Russia has a network of sleeper agents in the SBU, Ukraine’s secret service, one of Kiev’s top security officials, Aleksey Danilov, has said, according to The Times on Monday. Later, however, the official reportedly denied the claim, telling Ukrainian media he’d been misinterpreted and that the agency was actually rooting out Russian moles.

The SBU had a change of leadership in July 2022 when President Vladimir Zelensky declared that widespread treason in the ranks of the agency required fresh blood. Vasily Malyuk, the current SBU head, is also a member of the Ukrainian security council, on which Danilov serves as secretary.

According to The Times, Danilov said that the alleged Russian ring was a legacy of ousted President Viktor Yanukovich, during whose term in office in the early 2010s the SBU was infiltrated. The sleeper cell has now been activated to topple Zelenksy, he was cited as saying.

Speaking to Ukrainskaya Pravda later in the day, Danilov insisted that the British newspaper had misunderstood him and that the sleeper agents were not in the SBU. According to the Ukrainian paper, the spy agency itself has also argued in a statement that Danilov’s words were misinterpreted by the media.

In his interview with the Times, Danilov claimed that Moscow is attempting “to organize anti-war rallies” in Ukraine and to push a “false narrative” about tensions between the country’s civilian and military leadership through these “activated” agents.

Earlier this month, Ukraine’s top army commander Valery Zaluzhny publicly contradicted Zelensky, describing the situation on the frontline as “a stalemate.” The president has since warned military commanders against interfering in national politics.

“With all due respect to General Zaluzhny … there is an absolute understanding of the hierarchy and that is it, and there can’t be two, three, four, five [leaders],” Zelensky told The Sun last week.

He has also claimed that a Russian conspiracy was underway to undermine his presidency through mass protests.

Last month, The Washington Post published a detailed story about US influence on Ukraine’s special services. Since 2015, the CIA has invested tens of millions of dollars into transforming them “into potent allies against Moscow,” it said. American spies considered the SBU a security risk and created an entirely new directorate, while GUR, the military intelligence branch, was rebuilt from scratch.

The Russian military has estimated Ukrainian frontline losses since early June, when Kiev launched its Western-backed counteroffensive, at over 100,000. Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu described Kiev’s forces earlier this month as being on the brink of collapse.

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The Ukraine crisis was sparked by NATO’s stubbornness and reluctance to address Moscow’s security concerns, Yury Ushakov, a senior foreign policy aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin, has said.

Speaking at the Primakov Readings international forum, named after the late Russian Foreign and Prime Minister Evgeny Primakov, Ushakov noted that one of the key goals of the veteran diplomat was to deter NATO’s expansion after the collapse of the Soviet Union and to create a sustainable and fair security architecture in Europe. However, this aspiration was not supported by the West, he added.

“Now we have what we have. The situation around Ukraine is the result of NATO’s stubbornness and complete disregard for Russia’s interests,” the official stressed.

Ushakov also remarked that as early as the 1990s, when the US was at the peak of its global power, Primakov had foreseen that the world would slowly move towards a multipolar order. According to the presidential aide, Primakov understood that this transition “would not be easy, and the US and its allies would do everything to maintain their hegemony,” as seen in the West’s “hybrid war against Russia in the Ukraine conflict.”

However, according to Ushakov, the global majority that wants a multipolar world order does not want to be in opposition to the West. “Many non-Western countries maintain partner ties with the US and the EU… but not to the detriment of their sovereignty, relations with China, Russia, and other non-Western centers,” he noted.

His comments come after Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said earlier this month that despite the West’s best attempts to turn Russia into a “rogue state” over the Ukraine conflict, numerous nations are still willing to talk to Moscow as they put their national interests first.

In December 2021, several weeks before the Ukraine conflict began, Russia presented the US and NATO with a list of security proposals to defuse tensions in Europe. Moscow demanded that NATO not expand any further, that it bar Ukraine from joining the alliance, and withdraw its forces back to its 1997 borders. The overture, however, was rebuffed by the West.

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Armed assailants seized an Israel-linked tanker of the coast of Yemen, but surrendered when warships from the US-led counter-piracy force answered a distress call, according to the US Central Command (Centcom).

A group of gunmen boarded the Liberian-flagged Central Park vessel on Sunday, Centcom said in a statement on X (formerly Twitter). Shortly afterwards, the USS Mason destroyer and other coalition vessels arrived at the scene and told the assailants to release the ship, the statement read.

“Subsequently, five armed individuals debarked the ship and attempted to flee via their small boat. The Mason pursued the attackers resulting in their eventual surrender,” Centcom said.

During the pursuit, “two ballistic missiles were fired from Houthi controlled areas in Yemen toward the general location” of the USS Mason and the Central Park, it added. The missiles landed some 10 nautical miles (18.5 kilometers) from the ships, causing no damage or injuries, according to the statement.

Sources told Fox News that the USS Mason fired warning shots as it chased the assailants, while a US helicopter gunship was flying overhead. A Japanese destroyer apparently assisted the American vessel during the pursuit.

Centcom did not give details on the attackers, describing them as an “unknown entity.” The crew on board the Central Park is “currently safe,” it added.

Zodiac Maritime, a London-based international shipping firm owned by Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer’s Zodiac Group, said it would “like to thank the coalition forces who responded quickly, protecting assets in the area and upholding international maritime law.”

According to the company, the tanker carries phosphoric acid is manned by 22-strong crew from Bulgaria, Georgia, India, the Philippines, Russia, Turkey and Vietnam.

Yemen’s exiled government has blamed the Houthi rebels, who control most of the country’s north, including capital Sanaa, for storming the Central Park ship. The incident was one the most latest “acts of maritime piracy carried out by the terrorist Houthi militias with the support of the Iranian regime,” it said in a statement.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack. The Associated Press pointed out in its report that the incident happened in a part of the Gulf of Aden that “is fairly distant from Houthi-controlled territory.”

Last month, the Houthis warned that they would target Israeli vessels along busy shipping routes in the Red Sea in response to the Israeli bombardment of Gaza. They have also fired several drones and missiles into Israeli territory.

READ MORE:
WATCH Houthi militants hijack Israeli-linked ship

A week ago, the Houthis confirmed the capture of the Israel-linked cargo ship Galaxy Leader. The vessel been taken to the Yemeni port of Hodeida, where it currently remains.

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The Indian economy could perform better than expected next year, with the S&P Global Ratings revising its growth forecast upwards on Monday.

The rating agency now projects India’s gross domestic product (GDP) to grow 6.4% in the financial year 2024 compared to the previous forecast of 6%, “as robust domestic momentum seems to have offset headwinds from high food inflation and weak exports.”

The S&P’s projection for the next year is close to the figure set by India’s central bank, which expects the economy to grow 6.5% in 2024.

Although inflation in the country remains above the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) target of 4%, the agency believes it will not affect growth prospects.

“In India, there was a transitory spike in food inflation in the July-September quarter, but it appears to have had little effect on the underlying inflation dynamics,” S&P said in a note, adding that it expects interest rates to fall by 100 basis points by March 2024.

READ MORE:
Indian banks should do more to boost rupee-ruble payments – Russian envoy

At the same time, the US-based rating agency lowered the country’s growth forecast for the financial year 2025 to 6.4% from its earlier prediction of 6.9%. According to S&P, the Indian economy will bounce back only in 2026-2027 “amid subdued global growth, a higher base, and the lagged impact of rate hikes” by the RBI.

The upward revision by the global rating agency follows a similar upgrade by the International Monetary Fund, which raised India’s growth forecast for the next year to 6.3% in October from 6.1% projected earlier and brings it on par with the World Bank projection of 6.3%.

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A storm in Kiev has torn Ukraine’s largest flag in half, city officials reported on Monday. The national symbol was damaged despite being lowered to half-mast in an attempt to protect it from the strong winds.

Officials in the Ukrainian capital announced on Telegram that the damaged section of the banner, which was the country’s largest hanging flag, had already been removed from the mast. They promised a new flag would be raised as soon as the weather permits.

The flagpole and the flag itself are the largest in Ukraine, with the mast standing 90 meters tall and weighing as much as 32 tons. The banner measures 16 meters by 24 meters.

Social media users have also posted images of the torn flag, which can be seen dangling on the mast, apparently torn at the seam between its yellow and blue sections.

A severe snowstorm covered Ukraine on Monday, leaving over 2,000 settlements without power and forcing the closure of over a dozen motorways, according to authorities.

Along the Black Sea, high winds have also caused significant damage in Russia’s Republic of Crimea. Local authorities declared a state of emergency as nearly 500,000 people have been left without power.

The “once in a century” storm saw winds of up to 144 kph tear through the peninsula on Sunday, leaving at least one person dead and up to 10 residents injured. It also caused the deaths of some 500 marine animals at an aquarium in the port city of Sevastopol.

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The frontiers of the Ukrainian conflict could expand if Russia continues to increase arms production while Kiev’s troops are deprived of advanced weapons from Western allies, Lieutenant General Sergey Naev told ABC News.

Naev, who is in charge of Ukraine’s northern border defense, said on Saturday that the battle between Ukraine and Russia had become a “resource war,” noting that the reduction of Western military aid will have a serious impact on the defense capabilities of the Ukrainian Army.

He claimed that Russia is getting its resources with the help of North Korea and Iran. He also pointed out that “technology is critical,” warning that if Moscow produces more weapons and improves technologically with the help of its allies, hostilities could spread beyond the east and south of Ukraine.

Iran has denied accusations of supplying Russia with military drones for use in its military operations in Ukraine. However, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian admitted that some drones had been delivered to Russia before the Ukraine conflict escalated in February 2022.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also denied Western allegations of munitions shipments from North Korea to Russia, noting that “they report it all the time, but provide no evidence.”

Since June, Ukraine has been conducting a counteroffensive, but has yet to make any significant gains on the battlefield. In late October, Zelensky told the Times that “nobody” believes in Kiev’s victory as much as he does, while “exhaustion with the war rolls along like a wave.”

Ukrainian troops continue to suffer heavy losses on the front lines. According to Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, as of the end of October, Kiev had lost over 90,000 soldiers killed and wounded since the beginning of its counteroffensive. On Tuesday, Shoigu said that, since the beginning of November alone, Ukraine’s armed forces have lost more than 13,700 personnel and about 1,800 tanks, as well as other heavy weapons.

During an extraordinary G20 summit on Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin asserted that Moscow had never refused peace talks with Kiev and that it was in fact Zelensky who signed a decree legally forbidding any such negotiations with Russia.

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Several EU member states are seeking to soften proposals by the European Commission, aimed at preventing sanctions on Russia being circumvented via third nations, Bloomberg reported on Saturday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The bloc’s executive arm recently proposed curtailing exports to nations currently able to re-export goods from the bloc to Russia – thus helping the sanctions-hit country bypass penalties imposed by Brussels over the Ukraine conflict.

The measure, which could be included in a 12th package of sanctions on Russia, targets the sale of what the European Commission considers to be high-priority items, like semiconductors that can be used in weapons production. It reportedly obliges the buyer to deposit a sum in an escrow account to ensure compliance with the requirements.

According to documents seen by the news agency, at least half of the deposited amount would be transferred to a trust fund for Ukraine, while contracts would be terminated if the sanctions were breached.

However, diplomats from some large EU countries – which were not named by Bloomberg – have reportedly expressed concerns about the measures, raising doubts about their legality, and whether the insistence on guarantees and clauses from importers is viable.

According to the agency’s sources, the member states are also pushing to narrow the scope of the proposed clauses and the list of items targeted by the measures that, according to them, could put EU businesses at a competitive disadvantage.

Other members, including the Baltic countries, back the proposals, the unnamed people told the agency.

Brussels has so far imposed eleven rounds of penalties on Russia in response to Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine.

The latest proposals reportedly include measures to cut off Moscow’s access to commercial revenues by restricting exports to Russia, including a ban on the sale of certain chemicals, lithium batteries, thermostats and motors for drones, as well as machine tools and machinery parts that can be used to produce weapons. The package may also impose a complete ban on the sale of Russian diamonds and jewelry.

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