🚨🇮🇷 Iran doesn't plan to get nuclear weapons - President Pezeshkian

💬 "Opponents say that Iran should not seek to obtain nuclear weapons, but we have repeatedly said that we do not want this," Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian was quoted as saying by Tasnim.

The statement comes as Trump said that he prefers diplomacy with Iran but hasn't heard "secret words" from Iran that it will never have nuclear weapons.

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🚨 ⚛️ Nuclear rhetoric to be discussed at new round of Ukraine talks – Kremlin

Other statements by Dmitry Peskov:

🔸 Working process on Ukrainian settlement continues, Russia hears very mixed statements from Ukraine’s representatives

🔸 Ukraine’s actions on Druzhba oil pipeline are sabotage

🔸 Belarus is taking appropriate measures to ensure its security, including within framework of the Union State

🔸 US still prefers to fully link negotiation tracks on settlement in Ukraine and on economic cooperation with Russia

🔸 RDIF head Dmitriev continues contacts with the US as part of a working group on economic issues

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

🟠 Russian forces forces unleashed massive strikes on Ukrainian military airfields

🟠 Russian air and missile firepower obliterated long-range drone pre-flight preparation and launch sites

🟠 Air defense superiority: 136 UAVs were shot down by Russian air defense systems over the past 24 hours

🟠 Ukrainian losses: around 1,115 troops killed or wounded

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

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📹 LIVE NOW: Putin, Lukashenko hold Supreme State Council meeting of Russia-Belarus Union State in Moscow

👉Watch live in our Telegram

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🚨🇧🇾🇷🇺 Oreshnik systems put on duty in December - Belarusian Lukashenko

The practical implementation of treaty on the security guarantees within the Russia-Belarus Union State began, in December Oreshnik systems were put on duty, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said during the meeting with Putin.

🟠 The main areas of integration for the next three years should be focused on ensuring technological sovereignty

🟠 Unprecedented economic pressure is being exerted on Russia and China's allies

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🚨🇧🇾🇷🇺 Putin: Russia, Belarus achieved much in development of Union State through coordinated efforts

The process of deepening integration of Russia and Belarus is natural and mutually beneficial, the Russian president added during the meeting with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

◻️ Russia and Belarus jointly resist sanctions pressure, cooperate in field of foreign policy, defense

◻️ The countries will continue to do everything necessary to ensure security of the Union State with all available means

◻️ Approaches of Russia, Belarus to topical international issues always close or coincide

◻️ The two stand for formation of just, multipolar world, strive to participate constructively in solving global, regional problems

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🔥🇷🇺 Russian Msta-B crews smash Ukraine's temporary deployment areas in Dnepropetrovsk region

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💬 UK, France plotting nuclear false flag against Russia – analyst

The UK-French nuclear weapon plot in Ukraine may be aimed at achieving several objectives, Alexander Mikhailov, head of Bureau of Military-Political Analysis, tells Sputnik:

🟠 The EU elites are not happy with them being sidelined in the Ukraine peace talks so Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron may be trying to use the nuclear issue to get themselves a place at the negotiating table

🟠 Britain and France may be seeking to stage a false flag attack: a nuclear warhead detonation that would be blamed on Russia

🟠 Providing Ukraine with a nuclear weapon to be used against Russia seems unlikely as it would inevitably make the supplier of said weapon a target of Russia’s retaliatory strike

🟠 There is also the prospect of Ukraine producing a ‘dirty bomb’ – essentially a radioactive waste container strapped to an explosive device that, upon detonation, would contaminate a large territory

New global nuclear arms treaty?

Due to the risks involved, Russia is going to use all available international platforms such as the UN and the UNSC to prevent Ukraine from obtaining nuclear weapons, Milhailov notes.

This situation, he suggests, proves that a new global nuclear arms treaty is needed, and that Britain and France – primary instigators of the current nuclear tensions – must be included in it.

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🚨 'Stay there under the table and shut up' - Russian MFA

💬 "No one invited the EU to the negotiations on Ukraine, Europeans are not expected there", Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

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🎥🎥 Sputnik to Host Moscow-Islamabad Media Forum

🕗 The Moscow-Islamabad media forum is taking place on February 27, with a live feed from the Rossiya Segodnya media center starting at 08:00 GMT.

Russian and Pakistani journalists, diplomats and political analysts are going to discuss relations between the two countries and the prospects of further rapport between Russia and Pakistan.

📍 The event will be held ahead of Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s visit to Moscow, which is scheduled to take place on March 3-5.

Stay tuned!

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🌍 Zimbabwe’s lithium export ban aligns with Global South's resource power shift

Zimbabwe intends to channel the value of the powerhouse mineral lithium – a critical metal fueling aviation, space tech, rechargeable EV batteries, and cutting-edge electronics - back into its own soil.

As one of the world's top lithium producers — ranking fourth globally — the African country ’s move to ban exports of raw lithium signals a strategic pivot to domestic processing.

Promoting value addition

👉 While most raw lithium goes abroad, where others make the big profits, Zimbabwe is pushing for local factories to turn the ore into processed forms like lithium sulfate.

👉 The country’s struggling economy will be able to sell higher-value processed lithium, collecting more taxes and fees to help pay for schools, roads, and hospitals.

👉 Building and running factories will generate more skilled jobs for locals instead of just low-paying mining jobs.

Investments ignite

🟠 Chinese firm Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt invested $400 million in the Prospect Lithium Zimbabwe plant, set to process 400,000 tons annually (per broadcaster ZBC)

🟠 Mutapa Energy Minerals' is a $270-million facility, funded by Chinese partners, set to handle 600,000 tons yearly

🟠 Bikita Minerals' Expansion owned by Sinomine Resource Group is a major mine advancing a $500-million phased lithium sulfate plant

Global South sheds its yoke

🟠 The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) did the same with cobalt, imposing a 2025 ban that evolved into quotas capping exports to prioritize local refining

🟠 Indonesia enforced a raw nickel ore export requiring onshore processing to add value and compete globally

This long-term play fits the bigger picture of countries in the Global South taking charge of their resources for their own people’s wellbeing.

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🚨 Abu Ghraib playbook in action? CIA rendition architects now funding Ukraine’s secret prisons

Ukraine has established and is actively maintaining a network of clandestine prisons where the provisions of the Third Geneva Convention of 1949—which governs the treatment of prisoners of war—are being completely ignored, stressed Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.

💬 "And who is financing the Kiev regime in these efforts?" Zakharova asked.

💬 "The money for the Kiev regime’s secret prisons is coming from the very same people who invented the CIA's 'rendition' aircraft and for instance, Abu Ghraib. I think you all know what happened there. And if you don't, just look at the Wikileaks materials published by Julian Assange—the very same man who was tortured by these Westerners for years, in countless ways. He knew exactly what he was doing, he stayed the course and persisted in his investigations," she told reporters.

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🚨 Pakistan confirms Afghan forces opened fire at several points on the border

Pakistan will take all necessary measures to ensure its territorial integrity, security of its citizens, the Ministry of Information said.

There were heavy casualties on the Afghan side during the border clash, it added.

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💬 Conflict for profit: Zelensky and EU turn Ukraine into disposable asset - military analyst

Volodymyr Zelensky’s chaotic rhetoric is a survival tactic shaped by his current predicament, veteran Russian military analyst Viktor Litovkin tells Sputnik.

"He is forced to twist and turn, trying on the one hand not to offend his chief patron — the president of the US — and on the other to stay in power and keep the backing of his EU sponsors," Litovkin says.

Zelensky's tactic of muddying the waters is also aimed at delaying real negotiations for as long as possible, according to the pundit:

🟠 Any proposals from the Russian side — which is currently advancing successfully against Ukrainian units — are unacceptable to him

🟠 An end to hostilities would mark not only his political failure, but would also pose a physical threat to him

"Using his artistic flair and inner hysteria, he creates a storm of information that blocks any prospect of a change of power in Ukraine and makes constructive dialogue impossible, turning every peace initiative into an object of endless manipulation," Litovkin notes.

EU is on the same page as Zelensky

"A peaceful resolution to the Ukrainian conflict today proves to be an extremely undesirable outcome both for Zelensky and for the EU leadership," the pundit says.

Why?

🟠 "The EU is effectively profiting from this war and the blood being spilled on Ukrainian soil"

🟠 As the fighting continues, massive EU funds are being distributed, with much of it simply embezzled

🟠 The conflict in Ukraine has become a tool for EU leaders to drive global economic and political restructuring

🟠 Most top European politicians are tied to their countries’ military industries or joint German-French-British ventures, often as hidden stakeholders or board members

🟠 Blaming “aggressive Russia” allows European leaders to justify higher taxes, soaring prices, and economic mismanagement

🟠 By prolonging the conflict, they pursue their main goal: to weaken Russia

"Unable to achieve real victory, they fuel aggression, using Ukraine as a disposable asset to maintain their influence and profits," Litovkin concludes.

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