After almost four years of war in which Russia’s garrison in the separatist Transnistria region of Moldova has been quiet, Russia may be ready to use it against Ukraine.
Russia only has about 1,500 troops in Transnistria so there isn’t going to be an offensive launched. Most likely it would be small sabotage groups trying to infiltrate Ukrainian territory to the east.
Why would they do that now? Two possible reasons — 1. They want to tie down Ukrainian troops along the border with Transnistria or 2. They have determined that for political and economic reasons they cannot sustain the garrison there much longer so they might as well use it.
Transnistria continues to exist in its current form only because Moldova has preferred diplomacy and cooperation instead of a new civil war and because It wasn’t seen as enough of a threat to justify a military operation to eliminate the Russian garrison there.
Also, Transnistria is the home of the Cobasna ammunition depot, the largest in Europe and full of aging munitions that no one in their right mind would want to deal with. Cobasna is in the northern part of Transnistria and just across the border with Ukraine.
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The threat of Russian sabotage groups infiltrating Ukraine from Transnistria is growing. Sources in Ukraine’s military intelligence tell 24 Kanal that Moscow is rapidly stepping up activity in the region to stretch Ukrainian resources and create a new front.
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— NOELREPORTS (@noelreports.com) December 10, 2025 at 6:20 AM
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Russia is sharply escalating covert and military activity in Moldova’s Transnistria region — a Kremlin-driven push that Ukraine’s Intelligence says is designed to open a new front of pressure on Ukraine and destabilize Moldova ahead of critical political moments.
www.kyivpost.com/post/65973
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— Kyiv Post (@kyivpost.com) December 10, 2025 at 9:26 AM
An intel source told Kyiv Post, on condition of anonymity:
“To achieve its goals, Moscow is sending special service agents to Transnistria, whose task is to exacerbate the crisis, sow chaos through information operations, carry out provocations, and conduct sabotage.”
After Gazprom halted gas supplies to Transnistria in early 2025, the region avoided collapse only because Moldova allowed Moldovagaz to supply the critical resource to the enclave, HUR added.
Ukraine seizes a ship from the Russian shadow fleet.
What I didn’t see an explanation for was why a shadow fleet tanker would stop at a port in Odesa.
According to a Telegram post by the SBU, the vessel has been detained at a commercial port in Odesa. It arrived under the flag of an African country to export a shipment of steel pipes.
The owner of the ship has been sanctioned by the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, thus he regularly changed the name of the ship and the formal beneficiaries to third countries, according to the post.
The SBU added that before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the dry cargo ship docked in Sevastopol at least seven times to illegally export agricultural products and, in January 2021, it transported nearly 7,000 tons of grain from Crimea to North Africa.
The ship's crew, consisting of the captain and 16 members, are citizens of several Middle Eastern countries. Flight plans, pilot cards, cartographic materials, and radio communication logs were found were found, providing evidence of illegal entry into the ports of the occupied territories.
Russia has lost another military cargo plane.
This one was an Il-76 and it crashed in Sudan. Too bad, so sad.
Russia is still able to produce fighter planes.
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❗ The Russian Aerospace Forces have been equipped with new Su-34 bombers.
The United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) produced and delivered the aircraft. This is the seventh batch of Su-34 military planes delivered in 2025.
militarnyi.com/en/news/russ...
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— Militarnyi (@militarnyi.com) December 10, 2025 at 7:19 AM
Since open reports by the Russians do not specify the exact number of aircraft in each batch, the actual number of Su-34s delivered is currently unknown. However, given that a typical batch usually includes two, and less often three, aircraft, it can be stated that the Russian Aerospace Forces have received at least 14 new planes this year.
The new aircraft are replacing Su-34s that have been destroyed or damaged in the war against Ukraine. Some planes also reach the end of their service life due to constant use in bombing strikes on Ukrainian positions.
Three Russian air-defense systems at once.
Taking Out Shaheds 101
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‼️ Many soldiers saw Shahed “cutting circles” for a very long time. This is a Shahed-radio repeater of the MESH network. Its task is to relay the control channel from Russia deep into our country for other Shaheds, - Flash
It seems like a stupid target, but in fact it needs to be shot down FIRST
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— MAKS 25 👀🇺🇦 (@maks23.bsky.social) December 10, 2025 at 5:51 AM
The second army in the world.
Trump continues to try to ram a shitty deal down Ukraine’s throat.
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Trump’s envoys have reportedly given Zelensky just days to respond to a proposed peace deal requiring Kyiv to accept territorial losses in exchange for "unspecified U.S. security guarantees." Could TACO finally pull the trigger on Ukraine? Seems both inevitable and hard to believe.
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— Kevin Rothrock (@kevinrothrock.me) December 9, 2025 at 5:12 PM
Trump wants Zelenskyy to agree to new presidential elections — a longstanding Russian talking point that Trump isn’t even embarrassed to be parroting. So Zelenskyy calls out his bullshit and says, sure, as long as you and Europe provide security for the election.
Zelenskyy should tell him that in addition to a presidential election, Ukraine voters will be asked whether they should cede any territory to Russia.
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Zelenskyy says Ukraine could hold elections in 60 to 90 days if the U.S. and Europe provide security so people can vote.
If Europe and US are willing to put troops on the ground across all of Ukraine, and provide air defense then an election is possible. It’s their move, now.
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— Anonymous (@youranoncentral.bsky.social) December 9, 2025 at 1:49 PM
If you seize our assets, we’ll march to Berlin! We might even keep going and march across the ocean to New York!!!
Put warheads on those drones and you have an awesome weapon.
The situation in Pokrovsk remains fluid.
Any peace deal that does not include accountability for the murderers who did this in Izium, who murdered 38 people in Ternopil and committed other crimes won’t be worth a bucket of spit.
Another 1,010 Russians.
Adios, Colonel.
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⚡️Russian Colonel Махотин Илья Константинович (Makhotin Ilya Konstantinovich), Deputy Chief of Staff of the Missile Troops and Artillery Department of the 35th Combined Arms Army, was burned alive during an attack on the command post in Voskresenka, Zaporizhzhia Raion, Ukraine.
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— KIU • Russian Officers killed in Ukraine (@killedinukraine.bsky.social) December 9, 2025 at 10:26 PM
This scumbag will have to look over his shoulder the rest of his life.
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Andriy Derkach, ex-Ukrainian MP wanted for treason, has been awarded the title "Hero of Russia" and received the Gold Star. Derkach fled to Russia, joined the Federation Council, and was exposed in a major corruption probe as an FSB asset who laundered defense funds and sabotaged U.S.-Ukraine ties.
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— NOELREPORTS (@noelreports.com) December 10, 2025 at 4:55 AM
This Russian soldier should have been a novelist.
He writes about the travails of a friend who was seriously wounded during a meat assault and eventually sent to a hospital in St. Petersburg. It’s a good read though rather long.
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1/ Russian soldiers who fall out with their commanders – due to personality clashes, disagreements, or a refusal to pay bribes – are routinely sent to their deaths in stormtrooper squads. Few survive for long; the following account vividly describes the life of a stormtrooper. ⬇️
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— ChrisO_wiki (@chriso-wiki.bsky.social) December 10, 2025 at 3:31 AM
Splitting into small groups and advancing sequentially under fire cover—the shooting range wank has little in common with real combat.
7/ "Deafening, disorienting gunfire and explosions from all sides, the howl of kamikazes, the whistle of bullets, and the buzz of shrapnel overhead. Who's shooting, from where, why, and why the fuck? "The Ukies are over there," said the commander, setting the combat mission.
8/ "And where are they? Where are they shooting from? How do you suppress something you can't see? What next—crawl, shoot, run? Or just lie there? Nothing works: bullets ahead, kamikazes above, sadists and prison behind.
9/ "None of the group has assault experience; assault troops in meat-based assaults rarely survive their first battle. Only one is under fifty. It's time to prepare for the ground.
10/ "This hospitable soil has long been ready to accept new symbionts. The ravaged black wasteland with charred tree trunks is littered with bodies, in some places several layers deep.
11/ "Some have already given the planet everything they could and turned into mummies dried out by the southern sun. Some are quite fresh, still decomposing and marking the occupied territory with the corporate scent of the Russian army.
12/ "They are doomed to carry out their combat mission posthumously. Their duty to the “motherland” is indefinite. You had to read the fine print. They shield the next ones from bullets and camouflage them from drones.
Let’s check in on the Russian economy.
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Workers in the Urals at one of the largest copper-iron-vanadium ore extraction sites complain that they haven’t been paid for the second month in a row. The situation is so critical that many of them can’t even afford the trip home.
www.moscowtimes.ru/2025/12/09/r...
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— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) December 10, 2025 at 7:13 AM
According to Rosstat, as of October, the total amount of overdue wage arrears in the country reached 2.156 billion rubles, and over the past year this figure has increased 2.95 times.
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RUSSIAS MKB BANK SIGNALS HUGE LIAN DEFAULT PROBLEM
Bad loans have surged 800% adding $7.66 billion in bad debts, meaning 28% of the banks outstanding loans are now in default, totalling nearly $9 billion.
Allowing for PPPx4 in US purchasing terms that nearly $40 billion. Any bank in the west that
— The Analyst (@militaryanalyst.bsky.social) December 10, 2025 at 9:01 AM
Any bank in the west that announced defaults of over 5% of its loans would be facing special measures and government regulation. This is a huge crisis. And they’re not the only ones. On top of this Russia is trying to stop the illegal export of gold and foreign currency. Private holdings of foreign currency have reduced by 95% - the remaining holdings are believed to be held by a handful of oligarchs, and that’s according to the Russian Central Bank.
I probably disagree with Joe Wilson 99% of the time but he is spot on here.
Somebody must be worried about being treated like a war criminal.
He is either very brave or very foolish.
Wishing Mykola a swift recovery.
