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UK and France unveil troop commitments for Ukraine

RT | January 7, 2026

The leaders of the UK and France have announced that they’ve agreed to deploy forces in Ukraine if Kiev reaches a peace deal with Russia, despite Moscow categorically ruling out the presence of NATO forces in the country under any pretext.

The agreement was unveiled on Tuesday at a meeting of the so-called ‘coalition of the willing’ group in Paris. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the three countries had signed a “Declaration of Intent” on deploying forces “in the event of a peace deal.” He called the agreement “a vital part of our iron-cast commitment,” while asserting it would create a legal framework for British, French, and partner forces to operate on Ukrainian soil.

Starmer said that “following a ceasefire,” Britain and France would establish “military hubs” throughout Ukraine and build protected facilities for weapons and equipment, while also joining US-led monitoring of the truce.

French President Emmanuel Macron described the proposed contingent as a non-combat force consisting of “potentially thousands” of troops, while stressing they would be stationed “a long way behind the contact line.”

However, neither Starmer, nor Macron, nor Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky cited exact troop numbers, deployment locations, or timelines.

Meanwhile, Zelensky claimed Ukraine had had “very substantive discussions” with the American team on the issue. “America is ready to work on this,” he said, adding that the sides have made progress on documents concerning security guarantees.

US envoy Steve Witkoff, who also attended the Paris talks, did not confirm a US commitment to deploy troops, but spoke of tough “security protocols” meant to deter attacks on Ukraine.

Russia has repeatedly opposed foreign troop presence in Ukraine, warning that these forces would be treated as “legitimate targets.” Moscow has also said that Ukraine’s ambition to join NATO and host the military alliance’s troops was one of the key reasons for the conflict in the country

January 7, 2026 Posted by | Militarism | , , , | Leave a comment

Recession-Hit Europe to Harm Own People by Giving Ukraine €800 Billion – Orban

Sputnik – 06.01.2026

Europe, which is currently in recession, will harm its own population if it provides Ukraine with the €800 billion demanded by the country, and European citizens will begin to resist such a policy, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said.

“Ukraine is asking for €800 billion over the next decade while Europe is in recession. Those who pay this price are harming their own people, and societies will eventually push back against policies that destroy living standards,” Orban was quoted as saying on the social network X by Hungarian government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs.

On January 3, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said that Ukraine would need $800 billion over the next 10 years for recovery and economic growth. According to her, Ukraine expects to secure these funds through grants, loans, and private investment.

Ukraine’s 2026 budget was adopted with a record deficit. According to Verkhovna Rada lawmaker Dmytro Razumkov, funds—including for military salaries and weapons—could begin to run out as early as February. At the same time, official Kiev expects to “patch budget holes” with aid from Western partners, which has been gradually declining.

Ending the fighting and reducing the size of Ukraine’s military could provide relief, a point repeatedly raised by Russia. However, the Ukrainian authorities continue to ignore calls for peace, despite common sense and a lack of funds, including for maintaining the armed forces.

January 6, 2026 Posted by | Economics, Militarism | , | Leave a comment

Russians to the Dnieper – Part 33 of the Anglo-American War on Russia

Tales of the American Empire | January 1, 2026

The war in Ukraine grinds on with Russian forces advancing slowly everywhere while slicing and dicing the Ukrainian army. Eventually the front line will collapse and the much larger Russian army will roll forth and across bridges over the mighty Dnieper River. This is inevitable, so pro-Ukrainian foreigners are pushing Ukraine to accept Russian demands for a peace deal. Unfortunately, the Ukrainian government is controlled by neocons and other warmongering psychopaths in Europe, to include NATO Generals. They want Ukraine to fight on to force Russia to take all of Ukraine.

_________________________________

“Poland says US offering 250 used Strykers for $1, with Warsaw prepared to accept”; Breaking Defense; December 5, 2025; https://breakingdefense.com/2025/12/p…

“Operation Atlantic Resolve”; DoD IG; Jan-Mar 2025; details on the semi-secret shell game to fund Ukraine; https://www.stateoig.gov/uploads/repo…

“Military Summary” channel; YouTube; daily war updates;    / @militarysummary  

Related Tales: “The Anglo-American War on Russia”;    • The Anglo-American War on Russia  

January 4, 2026 Posted by | Militarism, Video | , , | Leave a comment

Ukraine strikes civilians in drone attacks, western media silent

By Martin Jay | Strategic Culture Foundation | January 3, 2026

In recent days, the Ukrainian regime has carried out two key drone strikes: the first aimed at attacking Putin or his family deep within Russia, and the second in the Kherson region. Given that Zelensky’s Christmas broadcast hinted at the demise of the Russian president, one has to wonder how desperate he has become, especially as Russia prepares to capture a number of key towns along the front line. Was Zelensky sending a cryptic message?

While the first attack made headlines worldwide – coinciding with talks between Zelensky and Trump, and perhaps designed to underline a point by the Ukrainian caretaker president – the second attack, which claimed many lives, received hardly any coverage from Western journalists.

This media blackout is consistent with how the West has reported on the war. Omission is the favoured tactic of Western journalists. It’s not what they write – it’s what they leave out.

According to Russian authorities, the strike occurred shortly before midnight on December 31 in the Black Sea coastal village of Khorly. Multiple drones struck a crowded café and a hotel, creating a fireball; at least one UAV was carrying an incendiary mixture – particularly barbaric given that the victims were civilians.

The Kherson region, along with the Zaporizhzhia region and the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, joined Russia in the autumn of 2022 following local referendums that the West routinely dismisses as lacking credibility. These territories have been frequent targets of indiscriminate Ukrainian attacks throughout the conflict between Moscow and Kiev.

Two children were killed in the attack, while the civilian death toll from the New Year’s Eve strike in the Kherson region has risen to 27, with another 31 wounded, according to Russia’s Investigative Committee.

At least 100 civilians, including guests and staff, were inside the venue when what Russian authorities termed a “terrorist act” occurred.

If there was a message, Zelensky seemed to be saying, “I’m not interested in any peace deal.” Few could argue that ordering strikes on civilians makes any kind of peace agreement more difficult to reach – especially agreements currently under review, such as the Ukrainian proposal following Trump’s, which bore little resemblance to Russia’s stated non-negotiable points.

As for Western media, the message may be even clearer. When Zelensky is clearly guilty of violating international law and has the blood of children on his hands following drone strikes, Western journalists willingly whitewash him and his crimes. No doubt they are encouraged by their own elites, who have gone to extraordinary lengths to ignore the staggering levels of corruption in Kiev under his watch.

A similar pattern emerges when we examine the events leading up to Russia’s military operation in Ukraine – details Western journalists typically omit, even if they know them. Social media overflows with video evidence that leaves no doubt about U.S. meddling in Ukraine’s 2014 elections, with figures like Lindsey Graham and Victoria Nuland hardly hiding their objective: to install a Western puppet and push through massive arms deals tied to NATO/EU membership for Ukraine. Even Nuland’s private phone calls were leaked to the press, so the real story behind Russia’s “invasion” is hardly a secret anymore.

The Western press’s omission of recent drone attacks from regular reporting only underscores its tawdry complicity in advancing Western objectives. It suggests that manipulating daily facts to serve a narrative may itself amount to a war crime.

The drone attack against Putin’s residence was deemed worthy of coverage – yet we should be sceptical of Trump’s claims that he knew nothing about it and is shocked. Equally, we should question Western media’s stoic refusal to report the gruesome details of drone strikes when images of dead children might shift public opinion in gullible EU countries, where people have been primed to see the war in absurdly simple terms: a clear case of good versus evil, with Moscow wearing the black Stetson.

For the Ukrainian regime to lob missiles into Russian-speaking regions feels like déjà vu to many. Shelling civilians in those areas was the main impetus behind Zelensky’s election – he promised to stop the practice. Perhaps it is this irony that Western media will not write about or contextualize, denying readers crucial insight.

Perish the thought.

January 3, 2026 Posted by | Mainstream Media, Warmongering, War Crimes | , | Leave a comment

Targeting Putin and New Year celebrations… Western war psychosis in desperation mode

Strategic Culture Foundation | January 2, 2026

Earlier this week, in the early hours of December 29, Russia claimed that the NATO proxy regime had launched a large-scale drone attack aiming to assassinate President Vladimir Putin. Western political leaders and news media immediately vilified Russia for “lying” and “fabricating” the allegations as a pretext to derail diplomatic efforts for a peaceful end to the conflict.

A few days later, however, the proof was in to show who the real cynics and psychopaths are.

On New Year’s Eve, as the world was welcoming a New Year, the NATO armed and intelligence-equipped regime deliberately attacked families gathered in the Black Sea coastal village of Khorly in Kherson to hear the midnight chimes. Three drones murdered 24 civilians and injured more than 50 people after a hotel and cafe were hit with incendiary explosives. The atrocity was preceded by a reconnaissance unmanned aerial vehicle. There can be no doubt that this was a deliberate act of mass murder.

Hours later, on New Year’s Day, also in the Kherson region, a family car was hit by a drone, killing a five-year-old boy and seriously wounding his mother and grandparents.

There were no condemnations from Western political leaders. The Western news media hardly reported the atrocities, and the few media outlets that did report used whitewashing headlines such as “Russia says Ukrainian drone strike kills 24 in occupied Ukraine as tensions grow amid peace talks.”

The NeoNazi regime has been deliberately murdering Russian civilians for four years with American and European weapons, intelligence, and complicity. Before the conflict erupted in February 2022, the CIA-installed regime was killing ethnic Russian people in the Donbass.

Ukrainian civilians have also been killed by the Russian military during the conflict. The cardinal difference is that Russian forces do not target civilians.

The mass murder on New Year’s Eve was not random. It is a repeated vile war crime that has been witnessed against multiple Russian communities in Belgorod, Bryansk, Crimea, Donetsk, Lugansk, and elsewhere.

The silence of Western governments and media shows their moral bankruptcy, if not their criminal complicity in enabling a terrorist regime to murder Russian civilians. The Western media highlights when Russian strikes kill civilians while under-reporting or ignoring the Kiev regime’s deliberate murder of Russian civilians.

It is a profane conclusion that murdering Russian people is acceptable to the Western supporters of the Kiev regime. No expense or weaponry is spared in arming the regime. Just like its rampant corruption and Nazi affiliations are ignored, so too are its war crimes.

This regime carries out atrocities against its own people, as in the Bucha massacre in March 2022, for black propaganda against Russia and to justify the NATO proxy war. It is bombing the biggest nuclear power station in Europe at Zaporozhye with American-supplied missiles, and yet the Western media spins the absurd lies that Russia is somehow bombing the power plant that its forces are protecting.

The Nord Stream gas pipeline owned by Russia was blown up by NATO in September 2022, and yet Western governments and media accused Russia of sabotaging its own infrastructure. The Kiev regime blows up oil industries of European states, Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia, and the EU leaders and media say nothing, which means countenancing acts of state terrorism.

The sick, malevolent logic of the U.S.-led NATO war machine is evident. It wanted this war with Russia for decades. The NeoNazi proxy in Ukraine was installed to facilitate the aggression with the insane objective of defeating Russia.

Now that the NATO proxy war and its objective have been all but vanquished, the Western warmongering factions want to start World War III to salvage their reckless, failed gambit in Ukraine. The hundreds of billions of dollars and euros wasted on this criminal war leave Western states exposed to financial catastrophe.

Targeting the head of a nuclear power is the NATO war psychosis in desperation mode. Murdering families celebrating the New Year is depraved beyond words. But it shows how desperate the warmongers have become.

American and European politicians have Russian blood on their hands. Russia should not trust any proffered negotiations as genuine. It is not feasible to talk or reason with Russophobic psychopaths.

U.S. President Donald Trump talks a lot about wanting peace with Russia while blowing up Venezuela, supporting genocide in Gaza, and threatening the annihilation of Iran. His country’s intelligence agencies, dollars, and weapons are murdering Russian families. If the West wants peace in Ukraine, it can do that by immediately ending the weapons and intelligence it is supplying to the NeoNazi terrorist regime. Until then, Russia reserves the right to destroy the NATO war machine.

It is customary to wish readers a Happy New Year. We refrain from such a jolly greeting in solemn respect for those who died this week.

January 2, 2026 Posted by | Progressive Hypocrite, Russophobia, War Crimes | , , | Leave a comment

Why rich ‘refugees’ flock to Ukraine from impoverished Europe for Christmas

By Sonja van den Ende | Strategic Culture Foundation | January 2, 2026

Anger is boiling over in German and Dutch cities – and rightly so. While many Europeans are having to count every euro twice in this crisis of Europe’s own making, convoys of Ukrainian cars are heading east during the Christmas holidays. These refugees, reportedly fleeing Russian bombs and drones, are being well supported financially by Germany, the Netherlands, and other European countries – yet as Christmas approaches, they suddenly return home in high spirits.

At the Polish-Ukrainian border, cars are stuck in traffic jams for kilometers. Journalists report hours-long waits, and the flow of returning travelers shows no signs of abating. Families registered as war refugees are heading back to Ukraine for the Christmas and New Year holidays. While air raid sirens supposedly never cease in Ukraine, the fear of missiles and drones appears to fade. The contradiction is stark. Mainstream outlets like Deutsche Welle, whose reporter Christopher Wanner covered the border traffic, have reported on these queues (the report can be viewed here).

Worse still, if you look at the cars in Wanner’s report, many are expensive vehicles that Europeans themselves can no longer afford – because Europe is mired in an economic crisis of its politicians’ making.

Is this still fleeing war? Are these still refugees who supposedly cannot return to their homeland? Or is it simply vacation travel at the expense of the European taxpayer? Calls are growing for every refugee to be thoroughly screened. Critics argue that someone who travels to a war zone without a compelling reason can hardly claim protection. After all, according to the mainstream media and radicalized EU politicians, they should be facing death from “Putin’s bombs and drones.”

Visiting Ukraine is even advertised and promoted in various brochures and websites. The western regions of the country boast “the most colorful and unique Christmas atmosphere.” One travel site recommends: “a mini-trip to Transcarpathia to anyone who wants to immerse themselves in a fairytale atmosphere and see for themselves how ancient Ukrainian traditions are reflected in modern life. Find more New Year’s and winter trips to Ukraine here.”

These so-called Ukrainian refugees are among the approximately 6.5 million people who have sought refuge across Europe. Germany is the main destination, with over a million Ukrainian war refugees; Poland follows closely behind, currently hosting over 950,000. But are they really refugees? No, of course not. The majority come from western Ukraine, where there is no war. The people of the Donbas – now part of Russia – should be the real refugees. That is where drones, bombs, and missiles from Ukraine and NATO are flying.

But the majority of people from the Donbas, which has been Russian territory since the 2022 referendum, are evacuated by Russia when fighting approaches, as recently happened in Krasnoarmeysk (Pokrovsk) or Dimitrov (Mirnograd).

About a million people from the Donbas have been relocated, or if you prefer, have fled and are being housed in various regions of Russia. Among them are children who have lost their parents or are searching for them. Europe calls this “child stealing,” an absurd claim. Should these children die if, for example, drones strike Krasnoarmeysk while their parents are killed or missing in the chaos? Ukraine and Europe label this “child abduction” and have issued arrest warrants through the International Criminal Court (ICC) for President Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, the Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights in Russia.

The European population is slowly waking up, perhaps too late. Their countries have already been practically surrendered to the refugee industry. It is rampant across Europe and worsening daily. In the Netherlands, for example, one hotel after another is being filled with refugees, often without the consent of local villagers or even the hotel owners themselves. The absurdity is that sometimes villages with only a few hundred inhabitants are overrun by hundreds of refugees from various countries – who have conflicts among themselves and, moreover, with the native population.

Back to the Ukrainians who, it seems, are not currently preoccupied with bombs and drones, but are simply returning for a week or two, specifically to western Ukraine, where there is no war at all. These are the profiteers of European taxpayers. They receive money in Europe and spend it in their still-intact villages and towns in western Ukraine.

Ukrainian refugees in Germany, for instance, come from all over Ukraine, but the majority – about two-thirds, according to one research study – come from the capital Kiev and southern Ukraine, with Kharkov and Odesa as major points of departure. Lvov is considered a transit hub. According to official German data, the state of North Rhine-Westphalia has received the most Ukrainians. In July 2024, 232,252 Ukrainians lived in this region.

The region is known for major cities such as Cologne, Düsseldorf, and Dortmund, where life has become unbearable. No-go areas have emerged due to high crime rates. Many remnants of al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups, or so-called Arab clans (mafia), brought there by the UN after the fall of Aleppo, Syria in 2016, reside there. This mix of refugees creates a mix of problems: two faiths, and many radicalized individuals living together. The real Germans fled these areas and cities long ago.

On social media platforms like X, discussions about the so-called Christmas holidays of Ukrainian refugees are intensifying. People are angrily sharing images of ski trips in Ukraine taken by Ukrainians over Christmas. Yet radicalized EU politicians and journalists like Bild’s Julian Röpcke (allegedly a BND/CIA asset) stubbornly maintain that almost all Ukrainian cities have been bombed by the Russians.

Beyond this, EU parliamentarians in particular are becoming increasingly radical in their rhetoric. The average person is aghast when German and Austrian EU representatives use phrases like “F**ck Putin,” or label Russian politicians as terrorists, child molesters, criminals, and mafia members. If you examine their CVs, they are graduates of renowned universities where such language was presumably not taught…

Of course, EU politicians and their brainwashed journalists continue to insist that Christmas in Ukraine is now celebrated on December 25 and 26 (since 2024). However, the reality in Ukraine is quite different. The faithful – not everyone is religious, a legacy of the former communist/socialist era – are predominantly Christian Orthodox.

Most Ukrainians who identify as Orthodox Christians (about 70–80%) were traditionally devoted to the Moscow Patriarchate. But Ukraine has banned that patriarchate and declared a new church. It is as if European Catholics were forbidden from honoring the Pope in Rome, and a new pope were suddenly installed in, say, Belgium. That is the simplest explanation. But believers, of course, remain followers of Moscow or Rome.

Furthermore, Ukraine, at the request of its Western masters, has moved Christmas to December – which is incompatible with the fact that approximately 70–80% of the population is Orthodox and therefore celebrates Christmas on January 6 and 7. Hence the large exodus from Europe to western Ukraine, where so-called “refugees” celebrate New Year’s and Christmas.

Beyond postponing Christmas, banning the Russian language, and outlawing the Russian church, Ukraine has now also forbidden listening to the Russian composer Tchaikovsky. “Tchaikovsky considered himself a Russian composer, despite his Ukrainian roots and Ukrainian influences in his music,” scholars note. Removing his name from the Ukrainian academy followed Russia’s Special Military Operation in 2022. Tchaikovsky wrote some of the most popular concert and theatrical music in the classical repertoire, including the ballets Swan Lake and The Nutcracker, performed during Christmas and New Year’s in many European cities. One wonders: will this too be banned in Europe?

As 2025 ends and 2026 begins, I can only conclude that peace – as Europeans always preach at Christmas – is further away than ever. Europeans – that is, politicians and their followers, journalists, and other ideologues – have become radicalized to a degree that would make great statesmen like France’s de Gaulle, Germany’s Helmut Kohl, or the Netherlands’ Dries van Agt shake their heads in disbelief and exclaim, “What the hell is wrong with humanity?” How did we reach the point where fools rule the people? Well, there is a saying: every country gets the leaders it deserves. Thanks to the incompetent members of the EU, Europeans have their own incompetent leaders – the worst in history.

January 2, 2026 Posted by | Aletho News | , , | Leave a comment

Nicolai Petro: Chaos After Ukraine Collapses

Glenn Diesen | January 1, 2026

Nicolai N. Petro is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Rhode Island, and formerly the US State Department’s special assistant for policy on the Soviet Union. Prof. Petro discusses the pending end of the Ukraine War and why Europe will likely fragment as a consequence of its proxy war against Russia.

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January 2, 2026 Posted by | Militarism, Video | , , , | Leave a comment

Decrypted Data From UAV Shot Down in Novgorod Region Handed Over to US Side

Sputnik | January 1, 2026

Russian intelligence services were able to retrieve a flight mission file from one of the Ukrainian drones that attacked Putin’s residence.

Decrypted data from one of the Ukrainian drones that attacked Russian President Vladimir Putin’s residence have been handed over to the US mission in Moscow, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Thursday.

On Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that overnight from December 28 to 29, Kiev had launched an attack on the Russian presidential residence in Russia’s Novgorod Region using 91 drones.

“Materials containing decrypted routing data and the flight controller of the Ukrainian drone that was shot down by Russian air defense systems on the night of December 29, 2025, over the Novgorod Region during a terrorist attack on the Russian presidential residence were handed over to a representative of the military attache’s office at the US Embassy in Moscow,” the ministry said in a statement.

The obtained data unequivocally confirm that the drones were on their way to attack Putin’s residence, the head of the Russian General Staff’s Main Intelligence Directorate, Igor Kostyukov, who delivered the files to the US Embassy, said.

“We believe that this step will remove all questions and will contribute to establishing the truth,” Kostyukov added.

January 1, 2026 Posted by | Militarism, War Crimes | , , | Leave a comment

Russia treating latest drone attack on the Putin residence as more sinister than just another terrorist attack

By Larry C. Johnson | SONAR | January 1, 2026

… this is not the first time that Ukraine tried to hit Putin with a drone attack… Remember the May 2023 attack on the Kremlin? Here is the list of the most prominent Ukrainian-sponsored terrorist attacks since 2022:

  1. Assassination of Darya Dugina (August 20, 2022) A car bomb in Moscow killed journalist and activist Darya Dugina (daughter of ultranationalist Alexander Dugin). Russia’s FSB accused Ukraine’s special services of orchestrating it, claiming a Ukrainian woman carried it out. Although Ukraine denied involvement US intelligence later assessed that elements within the Ukrainian government authorized it.
  2. Crimean Bridge Explosion (October 8, 2022) A truck bomb damaged the Kerch Bridge linking Russia to occupied Crimea, killing several civilians. Putin called it a “terrorist act” by Ukrainian services. Ukraine initially denied but later acknowledged responsibility for the attack, claiming the bridge as a legitimate military target.
  3. Nord Stream Pipelines Sabotage (September 26, 2022) Underwater explosions damaged the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea. Russia accused Ukraine (or Western proxies) of terrorism to disrupt energy supplies. Investigations pointed to sabotage, with later reports (including German warrants) suspecting a Ukrainian team; Ukraine denied state involvement.
  4. Assassination Attempts on Pro-Russian Figures and Journalists Russia has labeled multiple killings or attempts (e.g., Vladlen Tatarsky in April 2023 café bombing; other bloggers/war correspondents) as Ukrainian terrorism.
  5. Drone and Sabotage Attacks on Infrastructure Russia routinely calls Ukrainian drone strikes on oil depots, refineries, airbases, and Moscow buildings “terrorist acts” (hundreds since 2022). Notable: May 2023 Kremlin drone incident (Russia claimed attempt on Putin).
  6. Border Incursions/Raids (e.g., Belgorod/Bryansk, 2023–2024) Cross-border raids by anti-Putin Russian partisans (e.g., Russian Volunteer Corps, operating from Ukraine) were branded terrorism by Russia, with claims of Ukrainian backing.
  7. Crocus City Hall Concert Attack (March 22, 2024) Gunmen killed 145+ in Moscow suburb. ISIS-K claimed full responsibility (verified by U.S./Western intelligence).
  8. Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov (December 17, 2024): Head of Russia’s Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Protection Troops. Killed with his assistant by a bomb hidden in an electric scooter outside his Moscow apartment. Ukraine’s SBU claimed responsibility, calling him a “legitimate target” for alleged chemical weapons use. Russia classified it as terrorism.
  9. Lieutenant General Yaroslav Moskalik (April 25, 2025): Deputy head of the General Staff’s main operational department. Killed by a car bomb near Moscow. Russia blamed Ukrainian services.
  10. In Bryansk Oblast (May 31, 2025) (near Vygonichi): A highway/road bridge exploded and collapsed onto railway tracks just as a passenger train (Klimovo–Moscow route, carrying ~388 passengers) was passing underneath. The debris crushed parts of the train, killing at least 7 people (including the driver) and injuring 66–113 others (reports vary, including children).
  11. Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov (December 22, 2025): Head of the General Staff’s army operational training directorate. Killed by a bomb under his car in southern Moscow. R

So why has this latest attack by Ukraine sparked such fury on the part of the Russians? This is something more than orchestrated outrage. I think it is a combination of factors, starting with the fact that the attack began while Ukraine’s Zelensky was meeting with Donald Trump for the ostensible purpose of trying to craft a peace proposal for Russia. Whether Zelensky was witting of the plan is not relevant. This was an attack planned and executed with the assistance of Western intelligence, possibly including the CIA, and the timing and the intended target removed any doubt on the part of the Russians that the West could be trusted to negotiate an honest deal.

We still do not know if President Putin was at the residence… If he was, then it is not out of the question for the Russians to conclude that this was a deliberate attempt to kill Putin using the peace talks as a ruse. We will soon find out how pissed off the Russians are when they carry out their promise to retaliate. … Full article

Rumble

January 1, 2026 Posted by | Militarism, Video | , , , | Leave a comment

Two dozen killed in Ukrainian strike on Russian New Year’s celebration – governor

RT | January 1, 2026

At least 24 people were killed and more than 50 injured in a Ukrainian drone strike on a café and a hotel during New Year’s Eve celebrations in the Black Sea coastal village of Khorly, the governor of Russia’s Kherson Region has said.

The attack took place shortly before midnight after a reconnaissance drone surveyed the area, Kherson Region Governor Vladimir Saldo said in a post on Telegram on Thursday. Three unmanned aerial vehicles then hit the crowded venue, triggering a massive fire that burned through the premises. One of the drones reportedly carried an incendiary mixture.

A child was among those killed, Saldo said. The medics are currently fighting for the lives of the wounded, he added.

The governor said that the attack can only be compared to the May 2014 Odessa massacre. At the time, Ukrainian ultra-nationalists who had supported the then-recent Western-backed coup in Kiev chased 42 anti-government protesters into the city’s Trade Unions House before setting the building on fire and burning all of them alive. “This is what the ‘peace’ that Zelensky claims to strive for looks like,” he wrote.

Kherson Region, together with Zaporozhye Region and the People’s Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, joined Russia in the fall of 2022 as a result of local referendums.

Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said earlier that at least nine Ukrainian drones targeting the Russian capital had been shot down overnight. The mayor reported the first interception at 11:55pm local time just as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s traditional New Year’s address began.

The latest drone raids follow a failed drone attack by Kiev on Putin’s residence in Novgorod Region on December 28-29, which Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has condemned as an act of “state terrorism.”

The Kremlin noted that the raid was aimed not only against the Russian leader, but also “against [US] President [Donald] Trump’s efforts to facilitate a peaceful resolution of the Ukraine conflict.”

January 1, 2026 Posted by | War Crimes | , | Leave a comment

Stanislav Krapivnik: Massive Escalation – Attack on Putin’s Residence

Glenn Diesen | December 30, 2026

Stanislav Krapivnik is a former US Army officer, supply chain exec and military-political expert, now based in Russia. He was born in Lugansk during the Soviet times, migrated to the US as a child and served in the US army. Krapivnik discusses the attack on Putin’s residence.

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December 30, 2025 Posted by | Video | , , , , , | Leave a comment

Drone Attack on Putin’s Residence Could Have Triggered a Nuclear War: Here’s Why

Sputnik – 30.12.2025

The 91-drone attack on the presidential residence in Novgorod region was an extremely dangerous provocation. And one that “could not have been carried out without the participation of European hawks” because “Zelensky would not have dared to plan or carry out such an operation on his own,” military expert Alexey Leonkov told Sputnik.

Intricate planning was required, and the timing – while Zelensky was in the US for talks with Trump, was designed to give him an alibi, “which he is now using, claiming Ukraine had nothing to do with it,” Leonkov said.

The provocation “wasn’t simply an attack on the president,” the observer emphasized. “It was a strike on a nuclear weapons control center, as each such residence contains communications nodes through which the head of state can issue the command to use the country’s nuclear forces.”

“It was intended to provoke a conflict between the US and Russia,” Leonkov said. “This was precisely the calculation: at worst, provoking a global conflict; at a minimum, disrupting the negotiation process between the US and Russia. And it’s clear that European hawks favor only this scenario,” particularly Britain.

While he issues denials now, Zelensky essentially blabbed about the attack ahead of time twice in the past two weeks: a press conference on December 18, when he said “politicians change, somebody lives, somebody dies,” and on Christmas eve, when he openly called on Ukrainians to wish for Putin’s death.

“All this suggests Zelensky was aware of the impending attack, but was playing his assigned role – pretending he had nothing to do with it and ‘advocating for peace’,” Leonkov emphasized.

Analyzing Moscow’s public reaction carefully, Leonkov said two things are certain: first, Russia will respond appropriately, and the targets and time of the response have already been determined; second, the response will be carried out in such a way as not to affect the negotiation process between Russia and the US.

December 30, 2025 Posted by | Militarism, War Crimes | , , , | Leave a comment

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