RUNNING UPDATES ON THE CONFLICT IN UKRAINE - 04.01.2025
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.
IF DONALD TRUMP’S STATEMENTS ABOUT BRINGING AN END TO THE CONFLICT IN UKRAINE WERE MERELY VOTE-WINNING HOT AIR WITHOUT SUBSTANCE… WHAT THEN?
COLLECTIVE WEST | RUSSIA
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Ukraine Loses Up to 12,455 Troops in Past Week.
Ukraine has lost up to 12,455 soldiers and 17 tanks, including three German-made Leopards, in battles with Russian forces from December 28, 2024 to January 3, 2025, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Friday.
Kiev has lost over 3,175 servicemen, two tanks, four infantry fighting vehicles, nine armored personnel carriers, including seven US-made M113s and four other armored fighting vehicles in clashes with Russia’s Zapad (West) group of forces, which also repelled 35 Ukrainian counterattacks, the ministry said in a bulletin.
The Sever (North) group continued to repel Ukrainian military formations in the Kursk region, leading to over 3,130 Ukrainian soldier casualties and destruction of four tanks, five infantry fighting vehicles, seven armored personnel carriers and 51 armored fighting vehicles.
Russia’s Tsentr (Center) group of forces has eliminated up to 2,750 Ukrainian soldiers and repelled 85 counterattacks, as well as destroyed seven tanks, including three Leopards.
Russia’s Yug (South) group has continued advancing behind enemy lines, eliminating up to 1,745 Ukrainian troops, destroying four armored combat vehicles, including a US-made Bradley infantry fighting vehicle, repelling eight counterattacks, and destroying three arms depots.
Ukraine has lost over 1,155 soldiers and five US-made 155-mm Paladin self-propelled artillery systems in clashes with Russia’s Vostok (East) group of forces.
US Officials Assess Ukraine May Lose Control of Territory in Kursk in Months
Russia’s Dnepr group has eliminated up to 500 Ukrainian troops and destroyed five electronic warfare stations and five ammunition depots, according to the statement.
Russian air defenses shot down 559 Ukrainian drones, a Su-27 fighter jet, 33 US-made HIMARS and Uragan MLRS projectiles, as well as three French-made Hammer precision-guided aviation bombs during the same period.
In addition, the Russian armed forces launched one massive and 12 group strikes on Ukrainian military and industrial enterprises, as well as energy facilities, the ministry said. Up to 46 Ukrainian military personnel have been captured in the line of contact over the past week.
In total, the Russian military has neutralized 651 aircraft, 283 helicopters, 39,207 unmanned aerial vehicles, 590 anti-aircraft missile systems, 20,208 tanks and other armored fighting vehicles, 1,505 MLRS combat vehicles, 20,163 field artillery guns and mortars, and 29,832 units of support military vehicles since the start of the special military operation.
Ukraine Loses Up to 225 Soldiers in Kursk Operation in Past Day
The Ukrainian armed forces lost up to 225 soldiers, two armored personnel carriers and three armored fighting vehicles in the offensive on the Russian border region of Kursk over the past 24 hours, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Friday.
"Over the past day, the Ukrainian armed forces lost up to 225 troops, with two armored personnel carriers, three armored fighting vehicles, five vehicles and an artillery piece destroyed," the statement read.
Since the beginning of hostilities in the Kursk Region, Kiev has lost over 47,265 military personnel, 263 tanks, 204 infantry fighting vehicles, 146 armored personnel carriers, 1,393 armored fighting vehicles and 1,321 motor vehicles, as well as 340 artillery piece, 42 multiple rocket launchers, including 11 US-made HIMARS and six US-made MLRS, the ministry added.
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Moscow calls out Trump’s ambigous Ukraine messaging.
Communications contain no proposals of interest for resolving the conflict, Russia’s UN envoy has said.
Russia's UN envoy Vassily Nebenzia has criticized what he described as “vague signals” regarding the Ukraine conflict from the incoming administration of US President-elect Donald Trump.
In an interview with Russia 24 TV on Friday, Nebenzia said Moscow currently finds nothing of interest in communications about the crisis.
“Deal is [US President-elect Donald] Trump’s favorite word; everyone knows that. How this is consistent with Russia’s interests is still unclear,” Nebenzia remarked.
He added that the signals from the incoming US administration offer nothing appealing. “These are some unformed vague signals of readiness for something,” he said.
Nebenzia recalled Putin’s call to fully end the conflict rather than freeze it. “We often hear the word ‘freezing the conflict.’ On December 19, Russian President Vladimir Putin last said clearly and precisely on what terms we are ready to talk about not freezing but ending this conflict, provided that our legitimate security interests are respected. But so far, nothing in the signals of the new US administration indicates that this is something that will be of interest to us,” he stressed.
Trump has promised on several occasions that he could achieve a negotiated settlement of the Ukraine conflict in just one day. Trump has also criticized the US approach to the conflict and described Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky as a “salesman” whose visits to Washington result in multibillion-dollar aid packages.
On December 22, Trump announced that he would wait for a meeting with Putin to resolve the conflict. He also insisted that the conflict would not have occurred had he been in office.
Read more: Zelensky admits more troops are deserting
In December, Putin said during a press conference that he was ready to meet and talk with Trump. Earlier, the Russian president outlined conditions for a peaceful resolution, including an immediate ceasefire and readiness for negotiations, if Ukrainian forces withdraw from all Russian territory, including those that joined the country following referendums.
Putin also called on Kiev to renounce NATO ambitions, demilitarize, and adopt a neutral, non-aligned, and nuclear-weapon-free status. The Russian envoy also noted ongoing talks from the Ukrainian side about potential “arrangements.” However, he questioned the feasibility of such efforts.
“The question is, when Zelensky finally, let’s say, gets around to wanting to sit down at the negotiating table, on which line of military contact will this take place? The further he goes, the worse the conditions will be for him,” Nebenzia said.
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EUROPE | BRITAIN
German purchases of Russian uranium surge.
The figure for 2024 showed a 70% jump from the previous year.
Germany dramatically increased its uranium imports from Russia in 2024, bringing in 60.8 tons, a 70% jump from the previous year, according to a new report from Der Spiegel published on Friday.
The findings are based on data from Lower Saxony’s Ministry for Environment, Energy and Climate Protection.
The uranium is being processed at the Advanced Nuclear Fuels facility in Lingen, which operates under French ownership through Framatome, a division of energy giant EDF. The plant is gearing up to manufacture specialized nuclear fuel cells for the Soviet-designed WWER reactors still running in Eastern Europe. These power plants have historically depended on Russian-made fuel cells.
The German government noted that imports of uranium from Russia are not subject to any of the EU-wide sanctions imposed on Moscow.
“There is currently no European Union import or export embargo against Russia for nuclear fuel for peaceful use,” the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection said.
READ MORE: German MP calls for NordStream to be reactivated
The EU has long debated sanctioning Russia’s nuclear sector as part of its efforts to sever energy ties with Moscow. Such restrictions, however, have never materialized, as they have been strongly opposed by several EU nations – namely Hungary and Slovakia – that are reliant on nuclear energy cooperation with Russia.
Last month, the bloc’s new energy commissioner, Dan Jorgensen, admitted the EU had failed to overcome its dependency on Russian energy and urged a new plan to curtail the supply of oil, gas, and nuclear fuel from the country.
“It’s obvious to everybody that something new needs to happen because… now it’s beginning to go in the wrong direction,” Jorgensen said, promising to present “a tangible roadmap that will include efficient tools and means for us to solve the remaining part of the problem.”
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NON-ENGLISH NEWS
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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.
IF DONALD TRUMP’S STATEMENTS ABOUT BRINGING AN END TO THE CONFLICT IN UKRAINE WERE MERELY VOTE-WINNING HOT AIR WITHOUT SUBSTANCE… WHAT THEN?
Indeed, what then? Thank you for your reporting!