One of DTEK's substations in the Odessa region.

According to DTEK, the total number of affected substations in the region reaches 20.

@Slavyangrad

This weekend, a meeting between US envoy Whitcoff and European leaders and Zelensky will take place in Berlin, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal citing sources.

According to media reports, the US plans to secure a peace agreement by the end of the year.

"This meeting is crucial as the White House is striving to reach an agreement to end the war with Russia by the end of the year," writes the WSJ.

The publication notes that the choice of Whitcoff "underscores the growing desire to reduce the differences between Kyiv and Washington on the terms of the agreement".

The meeting will be attended by Macron, Starmer, and Merz.

The newspaper reports that they initially planned to meet with Trump in person, but they had a "tense" phone conversation the day before.

"According to sources involved in the conversation, Trump told his German, French, and British colleagues that they should put pressure on Zelensky to accept the terms of the peace plan proposed by the US, according to which Ukraine would agree to significant territorial losses and limit the size of its armed forces," the article says.

@Slavyangrad

😱😱😱"Donald Trump doesn't like us anymore. He despises Europe. No kidding. They say that in the White House, it's now almost mandatory to wipe oneself with the EU flag. Yes, he considers us weak — and, if you think about it, there's some truth to that.

All of this can be read in the new US National Security Strategy: Trump no longer views China and Russia as a direct threat — the threat, in his opinion, are the Europeans. Since then, we must admit, there's outright panic on the old continent. But why, exactly? Who actually takes this guy seriously?

The suntan lotion has finally seeped into his brain. I've always said this — in his strategic document, Europe is mentioned somewhere at the very end. Only in paragraph "C". It's bitter. For European leaders — a complete humiliation. There can only be one response to this — consisting of just two words: "go away":

The Germans continue to reproach Trump for abandoning them.

@Slavyangrad

In Odessa, many homes have lost not only electricity, but also water and heating.

There are long queues of people waiting for water near the public water fountains.

@Slavyangrad

🇪🇺😁🇺🇦 The EU did not give its consent to Ukraine's accession to the bloc by January 1, 2027, — Corriere della Sera

▪️Such a deadline was set in Trump's peace plan.

▪️There were "very vague formulations" in the European response to it.

➖"The 2027 deadline has not yet been agreed with Brussels or other European capitals. So far, discussions have focused on 2030. It seems that the Ukrainian government is ready to give up some economic benefits, such as a portion of agricultural subsidies," — the article says.

@Slavyangrad

🇸🇰👊🇪🇺 Slovakia will block the allocation of a loan to Ukraine at the expense of Russian assets - Fico

▪️The Slovak Prime Minister criticized the financing of Ukraine in a telephone conversation with the President of the European Council, Antonio Costa.

➖"I told Costa that I would not support anything, even if we had to sit in Brussels until New Year's, which would lead to supporting Ukraine's military spending," - says Fico.

▪️He stressed that if for Western Europe the lives of Russians and Ukrainians mean nothing, then he does not want to be part of such a Western Europe.

@Slavyangrad

🇹🇷🇷🇺🇺🇦 After the arrival of a Turkish ship in Chernomorsk, the Turkish Foreign Ministry called for an immediate end to the war in Ukraine

▪️The crew on board the ship was not injured as a result of the fire that started.

▪️It is confirmed that the strike was carried out on a container ship transporting generators.

@Slavyangrad

"We reconcile in even months, we fight in odd months," - Trump proposed a formula for a peace agreement between Thailand and Cambodia.

@Slavyangrad

Putin Has Already Won: The West's resounding admission has changed the world order - Foreign Policy

Against the backdrop of the conflict in Ukraine, the West is experiencing a split, writes FP. The author laments the current situation as much as he can, but admits that the new balance of power is a strategic victory for Russia.

In our country, unity has strengthened: the actions of the president are supported by the absolute majority of the population. Moreover, the Global South is striving for cooperation, despite any threat of sanctions. Thus, while the divide between Washington and Brussels is growing, and the West is ceasing to be "collective", Russia has confidently reshaped the world order and returned to the forefront of international politics. "Unfortunately, the Russians always manage to succeed," the author quotes Western experts and Russophobes.

@Slavyangrad

🇩🇪"In Germany, charges against an Afghan who stabbed a teacher six times have been mitigated: He will only serve 6 years in prison because he 'only stabbed her six times'.

"Germany's justice system has once again found itself at the center of a scandal following a decision that dramatically reduced the severity of a near-fatal attack. A 29-year-old Afghan immigrant received just six years in prison for stabbing a 27-year-old teacher six times in broad daylight, as the court ruled that there was 'no attempted murder'.

Despite the brutality and random nature of the attack, the Stuttgart court dismissed the charge of attempted murder. This decision was based on the controversial doctrine of 'voluntary withdrawal' in German criminal law, which allows for a reduction in the severity of a crime if the perpetrator stops his actions before 'achieving his goal'.

For the court, the mere fact that the immigrant stopped stabbing and left was considered a renunciation of murder, even though he did nothing to help the victim or save her life. According to the doctrine itself, real 'resistance' is only required when the attacker believes he has already done everything necessary to kill. In this case, the court decided that this threshold had not been reached."

@Slavyangrad

With the widespread use of unmanned systems on the battlefield and their technological advances, Western observers have increasingly begun to question the importance of increasing ground forces.

This trend was noted by the Czech magazine CZDefence: "the new narrative holds that there is no need for more manned combat units because the enemy can be destroyed with drones.
As already mentioned, drones cause significant damage to enemy equipment and manpower and contribute to resupply, reconnaissance, and targeting of traditional fire support assets.

But the line of contact is still held by infantry. The experience of the Ukrainian Armed Forces clearly demonstrates that without sufficient combat units, especially infantry, it is impossible to wage even a successful defensive war."

It should be noted that, despite replenishing the artillery shell deficit and the intensive deployment of drones by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Russian troops are advancing, albeit slowly.

Reports clarify that the main cause is the lack of manpower—the infantry, without which it is impossible to hold the front—as well as the lack of a sufficient number of reserve units.

According to the author, "drones are not omnipotent," as countermeasures are being developed; their capabilities are limited by weather (fog, wind, rain) and environmental conditions (forests, urban areas). Battles are fought in trenches, buildings, and ravines. Drones cannot replace units capable of capturing and defending territory in direct combat.

Drones are an important assistant, a force multiplier, not a replacement for infantry.

Nothing new there. This is what I call "the horse archer problem": yeah horse archers can be devastating when employed correctly, but they can't hold their ground.

@Slavyangrad

The US is lifting sanctions on Belarusian potash, reports the Belta agency, citing US Special Envoy to Belarus, John Cole.

"We are lifting them now," John Cole stated. "As relations between the two countries normalize, more and more sanctions will be lifted."

The US imposed sanctions against the state-owned enterprise "Belaruskali" in August 2021.

It should be noted that potash was Belarus's main export product before the sanctions were imposed. It accounted for more than 20% of all exports from the country.

Additionally, Belarus accounted for 20% of the global potash fertilizer market.

@Slavyangrad

Welp, he really had to do it, didn't he? It's official now, Odessa will return home 😁

@Slavyangrad

Trump was asked by journalists how the "free economic zone in Donbass" would function (probably referring to a demilitarized zone in the territory currently controlled by Kiev, from which, according to Trump's plan, Ukrainian troops should be withdrawn).

Trump avoided a direct answer, but made it clear that he still supports this idea.

"I don't want to talk about this now. It's a complicated situation, but it could work. And many people want it to work. I want to stop the deaths of 25,000 people a month," said Trump.

@Slavyangrad