Max Blumenthal and Esha Krishnaswamy | While claiming to defend democracy, Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky has outlawed his opposition, ordered his rivals’ arrest, and presided over the disappearance and assassination of dissidents across the country. | Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has framed his country’s war against Russia as a battle for democracy itself. In a carefully choreographed address to US Congress on March 16, Zelensky stated, “Right now, the destiny of our country is being decided. The destiny of our people, whether Ukrainians will be free, whether they will be able to preserve their democracy.” ● US corporate media has responded by showering Zelensky with fawning press, driving a campaign for his nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize and inspiring a flamboyant musical tribute to himself and the Ukrainian military during the 2022 Grammy awards ceremony on April 3. ● Western media has looked the other way, however, as Zelensky and top officials in his administration have sanctioned a campaign of kidnapping, torture, and assassination of local Ukrainian lawmakers accused of collaborating with Russia. Several mayors and other Ukrainian officials have been killed since the outbreak of war, many reportedly by Ukrainian state agents after engaging in de-escalation talks with Russia.

Earlier, President Joe Biden voiced skepticism about the Christmas truce offered by Russia | The US government’s policies on Ukraine show it is not interested in a peaceful resolution of the conflict, the Russian ambassador to Washington said on Thursday. In a statement, Anatoly Antonov argued that Washington’s decision to supply Kiev with Bradley Fighting Vehicles only confirms the US has not “even tried to listen” to Russia’s warnings against such “a dangerous course.”
💬 “The US unleashed a real proxy-war against Russia by supporting Nazi criminals in Kiev” as early as 2014, the ambassador said, referring to the coup that ousted the democratically elected president, Viktor Yanukovich. “Any talk about a ‘defensive nature’ of weapons supplied to Ukraine has long become absurd,” he added. ●  The envoy claimed Western arms shipments only encourage Ukrainian radicals to commit “terrible deeds,” adding to “their feeling of impunity… They continue to kill civilians in Donbass, Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions of the Russian Federation in an extremely cynical way.” ● “Nobody should still have doubts who bears responsibility for prolonging this conflict,” as all actions by the US administration “indicate a lack of any desire for a political settlement,” Antonov said.

■ US to Send Ukraine Bradley Fighting Vehicles in Nearly $3 Billion Arms Package (Antiwar.com)

Yet There is Almost No Opposition or Outcry—Even When Sanctions are Increasingly Having a Boomerang Effect | The U.S. may try piously to defend sanctions as a ‘response to foreign tyranny,’ but they are really a pretext to steal foreign bank accounts and cripple commercial rivals of U.S. corporations. ● n November 14, the Biden administration announced yet another round of sanctions on Russia, targeting this time Russia’s military supply chains by imposing sanctions on 14 individuals and 28 entities that it said were part of a transnational network that procured technology to support Moscow in its invasion of Ukraine. ● One of the companies blacklisted was Milandr, a Russian microelectronics company that Washington says is part of Moscow’s military research and development structure. The sanctions additionally targeted several aviation-related companies and two individuals—Abbas Djuma and Tigran Khristoforovich Srabionov—who facilitated the Russian mercenary Wagner Group’s acquisition of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) from Iran, which have been used in the Ukraine War.

Proceeding from the fact that a large number of residents in the combat zone are Orthodox Christians, we are urging the Ukrainian side to declare a ceasefire to allow them attend services on Christmas Eve as well as on Christmas Day, the statement said | Russian President Vladimir Putin has instructed to declare a ceasefire along the entire line of combat engagement in the zone of the special military operation from 12:00 on January 6 until 24:00 on January 7, the Kremlin press service reported on Thursday. 💬 "Considering an address by His Holiness Patriarch Kirill, I am instructing the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation to introduce a ceasefire along the entire line of combat engagement in Ukraine from 12:00 on January 6 until 24:00 on January 7 of this year," according to a document cited by the press service.

■ US Dismisses Putin’s Christmas Ceasefire as ‘Cynical Ploy’ (Antiwar.com)

■ DPR comments on Christmas truce | Donetsk People’s Republic troops will not undertake any offensive actions, but will respond to any enemy provocation, the Russian region’s acting head, Denis Pushilin, said on Thursday. He added that the cessation of hostilities on Christmas Eve, announced by President Vladimir Putin, applies to the Orthodox faithful, which he doesn’t consider the leadership in Kiev to be.

Marat Kasem from Sputnik Lithuania has been reportedly accused of espionage and could face up to 20 years behind bars | Latvia has arrested the editor-in-chief of the Lithuanian branch of the Russian news agency, Sputnik. Marat Kasem was taken into custody on a court order, his lawyer announced on Thursday. ● The journalist is accused of breaching EU sanctions and has been charged with espionage, Sputnik reports. ● Kasem is a Latvian citizen, though he has been living in Moscow for several years, working for the Rossiya Segodnya media group, which Sputnik Lithuania is part of. He returned to Latvia for family reasons before New Year's eve.

■ Arrest of Russian outlet’s journalist is blow to press freedom – Moscow (RT.com)

The Saudi-led coalition has killed and injured more than 3,000 civilians in Yemen as the war on the country goes to its eighth year. | The Saudi-led coalition, through the criminality it is imposing via airstrikes against the people of Yemen, has killed and injured more than 3,000 civilians, including women and children, a Yemeni rights group said on Monday.  ● The Humanity Eye Center for Rights and Development issued a report on Monday that showed the number of casualties of the war on Yemen in 2022 alone was as high as 3,083 - 643 murdered citizens and 2,440 others wounded. Some 102 children lost their lives and 353 others sustained injuries, with 27 women killed and 97 others wounded, the report added. "The aggression against Yemen has resulted in the injury of 2,440 civilians, including 353 children and 97 women, since the beginning of 2022," the report said.