🇺🇸 US’ true colors shine through: Vicky Nuland pitches arms sales to countries “who are dependent on Russian weapons”

The US is working to become an alternative arms sales partner for countries dependent on Russian weapons amid Moscow's special military operation in Ukraine, US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland said.

💬 "So we have an opportunity not only to ensure our own stocks are replenished, but countries like Ukraine that have a long term defense requirement, as we talked about before, can be replenished, but the countries that have made a bad bet on Russian weapons have other options, and we're also working on that,"

Nuland said during a press briefing. Countries like India that are fully dependent on Russian weapons should understand they will not be able to resupply their stocks, Nuland said.

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Mick Wallace, a member of the EU Parliament, condemns Western leaders for escalating the Ukraine crisis

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No Lock, No Stock & No Barrel: Why Blinken Re-Evaluated 'Red Lines' and Backed Down on Crimea

“It is possible that Blinken is becoming aware of the serious weakness and rapid decline of Ukraine's situation, on military, humanitarian, and political leadership fronts,” Retired Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski, a former analyst for the US Department of Defense, told Sputnik.

"Ukraine does not have the military capability required to even take back the Donbass, and to refocus its remaining capability on the battlefield to Crimea would further fracture the Ukrainian territory – and be unsuccessful on both fronts," the former Pentagon analyst said. "No general would advise a strategy of dividing already limited forces, even to try and take such a strategically valuable piece of real estate."

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Dependence of European countries on the US: journalist Nebojsa Malic says that without the permission of their master, Europe can’t follow its own interests, damaging itself.

💬”They haven't thought this through because they're either idiots, which they might well be, or they simply don't understand how the world works anymore,” Malic adds.

🎧Listen to more of Malic’s analysis in our podcast Fault Lines: Is NATO Inching Closer to Supplying Ukraine With Fighter Jets?

📹 Russian Khosta self-propelled gun in action in the special military operation area

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“The absolute NPC, who just recites lies that are put before him”: Nebojsa Malic speaks about NATO’s secretary general and his controversial statements, as well as the actions of the alliance’s member states

🎧Listen to more of Malic’s views in our podcast Fault Lines: Is NATO Inching Closer to Supplying Ukraine With Fighter Jets?

📹 Russian Su-25 ground attack aircraft in action in the special military operation zone

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US Treasury Says No Evidence Russia Evaded Oil Cap, Received Payments Above It

The US Department the Treasury has found no hard data or evidence that Russia is evading the oil-related sanctions by using the coalition service providers and receiving above-the-cap payments, according to prepared remarks by Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy for the upcoming Americas Crude Summit in Houston, Texas.

"To my knowledge, there is no hard data or conclusive evidence that supports speculation about Russia evading the sanctions by using Coalition service providers and receiving above-the-cap payments," the remarks said on Thursday.

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🇰🇵🇰🇷 The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is failing to act despite the United States' attempts to turn the Korean Peninsula into a theater of war and a military base, a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Friday.

🗣 "The reality goes to clearly prove that the U.S. and South Korea are the arch criminals deliberately disrupting the peace and stability of the Korean peninsula and the region. This being a hard fact, the UNSC is groundlessly pulling up the DPRK [the Democratic People's Republic of Korea], which has maintained patience and self-control to defuse the tension in the Korean peninsula, and is showing no expression of concern, far from deterring the U.S. seeking to turn the Korean peninsula into a theatre of war exercises and a military base," the spokesperson said, as quoted by the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

▪️ The diplomat recalled that the US and South Korea are planning to hold over 20 joint military exercises in 2023, adding that the countries "put their scale and scope on the level of the largest-ever field mobile tactical exercises."

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Russian Embassy: Nuland's Statement on Crimea Shows Washington's Involvement in Conflict

US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland's statement that the United States supports Ukraine targeting massive Russian military installations in Crimea shows Washington's direct involvement in the Ukraine conflict, Igor Girenko, the press secretary of Russia's embassy to the US, said on Thursday.

"The statements by a senior State Department official on February 16 about supporting the Ukrainian Armed Forces in carrying out strikes on Crimea are a clear confirmation of Russia's position that the United States is directly involved in the conflict," Girenko said on the embassy's Telegram.

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Swedish Police Admit to Restricting Free Speech, Say No to Quran-Burnings

The Swedish police have refused permission for a Quran-burning for a second time in a week, this time outside the Iraqi embassy. The decision was motivated by considerations that it could increase the terrorist threat against the Nordic country.

Last week, Sweden denied activists permission to burn a copy of Islam's holy book outside of Turkiye's embassy, as the Nordic country's Security Police called the stepped-up Quran-burnings a threat to Swedish society and Swedish interests amid an extensive Muslim backlash, as Swedish flags had been torched in several places across the globe in response.

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🇺🇸 🇨🇳 US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for China Michael Chase will travel to Taiwan in the first such visit since 2019 amid the rift in relations between Washington and Beijing following the downing of a suspected spy balloon off the coast of the United States, US media reported.

▪️ The senior official, who is currently in Mongolia for discussions with the country’s military, is expected to embark on the trip in the coming days, the report said on Thursday.

▪️ In early February, the United States detected and later shot down four unidentified flying objects, including the alleged Chinese surveillance balloon. Washington alleges that the balloon was designed to gather intelligence.

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New Corroborating Evidence Emerges Showing US Trace Behind Nord Stream Blasts

An email forwarded to Sputnik by a US journalist from an individual identifying themselves as a servicemember that took part in last summer’s NATO BALTOPS 22 exercises in waters near the site of the Nord Stream pipeline explosions provides new information corroborating last week's bombshell Substack report on the incident by Seymour Hersh.

According to the email, on June 15, a helicopter delivered a group of conspicuous-looking American divers in civilian clothes to the exercise area. “My first thought was that they looked like a group of terrorists,” the source wrote, pointing to the individuals’ odd haircuts, mustaches and beards, and the absence of any military ID markers.

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🥴 One of the flying objects shot down in the US could reportedly be a balloon worth between $12 and $180, which was launched by amateurs

▪️ On February 5, a group of amateur balloonists in Illinois reported that their missing balloon had drifted away. The latest F-22 jet fighters were scrambled to shoot down the unidentified floating object.

📌 Firing just one F-22 missile costs $400,000

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😍 What a lovely story!

😽 The cat, which was taken from the rubble in Turkiye, has not left the rescuers for several days

🙏 Now rescuers are trying to find the owners of the cat, but if this fails, then the man who can be seen in the video will take the pet home. They have become very attached during this time.

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😯 🇹🇷 Several Turkish seismologists have recently predicted a "devastating" earthquake in Istanbul because the city is located at the confluence of the Anatolian and Eurasian tectonic plates, 15-20 kilometers (9-12 miles) south of the North Anatolian Fault area, which runs under the Sea of Marmara and poses a seismic threat.

▪️ The impact of the potential earthquake in Istanbul forecast by some seismologists would overshadow the recent earthquakes in the country's southeast in terms of destruction and social-economic damage, Turkish newspaper reported on Friday, citing experts.

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UK PM Sunak Arrives in Belfast Amid Speculation NI Protocol Deal Could Be Clinched in March

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has arrived in Belfast to meet local party leaders amid speculation that a deal between the UK and the EU on the Northern Ireland Protocol (NI Protocol) could be clinched next week.

A Number 10 spokesperson said that "whilst talks with the EU are ongoing, ministers continue to engage with relevant stakeholders to ensure any solution fixes the practical problems on the ground, meets our overarching objectives, and safeguards Northern Ireland's place in the UK's internal market."

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❗️ Key statements by President Putin at the 30th anniversary of Gazprom:

▪️ Gas has been and will continue to be a valuable resource and real asset for a very long time;

▪️ Gazprom now faces large-scale tasks of restructuring logistics routes;

▪️ Despite unfair competition and outside attempts to restrain Gazprom, the company is moving forward;

▪️ The growth in consumption in the future will be in the Asia-Pacific region, including China.

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'Economic War Criminal': India's Ruling Party Hits Back at George Soros for Comments on Modi

🇺🇸🇮🇳 Highlighting his controversial biography, senior BJP politician and federal minister Smriti Irani accused Soros and comparable foreign speculators of conspiring to topple the Narendra Modi-led government in India and install their own puppets.

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Catch our Fault Lines show where we provide updates and analysis on all the most vital stories! Here's our line-up for today:

🔺To kick things off, we’ll be discussing the rumors about cracks within the Taliban leadership in Afghanistan
🔺Next, we’ll touch upon Biden’s speech on the notorious unidentified balloons
🔺And, of course, we’ll continue monitoring the situation in Ohio, where toxic fumes continue to poison the surrounding area following a train derailment

More trending stories coming your way! Tune in to Radio Sputnik at 7am EST|4am PST|1pm CET via the website or app!

📻Also in the United States at 105.5FM, 104.7FM, 102.9FM, 1390AM, 1140AM

🗣 The statement of US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland about the strikes on Crime once again confirm the involvement of the United States in the conflict in Ukraine, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Friday.

📌 Earlier in the day, Nuland said that Ukraine will not be considered safe by the collective West unless Crimea is at a minimum demilitarized and that the US supports Kiev targeting massive Russian military installations in Crimea as it considers them to be legitimate targets.

💬 "She [Nuland] allowed herself a whole series of mind-blowing and absurd statements ... Once again, we see the involvement of the United States in the conflict in Ukraine — supplying with weapons in huge quantities, providing intelligence, and blatantly participating in combat operations planning," Zakharova told a briefing.

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