RUNNING UPDATES ON THE CONFLICT IN UKRAINE - 01.01.2024
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.
THE ROAD TO THE ULTIMATE CONCLUSION OF WORLD WAR III RUNS THROUGH HERE.
*** IN 2024 TWO FACTORS CERTAIN: RUSSIA STRONGER, WEST WEAKER ***
“Ukraine. What is the truth...?
Why won’t western media tell both sides…?”
VIRTUALLY UNREPORTED ATROCITY IN LUGANSK, 2nd JUNE 2014
A lot has been said about atrocities in the western media claimed to have been perpetrated by the Russians, for example at Bucha and Mariupol among others. These assertions are conveyed on the say so of the Ukrainian authorities. How willing though are western news broadcasters to convey atrocities attributed to the Ukrainians? The following will I think provide the answer.
If anyone wonders if they are receiving accurate coverage of the conflict in Ukraine I would suggest watching the video below of an event which occurred on the 2nd of June 2014 and ask themselves if they recall hearing about it on any mainstream media news channel at the time.
The video is harrowing to watch. The bodies (five women and three men) are real. Yet across western media there was only one single news report that occurred a day later. This was from CNN and occurred only because a CNN team happened to be nearby at the time of the atrocity and so the network could hardly ignore it as all others so obviously did.
The video below shows the unvarnished truth that was not considered newsworthy in western mainstream news.
THE SINGLE WESTERN MSM REPORT ON THE LUGANSK ATROCITY, 3rd JUNE 2014
The video at the CNN link below is the crime scene sanitised by CNN, though played straight with honest reporting on the scene not playing things to Kiev’s tune.
(There was a time early in the war in the Donbass when CNN were not afraid to contradict the Ukrainian regime in Kiev.) Watch, because it's the first and last time you will see this.
5 women and 3 men died, all civilians.
Air attack on pro-Russian separatists in Luhansk kills 8, stuns residents.
THE COLLECTIVE WEST <-> RUSSIA
Russia will smack Moldova, Ukraine-style, if the Russian minority's rights violated. Al Capone waits.
About Belgorod And...
Ukraine's Army is DESTROYED and Russia is Ready to End it.
SnowStorm | Swarm Of Gerans Attacked Odessa | First HIMARS Was Destroyed. Military Summary 2024.1.1
UK final warning to Yemen. Ukraine shells Donetsk. Russia hunts Kraken. Bankman-Fried, no 2nd trial.
Zelensky is ‘scum’ – ex-Russian president.
Dmitry Medvedev has responded to a deadly Ukrainian strike on Belgorod on Saturday, saying that Moscow’s forces do not strike civilian targets.
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky is “scum” who would love to see his own civilian population killed, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has claimed. The official, who currently serves as deputy chairman of the Security Council, was commenting on a deadly strike on Belgorod, insisting that Moscow’s forces only hit military targets, in contrast to Kiev’s army.
On Saturday, Ukraine unleashed an artillery barrage on the Russian city, which is located around 40km from the border. The attack came shortly after a Russian bombardment of multiple Ukrainian cities, and left 24 people dead and 108 injured, Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov reported.
In a post on the Russian VK social media platform on Saturday, Medvedev wrote: “It is obvious that the terrorist strike on Belgorod and the death of our citizens is a bloody crime at the hands of the Banderite bastards [caused by their] powerlessness to change anything on the front line.”
He went on to say that “probably some scum like Zelensky is dreaming of our armed forces turning Kiev city center into some semblance of the Gaza strip.” Medvedev suggested that the Ukrainian leadership might be secretly wishing for such an attack by Moscow, as it would make it easier for them to “beg their masters” for more weapons.
Zelensky is ‘scum’ – ex-Russian president.
Biden Admin Planning to Steal $300 BILLION in Russian Assets for Ukraine.
Putin names Russia’s real enemies.
Ukraine itself is not an enemy, while Western elites backing it are, the Russian president has said.
Ukraine is a mere tool in the hands of the collective West, which has been using it to fight Russia, President Vladimir Putin said on Monday. He made the remarks at a military hospital in Moscow where he was meeting Russian servicemen wounded during the Ukraine military operation.
Asked about the enduring Western support for Kiev, the president said the elites of the collective West were actually the true enemy of Russia, rather than Ukraine itself.
“The point is not that they are helping our enemy, but that they are our enemy. They are solving their own problems with [Ukraine’s] hands, that’s what it’s all about,” Putin stated.
The conflict between Moscow and Kiev was orchestrated by Western elites, who seek to defeat Russia, he suggested. However, the collective West has been unable to achieve its goals, with the failure already showing in the change of its rhetoric on the conflict, the president explained.
Those who only yesterday were talking about the need to inflict a ‘strategic defeat’ on Russia are now looking for words on how to quickly end the conflict.
“We want to end the conflict too, and as quickly as possible, but only on our terms. We have no desire to fight forever, but we are not going to give up our positions either,” Putin said.
Read more: Russia explains retaliation for Ukrainian ‘terror attack’
The battlefield situation is now changing despite all the aid Kiev has been receiving from the West, the president observed. Russia has been effectively outproducing the whole West militarily, he suggested, with the country’s output destined to grow even further.
“Despite the fact that from time immemorial [the West] has had such a goal – to deal with Russia, it looks like we will deal with them first,” Putin stated.
“You probably see it on the battlefield that they are gradually ‘deflating’. When a shell flies, it is probably difficult to tell whether they are ‘deflated’ or not, but in general you probably know: the situation on the battlefield is changing. And this is happening despite the fact that the entire so-called civilized West is fighting against us,” he told the servicemen.
According to Russia’s latest estimates, over 380,000 Ukrainian troops have been killed or wounded during the conflict. Ukraine has also sustained heavy materiel losses, with an estimated 14,000 tanks and other armored vehicles destroyed. Nearly 160,000 of the troop losses were during Kiev’s botched counteroffensive, launched in early June last year, Moscow says.
Putin names Russia’s real enemies.
Bolton calls for US strike against Iran and regime change.
Putin Calls Belgorod Attack ‘Terror Act’; Says West Looking To End Ukraine Conflict.
VLADIMIR PUTIN'S 2024 NEW YEAR'S ADDRESS
'We are together. The most reliable guarantee of the future of Russia.' Putin's New Year message.
Putin just changed EVERYTHING with This Move and NATO can't do anything.
Zelensky personally ordered bombing attack on civilians – RT source.
The strike on the Russian city of Belgorod was launched by the nationalist ‘Kraken’ battalion, a security source has claimed.
A massive rocket strike targeting the Russian border city of Belgorod on Saturday was launched on the direct order of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, a Moscow security source has told RT's Russian-language service. The attack claimed the lives of 24 people and left more than 100 injured.
According to the source, the Ukrainian leader put the head of Ukrainian military intelligence (GUR), Kirill Budanov, in charge of the operation. In October, Russia’s Investigative Committee identified Budanov as one of four suspected masterminds of over 100 “terrorist attacks” targeting Russian civilian infrastructure. In December, a Moscow district court ordered his arrest on terrorism charges.
Budanov has openly advocated Ukrainian attacks on Russian soil, including territory that Kiev recognizes as being under Moscow’s sovereignty. The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) identified Budanov as the mastermind of the October 2022 bombing of the Crimean Bridge, which involved a powerful explosive device smuggled into Russia by an unsuspecting truck driver.
Saturday's attack on Belgorod was launched by the notorious ‘Kraken’ Regiment, the source told RT. The unit is composed primarily of veterans of another infamous Ukrainian ultranationalist force, the Azov Regiment, and other neo-Nazi fighters and volunteers.
Based in the Ukrainian city of Kharkov, located less than 100 kilometers away from Belgorod, the Kraken Regiment is formally a Special Forces unit under the command of the GUR and is thus answerable to Budanov. The Russian authorities have previously accused the Kraken fighters of torturing and killing Russian POWs. Russia’s Defense Ministry also claimed in 2022 that Kraken forces had executed some 100 fellow Ukrainian soldiers who had abandoned their positions at that time.
The attack on Belgorod was led by a notorious ultranationalist Kraken commander identified as Sergey Velichko, according to the RT source. Moscow placed a bounty on Velichko in August 2022. At that time, the Russian Interior Ministry offered a reward for any information about him and another nationalist commander, Kostantin Nemichev.
Both men had previously served with the neo-Nazi Azov Regiment, which was declared a terrorist organization by Russia’s Supreme Court in June 2022. They were also put on the international wanted list, as well as Russia’s 'ten especially dangerous wanted criminals' list. The fighters have since joined the Kraken Regiment.
On Sunday, the Russian military conducted a string of high-precision missile strikes targeting Ukrainian military facilities and officials in response to the attack on Belgorod. Decision-making centers and other military targets in Kharkov were targeted in the retaliation strike, it added. The Russian strikes reportedly managed to eliminate some of the Ukrainian intelligence and military officials involved in the planning of Saturday's attack on Belgorod, the Defense Ministry said. Some fighters with the Kraken Regiment were also killed, the officials added.
According to the RT source, Velichko was initially presumed to have been killed in the counterstrike, but that data was not subsequently confirmed.
Zelensky personally ordered bombing attack on civilians – RT source.
Russia explains retaliation for Ukrainian ‘terror attack’.
Numerous defense officials who orchestrated Saturday’s missile barrage on Belgorod have been eliminated, the Defense Ministry has said.
Russia’s military has conducted a string of high-precision missile strikes targeting Ukrainian military facilities and officials in response to the Ukrainian strike on Belgorod on Saturday that left more than 20 civilians dead, the Defense Ministry has said.
In a statement on Sunday, the ministry said that Moscow’s forces had struck decision-making centers and other military targets in the city of Kharkov, not far from the border between the two countries.
It noted that a high-precision missile strike on the building formerly housing the Kharkov Palace Hotel eliminated “representatives of the Main Intelligence Directorate and the Armed Forces of Ukraine, who were directly involved in the planning and execution of the terrorist attack in Belgorod.”
READ MORE: Kiev used banned weapons in attack on Russian city – Defense Ministry
The building also housed up to 200 foreign mercenaries who were gearing up for “terrorist raids” into Russian territory, officials added.
Other strikes hit the building of Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) and a temporary deployment area of Ukrainian nationalists. “Representatives of the SBU leadership, foreign mercenaries and fighters of the Kraken unit, who were directly preparing sabotage on Russian territory, have been taken out,” officials said.
In addition to this, an attack was carried out on a branch of the national space control center in western Ukraine, which had been used by Kiev for reconnaissance. Fuel depots in Kharkov and the Kiev-controlled part of Russia’s Zaporozhye Region were also destroyed, according to the statement. At the same time, the ministry stressed that the Russian military “only strikes military targets and infrastructure directly associated with them.”
Ukrainian officials in Kharkov have confirmed the barrage, saying that there had been six strikes that damaged “civilian infrastructure,” with 28 injured.
The new attack comes in response to a Ukrainian bombardment of Belgorod that killed at least 24 people, including four children, with 108 injured. Moscow has said that the barrage used both cluster munitions, as well as Czech-made projectiles. On Saturday, Vassily Nebenzia, Russia’s envoy to the UN, accused Western countries of complicity in the attack, warning that those who orchestrated it would be “punished.”
Russia explains retaliation for Ukrainian ‘terror attack’.
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For the first time, footage appeared of a Russian missile deceiving Ukrainian air defence.
Ukraine is being WIPED OUT by Putin.
What is Known About Ukraine’s Shelling of Donetsk on New Year’s Eve.
After carrying out a heinous attack on the Russian city of Belgorod on December 30, Ukrainian troops shelled Donetsk in the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) on New Year's Night, with casualties and injuries reported.
The Kiev regime has again blatantly attacked civilians. This time, it shelled the city of Donetsk in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) shortly after midnight on New Year’s Night. This is what Sputnik knows so far about the attack.
The DPR representative office in the Joint Center for Control and Coordination reported on New Year's Eve that the Ukrainian military fired 15 rockets from multiple launch rocket systems at Donetsk shortly after midnight. Later, Ukrainian troops fired eight more missiles.
The head of the DPR, Denis Pushilin, took to Telegram to confirm the attack, adding that "Unfortunately, there are fatalities."
"On New Year's Eve, armed formations of Ukraine subjected the center of Donetsk, Kalininsky and Budennovsky districts to massive shelling from multiple launch rocket systems," Pushilin said.
Medical assistance was being provided to the wounded people, he added. The DPR head urged residents to seek safety in shelters, adding that more attacks could be expected.
Later, Pushilin clarified information on the victims, saying that four people were killed in Ukraine’s strike on Donetsk, while 13 others sustained injuries.
Local DPR operational services also reported that a war correspondent was killed and another was wounded as a result of the shelling of Donetsk by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Their names have not been specified.
Donetsk Mayor Alexey Kulemzin wrote on Telegram that several apartment buildings and a car were damaged in the Budennovsky district.
On the night of January 1, the Armed Forces of Ukraine also shelled the Nikitovsky district of Gorlovka in the DPR. As a result of the shelling, a residential building was damaged, the mayor of the city, Ivan Prikhodko, confirmed. He called on local residents to remain in shelters.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova commented on the shelling of Donetsk by Ukrainian forces on New Year's Eve, saying that "Only a terrorist beast could do such a thing."
The attack on New Year's Eve came after Ukraine's military shelled the Russian city of Belgorod on December 30.
Over a dozen civilians were killed, and scores more injured during the daytime Ukrainian missile strike on the Russian city of 340,000, situated about 40 km from the Ukrainian border.
The MoD indicated that Ukraine's strikes involved two Vilkha long-range guided, cluster munition-equipped missiles and a number of Czech-made RM-70 Vampir MLRS rockets, donated by Prague to Kiev in 2022. Russian air defenses targeted by the incoming missiles and rockets, shooting some of them down and reportedly preventing the Vilkhas from scoring a direct hit.
The Russian Defense Ministry stressed that the strike on Belgorod would not go unpunished. The Russian Armed Forces launched retaliatory strikes on the territory of Ukraine in response to the attack on the center of Belgorod – as a result, decision-making centers and military facilities in Kharkov were hit, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
COLLECTIVE WEST <-> GLOBAL MAJORITY
ISRAEL <-> PALESTINE
Israel's Military Strategy is IMPOSSIBLE.
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U.S. To Withdraw Warship USS Gerald From Middle-East; Islamic Resistance Impact?
Israel’s Big Prediction On Gaza War; Withdraws Five Brigades, Says ‘Prepared For Long War…’
Israeli soldier 'took baby from Gaza to Israel'.
First deaths in Red Sea standoff risks escalation.
Palestinians were ‘running for their lives’ as world celebrated arrival of 2024.
FRANCE <-> AFRICA
France completes withdrawal from Niger.
MULTIPOLARITY - RUSSIA-CHINA / BRICS
Russia's BRICS Presidency Lends Hope for ‘Proactive Push Towards Multipolarity’.
President Vladimir Putin underscored at the end of the year that Russia would devote its BRICS presidency in 2024 to building a fair world order, and “strengthening multilateralism for equitable global development and security.”
Russia is taking over the rotating presidency in BRICS in 2024, with about 200 political, economic, and social events planned within this framework to be held in more than 10 cities, along with a summit in October in Kazan.
Weighing in on Russia’s upcoming chairmanship of the group, President Vladimir Putin underscored that its motto will be strengthening multilateralism for equitable global development and security. BRICS activities will have a positive impact on the international system. The planned Kazan BRICS Summit in October is expected to show that a growing number of countries in the world do not want to live in line with the US-enforced “rules-based order.” They prefer to be guided by their own interests and the interests of their partners, creating beneficial conditions for effective joint development, Putin stressed earlier this year. The Russian head of state reiterated these goals at his 2023 year-end press conference, which coincided with the president's annual live Q&A session. During its chairmanship, Russia intends to do everything to effectively promote the implementation of the decisions made at the BRICS Summit in August in the South African city of Johannesburg, including those related to expanding the circle of participants in the association.
‘Proactive Push Towards Multipolarity’
For example, India is looking forward to a “proactive and dynamic” BRICS presidency by Russia, with increased efforts towards achieving “multilateralism and multipolarity,” former Ambassador Rajiv Bhatia, distinguished fellow of foreign policy studies, Gateway House: Indian Council on Global Relations, told Sputnik.
“This is an important multilateral organization, and we're expecting Russia to make a big difference by strengthening this forum. The goal of multilateralism is shared with the members of BRICS, and also beyond it. It is not only desirable, it is actually essential,” Bhatia noted.
The member of the Confederation of Indian Industry’s Africa Committee and chair of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry’s Task Force on Blue Economy and BIMSTEC WA continued:
“What we expect from Russia is to stress to the world that a decision-making power cannot be restricted to a few nations. It has to be widely shared. It should be inclusive, it should be representative, and it should be for collective good.”
Furthermore, Rajiv Bhatia emphasized that “a special focus should be placed on the reform of the UN Security Council, which manifests the formal part of multilateralism. So we are hopeful that Russia will work in that direction as well.”
The BRICS group of major emerging economies, which currently comprises Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, was formed in 2009, in a move initiated by Moscow. The leaders of the five nations approved the group’s expansion by inviting Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates to join the bloc in August, during the 15th BRICS Summit in South Africa. Their membership, except for Argentina, is to officially take effect on January 1, 2024.
Russia may expand its diplomatic activities in the sense of trying to coordinate “strategic thinking about multilateralism,” agreed Prof. Alexis Habiyaremye, senior researcher with DSI/NRF, South African research chair in industrial development, University of Johannesburg. Multilateralism “still needs to have a final shape” and “contours that everybody understands,” Prof. Habiyaremye added.
“Part of the focus I expect Russia to engage on is to provide those contours and to have an alignment among existing members, but also new members,” he said.
Prof. Alexis Habiyaremye suggested that as multilateralism is linked to security and development, “its final form is going to be heavily dependent on the outcomes of [Russia’s] special military operation in Ukraine," adding that “this is where the battle is raging between the old world dominated by a hegemon, the US, with its Western allies, and the strategy of multilateralism.”
“Multipolarity, an equitable UN system, and counter balancing the US-European hegemony is an interest of all members of the Global South. It is for this reason that Russia has chosen for its presidency the theme of 'strengthening of multilateralism for a fair global development and security,'" agreed Professor Fulufhelo Netswera, executive dean of the Faculty of Management Sciences, Durban University of Technology in South Africa.
"It can be expected that Russia will champion initiatives for practically strengthening BRICS' security architecture - both economic and political,” he noted.
Russia’s objective of “pushing for greater multilateralism” will be a key focus of its 2024 BRICS chairmanship, agreed Gurjit Singh, former Indian ambassador to Germany, Indonesia, Ethiopia, ASEAN, and the African Union. He expressed hope that under Russia's presidency, conditions will be created for “greater harmony within the expanded BRICS.”
BRICS Expansion to 'Counter Western Hegemony'
The world “has become less safe not only from a physical security stand point, but economically,” Professor Fulufhelo Netswera noted. These general sentiments are shared by members of the Global South, he said, with progressive UN resolutions “stifled by the USA singlehandedly and at times with the support of the European Union.” Deploring the fact that “unipolarity has completely failed,” he underscored that the Global South had “generally voted in unison with the sentiment of the members of BRICS and echoed frustrations at the disenfranchisement of the weaker and smaller states perpetuating neocolonial and unipolarity agendas.”
"No wonder as many as 40+ countries had lined up for potential BRICS membership in 2023 because they see BRICS to be a potential counter to Western hegemony,” Professor Fulufhelo Netswera stressed.
Before the beginning of the South Africa summit, more than 40 countries had expressed interest in entering BRICS, with 23 formally applying to join. However, Argentina's President Javier Milei later rejected the invitation in a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“We will carry out close coordination with our partners on foreign policy, work together at key international platforms, primarily at the UN, and continue the practice of regular meetings of top representatives on security matters,” said Russian President Putin in December. He noted that the potential of the BRICS countries continues to increase, with the share of member states in global GDP having already exceeded that of the so-called Group of Seven (G7) in terms of purchasing power parity.
The expansion of BRICS will be an important feature of Russia's management of BRICS, Rajiv Bhatia said. As three of the invited countries are from the Gulf region and two are from Africa, that “should indicate to us where the future progress will happen,” he remarked, adding that “energy cooperation should become a domain of priority interest to all of us.”
“Critical issues of the Global South, accelerated economic development, equity, the need for more finance and technology, all those issues should now come more prominently on the BRICS agenda,” Rajiv Bhatia underscored.
An enlarged BRICS would account for 42% of global oil production and 55% of global natural gas reserves, Russia's president pointed out earlier in the year. “Over the past decade, investments by the BRICS countries in the global economy have doubled, and total exports have reached 20% of the global figure," Vladimir Putin said. Speaking of the strategy of economic partnership of the BRICS states, Putin singled out boosted cooperation in areas such as "diversification of supply chains, dedollarization and the transition to national currencies in mutual payments, the digital economy, support for small and medium-sized enterprises, and fair technology transfer.”
Russia, due to its "role in world diplomacy and politics, natural resources, its technologies," could use its chairmanship "to provide the types of confidence and security that other members of the BRICS need in order to trust the new system," Alexis Habiyaremye remarked. It is important to “give clarity to the benefits of the new system and communicate them clearly to existing members and the new members that will join,” Habiyaremye said.
Weighing in on the expansion of BRICS, Gurjit Singh hoped that the bloc would be “a supporter of the Global South,” and a “balancer of the international order by promoting multilateralism.”
Shedding Dollar Dependence
Strengthening of multilateralism is profoundly linked with ditching dependence on the dollar, Prof. Alexis Habiyaremye underscored.
It will be very important for different countries “to reconsider, reassess and reorient the economic and trade transactions,” the South African expert said, as “once international relations have changed, trade flows will also change.” “But that also means a lot of coordination to make sure that the new forms of trade reflect the new multilateralism that have been established,” he added.
Use of the dollar, the SWIFT payment system, and related monetary instruments against “foes of the US” remains “a sharp thorn in the flesh of poorer, smaller nations and developing nations,” Professor Fulufhelo Netswera remarked.
“It is only prudent that the Russian BRICS presidency will prioritize practical mechanisms to move completely from the US dollar as a medium of international trade. This is already a practical reality for the Chinese-Russian trade. Other BRICS members at the past summit argued for the use of local currencies in the interim. The resolution and implementation of new trade instruments and systems is as urgent for Russia as it is for all countries outside the Western hemisphere. The Russian presidency will surely move a step closer to make this a reality,” Professor Netswera said.
Regarding the most realistic steps that BRICS countries will be able to take in 2024 to increase their payment options, Rajiv Bhatia singled out the “march towards decreasing dependence on the dollar.” He conceded that how to achieve this goal “is an issue on which I think there is no clear consensus among the BRICS countries yet.”
“There have been at least three options which have been under discussion. One is to create a new currency called 'BRICS currency.' You know, something like the euro, which is applicable to a large number of European countries. But this looks difficult, because it presupposes a high degree of financial integration. The second idea is that BRICS countries, while handling their trade transactions, denominate them in their agreed national currency. This is already happening, for example, between India and the UAE, between Russia and China. The third option is where all the currencies are put in the BRICS ‘basket,’ member nations are given, respectively, their rates and based on that a conceptual BRICS currency is created for a limited part of the trade transactions."
According to Bhatia, this third option is one the Russian presidency might focus on.
Regarding the trend towards countries trading in their own currencies, Gurjit Singh acknowledged its importance. He cited successful examples of when Russia has sold oil in non-dollar currencies, and China has tried to increasingly use the yuan in trade.
But “diversification of supply sources is important. You cannot base this non-dollar trade on a single commodity,” he warned. Work needs to be carried out to forge “a system of non-dollar payments among the BRICS countries which will facilitate broader trade and not confine it only to energy,” Gurjit Singh said.
The creation of an alternative payment system is one of Moscow’s priorities as it embarks on its chairmanship of BRICS. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov named Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva as one of the main initiators of dedollarization in a Sputnik interview on the eve of the New Year. In order to develop the potential of this project, the central banks and finance ministries of BRICS member countries will exchange recommendations throughout the year on the creation of alternative payment systems, which will then be submitted for discussion at the Kazan summit.
Looking ahead, with the new BRICS memberships effective in 2024, the bloc "will be more stronger than before,” Professor Fulufhelo Netswera believed.
“Already, BRICS has rivaled the West (US+Europe) through a variety of indicators that include population size, economic size by collective GDP, and land mass. BRICS will potentially become the biggest oil producer by 2024, with Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates adding to already available oil reserves. BRICS becoming the biggest economic bloc can have excessive economic and political power if well organized and utilized,” he underscored.
Russia's BRICS Presidency Lends Hope for ‘Proactive Push Towards Multipolarity’.
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Nicaraguan official praises China's economic growth in 2023.
EUROPE
Giorgia Meloni is wrong about the Islam-Europe compatibility problem, look at Albania.’
NON-ENGLISH NEWS
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Ukraine SITREP D675-676.
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Battlefield Ukraine Russian Drone and Missile War.
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.
UPDATES TO BE ADDED HERE AS AND WHEN THEY BECOME AVAILABLE OVER THE NEXT 24 HOURS.
UPDATES TO BE ADDED HERE AS AND WHEN THEY BECOME AVAILABLE OVER THE NEXT 24 HOURS.
ATROCITIES AGAINST THE PALESTINIANS OF GAZA & RUSSIANS OF THE DONBASS
The genocidal acts of Israel against the civilian population of Gaza has received worldwide condemnation, though with major reservations in the nations which constitute the collective west as led by the USA and Britain. This abhorrence of powerful military powers acting in ways that cause the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians quite naturally rises in each sensitive human heart.
These acts of callous brutality by Israel have been widely reported, even in western major newspapers and television news channels. The extent of the missile barrage against Gaza has made it impossible for these outlets to ignore them. This has not always been the case in such circumstances however.
A very similar scenario played itself out between 2014 and the years after, including to the present day, without anything approaching the coverage afforded to the carnage going on in Gaza. This scenario was maintained in almost radio silence (though with narratives broadcast that presented a completely false picture of events).
In the case above there was no outrage expressed, primarily due to the almost total lack of coverage of those events along with the false narrative that was constructed around them.
In the spring of 2014 the Donbass region of Ukraine where Russian-speakers formed the overwhelming majority was isolated from the rest of Ukraine by a siege. Military roadblocks were set up by the Ukrainian army to control access in and out of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions of the Donbass. in addition, mortars, and later artillery, were set up able to fire indiscriminate rounds into these areas. The mortar shells and missiles fired at random into these conurbations tended to hit the taller structures, high-rise apartment blocks built during the era of the Soviet Union, hospitals and schools. Those that did not hit these exploded in town centres and village homes.
2014 and 2015 were the worst years of this deluge of Ukrainian attacks. Thousands died, civilian men, women and children of all ages, the elderly, babies, every age group. Yet did you read of this at the time? Do you have any recollection of articles which stated who was responsible? What you will have read and heard was that this was due to “the Russians”, yet the Russians were not those who had laid siege to Donetsk and Lugansk and not those who were on a daily basis firing mortar shells and missiles into them.
The tally of civilian deaths WERE reported briefly on western television channels and in western newspapers… but never any indication of who perpetrated them. The implication, due to constant reference to them, was that it was “the Russians”. This however was then and is now a barefaced lie. The unacceptable truth to western political and media elites was (and still is) that it was (and still is) the Ukrainians who target civilians, not the Russians.
Expert opinion will tell you that the very basis of the Russian campaign, as limited as it was and is, tells you that the intent was to engage in a limited operation, not a war. If Russia had wished to wage war against Ukraine it would have mirrored wars of the past, especially those waged by the USA in the Middle East, wars of ‘Shock and Awe’. But Russia never for a moment wished to do this. Russia has attempted to avoid at every turn the death of Ukrainian civilians who the russian people know are brother and sister Slavs.
The above is in stark contrast to the behaviour of the ultra-violent and sadistic nature of a minority in western Ukraine who look to Hitler’s Nazis and their Ukrainian “heroes” who assisted them against the Russians. This vile minority of Ukrainians wished to see the entire Russian-speaking majority in the Donbass region either killed or driven out.
A case in point which demonstrates the desire of this minority of Ukrainians to kill Russians, civilian or military alike, occurred this very day with a missile strike on a Russian town by the name of Belgorod which lies just across the Ukrainian border in Russia. This strike hit the main square where a Christmas tree stands and where everyday Russians were enjoying a day with their families in anticipation of the New Year of 2024. Two children were killed. A number of people were seriously injured.
This is not by any means the only occasion when these Ukrainians have directly targeted civilians. The level of racist hatred felt against all Russian-speakers motivates these people to target them on a constant basis. Each day since spring 2014 when they first arrived in the Donbass has seen attacks by mortar shell, butterfly mines (which look like green mini planes lying in grass or on pavements but which explode destroying limbs) and missiles have killed and injured civilians and hit civilian targets. These attacks are ongoing and though Russian forces have made significant headway in removing the source of these attacks there is still some way to go.
You will have heard none of this from western media or from politicians. These facts do not fit the narrative of “the evil enemy” and the “faultless allies”. You are being told lies on a daily basis, knowing lies, carefully constructed misinformation and cynically sown false narratives designed to keep you supporting the slaughter.
So remember, next time you react in absolute disgust and justified anger against the genocidal acts of Israel, those very similar acts of horror conducted over a far longer period against the Russian-speaking people of the Donbass, and which continue to this day keeping them in a perpetual, West-mandated media vacuum of unreported injury, trauma, death and destruction.