The German defence company Flensburger Fahrzeugbau GmbH (FFG) is building a repair centre in western Ukraine for a number of German weapons and military equipment transferred to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, including Leopard-1 tanks.

This was stated by Bundestag deputy, member of the defence committee Markus Faber, who is on a visit to Uzhgorod.

"For Ukraine, this means a huge increase in efficiency, as there will be no need for expensive and time-consuming transport abroad, and the AFU will be able to train its mechanics directly on the spot," Faber added.

🟩 In addition to the tanks, the new repair hub will also allow for the refurbishment of other FFG products: Wisent 1 MC mine clearance vehicles, 2A1 Dachs engineer armoured vehicles, and IRIS-T SLS air defence launchers.

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The United States intends to intensify work with Russians, graduates of American exchange programs, to interfere in the Russian presidential election, Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service Naryshkin said.

The U.S. believes that Russian fellows of American programs, more than 80,000 of them, can become the core of a fifth column if "properly processed." Washington intends to move to the active involvement of Russians - former fellows of American programs in the political struggle with the Russian authorities. U.S. intelligence officers will hold a training session in Riga on February 16-18 to teach methods of inciting ethnic and social hatred in the Russian Federation," FIS said.

@Slavyangrad

🇫🇲 NATO will start rehearsing a full-scale land operation against Russia from the beginning of 2024

Within four months, the "defensive" alliance will conduct a number of large-scale manoeuvres, operational and tactical exercises, as well as cyber activities.

🤦‍♂️ According to Western experts, all this will be conducted to simulate the "battlefield" on the future "Eastern Front" from Finland to Romania.

NATO Exercise Schedule:

🇪🇺 In January and February, a major NATO military exercise "Solid Endorsement-24" will take place in eastern Europe. The second part of the exercise will take place in May.

🇱🇻 In Latvia, the exercise "Winter-24" will start in mid-January.

🇪🇪 In Estonia, the Winter Camp-24 exercise will take place in January-February, involving the Estonian armed forces and the NATO Enhanced Forward Presence Battle Group.

🇧🇬🇫🇮🇷🇴 From 28 February to 21 April, Poland, the Baltic States, Bulgaria, Romania, Finland, the Federal Republic of Germany and Sweden will be the site for the largest multinational exercise in Europe this year, Defender of Europe-24. About 50,000 troops, 500-700 aircraft and more than 50 ships will take part.

🇵🇱 Germany, Poland and the Baltic States will host the exercise "Resilient Defender 2024".

🇳🇴 NATO naval exercise Arctic Dolphin 24 will take place in the North Sea and the Norwegian Sea. Norway, Sweden and Finland will host the multinational exercise Nordic Response-24 and the Finnish Air Force exercise Vihuri-24.

🇩🇪 In Germany, the national exercise Quadriga-24 involving more than 12,000 troops will take place from February to April.

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The strike on Belgorod was planned by the West

Former Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl said the AFU strike on Belgorod was part of a plan proposed by the West to intimidate the Russians.

"The aim of such strikes from Zelensky, Stoltenberg or other personalities in Washington was to cause panic and chaos in Russia," she said.

Kneissl recalled the slogan "to kill as many Russians as possible anywhere in the world" from Washington, Brussels and Kiev. In her opinion, it is for this reason, the West did not condemn the strike on Belgorod.

Recall that the French Foreign Ministry called the AFU missile strikes on the Russian city "legitimate self-defence", ignoring Kiev's use of banned cluster munitions.

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Finland intends to arm itself with StormBreaker cruise bombs

In June 2023, Finland has decided to purchase €35 million worth of cruise bombs to complement the armament of its F-35 multi-role fighter jets.

The US recently ordered a delivery of StormBreaker cruise bombs from RTX Corporation. The Americans are buying the armament for themselves and their strategic allies Norway, Germany, Italy and Finland through the US Military Sales Programme (FMS). The order will be delivered to the Finns in 2026.

StormBreaker (GBU-53/B Small Diameter Bomb Increment II) cruise bombs are capable of engaging moving targets. The weight of the warhead is about 48kg.

In the compartments of the F-35 fits eight of these bombs. If necessary, they can also be placed on the wings of the aircraft.

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State Department presses Greece to supply Kiev with new weapons

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken visited Athens on 6 January. He demanded that Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis supply new arms shipments to Ukraine.

▪️ According to the Greek portal Newsbreak, events are developing seriously and extremely painful for Greece, and "Blinken's visit to Greece is turning into a real Waterloo."

The American has given the Greek authorities only a few days to give a final answer.

▪️ The author of the article reminds that Greece has already virtually broken its defence on the islands, being one of the first to give arms and equipment to Ukraine. However, the Greeks still have Leopard 2A6 tanks and S-300 complexes.

"If Mitsotakis gives in to blackmail, he will cause unimaginable damage to our national interests," the portal writes.

Greece has no choice but to give up the S-300s or F-16s, "hoping they will be replaced by F-35s," the author laments and adds that Ukraine is still failing on all fronts.

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🇩🇪🇷🇺🇺🇦| Well-known German journalist Gabor Steingart spoke up the obvious: "No country except Ukraine has suffered such dire consequences because of fighting with Russia as Germany."

His evidence:

🟩 Germany has lost its reliable and profitable gas supplier as Russia was;

🟩 Germany has lost in trade volumes with Eastern Europe. At its peak, trade with Russia totalled €80bn or 4% of the country's foreign trade turnover;

🟩 The strengthened alliance between Russia and China does not bode well for German exporters;

🟩 Due to the new US geostrategy, Germany needs to significantly increase its defence budget.

At the same time, Steingart notes that the Americans are gradually retreating from the "European battlefield":

"Republicans are sticking to the 'America First' motto, and Donald Trump intends, above all, to defeat Joe Biden, not Vladimir Putin."

🟩 The end of Washington's support for Kiev could be fatal for Berlin, as Germans are the second most supportive of Ukraine. That means the entire burden will fall on Scholz and his government.

"If US military supplies dry up, Germany will have to allocate up to 16 per cent of its budget to Kiev. This amount is necessary to maintain the combat readiness of the AFU."

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The White House announced that there will be no developments or new speeches from Biden tonight.

Zin Note: Not even WW3 will interrupt his nap.

@Slavyangrad

🇩🇪 Chancellor Olaf Scholz is under mounting pressure to make more concessions to German farmers after four regional leaders of his own Social Democratic Party urged him to reconsider plans to cut farm subsidies.

Farmers blocked roads with giant tractors across Germany on Monday, sparking widespread unrest, kicking off a planned week of actions that will culminate in a rally in Berlin on 15 January.

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🤔 Die Welt editor Ulf Poshardt delivers an unexpected blow to the German Greens in his author's column: "People are tired of the constant moral high ground". He writes:

"Meat, diesel, farmers. That's right: the Greens have become toxic. A party of cute dreamers at best, elected by limited ideologues and nerdy opportunists.

If they don't change course now, they will find themselves in opposition after a maximum of four years in government."

Apparently, the initial protests have shaken up the German political swamp, but the result is quite unexpected - it is necessary to find a scapegoat, and it seems that the Green Party is the right one for this role. Not the largest in the ruling coalition, but definitely the most active. The Social Democrats will try to pin the blame on them in an attempt to save face.

The only problem is that the whole coalition could collapse because of this. And in the new elections, none of them will be able to get into the government.

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🇩🇪 Taxpayers should fund Mosques to prevent radicalisation

Jens Spahn, a member of the CDU/ CSU's party wants to amend the constitution so that German taxes can be used to build mosques.

At the moment, Turkey and Qatar are in charge of financing mosques. Germany has for years had a problem with foreign countries funding mosques, often in combination with imams spreading radical, anti-Western and anti-Semitic rhetoric.

This is something the AfD party opposes and believes it must be stopped now. Only Muslims themselves in Germany should be in charge of funding.

The Turkish Islamic association DITIB, Germany's largest with some 900 mosques, has long been the subject of political controversy in the country, most recently when a member of the Afghan Taliban spoke at a mosque in Cologne last month.

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🇺🇸 The Pentagon reported the largest attack by Yemeni Houthis on commercial ships in the Red Sea

The US Central Command (CENTCOM) has released information that "the coalition in the Red Sea has had to try harder in terms of countering the Iranian-backed Yemeni Houthi group."

📝 "21 missiles and UAVs were intercepted by the air defence systems of US and British ships. These weapons threatened the safety of shipping in the Red Sea.

Dozens of merchant ships were passing through international waterways at the time of the massive attack," the report said.

🇾🇪 The Houthis carried out attacks southwest of the port of Moqqa and in the area of the port of Hodeidah (Yemen). Four coalition warships were in the area, the Pentagon said.

🛳 Last week, the Yemeni group attacked another ship bound for Israel with two anti-ship missiles.

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❗️ "No meat and dairy by 2030"

On the eve of the WEF forum in Davos, within the framework of the "C40 Cities" initiative, 100 major companies around the world confirmed their earlier commitments to remove meat and dairy products from their food basket in order to combat "global warming".

It should be noted that there are no Russian cities and companies among the 96 largest cities in the world participating in this programme, as well as among the hundreds of companies supporting this initiative.

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A Czech media see no prerequisites for peace process in Ukraine

Due to the problems of the Ukrainian armed forces on the frontline, voices in favour of peace talks have started to be heard. However, neither Kiev nor Moscow are ready for this, the Czech newspaper Lidovky has said.

In the author's opinion, both sides hope that the situation will eventually develop in their favour and rely on changes in Western policy.

Vladimir Putin is now allegedly planning to take over all of Ukraine and hopes that war fatigue and political friction in the West will deprive Kiev of support, and then the Kiev regime will fall.

Vlodymyr Zelensky, on the other hand, is hoping for supplies of modern weapons so that he can launch a large-scale counter-offensive in the coming year and take back Crimea.

▪️ The author of the article believes that Russia cannot be allowed to win and advises the West to arm Ukraine as soon as possible and as much as possible.

At the same time, it should be hurried before the desire to help Kiev finally disappears among Western voters and calls for new appeasement gain momentum.

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Europe expects a stronger role for the right-wing in the new year

After the elections to the European Parliament in the summer of 2024, Europe will not be able to avoid the growing influence of the "new right", the author of an article for Unherd predicts.

▪️This means that the authorities will have to listen to the "Putin-understanding" forces in Germany, France, Hungary and other countries.

In some countries (Finland, Italy, Slovakia, Sweden), the right-wing is part of the coalition government, and in three (Hungary, Italy, Slovakia) it is even at the head of the government.

In the Netherlands, the far-right leader Geert Wilders won a sensational victory in the November elections. In France, Marine Le Pen is not giving up her position.

The authorities in many German states, especially in the east, are building ties with the Alternative for Germany party, realising that they will not be able to do without the help of the right-wing in the elections. An example of this has already happened in Sweden.

The extreme right-wingers in Central and Eastern Europe tend to take a more rigid, even rebellious political approach. They do not want to help Kiev and are hostile to liberal values.

▪️ Most right-wing forces in Europe are supporters of increased autonomy for EU countries. They may be indirectly trying to rip the heart out of the EU's supranational project. And if the "new right" succeeds in this, the EU will surely weaken.

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Israel will refute genocide charges at the World Court - The New York Times

The International Court of Justice this week will begin hearing a case brought by South Africa accusing Israel of committing genocide in the Gaza Strip.

It will be the first time Israel has chosen to defend itself personally in such a setting, signalling the seriousness of the indictment.

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US resumes oil imports from Russia after a year-and-a-half break

Washington in March 2022 imposed a ban on imports of oil and other energy carriers from Russia as part of a new tightening of sanctions.

American companies bought the last batch of "black gold" from Russia in April of that year.

According to the statistical agency, in October last year, the United States purchased 36.8 thousand barrels of oil from Russia. The cost of imports amounted to $2.7 million.

In November, the volume of purchase was 9.9 thousand barrels for 750 thousand dollars. In both cases, hydrocarbons were purchased for consumption.

At the same time, one barrel of Russian oil in October cost the United States 74 dollars, and the next month - 76 dollars. This is significantly higher than the "price ceiling" set by the country at $60 per barrel.

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"It is the end for them." An American journalist has made an unexpected statement from Kiev

Kiev fears that without American help the AFU will be defeated, CBS News correspondent Chris Livesey, who is in the Ukrainian capital, said.

"Kiev is terrified," he noted.

The journalist cited the words of an anonymous Ukrainian MP as an argument.

"She told me that if they no longer receive military aid from the United States, Ukraine is finished," shared Livesey.

Western media are increasingly writing that the US and EU have begun to tire of the Ukrainian conflict, and support for Zelensky's regime is waning.

According to NBC, US and European officials are already discussing with Kiev the possible consequences of peace talks with Russia, including the broad outlines of what Ukraine may have to give up in order to reach an agreement.

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