Polda Jabar Bakal Sikat Preman yang Ganggu Wisatawan Saat Libur Nataru

Polda Jabar dan aparat gabungan melakukan apel siaga untuk melaksanakan Operasi Lilin Lodaya dalam rangka pengamanan Natal dan Tahun Baru. (Foto: Sandi/Jabarekspres)

Polda Jabar akan menindak tegas premanisme di tempat wisata, khususnya selama libur Natal 2022 dan Tahun Baru 2023. Polisi bakal menyiapkan kantong parkir di kawasan wisata di Jawa Barat yang masih minim lahan parkir. Hal itu dilakukan untuk mengantisipasi kemacetan saat libur Natal dan Tahun Baru 2023.

Karenanya selama libur Natal dan Tahun Baru 2023 personel polisi di daerah ini diperintahkan mengamankan objek Natal dan berbagai tempat wisata.

"Saya perintakan Pak Kapolres, Kapolsek, Pak Kasatlantas untuk menyiapkan kantong-kantong parkir. Khususnya di lokasi wisata yang tempat parkirnya tidak memadai, tidak seimbang dengan jumlah kunjungannya," kata Irjen Pols Suntana saat meninjau Pos Pelayanan di Padalarang, Bandung Barat pada hari Kamis, 22/12/2022.

Dikatakannya, pihaknya sudah memetakan kawasan wisata di Jawa Barat yang kerap ramai dikunjungi pelancong namun belum memiliki tempat parkir yang ideal untuk menampung kendaraan.

Di antaranya di kawasan Puncak, Bogor hingga Lembang, Bandung Barat. Kondisi itu dikhawatirkan nantinya kendaraan wisatawan parkir liar di badan jalan sehingga akan berdampak terhadap arus lalu lintas.

"Ada tempat wisata yang tempat parkirnya memadai sehingga pengunjung bisa memarkirkan kendaraannya di dalam. Tapi ada juga tempat tempat wisata yang tempat parkirnya tidak memadai," ungkap Kapolda Jabar.

Selain untuk meminimalisir kemacetan, kata Suntana, kantomg parkir di kawasan wisata juga dilakukan untuk mencegah adanya parkir liar yang mematok harga yang tidak wajar.

"Dan yang paling saya khawatirkan pengunjung wisata yang menggunakan mobil itu akan masuk ke lingkungan-lingkungan masyarakat. Masyarakat terganggu dan akhrinya terjadi pungutan parkir yang melebihi di luar kewajaran," sebut dia.

Berdasarkan informasi yang diterimaditerima dari Persatuan Hotel dan Restoran (PHRI), ungkap Suntana, Jawa Barat diperkirakan akan didatangi sekitar 1,3 juta wisatawan pada libur Natal dan Tahun Baru.

Untuk mengantisipasi membludaknya pengunjung, pihaknya meminta pengelola wisata agar tidak menerima kunjungan melebihi kapasitas.

"Kita instruksikan juga ke (pengelola) wisata tidak menerima pengunjung melebihi kapasitas di lokasi wisata, apalagi sekarang sudah dibebaskan juga. Buat semuanya nyaman dan tidak berdesakan," imbuh Suntana.

"Apabila ada tindakan premanisme yang melaksanakan aksinya dengan alasan apa pun, kami akan lakukan tindakan tegas," pungkasnya.

"Kami ingatkan kepada para preman untuk tidak melakukan aksinya. Kami akan tindak tegas," kata Kapolda Jawa Barat Irjen Pol Suntana usai Apel Gelar Pasukan Operasi Lilin 2022 di Lapangan Gasibu, Kota Bandung, hari Kamis, 22/12/2022.

Ia juga meminta masyarakat agar melaporkan jika ada premanisme di destinasi wisata yang dikunjungi karena sudah dijamin tidak ada ruang bagi aksi preman di di daerah ini.

"Apabila ada tindakan premanisme yang melaksanakan aksinya dengan alasan apa pun, kami akan lakukan tindakan tegas," katanya seperti dilansirkan Antara.

Selain itu, kata dia, pihaknya akan mengamankan jalur alternatif maupun jalur tol yang berpotensi mengalami peningkatan volume kendaraan pada libur Natal dan Tahun Baru 2023.

Nantinya, kata dia, para personel polisi bakal digeser ke setiap titik jalur alternatif maupun jalur tol saat Malam Misa Natal hingga Tahun Baru 2023.

"Personel sudah dibagi sedemikian rupa secara dinamis untuk mengantisipasi berbagai gangguan," kata dia

Zelensky-Biden talks prove Ukraine, US not interested in peace — Foreign Ministry

Russian Foreign Ministry
©Valery Sharifulin/TASS

The Ukrainian president touched down in Washington on Wednesday for talks with President Joe Biden, and an address before Congress, amid jitters in the White House about Republican grumbling about the 'blank check' of US assistance to Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Zelensky's visit to the US confirms Washington's plans to continue using Kiev as a proxy for an indirect war against Russia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has indicated.

"It shows that the United States continues its line of a de facto and indirect fight against Russia to the last Ukrainian," Peskov said, speaking to journalists on Thursday.

Peskov expressed regret that the trip did not see any sincere calls for peace, nor make any mention of the suffering of civilians in the Donbass.

"...We can state with regret that neither President Biden nor President Zelensky uttered even a few words which could be read as a potential willingness to listen to Russia's concerns," the Kremlin spokesman said. "Not a single word was heard from Mr. Zelensky about the continued barbaric shelling of residential buildings in the settlements of the Donbass...No real calls for peace, not for the camera, but real ones, were made."

At his joint press conference with Biden on Wednesday, Zelensky said that "there can't be any just peace" in Ukraine "in the war that was imposed on us" by Russian "non-humans."

Zelensky's comments marked a soft retort of his US host, who told reporters just several minutes prior that Kiev was "open to a just peace" with Moscow if the conditions were right.

The Ukrainian president urged Washington to up its military and financial support to Kiev, including Patriot air defense systems.

Biden promised his guest that the US would stay "with Ukraine as long as there is a Ukraine."

Zelensky followed up on his talks with Biden with an address before a joint session of Congress, urging the American people to provide more weaponry and to slap more sanctions on Russia. "We have artillery, yes - thank you," he said. "Is it enough? Honestly, not really. To make sure the Russians completely pull out, more shells and cannons are needed," he urged.

The Ukrainian president's Washington visit comes amid growing fears in the White House and the president's party that a substantial number of Republicans may no longer be ready to write any more 'blank checks' to Ukraine when the new Congress convenes in January. US assistance to Kiev is already on track to topping $100 billion in 2022, on top of billions more delivered to the country since the 2014 US-backed coup. Many Washington insiders remain confident that the flow of cash and weapons to Ukraine will continue into the new year, with mostly pro-MAGA Republican skeptics of further assistance making up a minority in their own party, while neocon war hawks like Mitch McConnell, Mitt Romney, Lindsey Graham promise to vote with Democrats in new outlays.

The talks between Ukrainian president Vladimir Zelensky and US leader Joe Biden in Washington showed that Ukraine and the US seek not peace but further hostilities, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said during a briefing Thursday.

"The talks in Washington showed that neither Ukraine nor the United States seeks peace. They are simply determined to continue fighting," the diplomat said.

"Have you heard anything about negotiations, about any kind of communication with Russia? Of course not. Zelensky publicly spoke about our country in a boorish manner - he cannot in principle do otherwise; even his ‘masters’ do not dare to do that. They have made some attempts, remarks, but they have not sunk that low yet," Zakharova said.

"Apparently, Zelensky has nothing to say, being rude is the only thing he can do," the diplomat believes.

Dua Kecamatan di Kota Bogor Masuk Zona Hitam Peredaran Napza

Kasat Narkoba Polresta Bogor Kota, Agus Susanto.

Dua kecamatan di Kota Bogor masuk zona hitam peredaran napza, diantaranya Kecamatan Bogor Tengah dam Timur.

Dari catatan polisi, kedua kecamatan itu dijadikan target pengedar lantaran banyak spot pemakai narkoba dan banyak tempat hiburan malam (THM).

Dua faktor itu dimanfaatkan para pengedar untuk melakukan transaksi narkotika.

Kepala Satuan Reserse Narkoba (Kasat Narkoba), Kompol Agus Susanto mebeberkan, tak hanya dua kecamatan di Kota Bogor masuk zona hitam peredaran napza.

Dia menyebutkan, hampir semua kecamatan terdata pernah mengalami kasus penyelahgunaan narkotikan, namun angkanya tidak separah di Kota Bogor masuk zona hitam peredaran napza.

“Misalkan minggu pertama kecamatan ini, minggu kedua pasti kecamatan lain,” ucap Agus.

Kepolisian juga setiap bulannya, mendapati kasus pengedaran dan pemakaian narkotika.

“Zona pertama ini zona Kecamatan Bogor Tengah, itu jadi titik paling banyak yang jadikan peredaran gelap narkoba,” ungkap Agus.

Kemudian yang kedua, lanjut Agus kecamatan Bogor Timur, ketiga Tanah Sareal, ke empat Barat dan selatan.

“Nah itu jadi sementara ini hasil dari ungkapan 2022 itu yang paling banyak diliat dari TKP itu di Bogor Tengah seperti itu,” ucap Agus soal dua kecamatan di Kota Bogor masuk zona hitam peredaran napza.

Chinese Ambassador: Trade Between China, Russia Maintains Strong Upward Trend Amid Ongoing Cooperations

©AFP 2022 / LIU Jin

A strong upward trend continues in Russia-China trade, Chinese Ambassador to Russia Zhang Hanhui said in an interview with Sputnik.

"Thanks to the joint efforts of both sides, bilateral trade has maintained a strong upward trend, and this is why it has reached another record high," Zhang said.

The ambassador said that in 2022, business cooperation between Russia and China has reached a new level.

"In the first 11 months of this year, the total volume of Sino-Russian trade reached $172.41 billion, up 32% year-on-year, already surpassing last year's annual figure of $146.87 billion and undoubtedly set to reach a new record high," he said.

The volume of Chinese exports to Russia amounted to $67.34 billion, an increase of 13.4 percent, and China's imports from Russia amounted to $105.07 billion, an increase of 47.5 percent, Zhang said. He said that in 2022, China and Russia overcame a number of unfavorable factors in their trade and economic cooperation.

In particular, in February, the parties signed a road map for the high-quality development of Sino-Russian trade in goods and services, which outlines the path to achieve the set goals in bilateral trade.

The leaders of Russia and China earlier set the goal to double bilateral trade, bringing it from $100 billion a year to $200 billion by 2024. The $100 billion mark was reached in 2018.

After talks between the two countries' leaders in Beijing on February 4, Chinese President Xi Jinping outlined a new goal to increase Russia-China trade to $250 billion a year.

Russia, China Sign Agreement on Joint Lunar Exploration: Roscosmos Head

An intergovernmental agreement between Russia and China on the creation of the international scientific lunar station has already been signed, the head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, Yuri Borisov, said on Wednesday.

"We will move on to the next phase, which is the construction of a future lunar base, possibly, and most likely, in close contact with our Chinese partners. As you know, a corresponding memorandum was signed in 2021, and just recently an agreement was signed with the Chinese side on the joint work in this area," Borisov said.

Russia and China signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in the creation of the International Lunar Science Station (ILSS) in March 2021. In December of this year, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said that an intergovernmental agreement between Russia and China on the creation of the International Lunar Science Station was prepared for signing.

Japan's Lawmaker Calls on US to Recognize Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima, Nagasaki a Mistake

Muneo Suzuki, a member of Japan's upper house and the chair of the New Party Daichi, on Wednesday called on the United States to honestly declare that the atomic bombings of the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II were a mistake.

"Even though 77 years have passed since the end of the war, the US, which dropped the atomic bombs, has never apologized or asked for forgiveness. It is the US that speaks loudly of 'democracy, human rights, and freedom' about the actions of other countries. So, why not honestly tell Japan and the world what the US has done?" Suzuki said on the personal website, commenting on Japan's media reports about a possible visit by US President Joe Biden to Nagasaki in May 2023.

The lawmaker believes that Biden's visit to the bombed city would be the right decision.

"During (the visit), he [Biden] should say what he would really like to say. I wish he would tell the world, not to mention Nagasaki and Hiroshima, the following: 'The use (of nuclear weapons) is impossible; the use of atomic bombs was a mistake," he said.

Japan will chair the G7 multilateral platform in 2023. The top-level G7 summit will be held in Hiroshima from May 19-21, 2023. The Group of Seven largest economies includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the US.

Japanese media reported earlier this week that Biden is expected to visit the Japanese city of Nagasaki during his trip to the summit of G7 world leaders in Japan in May 2023. Should the trip to Nagasaki be confirmed, it would be the first time a sitting US president visit the southwestern Japanese city hit with an atomic bomb in the final days of World War II, Japanese news agency reported, adding that Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida would likely accompany Biden during the visit.

In May 2016, former US President Barack Obama paid a historic visit to Hiroshima, making him the first US president to the city since World War II.

In August, Japan marked 77 years since a US B-29 bomber dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, killing about 140,000 people. The second atomic bomb strike on the Japanese city of Nagasaki three days later killed 70,000 people.

The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki remain the only use of nuclear weapons for warfare in history.

The bombings caused Japan to declare surrender on August 14, 1945, bringing World War II to an end.

Kuningan Gempa M 4,3

Badan Meteorologi Klimatologi, dan Geofisika (BMKG) menyampaikan bahwa gempa bumi yang mengguncang Kabupaten Kuningan, Jawa Barat, pada hari Kamis pagi, 22/12/2022, pukul 04.18 WIB itu memiliki magnitudo 4,3. Episenter terletak pada koordinat 6,99 LS dan 108,48 BT, atau tepatnya berlokasi di darat pada jarak 1 km barat daya Kabupaten Kuningan, Jawa Barat pada kedalaman 5 km.

BMKG menyampaikan dampak gempa bumi yang digambarkan oleh peta tingkat guncangan (shakemap) BMKG dan berdasarkan laporan dari masyarakat, gempa bumi ini dirasakan di wilayah Kuningan dengan skala intensitas III MMI (getaran dirasakan nyata dalam rumah, terasa getaran seakan-akan ada truk berlalu).

Gempa juga terasa di Cirebon, Majalengka dengan Skala Intensitas II - III MMI (getaran dirasakan oleh beberapa orang, benda-benda ringan yang digantung bergoyang, getaran dirasakan nyata dalam rumah. Terasa getaran seakan-akan ada truk berlalu).

"Dengan memperhatikan lokasi episenter dan kedalaman hiposenternya, gempa bumi yang terjadi merupakan jenis gempa bumi kerak dangkal (shallow crustal earthquake) akibat aktivitas sesar aktif," katanya.

"Dalam beberapa menit pertama setelah gempa, parameter gempa dapat berubah dan boleh jadi belum akurat, kecuali telah dianalisis ulang seismolog," lanjut BMKG.

Guncangan gempa tidak menyebabkan tsunami

Sebelumnya, rentetan gempa bumi bermagnitudo besar mengguncang Jawa, seperti di Cianjur hingga muncul kabar potensi gempa bumi megathrust di selatan Jawa.

Dikutip dari Kompas.com, daerah di selatan Jawa bagian barat dan tenggara Sumatera berpotensi alami gempa bumi hingga M 8,9.

Tak hanya itu, dalam pemodelan menunjukkan gempa di zona tersebut bisa memicu tsunami hingga 34 meter, melebihi ketinggian tsunami Aceh 2004.

Hal tersebut berdasarkan penelitian terbaru dan diungkapkan Pepen Supendi dari Badan Meteorologi, Klimatologi, dan Geofisika ( BMKG ) dan peneliti postdoctoral di University of Cambridge.

”Hasil penelitian kami tentang potensi gempa dan tsunami akibat megathrust di selatan Jawa (bagian) barat dan tenggara Sumatera baru saja diterbitkan di jurnal Natural Hazards,” kata Pepen yang menjadi penulis pertama laporan ilmiah ini, dikutip dari Kompas.id, Selasa, 01/11/2022.

Laporan ilmiah ini juga ditulis Sri Widiyantoro dari Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB); Nicholas Rawlinson dari Department of Earth Sciences-University of Cambridge; Tatok Yatimantoro, Daryono, serta Dwikorita Karnawati dari BMKG; Abdul Muhari dari Badan Nasional Penanggulangan Bencana (BNPB); Rahma Hanifa dari Badan Riset dan Inovasi Nasional (BRIN); serta sejumlah peneliti lain.

Berdasarkan survei lapangan yang dilaporkan Jose C Borrero dalam Seismological Research Letters (2005), ketinggian tsunami yang diamati untuk gempa bumi berkekuatan M 9,1 di Aceh pada 2004 berkisar 20-30 meter.

Ini berarti potensi tinggi tsunami maksimum yang disebabkan gempa di selatan Jawa bagian barat bisa lebih tinggi, sekalipun kekuatan gempanya sedikit lebih kecil.

Pepen mengatakan, magnitudo gempa hanyalah salah satu faktor dalam menentukan ketinggian tsunami maksimum.

”Tinggi tsunami bisa dipengaruhi batimetri dan kedekatannya dengan sumber gempa,” katanya.

Sedangkan ketinggian tsunami rata-rata di sepanjang pantai Sumatera dan pantai Jawa, menurut penelitian Pepen dan tim ini, masing-masing adalah 11,8 meter dan 10,6 meter, hasil yang menggabungkan efek dari sesar belakang.

Temuan ini melengkapi kajian sebelumnya yang ditulis Sri Widiyantoro dan tim di jurnal Nature(2020).

US Drug Squads Seize Enough Illegal Fentanyl in 2022 'to Kill Everyone in United States'

©AP Photo / Drug Enforcement Administration

Illegal fentanyl was singled out as a leading cause of death of Americans between the ages of 18 and 49 by an earlier US report, with fatal overdoses of the drug surging 94 percent since 2019 and claiming more lives than car accidents or gun violence.

Illicit fentanyl smuggled into the US is claiming increasingly more American lives, freshly-revealed data shows.

The amount of the synthetic opioid seized by American drug squads this year alone would be enough “to kill everyone in the United States,” the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) stated on December 20 in a news release.

Over 379 million potentially fatal illegal doses of the prescription painkiller have been confiscated so far in 2022. The haul of over 10,000 pounds of fentanyl powder and 50.6 million fentanyl tablets is twice the amount apprehended the year before.

The agency added that Mexican drug-trafficking organizations were responsible for smuggling the synthetic opioid mass-produced at their clandestine labs into the US.

“DEA’s top operational priority is to defeat the two Mexican drug cartels — the Sinaloa and Jalisco (CJNG) Cartels — that are primarily responsible for the fentanyl that is killing Americans today,” Anne Milgram, the DEA administrator, said in a statement.

DEA agents
©AP Photo / Louis Lanzano

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), man-made opioids like fentanyl are the cause of the majority of overdose deaths in the United States, with a mere speck of two milligrams of the drug enough to claim a life. In 2021, more than 107,000 Americans died of drug overdoses, with two-thirds of those deaths attributed to fentanyl, according to US figures.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), man-made opioids like fentanyl are the cause of the majority of overdose deaths in the United States, with a mere speck of two milligrams of the drug enough to claim a life. In 2021, more than 107,000 Americans died of drug overdoses, with two-thirds of those deaths attributed to fentanyl, according to US figures.

Previously, a US report revealed that illegal fentanyl has become the leading cause of death of Americans between the ages of 18 and 49. Since 2019, fatal overdoses from fentanyl have surged 94 percent, outstripping deaths from car accidents, gun violence, and suicides.

Fentanyl, a painkiller first manufactured in the late 1950s, is relatively cheap to make, and can be 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine and heroin. Furthermore, drug dealers often lace counterfeit pills, passed off as authentic prescription medications, with the synthetic opioid.

Such fentanyl pills are often “made to look identical to real prescription medications — including OxyContin, Percocet, and Xanax — but only contain filler and fentanyl,” the DEA warned, alerting people to the fact that "no pharmaceutical pill bought on social media is safe.”

Republicans, who have repeatedly denounced the Joe Biden administration's "open border" policies as responsible for the migrant crisis at the US-Mexico border, have also pointed out that the increased inflow of fentanyl and fatal overdoses have also occurred on the Democratic POTUS' watch.

Viral : Dramatic Footage Shows Florida Officer Accidentally Overdose on Fentanyl During Traffic Stop

A video of a Florida police officer struggling in and out of consciousness was released as an urgent message to the public about the dangers of fentanyl. The drug is a synthetic opioid that is 100 times stronger than morphine and 50 times stronger than heroin. It is added to other drugs to increase potency, and make illicit sales cheaper.

A terrifying video of a Florida officer was recently released showing her in a state of unconsciousness after being just barely exposed to the drug fentanyl.

©YouTube/ @News6WKMG

Tavares Officer Courtney Bannick was performing a traffic stop on Tuesday alongside other officers when she found the deadly narcotic inside a rolled-up dollar bill, police believe.

Shortly after the vehicle search, Bannock began to struggle to breathe. Luckily another officer heard her choking and realized she needed immediate medical attention.

Video of the incident shows officers laying her on the ground and administering Narcan or “naloxone,” a medicine that rapidly reverses an opioid overdose. The medicine can be administered through a nasal spray or injected directly into a person’s muscle, under the skin, or in their vein, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The officers had to give Bannick three doses of Narcan as they waited for ambulances to arrive; she is, however, expected to make a full recovery.

“She was completely lifeless. She looks deceased in these videos,” Tavares police Detective Courtney Sullivan told an Orlando news outlet. “So she’s very thankful today.”

“If the other officers weren’t there, there’s a very high chance and probability that today would be different and that we would be wearing our thin blue line — the straps that go over our badges,” Sullivan said, referring to protocol when an officer dies in the line of duty.

Bannick, who was wearing gloves at the time of the search, said she had performed this kind of search “100 times before the same way” adding that it only takes “one time and a minimal amount” to cause someone to have an overdose.

“I’m thankful I wasn’t alone and had immediate help,” she said.

Officers believe wind may have picked up the fentanyl and blown it into Bannick’s face, causing her to overdose. The individuals they had performed a search on are now facing criminal charges.

Fentanyl : C₂₂H₂₈N₂O

Putin says West sought to divide Russia for centuries

©Sergei Fadeichev/TASS

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday said the country’s strategic enemies seek to divide Russia because they think it’s "too big."

"Our strategic enemies have had the goal to disintegrate, weaken and divide our country for centuries. There’s nothing new about it. The country, it seems to them, is too big and menacing for someone, so it needs a bit of splitting up, dividing. That has always been (the case)," he said.

He said throughout centuries, "wherever you look, that was the goal," and it’s enough to read up on relevant literature to be confident that was the case.

"They have always nurtured ideas and built plans, hopes that they will succeed one way or another," Putin said.

Russia, he continued, "has always, almost always, stuck with a completely different approach, different beliefs."

"We have always sought to be part of the so-called civilized world. So, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, which we allowed with our own hands, it seemed to us for some reason that any day now we would become part of that so-called civilized world. But it turned out we weren’t welcome there, despite all our efforts and attempts. I’m saying this having in mind my own work as well. I also made these efforts, our efforts to be closer, to be part of it - no," the president said.

"On the contrary, other actions were made, including using international terrorists in the Caucasus in order to finish off Russia, break up the newly created Russian Federation," Putin said. He said many of the attendees of the meeting know that perfectly well.

The president said Russia’s enemies "seemed to pronounced an anathema to Al Qaeda (a terrorist group banned in Russia) and other criminals but it was considered acceptable to use them on the territory of Russia, they were given all kinds of support - financial, media, political one, anything they liked, including military support - so that they go to war on Russia."

Nonetheless, Putin said, thanks to the peoples of the Caucasus, thanks to the people of Chechnya, thanks to the heroism of its servicemen, Russia has been able to endure that difficult period of its history.

"We have weathered these tests and became stronger," he said.

Putin says it was obvious that clash with hostile forces in Ukraine was inevitable

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday said a clash with hostile forces in Ukraine has been inevitable.

"It became obvious that clashes with those forces, including in Ukraine, were inevitable. The question was only when it would happen," he said at a yearend Defense Ministry meeting.

Putin said military operations always go hand in hand with tragedies and losses.

"We understand that perfectly well, we realize that, but because it’s inevitable, better today than tomorrow," the president said.

Putin also brought up the subject of the manifestations of neo-Nazism and fascism in Ukraine. The head of state said Russia also has them, but the government cracks down on them.

"Every country has nationalists, and we do. But we are fighting the manifestations of neo-Nazism and fascism. We do not elevate them to the rank of national policy, but in Ukraine they do, everyone pretends not to notice it," he said.

"Nationalism might seem a good thing. They fight for national interests, and no one notices that it’s done on the basis of the fascist, neo-Nazi ideology. People walk around with swastikas in the centers of major cities, including in the capital, and it may seem that’s the way everyone wants it," the president said. "It’s similar to how, in the early 2000s, they used international terrorists to fight Russia, and didn’t give a damn, sorry about ill manners, that it was a terrorist, an internationally recognized terrorist. They didn’t give a damn because they used it to fight Russia. Same here, neo-Nazis are used to fight Russia and they don’t give a damn that these people are neo-Nazis. The main thing is that they fight Russia. But we do care.".

Putin still sees Ukrainians as fraternal nation

Russian President Vladimir Putin insists that he still views the Ukrainian people as a fraternal nation.

"We have nothing to be rebuked for. I am saying this quite responsibly. We have always - and you know my position - considered the Ukrainian people to be a brotherly nation. I still think so," he stressed at an expanded board session of the Defense Ministry on Wednesday.

The Russian leader pointed out that Moscow has been trying for years to build relations with Kiev under new geopolitical conditions. "We did everything to build not just good-neighborly, but fraternal relations under the new conditions. We had been providing loans and supplying energy resources almost free of charge. For years! But no, nothing worked," the head of the Russian state insisted.

He reiterated that when Ukraine left the Soviet Union, its declaration of independence proclaimed that it was a neutral state. "I think that Russian leaders at the time also had that in mind. I am confident that it was precisely like this. So, on the whole, it is possible to understand the leadership at the time - under the conditions of that time they probably did not see any threats. A neutral state, a fraternal people, a single culture, shared spiritual and moral values, and a shared history. They did not see any threats. But no, the adversary was working very insistently, and, to their credit, effectively," the Russian president acknowledged.

That said, Putin added, Russia’s actions on building good relations with Ukraine failed to materialize.