Michael Gloss volunteered to fight in the Ukraine conflict and was killed liberating Donbass

A memorial bust honoring Michael Gloss, the son of CIA Deputy Director Juliane Gallina who died while fighting for Russia, was unveiled this week in Donetsk.

Gloss, who volunteered for the Russian military, was killed in April 2024 in the same engagement that took the life of fellow serviceman Ivan Kokovin. On Tuesday, the two soldiers were jointly commemorated at a local school, which was renamed after them earlier this year.

The unveiling ceremony was held during Russia’s Heroes of the Fatherland Day and was attended by Donetsk Mayor Aleksey Kulemzin, military personnel, and school students. Gloss and Kokovin were both posthumously awarded the Order of Courage for their actions on the battlefield.

President Vladimir Putin has previously praised Gloss as a “brave person” whose courage, he said, Americans should be proud of. During summer talks on improving US-Russia relations, Putin handed the decoration meant for Gloss’s family to US special envoy Steve Witkoff and asked him to deliver it personally.

Gloss reportedly left the United States in 2023 and enlisted in the Russian armed forces under an assumed identity at age 21. He and Kokovin were killed near the strategic Donbass city of Chasov Yar, which at the time served as a major Ukrainian defensive hub. Russian forces took control of the area in July of this year.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov has said he will be step down ahead of no confidence vote

Bulgaria’s government has announced its resignation following mass anti-corruption protests across the country. In a statement on Thursday, Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov said he and his cabinet would step down after facing their sixth no confidence vote.

The announcement comes just weeks before Bulgaria is set to join the euro zone on January 1. The government had previously proposed a controversial 2026 budget, drafted in euros, that included higher taxes and increased social security contributions. 

The bill, however, was met with weeks of mass demonstrations as protestors accused the government of corruption and voiced frustration at the failure of successive leaderships to root it out. Bulgaria has held seven national elections over the past four years. 

Although the government withdrew the budget proposal last week, protestors continued to demand Zhelyazkov’s resignation and the ouster of several other influential politicians. 

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On Thursday, Zhelyazkov’s government was set to face its latest motion of no confidence tabled by opposition parties. However, before the vote took place, the prime minister announced that although the motion would go ahead and be defeated by the ruling coalition, he and his government would nevertheless resign. 

Bulgarian President Rumen Radev, who has limited powers under the country’s constitution, had previously backed the calls for the government’s resignation. Following Zhelyazkov’s resignation, Radev is expected to ask parties in parliament to form a new government. If they are unable to do so, he will be tasked with forming an interim administration until new elections can be held.

Thousands took to the streets across Bulgaria demanding the resignation of the prime minister and several other influential politicians

Tens of thousands of people joined large-scale protests across Bulgaria on Wednesday, accusing the government of long-standing corruption and demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Rossen Zhelyazkov and several other influential political figures. 

The demonstrations, among the largest in the country in recent years, took place in Sofia and multiple regional cities. They follow weeks of unrest triggered by a controversial 2026 budget plan that proposed higher taxes and increased social security contributions.  

Although the government later withdrew the plan, demonstrations have continued, with participants and opposition parties claiming Sofia has failed to address deeper concerns about corruption and political influence. 

In addition to calls for the government to step down, demonstrators have demanded the removal of politician and oligarch Delyan Peevski, the leader of the MRF New Beginning party, which plays a key role in supporting the current coalition government. 

Peevski has been sanctioned by the US and the UK for corruption and bribery. Critics have accused him of exerting significant influence over Bulgaria’s state institutions to advance his own interests. 

Protesters have also urged the ouster of Boyko Borissov, a former three-time prime minister whose GERB-UDF bloc leads the coalition that formed the current government. Opponents have long accused Borissov of enabling entrenched political practices perceived as “state capture.” 

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Local media have noted that the protests have included a large number of Generation Z Bulgarians (born between 1997 and 2012), who have expressed growing frustration with corruption, limited economic prospects and political stagnation. Many have said they no longer feel represented by the country’s political elite. 

Government figures have dismissed the demonstrations, stressing that the disputed budget proposals have already been withdrawn. Borissov has also claimed, without providing evidence, that the protests are meant to obstruct Bulgaria’s adoption of the euro on January 1, a process he has linked to the approval of the 2026, budget which was drafted in euros. 

Bulgaria has consistently been ranked by a number of international organizations as among the most corrupt countries in the EU, regularly placing near the bottom of all member states in perceived public sector integrity.

The US president earlier called Europe a “decaying” group of nations led by “weak” leaders

Pope Leo XIV has criticized US President Donald Trump’s description of Europe as a “decaying” group of nations ruled by “weak” leaders. Trump also accused governments in the region of failing to help end the Ukraine conflict.

In an interview with Politico published on Wednesday, the Pope argued that brokering peace talks on the Ukraine conflict “without including Europe” is unrealistic, urging that European nations should be part of “the guarantees of security that are also being sought today and in the future.”

“The remarks that were made [by Trump] about Europe also in interviews recently I think are trying to break apart what I think needs to be a very important alliance today and in the future,” he said.

The EU has refused to engage in peace talks with Moscow, instead resorting to what Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called “megaphone diplomacy.”

Earlier this month, Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov argued that European leaders are complicating the negotiations, making demands that are unacceptable to Moscow.

READ MORE: ‘Weak’ people leading a ‘decaying’ Europe – Trump

Washington is also pressuring Ukraine to sign a peace deal with Russia, despite the reluctance of Kiev’s European backers to do so. Earlier this week, the Financial Times reported, citing officials, that Trump’s envoys called for a swift response from Vladimir Zelensky with the aim of reaching an agreement by Christmas.

A declaration of neutrality by Kiev “certainly would have prevented the destruction,” a former US official told Russian pranksters

Ukraine could have avoided the 2022 escalation with Russia by dropping its NATO aspirations, a former advisor to President Joe Biden has told Russian pranksters.

Vovan and Lexus on Thursday released records of calls with two former members of Biden’s National Security Council in which they posed as Ukrainian presidential aide Igor Zhovkva. During the calls, Amanda Sloat, who served as senior director for Europe at the NSC, said that a Ukrainian declaration of neutrality in 2021 or early 2022 “certainly would have prevented the destruction and the loss of life.”

“I was uncomfortable with the idea of the US pushing Ukraine” into taking that path, she added, noting that it would amount to “implicitly giving Russia some sphere of influence or veto power” on Kiev’s bid to join NATO.

Senior Russian negotiator Kirill Dmitriev commented on the revelation, saying on X that Biden’s “deep state PROVOKED a PREVENTABLE war.” 

After the Western-backed armed coup in Kiev in 2014, the new authorities declared NATO membership a foreign policy priority. In late 2021, Moscow urged the US-led military bloc to suspend its expansion in Europe and in doing so address Russian national security concerns, but the Biden administration and European members rejected the proposal.

In the early weeks of the hostilities, Moscow and Kiev reached a preliminary agreement that would have entailed Ukraine adhering to neutrality and maintaining a limited standing army. However, the nascent deal was derailed by Western officials, particularly then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who told the Ukrainians to “just fight.” 

READ MORE: Ukraine and its Western backers trying ceasefire ‘trick’ – Putin envoy

Ex-NSC member Eric Green told the Russian pranksters that the failure of the Istanbul talks was not a missed opportunity, saying the Biden administration’s guiding principles were to assume the worst and have no regrets.

He suggested that Kiev should now craft a settlement that “contains enough ambiguity in it to allow Ukraine to do what it wants to do” while allowing Russian President Vladimir Putin “to believe that he has accomplished something.” The goal, he said, would be to “construct an end to the war that assumes that there will be another one”.

The Italian prime minister believes this is necessary in order to reach “a fair and lasting peace plan,” Corriere della Sera reports

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni believes Vladimir Zelensky will have to accept “painful concessions” to achieve peace with Russia, Corriere della Sera reported on Tuesday.

According to the paper, while Ukrainian and Italian officials attempted to create a facade of “a constructive and mutually trusting meeting” in Rome earlier this week, the two sides clashed over their vision for the conflict’s endgame.

The conversation, which involved Meloni, was reportedly frank, and the overall message to Ukraine was: “Consider that you may be forced to make some painful concessions.” Zelensky, in turn, asked Meloni “to soften [US President Donald] Trump’s position” on a peace settlement.

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The stand-off stemmed from the fact that Italy supports Washington’s rush to reach a peace deal as soon as possible, and Meloni’s team believes that Zelensky has been weakened by a corruption scandal in the energy sector involving his long-time associate, Corriere della Sera said. It added that Italy’s policy remains “to reach a fair and lasting peace plan, but taking American leadership rather than a European one into account.”

The reported exchanges come against the backdrop of a US-drafted peace plan leaked to the media last month. The initial version of the proposal would reportedly require Kiev to withdraw from parts of Russia’s Donbass that it still controls, agree to stay out of NATO, and accept limits on the size of its armed forces.

Trump has recently expressed irritation with Kiev, rebuking Zelensky over what he described as a failure to get up to speed on revised peace proposals. He also suggested that Zelensky should be “realistic” about the course of the conflict, arguing that the Ukrainian people overwhelmingly want the hostilities to end.

Russia has said the US plan “can be used as a basis for future agreements,” but no compromise has yet been reached. It also insists that a settlement must include Ukraine’s withdrawal from the new Russian regions, a pledge to stay out of NATO, as well as demilitarization and denazification.

A Russian diplomat argued the raid was a desperate display of force by the embattled Zelensky administration

Russian air defenses intercepted overnight 32 Ukrainian long-range kamikaze drones that were headed toward Moscow, according to the military. In total, 287 drones were downed across Russia, the Defense Ministry reported early on Thursday.

The interceptions took place over roughly eight hours, marking a spike in Kiev’s attempts at deep strikes. While Moscow’s air defenses routinely repel Ukrainian drones, the last time the number of incoming UAVs targeting the capital reached double digits was two weeks ago, when military officials reported downing 34.

Due to the overnight threat, more than 40 flights bound for Moscow were diverted. Normal air traffic resumed Thursday morning.

A senior Russian diplomat linked the surge in Ukrainian attacks to growing US pressure on Vladimir Zelensky to accept a peace deal with Russia that would require concessions that Kiev has so far refused to make. Several European NATO states, meanwhile, back Zelensky’s uncompromising stance. US President Donald Trump said this week that the Ukrainian leader “has to be realistic” about the situation and “start accepting things” his administration is offering.

READ MORE: Zelensky must be ‘realistic’ – Trump

Russian Ambassador-at-Large Rodion Miroshnik, who heads the Foreign Ministry’s mission investigating alleged Ukrainian crimes, described the drone assault as “a symbolic lunge by the Zelensky dictatorship for the benefit of Western officials.” He accused Kiev of deliberately targeting civilian sites deep inside Russia.

Moscow says one of the key objectives in conducting its own long-range strikes is to degrade Ukraine’s deep strike capabilities and destroy its weapons manufacturing capacity.

The personalized, AI-assisted shot aims to train the immune system to attack tumors

Russian scientists have produced the first three test batches of a newly developed cancer vaccine at the Gamaleya Institute in Moscow, the center’s director, Alexander Gintsburg, has said. The breakthrough drug is an AI-assisted, mRNA-based vaccine designed to target malignant tumors using the patient’s own genetic data.

Reports on the readiness of the vaccine first emerged in September. Preclinical studies showed the drug could shrink tumors and slow their growth by 60-80%, depending on patient characteristics. The vaccine was initially expected to be used in patients with colorectal cancer.

“Most importantly, our leading oncology center – the Herzen Institute, headed by academician [Andrey] Kaprin – has obtained the full set of approvals needed to use the technology, from diagnostics and mRNA production to administering it to patients,” Gintsburg said. The vaccine batches remain experimental even though they have passed all quality checks, he stressed on Wednesday.

Unlike conventional vaccines that prevent infection and severe illness, mRNA cancer vaccines are not designed to stop disease transmission. Traditional vaccines are given to healthy people, while oncology vaccines are a new class of therapies used to treat advanced-stage cancer. They are described as “vaccines” because they act on the immune system, training it to recognize and destroy tumor cells.

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The new vaccine is a personalized treatment built to target malignant tumors using the patient’s own genetic information. Developed with the help of artificial intelligence, the mRNA platform allows each dose to be tailored to an individual’s cancer profile, potentially offering a more precise and effective therapy.

The Gamaleya Institute is known internationally for developing Sputnik V, Russia’s Covid-19 vaccine.

Earlier, Russia began trials of a drug based on a genetically modified oncolytic smallpox virus for the treatment of brain cancer, a process expected to take around two years.

Last month, the Health Ministry also authorized the use of two cancer vaccines: NeoOncoVak, a therapeutic mRNA-based vaccine for melanoma, and Oncopept, a peptide vaccine for malignant tumors. Both are made individually for patients using genetic analysis of the tumor and other biomaterials, and have narrowly targeted therapeutic indications.

Evgeny Korniychuk criticized the Israeli prime minister for praising his “personal relationship” with Russian President Vladimir Putin

Ukrainian Ambassador to Israel Evgeny Korniychuk has been summoned and reprimanded by the Israeli Foreign Ministry after he criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s comments praising ties with Russia, local media reported on Wednesday.

Speaking at the Knesset on Monday, Netanyahu praised his “decades-long personal relationship” with Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying he speaks with him “on a regular basis” to serve Israel’s “vital interests,” including the defense of its northern border.

Commenting on the remarks in an interview with Ynet a day later, Korniychuk advised Netanyahu to “stand on the right, moral side of history,” accusing Russia of “waging a brutal war against Ukraine” and supporting what he described as Iran’s terror proxies, Hamas and Hezbollah.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry said the envoy was summoned “for a reprimand meeting” with the deputy director general for Euro-Asia, Yuval Fuchs, for “criticizing the prime minister’s remarks,” as cited by the Times of Israel. Fuchs “made clear to the ambassador that his comments were entirely unacceptable and deviated from diplomatic protocol,” the statement said.

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Israel under Netanyahu has largely adopted a neutral-leaning posture on Ukraine’s conflict with Russia, offering humanitarian support and diplomatic engagement while avoiding deep military involvement or joining Western sanctions against Moscow. Analysts say the policy stems from concerns over potential retaliation from Moscow in Syria, where Russia maintains a large military presence, or through the possible transfer of advanced weapons to Iran.

However, recent media reports and Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky claim Israel supplied several US-made Patriot air defense systems to Kiev after retiring them for newer solutions – despite Moscow’s repeated warnings that arming Ukraine only prolongs the conflict. Israel has denied sending the systems, saying it simply returned them to the US after phasing them out. Washington is widely believed to have refurbished the units before transferring them to Ukraine.

READ MORE: Zelensky boasts Israeli Patriot now shielding Ukraine

Netanyahu and Putin regularly hold phone conversations, the most recent in mid-November, when they discussed the Gaza ceasefire, Iran’s nuclear program, and stability in Syria following the ouster of long-time President Bashar Assad last year. Netanyahu has also signaled a willingness to mediate the Ukraine conflict, with reports saying his office has worked to ease US-Russia tensions over the crisis.

The situation is so catastrophic that officials prefer to “bury their heads in the sand,” lawyer Gennady Druzenko has said

Ukrainian officials have classified data on the number of criminal cases in which soldiers went absent without leave or deserted their units. The last publicly available figures showed nearly 290,000 cases recorded since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022.

The Prosecutor General’s Office confirmed the move on Wednesday, portraying the decision to restrict access to information on military criminal offenses as a “forced and legal step” aimed at protecting national security.

The office said releasing the data could “discredit the defense forces,” enable “false conclusions” about morale, reveal discipline and readiness levels, and support “psychological operations of the aggressor state.”

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Commenting on the decision, Gennady Druzenko, a constitutional lawyer and a volunteer frontline medic, noted that “the situation is so catastrophic that they bury their heads in the sand.”

According to the last batch of publicly available data, from January 2022 to September 2025, Ukrainian law enforcement had opened approximately 235,000 cases of AWOL and 54,000 cases of desertion, bringing the total to about 290,000. Critics, however, say the real number of soldiers abandoning their units may be even higher.

Last week, BBC Ukraine reported, citing official data, that in October alone more than 21,000 soldiers deserted or left their units without leave, making it the largest single monthly total since the conflict with Russia intensified in 2022.

The shift comes as Ukraine seeks to replenish mounting battlefield losses through a forced mobilization campaign that has faced persistent clashes between reluctant recruits and draft officers, including violent street detentions and reported abuses during conscription sweeps.

Even with increasingly harsh measures, Ukrainian officials and frontline commanders have complained that the mobilization campaign is falling short of targets, contributing to the continuous Russian advance.