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Donald Trump's team has told European officials that the incoming US president will demand NATO member states increase defence spending to 5% of GDP, but plans to continue supplying military aid to Ukraine, the Financial Times reports.

Senior British security officials stated that while Trump still believes Ukraine should never be given membership of NATO, and wants an immediate end to the conflict, the president-elect believed that supplying weapons to Kyiv after a ceasefire would ensure a "peace through strength" outcome.

Source: https://www.ft.com/content/35f490c5-3abb-4ac9-8fa3-65e804dd158f

Friends,

What is your favorite Christmas movie?

My family loves Home Alone, not least because Ukrainian Shchedryk carol is in it (Carol of the Bells).

‼️I think this is very important. Please help share this information.

A Voice of America investigation has found that some African countries are deliberately establishing ties with Russian organization that produces Shahed drones behind the recruitment program.

▪️ Recruitment under false pretenses

The website of the Russian program Alabuga Start portrays a bright future for African women in Tatarstan, Russia. Although the website does not state that it is addressed specifically to women, they are featured in all the commercials.

According to the Russian independent media outlet Protokol, the program specifically targets young women, as its organizers believe that young men from Africa "can be too aggressive and dangerous."

"It’s been a very deceptive program in the sense that the applicants didn’t know they’d be working in essentially a U.S.- [and] European-sanctioned company making drones that are being used to devastating effect against Ukrainian civil targets, energy targets, electrical plants," David Albright, founder of the Institute for Science and International Security and author of a report exposing the program that exploits young women, says.

Albright emphasizes that the plant produces Iranian Shahed-136 drones. In the first half of 2023, about 100 students from Alabuga Polytech traveled to Tehran for two months of drone manufacturing training, according to an investigation by The Washington Post (https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2023/08/17/russia-iran-drone-shahed-alabuga/).

▪️ Cooperation with African governments

Albright claims that Alabuga representatives recently visited Sierra Leone, Zambia, and Madagascar, signing memoranda of understanding with local organizations. These ties, he believes, signal a potential expansion of recruitment efforts.

The Voice of America has found that some African governments are willing partners of Alabuga. For example, the Nigerian Ministry of Education has an announcement on its website about the Alabuga Start program. Similar announcements are posted on the government websites of Uganda, Mali, and Burkina Faso, as well as in Asian Bangladesh.

▪️ And it all started with Russian students

Alabuga's management, according to a number of investigations, even had to lobby for changes to labor laws. This allowed them to hire children under the age of 18 to work with toxic chemicals. Soon, parents began to complain about poor working conditions: children worked 12-hour days at the plant, and their movements were strictly controlled. Then in 2022, they started recruiting foreigners.

📷: A Maxar satellite photo shows the possible planned location of the drone manufacturing plant in Russia's Alabuga Special Economic Zone.
📷: A screenshot of a website that promotes work in Russia's Tatarstan to foreigners.

Source: https://www.voanews.com/a/7906719.html#amp_tf=%D0%98%D1%81%D1%82%D0%BE%D1%87%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%BA%3A%20%251%24s&aoh=17346937590647&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&share=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.voanews.com%2Fa%2F7906719.html

Instead of a thousand words.

Kyiv this morning.

📷: libkos

Kyiv this morning.

"Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of
hope." – Martin Luther King Jr.

Before and after a Russian missile attack.

Meanwhile, the strike alert is all over Ukraine right now as there is threat of more ballistic missile attacks from Russia.

📷: Yevgeny Zborovsky

The aftermath of the Russian missile attack on Kyiv this morning.

Missile debris fell in three districts of the city. One person killed, several more injured - Kyiv military administration.

Russia reportedly used two types of ballistic missiles for the attack.