The Kiev regime delivered a strike firing six projectiles from the US-made HIMARS multiple rocket launcher | A Ukrainian rocket strike from the HIMARS multiple rocket launcher left 63 Russian servicemen killed in Makeyevka in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), Russia’s Defense Ministry told reporters on Monday. 💬 "The Kiev regime delivered a strike firing six projectiles from the US-made HIMARS multiple rocket launcher on a Russian unit near Makeyevka in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR). The attack [...] left 63 Russian service members killed," the top brass said in a report.

■ 63 Russian servicemen died in Makiivka under the blows of the Armed Forces of Ukraine [Interesting comments...]
■ Dozens dead in Ukrainian strike on Russian troops – Moscow (RT.com)
■ В Макеевке погибли 63 российских военных после удара ВСУ (RIA Novosti)

■ “The Russians have decided there is no way to negotiate an end to this. No one will negotiate in good faith;     therefore we must crush the enemy. And that’s what’s coming.” – Colonel Douglas MacGregor (9:35 minute)
■ “Strictly speaking, we haven’t started anything yet.” – Vladimir Putin

The war in Ukraine is not going to end in a negotiated settlement. The Russians have already made it clear that they don’t trust the United States, so they’re not going to waste their time in a pointless gabfest. What the Russians are going to do is pursue the only option that is available to them: They are going to obliterate the Ukrainian Army, reduce a large part of the country to rubble, and force the political leadership to comply with their security demands. It’s a bloody and wasteful course of action, but there’s really no other option. Putin is not going to allow NATO to place its hostile army and missile sites on Russia’s border. He’s going to defend his country as best as he can by proactively eliminating emerging threats in Ukraine. This is why Putin has called up an additional 300,000 reservists to serve in Ukraine; because the Russians are committed to defeating the Ukrainian army and bringing the war to a swift end. Bottom line: The prospects for peace in Ukraine are zilch. The US foreign policy establishment has decided that the only way it can reverse America’s accelerating decline is through direct military confrontation. The war is Ukraine is the first manifestation of that decision. On the other hand, Russia no longer puts any stock in negotiations with the West, because western leaders cannot be trusted to honor their commitments or fulfill their treaty obligations. The irreconcilable differences of the two main parties makes escalation inevitable.

NATO has brought in reserve troops assigned to its KFOR peacekeeping mission to Kosovo for training, one of the mission commanders said, as a deadline approaches in a spat between the Serbian minority and the government that may spark fresh unrest. | KFOR's regional commander east, Colonel Christopher Samulski, told reporters the reserves had been brought in "as part of normal contingency planning." Samulski spoke at Camp Bondsteel, one of KFOR's bases. ● The U.S. officer did not give any concrete figures of how many reserve troops have arrived in Kosovo but spoke of a "battalion-size" unit. A battalion usually comprises between 500 and 1,000 troops.

■ Kosovo chieftain calls for “massive bolstering” of NATO troops, weapons (Anti-Bellum)

Объясняет Readovka | Woe to the vanquished: Vucic's indecision leads to more NATO troops in Kosovo | The drama in unrecognised Kosovo is coming to an end. A few days before the New Year, Serbian President Vucic called on Kosovo Serbs to dismantle the barricades, citing security guarantees from the West. Seeing such weakness of his opponent, the Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti decided to "push back" and announced his intention to increase the NATO contingent in the region. What a surprise, isn't it? ● Belgrade's complete retreat offers Kosovo, or more correctly, the Washington behind it, ample opportunity to step up action in the region and, of course, to put pressure on Serbia. Vucic, and with him the rest of the country, lost this Kosovo battle and will now reap the bitter fruits of defeat. In the light of the recent bid by the unrecognized republic to the EU, the talk of NATO troop increase looks more than expected - it has become clear that one need not fear one's neighbor and simply push it out of the perimeter. ● Yes, some will say that Serbia had no choice, and in many ways it does - the country is clearly in no position to start a military conflict. But still, that is no reason for such a surrender. The whole conflict initially looked very artificial and was more like Vucic being coerced into some kind of behind-the-scenes negotiation and, judging by the events, the other side has achieved its demands. We should not be surprised if in the near future there are some...changes in Vucic's policy. ● This history teaches us a lot - and firstly the danger of deals with one's own conscience. At one time the Serbian government put its trust in the West, and now it seems to be stepping on familiar rakes again.

Two people were killed in the attack, according to the Syrian military | Damascus International Airport was forced to suspend operations early on Monday after an Israeli missile strike left two soldiers dead and damaged the facilities, the Syrian Defense Ministry has said. ● Israeli planes struck the airfield and surrounding areas at around 2:00 am local time, the ministry wrote in a post on Facebook. ● The missiles came from the direction of the Sea of Galilee, also called Lake Tiberias, located in Israeli territory, around 100 km southwest of Syria’s capital. 💬 “The aggression left two military personnel killed and two others wounded, causing material damage and putting the airport out of service,” the post read. ● The Israel Defense Forces have not confirmed the strike, in line with their long-standing policy of not discussing operations outside the country.

■ Damascus airport resumes operations following Israeli strikes – Transport Ministry
■ Israeli Strikes Cause Damascus Airport to Suspend Service, At Least 2 Killed

More than a third of UK adults would find it difficult or impossible to cover a £20 increase to their monthly outgoings, a new research shows, indicating that the cost of living crisis shows no sign of abating. | Polling for Citizens Advice indicated that 37 percent of those surveyed would struggle or be unable to cope with a £20 increase in their monthly outgoings, as the cost of living crisis hits household finances, the Guardian reported. The charity said people were increasingly resorting to desperate measures to get by, such as eating only cold meals. 💬 “Millions of households are at financial breaking point: running down savings, going without bare essentials and turning to food banks to get by,” said the charity’s Chief executive Dame Clare Moriarty. “We’re already seeing record numbers of people coming to us for crisis support and this research shows people simply cannot cut back any further.

Britain’s National Health Service is currently grappling with the effects of strikes and a severe flu outbreak | Delays in British emergency departments could be causing between 300 and 500 deaths each week, Royal College of Emergency Medicine President Dr Adrian Boyle has told Times Radio. ●  According to data from NHS England, 37,837 patients waited more than 12 hours to be admitted to emergency departments in November, up from 10,646 in November 2021. Although figures for December have yet to be released, Boyle told the Times that he’d be “amazed” if they weren’t the worst on record. 💬 “What we’re seeing now in terms of these long waits is being associated with increased mortality, and we think somewhere between 300-500 people are dying as a consequence of delays and problems with urgent and emergency care each week,” he said, in remarks quoted by multiple British media outlets on Sunday.

London had previously committed to ending inflows of oil and coal from Russia as well | The UK has implemented a ban on imports of Russian liquified natural gas (LNG) that came into effect on January 1, 2023, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office confirmed on Sunday in a post on Twitter. ● The British Foreign Office had announced plans to halt supplies of Russian LNG in late October. The measure is aimed at helping London to reduce its reliance on Russian energy. ● On Saturday, the office said Britain was 💬 “supporting countries around the world to reduce their own dependency” on Russian fossil fuels. It explained that the move had followed Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine, and was aimed at cutting the nation’s energy revenues.

Successive conservative governments have failed to tackle the surge in illegal immigration | More than 45,000 illegal immigrants entered the UK last year by crossing the English Channel in small boats, according to government figures released on Sunday. Britain has attempted to pay France to stop the crossings, as legal action stymied its plan to deport the migrants to Rwanda. ● Two boats carried 90 people across the Channel to the UK on Christmas Day, bringing to 45,756 the total number of migrants to make the journey in 2022, up from 28,395 in 2021. No further crossings were recorded before New Year’s Day, the Ministry of Defense noted on Sunday. ● Since crossings first began to rise in 2018, the majority of the migrants came from Iran, Iraq, and a number of other middle-Eastern countries. However, 42% of all arrivals in the second half of 2022 came from Albania, a country that is considered “safe” by the British government.

■ Channel crossings: 45,756 people came to UK in small boats in 2022 (Rixon Stewart Commentary)