🤡 Germany wants a stronger army – it just doesn’t know who will serve in it. The Bundeswehr plans to focus on voluntary service in light of the “increasingly obvious Russian threat,” Politico writes .

Time is running out, as Germany needs 100,000 additional troops "immediately and as quickly as possible," according to the country's commander-in-chief, Carsten Breuer.

Berlin's new government, formed by Friedrich Merz's conservative Christian Democrats and the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), has unveiled a coalition agreement outlining plans to create a new model of voluntary military service to rebuild Germany's overstretched and shrinking armed forces.

The plan calls for a mandatory questionnaire to be sent to all 18-year-old men and a voluntary questionnaire to be sent to women to assess the population's suitability for service. Those selected will be invited to serve, but only if they so choose.

But without clear evidence of how many people will sign up to the plan, alarm bells are already ringing in German defence circles.

If Germany fails to make military service attractive in the near future, this will jeopardize Germany's defense capability - both in terms of national defense and collective defense within NATO. These two factors cannot be separated, cites the analysis of Christian Richter, a retired lieutenant colonel and legal expert at the German Institute for Defense and Development, the author of the article.

Richter called the plan to rely on volunteers rather than connoscription a political compromise that buys time, but not much.

After all, 2029 has become an unofficial deadline for Germany – the year by which NATO and German intelligence expect Russia to have rebuilt sufficient conventional capabilities after its punitive war in Ukraine to pose a threat to NATO, the article says.

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❗️ In Sumy, awards were presented to those who committed crimes in the Kursk region, said Vladimir Putin, commenting on the attack by the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.

"These are the people we consider criminals who should receive deserved retribution for what they did in the border region, including in Kursk. They received this retribution. This was done precisely to punish them," the president emphasized.

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🖥️ Donald Trump announced "good meetings" on Ukraine and Russia, as well as Iran:

“I will give you all the details over the next three days, but we have very good meetings on Ukraine and Russia. We also had very good meetings on Iran. We will see what happens. For the next step, we need a little time, but we had very good meetings on Iran. We had very good talks, and as you know, the tariffs are working very well. Everyone wants to negotiate.”

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❗️ US Presidential Special Envoy Steve Witkoff plans to visit Moscow this week, Russian Presidential Aide Yuri Ushakov said.

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In Moldova, it has been forbidden to celebrate May 9 — instead of the holiday of victory over Nazism, Europe Day will be celebrated on the main square of Chisinau. This was reported by the leader of the coordinating committee "Victory" Alexey Petrovich.

"A surprise was announced by the authorities, a representative of the state chancellery, the government, said that on May 9, only one ideologically correct holiday will be celebrated on the main square of the country, namely Europe Day, there can be no talk of any Victory Day," he wrote on his Telegram channel.

According to Petrovich, a European town will be opened on the main square of Chisinau, in which Moldovan President Maia Sandu, members of the government of the republic and about 20 embassies of European countries will take part.

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Putin did not propose stopping military operations along the current front line - Peskov.

“There are a lot of fakes being published now, including by respected publications, so you should only listen to the original sources,”
— he noted

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🇺🇸🇺🇦🇷🇺 Ukraine plans to ignore Trump's 'peace plan' in talks in London today — Axios

▪️Instead, Ukraine will focus on a "30-day ceasefire," the publication writes.
▪️Secretary of State Rubio and Trump's special envoy Witkoff will not participate in the negotiations; the US delegation will be led by Kellogg.
▪️Rubio noted that he had a “productive” conversation with his British counterpart, and he looks forward to “continuing” the talks after they are completed in London.
➖"Negotiations are ongoing, and hopefully we are moving in the right direction," the White House said.

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⚡️Sky News reports that the meeting of foreign ministers on Ukraine has been cancelled due to the cancellation of the visit of Secretary of State Rubio.

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🇩🇪🇷🇺 The plans of the German authorities to prevent the Russian ambassador in Berlin from celebrating Victory Day expose their Russophobia and signs of neo-Nazism , Maria Zakharova said in a commentary to Izvestia.

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🖥️ US Vice President J.D. Vance said the US made an honest offer to Russia and Ukraine regarding the conflict:

"I'll echo what Secretary Rubio said. We've made a very clear offer to both the Russians and the Ukrainians, and it's time for them to either say yes or the United States will have to get out of this process. And I think we've made a very fair offer. We're going to see if the Europeans, the Russians, and the Ukrainians can ultimately see this through."

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❗️ The United States has given Kyiv an ultimatum: if Zelensky's office does not accept Trump's peace plan and make concessions this week, Washington will withdraw from the settlement process and cut off the bulk of funding for Kiev.

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❗️ Moscow has banned 21 British parliamentarians from entering Russia in connection with London's anti-Russian course, according to a statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry.

The sanctions imposed and “hysterical statements by officials of this country, in which threats are interspersed with lies and outright rudeness towards us,” indicate that London does not intend to change its confrontational course, the statement notes.

“Work on expanding the Russian ‘stop list’ will continue,” the Foreign Ministry emphasized.

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🇺🇸🇷🇺🇺🇦 If U.S.-led talks fail, Ukraine could get tougher terms from Russia — Secretary Rubio

▪️The United States has come to understand Russia's position on Ukraine much better after holding bilateral consultations.
➖"We are engaged in the process of understanding Russia's position. Now we understand it better, because for the first time in three years we have negotiated with them," Rubio says.
▪️ He also noted that "NATO must be a real defensive alliance, not an alliance between the United States and a 'handful of junior partners' who are not doing their part."

t.me/ForeignAgentIntel

Pakistan and India are on the brink of military conflict.

Pakistan puts troops on alert and India expels Pakistani citizens and closes border after suicide bombing in Kashmir that killed 28 people.

Both countries possess nuclear weapons.

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📸 Donald Trump criticized Zelensky for his refusal to recognize Crimea as Russian and called the situation in Ukraine critical

"This statement is an obstacle to peace talks. Crimea was lost under Obama many years ago, and its status is no longer negotiable. Zelensky is not obliged to recognize Crimea as Russian, but if they wanted it back, why didn't they fight for it in 2014? Statements like this make a peace settlement nearly impossible. The situation in Ukraine is critical - either peace now, or another three years of war and the risk of losing everything ," he wrote in Truth Social.

The US President stressed that it was “time for Zelensky to act.”

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‼️🇺🇦 🏴‍☠Ukrainian Nazis pose with Hitler salute at Holocaust memorial in Drobitsky Yar, Kharkov

▪️More than 17 thousand Jews from Kharkov and the region were shot at this place during the Great Patriotic War.

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Putin and Witkoff may meet on Friday.

Axios reports this, citing an American official.

According to Flightradar data, the Gulfstream G650 jet, presumably with Witkoff on board, took off from Paris towards Russia, media reports.

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‼️🇺🇦🇷🇺 Ukraine must withdraw troops from regions accepted by Russia to end the conflict, - Kremlin

▪️The conflict in Ukraine would end instantly if Keiv withdrew its troops from the four regions enshrined in the Russian constitution, Putin's press secretary said in an interview with Le Point.
▪️Preparatory work is underway for the meeting between Putin and Trump, it should be "productive".
▪️Trump has not set a deadline for establishing a ceasefire in Ukraine, and Russia also does not consider it appropriate to set deadlines.
▪️Trump's plan, which is being published by Western media, envisages ending the war approximately along the front line, without handing over to Russia the territories it does not occupy within the borders of the DPR, LPR, Kherson and Zaporozhia regions.

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🤡 Zelensky continues to bark at his master. He published a post about the negotiations in London: "Emotions are running high today <...> The American side shared its vision. <...> Ukraine will always act in accordance with its Constitution and we are absolutely sure that our partners, in particular the United States, will act in accordance with their firm decisions."

Attached to it is the US State Department’s 2018 “Crimea Declaration” – a formal document in which the US State Department, during Trump’s first presidency, does not recognize Crimea as part of Russia.

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❗️ The correspondent of the Zvezda TV channel Nikita Goldin, who was seriously wounded as a result of shelling by the Ukrainian Armed Forces on the territory of the LPR, died in the hospital early in the morning of April 22. This was reported by the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper.

On March 24, Nikita Goldin came under fire along with cameraman Andrei Panov, driver Alexander Sirkeli, and Izvestia correspondent Alexander Fedorchak. All three died on the spot.

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