⚡️🇷🇺🇺🇦⚔️ Frontline #Summary for the Morning of 19 December 2023; pub. 08:01⚡️

🔹In the #Zaporozhye direction, Russian troops supported by artillery were conducting offensive operations west of the village of #Rabotino. They also counterattacked from the direction of #Verbovoye. In addition, they tried to advance near #Novofyodorovka.
💥 The AFU positions in Malaya Tokmachka, #Charovnoye, #Gulyaypole and #Malinovka are under attack.
💥 The RF Armed Forces, in #Kopani, #Ilchenkovo, #Novoprokopovka, #Verbovoye, #Novofyodorovka and #Novopokrovka. (Fig. 1)

🔹On the #Donetsk Front, Russian forces, supported by artillery, attacked the Ukrainian fortification in #Novomikhaylovka from the south.⚠️ The AFU held the position. Similar actions near #Nevelskoye, #Pervomayskoye, #Severnoye (a settlement west of Avdeyevka) and on the southwestern approaches to #Avdeyevka⚠️ led to tactical successes. In the latter area, the AFU held their positions for a long time. North of #Avdeyeivka, the RF Armed Forces continued their assault on #Stepovoye (not to be confused with the settlements of the same name in the Zaporozhye and Ugledar directions). ⚠️ No advancement there. (Fig. 2)

🔹In the #Bakhmut Direction, the RF Armed Forces were attacking on the heights northwest of #Kleshcheyevka.⚠️ The AFU are holding their positions. The Russian forces managed to advance⚠️ slightly in the area of #Khromovo and near #Bogdanovka. (Fig. 3)

🔹In the #Lugansk Direction, the RF Armed Forces attacked near #Terny, #Makeyevka and #Sinkovka.⚠️ The frontline did not change significantly. (Fig. 4)

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📖 Nikolai Starikov
Terror. Who needs it and why
(extracts from a book)

Terrorism is a political tool, and this is the only way it should be treated! Moreover, it is the tool of international politics, which gives us insight that almost always terrorists are backed up by a state. The one who opposes terrorists is also a state ...
⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️

In the postwar years, unwilling to allow communists to take power for fear of strengthening the USSR and Stalin, Washington pursued a very tough policy towards European communists. The Italian Communist Party (ICP), as the first in number among the "capitalist countries", with experienced guerrilla soldiers, was the greatest danger to the Americans. Immediately after the end of the war, in 1945, a government was formed in Italy and it was headed by a Christian Democrat Alcide De Gasperi.

Communists also joined the Сabinet, and Palmiro Togliatti was given a post of deputy prime minister. In 1946 parliamentary elections the Italian Communist Party won 19% of the vote and 104 seats in Parliament. But then the West began to press Stalin on all fronts - following Churchill's Fulton Speech, Italian politicians were explicitly told that huge American economic aid would end once and for ever if Communist Party members were in the government. In 1947 Togliatti and his ministers communists were removed from the government, and in 1948 elections, under incredible external pressure on voters, ICP and ISP (Italian Socialist Party) bloc lost.

To understand why comrade Stalin tolerated and allowed all this, it is worth remembering that at the time the U.S. had an atomic bomb already and the USSR did not have one. A situation was extremely dangerous and stressful. Therefore, Moscow could not influence events in Western Europe as much as it would like to. It came to the point that on July 14, 1948 there was an assassination attempt on Palmiro Togliatti, and as a result he was seriously wounded. As you may have guessed, it was committed by "a mentally inadequate young man, who was not backed by any political forces".

It’s important to know this historical background to understand further events.

On March 16, 1978, a motorcade of two cars was blocked on Via Fani in Rome by a Fiat-128 car with a diplomatic license plate. In one of the cars there was a former Prime Minister of Italy, a head of the Christian Democratic Party (CDP) Aldo Moro, his bodyguard and his driver, in the other - three more carabinieri [Aldo Moro held the premiership twice in the periods of1963-1968 and 1974-1976. Although he was not the head of the government at the time of his abduction, he was the head of a leading party and a highly reputable politician in Italy. Similar to 76-year-old Jean-Louis Barto, assassinated in Marseille 44 years earlier].
A woman driving a Fiat suddenly moved backwards, so that Moro driver managed to slow down, but his security car behind crashed right into his car. The "incompetent" driver and her passenger immediately jumped out into the street and opened machine gun fire, killing Moro driver and his bodyguard. At the same time, several men in bright blue Al Italia jumpsuits ran out of a nearby non-working bar - they fired Alfa Romeo with Aldo Moro's guards. Thus, in a matter of seconds, all but the head of the CDP were killed on the spot. Aldo Moro was pulled out of his car, quickly put into the other one, and then sped off in an unknown direction.

As an investigation would later reveal, Aldo Moro was killed 54 days later. The kidnappers left his body in a trunk of a car on a street in Rome.

🎙 Excerpts from President Vladimir Putin's speech at an expanded meeting of the Defence Ministry Board (December 19, 2023)

💬 The year of 2023 was a tense one for the Russian Armed Forces, and I want to say at once that our soldiers and officers, commanders at all levels courageously and professionally carried out tasks during special military operation, ensuring the country's sovereignty at the global level, nuclear missile parity and Russia's strategic security.

• The events of this year have confirmed that the West continues to wage hybrid warfare against Russia, actively providing the Kiev regime with real-time intelligence, sending military advisers, transferring modern weapons systems, including highly mobile multiple rocket launchers, long-range missile systems, cluster munitions and a large number of new UAVs. As we know, the West also planning to hand over F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine: pilots are being trained in the West.

📈 The activity of the NATO military bloc as a whole has also increased dramatically recently. Significant forces from the US, including aircraft, have been moved to our borders. The number of Alliance's troops in Eastern and Central Europe has increased. Finland, as we know, has already been drawn into NATO, and Sweden is planning to join. In fact, this means another stage in the alliance's approach to our borders.

❗️ The West is not abandoning its strategy to deter Russia and its aggressive goals in Ukraine. Well, we are not going to give up our goals of a special military operation either.

• Assessing the current situation on the ground, on the line of contact, we can say with confidence that our troops have the initiative. <...> The enemy is suffering heavy losses and has largely squandered its reserves. Incidentally, the myth of the invulnerability of Western military equipment has also collapsed.

☝️ All attempts, as they said in the West, to inflict on us a military defeat, a strategic defeat, crashed against the courage and fortitude of our soldiers.

⚡️🇷🇺🇺🇦⚔️ Front #Summary for 19 Dec 2023 by 19:35⚡️

🔹In #Kherson Direction, fierce fighting continues in #Krynki. Ukrainian resources are publishing quite plausible, footage of drones hitting our armoured vehicles and TOSs. Obviously, the work of the enemy's UAVs remains dense. Despite this, it is reported that our army retook some more positions in #Krynki.

🔹In #Zaporozhye Direction, both sides are in active defence with localised battles, trying to improve their positions near #Rabotino and #Verbovoye, without large-scale actions. The work of artillery remains dense on both sides. It remains to be seen whether this section of the front will stabilise in its current position or whether our army will continue to take back positions along the #Rabotino - #Novoprokopovka - #Verbovoye line.

🔹In #SouthDonetsk Direction, on the #Vremyevka ledge, our artillery has become more active. Perhaps in preparation to move the front. South of #Novomikhaylovka, in the area of the industrial zone and the cemetery, our units have consolidated their positions. From the ground they report powerful attacks by our forces. And also that the AFU are withdrawing from the first line of defence.

🔹In #Donetsk Direction, our forces are preparing with artillery to storm the huge fortified area, the #Avdeyevka Coke Plant. Though smaller than #Mariupol's Azovstal, it was the largest coke plant in #Europe. Now the AFU are moving their units from the #Zaporozhye direction. Heavy battles are to be expected.

🔹In #Bakhmut Direction, they report that the approaches to the city have been cleared from the AFU. Our military have moved even closer to #Krasnoye (#Ivanovskoye), taking control of positions near the #Chernobylets settlement. Our military is clearing it out. Around #Kleshcheyevka, the assault on AFU fortifications continues. Near the Valyanovsky Nursery, our army forced the AFU out of the forest plantations, with a significant part of the enemy forces surrendering. The route to Chasov Yar is under our fire control.

🔹In #Svatovo Direction, the assault on #Sinkovka continues. Our military have so far failed to turn the situation in its favour, despite their numerical and technical advantage. In the scenario of a breakthrough, the AFU in #Petropavlovka will face a semi-encirclement. And this is already the approach to #Kupyansk. Therefore, the AFU are fighting so fiercely for these positions. Our positions in the forest area near #Sinkovka were subjected to massive shelling by artillery. The defeat of several APCs has been confirmed.

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