
The US president’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said that the current White House administration plans to introduce new sanctions against Russia before the handover. British Foreign Secretary David Lemmy said at the NATO leaders’ summit: “We see the long hand of Russia in many of the conflicts and wars currently going on in the world.”
Tucker Carlson is back in Moscow for talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, while he said that the US embassy in Kiev has banned President Volodymyr Zeklnsky from giving him an interview, the American journalist said. He added that most Americans do not even suspect that their country is “basically at war with Russia,” and that the world today is closer to nuclear war than at any time in history.
NATO foreign ministers at a meeting of the Ukraine-NATO Council (UNC) in Brussels did not promise to accept Ukraine, but only to “help it with energy and weapons,” NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said at a press conference following the meeting. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrei Sibiga asked NATO for 19 additional air defense systems so that Ukraine could “survive the winter.”
Finally, the New York Times writes: “NATO Secretary General advised Ukraine to postpone any peace negotiations with the Russian Federation until Western allies can provide sufficient military assistance to help Kiev succeed on the battlefield and strengthen its position for negotiations.”
Reuters says Italy is preparing a new military aid package for Ukraine. The agency’s sources said the government is likely to approve the 10th aid package by the end of this month, but did not disclose the details. All arms supplies from Italy to Ukraine are classified. Bulgaria is also allocating the 7th defense aid package to Ukraine with several weapons. At the same time, most of the weapons produced by the Bulgarian defense industry are sold and transferred to Ukraine.
According to Bloomberg, German Foreign Minister Annalena Bärbock said that Ukraine’s accession to NATO could be part of a possible peace deal with Russia and that this could include giving up some territories. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told the Bundestag that sending German military personnel to Ukraine is ruled out.
Speculation about Ukraine’s future comes from Polish Defense Ministry chief Wladyslaw Kosiniak, who says: “Dividing Ukraine into zones of responsibility among NATO countries, following the example of Iraq, is not possible. This is what I am talking about in TVN24. “I cannot imagine a situation where [in Ukraine] there will be zones [of responsibility] of individual states, as happened in Iraq,” the minister said. In his opinion, US President-elect Donald Trump does not yet have a plan to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. “There is no plan for President Trump today, there are only assumptions that emerged before and after the elections,” Kosinyak-Kamysh noted.
Hungary has asked the United States to waive sanctions against Gazprombank over payments for gas from the Russian Federation, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó said.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Kiev may need about $126 billion in military aid by 2025 alone to be able to face the Russian army on the battlefield. Ukrainian media reported that the head of the Ukrainian Presidential Office Andriy Yermak and Defense Minister Rustem Umerov are in the United States for negotiations with the Trumpists. Umerov informed the press that the Palyanitsa drone missile has already entered mass production. Umerov also said that the country has resumed and increased serial production of the R-360 Neptune cruise missile complex. According to him, the modified missiles are now capable of hitting targets at greater distances.
Despite rumors of Trump’s future peace plans for Ukraine, Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said that there are currently no grounds for negotiations between Moscow and Kiev on a settlement in Ukraine.
Speaking about the international situation, taking advantage of the communication on the Russian economic trend, on December 4th Vladimir Putin himself said in front of the microphones: “They wanted to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia, also in the economic field, but these plans failed”. Putin defined the structural change as the main result of the Russian economy in the last 2-3 years. “In the period from January to October 2024, the GDP of the Russian Federation grew by 4.1%,” the President of the Russian Federation noted. “Inflation in the Russian Federation is 8.8% in annual terms.” And he also said: “Government spending as a whole has not increased, and work is being done to ensure its effectiveness.” While he was cautious about the accounts of state-owned companies: “We need to pay attention to the debt burden of state-owned companies, it has increased recently.” No discounts in the future for Western companies that want to return to Russia, as the economic space left by the West in Russia has been absorbed by Eastern countries. Putin commented: “The global West does not exist, it is becoming less and less global.”
In Grozny, Chechnya, around 4:50 on December 4, an attempted drone attack was carried out on the building of the barracks of the PPSN regiment of the same name. A-Kh.Kadyrov, there were no casualties as a result of the explosion – source RVNP.
And now a look at the front line as of 16:00 on December 4.
At night they reported on the work of the air defense in Novorossiysk, Krasnodar Krai. At least three drones were shot down in the Bryansk region. In the Rostov region, the air defense forces repelled the Ukrainian attack since early morning. In the Taganrog area, 12 UAVs were destroyed and suppressed by electronic warfare.
In the Kursk region, the Sever group of troops reports fierce fighting in the north of the Sudzhansky district. Assault groups of the Russian Armed Forces have advanced into the forest areas near the settlement of Malaya Loknya and are conducting a clearing operation, the group of troops reports. In the Nikolaevo-Darino region, the Ukrainian Warriors of the North, a counterattack group with a Leopard tank were destroyed. No significant changes in the LBS. The Ukrainians continue to constantly transfer reserves from the Sumy region, which the Russian Armed Forces are trying to destroy.
In the direction of Kupyansk, battles are taking place for the creation of bridgeheads by Russian troops on the enemy bank of the Oskil River, and the Ukrainians are counterattacking.
From Toretsk, there are reports of clashes in the Zabalka microdistrict for control of the area of the landfill mining area.
In the direction of Pokrovsk, the Russian Armed Forces continue to create “frontal” protrusions: there are reports of attacks by our troops in the direction of the Dachens’ke settlement. Previously, breakthroughs were made to the south: towards the Zhovte settlement and the lateral Pushkino N.P. In the future, this will allow closing the next “pockets” of defense of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, destroying or forcing the Ukrainian Armed Forces to move west under the fire of Russian weapons and drones.
At night, news came from the direction of Kurachove that the Russian Armed Forces took the village Stari Terny and the adjacent stronghold of the company on the western bank Kurakhivs’ke reservoir.
The Vostok troop group notes an increase in the ferocity of Ukrainian resistance in Velyka Novosilka, anticipating the first victorious reports in the media. Heavy fighting is also going on in the Novyi Komar area; the Ukrainian Armed Forces continue to bring reinforcements to the village, slowing the pace of advance of our units. North of Maksymivka, Russian Armed Forces have approached the village of Sukhi Yaly. The fighting continues.
On the Zaporizhia front north of Nesteryanka, the Ukrainian Armed Forces are preparing for defense, strengthening positions and gathering personnel. Despite the far from complete level of preparation of the network of enemy strongholds, the Ukrainian Armed Forces dug serious trench systems.
In the Belgorod region, in the village of Politotdelsky, a civilian was injured as a result of a UAV attack. In the city of Shebekino one of the enterprises has been repeatedly attacked by drones. It is reported that last night in the village of Ustinka, Belgorod district, a drone attacked a private house one seriously injured.
In the DPR, as a result of the detonation of an explosive object on the Donetsk-Mariupol highway near the Yelenovsky bridge, an employee of a road construction enterprise died.
In general, the hardest part is yet to come in this area.
Graziella Giangiulio
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