Another Russian oil refinery was hit by Ukrainian kamikaze UAVs, this time targeting Lukoil’s Nizhny Novgorod facility in Kstovo.

It is one of the largest refineries in the country, with an installed capacity of 17 million tonnes per year.

Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have withdrawn from ECOWAS with effect from 29 January 2025.

ECOWAS Statement

The United States Navy has officially banned its members from using China's DeepSeek for fear of “potential security and ethical concerns associated with the model’s origin and usage”.

Source: CNBC

Ukrainian Foreign Ministry:

Robert Fico is looking for enemies and has found them in Ukraine. We advise him to look not abroad, but in the mirror.

Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa asked Moscow to hand over the ousted president Bashar Assad.

Source: Reuters

Israeli forces shot down a drone in the Israeli airspace coming from Egypt that was smuggling weapons in the border areas.

Source: Al Jazeera

Zelensky:

Putin does not want Trump to help Kiev, because it will make Ukraine even stronger.

International pressure on Putin is necessary. China can play a particularly important role in this.

Source: FOX News

NATO confirmed a Russian plot to assassinate Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger, whose firm supplies arms to Ukraine.

This marks NATO’s first official acknowledgment of the attempt, foiled by U.S. and German intelligence in July 2024.

NEW: China's Alibaba unveiled its upgraded AI model Qwen 2.5-Max, claiming it surpasses DeepSeek-V3, GPT-4o, and Llama-3.1-405B.

288 Romanian mercenaries surrendered to Rwanda after crossing from Goma, now under M23 control.

An estimated 800 Romanians are active in the DRC, hired for security.

Southern Cyprus Defense Minister Vasilis Palmas:

"Cyprus relies more on Israel than Greece. Greeks may be our brothers, but Israel is our neighbor. Israelis are right next to us. They can reach Cyprus in three minutes."

Palmas stated that the U.S. is expanding Cyprus’s military infrastructure, upgrading Andreas Papandreou Air Base and Mari Naval Base for use by the U.S., EU, Israel, Egypt, Jordan, and allies.

He emphasized Israel’s privileged access to the Baf airbase.

Israeli Merkava tank chasing Lebanese civilian vehicles.

Civilians raise Hezbollah flags, get fired in the leg by IDF snipers.

Major corruption scandal in Ukraine.

Reports claim Lenur Mambetov, an advisor to Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, paid $150,000 in bribes to secure Arsen Zhumadilov’s appointment as head of AOZ (Armaments Procurement Agency) and DOT (State Logistics Operator).

Leaked reports suggest the bribes were used to illegally register Zhumadilov’s appointment, with funds allegedly distributed among:

• Viktor Dubovyk (Presidential Administration) – $100,000
• Nataliya Kozaeva (Notarial Chamber of Kyiv) – $25,000
• Andriy Lihun (Private notary) – $25,000

The revelations have triggered public outrage, with calls for urgent action from the National Anti-Corruption Bureau and the General Prosecutor’s Office.