RUNNING UPDATES ON THE CONFLICT IN UKRAINE - 12.01.2025
Including geopolitical issues affecting the balance of power in the ongoing end game war to establish our common future, a closely monitored prison planet or tolerance for diverse modes of governance.
EIGHT DAYS TO GO: WILL THE U.S. PERMANENT STATE PREVAIL OVER WHATEVER GOOD INTENTIONS DONALD TRUMP MAY HAVE & PUSH HIM INTO EVER MORE WAR?
COLLECTIVE WEST | RUSSIA
BRIAN BERLETIC of THE NEW ATLAS: A NEW CHAPTER
ALEX CHRISTOFOROU of THE DURAN: BORIS has Putin meltdown. Russia wants NATO rolled back. Alice Weidel wants Nord Stream back on.
ALEX CHRISTOFOROU & ALEXANDER MERCOURIS of THE DURAN: Zelensky wants elections, military is exhausted.
Zelensky ‘a beggar and blackmailer’ – EU state’s PM.
The Ukrainian leader needs to stop asking other people for money, Slovakia’s Robert Fico has said.
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has lashed out at Vladimir Zelensky, declaring that the Ukrainian leader’s “begging and blackmailing” needs “to stop.” Relations between Bratislava and Kiev soured when Ukraine cut off the flow of Russian gas earlier this month.
“I’m not here to hold hands with Zelensky, and I’ll admit, I’m sick of him sometimes,” Fico said at a meeting of the Slovak parliament’s foreign affairs committee on Friday.
“He roams Europe begging and blackmailing, asking others for money,” Fico continued, adding: “This needs to stop.”
Fico has long been a critic of Western aid to Kiev, arguing that Ukraine cannot hope to defeat Russia on the battlefield and must instead seek a diplomatic solution to the conflict. Immediately after taking office in 2023, Fico halted military aid to Ukraine and vowed to veto the country’s potential accession to NATO.
Read more: Slovakia threatens to block Ukraine aid over gas transit dispute
Fico and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban have both angered Zelensky by defying the EU consensus and meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. During a meeting in Moscow last month, Fico offered to host peace talks in Slovakia, an offer that Putin said he is “not against.”
With relations already strained, Ukraine deepened its spat with Slovakia when it refused to extend its transit contract with Russia’s Gazprom beyond the end of 2024, effectively cutting off the flow of Russian natural gas to some EU countries, namely Austria, Italy, and Slovakia. Landlocked Slovakia depends on Russian gas to meet about 60% of its demand.
Fico has demanded compensation from Kiev, and has vowed to retaliate, potentially by cutting off electricity supplies and humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
Slovakia exported 2.4 million megawatt-hours of electricity to Ukraine in the first 11 months of 2024, according to data from the Slovak grid operator.
“Neither Slovakia nor the EU is at war, we have no reason to tolerate Zelensky’s adventures, especially looking at the aid Slovakia and the EU are providing to Ukraine,” Fico said in a video address posted on Facebook on Wednesday.
READ MORE: Slovak PM warns of looming EU collapse
Despite receiving assurances from Moscow that Slovakia would continue to receive Russian gas via the TurkStream pipeline, Fico said that he would travel to Brussels to meet with Energy Commissioner Dan Jorgensen “to wake him up from his sweet sleep, because we have a ‘bloody’ serious problem.”
Fico and Jorgensen met on Thursday to discuss the effect of the gas cutoff on energy prices, and agreed to hold further consultations.
Ukraine Loses Over 350 Soldiers in Kursk Region Over Past Day - MoD.
The Ukrainian armed forces have lost over 350 soldiers and one tank in the Kursk region in the past 24 hours, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Sunday.
"Over the past day, the Ukrainian armed forces lost more than 350 servicepeople, a tank, four infantry fighting vehicles, five armored personnel carriers, 12 armored combat vehicles, four vehicles, a US-made Paladin self-propelled artillery unit, seven mortars, an electronic warfare station and an armored recovery vehicle were destroyed," the ministry said in a statement.
Russia’s Battlegroup Sever also repelled five Ukrainian counterattacks in border areas of the Kursk Region, the ministry said.
Ukraine Loses Up to 240 Soldiers in Kursk Region in Past Day - MoD
In total, Ukraine has lost over 51,200 servicepeople and 297 tanks during the offensive in the Kursk Region, the ministry added.
Two Killed From Ukraine HIMARS Strike on Civilians in Donetsk.
Two people have been killed and two more have been injured as a result of a Ukrainian HIMARS missile strike on civilian infrastructure in Donetsk, the Russian Investigative Committee said on Friday.
"Investigators of the Investigative Committee of Russia have recorded the consequences of the criminal actions of the Ukrainian armed forces, which carried out a targeted missile attack on the civilian infrastructure of the city of Donetsk. The Ukrainian armed forces fired with the use, presumably, of the HIMARS MLRS in the Kiev district of Donetsk, where civilians were staying. As a result of the shelling, two people were killed among the civilian population and two more were injured," the statement read.
Residential buildings and civilian infrastructure facilities were also damaged, the statement said.
Ukraine has been sending drones and missiles into Russia almost daily since it launched its counteroffensive in early June 2023. The United Nations said in August last year, following a botched drone strike on Moscow, that it did not want to see any targeting of civilian infrastructure.
Six Dead, Including a Child, After Ukraine Strikes Rylsk in Russia's Kursk Region
COLONEL DOUGLAS MACGREGOR: Zelensky is a Criminal.
SCOTT RITTER: Russia Crushes Kursk Offensive: Ukrainian Forces Encircled and Trapped.
GEOPOLITICAL TRENDS: Upcoming Trump & Putin Meeting: Substance or a Photo Op?
SEBASTIAN SAS: KURSK Offensive Was A Disaster And The West Finally Admits To It.
LEVAN GUDADZE: Kiev lost 3 more settlements. Switzerland to hold Trump - Putin talks? Greenland. Economy of the EU.
BORZZIKMAN: We Don't Want To Die For KURSK: British, Polish, & Colombian Mercenaries Began To Surrender En MASSE.
RYU MILITARY: Close Combat! Two Ukrainian Tanks Destroyed Near Vozdvizhenka.
MILITARY TUBE TODAY: Russia liberated Shevchenko, continuing the offensive on Pokrovsk.
COLLECTIVE WEST | GLOBAL MAJORITY
COLONEL DOUGLAS MACGREGOR: Israel Has Become an Arsonist State.
UN Official Strongly Decries the Slaughter of Palestinian Women and Children in Gaza.
KATIE HALPER: Palestinian Doctor EVISCERATES Biden Spokesperson.
GLENN GREENWALD: Seeking Justice: Tracking IDF War Criminals Around The World.
DANNY HAIPHONG - PROFESSOR MOHAMMAD MARANDI: Israel STUNNED: Yemen's Hypersonics CRUSH IDF, Iran 'Ready for War.
NCFPEACE: Syria - You want to know what's really going on?
LENA PETROVA: 🚨 Prepare for a Wave of Layoffs in 2025 Due to Economic Instability, AI and Business Restructurings.
COLLECTIVE WEST | BRICS
CARL ZHA: Indonesia Joins BRICS as Full Member.
USA
GEOPOLITICAL TRENDS: Upcoming Trump & Putin Meeting: Substance or a Photo Op?
PROFESSOR JEFFREY SACHS: Deep State vs Trump Who's REALLY in Control?
RUSSELL BRAND: They've Just Made Their Move.
GARLAND NIXON: LOS ANGELES INFERNO - W/ MATT WEINGLASS - ACTIVIST, WRITER, DIRECTOR, ACTOR, PRODUCER.
STEPHEN GARDNER: 🚨New Evidence DESTROYS Gavin Newsom! Trump HITS BACK HARD.
EUROPE | BRITAIN
EU business appeal plunges – report.
High energy prices and bureaucracy are forcing companies to relocate, a European Commission draft report has warned.
The EU is losing its appeal for businesses, with many companies choosing to move to other locations, German news agency dpa reported on Saturday, citing a draft economic paper by the European Commission. The report notes that only four of the 50 largest technology companies in the world today are European.
“Europe’s attractiveness as a business location is declining,” relates the report, set to be officially released next week. It notes that between 2008 and 2021, nearly a third of the so-called unicorn start-ups founded in the EU relocated their headquarters abroad, largely to the US. Unicorns are privately-owned firms worth more than $1 billion, and are often technology-focused, grow very quickly, and attract a lot of investment. By setting new industry standards through technological advancements, they are believed to benefit economies on a macro level.
Some of the more prominent unicorns that were founded in Europe but later relocated their headquarters to the US are Swedish fintech Klarna, a Romanian-founded UiPath specializing in robotic processes, and Swedish music streaming service Spotify.
READ MORE: Euro falls to two-year low against dollar
The draft document highlights structurally high energy prices in Europe, which are two to three times higher than in the US, as one of the major weaknesses in the bloc’s economic competitiveness. High bureaucracy is also a problem, because it increases costs and complicates the processes of establishing and maintaining businesses, hindering their ability to innovate and scale quickly. In addition, according to the report, productivity in the EU, or how much added value is created by an hour of work, has been dropping, and is way behind that of the US.
The report also details a shortage of qualified workers in the bloc, which is preventing the European internal market from reaching its full potential.
Commenting on the report, European MP Markus Ferber said it should be viewed as a call to action for EU policymakers, emphasizing the urgency of implementing structural reforms.
“The report shows that the issue of competitiveness must be a central theme in the Commission’s work in the future. There is a risk of a significant loss of prosperity,” he stated.
READ MORE: EU needs urgent economic overhaul – former ECB chief
In November, former European Central Bank President Mario Draghi also warned that the EU urgently needs a major economic overhaul to regain competitiveness and prevent further decline. Draghi emphasized the need for substantial investment in innovation to close the gap with the US and China, estimating that up to €800 billion ($820 billion) annually, or about 5% of EU GDP, may be required.
According to dpa, the European Commission is expected to present a major legislative proposal at the end of February to address the current economic challenges within the bloc.
Nord Stream pipeline to be relaunched — German chancellor candidate.
The AfD’s Alice Weidel has said that Germans “can count” on her party to restore energy links with Russia.
Alternative for Germany (AfD) co-leader Alice Weidel has pledged to put the sabotaged Nord Stream gas pipelines back into operation if her party emerges victorious in next month’s general election.
AfD members met in the town of Riesa on Saturday to formally approve Weidel as their candidate to succeed Chancellor Olaf Scholz, whose coalition government collapsed late last year. Weidel’s nomination marks the right-wing AfD’s first bid for the chancellery in its 11-year history.
In a speech after the nomination vote, Weidel promised to implement harsh immigration policies – including the “remigration” of immigrants already living legally in Germany – and to scrap Scholz’s green policies in a bid to drive down energy prices. Restoring energy ties to Russia is vital to this latter goal, she explained.
“We will put Nord Stream back into operation, you can count on it,” Weidel told her party.
Read more: Germany facing longest recession ever – Handelsblatt
Germany relied on Russia for 55% of its natural gas supply before the Ukraine conflict escalated in February 2022. Much of this gas flowed through the Nord Stream 1 pipelines, with the parallel Nord Stream 2 lines due to come online in 2022. However, Berlin revoked the certification for Nord Stream 2 several days before Russia’s military operation in Ukraine began, and both sets of lines were destroyed in an act of sabotage in September of that year.
While German investigators have reportedly settled on the theory that the pipelines were destroyed by Ukrainian saboteurs, American journalist Seymour Hersh maintains that they were blown up by the CIA and US Navy. The head of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), Sergey Naryshkin, has blamed “professional saboteurs from the Anglo-American special services,” referring to the US and UK.
Scholz’s decision to halt Russian energy imports, coupled with his government’s green policies, has led to soaring electricity costs in Germany, forcing some of the country’s manufacturing giants – including Volkswagen and BASF – to close plants and lay off workers.
The AfD is not the only German party that wants to repair and reopen Nord Stream. The leftist Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) has also demanded that they be brought back online, with BSW MP Sevim Dagdelen calling last week for the gas lines to “finally be put into operation,” and for the German government to “stop giving money to Kiev!”
READ MORE: Polish FM slammed for celebrating gas cutoff
Germans go to the polls to choose a new government on February 23. The AfD is currently polling at around 20%, ahead of Scholz’s center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) at 16%, but behind the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) at 31%. However, even if the AfD were to emerge as the largest party next month, all of Germany’s other mainstream parties have ruled out entering a coalition with it.
AFRICA
Senegal, Chad & Ivory Coast Ordered French Troops to Leave.
NON-ENGLISH NEWS
LIU SIVAYA: "LA EXPLOSIÓN REVENTÓ CRISTALES Y CABLES ELÉCTRICOS": NO SE HA SALVADO NI EL BARRIO DE ZELENSKY.
Donbass: Russen bereiten Angriff auf 2 weitere Städte vor. Frontbericht 12.01.2025
Ruski Proboj U Sumsku Oblast⚔Slom Odbrane Kupjanska ⚔ HAOS u Časov Jaru ⚔ V.Novoselka Okružena. 12.1.2025
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RUSSIA / BELARUS - EXPATS IN RUSSIA
AMERICAN IN CRIMEA: Russian Laws for Foreigners in 2025 | Live Q&A Session 🚨
SCOTTISH GUY IN MOSCOW: TV Documentary - My Life In Moscow.
Wonders of Russia | The Most Fascinating Places in Russia | Travel Video 4K.
MAPPING CHANNEL UPDATES
Cold War II, The Defense Of Kupiansk Collapses, Has Chasiv Yar Fallen? Military Summary. 2025.01.12
Russia Captures 97 % Of Toretsk l Russia Storms Orikhovo-Vasylivka.
Russians Break Ukrainian Lines.
The Nord Streams Will Be Restored, Yantarne Has Fallen, The Sumy Offensive Begins. MS For 2025.01.12
RUAF Capture Yantarne & Neskuchne | Velykka Novosilka Attacked From 3 Directions.
[ Velyka Novosilka ] NOOSE TIGHTENS on V.Novosilka as Russia advance in NE; Danger of encirclement.
[ Bakhmut Front ] Russia enters Orikhovo-Vasylivka and establish STRONG FOOTHOLD in the settlement.
GROK PICS
VICTORY BELONGS TO RUSSIA: IT IS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME
Each day that passes makes a conclusive Russian victory in the Donbass and beyond more certain. As Russia bolsters her forces, and weaponry, those of Ukraine decrease. Russian forces gain ready access to rest and recuperation as troop numbers increase. The increasingly exhausted and demoralised Ukrainian troops have an ever decreasing prospect of such respite. This situation is likely to bring them to complete breakdown as Russia unleashes the firepower of the more modern and advanced weaponry that is arriving with the newly mobilised Russian troops.
The various Ukrainian offensives are now weak when confronted by the reinforced Russian lines. A few futile efforts achieve quite miserable results before fire reigns down on the Ukrainian troops and they are forced back to their starting positions.
And now, all this being said, we have arrived at the wet, and later, freezing conditions where these pathetic Ukrainian forces will be subject to myriad forms of abject misery with death and injury all around them while they lie sodden or frozen, abandoned to their fate by Kiev.
The pitiable young and old of Ukraine have been frogmarched to their deaths as cannon-fodder while the bestial elites of the collective West urge their "president" to add more to their number there at the gates of Hell and their doom. We must feel for the majority of them as they are not the Nazis we revile, in most part they are decent men, fathers, sons, brothers, husband and uncles, who no doubt saw through the coup of 2014 for what it was. But sadly, their fate seems sealed.
Nothing will stop Russia now. Every factor favours them. Victory will be Russia's. In Donbass and beyond and in due course across the world.
Victory belongs to Russia: It is now only a matter of time.
EIGHT DAYS TO GO: WILL THE U.S. PERMANENT STATE PREVAIL OVER WHATEVER GOOD INTENTIONS DONALD TRUMP MAY HAVE & PUSH HIM INTO EVER MORE WAR?
I wonder what photos will you use after the inauguration 😇