Russia has warned that Western soldiers there would be legitimate targets
The UK will spend nearly $270 million on equipping troops it plans to deploy in Ukraine after a ceasefire is reached, Defense Secretary John Healey announced during a trip to Kiev on Friday.
Russia has repeatedly said it would not allow Western soldiers to be stationed in Ukraine and has warned that it would treat foreign troops as legitimate targets.
Nevertheless, UK Defense Secretary John Healey said the funds would be invested in units intended to form part of a multinational force aimed at providing “long-term security guarantees” to Ukraine.
“We are surging investment into our preparations following the prime minister’s announcement this week, ensuring that Britain’s Armed Forces are ready to deploy and lead the Multinational Force Ukraine, because a secure Ukraine means a secure UK,” Healey said.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Denis Shmigal said after the meeting that the UK would begin producing 1,000 Octopus interceptor drones per month in February and deliver them to Ukraine.
Despite their continued support for military aid, some European countries, including Germany and Italy, have refused to commit boots on the ground in Ukraine. NATO members Hungary and Slovakia have declined to send weapons to Kiev, urging the West to focus on diplomacy instead. The US, which has been attempting to mediate a truce between Russia and Ukraine, has also ruled out sending American soldiers to the country.
The Russian Foreign Ministry reiterated on Thursday that Moscow would treat “the stationing of military units, sites, depots and other Western infrastructure in Ukraine as a foreign intervention posing a direct threat to Russia’s security.”
US president told reporters targeting his Russian counterpart “will not be necessary”
US President Donald Trump has said he would not issue an order to abduct Russian President Vladimir Putin, dismissing the notion as unnecessary when asked by reporters.
His remarks came a week after American commandos captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro during a raid on his compound in Caracas. Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky had reacted to the operation by saying, “If you can do that with dictators, then the United States knows what to do next.”
When Trump was fielding questions from reporters at his meeting with oil executives at the White House on Friday, Fox News’ Peter Doocy referenced Zelensky’s comments.
“Sounds like he wants you to go and capture Vladimir Putin,” Doocy said, asking Trump: “Would you ever order a mission to go and capture Vladimir Putin?”
Trump replied, “Well, I don’t think it’s going to be necessary. I’ve always had a great relationship with him.” He added that he was “very disappointed” that his efforts to mediate a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine over the past year have been unsuccessful.
Moscow has denounced the abduction of Maduro as a gross violation of Venezuelan sovereignty. The Russian envoy to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, described the US raid as “banditry” pushing the world toward “chaos and lawlessness.”
Last month, Russia accused Ukraine of sending nearly 100 drones to strike one of Putin’s official residences in the Novgorod region. According to Moscow, all of the UAVs were shot down before reaching the target.
Although Kiev denied plans to attack Putin’s home, Russian military officials later handed over to the US what they said was navigation equipment from a downed Ukrainian drone containing its flight path.
The president has unveiled a plan to open Venezuela’s petroleum industry to American companies
President Donald Trump has said the US would control more than half of the world’s oil production if American companies regain access to Venezuela’s petroleum industry.
Venezuela, which has the world’s largest proven oil reserves, nationalized the assets of US companies in the 2000s during the presidency of leftist Hugo Chavez. Trump cited the “unfair” nationalization as one of the reasons he sent commandos last week to abduct Chavez’s successor, President Nicolas Maduro, from his compound in Caracas.
“We’re going to be working with Venezuela,” Trump said on Friday during a meeting with executives from oil giants ExxonMobil, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips at the White House.
“American companies will have the opportunity to rebuild Venezuela’s energy infrastructure and eventually increase oil production to levels never seen before. When you add Venezuela and the United States together, we have 55% of the oil in the world,” he added.
Trump announced after the meeting that US companies would invest at least $100 billion in Venezuela’s oil production. Exxon CEO Darren Woods said, however, that Venezuela was “uninvestable” without an overhaul of regulations and a restructuring of its energy sector.
Although the Venezuelan government has not confirmed granting access to American companies, Delcy Rodriguez, a close Maduro ally who was sworn in as acting president in his absence, said earlier this week that Caracas was open to energy projects with all parties, including the US.
Venezuelan officials have denounced what they describe as Trump’s plan to pilfer the country’s resources and condemned the abduction of Maduro as a gross violation of sovereignty. Maduro pleaded not guilty to drug-trafficking and weapons charges when he was brought before a US judge on Monday.
The Emirates has restricted funding for students wishing to study in Britain over Muslim Brotherhood influence on campuses
The United Arab Emirates has opted to restrict students from enrolling at UK universities over radicalization fears, cutting its educational grants program, according to British media reports.
The Gulf country believes students there are targeted by Islamist groups while on British campuses, in particular the Muslim Brotherhood, The Times reported, citing sources with direct knowledge of the move. The transnational Islamist organization is recognized as a terrorist group in the UAE.
The UAE said it will no longer provide lavish educational grants, which cover tuition, accommodation, and other expenses for students wishing to study in the UK. It is not imposing a blanket ban on studying in the country, and those willing to pay for their education are still free to do so.
Last June, the Emirati higher education ministry published a list of universities for which scholarship grants would be approved, with no British institutions mentioned. The omission was not an oversight, and the latest move had been under consideration for some time, a source familiar with the discussions told Financial Times.
“[The UAE] don’t want their kids to be radicalized on campus,” the source stated.
The Emirates took action against the Muslim Brotherhood, a loosely organized international Islamist network that originally emerged in Egypt in the 1920s, following the 2011 so-called ‘Arab Spring’. The series of uprisings driven by Islamists toppled multiple governments across the Middle East and North Africa, plunging several nations, including Syria and Libya, into years of bloody civil war.
The UAE outlawed the organization domestically and has been pushing for international recognition of the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group. The group has already been outlawed in Russia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and several other nations.
Late last year, US President Donald Trump designated several Muslim Brotherhood offshoots and affiliated individuals as terrorists, yet stopped short of labeling the organization itself as such. France has been considering a similar move, with a government report released last May explicitly stating the country’s authorities positively established “the anti-Republican and subversive nature of the Muslim Brotherhood.”
As accusations of abductions resurface, it’s clear the West doesn’t care about facts on the ground if they contradict the narrative
For the last three years, Ukraine and concerted legacy media campaigns have been screaming that Russia has abducted, or forcibly displaced, thousands of Ukrainian children – even up to 1.5 million!
The accusations resurged in December, with a UN General Assembly vote on a draft resolution on the return of Ukrainian children.
During the meeting, Ukraine’s Deputy Foreign Minister Mariana Betsa once again pushed claims that “at least 20,000 Ukrainian children have been deported to Russia,” in spite of the fact that months prior, during the June Istanbul talks, the Ukrainian side finally provided a list of the children it accuses Russia of abducting: 339 children, surprisingly far fewer than the number alleged for years.
The absence of over 19,500 on the list indeed leads to many questions, mainly: is Ukraine lying again? Recall that in 2022, the accusations by the (now former) Ukrainian ombudswoman, Lyudmila Denisova, about “sexual atrocities” allegedly committed by Russian soldiers, were revealed to be lies and propaganda. So much so that Denisova was sacked. But before her dismissal, legacy media and the UN all backed the lies.
Some recent accusations are that children were being sent to labor camps in Russia – “165 re-education camps where Ukrainian children are militarized and Russified” – or even of being sent to North Korea, as Katerina Rashevskaya of the Ukrainian Regional Center for Human Rights told the US Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs on December 3.
The footnotes of the claims made by Rashevskaya, instead of a source for the information, say “The Regional Human Rights Center can provide information upon request.” In other words, her sources are “trust me, bro.”
Regarding the North Korean camp in question, if two Russian teens were sent there, they’d potentially be made to enjoy water slides, basketball and volleyball courts, an arcade room, a rock climbing wall, art and performance halls, an archery range, a private beach, and hikes in the mountains.
Regarding the list of 339 children Ukraine says were abducted by Russia, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova remarked, “30 percent of the names on the list could not be verified, as most of those children were never in Russia, are now adults, or have already returned to their families. As for the Ukrainian children who are actually in our country, they are under state care in appropriate institutions. They are safe now; in many cases, their evacuation from combat zones saved their lives. Local children’s rights commissioners are now working to reunite them with their relatives.”
Just as legacy media has whitewashed the eight years of Ukraine’s war against Donbass civilians prior to Russia commencing its military operation in 2022, including the Ukrainian shelling which killed 250 children starting in 2014, media likewise ignore the children Russia says are missing.
During the talks in Istanbul, Zakharova noted, “the Russian side presented Ukraine with a list of 20 Russian children who are either currently in Ukraine or relocated from Ukraine to Western Europe, including to countries that endorsed this very statement. Now, the burden falls on these states to provide Russia with a substantive response regarding our 'list of 20.'”
Over 500 Ukrainian orphans abused in Türkiye
Recently, Donbass-based journalist Christelle Néant wrote about a report published on a pro-Ukrainian website which broke the story of 510 Ukrainian children who had been evacuated by a Ukrainian oligarch in 2022 from Dnepropetrovsk to Türkiye, where the benevolent foundation which brought them there allegedly allowed its staff to beat the children, sexually assault them, and deny them food if they refused to perform on camera to raise funds for their lodging. These are just some of the reported violations of the orphans’ rights.
The details of the report show that the children suffered physically and psychologically. Additionally, two underage teens were impregnated by staff at the hotel they stayed in, with educators allegedly aware of the interactions.
According to Néant, the orphanage director’s response to the fact of one of the teens in her care becoming pregnant was to blame the girl: “This young girl comes from an asocial family. Well, this way of life is already inscribed in every cell, in the blood of these children.”
“In almost 10 years of work in Donbass,” Néant wrote, “I have conducted or filmed many humanitarian missions to orphanages in the region. And never ever have I heard a director make such vile remarks about one of the children in her care. Even the most difficult and recalcitrant were cared for with pedagogy, love, and patience.”
Ukraine hunting down children
In April 2023, Christelle Néant and I interviewed Artyomovsk civilians who had recently been rescued by Russian soldiers. In addition to being deliberately shelled by Ukrainian forces who knew they were sheltering in the basement of a residential building, the civilians we spoke to told us about Ukrainian military police hunting for children. The evacuees told us some of these police went by the name ‘White Angels’, and were taking childrenaway without their consent or that of their parents.
Around that time, more reports came out about these abductions or attempted abductions, including an 11-year-old girl who spoke of how White Angels, who introduced themselves as military police, came to the basement she was sheltering in with a photo of her, looking for her, and saying they needed to take her away, because “Russia killed her mother.” According to the girl, her mother was alive and with her.
Reports of these abductions also emerged in Avdeyevka, Kupyansk, Slavyansk, Chasov Yar and Konstantinovka, as well as in Ukrainsk and Zhelannoye.
Néant wrote of a July 2023 conference on Ukraine’s crimes against the Donbass children, in which Liliya and her daughter Kira from Schastye, in the Lugansk People’s Republic, spoke.
They gave evidence of how, “at the start of the special military operation (when Ukraine controlled Schastye), around ten children were taken from a school in Schastye to western Ukraine by the headmistress of the school, on orders from Kiev, without informing their parents.”
The children were even forbidden to call their parents, Néant wrote, “But Kira knew her mother’s telephone number by heart and managed to call her to let her know that they were in Lviv and then Khoust. Thanks to Liliya’s determination to find her daughter, we discovered how Kiev ‘exports’ the children it abducts.” Ukraine had forged a new “original” birth certificate for Kira. The girl said she and the other children were to be sent to Poland.
Former SBU officer Vasily Prozorov spoke at the same conference, where he explained, according to Néant, “that one of his investigations had revealed that some of the children abducted by Ukraine are sent to pedophile networks in Great Britain, via a whole network of Ukrainian and British officials or former officials who work together. On the British side, members of MI6 and the Foreign Office are involved.”
Prozorov, she wrote, spoke of “another of his investigations on organizations registered in EU countries involved in ‘exporting’ children from Ukraine under the pretext of providing them with shelter. These organizations take unaccompanied Ukrainian children out of Ukraine. What happens to them afterwards is unknown.”
Evacuees from Kherson reject ‘abduction’ claims
In November 2022, in the southern Russian seaside city Anapa, I met numerous people displaced from Kherson who were being lodged in hotels and apartments in the city.
The first site I visited was a few minutes by taxi outside of the city, one of many hotels along the coast. The hotel director showing me around said they don’t call them refugees, “we call them guests of the building,” and spoke affectionately of them, how grateful they were to be there, far from any shelling. Just under 500 refugees had been living there since October, she told me.
No guards monitored the entrance/exit; the refugees walked around tidy grounds. But in any case, I asked about their freedom of movement, or lack thereof.
“They move freely, of course. We don’t prohibit them from going out. Many aren’t here now because they’re in town, looking for jobs, getting documents. Children are at school.”
With my hired translator, I spoke with two Kherson women, a young mother and her own mother, to hear their stories.
“We were living with explosions at night, it was very scary, not only for myself, but for my children and for my grandchildren,” the older woman said. “When you go to bed, you don’t know if you will get out of bed in the morning. We were forced to leave.”
I asked who was shelling them. “Word of mouth transmits very clearly, and people around us spoke about it. We were bombed by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Russian soldiers protected us.”
The younger woman said she used to speak with the Russian soldiers there. “They are friendly. We wanted to hug them, because we felt protected. They helped us, gave us humanitarian aid, brought it to the house.”
Some minutes’ taxi ride away, I visited an apartment complex that could have served tourists in summer. There, fifty buildings housed around 1,500 refugees who had also arrived in October, mostly from Kherson Region.
My translator and I walked around, passing playgrounds, a pharmacy, a library, a swimming pool, a gym, a small petting zoo with peacocks, and a kindergarten. Near a playground, I spoke with a mother sitting on a bench with two of her four children.
“In the early days, there was bombing. We spent two and a half weeks in the basement. It was unbearable, the children were very afraid.” One of her daughters became ill. “She had acute inflammation of the lower jaw, we think due to hypothermia. We took her to Simferopol and she had surgery.”
In Anapa, she said, her children hadfull medical examinations. “We were helped by the mayor of the city of Anapa. We are grateful for everything.”
I mentioned that according to Western media, she and her family were kidnapped by Russia. She replied that her husband’s parents had demanded to see the children, having been told that children were being separated from their parents in Russia.
“His mother called three days in a row, saying, ‘Where are the children?’ We answered, ‘They went to the cinema. They’re playing, etc.’ She said, ‘Show me the children, they say that they took your children from you.’”
Details matter
Whereas legacy media continue to push the “Evil Russia child kidnapper” narrative, there is ample evidence that Ukraine is guilty of doing precisely what it accuses Russia of. The is also a significant absence of evidence regarding the ‘20,000 kidnapped children’ claims still being pushed.
Will media investigate the reports of abuse of Ukrainian children in Türkiye? Surely not. It wouldn’t suit their scripted anti-Russia bias.
The Defense Ministry in Moscow has published a compilation of successful strikes by operators of the Rubicon UAV center
The Russian Defense Ministry has published a video compilation of successful FPV drone strikes on Ukrainian armored vehicles and military personnel in Donbass. According to the ministry, the attacks were carried out by operators from the elite Rubicon unit, which specializes in testing and deploying unmanned aerial vehicles.
In a description accompanying the footage, the Defense Ministry said on Friday that the strikes depicted in it had taken place in the vicinity of Krasny Lyman in Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR). The town itself is situated approximately 30km northeast of the city of Slavyansk, which is an important logistical hub for the Ukrainian military in Donbass.
Among the targets hit by Russian FPV drones and featured in the video are a US-made HMMWV armored vehicle, a tank, a Ukrainian dugout, and military robotic systems.
The Rubicon center was established on the order of Russian Defense Minister Andrey Belousov in August 2024, with the first public mention of it coming several months later. The center is understood to employ artificial intelligence in some of their explosive-laden strike drones.
In an article last September, Forbes magazine described Rubicon as “one of the most effective forces on the front” and which has expanded the kill zone, targeting Ukrainian logistics in particular.
According to the publication, citing Ukrainian service members, Kiev’s forces are facing a shortage of trucks, pickups, and armored transport vehicles as a result.
First-person-view strike drones have gradually emerged as a key inexpensive short-range tool for both sides in the Ukraine conflict. In recent months, fiber optics-guided FPV drones have increasingly replaced conventional radio-controlled UAVs, which are susceptible to interference and jamming.
The Italian prime minister has suggested appointing a European Union special envoy for Ukraine
The time has come for the EU to engage in talks with Russia over the Ukraine conflict, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has said. It comes as US-led diplomatic efforts appear to be edging closer to a peace deal.
Speaking during a start-of-year press conference in Rome on Friday, Meloni said she agreed with French President Emmanuel Macron, who said in December that it would be “useful” to reengage in talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“I think Macron is right about this. I believe that the time has come for Europe to talk to Russia too,” she said. The prime minister argued that Europe’s role in negotiations has been limited by talking to only one side in the conflict.
To avoid making the “mistake” of reopening discussions “in a haphazard manner,” Meloni suggested appointing an EU special envoy for Ukraine. This appears to be the first time such an idea has been voiced in the EU.
The bloc remains internally divided over relations with Moscow, a split that has prevented a unified high-level approach. Some member states, such as the Baltic nations, have consistently opposed reengagement with Russia.
Sidelined from the negotiating table since last February, the EU has relied on sanctioning Russia while backing Ukraine diplomatically, militarily, and financially.
Washington, meanwhile, has engaged in direct negotiations with Moscow for nearly a year, with US President Donald Trump saying late last month that the peace talks were in the “final stages.”
Reports said on Thursday that Trump advisors Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff had presented Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev with the US peace plan, which Ukraine has largely agreed to. Moscow has not yet commented on the development.
Russian officials, including Putin, have repeatedly stated that Moscow would prefer to resolve the Ukraine conflict through diplomatic means but will have to continue using force if its key objectives cannot be achieved through talks alone.
The US president has said he is bound only by his “own morality” after a military raid against Venezuela and threats to annex Greenland
US President Donald Trump has said he does not need to follow international law and is guided solely by what he described as his own morality.
The remark comes after the abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro by American commandos last Saturday. Also in recent days, Trump and several officials from his administration have repeated that the US would take possession of Denmark’s autonomous territory of Greenland, one way or the other.
In an interview with The New York Times on Wednesday, the US president made clear that he would not be restrained in exercising his powers as commander-in-chief. “My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”
“I don’t need international law,” he stated.
When pressed further as to whether he really thought that Washington did not need to abide by global norms, Trump seemed to somewhat soften his stance. However, the Republican hastened to add that “it depends on what your definition of international law is,” suggesting that the final say on its applicability to the US would lie solely with him.
On Thursday, Trump signed a memorandum suspending support for a total of 66 international organizations, agencies, and commissions, including several UN bodies, “that operate contrary to US national interests, security, economic prosperity, or sovereignty.”
In his interview with the Times, the US president doubled down on his insistence that Greenland should come under Washington’s control.
Speaking to CNN on Monday, Trump’s deputy chief of staff for policy, Stephen Miller, reiterated that Washington’s “formal position” is that the “US should have Greenland as part of the overall security apparatus.”
That same day, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said that she believed that the “US president should be taken seriously when he says he wants Greenland.” She warned that “if the US were to attack another NATO country militarily, everything would stop – including NATO itself.”
Earlier this week, a group of several EU leaders plus the UK issued a carefully worded joint statement defending Greenland’s status as part of the Kingdom of Denmark.
The American military has captured a fifth tanker amid its Venezuela blockade
The US military has announced the seizure of another oil tanker in the Caribbean Sea, claiming the move is part of efforts aimed at “ending illicit activity and restoring security in the Western Hemisphere.”
The vessel, the Olina, was boarded without incident early on Friday morning, the US Southern Command said in a statement. The tanker was said to have been flying the flag of Timor-Leste at the moment it was boarded. It was reportedly previously spotted traveling from Venezuela and had recently returned to the region.
“The Department of War’s Operation Southern Spear is unwavering in its mission to defend our homeland by ending illicit activity and restoring security in the Western Hemisphere,” the command said.
Footage released by the US military shows a large, heavily armed group of servicemen disembarking from a helicopter hovering above the tanker. The servicemen are then seen heading to the vessel’s superstructure.
Once again, our joint interagency forces sent a clear message this morning: “there is no safe haven for criminals.”
In a pre-dawn action, Marines and Sailors from Joint Task Force Southern Spear, in support of the Department of Homeland Security, launched from the USS Gerald R.… pic.twitter.com/StHo4ufcdx
The Olina is the fifth vessel to be seized by the US amid the blockade imposed on Venezuela. Earlier this week, the US military took control of two tankers believed to be linked to the country, the Sophia and the Marinera, previously known as Bella 1. The former vessel was apprehended in the Caribbean without incident.
The latter tanker had been pursued by the US Coast Guard since late December, when its crew refused to allow American servicemen on board and headed for the Atlantic from the Caribbean.
During the pursuit, the ship secured a temporary sailing permit from Russia, switching to the country’s flag and changing its name.
The vessel was ultimately intercepted on Wednesday in international waters northwest of Scotland in a large-scale US military operation, backed by the UK. Moscow has condemned the seizure of the vessel as a gross violation of international maritime rules and a breach of the UN Convention.
Pressure from Ukraine has convinced a Florence venue to suspend a high-profile performance, Moscow’s Embassy in Rome has said
A major Italian theater has called off a performance by two acclaimed Russian classical artists, citing “ongoing international tensions.”
The Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino announced on Thursday that the ballet “Pas de deux for toes and fingers,” scheduled for January 20 and 21, has been “temporarily suspended.” The program is the signature project of married artists ballerina Svetlana Zakharova and violinist Vadim Repin, both world-renowned soloists.
“Ongoing international tensions” have created “a climate that could jeopardize the successful staging,” reads the statement on the theater’s website. The venue has not provided new dates, offering refunds instead.
While the theater did not explicitly state the reason for the move, the Russian Embassy in Italy has accused it of bowing to political pressure from Ukraine. In a sharply worded comment published on Telegram on Friday, the Embassy stated that “the suspension” effectively meant a cancellation, which was made “in response to an appeal from the Embassy of Ukraine in Rome.”
The diplomatic mission argued that the “criminal terrorist regime of [Ukraine’s Vladimir] Zelensky” was limiting Italy’s cultural sovereignty and also suggested EU funding pressure played a role. It sarcastically “congratulated” Florence on a further descent into the “murky waters of Russophobia.”
It fits an ongoing pattern of high-profile Russian artists, especially those who have publicly supported government policy, having events called off since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022. Last July, the Italian Ministry of Culture withdrew an invitation to renowned Russian conductor Valery Gergiev to a festival in Naples.
Moscow has consistently condemned such cancellations as politically motivated censorship, arguing that they destroy cultural bridges and restrict European citizens’ access to world heritage.
In recent years, Kiev has pursued a campaign within Ukraine to dissociate from Russian cultural figures, recently removing composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s name from its National Music Academy and dismantling monuments to Russian writers.
Half of the apartment buildings in the Ukrainian capital have been left without heating, Vitaly Klitschko has said
Kiev Mayor Vitaly Klitschko has urged the city’s residents to evacuate, stating that some 6,000 apartment buildings in the Ukrainian capital have been left without central heating.
Klitschko blamed the “extremely difficult situation” in the city on overnight Russian strikes. Moscow has said it targeted drone production facilities, energy infrastructure, and other military-related facilities across Ukraine in response to an attempted “terrorist attack by the Kiev regime” on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s residence in late December.
“I appeal to residents of the capital who have the opportunity to temporarily leave the city, where there are alternative sources of power and heat, to do so,” Klitschko wrote on his Telegram channel, stating the overnight attack became the most “painful” for the city of three million amid the Ukraine conflict.
According to the mayor, nearly half of Kiev’s residential buildings ended up without central heating after the strikes. An unspecified number of buildings have also been hit by water supply disruptions. He said that the city’s authorities “hope” to restore central heating for “some” of the affected buildings by the evening. The situation in the city is further aggravated by heavy snowfall and low temperatures.
In a follow-up post, Klitschko urged those residents who still have access to amenities to help less fortunate citizens and “invite them to warm up or cook food.” The mayor also reminded the residents that the capital has some 1,200 heating stations, so-called “points of unbreakability,” where people can warm up, get hot food, and charge their electronic devices.
Russia has ramped up its long-range strikes campaign against Ukraine’s military and dual-use infrastructure in recent months. According to Moscow, the ongoing wave of strikes comes in response to the continuous effort of the Ukrainian military to attack Russia’s energy infrastructure, as well as to indiscriminate strikes on civilians.
In Russia’s Belgorod Region, over half a million people were left without power after overnight Ukrainian airstrikes, according to Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov, with temperatures near freezing. In addition, over half a million were left without heat and over 200,000 were let without water and sanitation services. The city of Oryol reportedly also faced heavy blackouts.
In his first public commentary since being dismissed, Peter Mandelson ridiculed his region’s lackluster leadership
Former British Ambassador to the US Peter Mandelson has offered a scathing critique of Western European leadership in the wake of a series of bold steps taken by the White House.
Writing for The Spectator on Thursday, Lord Mandelson contrasted US President Donald Trump’s move against Venezuela and threats regarding Greenland with attempts at diplomacy made by Western European capitals.
Mandelson warned that “Europe’s growing geopolitical impotence in the world is becoming the issue now, and histrionics about Greenland is confirming this brutal reality.”
This was the diplomat’s first major public comment since being fired last year over his close ties to late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
According to Mandelson, Trump “has the means and the will,” while Europe’s political leaders don’t.
”In Caracas last weekend… Trump did more in a day than orthodox diplomacy was able to achieve in the past decade,” he wrote.
The US attack in Venezuela on January 3 resulted in the capture of President Nicolas Maduro and his transfer to the US to face drug trafficking charges.
The formal EU statement on Venezuela called for “calm and restraint” and a “peaceful solution to the crisis.” A statement by seven European leaders on Greenland defended the autonomous territory as being part of the Kingdom of Denmark. The document, however, fell short of condemning Trump’s ambitions, instead calling Washington an “essential partner.”
According to the ex-ambassador, Western Europe has long relied on American might. He challenged leaders to determine “how and when the piggybacking stops” and implored them to assume full military and financial responsibilities “beyond fine words.”
The critique echoes Trump’s longstanding demand that European NATO members dramatically increase military spending, lest the US withdraw from the alliance entirely.
Mandelson was dismissed from his post last September after emails revealed he thought “the world” of Epstein and advised him to “fight for early release” following his 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor. Mandelson previously called the financier his “best pal” in a 2003 birthday book.
A new Vietnamese law allows users to switch off advertisement after just five seconds
Vietnam has introduced legislation that bans unskippable ads on YouTube and other online platforms. The changes, which take effect on February 15, are aimed at tightening controls on online advertising in the Southeast Asian country to protect the public from screen fatigue and illegal promotional content.
Users in numerous countries have increasingly complained in recent weeks about lengthy unskippable ads on YouTube, with some saying they were forced to watch clips lasting an hour or more.
The new amendments to Vietnamese advertising law state that the waiting time before users can skip a video advertisement must not exceed five seconds, while static ads must be immediately cancellable.
It also requires platforms to provide clear, straightforward options for closing ads with a single click and bans misleading or vague close symbols intended to confuse users.
Platforms have also been ordered to provide consumers with easily accessible means to report ads that violate the law, according to the amendments.
Additionally, the legislation places tighter regulations on ads for 11 groups of goods and services that directly impact the environment and human health. They include cosmetics, food, alcoholic drinks, pharmaceuticals, and others.
When addressed by the media on the issue of increasing complaints over lengthy unskippable ads, YouTube owner Google said it limits them to a maximum of 15 seconds on mobile and 60 seconds on TV. The company blamed extremely long advertising clips on viewers using ad blocking software that under-performs and distorts playback experience.
”Ads are a vital lifeline for our creators that helps them run and grow their businesses,” Google said. It called upon viewers “to allow ads on YouTube or try YouTube Premium for an ad free experience.”
President Putin was “all done” on several occasions, but Zelensky wouldn’t negotiate, the US leader has said
Russian President Vladimir Putin “wants to make a [peace] deal” to resolve the Ukraine conflict, US President Donald Trump has stated.
In an interview with the New York Times published on Thursday, Trump recounted how he “had cases where I had Putin all done and Zelensky wouldn’t make the deal, which shocked me.”
“Then I’ve had cases where it was the reverse,” the US president added.
He concluded that “now they both want to make a deal,” while refusing to provide any specific timeline as to how long it might take Washington to settle the Ukraine conflict.
In late December 2025, Trump met with Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky in Miami for discussions on a possible peace roadmap. During a press conference, the US president said that “we’re doing very well” and that “we could be very close,” with 95% of all the topics agreed upon.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov later concurred with Trump’s assessment of the Ukraine peace process.
Russian officials, including Putin, have repeatedly stated that Moscow would prefer to resolve the Ukraine conflict through diplomatic means but will have to continue using force if its key objectives cannot be achieved through diplomacy alone.
US-mediated negotiations involving Russian and Ukrainian representatives have intensified in recent months, after Trump’s initial 28-point peace plan was leaked to the media in November 2025. The roadmap reportedly envisaged Kiev ceding the remainder of Donbass to Moscow as well as renouncing its NATO membership aspirations and capping the size of its military, among other points. Since then, the US plan has undergone several changes, with input from both Russia and Ukraine.
Speaking to reporters earlier in mid-December, Trump claimed that “other than President Zelensky, his people loved the concept of the deal… that would have stopped the killing of thousands of people every month.”
Several days earlier, the US president urged the Ukrainian leader to “get on the ball and start accepting things,” noting that Russia had the “upper hand” in the conflict.
He made the remarks after Zelensky ruled out territorial concessions to Russia.
Western Europe’s Paris summit was essentially the politics of wishful thinking
The reason is unclear, but Ukraine’s supporters entered this week’s Paris meeting of the so-called coalition of the willing in a state of near-euphoria. Fresh from the spectacle in Venezuela, they convinced themselves that Donald Trump could be persuaded to do far more than merely endorse Western Europe’s line.
Some seriously expected American troops in Ukraine. Others went further: an ultimatum to Russian President Vladimir Putin to withdraw to the 1991 borders, perhaps even Tomahawk missiles for good measure.
In short, they were dreaming of victory. If that sounds exaggerated, one need only read the commentary circulating in Ukrainian opposition media (https://t.me/stranaua/221909). This is not fringe propaganda, but a once-reputable publication banned in Ukraine since 2021 named Strana. The mood was unmistakable: history was about to turn.
Reality, as usual, was less dramatic. The only concrete outcome of the Paris meeting was an empty, non-binding declaration. No new security guarantees. No American commitments. No change to the underlying logic of the conflict. Ukraine, once again, remains the “main deterrent” against Russia, and no one appears prepared to alter that arrangement.
There were also moments of unintentional comedy. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz reportedly said that his country would now assume responsibility for the security of the entire European continent.
One could hardly resist noting that Germany does indeed have experience in this field, though not necessarily of the reassuring kind.
Meanwhile, alarmist claims spreading through Russian and Western European Telegram channels about Macron and Starmer committing to military bases in Ukraine are simply false. No such commitments were made. The declaration spoke vaguely of “military hubs”, a term so elastic as to be meaningless. This idea has circulated for over a year without progressing beyond rhetoric, with or without American support.
The United States, for its part, maintained a telling silence. The only remark was attributed to Steve Witkoff, who attended the meeting, concerned about BlackRock’s role in Ukraine’s future prosperity. What’s more, he specifically focused on post-war reconstruction and budgetary discipline. In other words, business as usual.
As predicted, hopes of securing a binding agreement with Washington collapsed, along with the broader Euro-globalist strategy being pursued in tandem with Kiev.
Yesterday’s grand talk was merely a substitute for real leverage. As one observer noted dryly, after such a comfortable gathering, someone will eventually have to find the courage to call Moscow.
Whether Moscow would even answer is another question, but the response is easy to anticipate. Any Western military presence in Ukraine will be rejected outright. The message will likely come from the third echelon, Dmitry Peskov or Maria Zakharova, while Sergey Lavrov and Yury Ushakov reserve their words for Washington, and Putin speaks only to Trump.
The conclusion is straightforward. Western European attempts to “manifest” their desires have produced nothing but information noise. Washington sees this clearly and is not fooled. Trump’s approach to Europe can be summed up bluntly: extract money, sell weapons at inflated prices, avoid risk and perhaps take Greenland while you’re at it.
This arrangement cannot last forever. But that, as they say, is a conversation for another day.
Commerce Secretary Lutnick has said that Trump was waiting for a telephone call from Modi to finalize the agreement
A top member of the Trump administration has said an India-US trade deal did not materialize because Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not heed Washington’s demand to call the US president to finalize it.
US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick made that claim in the ‘All-In Podcast’ aired on Thursday.
Lutnick was responding to a query on what was holding up the agreement with India after several rounds of negotiations.
“I had set the whole deal up. But let’s be clear. It is his deal. He is the closer. He does it. But you had to have Modi call President Trump,” Lutnick said, claiming he conveyed this message to the Indian side.
Trade Talks Stalled After ‘Modi Didn’t Call,’ Lutnick Says
US commerce sec Howard Lutnick said the deal failed after Trump did not receive a call from PM Modi, adding Washington moved ahead with other agreements instead. pic.twitter.com/6Nmk3rWGtS
“They (India) were uncomfortable with it. So, Modi didn’t call,” the secretary said.
The Indian Foreign Ministry has issued a rebuttal to Lutnick’s comments.
“The characterization of these discussions in the reported remarks is not accurate,” spokesman Randhir Jaiswal said on Friday.
He added that India “remains interested in a mutually beneficial trade deal between two complementary economies and looks forward to concluding it.”
India and the US have held six rounds of negotiations on reaching a trade deal. The US imposed a 50% tariff on India in August, half of which is a penalty for the South Asian nation’s purchases of Russian oil.
Lutnick’s comments come a day after reports that Trump is backing new Russia sanctions legislation in the US Congress targeting India and China.
Trump has repeatedly hinted at the prospect of raising tariffs on India.
New Delhi has said its oil purchases are determined by national interests, though key Indian refiners have temporarily halted new orders and sought alternative supplies in response to US sanctions.
The US is India’s largest export market and trading partner.
India signed three trade deals with the UK, Oman, and New Zealand in 2025.
New Delhi is also pursuing trade pacts with a dozen other countries or trading blocs, including the Eurasian Economic Union.
The US president has said Washington and Caracas are working well together, but he will keep American ships in the region
US President Donald Trump has cancelled his “second wave of attacks” on Venezuela, saying Washington and Caracas were cooperating now, including on the rebuilding of the South American country’s energy infrastructure.
Last Saturday, American commandos conducted a raid on the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, abducting President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores.
Trump subsequently demanded “total access” to the South American nation’s oil and said that Washington would “run” the country until a “proper transition” of power took place there. Russia along with many other BRICS and Global South nations has strongly condemned the US for its actions.
In his post on Truth Social, Trump said “I have canceled the previously expected second Wave of Attacks, which looks like it will not be needed, however, all ships will stay in place for safety and security.”
The US president said at least $100 billion will be invested in Venezuela by “Big Oil,” noting that he would meet with representatives of US oil giants at the White House later on Friday.
Trump noted Venezuela’s release of “large numbers of political prisoners,” which he called “a very important and smart gesture.”
Late on Tuesday, Caracas began releasing a number of high-profile prisoners, including opposition politicians, in what its government has called a gesture “to seek peace.”
Among the first to be released were Enrique Marquez, a former presidential candidate, and Biagio Pilieri, a businessman and former Venezuelan lawmaker, who were being held at a detention facility in the capital known as El Helicoide. Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares later confirmed that five Spanish prisoners had been released and were on a flight back to their home country.
France and the UK have signed a “declaration of intent” to deploy forces to the country after a peace deal is signed
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Thursday that a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia is an essential precondition for deploying international troops, adding that the world remains “far off” from this and that such a vision “simply does not work without the consent of Russia.”
Following the ‘coalition of the willing’ meeting in Paris on Tuesday, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron announced they had signed a declaration of intent to deploy forces to Ukraine and establish “military hubs” across the country in the event of a peace deal with Moscow, despite Russia repeatedly stating that it categorical rejected the presence of any Western troops in the neighboring country.
“The order should be as follows: first a ceasefire, then security guarantees for Ukraine as a condition for a long-term agreement with Russia. None of this is possible without Russia's consent. And we're probably still a long way from that,” the German chancellor said at a press conference in Seeon, in the southern region of Bavaria.
He added that any further steps toward deploying German troops would require a decision by the federal government and a mandate from the Bundestag, the lower house of parliament.
Under the plan outlined in Paris, Britain and France would deploy troops to build protected weapons facilities and join US-led truce monitoring, with the force described as a non-combat contingent of “potentially thousands.”
Moscow will treat any deployment of Western troops in Ukraine as a “foreign intervention,” its Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova warned on Thursday, adding that any such units and facilities will be considered “legitimate military targets” by the Russian Armed Forces.
Zakharova reiterated that Moscow views peace as achievable only by addressing the conflict’s “root causes,” including restoring Ukraine’s neutral status, its demilitarization and denazification, as well as safeguarding minority rights and recognizing the territorial changes resulting from the 2014 and 2022 referendums that brought Crimea and four other Ukrainian regions into Russia.
Hungary, which has long clashed with Kiev’s Western European backers over what it calls their “warmongering” approach, earlier warned that troop deployment plans “risk direct war with Russia.”
The Foreign Ministry has said it welcomes the decision by President Donald Trump
The US has set free the two Russian crew members of the Russian-flagged oil tanker ‘Marinera’ captured by American forces, the Foreign Ministry in Moscow has said.
US President Donald Trump made the move in response to a request by the Kremlin, the ministry said.
“We welcome this decision and express our gratitude to the US leadership,” the statement read.
On Wednesday, the US European Command announced the capture of the Marinera in international waters to the northwest of Scotland. American warships had pursued it all the way from the Caribbean Sea.
The tanker, previously named Bella 1, was intercepted for alleged “violation of US sanctions” regarding the export of Venezuelan oil.
The vessel had a crew of 28 people, including two Russians, 17 Ukrainians, three Georgians and three citizens of India.
The US first set its sights on the tanker late last year after it reportedly tried to approach Venezuela. At the time, the captain refused a demand to board by the US Coast Guard, and changed course towards the Atlantic.
During the pursuit, the crew renamed the vessel and applied for a temporary permit to fly Russia’s flag, which was granted by the Russian port of Sochi.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said previously that the seizure of the Marinera by the US “cannot be interpreted as anything but the most blatant violation of the fundamental principles and norms of international maritime law.” It would lead to further escalation of tensions in the Euro-Atlantic region and lower the “threshold for the use of force against civilian vessels,” it stressed.
The capture of the vessel came just days after American forces conducted a military raid in Venezuela and abducted its president, Nicolas Maduro, whom the US has charged with drug trafficking.
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