Concurrently, marine traffic monitors show a Vladivostok-bound cargo ship, Ursa Major, previously registered as Sparta III and visually matching the picture published by HUR, moving at a very low speed of little over 1 knot in the open sea between Spain and Algeria.

The Ursa Major ship went down after an explosion in the engine room, Russia's foreign ministry said.

Former CNN Moscow bureau chief Jill Dougherty says that Vladimir Putin spinning Russia’s withdrawal from Syria as a victory could be a preview of how he will frame any possible ceasefire with Ukraine.

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a meeting of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief today, discussing cooperation between Ukraine and Syria. The meeting focused on relations with Syria after the fall of the regime and the escape of Bashar al-Assad.

The transfer marks the end of an era when Russia played an arguably oversized role in determining which countries could operate in Syria’s contested airspace.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that Kurdish militants in Syria will either lay down their weapons or "be buried", amid hostilities between Turkey-backed Syrian fighters and the militants since the fall of Bashar al-Assad this month.

With Russia’s diminished influence in Syria, Ukraine calls on Israel to reconsider its stance and provide essential defensive weapons and technology.

Today, on Saturday, December 21, 34 people were evacuated from Syria as a result of a successful operation by the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. Among them are 15 children.

In abandoning Syria’s Bashar-al Assad, Vladimir Putin showed where his interests really lie, Alexandra Vacroux writes in a guest commentary.

Pope Francis appealed for weapons to be laid down in global conflicts and for the reconciliation between enemies in a Christmas Day message.

Last week, after 50 years of tyranny and repression, the government of Bashar Assad fell in Syria. It fell thanks to a combination of three forces: First, Israel’s military utterly eviscerated Assad’s foreign military support base,