Syrian Army took Manbij under control

Syrian forces entered the city of Manbij, which was previously controlled by Kurdish formations — RIA NEWS reports while citing the statement of the general staff of the Syrian Armed Forces. «Based on the obligations of the army in response to the appeal from the population of Manbij — the Armed Forces General Staff announces that the army entered Manbij, and raised the flag of the Syrian Republic in there.» — the General Staff announced. Earlier on Friday, the Kurdish self-defense forces asked the Syrian government to establish control over the areas that used to have their troops, in order to protect the areas from the Turkish invasion. In particular — the city of Manbij.

The website of the ‘Atlantic Council’ — an American non-governmental think tank that promotes NATO’s ideology — published an article about the rise of Nazi ideology in Ukraine. The publication says that there is “a real problem with the right-wing radical violence in Kiev, and the authorities even encourage the extremists”. At the same time, the author of the article, a former employee of the American Agency for the International Development, made a warning: everything he wrote about “looks like Kremlin propaganda, but it only seems so». He described how the neo-Nazi groups are rampant in Ukraine. The article thus testifies that the neo-Nazis in Kiev can no longer be ignored.

Ukraine received the first loan of 349 million Euros, secured by the guarantees of the World Bank. The funds were received by the state budget of Ukraine, the press service of the Ministry of Finances of Ukraine reported. «Deutsche Bank provided a loan of 350 million Euros in the form of two tranches: tranche A, which is more than 53 million Euros with a maturity of 4 years, and tranche B — more than 296 millions of Euros with a maturity of 10 years and a grace period of 4 and a half years»- the press service of the department reports. The total amount of World Bank guarantees is $ 750 millions of dollars. In the first quarter of 2019, Ukraine intends to use the following loan under the unused part of guarantees.

The heads of regional administrations of the Vinnitsa region of Ukraine were ordered to transfer to the “new church” at least 3 parishes of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox church by the end of the year, RIA NEWS reports with a reference to the statement of the press secretary of the Vinnitsa diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church Vladimir Puchkov. «Additionally, some priors of the temples, located on the departmental territory, have already received instructions from the administrations to leave the territory of the institutions at which the temples are located» — he added. Earlier, the Ukrainian authorities, including President Poroshenko, stated that they won’t interfere in the affairs of the church.

On 29th of December, the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko will have a visit to Russia, TASS reports with a reference to the statement of the press service of the head of Belarus. “In Moscow, the presidents of the two countries will continue their conversation on the issues of the Belarusian-Russian cooperation. The presidents discussed those issues in different formats at a meeting in the Kremlin on 25th of December” — the press service noted. Following the meeting, which took place on Tuesday and took about 4 hours — Putin and Lukashenko agreed to establish a working group to resolve the controversial issues. Alexander Lukashenko, who made some harsh statements before the meeting, didn’t talk to the press after the meeting.