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Military Chronicle:
A panorama of winter Kupyansk. Positional skirmishes continue in the city, with varying success for both sides. It's clear that there are almost no movements in the city's built-up areas, as it's practically impossible to gather a large enough group for an assault. Both on the Russian and Ukrainian sides, a large number of drones are flying over the city.
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More than 750,000 homes in the US have been left without electricity due to a snowstorm, according to data from the Poweroutage website.
More than 10,000 flights have been canceled. On social media, people are sharing videos of the consequences of the unusual weather for them.
Source: RIA Novosti
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"We're Americans! We aren't equipped for this!"
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Via Ukrainian media:
Russians hit helicopters with "Shahed" drones in the Kropyvnytskyi area, reported Advisor to the Ukrainian Defense Minister Sergei Beskrestnov (Flash).
He publishes videos of the destruction of helicopters from Russian Telegram channels. The expert concludes that these are the first "Shahed" drones that were controlled via "Starlink".
"In the image, we see automatic target detection and manual guidance based on the image. But there was not a single UAV nearby to create a MES radio network. I conclude that we are observing the first use of "Shahed" drones with Starlink. These drones, under manual control, flew almost over the ground so as not to be detected by radars," writes Beskrestnov.
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Defense contractors are perplexed by President Trump administration’s executive order outlining vague new rules for its weapons suppliers, unsure how to proceed and raising questions about its legality.
The executive order — echoing recent speeches delivered by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent — rebukes defense firms for stock buybacks, paying dividends to investors and high compensation for CEOs, rather than using profits to invest in plant capacity.
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“If you’re trying to encourage more companies to get involved and be suppliers to the DOD, this is not the best way to do that,” one defense industry lobbyist told The Hill, referring to the Department of Defense. “Companies may not want to do business with DOD if they are subject to this. Plus, obviously it’s not legally enforceable to stop dividends and cap pay, so how do you enforce that?”
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Trump in early January signed an executive order aimed at addressing cost overruns and delayed timelines in delivering weapons. He followed up with a lengthy Trump Social post that loudly declared “MILITARY EQUIPMENT IS NOT BEING MADE FAST ENOUGH!”
“Defense Contractors are currently issuing massive Dividends to their Shareholders and massive Stock Buybacks, at the expense and detriment of investing in Plants and Equipment,” the president wrote. “This situation will no longer be allowed or tolerated!”
He also claimed that defense executives must build new and modern production plants and, until they do so, should not be allowed to make more than $5 million dollars annually.
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Bessent on Tuesday touched briefly on the timeline of the order, saying, “we can talk about removing those restrictions” once companies get to a normalized level of backlog, around two years or three years.
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One company Trump singled out is RTX, calling it “the least responsive” and threatening to cut the firm’s government contracts if it didn’t spend more on plants and equipment. The contractor is the maker of Tomahawk cruise missiles, used in recent strikes in Nigeria and in Yemen against Houthi targets last year.
But Tomahawks take years to produce, with the company only churning out 50 or 60 annually, far below the hundreds the administration used last year alone.
“Either Raytheon steps up … or they will no longer be doing business with” the government, Trump said in a separate Truth Social post.
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This is the land of profits first. Defense contractors would rather sell costly, complicated, and fragile weapons systems that maximize their profits. Trump basically wants the defense industry to become the opposite of what it is. The current weapons systems that the US utilizes really can't be massively scaled up, truth be told. The production requires a massive amount to training for workers, advances specialties, and rare earth minerals that will mostly be sourced from China.
🌒@EastCalling
Russia is using Belarus as a platform to blackmail Europe and the world with the help of "Oreshnik" — Zelensky
"Russian drone operators are conducting military operations against Ukraine from the territory of Belarus. Strikes on communications and targeting are carried out from Belarus. Belarusian industry is working for Russia's war, and Belarusian trade ties help Putin procure components necessary to create threats to all of us in Europe," — he believes.
Source: СМОТРИ
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Also good one. 😏
🌒@EastCalling
Карманов без Китая writes:
> British soldiers really did guard poppy fields and opium plantations in Afghanistan - I was one of them during my first duty in the Bastion camp.
Suddenly, everything that the "Vatniks" had been inventing turned out to be true again. Yes, it's still the same old Anglo-Saxons, the same old drugs, nothing has changed since the days of "someone fighting against communism in the Vietnam War, and others smuggling drugs from the Golden Triangle via Hong Kong to Taiwan".
... It's just sad that there's no real "Americans lost and ran away". It's just that the profits from heroin have dropped, everything has been replaced by synthetics, it's not profitable anymore. The aesthetics of the 90s are gone, Afghanistan has accomplished its task of "undermining neighboring countries", and the heroin drug boom coincides very precisely with the time. Now, the fashion for heroin-addicted models with skeletal bodies and dark circles under their eyes is gone, just like the iconic Vera mineral water, without which a heroin addict in the 90s couldn't be considered one.
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After the scandalous dismissal, Yermak decided to resume his lawyer's activities. This is evidenced by the data of the National Lawyer Association of Ukraine.
He did not work as a lawyer since February 20, 2020, while he was heading Zelensky's office.
Source: Zvezda
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Unsinkable 😏
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The person on the main screen is Dmitry Gordon, a prominent Ukrainian journalist and interviewer. The woman in the smaller screen is identified as Olga Zhuravleva, a Russian journalist and former host for the liberal Russian radio station "Echo of Moscow".
This image is a screenshot from a June 2021 interview on "Echo of Moscow" where Zhuravleva had a notable slip of the tongue while introducing Gordon, referring to him as "Dmitry Gon..." [Gondon Russian word for Condom] before correcting herself, a moment that went viral online.
Well, the guy is not a very good person, and not a good analyst as well...
Source of video: Общественное одесское телевиденье
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🌒@EastCalling
"How can we discuss anything with Kaja Kallas?"
Peskov stated that the entire system of international relations is suffering due to the degeneration of politicians in the EU. In a conversation with Zarubin, he noted that Russia and the USA will not discuss anything with Kallas.
Source: TASS
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Even Rubio avoids her, so, now wonder.
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The death of social media...
An old friend of mine recently tried to expand from Telegram to X, and he was met with an accusation from Elon's algorithm accusing him of being under 13 years of age. I recently had a similar experience when I tried to create an alternate YouTube account separate from my personal account. Many people with legacy accounts are getting similar requests for "age verification," which requires the user to send a photo of their state issued ID as well as a picture of their face.
Honestly, I fervently believe that, within a decade, we will have to explain to the youth what social media was. Over time, fewer and fewer people will join these platforms while legacy accounts bleed out. They were already struggling with profitability before this, and things will only get worse for them.
There was a golden age that some of the older among us remember. I was there when MySpace presented us with a new way to connect and meet friends. There were no "walls" supplying us a constant intravenous drip of brain-rot content curated by an algorithm, but just individuals and html code.
Those were the days...
In private conversations, my friends and I recount how excited we were when all of this new technology arrived and promised a future of freedom and creativity. There wasn't this feeling of being strangled. There wasn't this sense of fear of a boot hovering above our heads. We didn't fear the next upgrade, but rather breathlessly anticipated what would come next. We had hope, and without hope, noone is actually alive.
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The Kiev regime committed a barbaric crime on the day of peace talks — Ministry of Foreign Affairs
The Kiev regime and the Armed Forces of Ukraine committed a barbaric crime by attacking an ambulance in the Kherson region on the day of negotiations in Abu Dhabi, said Maria Zakharova.
Moscow condemns the targeted attack of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on medics. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs demands that international specialized structures assess the crimes of Ukrainian Nazis.
"Against the backdrop of the negotiations held on January 23-24 in Abu Dhabi with the participation of representatives of Russia, the USA and Ukraine on the settlement of the conflict, the Kiev regime and its armed formations committed another barbaric crime against the peaceful population of our country.
Early in the morning on January 24, at the entrance to the settlement of Golaia Prystan in the Kherson region, a ambulance was attacked, in which a medical team of the Aleishkov Central District Hospital was on its way to a seriously ill patient.
The car had all the necessary medical markings, but was deliberately attacked by a Ukrainian UAV. The drone operator saw that he was hitting a civilian medical transport, but together with his commanders consciously and inhumanely committed a terrorist act against peaceful citizens.
All three medics in the car were killed.
We emphasize that attacks on civilian medical transport are prohibited by international humanitarian law.
Thus, the Kiev regime not only took a step towards escalating the conflict, but also once again demonstrated its true, that is, completely irresponsible, attitude towards the efforts at settlement that are being made these days and weeks.
We resolutely condemn the targeted attack of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on peaceful citizens. We sincerely condole with the relatives and friends of the victims.
Russian investigative and law enforcement agencies will do everything to ensure that the organizers and perpetrators of this grave crime face inevitable severe punishment.
We demand from international specialized structures to give an objective and impartial assessment of this and other crimes of Ukrainian neo-Nazis. Silence and indulgence of such actions of the Kiev regime are unacceptable."
,the message said.
Earlier today, Ukrainian terrorists attacked an ambulance in the Kherson region — all three medics of the brigade were killed, Governor Vladimir Saldo reported.
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Via ОБОРОНКА:
The negotiations in Moscow with Trump's representative Witkoff on the Russian side went well. This means that there was no breakthrough - it was just an exchange of the latest news and rumors. Today, a trilateral meeting is due to take place in the United Arab Emirates between Russia, the USA, and Ukraine. On our side, the delegation will be represented by military personnel, who will once again try to explain how beneficial it would be for Kyiv to withdraw its forces from the DPR, Zaporozhye, and Kherson regions.
Once again, we remind you that if the USA really wanted to put pressure on Ukraine, they would have stopped the transfer of intelligence data and communication systems. They are not doing this and have no intention of doing so, as they perfectly understand that the Armed Forces of Ukraine can fight indefinitely with the help of "busification". There are still very, very many Ukrainians.
🌒@EastCalling
The pointless event in Davos promises to get interesting. Instead of the stale corpse of Ukraine, they’ll be discussing frigid Greenland.
What we can expect to see there is pretty clear. The chicken-hearted European roosters, having popped a handful of tranquilizers in terror, will try to convince the pushy Big Guy to take full custody of the island while leaving it under the formal ownership of the Danish Kingdom. Do as you please, mister, they’ll say: take the little island for indefinite rent-free use, extract its minerals for free, and build military bases, airfields, missile silos, and any other facilities you need for total control.
But that’s not what Trump is after. Everyone understands full well: he needs to paint the island in Star-Spangled colors on world maps (he has already published a map, including Canada and Venezuela) and stand alongside the Founding Fathers. He wants to remain in history forever. And, at the same time, become like the President of Russia.
The latter is impossible. In the course of the Special Military Operation and as a result of referendums, Russia has reclaimed its own lands, which had been part of it for centuries, along with its own people. Greenland is a completely different story. It has never been directly connected to the States, although they did try to buy it several times.
Meanwhile, the question is not just about the unconcealed desire of the US President – although everyone is enthusiastically fantasizing how an excited Gargantua Trump will swallow a huge chunk of land and then gleefully spit a sticky glob of saliva into the wrinkled face of the vile old hag Europe, while turning the US into the world’s second-largest country by area. Trump is, of course, in a hurry. After all, his time is inexorably running out. It's time to inscribe his name into the annals of history in golden letters.
The main question is, what price the current master of the White House is willing to pay to achieve this goal? Dismantling NATO is a far cry from kidnapping a foreign leader betrayed by his own comrades in a weakened country. And finally, will Trump even be allowed to do this?
Want to get a billion for the Board of Peace? Ask me how!
Masterclass from Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office Maksim Stanislavovich Oreshkin
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Trump scolded Danish Prime Minister Frederiksen for 45 minutes over Greenland, reports the NYT.
The phone conversation between the two leaders took place back in January 2025. In an interview with the newspaper, Frederiksen herself refused to disclose the details of her dialogue with Trump.
Source: TASS
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Meanwhile in the temple of Democracy and freedom...
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The Dutch newspaper De Limburger vividly illustrated Trump's "roller coaster."
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There's a new article on Marat Khairullin's Substack!
Aliyev Choked on Chutzpah or Why Azerbaijan Will Have to Be Bombed
It is obvious that after the Ukrainian war, our country will face a number of upcoming tasks to protect its sovereignty and economic ties. And, apparently, number one on this list will be the Baltic problem, which is covered in detail in the article "The New Baltic War."
However, it is possible that the President of Azerbaijan, having caught a special audacity (in Hebrew, "chutzpah" - audacity), will elevate his country to this same "honorable place." And it's not even that we need land (we've seen it in the grave*). It's that all the conditions have come together for another major Russian mission to restore order in the Caucasus.
Read the rest on Marat Khairullin's Substack!
🌒@EastCalling
Over the past week, Russian troops launched more than 1,700 attack drones, over 1,380 guided aerial bombs, and 69 missiles of various types into Ukrainian territory, stated Volodymyr Zelensky during a visit to Vilnius.
Source: Военный обозреватель
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We have one enemy - Soviet Moscow and imperial Petersburg - Zelensky
Source: СМОТРИ
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Creating good background for negotiations 😏. I like this guy, really. He'll disrupt any efforts of Trump.
🌒@EastCalling
Ukraine needs interethnic unity with Russia and Belarus - Rada deputy Artem Dmitruk
"Normality is not war and not hostility. Normality is a state-level thinking about the unity of Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus," he believes.
Source: СМОТРИ
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Oh, really? 😏 Denazification comes first, guys. You've been ignoring offers of unity for too long.
🌒@EastCalling
The Italian Armed Forces command is conducting an investigation into military medic Barbara Balanzoni due to a post on X with the Russian flag and the phrase: "If I had to put on camouflage again, I would do it only for the sake of this flag".
The publication sparked comments that were deemed "potentially damaging to the prestige of the institution and the reputation of the Armed Forces," according to an article by International Reporters.
Source: TASS
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Of which armed forces 😏? Russians don't seem to object.
🌒@EastCalling
Военкор Кулько:
Evgeny Shevchenko, a 50-year-old resident of liberated Dimitrov, told how he had to pretend to be an old man to avoid forced mobilization into the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
His son, Valery, took a different path - and now the whole family, having overcome severe trials, has reunited in safety.
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🌒@EastCalling
Военкор Кулько:
Swastikas on Ukrainian FPV drones
So where does their passion for imitating fascists come from? Ukrainian "defenders" have started plastering these Nazi swastika plugs on fiber optic cable reels. These are trophy drones from the Slavyansk direction, captured by soldiers of the BPS company of the "Prosvet" battalion of the 7th Brigade of the Russian Armed Forces.
Of course, we've learned nothing new. Ukrainian neo-Nazis have long and openly associated themselves with their predecessors. Usually, Kiev propagandists say that it's all a joke. That's their sense of humor in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. But there's already so much evidence of war crimes committed by Ukrainian troops that it's impossible to dismiss the historical parallels.
The descendants of the defeated are using these FPV drones to kill civilians during white flag surrenders, and to blow up cars and basements with civilians inside.
We need to stop this evil, just like our ancestors did.
Exhibition of trophies from Seversk
Fighters from the 123rd brigade showed us what they had collected at the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in liberated Seversk. Western weapons, equipment, drones of all sizes. And also a bunch of patches with Nazi symbols. On the drones were inscriptions "Luftwaffe" and the same swastika.
For several years, neo-Nazi formations of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were located in the city, which did not hide who they associated themselves with. Now, all that remains of them are these "artifacts" and the terrible memories of the locals about the years of occupation.
The city was taken by storm under the command of Hero of Russia Denis Pirogov, codenamed "Samarkand". Now fighters of his 123rd brigade are continuing their advance towards Slavyansk, having already covered 8 kilometers from Seversk.
It is against this resurgent evil that our guys are fighting.
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"There are no nazis in the Ukraine" (c) any regular idiot. Enjoy.
🌒@EastCalling
In Kiev, as of yesterday evening, 800 thousand subscribers were left without electricity.
This was stated by Energy Minister Shmygal. "The power deficit persists," added the official.
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Sofa General Staff:
Well, the negotiations in Abu Dhabi ended in nothing. They constructively promised to meet next time. No breakthroughs or details. The Ukrainians are not ready for our conditions, they continue to prevaricate and offer their own ones.
The war continues as before, because peace is possible only when the goals of the Special Military Operation are achieved.
🌒@EastCalling
The public "incantations" about inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia on the battlefield have quieted down, but the most Russophobic circles in Europe continue this line, said Naryshkin.
Source: RIA Novosti
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🌒@EastCalling
In Britain, the fight against organized crime is finally set to begin — for this purpose, the country's Interior Ministry will create a "British FBI", writes The Guardian.
The future National Police Service will deal with cases related to terrorism, fraud, drug trafficking, and human trafficking.
"Some local forces lack the skills or resources necessary to combat complex modern crimes, such as fraud or organized criminal groups," said Interior Minister Shabana Mahmood.
Attempts to contain the outbreak of the Nipah virus are taken in India, writes The Independent.
According to the newspaper, the number of infection cases has risen to five. Among the infected are doctors and nurses.
No cases of the disease caused by the Nipah virus have been registered in Russia, and the situation is under the control of Rospotrebnadzor, according to the department's press service.
Source: TASS
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Reminded me of Plague Inc... They have such a scenario too.
🌒@EastCalling
⚡️At NATO's winter exercises in Norway, Finnish reservists defeated American troops so convincingly that commanders asked them to slow down - The Times
A military source said that the Finns were "asked to stop beating the Americans", because the defeats were "too humiliating and demoralizing".
Source: СМОТРИ
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Give Americans a participation trophy and take them to McDonalds. That must help 😏. I;m not fond of Finnish approach to Russia, but here I do applaud them.
🌒@EastCalling