UNITED24 Media Telegram Highlights
🇺🇸 White House vows to continue seizing sanctioned oil tankers despite the risk of rising tensions with Russia.
“He (Trump — ed.) will ensure that our policies are implemented in the best interests of the United States. This means imposing an embargo on all shadow fleet vessels illegally transporting oil,” White House spokesperson Caroline Leavitt said.
At the same time, she claimed that Trump maintains good relations with Putin:
“I believe this personal relationship will continue.”
American troops have boarded the tanker Marinera, which Putin had ordered a submarine and warships to protect.
Photos have emerged showing U.S. forces landing on Marinera, a tanker from Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet” that had been evading the U.S. Coast Guard for two weeks.
The vessel is a sanctioned tanker formerly known as Bella 1. It was sailing under the Panamanian flag toward Venezuela. After U.S. forces attempted to intercept it in the Caribbean Sea, the crew painted a Russian tricolor on the hull and informed the Coast Guard that the ship was under Russian control.
According to The New York Times, Russia then officially requested that the United States halt its pursuit of the tanker. The sanctioned Bella 1 was later listed in Russia’s official vessel registry under its new name, Marinera.
Earlier today, U.S. media reported that Russia had dispatched a submarine and other naval assets to escort the tanker.
U.S. actions contradict the norms of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, Russia’s Ministry of Transport said.
Bella 1's crew is now subject to prosecution for any applicable violation of federal law, and they will be brought to the US for such prosecution if necessary, according to the White House.
In response to the United States seizing Russian oil tankers, a senior Russian official has suggested military retaliation, going as far as threatening a nuclear strike against the US. [oh lord, I miss the guy who used to keep track of the number of nuclear threats Russia made. More'n the number of mosquitos over a summer pond by now]
“Human Safari”: Russian Drone Pilots Intentionally Hunt Civilians on Ukraine’s Streets (united24media.com/war-in-ukraine/human-safari-russian-drone-pilots-intentionally-hunt-civilians-on-ukraines-streets-14822)
The term “Human Safari” sounds like a premise from a dystopian fictional novel, but for those living along the Dnipro River, it isn’t the case. It’s the name Ukrainian locals and journalists have given to Russia’s campaign of drone terror, where FPV drones are deployed not for military objectives but to hunt down civilians.
🇬🇧🇺🇦 Britain has transferred 13 Raven air defense systems to Ukraine.
The systems provide short-range protection against drones, aircraft, and helicopters near the front line.
London has also begun supplying Gravehawk systems to protect critical infrastructure from long-range strikes. Ukraine has already received two prototypes.
In the Kursk region, partisans set fire to a communications tower
On the night of January 7, Ukraine’s Defense Forces struck the Oskolneftesnab oil depot in Russia’s Belgorod region and an occupiers’ logistics warehouse in the Donetsk region.
According to reports, strikes on fuel tanks triggered a large-scale fire at the facility.
The 47th Separate Engineering Brigade has received French PFM motorized pontoon ferries (Pont Flottant Motorisé), — Militarnyi reports
PFM systems, developed by the French company CNIM, are mobile complexes that can be used as floating bridges or platforms for river crossings. The structure consists of autonomous modules about 10 meters long, which can be connected into a bridge or operate independently as self-propelled ferries.
Each module is 10.2 meters wide when deployed and about 3.6 meters wide in transport position, with a height of 1.3 meters. One module weighs around 10.5 tons. A 4-meter roadway allows the movement of both wheeled and tracked vehicles. [...]
❗️Pauses in prisoner exchanges are due to the fact that, for the Russian Federation, this is a tool of pressure on Ukraine — President Zelenskyy.
“Russia understands that prisoner exchanges are an important and painful issue for us, which is why it is deliberately slowing the process. We will do everything to unblock the exchanges,” the president said.
Ukraine Boosts Defense Production 1.5x as State Contracts Jump 50% in 2025
Ukraine’s state defense enterprises increased weapons and military equipment production by 1.5 times in 2025 compared with the previous year, Defense Minister Denys Shmyhal said in a January 7 statement.
Shmyhal reported that JSC Ukrainian Defense Industry produced about $4.23 billion worth of arms and equipment in 2025, up from about $2.87 billion in 2024.
Zelenskyy Says US Could Target Kadyrov to Pressure Putin, Citing Maduro Operation (https://united24media.com/latest-news/zelenskyy-says-us-capture-of-maduro-shows-washington-could-pressure-putin-through-kadyrov-14827)
😡 Russian forces shelled residential areas of Kherson in the morning, the city military administration reported.
An apartment building in the Dniprovskyi district was damaged.
Four people were injured. Women aged 44 and 39, and men aged 33 and 47, sustained concussions and mine-explosive injuries. All were hospitalized, the administration said.
One person was killed and at least eight others were injured in a Russian attack on two ports in the Odesa region.
Port infrastructure, administrative buildings, and oil containers were damaged.
The new head of the President’s Office, Kyrylo Budanov, held a meeting with the head of French military intelligence, General Jacques Langlade de Montgros.
In the photo, the intelligence chiefs are pictured against the backdrop of Napoleon’s sarcophagus. [Budanov always manages to look like an escapee from Madame Tussaud's]