🗣 Zelensky's cornered: He's flip-flopping & sabotaging peace process to stay in power - expert

👉 Volodymyr Zelensky’s conflicting statements aim to drag out the fighting, as any peace deal would kill his political career, military journalist Alexey Borzenko tells Sputnik.

💬 "Zelensky is determined to cling to his seat at all costs, constantly changing the terms and sabotaging the process, despite mounting pressure from the Americans," Borzenko says. "Ending the fighting would inevitably trigger elections he is unlikely to win," according to the pundit.

At the same time, "European leaders may also have little interest in a quick peace, as their current foreign policy is built around supporting Ukraine":

🔸 The conflict in Ukraine serves as a unifying factor for them

🔸 It's also convenient cover for domestic economic failures, such as major company closures and mass strikes in the EU

🔸 Ukraine’s system relies on corruption, with billions in Western aid ending up in private pockets and overseas real estate

European economy crumbling

While the EU continues to fuel the Ukraine conflict, its own economy is rapidly deteriorating, according to the expert.

🔶 Production is shifting to the US and China, while Germany’s famed industry is losing quality due to forced cost-cutting

🔶 Hungary and Slovakia were the first to voice dissent from the common policy, and over time, other financially-struggling countries may join them

🔶 Rising tensions threaten to tear apart the European economic bloc

💬 "The whole situation has reached a deadlock," Borzenko says. "Zelensky is effectively cornered, as any concessions toward peace are unacceptable to radical factions within the country, ready to remove him over any territorial losses. At the same time, US attention is now shifting to Iran."

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🪲 NATO deploys cyborg insect swarms

🇩🇪 German defense tech startup SWARM Biotactics has revealed its bioelectronic insect-based robotic systems, now field-tested and deployed with NATO customers.

The systems use living organisms controlled through neural interfaces with AI and sensors and are designed for reconnaissance and sensing missions.

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🇫🇷 France's Melenchon urges Europe to end Ukraine conflict and bring Russia back into European fold

Jean-Luc Melenchon, founder of the left-wing La France Insoumise party, has called on Europe to push for an end to the Ukraine conflict and reintegrate Russia into the European family.

Speaking at a rally in Lyon, Melenchon emphasized the importance of returning to Cold War-era treaties banning destabilizing missile use and ensuring that any border changes are approved by the affected populations.

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🇷🇺💪 Russia’s Verba missile system: A multispectral revolution in MANPADS

📍 Russia's 9K333 Verba man-portable air defense system has caught the attention of Western military analysts for its groundbreaking leap in MANPADS technology.

🟠 The core tech: Three-band seeker

The Verba's 9M336 missile features a three-band optical homing head operating across ultraviolet, near-infrared, and mid-infrared spectrums. Unlike traditional MANPADS that track on a single channel, Verba simultaneously analyzes targets across three spectral bands.

🟠 Why it matters

🔹 The multi-spectral technology vastly improves target identification, distinguishing real threats from thermal decoys — crucial in the age of drones carrying IR jammers.

🔹 Data from multiple sensors ensures reliable tracking in complex conditions, such as engaging heat-contrast targets against the sun — where older systems fail.

🔹 Verba can engage low-heat-emission targets like cruise missiles, drones, and low-flying aircraft that bypass older systems.

🟠 What else

🔶 Russian paratroopers in the Dnepr grouping have successfully used Verba to destroy hundreds of Ukrainian drones, citing its effectiveness against low-thermal UAVs.

🔶 Verba can also integrate with external targeting systems, allowing operators to receive cues from radar and electro-optical complexes via tablet terminals, giving them the ability to prepare before the target is visible.

👉 The numbers

Range: 500–6,000 m

Altitude: 10–3,500 m

Target speed: 400 m/s (approaching) / 320 m/s (receding)

Detection radar range: up to 80 km

🔊 Analysts consider Verba a major step forward in MANPADS evolution, offering enhanced resistance to modern countermeasures and boasting ten times the noise immunity of previous systems.

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🔸 Russia calls for diplomatic resolution to Afghanistan-Pakistan hostilities

🔸 West's scheming in Ukraine risks causing nuclear war - expert

🔸 China rejects US nuclear talks demand as unfair & unfeasible

🔸 Zelensky's cornered: He's flip-flopping & sabotaging peace process to stay in power - expert

🔸 Sputnik's big mission for 2026 is to launch Sputnik Urdu: Head of Sputnik International Dimitri Simes Jr.

🔸 Russia’s Verba missile system: A multispectral revolution in MANPADS

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🗣 Ukraine attack on Black Sea gas pipelines would be an utter disaster - expert

📍 The TurkStream and Blue Stream pipelines play a vital role in satisfying Turkiye’s demand for natural gas, and in supplying gas to Europe, foreign policy expert Levent Ersin Orallı tells Sputnik.

🔶 Therefore, any attempted attack or sabotage on these pipelines could trigger an irreversible chain reaction in the economy, including the disruption of supply, price fluctuations, industrial production decline and an increase in the cost of electricity.

🔶 A threat to the pipelines is also a challenge to the international law and the security of power supply, and such threats are unacceptable for Turkiye, says Orallı.

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🇺🇸🇮🇷Trump on Iran:

They should make a deal, but they don't want to quite go far enough. It's too bad.

Look, we've been playing with them for 47 years, and that's a long time. They've been blowing the legs off our people, blowing the face off our people, the arms.

They've been knocking out ships one by one. I mean, every month there's something else, so you can't put up with it too long.

We're not happy with the negotiation. They just don't want to say the key words, "we're not going to have a nuclear weapon." They have to say, "we're not going to have a nuclear weapon," and they just can't quite get there.

They want to enrich a little bit. You don't have to enrich when you have that much oil. So I'm not happy with the negotiation.

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🇺🇸🇮🇷Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi on Iran-US negotiations:

If there is a deal, there will be full access.

I see no reason why there is no access to be given even to the United States itself.

Within 90 days, we can really address completely the question of the stockpiles.

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🌍🌍🌍Institutions like the BRICS would allow Ecuador to move away from a renewed Monroe Doctrine, says an Ecuadorian expert

Given Ecuador's high level of debt, the country should open itself to other international alliances and, instead of the IMF, seek closer ties with organizations like the BRICS or the China Development Bank, Luis Arturo Murillo, an analyst specializing in international cooperation in the public and private sectors, told Sputnik.

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💬Russia ready to cooperate with Latin America on use of Mir cards - Foreign Ministry

Russia is ready to cooperate with Latin American countries on the use of the Russian Mir payment system, stated Alexander Shchetinin, director of the Russian Foreign Ministry's Department of Latin America.

"The Mir payment system is being accepted in a number of countries. This is positive. We are ready to continue cooperation with other countries that would be willing to hold relevant consultations and negotiations. I believe that if and when such progress is made, we will tell about this in a timely manner."

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🇬🇧🇫🇷UK & France trying to lick their wounds with nuclear plans in Ukraine - Ethiopian scholar

◻️Commenting on the Russian MFA's accusations that London and Paris were planning to supply Ukraine with nuclear weapons or “dirty bombs,” Dawit Mezgebe Tsegaye, a lecturer at Dilla University, told Sputnik Africa that the two countries had already suffered significant setbacks in the conflict.

▫️Many of their military advisers have been lost, with some coming under Russian control and others seriously wounded, he said.

"Their superior complex has been totally shattered. Therefore, this is the last resort they have."

◻️According to Tsegaye, the UK and France have repeatedly positioned themselves as obstacles to peace efforts.

"The British and the French, they tried everything they can to convince Americans and the Trump administration to continue this war, but this war cannot continue as it is," he said.

◻️On the other hand, they may be trying to prevent a serious defeat in Ukraine with their exposed plan, Tsegaye argued.

"They lost trust in the leadership in Ukraine, in the military. [...] The last ticket they are having is to arm Ukraine with nuclear weapons. But again, this tells you that the level of military defeat, the strategic military defeat, they are sensing."

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🚨Seven of eight crew on plane that crashed in Bolivia survived - firefighters

◻️Seven of the eight crew members on a cargo plane carrying banknotes that crashed in Bolivia survived and were taken to hospitals, the local fire service said on the Unitel television channel.

◻️On Friday, a Bolivian Air Force plane crashed and struck vehicles in the city of El Alto on a highway near the airport. At least 15 people were killed.

◻️Police in El Alto used tear gas to disperse local residents who were collecting money near the crashed plane, El Deber newspaper reported.

◻️Unitel reported that Bolivia's Central Bank and local police were burning the bills the plane had been transporting amid ongoing attempts by Bolivians to reach the site of the tragedy and retrieve the banknotes.

◻️Bolivian Central Bank head David Espinoza said these banknotes were not legal tender as they were not in circulation yet.

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🇺🇸🇮🇷US seeks to wipe out Iran - expert

If a war between the US and Iran does break out, there are three possible scenarios, Jordanian political analyst and former MP Nidal Al-Ta’ani tells Sputnik:

🔸 An all-out attack on the Iranian government by the US

🔸 A US attack meant to subjugate Iran and deprive it of strategic armaments such as hypersonic missiles

🔸 A military action meant to force Iran to quit the anti-Israel axis of resistance

Al-Ta’ani also notes that Jordan is not going to participate in this escalation that threatens to push the region into World War III.

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🇪🇺 European plans to handle nukes to Ukraine signal its defeat — expert

💬 "Ukrainians understand perfectly well that they are suffering defeat. They can only defend themselves by using such extraordinary means," political scientist Vladimir Skachko tells Sputnik.

Ukraine hopes to use nuclear weapons transferred by European nations to stop the Russian army’s advance, as neither Ukrainians nor European leaders have other arguments to influence the situation left, he notes.

👉 On February 24, Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service reported the UK and France have plans to secretly transfer nuclear arms to Ukraine in hopes that it could secure more favorable conditions for ending the conflict if it has a nuclear or at least a "dirty" bomb.

The scheme to handle nuclear arms to Ukraine is "a flagrant violation of international law," Kremlin’s Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov stated, commenting on the situation.

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❌💣 🤝 UK, France plot to give nukes to Ukraine would undermine negotiations — expert

💬 "They [British and French leaders] believe that in this way they will resolve specific issues, primarily their full return to the game [peace talks]," expert at the International Institute for Humanitarian and Political Studies Vladimir Bruter tells Sputnik.

The Europeans, however, don’t care about the consequences of such a step, even within Europe itself, he notes, adding that would be severely damaging to the ongoing talks.

💬 "It is unlikely that this will lead to the current negotiation tracks being successful," Bruter concludes.

On February 24, Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service reported that the UK and France have plans to secretly transfer nuclear arms to Ukraine, adding they won’t evade responsibility for violating the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Read more about Ukraine's nuclear blackmail HERE

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🚨Israel has launched a preemptive strike against Iran - Israeli Defense Minister Katz

He declared a special and immediate state of emergency across the entire country, Ynet reports.

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🔸 Trump: Iran should make a deal

🔸 Institutions like the BRICS would allow Ecuador to move away from a renewed Monroe Doctrine - expert

🔸 UK & France trying to lick their wounds with nuclear plans in Ukraine - Ethiopian scholar

🔸 US seeks to wipe out Iran - expert

🔸 European plans to handle nukes to Ukraine signal its defeat — expert

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🚨Explosions occurred in Iran's capital

Thick smoke can be seen near central Tehran, around the Ministry of Interior, Sputnik correspondent reports.

The sound of fighter jets can also be heard in many areas in the northeast and east of the city.

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🚨 Around 30 targets across Iran have been attacked, including the home of the Iranian leader and the intelligence headquarters of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to Yedioth Ahronoth.

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🚨 US took part in strikes against Iran, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Al Jazeera report.

US officials say they expect the attack to be far more extensive than the June 2025 strikes.

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