The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) says its 330-kilovolt (kV) in Lokoja – Gwagwalada transmission line 1 has been attacked and destroyed by vandals. 

The development comes amid efforts by the federal government to overhaul the national grid due to its incessant collapse.

Ndidi Mbah, TCN’s general manager of public affairs, in a statement on Sunday, said the incident occurred in the early hours of Saturday, with the vandals damaging transmission towers T306, T307, and T308.

“Early on Saturday, TCN engineers attempted to re-energize the 330kV Lokoja-Gwagwalada transmission line 1, but the line tripped,” Mbah said.

“After efforts to reclose the line failed, a patrol team of TCN linesmen was dispatched to physically trace the line for faults. 

“Upon inspection, they discovered that transmission towers T306, T307, and T308 along line 1 had been vandalized, disrupting bulk power transmission along the route.

“Further examination revealed that the vandals had stolen two spans of aluminium conductor from line one. 

“The Lokoja-Gwagwalada line is a double-circuit transmission line, and while TCN is still supplying bulk power through line two, efforts are underway to source replacement aluminium conductors for the two spans stolen from line one.”

Mbah also raised concern over the increasing trend of vandalism targeting transmission lines and towers, which is severely impacting the country’s power infrastructure.

“The rising trend of vandalism targeting transmission lines and towers has become a significant challenge, severely impacting the country’s power infrastructure and hindering the expansion and stability of the national grid,” Mbah said.

“This recent incident adds to an alarming pattern of attacks on the transmission network nationwide. 

“In the Gwagwalada area alone, recent acts of vandalism include the attack on the Gwagwalada-Kukuwaba-Apo transmission line on 10th December 2023, the Gwagwalada-Katampe line on February 26, 2024, and several others on that axis.”

Mbah also said such acts of vandalism continue to disrupt the stability and growth of Nigeria’s national grid.

On October 18, TCN  said two towers along its 330-kilovolt (kV) Shiroro-Kaduna transmission lines 1 and 2 have been vandalised.

The Cable

PRESS RELEASE

My attention has just been drawn to a very saddening and worrisome development in Lagos State where some masked people were going about private schools inflicting five rounds of injections on underage children without parental consent.

The US and its agents are notorious for spreading their LGBTQ+ and WOKE Agenda all over of Africa for the main purpose of killing off millions of Africans both male and female, young and old.

A case in point is the visit of these masked individuals who were brought to the premises of Zrak Institute of Arabic Studies at Isheri Lagos and administered 5 doses of unspecified injections on the pupils with ages as young as 7 years.

The children were cajoled to swallow pills in addition to the injection without informed consent. And without authorisation or consent by their parents.

President Bola Tinubu is hereby called upon to step into this invasion of our educational institutions while directing the Governor of Lagos State to commence investigation and bring to justice whoever brought these suspicious vaccination vendors to inflict their wares on our children.

Our children should not be used as guinea pigs.

This medical kidnapping and medical tyranny must stop.

Signed: Tola Adeniyi.

Israel Defence Minister Katz says Israel has defeated Hezbollah

Israel Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Sunday that his country has defeated Hezbollah and that eliminating its leader Hassan Nasrallah was the crowning achievement.

"Now it is our job to continue to put pressure in order to bring about the fruits of that victory," Katz said during a ceremony at Israel's foreign ministry.

Katz said Israel is not interested in meddling in internal Lebanese politics as Israel has "learned our lessons", but that he hoped an international coalition would capitalize on this opportunity politically and that Lebanon would join other countries in normalizing relations with Israel.

Reuters

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Trump, Putin speak as Biden plans to lobby Trump to stick with Ukraine

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin and advised him not to escalate the Ukraine war, a source familiar with the conversation told Reuters on Sunday, as President Joe Biden plans to urge Trump not to abandon Kyiv.

Trump and Putin spoke in recent days, said the source. Trump spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Wednesday. Trump has criticised the scale of U.S. military and financial support for Kyiv, vowing to end the war quickly, without saying how.

Ukraine's foreign ministry said it was not informed in advance of the call between Trump and Putin and subsequently could neither endorse or object to it.

"We do not comment on private calls between President Trump and other world leaders," said Steven Cheung, Trump's communications director, when asked about the phone call, which was first reported by The Washington Post.

The Russian embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Republican Trump will take office on Jan. 20 after defeating Vice President Kamala Harris in the Nov. 5 presidential election. Biden has invited Trump to come to the Oval Office on Wednesday, the White House said.

U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on Sunday that Biden's top message will be his commitment to ensure a peaceful transfer of power, and he will also talk to Trump about what's happening in Europe, in Asia and the Middle East.

"President Biden will have the opportunity over the next 70 days to make the case to the Congress and to the incoming administration that the United States should not walk away from Ukraine, that walking away from Ukraine means more instability in Europe," Sullivan told CBS News' "Face the Nation" show.

Sullivan's comments came as Ukraine attacked Moscow on Sunday with at least 34 drones, the biggest drone strike on the Russian capital since the beginning of the war.

When asked if Biden would ask Congress to pass legislation to authorize more funding for Ukraine, Sullivan deferred.

"I'm not here to put forward a specific legislative proposal. President Biden will make the case that we do need ongoing resources for Ukraine beyond the end of his term," Sullivan said.

UKRAINE FUNDING

Washington has provided tens of billions of dollars worth of U.S. military and economic aid to Ukraine since it was invaded by Russia in February of 2022, funding that Trump has repeatedly criticized and rallied against with other Republican lawmakers.

Trump insisted last year that Putin never would have invaded Ukraine if he had been in the White House at the time. He told Reuters Ukraine may have to cede territory to reach a peace agreement, something the Ukrainians reject and Biden has never suggested.

Zelenskiy said on Thursday he was not aware of any details of Trump's plan to end the Ukraine war quickly and that he was convinced a rapid end would entail major concessions for Kyiv.

According to the Government Accountability Office, Congress appropriated over $174 billion to Ukraine under Biden. The pace of the aid is almost sure to drop under Trump with Republicans set to take control of the U.S. Senate with a 52-seat majority.

Control of the U.S. House of Representatives in the next Congress is not yet clear with some votes still being counted. Republicans have won 213 seats, according to Edison Research, just shy of the 218 needed for a majority. If Republicans win both chambers, it will mean the majority of Trump's agenda will have a significantly easier time passing through Congress.

Republican U.S. Senator Bill Hagerty, a Trump ally who is considered a top contender for secretary of state, criticized U.S. funding for Ukraine in a CBS interview.

"The American people want sovereignty protected here in America before we spend our funds and resources protecting the sovereignty of another nation," Hagerty said.

The 2-1/2-year-old war in Ukraine is entering what some officials say could be its final act after Moscow's forces advanced at the fastest pace since the early days of the war.

Any fresh attempt to end the war is likely to involve peace talks of some kind, which have not been held since the early months of the war.

Moscow's forces occupy around a fifth of Ukraine. Russia says the war cannot end until its claimed annexations are recognized. Kyiv demands all of its territory back, a position that has largely been supported by Western allies.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Moscow targeted by dozens of Ukrainian drones – mayor

The Russian capital is repelling a major Ukrainian drone attack, Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin has said.

At least 32 incoming UAVs were shot down early on Sunday by air defenses near the towns of Domodedovo, Ramenskoye and Kolomna to the south east of Moscow, Sobyanin wrote on Telegram.

Moscow Region Governor Andrey Vorobyev also said a “massive drone attack” was underway and that air defenses continue to operate across the region.

In Ramenskoye disctrict, a UAV went down in the village of Stanovoye, setting two homes on fire. A 52-year-old woman was injured by shrapnel and hospitalized with burns to her face, neck and arms, the governor said on Telegram.

Several videos have been posted on social media, appearing to show fixed-wing drones being shot down over the Moscow Region. There is also footage of a blaze in Stanovoye, which shows several private homes being almost completely destroyed by the flames.

Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo and Zhukovsky international airports have announced suspension of their operations due to the drone raid.

The governor of Orel Region, Andery Klychkov, has said eight UAVs were destroyed over the region on Sunday morning. There have so far been no reports of casualties or damage, he added.

Kiev has intensified its drone incursions into Russia since January, mainly targeting energy infrastructure, but also hitting residential areas. Moscow has responded by adding Ukrainian power plants to its list of legitimate military targets. Most of Ukraine’s non-nuclear generation capacity has been disabled or destroyed by Russian strikes since then.

Later in the day, the Defense Ministry in Moscow announced that Russian forces had thwarted “an attempt by the Kiev regime to carry out a terrorist attack using a fixed-wing UAV against targets on the territory of the Russian Federation.”

In a period of three hours, air defenses intercepted or destroyed 70 Ukrainian UAVs, including 34 over Moscow Region, 14 over Bryansk Region, seven over Orel Region, seven over Kaluga Regions, six over Kursk Region, and two over Tula Region, the ministry said.

A major Ukrainian UAV attack on Russian territory also took place on October 20 and saw as many as 110 drones shot down or intercepted above several Russian regions, according the Defense Ministry. There were a number of major raids in August and September.

Reuters/RT

The unraveling of the regime of General Yakubu Gowon shortly after the end of Nigeria’s civil war in the decade of the 1970s began as a tale of two Josephs. One was Joseph Dechi Gomwalk, Gowon’s in-law and governor of his home state. The other was Joseph Sarwuan Tarka, one of Gowon’s trusted Ministers. It made for a riveting political spectacle whose legacies have proved durable. 

In 1974, General Gowon, who had led Nigeria through a 30-month-long civil war, was into his eighth year as military head of state. It was four years after the end of the civil war and the country comprised 12 states. Although he grew up in Zaria, Gowon was Angas, a minority ethnic group in what was then known as Benue-Plateau State, whose military governor was Police Commissioner Joseph Gomwalk. He was also related to Gowon by marriage. 

Seven months into the year, in July 1974, Godwin Daboh-Adzuana, an activist – or so it was thought then – published an affidavit containing serious allegations of grand corruption against his kinsman and Gowon’s Commissioner (Minister) of Transport and Communication, Joseph Tarka. Under pressure from Gowon and the public, a reluctant Tarka was forced to resign from his ministerial perch but not before warning that his resignation would “set off a chain of reactions”. At the time, the suspicion was widespread that Daboh was an agent of the government of Benue-Plateau State.

The following month, at the end of August 1974, Tarka’s protégé, Aper Aku, published his own affidavit containing even more damning allegations, this time against the state governor, Joseph Gomwalk. Atanda Fatayi Williams, at the time a senior Justice of the Supreme Court who would later himself rise to head the country’s judiciary, reports that a troubled Gowon telephoned the Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, “complaining about the manner in which the courts in the country were being used for the indiscriminate swearing of affidavits in which allegations of corruption were made against public functionaries.”

At the time, Taslim Olawale Elias, who had served Gowon as Attorney-General of the Federation for the first six years of his regime, was the CJN. In response to Gowon’s importuning, Chief Justice Elias embarked on a series of urgent consultations, first with the justices of the Supreme Court, followed by an emergency convening of the Advisory Judicial Committee, AJC, the forerunner of what is today known as the National Judicial Council, NJC. At the end of those consultations, the Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court issued a press release prohibiting courts generally from allowing any aggrieved persons to depose to affidavits.

Unlike Tarka, Gomwalk survived the allegations against him with the help of a judicial landing invented out of nothing by a CJN beholden to the head of state. The AJC lacked the powers to prohibit affidavits but the high command of the judiciary felt obliged to genuflect to the head of state. The public uproar was deafening and helped to tar the regime of Gowon with an eternal brush of corruption. One year later, his colleagues in the military replaced him with his Barewa College junior, Murtala Mohammed. As head of state, Murtala Mohammed disembarked Taslim Elias from the office of CJN. 

This past week called to mind the legacies of those tumultuous embers of the Gowon years and their damaging imprint on the institutional psychology of Nigeria’s judiciary. Last August, the government orchestrated the mass arrest of young people from different parts of Northern Nigeria for taking part in the #EndBadGovernance protests. They thereafter transported those young persons to Abuja where they were held for 93 days in pre-trial detention. At their arraignment at the beginning of the month on bogus charges of treason, Obiora Egwuatu, a judge of the Federal High Court in Abuja, granted them bail in the sum of N10 million with two sureties both of whom must be senior, director-level federal civil servants. 

“Egwuatu” in Igbo language could mean “fearless” or “fearful” depending on the tonal infection. In this case, it is not difficult to divine which of these two meanings best captures the state of mind of the judge when he set out to impose bail terms that he surely knew were beyond the reach of the suspects. 

After setting these impossible conditions, the judge adjourned the case to January 25, 2025. The intention was transparent. In response to the spectacle of several of the suspects collapsing in court, the Inspector-General of Police authorised a statement to go out in his name justifying the proceedings and claiming that the collapse of the children in court had been “staged”. Despite the record on the face of the charge sheet indicating clearly that many of the arraigned suspects were children, the prosecutor, Rimazonte Ezekiel, a Superintendent of Police, claimed that they were all adults and that many of them were indeed married with children. 

The public uproar threatened such steep political costs that a regime whose authoritarian instincts had caused the mass arrest and incarceration of the children in the first place, nearly lost its nerves. Things moved very quickly. Overnight, the Attorney-General of the Federation asked for and received the transfer of the case file from the Nigeria Police. On the next working day following the week-end, the President reportedly “ordered the release” of the suspects despite the fact that they were held under a remand order issued by a court. It was unlikely that the president was exercising powers of prerogative of mercy under the Constitution because that is contingent on consultation with the National Council of State which had not convened.

What happened next was even more exciting. The judge with the ambivalent surname who could not previously find a date earlier than the time it takes to trek from Siberia to Ulaanbaatar in the Winter, suddenly discovered an excess supply of free time on his diary. With military alacrity, he held a hearing and ordered the release of all the suspects. 

It was impossible not to see that this case did not involve any application of law. Rather, it was a straightforward case of a judge obeying the instructions of the president. As far as the judicial role in Nigeria goes, a more squalid advertisement of all that is presently wrong with it is difficult to find.

In the aftermath of this, it was reported that the president had ordered an investigation into what transpired. It is possible that the NJC will investigate the judge for bringing his office into manifest disrepute but no one should hold their breath. He was following the example of his supine superiors. The Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, is not in a position to investigate its members who were happy to mouth verifiable falsehood in bib and collar. The Body of Benchers, which long ago expropriated this role from the NBA, counts the regime’s poster-boy for hubristic impunity, Nyesom Wike, among its leading members. It won’t. The only person who can investigate the Inspector-General of Police, meanwhile, is the president who himself is the author of this whole thing. 

The president’s inquiry does not need to labour too much before reporting. A regime committed to capturing all levers of power and arresting the machinery of constitutional guardrails has succeeded beyond its wildest imagining, enabled – it must be acknowledged – by a complicit judiciary no longer troubled by any inkling of its own constitutional standing or obligations. It is the latest illustration of how the story that began as a tale of two Josephs ended up normalising a reign of jumpy judges.

Computer users Googling whether Bengal cats are legal to own after finding themselves victims of a bizarre cyber attack.

Cybersecurity company SOPHOS issued an urgent warning on its website, urging people not to type six words into their search engines.

Those who Google “Are Bengal Cats legal in Australia?” have reportedly had their personal information stolen after clicking on fraudulent links that appear near the top of the page.

“Victims are often enticed into clicking on malicious adware or links disguised as legitimate marketing, or in this case a legitimate Google search,” SOPHOS explained.

At present, the dangerous links only appear in the search results when the word “Australia” is included, meaning those Down Under are at the largest risk of an attack.

Once users click on a search result — which looks legitimate — they have personal information, such as bank details, stolen via a program known as Gootloader.

The program can also lock users out of their own computers, per SOPHOS.

While the search term for Bengal cats appears relatively niche, the company claims that makes the hacking threat even more alarming because you don’t have to be searching for anything nefarious in order to have your personal details stolen.

SOPHOS says cyber criminals are increasingly infiltrating innocuous Google searches by using a tactic known as “SEO poisoning.”

The practice is described by the Daily Mail as an “insidious technique in which criminals manipulate search engine results to push websites they control to the top of the page”

SOPHOS urges those who believe they may have been a victim of SEO poisioning to alter their passwords as soon as possible.

New York Post

Despite widespread economic hardship and soaring inflation across the country, the Federal Government has allocated N5 billion towards the renovation of the vice president’s official residence in Lagos State.

In the N2.17tn supplementary budget passed in November 2023, the Federal Government had budgeted N3bn for the renovation of the vice president’s official residence in Lagos State and another N2.5bn for the renovation of his official residence located within the Aso Rock Villa in Abuja.

However, checks by our correspondent using GovSpend, a civic tech platform that tracks and analyses the Federal Government’s spending, showed that a total of N5,034,077,063 was spent in May and September this year for the renovation of the VP’s Lagos residence.

A monthly breakdown of the amount showed that on May 31, 2024, the State House paid N2,827,119,051 to an engineering firm, Denderi Investment Limited, for the renovation of the official quarters of the vice president in Lagos.

Similarly, on September 5, 2024, the Office of the Chief of Staff to the President paid the same firm N726,748,686 for additional renovation work on the VP’s Lagos home.

On the same day, the Chief of Staff’s office paid N1,480,209,326 to the same firm for Phase 2 renovations of the VP’s Lagos residence.

Recall that in November 2023, the Federal Capital Territory Administration said it would spend N15bn to build a “befitting” official residence for the Vice President in Abuja.

The FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, disclosed this while appearing before the House of Representatives committee to defend the FCT’s N61.5bn 2023 supplementary budget.

But an advocacy group, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, objected to the expenditure, describing it as a fundamental breach of the Nigerian Constitution and the country’s international anti-corruption and human rights obligations.

“It will be a grave violation of the public trust and constitutional oath of office for the Senate to approve the plan to spend N15bn on ‘a befitting residence’ for the Vice President at a time when the Federal Government is set to spend 30 per cent (that is, N8.25tn) of the country’s 2024 budget of N27.5tn on debt service costs,” SERAP Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, stated.

The Executive Director of the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, Auwal Rafsanjani, said the current administration had not been truthful about its stance to reduce the cost of governance, noting that if it had been sincere, it would have reduced allocations in its various implemented budgets over the last 16 months.

Also, the Chairman of the Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership, Debo Adeniran, said until a new constitution is formulated to regulate government spending, the country won’t get rid of profligacy in its governance.

Punch

A new and increasingly deadly terrorist group, Lakurawas, has been causing havoc in northern Nigeria, particularly in Sokoto and Kebbi states. The group, which emerged from the aftermath of the recent coup in Niger Republic, has been luring local youths with financial incentives to expand its influence and bolster recruitment. According to a report by Zagazola Makama, a counter-insurgency publication, the Lakurawas have been offering as much as N1 million to young men in exchange for their allegiance to the group’s cause. These incentives are part of an aggressive recruitment campaign aimed at vulnerable communities, combining financial rewards with ideological influence rooted in extremist views similar to those of Boko Haram.

In addition to their recruitment tactics, the Lakurawas group has recently escalated its violent activities. On Friday, a brutal attack on Mera village in Augie Local Government Area (LGA) of Kebbi state left at least 15 people dead. The attack occurred around 2 p.m., and significant cattle rustling was also reported during the assault. Local authorities have launched an investigation, with the state police commissioner, Bello Sanni, mobilizing officers to apprehend the perpetrators.

The deadly assault in Kebbi follows reports of Lakurawas’ growing presence in several northern Nigerian states, including Sokoto, where they are believed to operate in at least five LGAs: Gudu, Tangaza, Binji, Illela, and another. The group is said to be heavily armed with sophisticated weapons and has reportedly expelled local bandits from areas under its control, seizing their cattle in the process.

The Defence Headquarters (DHQ) recently declared nine suspected members of the Lakurawas group wanted. Edward Buba, director of defence media operations, confirmed that the group’s activities are spilling over from the destabilized Niger Republic and Mali, regions where the group’s ideology and operations are believed to have originated. The recent coup in Niger has disrupted military cooperation between Nigeria and its neighbor, which has facilitated the infiltration of terrorist groups like Lakurawas into Nigeria’s northern border states.

The situation remains tense in both Sokoto and Kebbi, with security forces intensifying their efforts to combat the growing threat posed by the Lakurawas group. However, the group’s increasing violence and ability to recruit from local populations indicate that the battle to contain its influence will be a long and difficult one.

At least 40 killed as Israel pounds Lebanon, Lebanese officials say

Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon over the last day have killed at least 40 people including several children, Lebanese authorities said on Saturday, after heavy Israeli bombardment pounded the southern suburbs of the capital Beirut overnight.

At least seven people were killed in the coastal city of Tyre late on Friday, Lebanon's health ministry said. The Israeli military has previously ordered swathes of the city to evacuate but there were no orders published by the Israeli military spokesperson on social media platform X before Friday's strikes.

The ministry said two children were among the dead. Rescue operations were ongoing and other body parts retrieved in the aftermath of the attack would undergo DNA testing to identify them, the ministry added.

Strikes in nearby towns on Saturday killed 13 people, including seven medics from rescue groups affiliated to Hezbollah and its ally Amal, the health ministry said.

At least 20 more people were killed in Israeli strikes on Saturday across the eastern plains around the historic city of Baalbek, the health ministry said.

The Israeli military said it had struck Hezbollah infrastructure sites in the areas of Tyre and Baalbek, including fighters, "operational apartments," and weapons stores.

The Lebanese health ministry said Israeli attacks have killed at least 3,136 people and wounded 13,979 in Lebanon over the last year. The toll includes 619 women and 194 children.

Israel has been locked in fighting with Lebanese armed group Hezbollah since October 2023, but fighting has escalated dramatically since late September of this year. Israel has intensified and expanded its bombing campaign, and Hezbollah has ramped up daily rocket and drone attacks against Israel.

The Iran-backed group announced more than 20 operations on Saturday, as well as one that it said fighters carried out the previous day against a military factory south of Tel Aviv.

More than a dozen Israeli strikes also hit the southern suburbs of Beirut overnight, once a bustling collection of neighbourhoods and a key stronghold of Hezbollah.

Now, many buildings have been almost entirely flattened, with Hezbollah's yellow flags jutting out from the ruins, according to Reuters reporters who were taken on a tour of the area by Hezbollah.

Some buildings were partially damaged by the strikes, leading some floors to collapse and sending furniture and other personal belongings spilling onto parked cars below.

Men and women were picking through the rubble for their belongings, shoving blankets and mats under their arms or into black plastic bags.

"We are trying to gather as many (of our possessions) as we can, so we can manage to live off them, nothing more," said Hassan Hannawi, one of the men looking for his belongings.

Reuters

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Pentagon rejects Zelensky missile request – WSJ

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has informed Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky that violating long-standing US arms deals with other customers awaiting ATACMS missile systems is “too much to ask,” according to the Wall Street Journal.

The US sent Ukraine an unknown number of MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, but Kiev has apparently used most of them and has for months been requesting more – as well as permission to strike deeper into Russian territory.

The Pentagon has been hesitant to send additional missiles, arguing that Moscow has already relocated its valuable targets out of range and that the US military has a finite number of ATACMS in its stockpiles.

Additionally, the US has obligations to paying customers who ordered the systems first. The Pentagon chief rejected Zelensky’s recent plea to prioritize the delivery of ATACMS to Ukraine, insisting that breaking existing arms deals would be “a lot to ask,” according to the WSJ, which cited two US officials and a Ukrainian government adviser.

The US has reportedly been exploring other options, urging its allies to send missiles from their stockpiles and even considering buying back weapons it sold to other countries. However, a CNN report earlier this year stated that the US has “made it clear that Kiev should not expect another significant delivery of ATACMS.”

Washington and its NATO partners have provided Ukraine with three types of long-range missile systems: American-made ATACMS with a range of 300 km, as well as British Storm Shadow and French SCALP missiles, each with a range of about 250 km. Kiev has repeatedly used these missiles to target Russian infrastructure and civilian areas, including a strike that killed four people and injured over 150 at a beach in Crimea’s Sevastopol.

On his latest trip to Washington to present the so-called “victory plan” to Kiev’s main sponsor, Zelensky “secretly” requested Tomahawk missiles, whose 2,400 km range far exceeds any of the Western-made weapons previously supplied. NYT sources described the request as “totally unfeasible,” labeling it “unrealistic and dependent almost entirely on Western aid.”Zelensky has neither confirmed nor denied the request but expressed frustration over the public disclosure of classified details from his discussions with the White House.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that if the West permits long-range strikes using foreign-made weapons against Russia, it would signify that NATO is “waging war” against the country. He said that Kiev is incapable of carrying out such attacks independently, as they require targeting data that can only be provided by the US-led bloc.

Putin also proposed changes to Russia’s nuclear doctrine, stating that Moscow would treat an attack by a non-nuclear nation backed by a nuclear state as a joint assault on Russia when determining a retaliatory response. He later expressed hope that Kiev’s Western backers heard the warning.

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Russia open to hearing Trump's proposals for ending the war, an official says

Russia is open to hearing President-elect Donald Trump’s proposals on ending the war, an official said, as a Russian drone killed one person and wounded 13 in the Ukrainian port city of Odesa and the European Union foreign policy chief held talks in Kyiv after the change in U.S. leadership.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Moscow and Washington were “exchanging signals” on Ukraine via “closed channels.” He did not specify whether the communication was with the current administration or Trump and members of his incoming administration.

Russia is ready to listen to Trump’s proposals on Ukraine provided these were “ideas on how to move forward in the area of settlement, and not in the area of further pumping the Kyiv regime with all kinds of aid,” Ryabkov said Saturday in an interview with Russian state news agency Interfax.

In Kyiv, Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha told reporters that Ukraine is ready to work with the Trump administration.

“Remember that President (Volodymyr) Zelenskyy was one of the first world leaders ... to greet President Trump,” he said. “It was a sincere conversation (and) an exchange of thoughts regarding further cooperation.”

“Also during the telephone conversation, further steps to establish communication between teams were discussed and this work has also begun. Therefore, we are open for further cooperation and I’m sure that a unified goal of reaching just peace unites all of us,” Sybiha said.

Sybiha appeared alongside EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, who said his visit is meant to stress the European Union’s support to Ukraine.

“This support remains unwavering. This support is absolutely needed, for you to continue defending yourself against Russian aggression,” he said.

Borrell urged “faster deliveries and fewer self imposed red lines” in getting Western weapons to Ukraine. He had appealed to allies in August to lift restrictions on Ukraine’s use of Western-supplied long-range weapons to strike Russian military targets.

In Odesa, regional Gov. Oleh Kiper said high-rise residential buildings, private houses and warehouses in the Black Sea port city were damaged overnight by the “fall” of a drone. He did not specify whether the drone had been shot down by air defenses.

A further 32 Russian drones were shot down over 10 Ukrainian regions, while 18 were “lost,” according to Ukraine’s air force, likely having been electronically jammed.

A Russian aerial bomb struck a busy highway overnight in the northeastern Kharkiv province, Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekohov said. No casualties were reported.

Russia is mounting an intensified aerial campaign that Ukrainian officials say they need more Western help to counter. However, doubts are deepening over what Kyiv can expect from a new U.S. administration. Trump has repeatedly taken issue with U.S. aid to Ukraine, made vague vows to end the war and has praised Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In Russia, the Defense Ministry said 50 Ukrainian drones were destroyed over seven Russian regions — more than half over the Bryansk region, bordering Ukraine.

RT/Reuters