🇺🇸The war in Ukraine increases the "risk of the United States being drawn into a conflict with a nuclear power."

This was stated by Trump's nominee for CIA director, John Ratcliffe, during a Senate hearing.

"The Russia-Ukraine war continues, spreading devastation and increasing the risk for the United States to be drawn into a conflict with a nuclear-armed country," Ratcliffe was quoted as saying by Voice of America.

Ratcliffe said the United States today faces “perhaps the most challenging national security environment in the country’s history.” Among the threats, he cited “the Chinese Communist Party’s drive to dominate the world economically, militarily, and technologically.” He also criticized “transnational criminal organizations.”

Ratcliffe also said that "Iran is closer to a nuclear breakout than ever before."

“Increased coordination among America’s rivals and adversaries threatens to amplify the threats they each pose to us individually, and numerous terrorist groups and other non-state actors, some of whom have even crossed our southern border, continue to pose a persistent threat to our people,” the CIA nominee said.

🇬🇧🇺🇦❗️British Prime Minister Starmer visited the capital of Ukraine on an unannounced visit.

The British government said it planned to sign a "100-year partnership" agreement covering areas such as defence, science, energy and trade.

🇾🇪🇮🇱Yemen's Houthis have announced a cessation of hostilities against Israel following a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

🇮🇱🇵🇸⚡️Hamas is refusing to agree to a deal, creating a crisis at the last minute that is preventing an agreement from being reached, Netanyahu's office said.

🇷🇺🇺🇦It is reported that the Russian Armed Forces have cut the railway in the direction from Dnepropetrovsk to Pokrovsk in the area of ​​Kotlino and Udachny.

🇷🇺🇺🇦3 FAB 500 on the bridge in the Constantinople area. The bridge received more than significant damage.

🇨🇳🇩🇪China is interested in buying crisis-stricken German car factories , especially Volkswagen, Reuters reports, citing a source.

Producing cars in Germany for sale in Europe would allow Chinese EV makers to avoid paying EU tariffs on EVs imported from China and could pose a further threat to the competitiveness of European manufacturers.

Buying German carmakers could be "China's most politically sensitive investment to date" because VW has long been "a symbol of Germany's industrial might, now threatened by a global economic slowdown that has hit demand and a creaking transition to green technologies."

Chinese companies have previously invested in a range of sectors in Germany, Europe's largest economy, from telecommunications to robotics, but have yet to establish traditional car manufacturing there, despite Mercedes-Benz having two major Chinese shareholders.

🇺🇸Trump's inauguration portrait was shown. The Internet noticed a significant difference with the 2016 portrait.

Trump has noticeably aged, no longer smiling, but frowning with a raised eyebrow.

🇷🇺🇺🇦The first appearance of the new kamikaze drone "Kub-2" with optical guidance and a target acquisition system on the Ukrainian 155-mm self-propelled gun "Bogdana" in the Pokrovsk direction.

🇷🇺🇺🇦FPV operation on fiber optics on the EW complex "Bukovel-AD" of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in one of the directions. The enemy vehicle was destroyed.

🇺🇦Zelensky:

The United States, Hungary, Slovakia and Germany are against our membership in NATO.

🇺🇦🇺🇸🇷🇺Negotiations on Ukraine will take place without Kiev's participation, admitted former Ukrainian Foreign Minister Klimkin.

He noted that, in all likelihood, they will simply bring a ready-made document to Kiev and say that the world will look like this.

🇺🇸🇷🇺Trump's team is developing a broad sanctions strategy to force a deal between Russia and Ukraine in the coming months while putting pressure on Iran and Venezuela, Bloomberg reports, citing sources.

Two main approaches are considered:

- a set of policy recommendations - if the incoming administration believes that a resolution to the war in Ukraine is in sight - "includes some good-faith measures to benefit sanctioned Russian oil producers that could help broker a peace deal." That is, easing sanctions against Russia,

- new sanctions and increased pressure if it becomes clear that Russia refuses to end the war.

While these plans from Trump's team are in their early stages, they ultimately depend on the president-elect himself.

"Trump's advisers will ultimately wrestle with the same question as the Biden administration: how to avoid major supply and price disruptions in the oil market at a time when Washington has imposed sweeping sanctions on the world's three largest producers. Another challenge: calibrating the right balance between using the tools of economic warfare and the desire to preserve the dollar's status as the world's reserve currency," Bloomberg comments.

🇷🇺🇺🇦The destruction of a Leopard 1A5 tank with a Kontakt-1 ERA and Ukrainian soldiers hiding in a firing point by strikes from fiber-optic FPV drones.

You can appreciate the enemy's line of fortifications, which look beautiful, but are completely unprotected from drone strikes and airdrops.

🇹🇷🇸🇾The interim government of Syria, which was considered “pro-Turkish” by many observers, introduced a 300-500% increase in customs duties on goods from Turkey, which practically stopped exports.

The Turkish business newspaper Ekonomim writes about this.

This has caused serious problems for companies operating in this sector and has led to long queues at the border.

The president of the Southeastern Anatolia Exporters Association told the publication that monthly exports to Syria previously amounted to about $30 million, but have now stopped completely.

The issue was to be discussed yesterday at a meeting between Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and representatives of the Syrian interim government.

🇷🇺🇺🇦Close the door: a fiber-optic drone flew into the open door of an M113 armored personnel carrier while moving, Kursk region.

The second drone finished off one of the surviving Ukrainian soldiers, who was left in the troop compartment after being hit by the first.

🇷🇺🇺🇦The Russian forces captured Peschanoye, southwest of Pokrovsk, Slavyanka, northwest of Kurakhovo, and Yasenovo (northwest of Slavyanka), Deep State reports.

There are also reports of the Russian army advancing in a number of directions, including in Chasov Yar.