🪖 Ukraine is running out of pro-soldiers as draft-eligible men flee

As the Kiev regime forges ahead with its lackluster counteroffensive, it is not only increasingly running out of ammo but is also forced to acknowledge the gravity of Ukraine’s losses.

Ukraine is fast running out of professional military personnel, The Washington Post has reported. Growing numbers of fighting-age men are either dying in the "meat grinder" of Kiev’s botched counteroffensive, deserting active-duty service, or dodging the draft. No one wants to die a pointless death on a suicide mission, it was stated.

“Too many civilians seem content to leave the fighting to ‘professional’ soldiers,” the outlet cited members of Ukraine’s Armed Forces as complaining. Amid waning support among NATO allies for providing aid to Ukraine, it is not only losses of military hardware and ammunition shortages that are a problem for President Volodymyr Zelensky.

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🇺🇦 West doubts Ukraine's ability to conduct major counteroffensive until 2025, according to reports

The West believes Kiev will most likely fail to launch another significant counteroffensive until 2025, as the Ukrainian forces need time to recover after this year's failed military campaign, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing Western diplomats and military strategists.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told the newspaper that his country was forming brigades for "new counteroffensive and defensive operations," but Western military strategists reportedly said it was rather shifting to defensive positions, which, in particular, could be confirmed by Ukrainian troops digging trenches near Krasny Liman.

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🇺🇸 Hunter Biden's attorney claims the client is targeted with new charges because of his family name

Hunter Biden has been indicted on new tax-related charges because of his family name, defense attorney Abbe Lowell said in a statement to Sputnik.

“Based on the facts and the law, if Hunter’s last name were anything other than Biden, the charges in Delaware, and now California, would not have been brought," Lowell argued on Friday.

Lowell further asserted that US Special Counsel David Weiss, who is overseeing the Biden investigation, "bowed to Republican pressure" to file gun charges against Biden in September.

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Donetsk People's Republic shelled by Ukraine 10 times in past day

Ukraine shelled the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) 10 times over the past day, the DPR representative office in the Joint Center for Control and Coordination (JCCC) of issues related to Ukraine's war crimes said in a statement.

"Over the past 24 hours, the office reported 10 cases of fire by Ukrainian armed forces," the office wrote on Telegram.

According to the statement, there were no civilian casualties reported.

The DPR said that Ukraine fired 35 rounds of various ammunition. In total, the Kiev regime launched 19 strikes in the previous day.

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🇪🇺🌍 BRICS Momentum: Is EU pivoting towards a multipolar horizon?

The European Union (EU) has launched an open debate about its relations with BRICS in the European Parliament, marking a pivotal moment amid global shifts away from American hegemony toward a multipolar world.

Conservative European politicians want to cultivate ties with the group of emerging economies led by Russia and China.

The BRICS group has expanded to 11 members with the accession of Saudi Arabia, Iran, Ethiopia, Egypt, Argentina and the United Arab Emirates, — and has the potential to grow to 18 in the future.

The group of non-Western countries holds significant economic and political sway, prompting the EU to seek partnerships with the coalition at a conference this week entitled "The Rising Power of BRICS: Implications for the European Union."

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🇺🇸 US judge approves settlement that bars separation of migrant families on southern border

A US judge approved a settlement that bars US officials from separating migrant families that illegally cross the US southern border, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said in a press release.

The US government is barred from re-enacting the zero-tolerance policy over the next eight years, the ACLU stated, adding that the settlement takes effect on December 11.

According to the release, the US government will continue to identify families that were separated, fund their reunification in the United States, and provide a pathway for them to seek asylum in the country.

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🪖 New Ukrainian brigades lack needed vehicles and have obsolete equipment - report

According to a recent report by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, Western military aid to Ukraine has plummeted by 87% year-on-year from August to October, reaching its lowest since January 2022 of $2.3 billion. This plunge can be attributed to the lack of new commitments by the European Union and the United States.

A Forbes article recently revealed that photographs featuring the five fresh mechanized brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces were noticeably lacking combat equipment. Moreover, these brigades might be supplied with outdated Soviet vehicles.

Forbes explained that the Ukrainian Armed Forces are currently in the process of forming five new mechanized brigades: the 150th, the 151st, the 152nd, the 153rd and the 154th.

"None of the photos show the brigades' equipment. An old BMP-1 appears in some photos, but it probably belongs to a training unit," the journalist noted.

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🇺🇸 Hunter Biden will “not go down alone”

On Thursday, Hunter Biden was charged by a federal grand jury in California on nine charges, including three felonies and six misdemeanors.

“I really don’t think that Hunter Biden is actually going to be convicted,” Sabrina Salvati, an activist and former educator, joined Sputnik’s Political Misfits podcast to share her opinion on the issue. “I’m pretty sure he’s probably lawyered up, there’s been a lot of time that has passed for him to make sure he has all his ducks in a row, and I think that’s why he is so willing to testify,” she added.

Meanwhile, the investigators are seeking a private testimony from Hunter Biden, but aren’t interested in the public one that Biden has offered them.

According to Salvati, Hunter Biden will “not go down alone,” that’s why he wants to “have this public display” to target the Republican party.

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🇬🇧🇷🇼 UK pays Rwanda $126Mln amid new asylum deal

"Ministers have agreed that I can disclose now the payments so far in the 2023-24 financial year. There has been one payment of £100m, paid in April this year as part of the Economic Transformation and Integration Fund [ETIF] mentioned above ... This was entirely separate to the Treaty - The Government of Rwanda did not ask for any payment in order for a Treaty to be signed, nor was any offered," UK Home Office Permanent Secretary Matthew Rycroft said in a letter to lawmakers.

The official further stated that London had paid Kigali 140 million pounds in 2022; however, no migrants were transported to Rwanda that year.

Another 50 million pounds will be wired in the 2024-25 financial year "as part of the ETIF as agreed with the Government of Rwanda when the Migration and Economic Development Partnership was signed," the letter read.

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🇷🇺 Vladimir Putin congratulated Rossiya Segodnya, Sputnik's parent media group, on its 10th anniversary, wishing that it maintain its leading position

"It is gratifying that you are worthily continuing the creative traditions of your predecessors - famous journalists, correspondents, editors, translators, publicists. You generously share your experience and knowledge with young employees," the congratulatory telegram read.

The president expressed confidence that the media group "will continue to raise the bar for the quality of its work and maintain its position as one of the recognized leaders of the domestic and international information space.”

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📹 Russian drone operators from the Far Eastern Airborne Forces in the area of Artemovsk in the DPR shot down a Ukrainian drone known as the "Baba Yaga" by ramming it in the air with their own drone.

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🇷🇺 Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin congratulates Rossiya Segodnya, Sputnik's parent media group, on 10th anniversary

The prime minister stressed that the media group "sets high journalistic standards in the media space" of Russia and beyond, and that its round-the-clock news resources "in dozens of languages provide a wide audience of readers and listeners with reliable and objective information about the most important events in the world."

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🇮🇱🇵🇸 Latest updates on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict:

▪️By blocking the UN Security Council draft resolution on a ceasefire in Gaza, the US signed a death sentence for thousands of residents of the besieged Palestinian enclave, Russian Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Dmitry Polyanskiy said;

▪️The UAE-drafted UN Security Council resolution calling for an unconditional ceasefire in Israel and Gaza is unrealistic and dangerous, US Deputy Ambassador to the UN Robert Wood said after his country vetoed the measure. He added that among other things, it did not contain a condemnation of Hamas and did not reflect Israel's right to self-defense;

▪️Intensive fighting by the Israeli Army in the largest city in the southern Gaza Strip, Khan Yunis, where, according to Israel, the Hamas’ leadership is located, will last for another three to four weeks, Axios reports, citing a military source;

▪️China calls on Israel to stop the collective punishment of the population of the Gaza Strip, Chinese Permanent Representative to the UN Zhang Jun said at a meeting of the UN Security Council;

▪️Israeli authorities should make more efforts to protect Palestinian civilians during their military operations in the Gaza Strip, the White House said;

▪️The US administration has asked Congress to authorize the sale of 45,000 shells to Israel for its Merkava main battle tanks;

▪️A UN Security Council delegation will visit the Rafah checkpoint on the border of Egypt and the Gaza Strip on Monday.

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📊 A poll among voters in the United States shows that more people believe in Trump's ability to cope with the conflict in Gaza (44%) than in Biden's ability to resolve the crisis (32%), the WSJ reports.

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A growing number of voices in the US do not want to help Ukraine because of the huge losses of Western equipment and the outcome of the counteroffensive, Military Watch Magazine writes.

"The scale of losses suffered by Ukraine and the increasingly widely recognized failure of its offensive operations have played an important role in increasing resistance in the United States to supplying arms to the Ukrainian armed forces," the publication said.

The article points out that cutting off aid could completely undermine not only Kiev's ability to sustain military operations, but also the Ukrainian state's ability to perform even the most basic functions. Besides, Russia is seizing more and more trophy samples of Western equipment, while the Ukrainian Army is just leaving them on the battlefield.

In addition, there are fears in the US about the reputation of allegedly best American tank, the M1 Abrams, according to the article.

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😳 Come again? How much, Joe??

President Biden is again being mocked after his speech on investments in infrastructure in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The US president announced that the administration had spent “over a billion, three hundred million, trillion, three hundred million dollars” on investments in major rail projects across the country.

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🇯🇵 Japan advised to go nuclear as US 'umbrella' 'frayed irreparably'

Ex-editor for The New York Times Barry Gewen has described the American “nuclear umbrella” that previously offered Japan military protection as being “increasingly frayed, probably irreparably.”

The report rationalized the need for Japan to “go nuclear” by dredging up traditional US-fueled claims of alleged threats from neighboring states, like China, North Korea, and even Russia.

The author posed the simple question: “Would America be willing to risk the destruction of Los Angeles to protect Tokyo?”

Japan should not rely on “decisions of impulsive and unreliable leaders in Washington,” the author of the report said.

It is worth recalling that Russia’s nuclear doctrine forbids the preemptive use of nuclear weapons. The fearsome weapons are regarded “exclusively as a means of deterrence, their use being an extreme and compelled measure.”

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🇮🇱Israel plans to end operations in southern Gaza’s Khan Yunis in 3-4 weeks – reports

The operation in Khan Yunis has just started, an official told media outlet, adding that the Israeli military believed that the leadership of Palestinian movement Hamas was located there.

According to the source, the high-intensity phase of the conflict between Israel and Hamas will last for three to four weeks.

According to the report, the US does not give Israel a clear deadline for the end of the operation, but points out that time is limited and it is necessary to end the fighting as quickly as possible and with fewer civilian casualties. Washington prefers Israel finished the high intensity phase of the operation in the Gaza Strip by the end of December, and Israel aims at the end of January 2024, the report added.

Earlier, Head of the Israeli General Staff Herzi Halevi said that the IDF had moved to the third phase of the ground operation in the Gaza Strip and was surrounding Khan Yunis.

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💥 Russian forces launched strikes with high-precision long-range air-based weapons on ammunition production sites for Olha, Grad, and Grom systems.

The targets of the strikes were achieved and all objects were hit, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported.

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🇷🇺 Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov congratulates Rossiya Segodnya, Sputnik's parent media group, on media group’s 10th anniversary

"The media group is a legitimate leader among domestic media. It is a worthy representative of our country in the international arena, publishing a wide range of news products in 30 languages and actively cooperating with more than 100 foreign partners," Lavrov said in his congratulatory letter.

The foreign minister stressed that at a time of unprecedented international pressure on Russian media, Rossiya Segodnya "continues to meet high professional standards of honest journalism."

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🇷🇺🪖 Key points of Russian MoD briefing on progress of special military op in Ukraine:

▪️ In the Krasny Liman region, Ukrainian losses amounted up to 155 soldiers;

▪️ In the Kupyansk area, Ukrainian losses amounted up to 105 servicemen;

▪️ In the Donetsk region, Russian forces repelled five attacks by Ukrainian troops. Ukrainian losses amounted to 200 soldiers;

▪️In southern Donetsk, Ukrainian losses amounted to 80 soldiers;

▪️ In the Kharkov region, Russian forces destroyed a Ukrainian ammunition depot;

▪️ Russian air defense systems destroyed 11 drones of the Ukrainian forces.

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