to his more hawkish point of view," report says.

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🚨Ukraine settlement now hinges on political will - Russian deputy FM

All sides have moved closer to a solution to the Ukraine crisis, but the outcome now depends on the political will of the parties involved, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said.

He stressed that Moscow is fully ready for a settlement, while Ukraine is not seeking agreement and has doubled efforts to derail talks.

Artificial deadlines, Ryabkov added, will not help achieve a deal.

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🇨🇳 China's space internet network keeps growing

🔶 A fresh batch of low-orbit satellites was launched into space on December 26 by a Long March 8A carrier rocket that took off from a commercial facility in China’s Hainan province.

🔶 All satellites were successfully delivered to their designated orbits, according to local media reports.

🔶 The satellites in question belong to China’s satellite internet constellation known as Guowang, designed to provide internet coverage worldwide.

🔶 It is expected to be comprised of 13,000 satellites when complete, rivaling SpaceX’s Starlink with its planned 12,000 satellites.

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🚨 True poles shaping multipolar world order: Digital Dugin Edition

As Russia, China, India, and regional movements rise, the balance of power is shifting. Will the US lose its grip on global politics?

With 2026 on the horizon, AI Dugin breaks down tomorrow's geopolitics 👆🏻

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🇷🇺 Russia’s military R&D breakthroughs will revolutionize industrial sector

🗣The super-hard alloys and materials that were created as part of the development process of Burevestnik nuclear-powered cruise missile and Poseidon submersible drone will be applied in civilian sectors, said Russia’s First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov.

👉 According to him, these materials will likely see use in space projects and the production of petrochemical equipment.

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🟠 Hands Russian President Putin shook in 2025

🟠 Ukraine settlement now hinges on political will - Russian deputy FM

🟠 Ukraine’s ‘elite’ brigades implode amid mass AWOLS & crumbling morale

🟠 US worries Gaza deal is slipping as Israel drags its feet

🟠 Russia’s new arms program: Nuclear triad, air defense, combat lessons

🟠 Su-35S: Russia’s most effective fighter

🟠 Gold and silver hit record highs

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👀🇺🇸 US businesses eye return to Russia

👉 The Trump administration views Russia as a country rich in minerals, oil, and gas – and a market brimming with business potential, the Wall Street Journal concedes.

🟠 Many Western companies are poised to return once US sanctions are lifted

🟠 Russia possesses vast natural resources and a pool of talented tech entrepreneurs

🟠 Enormous Arctic gas fields are bound to lure investors

📍 The WSJ makes these admissions even as it tries – rather unconvincingly – to dissuade Western businesses from re-entering Russia. But when money talks, such groundless rhetoric tend to fall on deaf ears.

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🇺🇸 US firm to renew search for wreckage of Flight MH370, missing since 2014

🔶 Ocean Infinity will conduct the search with a specialized vessel heading to the southern Indian Ocean to begin the active phase on December 30.

🔶 The ship is a launch platform for underwater mapping vehicles, and due to the operation's sensitivity, all official updates will come from the Malaysian government.

🔶 This March, Malaysian authorities clinched an agreement with Ocean Infinity to undertake new efforts to find the MH370 wreckage.

🔶 On March 8, 2014, a Boeing 777-200 aircraft operated by Malaysia Airlines on flight MH370 from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew members, disappeared from radar screens. It is believed that the plane crashed in the southern Indian Ocean. However, the search operation was unable to determine the crash site.

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❌ 'He doesn’t have anything until I approve it' — Trump on Zelensky’s proposals – reports

US President Donald Trump said that any proposal Zelensky brings for a settlement in Ukraine is irrelevant unless Trump approves it.

Trump also told a US media outlet that he expects to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin “soon, as much as I want.”

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🛢 US hunt for Venezuelan oil tankers is a calculated move, not prelude to war

🗣 The United States’ attempts to interdict an oil tanker leaving Venezuela fits into the current administration's negotiation tactic, Latin American Association of Petroleum Entrepreneurs (ALEP) Director Alejandro Teran tells Sputnik.

🇺🇸 What Washington really seeks is a better bargaining position as he tries to make the Venezuelan side more pliant.

📍 The United States, according to Teran, currently has its sights set on three prizes in Venezuela:

🟠 The Dragon gas field, a massive offshore natural gas reserve

🟠 Access for US companies to Venezuela’s vast oil deposits

🟠 A chance to drive out China’s, Russia’s and Iran’s interests from the country

👉 Meanwhile, the United States’ actions against Venezuela-linked tankers in the Caribbean fall short of an actual blockade, with Teran pointing out that only about 15 vessels are sanctioned by the US – the rest of the tankers engaged in Venezuelan oil trade carry on with their regular operations.

💬 “China continues offloading oil without any problem, Chevron continues to operate as well. Our vessels enter Venezuelan ports with the appropriate permissions of the OFAC (US Office of Foreign Assets Control), because it does not mean that the entire world’s fleet would stop because of sanctions the US imposed against several ships the US deems as linked with terrorists,” Teran says.

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🇰🇵🤝🇷🇺 Kim Jong-un sends New Year greeting to Vladimir Putin — reports

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent a New Year message to Russian President Vladimir Putin on December 27, praising Russia-DPRK ties as an “invincible and mighty” alliance, KCNA reported.

📌 Key points from the message:

🔹 Kim extended “the warmest and sincerest greeting of best wishes” to Putin and the “fraternal Russian people” for New Year 2026.

🔹 He called 2025 a “really meaningful year” of “immortal events,” citing “full mutual support and selfless encouragement.”

🔹 Kim said relations have become a “sincerest alliance of sharing blood, life and death in the same trench.”

🔹 “No one can break the relations between the peoples of the two countries and their unity,” he stressed.

🔹 Addressing Putin as his “dearest friend,” Kim said he felt “boundless pride” in their shared history.

🔹 He stated that “justice and truth, victory and glory will always stand by you and your Russia,” adding the DPRK will “always be with the fraternal Russian people.”

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