The head of the Sudzhansky district of the Kursk region, Alexey Spiridonov, called for the evacuation of the civilians still remaining there. According to him, about 100 people now remain in the entire region, 50 of them in the regional center of Sudzha. Most of them are elderly people. “I urge them to leave there because winter is coming and there is no supply of medicines. There are mostly elderly people there now. And sometimes you have to go out and persuade them to evacuate.

The founder of the iGooods grocery delivery service, Grigory Kunis, said on social networks that he left Russia. This happened after the prosecutor's office appealed his sentence in the FBK donation case - last week the court sentenced him to a fine. On December 8, a court in St. Petersburg sentenced him to a fine of 350 thousand rubles. The prosecutor requested a real sentence of 6 years in prison for Kunis.

PSG (Paris Saint-Germain) goalkeeper Matvey Safonov saved four out of five shots in the penalty shootout in the Intercontinental Cup final. Thus, he became the first goalkeeper in history to take four consecutive penalties in a series at a FIFA tournament. PSG met in the final of the Intercontinental Cup, which took place in Qatar on December 17, with the Brazilian club Flamengo (Rio de Janeiro). The Parisian club won 2:1 on penalties. Safonov was recognized as the best player of the meeting.

News The Insider December 18, 2025 Ararat Mirzoyan and Kaya Kallas (right) at the signing of the Strategic Agenda for Partnership between Armenia and the EU. Photo: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Armenia and the European Union signed a Strategic Partnership Agenda in early December. The entire text of the document was published on the website of the Armenian Foreign Ministry.

Belarus has put on combat duty the Russian Oreshnik missile system, equipped with missiles with nuclear warheads, Alexander Lukashenko said, speaking at the VII All-Belarusian People's Assembly, reports “Pul First”. According to Lukashenko, the complex arrived in the republic on December 17. Earlier, on November 10, Lukashenko said that the complex would not be located on the same territory permanently.

The head of the Safe Internet League, professional informer Ekaterina Mizulina, earns over 17 million rubles annually, receiving income from two undisclosed sources, the project “We Can Explain” found out from internal documents of the organization at the disposal of the editorial office. In the League itself, her salary is 738 thousand rubles a month, which gives about 9 million a year.

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said that Kyiv and Washington have not yet been able to agree on positions on three key issues: the ownership of Donbass, the status of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant and the reparation loan mechanism. He announced this at a briefing. “As for the sensitive issues that we talked about with the United States of America, this is Donbass, an issue that has not been resolved, we have different views. [Zaporozhye] nuclear power plant.

One of the largest e-book stores in the RuNet, Liters, has removed about 4.5 thousand items from sale. As the general director of the service, Sergei Anuriev, told the Kommersant newspaper, this was done out of fear of fines under the law banning drug propaganda. According to Anuriev, the books were removed from sale because “publishing houses have doubts in terms of what is mentioned there and how and how this content should be labeled.” Currently, 400 books are tagged on the service.

Brazil's Congress has approved a bill that will reduce the prison sentence of former President Jair Bolsonaro, who was sentenced to more than 27 years for organizing a coup attempt to overturn the results of the 2022 elections, The Guardian reports . The document was adopted by the lower house last week, and late on Wednesday evening by the Senate. The bill now goes to President Luiz Lula da Silva, who has 15 working days to sign it or veto it.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has ordered the navy to escort oil tankers leaving the country's ports following a US blockade, The New York Times reports , citing sources familiar with shipping in the region. According to the publication’s interlocutors, on December 16–17, several commercial ships left Venezuela for Asia, accompanied by warships. The three vessels, which sailed from the port of Jose on Venezuela's Caribbean coast, were reported to be carrying petroleum products.

At a plenary session, the State Duma adopted in the second and third readings a law that allows Russian citizens to voluntarily establish a self-ban on participation in gambling. This was reported by the press service of the lower house of parliament. The law provides that for persons who have issued such a self-ban, the opportunity to place bets in bookmakers, sweepstakes and casinos will be completely closed.

After the mass shooting of Hanukkah celebrants on Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, the Kremlin-linked disinformation network known as “Matryoshka” has been promoting claims of an alleged “Ukrainian trail” and frightening Europeans with threats of new terrorist attacks. The watchdog Bot Blocker project ( @antibot4navalny ), which has been monitoring the network, shared its findings with The Insider .

Stelvio National Park in Italy's Lombardy region has uncovered "some of the world's most extensive" dinosaur footprint sequences, with tracks of fingerprints and claws stretching over several hundred metres. The Winter Olympic Games are due to take place in this area in February. This was reported by Der Spiegel. The traces are more than 200 million years old. At that time, this area consisted of mud flats, which easily left the imprints of heavy animals.

Ukrainian drones attacked the Rostov region on the night of December 18. In the capital of the region, the port came under attack - as a result, a ship, presumably the Russian oil tanker Valery Gorchakov, caught fire. Local authorities report an attack on the Rostov port. Governor of the Rostov region Yuri Slyusar writes that as a result the cargo ship caught fire, two crew members on board were killed, and three more were injured.

Confession Daria Nilova 18 December 2025 At the end of October 2025, the international tribunal in The Hague heard testimony from Olena Yahupova, a resident of the town of Kamianka-Dniprovska in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Region. Recently, Yahupova shared additional details with The Insider , describing how she was abducted by Russian soldiers and detailing the torture and abuse she endured at their hands.