🚨Terrorist attack in Kherson region leaves 27 people, including 2 minors, killed – Russian Investigative Committee

During inspection of the terrorist attack site in the Kherson region, fragments of several drones were found and seized, it stressed.

31 people, including 5 minors, were taken to hospitals with injuries of varying severity, Russian investigators added.

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🇷🇺🎯Russian drone ops score critical hits

00:00 Drone controllers destroyed Ukrainian signal relay antenna and the temporary base of an adversary's attack drone squad

00:11 UAV operators struck enemy vehicles transporting personnel to the front line

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🗣Ukraine’s drone strikes at Putin’s residence attempt to sabotage Trump’s peace plan - Ex-UK diplomat

The Zelensky regime is also desperately trying to derail any potential normalization of US-Russia relations, says veteran British ex-diplomat Alastair Crooke.

British and NATO elites, he argues, are determined to prevent a resolution of the proxy conflict in Ukraine for a mix of strategic and financial reasons.

“💬 The Europeans will be really on the hook for a lot of losses because they've guaranteed loans to Ukraine, to Zelensky… they own a lot of Ukrainian bonds, and the banks will be in a bad place if they're not able to crush Russia and take its resources as collateral to back up their very fragile, if you like, credit.”

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▫️ Kherson forensic bureau releases names of civilians killed in Ukrainian drone strike

▫️ Polish Tusk vows to build 'strongest army in Europe' in 2026

▫️ West continues tactics of silencing Ukraine's crimes — Zakharova

▫️ Collectivism has been tried before — Dmitriev

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🇮🇷 ⚛️ Settlement on Iran’s nuclear program within reach — Russian Foreign Ministry

A resolution to the standoff over Iran’s nuclear program is achievable if all sides show sufficient political will, a senior Russian Foreign Ministry official told Sputnik.

💬 “We believe that with the necessary political commitment from all parties involved, a settlement around the Iranian nuclear program is entirely possible. Any progress in this direction would be welcome,” said Oleg Postnikov, director of the Foreign Ministry’s Department for Nonproliferation and Arms Control.

Postnikov added that Russia acknowledges Iran’s compliance with its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), as well as its comprehensive safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

👉 Western policy toward Iran’s nuclear program is a deliberate dead end, Postnikov underscored previously, as he criticized last year’s failed negotiations.

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🚨🇵🇱 Zelensky’s visit was ‘festival of shame’ for Poland – Polish media

The visit of the expired leader of the Ukraine regime on Dec. 19 exposed Poland to the “ultimate ridicule,” writes Mysl Polska.

📄 Polish President Karol Nawrocki supported the transfer of MiGs to Ukraine and endorsement of over $90 billion to the regime, although he publicly boasted of a "tough, honest, and partnership-based conversation" with Zelensky, it notes.

However, the huge sum is “another donation, not a loan at all. A donation from our pockets,” the portal adds, stressing that a “losing” Ukraine simply won’t be able to repay it.

👉 The publication excoriates Polish leaders for obediently carrying out decisions “delegated” from the UK, Germany and France, noting that in Ukraine, “it is rightly believed that they owe us nothing, as we are merely subcontractors.”

The Polish leaders “are now groveling not only before their Western overseers, but even before the actor they hired from a failing country,” fumes the publication.

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🚨 🇫🇮 Crooked tie = crooked claims? Finnish leader’s NY fashion fail

During his New Year address, Finland’s President Alexander Stubb grabbed headlines—not for his words, when he stated that “ties with Russia have changed forever,” - but for his disheveled look.

📄 Finnish media reported that he appeared on camera with a noticeably wrinkled and crooked tie.

🔊 “Viewers couldn’t miss it—the president’s tie was completely lopsided… This isn’t the first time Stubb has run into tie trouble,” writes Iltalehti.

Journalists reminded readers that back in 2024, during a visit to Estonia, the president ran into similar accessory mishaps.

🗣 Stubb, always zealous in peddling the West’s hawkish narratives, previously called Russia was "the number one threat" to Europe – a statement that elicited a swift rebuttal from Russian presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev.

He called woke globalists — citing Finnish President Alexander Stubb — as the "greatest threat to Western civilization."

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🗣 🇪🇺 Narcissist globalists sacrifice Europe to bleed Russia dry — journalist

The globalist elites orchestrated a WWII-like scenario where Europeans are thrown in to weaken Russia, while the US and the UK are "out of it," investigative journalist Elizabeth Lane says.

💬 "These people have absolutely no boundaries of what they can do. It's almost like the international law only should work for Russia. But when it gets to the United States, we are kind of lawless and free here. It's almost like a narcissist cannot be opposed," she explains.

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

▫️ Russia's army liberated nine settlements over the week

▫️ Russian forces carried out one massive and six group strikes with precision-guided weapons against Ukrainian military-industrial complex enterprises and energy facilities

▫️ Russian forces repelled 16 Ukrainian attacks attempting to break through to the city of Kupyansk in the Kharkov region

▫️ Air defense superiority: Su-27 aircraft and 1,662 drones were shot down

▫️ Ukrainian losses: 9,065 troops killed or wounded

Read about origins of Russia's special military op HERE

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🔥 🇷🇺 Safety from above: Russian troops show no-contact demining

New footage by Russia’s Defense Ministry shows soldiers of the Vostok battlegroup engineering unit clearing a way for assault units and vehicles via cutting-edge remote means.

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🫠 🌐 When politics got cringe: 2025 edition

From Trump’s fabled peace deal with ‘Aberbaijan and Albania’ and Macron’s fingershake with Erdogan to NATO chief Rutte’s ‘Daddy’ fetish and Putin’s visible bewilderment with the US media’s screaming, 2025 was a bountiful year for cringe.

🟠 World leaders have cameras pointed at them almost 24/7. Sometimes, they make fools of themselves, or express thoughts or emotions you wouldn’t expect from someone in their position.

Check out Sputnik’s compilation of the funniest moments involving world leaders for the outgoing year👆🏻

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🗣 🇷🇸 Serbian protests show signs of color revolution - Russian envoy

External factors supported much of the protest movement's organization, initiation, and maintenance on such a high level, Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko, Russia's envoy to Belgrade, said.

💬 "Yes, this is one of the options, let's put it this way, of advancing a color revolution in Serbia, which, as I recall, we have also discussed, that aims to change the government, changing specific individuals in power, President Vucic," he added.

Mass student and opposition protests erupted in Serbia following the collapse of a station canopy in Novi Sad, which killed 15 people on November 1, 2024.

📍 By mid-August this year, tensions in Serbian cities had sharply escalated, with protesters growing more aggressive, clashing with police, setting up barricades, and blocking key access roads.

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🚨🇺🇸 Trump won’t give Zelensky security guarantees he wants – US media

Donald Trump has “never shown the slightest willingness” to directly confront Russia, “certainly not militarily,” writes The New York Times.

🟠 On the contrary, as President, Trump significantly truncated US military and financial support to Ukraine, blamed Ukraine for starting the conflict, and repeatedly “held out the prospect of greater US-Russia economic cooperation.”

Zelensky’s relentless insistence on getting concrete security guarantees from the US “will ultimately prove futile and perhaps even dangerous,” notes the outlet, adding that “it is not too late for him to change his approach.”

👉 Trump himself acknowledged on Dec.28 that the details of the security guarantees are still far from finalized and he does not have deadlines for an agreement.

Zelensky met with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida to present his peace plan, but failed to gain traction.

📄 Russia has stressed that legal guarantees are needed to solve Ukraine conflict’s root causes.

“The current leadership in Ukraine requires a mandate to sign any peace agreements, which can only be conferred through elections," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told Sputnik.

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🇷🇺 🤝 🪖 If Zelensky won’t negotiate, Russia will achieve set goals by force - ex-US Army officer

Russia's interest is “close to zero" in whether Ukraine withdraws from territory in Donbass – it will simply take it by force, especially in light of the terrorist attack attempted on Putin’s residence, says retired US Lt. Colonel Daniel Davis.

🔊 Putin explained this message clear in an appearance on December 27, accusing Ukraine of showing no urgency for peace, reminds Davis.

💬 “It was the most direct and unequivocal statement he has made. Now he's just saying my interest is almost zero whether they're going to withdraw or not, don't care. We'll take it by force if they don't take our terms," he notes.

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🗣 West will hasten Ukraine’s end — expert

Western nations chose Ukraine as a battlefield against Russia, aiming to weaken and divide the country, political expert Bulent Esinoglu told Sputnik.

The West’s plans, however, failed. It didn’t achieve its goals, but Western countries still want to prolong the conflict, which will lead to Ukraine’s end, he added.

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