Ambassador Antonov: Washington Does Not Want Political Settlement of Ukraine Conflict

©AP Photo / Roman Koksarov

Russian Ambassador in the United States Anatoly Antonov said on Thursday, commenting on the White House's decision to deliver Bradley fighting vehicles to Kiev, that Washington does not want a political settlement of the Ukraine conflict.

Earlier in the day, the Defense Department said the Biden administration will announce another military assistance package for Ukraine on Friday that will include Bradley fighting vehicles. According to media reports, the package will include $3 billion worth of military equipment.

"This step [the delivery of Bradley fighting vehicles] comes as a confirmation that our interlocutors in the United States have not even tried to listen to our numerous calls to take into account possible consequences of such a dangerous course by Washington," Antonov told journalists.

"Nobody should still have doubts who bears responsibility for prolonging this conflict. All the actions by the administration indicate a lack of any desire for a political settlement."

The ambassador said that any talk about a "defensive nature" of weapons that Western countries supply to Kiev has long become "absurd," adding that "it is finally becoming clear to the whole international community that in 2014 the US unleashed a real proxy-war against Russia by supporting nazi criminals in Kiev."

"The actions of the administration spur Ukrainian radicals to proceed with their terrible deeds. With every consecutive transfer of arms their feeling of impunity grows stronger," Antonov said.

The ambassador noted the West started "to purposefully weaken Russia" under the US leadership long before the beginning of Russia's special military operation in Ukraine, recalling statements made by former German Chancellor Angela Merkel and ex-French President Francois Hollande.

In December, Merkel told the Zeit newspaper that the 2014 Minsk agreement "was an attempt to give Ukraine extra time." The former chancellor said she doubted NATO countries could have done as much then as they were doing now to help Ukraine.

Pentagon: US Exploring Variety of Locations for Training Ukrainian Forces on Patriot System

The Biden administration is still working out the details of the Patriot missile systems training for Ukrainian military personnel and exploring both locations inside the United States and overseas, Defense Department Press Secretary Pat Ryder said during a press briefing.

“The details on the training of the Patriot missile systems are still being worked out in coordination with our Ukrainian partners,” Ryder said on Thursday.

"I can tell you that we're exploring a variety of options to include potential training here, in the US, overseas, or a combination of both."

Ryder added that the United States continues to have discussions on the delivery of any additional Patriot systems to Ukraine.

Earlier reports indicated that the Defense Department was considering the possibility of training Ukrainian forces at military bases within the US, a notable development as the majority of training to date has taken place in European countries.

In December, the Biden administration announced a new $1.85 billion security package for Ukraine that includes one Patriot air defense system.

A senior US defense official said the training of Ukrainian troops on how to operate Patriot air defense systems is going to take several months while it usually takes up to a year in normal conditions.

Talk of additional Patriot deployments for Ukraine have more recently stirred after the Biden administration confirmed it would be announcing a new batch of Ukraine military aid. It is expected that Bradley vehicles will be included in this latest installment.

Live Updates: McCarthy Loses 7th Vote for Speaker

US Republican Representative Kevin McCarthy listens before the House of Representatives votes for a seventh time for a new speaker at the US Capitol in Washington, DC

House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy appeared to lose a seventh straight ballot for speaker on Thursday, despite offering fresh concessions to a group of Republican opponents to try to win their votes.

An official tally was still pending, but unofficial numbers showed McCarthy on track to lose.

LIVESeventh Speaker Vote Tally »

	Total	Dem.	Rep.
McCarthy	201	0	201	Needed to win
Donalds	19	0	19
Jeffries	212	212	0
Trump	1	0	1
Present	1	0	1

McCarthy

Needed to win

Donalds

Jeffries

Trump

Present

The GOP opponents have sunk his past six attempts to get enough votes to win the job. The efforts to forge a compromise could weaken the job, if he gets it, and shows that governing the Republican-led House is going to be challenging this year, with infighting consuming what's been a simple one-ballot vote for the past hundred years.

McCarthy made history on Tuesday when he became the first majority leader in a century to fail in the first round of voting. In 1923, it took nine rounds of voting to elect a Speaker.

Kevin McCarthy came up short once again on Thursday as he lost the seventh House vote to elect a new speaker. The outcome will only increase pressure on McCarthy to end the impasse over his imperiled speakership bid, but it is unclear whether he will be able to pull it off as the situation grows increasingly dire for his future political prospects.

Even after proposing major concessions to his hardline conservative opponents late Wednesday, the California Republican has still not yet been able to lock in the 218 votes he needs to win the gavel. The House on Thursday reconvened with some Republicans, including McCarthy, trying to downplay the significance ahead of the seventh vote.

The House narrowly voted to adjourn late on Wednesday after six rounds of voting failed to result in a victor. The once-in-a-century gridlock has exposed long-simmering tensions in the Republican party and raised questions about whether Congress will be able to function with such dysfunction and discord.

Twenty Republican rebels on Wednesday rejected McCarthy and rallied instead around Byron Donalds, a Republican congressman from Florida. Some of the rebels have personal grievances with McCarthy while others have demanded rule changes that would make it easier to oust the Speaker.

After months of negotiations, it appeared as though McCarthy had capitulated to those demands, agreeing to change the rules so that just one member of the House could call a vote of no confidence. But it remained unclear whether the changes would be enough to hand McCarthy the 218 votes required to win the support of a simple majority of the chamber.

"Well, I think what you'll see today is the same until we finish everything out," McCarthy said. "Whenever you negotiate different things, nothing's agreed to until everything's agreed to. I wouldn't read anything into votes today."

Republicans took back control of the House of Representatives in November’s midterm elections. But McCarthy finds himself in such a tough position because the “red wave” he predicted did not materialise and Republicans control the chamber by a razor-thin margin, leaving him beholden to a small number of rebels.

Late on Wednesday, the Club for Growth, the ultra-low-tax group, and the Congressional Leadership Fund, a McCarthy-aligned fundraising vehicle, said they had struck a deal whereby the latter would not spend money in open Republican primaries in safe seats. The agreement was seen as a win for rightwing Republicans who have taken issue with McCarthy’s efforts to support more centrist candidates in the past.

McCarthy has been meeting with his allies on Capitol Hill and his opponents met off campus Thursday morning as House Republicans continue to try to chart a path forward.

"I think things are moving in the right direction," Rep. Dusty Johnson of South Dakota said as he left the McCarthy meeting. "Nothing's going to come together quickly, but I think we're clearly making progress."

The longer the fight drags out, the more dire it becomes for McCarthy's future, however, as it risks further defections and a loss of confidence in the GOP leader.

Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado, who has supported McCarthy through six ballots, warned of the potential for additional defections on Thursday.

Asked by CNN if he would be with McCarthy on the seventh ballot, Buck said: "If there's a deal and you know, 10 of the 20 move, I think that people stay with him. If there's no deal and we have another vote of 20, I think people are going to start (defecting)." Buck added: "Including me."

"There is a point in time that Kevin is going to lose credibility because he can't make this deal," Buck said.

Prince Harry says he killed 25 people in Afghanistan during second tour of duty

Harry sitting in an armoured vehicle in Helmand province in February 2008. ©DailyMail

Prince Harry says he killed 25 people in Afghanistan during second tour of duty. The Duke of Sussex, Prince Harry, was an Apache helicopter pilot in 2012 and in the upcoming book, Spare, he said he flew on six missions in war-torn Afghanistan.

Prince Harry has revealed he killed 25 people while on his second tour of duty in Afghanistan, according to reported excerpts of his highly-anticipated autobiography.

The Duke of Sussex was an Apache helicopter pilot at the time and in the upcoming book, Spare, he said he flew on six missions that resulted in “the taking of human lives”.

The 38-year-old also disclosed that he did not think of the 25 that were killed as "people" but as "chess pieces" that were taken off the board.

The Duke has never publicly discussed his kills during his military service before now.

The book is due to be released on January 10, but it has already gone on sale in Spain.

An excerpt from the Spanish version of Spare, which accidentally went on sale in Spain, has been obtained by The Daily Telegraph.

In it, Prince Harry writes about how he watched each "kill" when he returned to base and described the insurgents as “baddies eliminated before they could kill goodies”.

It is not possible to kill someone “if you see them as a person”, he says, but the Army had “trained me to ‘other’ them and they had trained me well.”

The excerpt adds: “I made it my purpose, from day one, to never go to bed with any doubt whether I had done the right thing…whether I had shot at Taliban and only Taliban, without civilians in the vicinity.

"I wanted to return to Great Britain with all my limbs, but more than that I wanted to get home with my conscience intact.”

He explained how he knew his exact number of kills because of the "era of Apaches and laptops".

He added: "And it seemed to me essential not to be afraid of that number.

“So my number is 25. It’s not a number that fills me with satisfaction, but nor does it embarrass me.”

Harry also explains in his upcoming book that he didn't feel any guilt in this because he never forgot watching the 9/11 attacks in New York unfold on TV and then later meeting the families of victims of the attacks on visits to the US.

Prince Harry went on his first tour of duty from 2007 to 2008 as a forward air controller in Helmand province.

His second tour was in 2012 after learning to fly Apache helicopters. He was deployed to Camp Bastion in southern Afghanistan for 20 weeks.

This story is based off a translated version of Prince Harry ’s book Spare.

Russian Orthodox leader urges Christmas ceasefire for Ukraine, Donbass

Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill ©Vyacheslav Prokofyev/TASS

Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill has called for a Christmas ceasefire in Ukraine and Donbass.

"I, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill, call on all parties involved in the internecine conflict to establish a Christmas ceasefire from 12:00 p.m. Moscow time on January 6 to 12:00 a.m. on January 7 so that Orthodox people could attend church services on Christmas Eve and on Christmas Day," the Russian Orthodox Church quoted its leader as saying in a statement posted on its website on Thursday.

Putin Orders Orthodox Christmas Ceasefire Across Ukraine January 6-7

Earlier in the day, Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church called on "all parties involved in the internecine conflict" in Ukraine to agree to a Christmas truce, "so that Orthodox people can attend services on Christmas Eve and the day of Christ's birth."

President Vladimir Putin has ordered a ceasefire on Orthodox Christmas Eve and Christmas Day along the entire frontline of Russia's special military operation in Ukraine.

"In light of the appeal of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill, I instruct the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation to introduce a ceasefire regime along the entire line of contact between the parties in Ukraine from 12:00 pm on January 6 to 24:00 on January 7 of this year," the presidential decree, released by the Kremlin's press service, reads.

Most Orthodox Christians, including Russian and Ukrainian parishioners, celebrate Christmas on January 7, in accordance with the Julian calendar, which is 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar.

"Given that a large number of citizens practicing the Orthodox faith live in areas where hostilities are taking place, we call on the Ukrainian side to declare a ceasefire, and give them the opportunity to attend services on Christmas Eve, as well as the Day of the Nativity of Christ," the order adds.

Ukrainian authorities dismissed Patriarch Kirill's ceasefire appeal

Ukrainian authorities dismissed Patriarch Kirill's ceasefire appeal earlier in the day, with presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak accusing the Russian Orthodox Church of acting as a "propagandist of war" and "calling for the genocide of Ukrainians." Podolyak characterized Kirill's request as "a cynical trap and a piece of propaganda," and said the Russian Orthodox Church was "not an authority for global Orthodoxy."

Ukraine's successive post-2014 coup governments have taken a series of highly-politicized measures to try to restrict the activities of the Russian Orthodox Church, and created an independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church in 2018. In November 2022, lawmakers introduced a bill to ban the Russian Orthodox Church outright, citing its activities as a "threat to national security" and accusing it of conducting "anti-Ukrainian and subversive activities." President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree in December imposing sanctions against clergy of all religious organizations with ties to Russia.

Over 70 percent of Ukrainians consider themselves Orthodox Christians, with the Moscow Patriarchate of the Church accounting for up to 39 percent of all believers in 2017. The Ukrainian government estimates their numbers to be much smaller, citing figures of as low as 12-15 percent. About 70 percent of Russians identify as Orthodox Christians.

Ukraine's Orthodox community has sounded the alarm about recent persecution by the government, including Ukrainian Security Service raids on churches and monasteries, and vandalism and arson attacks by unknown assailants.

The 'Christmas Truce' ordered by Putin comes as Russia's special military operation in Ukraine has entered its 10th month. The conflict, which Russia says was sparked by Ukraine's imminent plans to launch a full-scale assault on the Donbass, has cost tens of thousands of lives, caused widespread dislocation, and resulted in an energy crisis throughout most of Europe. So far, US energy companies and weapons manufacturers have been the only beneficiaries of the crisis, and Washington could soon benefit from the influx of European manufacturers as energy costs make it too expensive for them to produce their products at home.

Germany’s seizing Russian assets may force other nations to ignore law, speaker warns

Russian State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin
©Anton Novoderzhavin/TASS

The planned seizure of Russian funds and property by Germany for their subsequent transfer to Ukraine may lure other countries into ignoring international law, State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said on Thursday.

"The German government has decided to shift problems created by their predecessors on our country. With this goal in view, they are planning to confiscate Russian assets to help Ukraine rebuild," he wrote on his Telegram channel.

According to Volodin, this decision "would give a start to a process where all countries may ignore international law and seize what they think fit." He said that Germany should remember from its own history "how attempts to infringe on others’ property rights ended."

The senior Russian lawmaker warned that Russia would have the right to similar steps against assets of Germany and other nations if Russian assets are confiscated.

"We are living in a different reality now, both in line with the UN Charter and on the basis of precedents. It would therefore be correct to remember the recognition of Kosovo’s independence.

The United States, Germany, France and other countries who made the decision have no choice but to agree to the right of South Ossetia, Abkhazia, Crimea, the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Lugansk People’s Republic as well as the Kherson and the Zaporozhye regions to self-determination," he explained.

The Duma speaker insisted that European countries, primarily Germany and France, should pay for what is happening in Ukraine, "not only because their economies are the largest in the European Union." "It is (former German chancellor Angela) Merkel and (ex-French president Francois) Hollande who the global public should blame for the conflict in Ukraine after having sabotaged the Minsk agreements," he added.

Germany open to seize Russian assets to help rebuild Ukraine — media reports

Germany is open to using billions of euros in frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine rebuild as long as legal issues can be resolved and allies follow suit, the Bloomberg news agency reported on Jan. 3, with reference to people familiar with the discussions.

According to the agency, Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government supports Ukraine’s demand for war reparations but hasn’t yet taken an official position on seizing assets from the Russian state, since the issue is complex and some parts of the ruling coalition are more ardent than others.

In particular, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock wants Russia to pay for the damages caused in Ukraine. The former co-leader of Germany’s Greens, who is a long-time advocate of a tougher stance on the Kremlin, insists that seizing at least some of the frozen assets needs to be an option.

At the same time, Finance Minister Christian Lindner, who heads the pro-business Free Democrats, is more cautious. He’s concerned that confiscating Russian central-bank assets could create a dangerous precedent and lead European nations and their allies into a legal quagmire, the officials said.

Germany to explore increasing military aid to Ukraine after U.S. Patriot handover Bloomberg reported that instead of a blanket seizure, a more sold path in legal terms could be to target assets of individuals who have been proven to be involved in Russian war crimes. Such cases though could take years to make their way through courts, which could reduce such an initiative to mere symbolism.

“The detail of the discussions shows how the potential for asset seizures is moving beyond a theoretical debate and toward implementation, but major hurdles remain,” the news agency quoted sources as saying.

“Scholz wants any move coordinated with allies and legally tight.”

The UN General Assembly on Nov. 14 passed a draft resolution on Russia’s payment of compensation to Ukraine for the damage caused.

Amazon Layoffs Over 18,000 Jobs

As part of a previously disclosed workforce reduction, Amazon.com Inc. will now be eliminating more than 18,000 employees, according to Chief Executive Andy Jassy in a public staff letter on Wednesday.

The company’s e-commerce and human resources departments will be the most affected by the layoff choices, which Amazon will announce starting on January 18, he added.

The reductions, which reflect a quick flip for a retailer that recently quadrupled its base pay threshold to compete more fiercely for talent, account for 6% of Amazon’s approximately 300,000-person corporate workforce.

Annual planning ” has been more difficult given the uncertain economy and that we’ve hired rapidly over the last several years,” Jassy wrote in the note.

Following Walmart Inc. (WMT.N), Amazon is the second-largest private employer in America with more than 1.5 million employees, including warehouse staff. As rising inflation drove firms and consumers to cut back on spending and as its share price fell by half in the previous year, it has prepared for expected slower growth.

It started laying off employees from its devices section in November, with sources claiming at the time that it was aiming to cut down 10,000 jobs.

In a blog post, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy wrote that the staff reductions were set off by the uncertain economy and the company's rapid hiring over the last several years.

The cuts will primarily hit the company's corporate workforce and will not affect hourly warehouse workers. In November, Amazon had reportedly been planning to lay off around 10,000 employees but on Wednesday, Jassy pegged the number of jobs to be shed by the company to be higher than that, as he put it, "just over 18,000."

Jassy tried to strike an optimistic note in the Wednesday blog post announcing the massive staff reduction, writing: "Amazon has weathered uncertain and difficult economies in the past, and we will continue to do so."

While 18,000 is a large number of jobs, it's just a little more than 1% of the 1.5 million workers Amazon employees in warehouses and corporate offices.

Last year, Amazon was the latest Big Tech company to watch growth slow down from its pandemic-era tear, just as inflation being at a 40-year high crimped sales.

News of Amazon's cuts came the same day business software giant Salesforce announced its own round of layoffs, eliminating 10% of its workforce, or about 8,000 jobs.

Salesforce Co-CEO Mark Benioff attributed the scaling back to a now oft-repeated line in Silicon Valley: The pandemic's boom times made the company hire overzealously. And now that the there has been a pullback in corporate spending, the focus is on cutting costs.

"As our revenue accelerated through the pandemic, we hired too many people leading into this economic downturn we're now facing," Benioff wrote in a note to staff.

Facebook owner Meta, as well as Twitter, Snap and Vimeo, have all announced major staff reductions in recent months, a remarkable reversal for an industry that has experienced gangbusters growth for more than a decade.

For Amazon, the pandemic was an enormous boon to its bottom line, with online sales skyrocketing as people avoided in-store shopping and the need for cloud storage exploded with more businesses and governments moving operations online. And that, in turn, led Amazon to go on a hiring spree, adding hundreds of thousands of jobs over the past several years.

The layoffs at Amazon were first reported on Tuesday by the Wall Street Journal.

CEO Jassy, in his blog post, acknowledged that while the company's hiring went too far, the company intends to help cushion the blow for laid off workers.

"We are working to support those who are affected and are providing packages that include a separation payment, transitional health insurance benefits, and external job placement support," Jassy said.