🤔 A US-constructed model of democracy in South Korea turns out to be not so democratic after all...

During a meeting between South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and members of parliament, who praised him and solemnly shook hands, an opposition representative approached the president and called on him to "change his policy."

After that, the guards grabbed the man, covered his mouth and took him out of the meeting.

Fact check of France’s ‘not our mercenaries in Ukraine’ allegations

France has rejected a recent statement by Russia’s Ministry of Defense (MoD) that a Russian airstrike destroyed a building in Kharkov hosting French mercenaries.

“France has no mercenaries either in Ukraine or anywhere else,” the French Foreign Ministry argued, calling the MoD’s statement "another clumsy Russian manipulation."

Reality:

▪️Francois Mauld d’Aymee, a French officer-turned Donbass People’s Militia volunteer, recently opened up about French mercs in Ukraine, describing them as “sports enthusiasts [and] drug addicts,” in an exclusive interview with Sputnik. He added that some of them are veterans of French and NATO military campaigns in Afghanistan and Africa.

▪️Contacts with Paris on the issue of the destruction are held through diplomatic channels, but there have been no requests for high-level talks, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday.

▪️Sputnik disclosed that Camille Bertrix, a French citizen from the small town of Pont-du-Chateau, has been operating as a mercenary for the Ukrainian International Legion since spring 2023.

▪️The Russian Investigative Committee reported last year that more than 520 foreign mercenaries from 44 countries, including France, became involved in criminal cases while fighting for Ukraine.

To be continued...

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

▪️According to France’s RTL broadcaster, there were about 100 French citizens taking part in the Ukraine conflict on the side of Kiev last summer.

▪️On top of that, Sputnik obtained documents indicating that Lieutenant-Colonel Arnaud Helly, of the French Directorate of Military Intelligence (DRM) and Directorate-General for External Security (DGSE), communicated with foreign mercenaries in Ukraine two years before the conflict.

▪️Also last year, left-wing lawmaker Frederic Mathieu sent an appeal to France’s Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin in which he pointed out the security risks related to the return of French militants who fought in Ukraine to their homeland.

▪️In 2022, the French government tried to convince some French military personnel to leave the army and go to Ukraine to join the Ukrainian Armed Forces, military journalist and historian Laurent Briard told Russian media.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇷🇺 Rapid ramparts: Russian forces' resilience multiplied sixfold along 120-kilometer defense lines

The creation of over 400 battalion defense areas along a 120-kilometer-long defense line has increased the resilience of the Russian Armed Forces by five to six times, the Russian Defense Ministry has said.

Lieutenant General Yuri Stavitsky revealed that these defense areas were equipped within eight months, marking a historic achievement in military engineering. Drawing comparisons to iconic defense lines, the general emphasized the rapidity of the operation:

“For comparison, the Mannerheim Line with a length of 135 kilometers was prepared over 10 years, and the Maginot Line with a front length of 400 kilometers took 12 years”.

Prior to the Ukrainian counteroffensive, meticulous groundwork involved the creation of over 3,600 kilometers of trenches, 150,000 dugouts and shelters, 45,000 bunkers, and 12,000 reinforced concrete structures.

In December, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced that Russian forces had conducted extensive fortification of defense lines, stating that military builders, engineering, and railway troops completed 82% of fortification works on the contact line.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Netanyahu’s Gamble: Is Israel preparing for another war?

"The war in Gaza has been actually a defeat of Israel. All the objectives that were sent for it, the elimination of Hamas, its leadership, the retrieval of the hostages, all of these elements have not been achieved. And so it's retreating in a sense of defeat, one that is now really permeating into the Israeli sphere, in other words, into their thinking," former British diplomat Alastair Crooke told New Rules podcast.

Is Israel going to invade Lebanon? Can Biden prevent Natanyahu from major regional escalation? Go and find out from our latest episode.

Also available on our official X page, join and enjoy exclusive content!

Iran's top-5 game-changing weapons

From missile systems to drones: our AI news presenter Nika is back from her digital holidays to explain what exactly makes the Iranian military so impressive.

Also check out Nika's essential episodes: Lancet drones, hypersonic weapons, AK-47, and Joe Biden's manipulations analysis.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️The Russian Army has carried out 17 group strikes with high-precision weapons against firms of Ukraine's military-industrial complex that carried out weapon and equipment repairs, as well as producing ammo, gunpowder and drones.

🇷🇺🪖 More statements from the Russian MoD weekly briefing on the progress of special military op in Ukraine:

▪️In the Kupyansk region, the Russian Army repelled 25 attacks by Ukrainian forces. Ukrainian losses amounted to 560 troops, 10 tanks, eight armored combat vehicles, 26 vehicles and eight artillery pieces;

▪️In the Krasny Liman region, Russian forces repelled 17 attacks by Ukrainian troops. Ukrainian losses amounted to 1,520 military personnel, a tank, 21 armored combat vehicles, 34 vehicles, and eight artillery pieces;

▪️In Donetsk, the Russian Army repelled 15 attacks by Ukrainian troops. Ukrainian losses amounted to 1,880 soldiers, 17 tanks, 27 armored combat vehicles, two launchers of the Strela-10 anti-aircraft missile system, 86 vehicles and 28 artillery guns;

▪️Russia’s Aerospace Forces aviation and air defense systems shot down six Tochka-U tactical missiles, a JDAM guided bomb, 11 Vilkha MLRS rockets, 62 HIMARS and Uragan multiple launch rocket systems, as well as 274 drones.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇦🇹 Austrian farmers have come out to protest, arriving to the center of Vienna on tractors.

They protest against excessive bureaucracy, the import of Ukrainian grain and insufficient payment for their labor.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Special combat training classes were held with Russian military engineers of the Zapad Battlegroup:

▪️During the training, all types of engineering ammunition and methods of their installation, including using quadrocopters and FPV-drones, were demonstrated to military personnel performing combat missions in Kupyansk;

▪️Such classes allow military engineers from different tactical areas to share their experience and improve their skills for more effective combat work;

▪️"The main tasks performed by engineering units are making passages in mine-explosive barriers in various ways. We are doing the main work in this direction," said an officer of the engineering troops department of the Zapad Battlegroup.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

At least the third emergency involving Boeing aircraft in a month.

After an Alaska Airlines plane “collapsed” in the air and Blinken’s Boeing broke down, something strange happened to an Atlas Air aircraft.

According to the official version, the engine broke down. Footage from social networks shows sparks flying from the engine.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇾🇪 A largescale anti-American and pro-Palestinian rally is taking place in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa.

According to local media, a crowd of millions has gathered. People chant anti-American slogans.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🧊🇷🇺 Not only President Putin, but also fellow Russians throughout the country are taking part in Epiphany batheing.

Watch our video and immerse yourself in the atmosphere of snowy January Russia.

What do you think about this tradition? Could you swim in an ice hole?

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🗣 Former MI6: "High Probability" of Israel-Hezbollah War in 2024

"I think that Israel has suffered major setbacks in this period, setbacks in Gaza, setbacks internally. The West Bank is on a knife edge. There are problems that are developing there. The government had a vote against it in the Supreme Court by one vote. And then it now faces a court case in the Hague accusing it of genocide. It desperately needs some sort of victory. It needs something to bring people together...This prompts people to want to try and find some military outlet that will provide some sort of semblance, some sort of idea of a success," Alastair Crooke told the New Rules podcast.

👉 Watch the full episode of our show on Rumble and on our X page

🎧 If you prefer to listen to our podcast, make sure to check the New Rules page on the website!

The man who dodged a Ukrainian drone gave an interview.

His call sign is “Babay”, he is 46 years old, and he was drafted from the Chelyabinsk region. And, in fact, he not only ran away from one kamikaze, but neutralized three others!

All this in order to save the life of his commander, who was nearby at that moment.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

The US and UK have conducted two strikes on Al Hudaydah City in Yemen, according to reports.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Old story, new twist: Taiwan establishes psy op facility

Taiwanese regional authorities have set up a Cognitive Warfare Research Center. The official mission of the facility is reportedly to defend the island's population from "disinformation campaigns."

The creation of this center coincides with victory of a US-backed politician in Taiwan's regional elections – Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate Lai Ching-te.

“Cognitive warfare” was coined by NATO experts who stress that the “modern form of war is not about weapons but about influence” adding that the aim of cognitive warfare is “to shape perceptions and control the narrative.”

The US secret services have a long history of engaging in cognitive warfare against their geopolitical adversaries, blatantly using disinformation and fakes in regional clashes. In particular, Taiwan has been a special target for the US since the establishment of modern China.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇸🇰 Slovakia's new Minister of Defense said that due to the transfer of weapons to Kiev by the previous government, the country was left without air defenses, combat aircraft and even without the promised payment for the MiG-29s that were transferred to Ukraine.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania's defense ministers have approved the creation of a common "Baltic defense zone" on the border of Russia and Belarus.

The ministers signed an agreement today in Riga under which the states will, in the coming years, create a defense zone on their borders consisting of various defense facilities, the purpose of which is to deter and, if necessary, protect against military threats.

The agreement was penned as the Baltic nations continue to antagonize Moscow and Minsk by aiding the Kiev regime military, agitating European countries to confront Russia and increasing political persecution of the Russian-speaking minorities in their own states.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt