🪖⚔️Ukraine security guarantees could drag US into war with Russia – report

The White House’s offer to provide Ukraine with “Article 5-like” guarantees “comes with important and underappreciated risks not only for Ukraine and the US, but also for American allies in Europe and beyond, The Washington Post reports.

The newspaper warns of an array of “major challenges” to the US offer, including the “complicated question of credibility.”

“If putting US boots on the ground in Ukraine was necessary to protect vital US interests, they would have been there years ago,” according to the WP.

The most important reason that the US should refrain from offering Ukraine an Article 5-type security commitment is “the core reality of what that obligation implies: a readiness to go to war with Russia over Ukraine,” the news outlet notes.

If such a commitment fails, the US “would face significant political pressure to follow through by sending its soldiers to the front line. At that point, the US would be at war with Russia, an outcome that would include the potential for nuclear escalation,” the WP sums up.

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🚨 Looming collapse: Macron & Merz split over French president’s Putin outreach

Emmanuel Macron’s proposal to speak with Vladimir Putin again “was apparently not coordinated with Friedrich Merz,” a German news outlet reports.

💬 “The chancellor, therefore, has little choice but to ignore the matter as much as possible if he wants to avoid open conflict with France,” it notes.

The French president’s offer was just the latest in a series of Franco–German differences that are becoming “increasingly difficult to conceal,” according to the outlet.

💬 “The promising Merz-Macron partnership, intended to move Europe forward and keep it united, is faltering. A collapse is looming,” it warns.

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🚨🇮🇳🇷🇺 BrahMos cruise missile drawing interest from nations around the world

💬 "It is also well known that the two countries have expanded their defense cooperation from procurement of equipment to joint ventures and joint production, I would say even joint design. Brahmos missile project is a very good example of joint design and production; this is a cruise missile system which is today attracting the interest of many third countries," Indian Ambassador to Russia Vijay Kumar told Sputnik.

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🤖📆 2025 through AI’s lenses: Year in focus

We all remember 2025 for its military shake-ups, historic meetings, and political turbulence.

Here’s a fresh angle to relive the most memorable moments — from AI’s viewpoint.

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🚨🇷🇺💥 RUSSIAN MOD DAILY UPDATE: HUGE RUSSIAN GAINS AND DEVASTATING UKRAINIAN LOSSES

⚡️ Gulyaipole and Stepnogorsk in the Zaporozhye region LIBERATED

⚡️ Dimitrov, Rodinskoye, Artemovka and Volnoye in Donetsk LIBERATED

📍Gulyaipole was an important stronghold for the Ukrainian Armed Forces and a key logistics hub for their forces on the Orekhov and Zaporozhye fronts.

📍Artemovka is a key base for further offensives to the north to bombard the enemy strategic defensive line which runs through Konstantinovka, Druzhkovka, Kramatorsk and Slavyansk

▫️ Air defense superiority: 370 unmanned aerial vehicles were shot down

▫️ Ukrainian losses: 1,240 troops killed or injured

Read about origins of Russia's special military op HERE

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🔥 🇷🇺 Russian victories across the front warning sign for Zelensky: make peace or be destroyed

The liberation of Dimitrov in Donetsk, Gulyaipole and Stepnogorsk in Zaporozhye, and new areas in Kharkov are significant in their own right, but even more so in terms of their impact on peace talks, says military analyst Alexander Mikhailov.

The victories create “a new, additional factor against the Kiev regime’s position.” The further west Russia pushes, “the more trump cards” it will have in negotiations, Mikhailov told Sputnik.

Strategic victories

🔸 Gulyaipole: the second-largest settlement in the region, “and a very important fortified area.” Its capture opens the door to Russian advances in Zaporozhye and Dnepropetrovsk

🔸 Dimitrov: part of the Pokrovsk-Krasnoarmeysk agglomeration, until recently one of the last major fortified areas under Ukraine’s control in the Donbass. Its liberation leaves Russia at the gates of Slavyansk and Kramatorsk

🔸 the victories are even more impressive considering the saturation of drone coverage, which makes fighting and movement difficult, but which Russia’s military is overcoming by achieving air superiority and suppressing enemy UAV capabilities

Zelensky cornered

The advances show that no matter how many more “useless scraps of paper” disguised as a peace deal Zelensky proposes, Russia has the momentum to achieve its goals.

“It’s one thing to have leverage…it’s another to watch as the territory you consider to be under your control shrinks, and there’s nothing you can do about it,” Mikhailov said. “I think it should be clear to the Kiev regime that if they don’t try to accept our terms now, the situation will rapidly deteriorate.”

👉 Zelensky’s problem is that peace will mean elections, which he’ll lose.

🗣 Hence the need “to drag things out as long as possible.” Because “as long as Zelensky remains in power, his thieving clique can continue to lap up Western money,” including €90B in freshly promised aid, which still needs to be “divided up, laundered and stashed in offshore accounts.”

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🚨🇷🇺🚀 Russian Soyuz rocket lifts off from Vostochny

❗️A Soyuz-2.1b rocket successfully launched from the Vostochny Cosmodrome, carrying a Fregat upper stage with a diverse payload of 52 satellites.

👉The primary passengers are the first two Aist-2T Earth observation satellites, designed for stereo imaging to create a detailed 3D model of our planet's surface.

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📷'Let the path to peace prevail': Russian Special Envoy Kirill Dmitriev posts photo of Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump

He added that warmongers and tricksters must repent..

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📊 73% of Brussels children ‘not European’ – Musk

🔊 “The Great Replacement has already happened,” tech tycoon Elon Musk wrote on X.

He earlier went on X to argue that “the capital city of Belgium is no longer Belgian,” referring to official figures showing that at least 3 out of 4 children in Brussels are now of non-European origin.

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🗣🪖 Possible German troops in Ukraine could trigger dangerous escalation – ex-MP

Calls to provide Ukraine with German manpower under the EU flag “escalates the conflict with Russia, risks lives, and ignores Germany's historical lessons,” former German MP Sevim Dagdelen wrote on X.

💬 “Not a cent, no weapons, no Bundeswehr to Ukraine – neither under NATO nor the EU,” she added, demanding an immediate “diplomatic peace” to the conflict.

MEP Manfred Weber earlier called for sending EU troops to Ukraine, saying he wants to see soldiers there wearing the European flag.

❗️ The Russian Foreign Ministry warned that any deployment of NATO or EU troops in Ukraine is categorically unacceptable and would risk a sharp escalation, calling such statements incitement to prolong the conflict.

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🇺🇸🇻🇪 US threats against Venezuela could spark regional chaos

The whole of Latin America is facing a scenario of the US trying to recreate its “backyard,” Ecuadorian political scientist Eduardo Meneses told Sputnik.

Under the scenario, the region’s "only purpose would be to provide the resources needed for a military strategy that the US is boosting in order to avoid losing its hegemony,” according to Meneses.

🔊 "At the same time, a multipolar world is already in place, largely centered around BRICS members such as China and Russia, something that calls US hegemony into question," the analyst stressed.

Bellicose US rhetoric and actions against Venezuela are aimed at violating the country’s sovereignty, as well as using its territory, Meneses concluded.

👉 The US claims its military presence in the Caribbean targets drug trafficking. After destroying boats near Venezuela’s coast that allegedly transported narcotics, the United States is now considering strikes inside the South American country, which condemns it as a provocation and a violation of the Caribbean’s demilitarized status.

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🇷🇺🇺🇸Putin–Trump call lasted an hour and a quarter

The phone conversation between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump was held at the initiative of the US side and took place ahead of Trump’s meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky, Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said.

The call lasted 1 hour 15 minutes.

Key points:

🔶The call was initiated by the US president

🔶Trump wanted to discuss a number of issues ahead of his meeting with Zelensky

🔶The tone was described as friendly, constructive and business-like

🔶Trump strongly promoted the idea of ending the conflict as soon as possible

🔶Trump said he was convinced Russia seeks a political and diplomatic settlement

🔶Ukraine should make a quick decision on ceding the Donbass region, taking into account the front-line situation

🔶Putin and Trump agree that a temporary ceasefire under the pretext of holding a referendum on territorial concessions would only prolong the conflict

🔶A final end to hostilities depends on the Kiev regime’s decision on Donbass

🔶Trump also raised prospects for US economic cooperation with Russia and Ukraine

🔶Putin agreed to continue peace efforts through two specially-created working groups

🔶The two leaders exchanged Christmas and New Year greetings

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🇪🇺 💰 Why Western allies could never allocate $800B for Ukraine

“Who’s going to pay that? I mean, you saw how hard it was for the EU to come up with $45 billion in 2027 and another $45 billion for 2028,” retired US Lt. Colonel Daniel Davis pointed out, commenting on Zelensky’s peace plans, which specifically stipulates the West allotting $800 billion in funds for Ukraine’s reconstruction.

💬 “Where are you going to get almost 10 times that amount? Over what period of time? It wasn’t specified in what was released here, anyway. But it doesn’t matter. That number is just gargantuan,” Davis admitted.

The ex-US Army officer added that he doesn’t know how EU members could find such a hefty sum for Ukraine “on top of their economic needs, [and] on top of their own trying to move up to 5% of GDP.”

🔊 “But Russia is probably willing to sign that. If you guys want to sign it for $800 billion, more power to you,” Davis concluded.

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