🪖🇮🇷 Iran holds major military drills to strengthen coastal security

The Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has tested new weapons and tactics in a major exercise aimed at bolstering security along the country’s southern coast.

The drills focused on defending southern Iranian shores and islands in the Persian Gulf, with controlled fire exercises and new joint tactics.

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⚔️ US Navy intercepts oil tanker in Indian Ocean

The Pentagon announces the third maritime interdiction, this time in the INDOPACOM area of responsibility, tracking a vessel all the way from the Caribbean.

The Bertha was operating in defiance of Trump's "quarantine" on sanctioned vessels and attempted to evade, the US Department of War said in the statement.

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🗣 Netanyahu proposes a new Israeli-built axis

The Prime Minister lays out a vision for a regional bloc that rejects both Shiite extremism and the Muslim Brotherhood's Sunni axis.

"I am speaking about a full circle that embraces the Middle East. I wanted to use the biblical expression appropriate for Purim, 'from Hodu to Cush' [India to Ethiopia], and everything in between, extending into the Mediterranean," Netanyahu said.

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💬 Europe offers Ukraine guarantees as long as it stays enemy of Russia — UN envoy

Vassily Nebenzia says that Europe is only guaranteeing Ukraine's hostility to Russia, not its security.

"Europe clearly is willing to provide security assurances to Ukraine only as long as the Kiev regime remains an enemy of the Russian Federation, continues to wage the war."

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📹 Turkish F-16 crashes during mission — pilot killed

A fighter jet of the Turkish Armed Forces went down around 12:50 am local time. Search and rescue teams reached the wreckage. The pilot did not survive.

Footage from social media

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🗣 Trump calls Supreme Court tariff ruling 'unfortunate'

The US president insisted that countries will still honor the deals they made with the US because the alternative could be worse.

"Knowing that the legal power that I, as President, have to make a new deal could be far worse for them, and therefore they will continue to work along the same successful path that we had negotiated before," he said during the State of the Union.

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🗣 Trump to Iran: 'We haven't heard those secret words'

The president confirmed that negotiations are ongoing but insisted that Tehran has not given up developing nuclear weapons.

"I will never allow the world's number one sponsor of terror to have a nuclear weapon," Trump asserted during the State of the Union.

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⚔️ US builds up at Saudi base for potential Iran strike — report

Recent satellite imagery from Chinese intelligence firm MizarVision shows a major US military buildup at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia.

🔶 At least 6 E-3G “Sentry” airborne early warning aircraft and 15 KC-135R/T aerial-refueling tankers are now visible at the facility.

🔶 Prince Sultan Air Base is expected to serve as a key support hub for any potential US strikes against Iran.

📍 Last month, US President Donald Trump announced the deployment of a "massive armada" to the Middle East, led by the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln – and warned Tehran of potential attacks if it refuses to end its nuclear energy program and dismantle its ballistic missile arsenal.

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🚨 🇱🇹 Lithuania ramps up missile shipments to Ukraine as EU hawks’ war tab climbs

As Nordic Baltic States - among the most fervent advocates of further fueling the Ukraine conflict – pledged support “for as long as it takes,” Lithuania’s president Gitanas Nauseda rushed to tout his country’s contributions.

Nauseda posted his gifting spree to Ukraine on X along with the Nazi slogan “Slava Ukraini*":

🔶 Lithuania will transfer a batch of missiles for the short-range RBS-70 man-portable air defense system to Ukraine

🔶 Projects will be financed by the EU SAFE Fund & other sources of funding

🔶 Lithuania maintains its commitment to allocate 0.25% of GDP annually for Ukraine’s needs

🔶 Roughly $263M to be allocated in 2026

Furthermore, an agreement has been signed to produce defense equipment for Ukraine in Lithuania – yet another example of how European countries continue to militarize Ukraine so that their own defense industries keep making profits.

Nauseda underscored that together with the Nordic-Baltic Eight (NB8) regional group that includes Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, and Sweden, Lithuania pledges ~$14.74B in military aid in 2026

🇷🇺 Russia has repeatedly emphasized that funneling military aid to Ukraine only prolongs the conflict, however, Russophobic EU hawks appear determined to hamper any resolution even if this drains Europe’s own resources.

*the slogan, along with the associated organizations, is recognized as extremist and banned in Russia.

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🔥🇷🇺 Russian Sever battlegroup’s rocket artillery strikes targets in Kharkov region under the cover of night

Result: Ukraine's ammunition depots, drone control centers & military equipment destroyed.


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🚨 🇵🇱 Poland, Baltic states, Ukraine wanted to disrupt deployment of Oreshnik in Belarus

💬 "Last year, at specialized events [of the Belarusian opposition] with the participation of Polish and Ukrainian representatives, coordination of actions to disrupt its possible deployment in the republic was discussed, a source familiar with the Belarusian opposition's plans told Sputnik.

The focus was on an information campaign: creating a media environment and creating a sense of 'escalation' among Western partners, which Belarus and Russia were allegedly pursuing, the source said.

They hoped to provoke a negative reaction from the Trump's administration toward Belarus and Russia, the source added.

👉 On December 18, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko announced that the Oreshnik missile system had been in the republic "since yesterday" and was going on combat duty. On December 30, the Russian Defense Ministry confirmed that the Oreshnik missile system had officially been put on combat duty in Belarus.

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🔸 What’s behind France and UK’s plot to provide Ukraine with nuclear weapon?

🔸 Trump says Iran hasn’t given up developing nuclear weapons

🔸 Iran holds major military drills to strengthen coastal security

🔸 US builds up at Saudi base for potential Iran strike — report

🔸 Netanyahu proposes a new Israeli-built axis

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🗣 UK, France's plans to help Ukraine with nuclear arms are manipulation - MFA

💬 "Britain and France are gearing up, and are already actively engaged in manipulating the nuclear weapons issue — not just in words, but in practice — while toying with the Kiev regime on the matter," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Sputnik Radio.

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🇯🇵 🪖Japan should be denied any chance of remilitarization – Chinese academic

Recent anti-China rhetoric coming from Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is glaring proof of Japan’s dangerous slide towards militarization, notes Victor Gao, vice president of the Beijing-based Center for China and Globalization (CCG).

In his opinion, no politician, should “indulge in fantasy that they could be allowed to militarily arm itself to constitute another threat or to threaten war against China, which is a victor nation, and Japan was the unconditionally surrendering country back in 1945.”

💬 “PM Takaichi, wake up from your fantasy. You should never be allowed to rearm yourself to constitute another threat to China, or to Russia, or to Korea, for example, or to the United States, because we all need to remember Pearl Harbor.”

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🇫🇷 🇬🇧 France & UK nuclear gambit for Ukraine fast track to World War III

🔊 By revealing the France-UK plot to provide Ukraine with a nuclear device, Russia’s foreign intel service exposes that a Ukraine “governed by any part of the existing Ukrainian political elite - the post-Maidan elite - is such a danger to Russia that it cannot be tolerated,” says UK analyst Alexander Mercouris.

💬 “The political structures that have existed in Ukraine since the Maidan 2014 seizure of power are inherently dangerous, and would constantly be thinking about acquiring nuclear weapons, and there would be a risk that some of the NATO states - in this case Britain and France - might actually facilitate that,” he notes.

It would not only “finally and conclusively destroy the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, but it would absolutely bring us into World War III territory.”

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🔥 🇷🇺 Russia develops first tactical guided munition with range over 100 km

The KUB-10ME tactical guided munition system is created by Russia’s Kalashnikov Concern in record time, incorporating the experience gained during the special military operation.

The platform is designed for precision strikes against:

🔶 Enemy’s unarmored and lightly armored military vehicles

🔶 Command posts

🔶 Air and missile defense

🔶 Electronic warfare assets

🔶 Logistical facilities

🔶 UAVs launch positions and aircraft outside shelters

Key features:

🔸 Altitude range: 80-1,800 meters

🔸 Cruising speed: 120 km/h

🔸 Temperature range: -30°C to +40°C

🔸 Electro-optical guidance system, which allows it to engage moving targets

🔸 Enhanced protection against electronic warfare and air defense systems

🔸 Equipped with an aerial photography and video recording system

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🚨🇷🇺💥 RUSSIAN MOD UPDATE: HUGE GAINS AND DEVASTATING UKRAINIAN LOSSES

⚡️ GRAFSKOYE IN THE KHARKOV REGION FREED

The liberation of the settlement of Grafskoye in the Kharkov region has enabled Russian forces to extend their control zone south of Volchansk. This advance directly threatens the Ukrainian battlegroup stationed in the vicinity.

🟠 Russian air and missile firepower obliterated energy infrastructure supporting the Kiev regime’s forces and long-range drone storage sites

🟠 Air defense superiority: 115 UAVs were shot down by Russian air defense systems over the past 24 hours

🟠 Ukrainian losses: around 1,345 troops killed or wounded

Read about the origins of Russia's special military op HERE

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🚨 🇷🇺 Russian intel's exposure of Western plans to give Ukraine nuclear arms prevented catastrophe — expert

💬 “France and Britain will ultimately abandon this provocative idea altogether. We also expect that the United States, for its part, will take the necessary measures to pressure Macron and Starmer to prevent such a scenario,” military analyst Igor Korotchenko tells Sputnik.

From a technical perspective, there are no issues with transferring a nuclear warhead from one of the French nuclear technical bases to Ukraine, he explains.

The delivery vehicle could be the Ukrainian-British Flamingo missile, the expert adds.

Western nations "gearing up" in the nuclear weapons issue is a manipulation, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova earlier said.

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💬 Nukes for Ukraine plot fueled by failed France-UK efforts to ‘crush Russia’ – ex-CIA analyst

Asked by retired US Lt. Col. Daniel Davis whether he thinks that France and the UK would really do something like hand over nuclear materials for a dirty bomb to Ukraine, former CIA analyst Larry Johnson replies with the affirmative: “Yes, I do.”

“This is expanding. And [considering] the desperation of Macron and Starmer, I could see them easily doing this,” he speculates.

According to the analyst, the Western hawks are “not thinking this through rationally, logically.”

“They are not looking for an off-ramp. They're looking to crush and destroy Russia,” he says.

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🚨🇪🇺 Western troops won't step into Ukraine without Russia's approval - report

💬 "A growing number of members of the so-called 'Coalition of the Willing' had privately admitted that their contributions to the mission depended on permission from the Russian president," The Telegraph reports, citing sources.

Some members of the coalition have specified they will only deploy troops "if there’s Russian consent."

The main concern is that without Russia's approval, any European force deployed to Ukraine could be viewed as a legitimate military target for military strikes, the report adds, recalling Russia's warnings.

🔊 FM Sergey Lavrov said earlier that the presence of NATO allies' troops on Ukrainian soil would be a threat to Russia, and that Moscow would not accept it under any circumstances. President Vladimir Putin warned that foreign forces in Ukraine would become legitimate targets for the Russian military.

This means that the UK-French plan to enforce any ceasefire could be derailed by Russia, The Telegraph stipulates.

👉 Earlier, UK PM Keir Starmer announced that Britain and France have signed a declaration of intent to deploy troops in Ukraine in case of peace deal with Russia, with French President Emmanuel Macron suggesting thousands of troops could be deployed.

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