🇷🇺 Artillery crews launched strikes on the strongholds of the Ukrainian Armed Forces before the start of active operations by the assault units, which, with the support of artillery fire, continue to gradually move forward.

Target designation and adjustment of howitzer fire was carried out using unmanned aerial vehicles.

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❗️ North Korea tested “underwater nuclear weapon system” in protest against joint military drills by South Korea, US, Japan, AFP reported, citing North Korean state-run news agency KCNA.

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“We have to remember that the Israelis have a long lasting relationship with ISIS* because ISIS during the Syrian Dirty War had bases alongside the Golan Heights,” said international affairs expert Professor Mohammad Marandi on Sputnik’s Fault Lines program Thursday.

The analyst discussed the destabilizing role of Israel and the United States in the Middle East as the death toll from Israel’s campaign in Gaza approaches 25,000.

Iran angered Pakistani officials earlier this week when they launched an attack on terrorist bases over the country’s border with Pakistan, but Marandi asserts Western intelligence agencies are ultimately to blame for supporting various anti-Iran groups.

The Israeli Defense Forces chief admitted in 2019 to supplying ISIS-aligned Syrian rebels with weapons, while the United States has long backed extremists in the region to undermine various geopolitical foes.

* ISIS is a terrorist group banned in Russia and many other countries.

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North Korea has tested an underwater nuclear weapon system in response to joint military drills by South Korea, the United States and Japan, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported citing a statement by a spokesman for North Korea's Defense Ministry.

"Joint maritime exercises were staged again in the waters off Jeju Island for three days from Jan. 15 with the involvement of the U.S. nuclear carrier Carl Vinson and Aegis cruiser Princeton and warships of the Japanese maritime "Self-Defense Force" and the ROK navy," the spokesman said.

He said the drills further destabilized the regional situation and seriously threatened North Korea's security.

"In response to it, the Underwater Weapon System Institute under the DPRK Academy of Defense Science conducted an important test of its underwater nuclear weapon system "Haeil-5-23" under development in the East Sea of Korea," the spokesman said.

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❗️EXCLUSIVE: "The French government is clearly complicit in the participation of French citizens in the fighting and therefore in their deaths," a French politician argues

The statement on behalf on Florian Philippot to Sputnik comes after at least 60 foreign mercenaries were killed in a Russia's precision strike on a temporary deployment location of foreign fighters in the city of Kharkov on Tuesday. The majority of the mercs were the French.

💬 "It's the very 'nice' Zelensky and the very 'nasty' Putin, full stop. So, that encourages. And then, because the French government has been delivering money and weapons to the Zelensky regime for two years now and therefore seems to be signaling, leading the way, setting an example."

According to him, the French government bears direct responsibility in this commitment and in these deaths.

"French citizens feel authorized to go and fight on the front for Zelensky's Ukraine, because the French government lets it happen, because it's being valorized in the media, because no one is clearly telling them that it's very dangerous and not explaining the deep motivations of this conflict."

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🐴🎀😍 Analyst Mark Sleboda mocked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s “peace formula” unveiled in Davos this week, speculating the highly aspirational plan also included “Zelensky's demand for a little pink pony with a little pretty ribbon on top.”

“It is the opposite of a peace formula,” said the expert on Sputnik’s The Critical Hour program Thursday. “It is a childish demand for Russian unconditional surrender that Russia should withdraw all of its troops from Ukrainian territory – including Crimea – [and] surrender the people of Crimea and Donbass to the tender mercies of Azov* Neo-Nazis.”

Among the elements of Zelensky’s proposition is a call for Russia to put political and military leaders on trial and pay reparations to the Kiev regime.

The proposal is highly unlikely to achieve traction with even The New York Times recognizing Ukraine’s failure on the battlefield, Sleboda pointed out.

*Azov Battalion is a terrorist organization banned in Russia.

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Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other US officials have called the charges against Israel “meritless” as acknowledging “Israel’s genocide” would not only “expose US culpability” it would also cause the US to acknowledge their own mistakes, writes Margaret Kimberley, an author and senior columnist, in a recent article published to the Black Agenda Report.

“Israel could not do any of this without the US. So it's only proper that the US also be charged,” Kimberley stated.

Last week, South Africa formally accused Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians. Israel brushed off the accusation and said it was acting to defend itself against Hamas and not the Palestinian population.

“South Africa's case, frankly, is based on the public pronouncements of Israeli officials, they've been bragging about it that they're committing ethnic cleansing," Kimberley told Sputnik’s Political Misfits on Thursday.

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It’s been revealed that the British Armed Forces have flown 50 surveillance flights over the besieged Gaza Strip since December alone. The flights departed from RAF Akrotiri, the UK’s air force base in Cyprus. The revelation comes after reports the UK had been shipping weapons to Netanyahu’s regime from the base.

British Defense Minister Grant Shapps had previously admitted the UK was providing “surveillance support to Israel,” although he couched the assistance in terms of “preventing the transfer of weapons to terrorist groups.”

A recent poll showed 71% of the British public support a ceasefire in Gaza.

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📹 Russia's Grad MLRS crews destroyed the infantry of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in strongholds on the front lines in the area of Artemovsk.

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❗️At about 06:40 Moscow time, air defense systems destroyed a Ukrainian aircraft-type drone over the Bryansk region, the Russian Defense Ministry reported.

The Ukrainian drone was suppressed by electronic warfare in the Bryansk region, and when the target was destroyed, ammunition was dropped on the Klintsovskaya oil depot, said the governor of the Bryansk region, Alexander Bogomaz.

According to preliminary information, there are no injuries, but "there is a fire in the tanks in the collapse".

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❗️🇹🇷 Turkiye is not negotiating alternatives to the grain deal, other ways if all parties are not involved in the deal are risky - the source told Sputnik.

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• Yemen's Houthis have attacked a US ship, the Marshall Islands-flagged chemical tanker Chem Ranger, in the Gulf of Aden with two naval missiles. Pentagon has confirmed the strike, not mentioning any casualties or damage.

•  North Korea tests underwater nuclear weapon system in response to the South Korea, US & Japan drills.

• The UK has been backing Israel with spy planes over Gaza, according to reports.

• ‘Guilty of genocide’: the US brushes off South Africa’s accusation against Israel due to fear of culpability.

We also suggest you have a glance at:

• International affairs expert believes the Iranian strike on Pakistan draws attention to the destabilizing role of Western powers in the Middle East.

• Zelensky shared the highly aspirational plan to end the conflict at the World Economic Forum summit in Davos. His 'peace formula' was ridiculed by experts and here is why.

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😉 American hypocrisy

The US Treasury Department has extended until April 17 the permission for American citizens and companies to pay taxes, fees and import duties in Russia, according to the updated general license.

They are also allowed to purchase permits, licenses, registrations, pay for certifications, or receive tax refunds.

The previous version of the general license expired on January 31.

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Army aviation strike group, consisting of Ka-52 attack helicopter and Mi-8 search and rescue helicopter, conducted a combat mission.

During the combat mission, the Ka-52 "Alligator" helicopter used air-launched weapons against Ukrainian hardware and personnel. According to the reports of the advanced aviation gunner, all targets were successfully hit.

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Thugs to the bone and idealists brainwashed by propaganda: profile of foreign mercenaries in Ukraine

After at least 60 foreign mercenaries were decimated by a Russian high-precision missile strike in Kharkov, Robinson Farinazzo, a military analyst and Brazilian naval reserve officer, told Sputnik that mercenaries fighting on the Ukrainian side have different profiles, ranging from those brainwashed by propaganda to criminals hiding from justice.

“These people have different background. There are idealists, as well as all types of criminals, degenerates and fugitives. There are also veterans of the Armed Forces from the US, France, Germany, Poland and other European countries, even Brazil. Therefore, it's difficult to determine what kind of people they are, whether they really believe or they are having some kind of problems. But there are a lot of people there who were clueless about what they were going to find, not mentioning that some of them died before being able to fire even one round,” he told Sputnik.

Farinazzo explained that foreign mercenaries are not difficult to track down, especially as some of them boast online.

"Russia has been decimating these militants since the very beginning of the conflict. They [Russian armed forces] know about their movements, which are not that easy to hide. These people don't speak Ukrainian, so Russian intelligence services intercept messages in foreign languages, mostly English or Polish. Not mentioning the fact that some of these mercs tell on social media about their movements,” the analyst added.

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Why US National Defense Industrial Strategy may prove ineffective?

The Pentagon's new National Defense Industrial Strategy (NDIS) will take "years to implement and, in my opinion, is insufficient for America's defense needs," David T. Pyne, an EMP Task Force scholar and former US Department of Defense officer, told Sputnik.

Pyne said he has some doubts about how effective this new strategy will prove to be, given US President Joe Biden's "continued weakening of US military power."

The conflict in Ukraine "has exposed some critical deficiencies not only in the US stockpile of precision-guided munitions and artillery shells, but also in the ability of the US defense industrial base to produce them at a sufficient rate to supply the US military, let alone its allies, in a major conflict," Pyne said.

The US Department of Defense recently released its first National Defense Industrial Strategy for the period to 2029, a report that acknowledges, among other things, that there are worrying shortfalls in the country's domestic manufacturing capabilities.

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Puppet Master: Alexander Soros, head of the Soros political and business empire, met with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

🤔 What do you think they talked about?

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It's good to get along with people who have massive nuclear weapons and large nuclear stockpiles, Donald Trump commented on his relationships with Putin, Kim Jong Un and Xi.

In his speech, Trump said he got along well with the leaders of nuclear-armed countries Russia, China and North Korea.

"If Hillary Clinton would've won, you would've nuclear war with North Korea," the ex-president declared.

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As for ships from all other countries, including Russia and China, their navigation in the region is not threatened in any way, Muhammad al-Bakhiti, senior Houthi official, promised Russian and Chinese ships safe passage across the Red Sea.

"Moreover, we are ready to ensure the safety of their journey across the Red Sea, because freedom of navigation plays an important role for our country."

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