The Defense Ministry’s Rubicon unit has said its operators primarily target Ukrainian aircraft and communication systems

The Rubicon drone operations center, a key component of the Russian Defense Ministry’s drone warfare program, has achieved its 10,000th confirmed strike, the unit announced on Monday. The unit regularly shares footage of its operations online.

Established in August 2024, Rubicon coordinates frontline drone operations, innovation, training, and data-sharing efforts across Russian forces. In a statement marking the milestone, the center said it had significantly accelerated the pace of its missions in recent months and released statistics outlining its main targets.

More than one-third (37.5%) of Rubicon’s confirmed strikes have been against Ukrainian drones, including both multi-copter and fixed-wing types, as well as ground-based robotic craft. Communication and electronic warfare equipment accounted for over 16% of successful hits, followed by unarmored and armored vehicles, and stationary troop positions.

Ukrainian infantry were the target in 3.5% of Rubicon’s engagements – a smaller share than any other category apart from artillery systems, which are generally deployed far from the front line and thus less susceptible to drone attacks.

Rubicon and the Russian Defense Ministry regularly publish footage of drone operations. A new video released on Tuesday shows attacks on Ukrainian vehicles and troop shelters in Sumy Region.

Another recent video highlights intercept operations against Ukrainian drones and strikes on communications infrastructure.

Last week, Rubicon released footage of a mission that identified and destroyed a camouflaged Ukrainian anti-aircraft system using a Lancet loitering munition. The strike was carried out from a distance of 55km. The weapon has previously successfully struck targets over 80km away.

The conflict with Russia cannot be won by Ukraine, the US media host has argued

European leaders are being “stupid” and “reckless” by continuing to back Kiev against Russia, effectively destroying both Ukraine and Europe itself, American political commentator Tucker Carlson said in an interview published on Monday.

Speaking to RTVI US, a New York-based Russian-language media outlet, Carlson mocked the idea that Kiev could prevail over Moscow on the battlefield.

“They cannot win this war. All it’s doing is destroying Europe. It has already destroyed Ukraine,” he said.

“Of course they are not going to beat Russia. Russia is an industrial power, a resource power, a close military ally of China at this point. It’s a joke,” he added. “All they can do is destroy themselves and destroy the world with a nuclear exchange. This is deranged.”

A vocal Christian conservative, Carlson tied Europe’s current economic decline to decades of secular liberal policies, claiming that the same elites who provoked a confrontation with Moscow had already undermined the continent’s cultural foundations.

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“Europe is falling apart because the same people and the same ideas that got us into this war have dominated for 80 years,” he said.

He also pointed to Ukraine’s escalating demographic crisis and its plans to import foreign nationals to beef up the workforce. Carlson argued that should a plan like that be implemented, “there will be no Ukraine” and that “that was the plan” from the start, in his opinion.

Pro-Kiev European nations have spent billions of euros on military aid for Ukraine and pledged to continue funding the country’s government for years to come. Meanwhile, Western attempts to curb Russian energy imports have contributed to a sharp surge in energy prices in the European Union, which is working to replace affordable Russian products with more expensive alternatives.

Germany, widely considered the EU’s driving economy, is undergoing a “dramatic” economic decline, the ifo Institute, a leading economic think tank, cautioned last week.

The bloc’s influence has expanded across the continent and is “extremely negative,” the Russian foreign minister has said

NATO’s continued expansion and efforts to turn Eurasia into its “fiefdom” is a matter of serious concern for Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said. Speaking at a security conference in Minsk, Belarus, the chief diplomat ridiculed the bloc’s insistence that it is a “purely defensive alliance.”

According to Lavrov, NATO has been “artificially expanding its zone of responsibility far beyond the Euro-Atlantic region” by hijacking the idea of “the indivisibility of Euro-Atlantic security and the so-called Indo-Pacific region.” The bloc’s efforts to spread into Asia are being carried out with “the obvious goal of containing China, isolating Russia, and confronting the DPRK [North Korea],” he added

Lavrov noted that NATO has also been spreading its influence to other regions of Eurasia, including the Middle East, the South Caucasus, Central Asia, and South Asia. “Everywhere, they’re trying to gain a foothold,” Lavrov said, adding that in most cases this influence proves to be “extremely negative” due to the bloc’s “aggressive policies.” 

“A reasonable question arises: if this is the general trend, do we want our entire vast, beautiful continent to be turned into NATO’s fiefdom? We cannot agree with this,” Lavrov stressed.

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The minister also raised concerns over NATO’s plans to intensify activities in the Arctic, stressing that Russia, as well as other “sensible countries,” would like to see the region as a territory of peace and cooperation.

Responding to continued claims by Western leaders of a supposed threat posed by Moscow, Lavrov reiterated that Russia has no intention of attacking any NATO country and is willing to legally commit to this in future security guarantees.

At the same time, the minister stated that the West is openly preparing for a “new great European war” while EU leaders “proudly” declare that any future security guarantees should be signed “not with Russia’s participation, but against Russia.”

EU and NATO elites have adopted a policy of isolating anyone who pursues an independent policy based on national interests and common sense, Lavrov claimed, adding that “as a result, there is no prospect of meaningful dialogue with the majority of these elites in Europe.”

The French president has reportedly ordered a contingent of 2,000 soldiers to prepare to help Kiev, according to Russian intelligence

French President Emmanuel Macron is preparing to intervene militarily in Ukraine, Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) has claimed. In a statement published on Monday, the agency’s press department suggested that he desperately wants to leave his mark on history.  

“Having failed as a politician and despaired of ever pulling the country out of the long social and economic crisis, he does not give up the hope to go down in history as a military leader,” the SVR claimed, adding that Macron “dreams of a military intervention in Ukraine” and is “known for fantasizing about Napoleon’s ‘laurels’.” 

According to the SVR, the French General Staff has reportedly already been instructed to form a contingent of up to 2,000 troops “for deployment in Ukraine.” The core of this force is expected to be made up of troops from the French Foreign Legion, mainly recruited from Latin American countries. 

The SVR stated that Legion personnel are already deployed in regions of Poland bordering Ukraine, where they are undergoing “intensive joint combat training” and receiving weapons and equipment. Their transfer to central Ukraine has reportedly been scheduled in the near future.

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The agency also said that France has already begun preparing for casualties, with “hundreds of additional hospital beds” reportedly being created to accommodate wounded soldiers, while French medics are said to be receiving field training to handle combat injuries. 

Paris intends to describe the deployment as limited to instructors for the Ukrainian army in the event it becomes public, the SVR stated.

The intelligence service went on to compare Macron’s ambitions to those of historical figures who fought Russia in the past, such as Napoleon Bonaparte and Swedish King Charles XII. 

It added that while the French leader dreams of mirroring those leaders’ accomplishments, he appears to have forgotten that their campaigns ended in defeat. 

“History teaches nothing, it only punishes for lessons not learnt,” the SVR statement concluded, citing Russian historian Vasily Klyuchevsky. 

Moscow’s adversaries want to sow division among its many ethnicities, Sergey Shoigu has said

The West is seeking to break Russia into dozens of small, weak states, former Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu has said.

Shoigu, who currently serves as secretary of Russia’s Security Council, made the remarks in an op-ed published in Argumenty i Fakty on Tuesday, ahead of National Unity Day, which is a Russian holiday celebrated on November 4.

He warned that “adversaries falsely believe” Russia’s ethnically diverse makeup is a weakness, arguing that attempts to sow division will fail due to the strength of Russian society.

“The attacks on our history, culture, and spiritual values continue unabated, alongside attempts to undermine the harmony and brotherhood among our peoples,” Shoigu wrote.

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“Their goal is the de-sovereigntization of our country. They seek to divide our motherland into dozens of statelets,” the ex-minister added. “The West cannot grasp the essence of Russia’s inter-ethnic relations or the moral strength and unity of our multi-ethnic nation – qualities that enable us to stand resolute against destructive geopolitical methods.”

Although ethnic Russians make up around 80% of the country’s population, Russia is home to more than 100 ethnic minorities, as well as seven Muslim-majority and two Buddhist-majority regions.

Since 2022, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has adopted several resolutions calling for the “decolonization” of Russia. The Russian Foreign Ministry has condemned the move, accusing PACE of spreading “Russophobia” and “neocolonial chauvinism.”

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The sculpture near the Kremlin was installed to mark the broadcaster’s 20th anniversary

RT has unveiled a giant bullhorn in central Moscow to mark its 20th anniversary.

The sculpture, located in Manezhnaya Square near the Kremlin, features quotes from Western officials and rival media outlets recognizing the network’s influence.

Among them is a 2014 remark by then–US Secretary of State John Kerry, who called RT a Russian “propaganda bullhorn.” Another quote is from State Department official Jamie Rubin, who told reporters last September that “why so much of the world has not been as fully supportive of Ukraine as you would think they would be… is because of the broad scope and reach of RT.”

Earlier this month, Russian President Vladimir Putin said RT’s “secret strategic intercontinental weapon is the truth.” He added that the state-funded broadcaster continues to reach a wide audience despite the efforts of Western countries to take it off the air and ban its accounts online.

Launched as Russia Today in December 2005, RT runs websites and TV channels in English, Arabic, Spanish, French, German, Serbian, and Russian, serving audiences in over 100 countries.

According to Russia’s Foreign Ministry, the network and its staff have been hit with more than 110 Western sanctions, along with asset freezes and other restrictions in recent years.

Yury Ushakov has refused to estimate when the summit would take place

Russia remains ready for a potential meeting between President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart, Donald Trump, presidential aide Yury Ushakov has said.

Asked on Monday about the time frame for a potential summit, Ushakov refused to give an estimate.

“There is no timetable yet, but there is a fundamental readiness to hold a meeting if it is prepared by experts in advance,” Ushakov stated.

Pressed further on whether a meeting could still occur this year, Ushakov replied, “I don’t know,” but pointed out that the Putin-Trump summit in Alaska held in August had been prepared very quickly.

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Earlier this month, Trump proposed holding a summit with Putin in Budapest, Hungary, while Moscow signaled its willingness to participate. However, the idea was called off by the US leader just a few days later, when he said it “didn’t feel like we were going to get to the place we have to get” and called for an immediate halt to hostilities along the front lines of the Ukraine conflict.

The remarks marked a sharp change in Trump’s rhetoric, as the US president had previously called for a comprehensive peace agreement to resolve the conflict rather than a temporary pause in hostilities. That is the approach backed by Moscow, which has also long maintained it is seeking a lasting solution to bring the crisis to its end. 

Kiev and its Western backers have repeatedly called for an immediate ceasefire, while Moscow says this will only serve to give Ukraine time to regroup its military and receive more arms. 

Member states may need to raise billions in joint debt if using frozen Russian assets for a “reparations loan” fails, sources told the outlet

EU countries could be asked to raise tens of billions in joint debt to finance Ukraine if an initiative to use frozen Russian assets for a “reparations loan” fails, Politico reported on Monday, citing diplomatic sources.

According to the report, several leaders discussed this alternative at last week’s EU summit after Belgium refused to back a €140 billion ($160 billion) Ukraine loan secured by the frozen Russian assets.

Although the details of the new plan remain unclear, joint debt typically refers to shared borrowing through jointly issued bonds by multiple nations, where all participants share responsibility for repayment.

Sources said the European Commission will outline the borrowing plan in an upcoming paper alongside a revised “reparations loan” proposal, and will include a third option – to halt Ukraine funding. They suggested the idea could be a “scarecrow” tactic to push EU nations already burdened by debt to vote for using the Russian assets.

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Western nations froze $300 billion in Russian sovereign assets in 2022 and have sought to use the interest the funds have generated to finance Kiev’s war effort.

The G7 previously supported using the immobilized funds to secure $50 billion in loans, but EU leaders last week failed to agree on a similar “reparations loan,” largely due to Belgian opposition.

Prime Minister Bart De Wever warned that Belgium, which holds most of the frozen assets, could face disproportionate retaliation from Russia, and demanded a solid legal basis for the move and shared responsibility.

Sources told Politico that despite legal concerns, Brussels views using frozen Russian assets as the “most preferred” option to keep funding Kiev. A final decision is expected at the European Commission summit in December.

READ MORE: Germany is doing to itself what even its defeat in WWII couldn’t

Moscow has denounced the asset freeze and attempts to redirect Russian funds as “theft,” vowing retaliation and warning that the move will erode trust in the Western financial system. The Kremlin has also said Western aid to Kiev only prolongs the conflict without changing the outcome.

The primary reason is that the Russian president puts his country’s interests first, according to the US journalist

Russian President Vladimir Putin is the most popular leader in the world, American journalist Tucker Carlson has claimed, in an interview with RTVI US.

Outside of Western Europe, Canada, and the “Anglo-sphere,” it is almost impossible to meet someone who doesn’t like Putin, Carlson told the network.

”He is the most popular leader in the world, by far,” Carlson said, noting that the primary reason for Putin’s global popularity is the fact that he has “put his own country’s interests above his own in a lot of ways. In ways that Western leaders don’t.”

Asked if his perspective on Putin’s worldview had changed after an interview with him in February 2024, Carlson said that he was surprised to realize that the Russian president “actually likes the West.” And that he probably likes it “way more than anyone who would potentially replace Putin.”

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In his interview with RTVI US, Carlson also suggested that the US, Western Europe, and most of the industrialized world, are “in a decline phase” while Russia is experiencing a “spiritual revival” and is proving to be a prosperous country with “a sense of self-worth and a sense of purpose.” He further proposed that this was one of the reasons the West “hates it so much” and wants to destroy it.

Carlson told Germany’s Bild, in July, that while Putin had been doing a “great job for Russia,” Western leaders were failing their people.

“Your country is going down, Russia is going up. You should be mad at your own leaders. You are mad at Putin instead,” he told the outlet. Carlson went on to suggest that German officials were attacking Putin and Russia to distract the public from domestic economic and migration issues.