🇷🇺 Vladimir Putin attended the ‘Movement of the First’ congress. After talking to the participants of the event, Putin and the kids sang the Russian anthem together.

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Sputnik Afghanistan journalist Khaibar Akifi, who was wounded in a Ukrainian drone strike in Belgorod, had serious injuries that raised fears for his life, but now his life is not in danger, he is recovering, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said in an interview with Sputnik.

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Florida sends 1,000 National Guard soldiers to Texas to secure its border in support of Gov. Abbott's "Operation Lonestar."

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A mountain of evidence, including documents indirectly indicating the work of surgeons and medical specialists involved in illegal organ harvesting within in the ranks of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, were found on the territory of Severodonetsk in the LPR, which until the end of May 2022 was under the control of the Ukrainian army, representatives of law enforcement agencies told Sputnik.

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Were American troops in control of the Patriot system that shot down the Il-76 carrying Ukrainian POWs?

Former Pentagon analyst Karen Kwiatkowski told Sputnik that there’s no doubt that Washington was able to track the Patriot missile launch in real time. A more troubling possibility is that American instructors could have been alongside the Ukrainian battery team that pulled the trigger.

"Do we have Americans on site in Ukraine on the teams that are operating these missile batteries? I don't have evidence of it, I don't have knowledge of it and that hasn't been reported because it's always denied by the United States. But what I can tell, what I said before, when we have complex systems that require large, well-trained teams to operate, when we have complex systems that aren't exceptionally reliable and most complex systems are not — I mean, look at the F-35, it's extremely complex, but there are many problems that are brought in as a result of that complexity."

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❗️Biden has signed an executive order imposing sanctions against Jewish settlers in the West Bank, the White House said.

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Yemeni Houthi leader blasts ‘futile’ US-UK strikes on Yemen, warns it won’t weaken Ansar Allah’s military capabilities.

"The Americans and the British are unable to protect their own ships, including their naval assets, from being targeted by destroyers and barges," asserted Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, the leader of Ansar Allah, during a recent speech on the latest developments.

"Rather than involving themselves in wars, the US President should prioritize addressing the crises and problems within his own country. The aggression against our nation will not sway our stance. Instead, it will drive us to further develop our military capabilities, as evident in our missile program. The British, on the other hand, should take note of the lesson learned from the burning of their ships night after night, which caused damage to both themselves and their economy without yielding any results," he emphasized.

On Thursday, American forces targeted a “Houthi UAV ground control station and 10 Houthi one-way UAVs” that “presented an imminent threat to merchant vessels and the US Navy ships in the region”, CENTCOM said in an official statement citing the unmanned aerial vehicles.

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Ex-CIA Agent: FBI Psyop Possible Against Texas Convoy

🗣"I think these people who are gathering in this convoy have to be genuinely concerned that the FBI will absolutely insert agents, informants, activists inside. That organization wants to collect information, but also to be in a position to try to create a situation that would then justify federal intervention," Larry Johnson, retired CIA intelligence officer and State Department official, told Sputnik.

"Here in the United States we have, probably, over 200 political prisoners, people that were arrested and many held without charges for extended periods of time in isolation, in solitary confinement, for the simple act of having walked into the US Capitol on January 6th, 2021. It's outrageous. And so we've seen this kind of persecution of conservatives that goes on with great regularity," he said.

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What’s in Ukraine's new mobilization bill?

The Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers has submitted an amended draft bill on mobilization to Ukraine's parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, as President Zelensky is seeking to draft a 450,000-500,000-strong contingent to keep the conflict going on.

🔸The draft legislation envisages abolition of connoscript service and the introduction of basic combined arms training for three months for all citizens aged 18 to 25.

🔸The draft age would be lowered from 27 to 25 years.

🔸Electronic military summonses and recruiter's electronic accounts are introduced. The summons would be sent by email.

🔸Ukrainians removed from military registration due to departure abroad (and staying there for over three months) are required to register for military service within 30 days from the date of the law's enactment.

🔸The rights of draft-dodgers would be restricted through the courts, including a ban on traveling abroad and blocking of their bank accounts.

🔸Citizens of Ukraine from 25 to 55 with disabilities of groups II and III due to injuries, concussions and crippling wounds received during the ongoing conflict are subject to a repeated medical examination for suitability for military service until the end of 2024.

🔸Female doctors and pharmacists would become subject to military registration. Other women would be able to register on a voluntary basis and could be involved in defensive works.

🔸Сonvicts who have been released from serving their sentences (on parole) may be called up for military service during mobilization, except for those who have been convicted of crimes against Ukraine's national security.

The law ramps up control over the draft-age population and tightens the screws on draft dodgers in a bid to amass as much manpower as possible. However, even if the full number of troops is mobilized, the Ukrainian Armed Forces lack ammo and weapons — as the West's enterprises struggle to ramp up arms production and military aid funding runs out.

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Zelensky and Zaluzhny at loggerheads over Avdeyevka – Bild

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Valery Zaluzhny had major disagreements over Ukrainian military positions in Avdeyevka (a small town 10 km from Donetsk) a few weeks back, Bild reported, citing privy sources.

The report suggests that Zaluzhny insisted on withdrawing troops from the town, hoping it would stabilize the front line and facilitate Ukraine’s defense efforts. However, Zelensky rejected the idea.

Avdeyevka became a contentious point for the Ukrainian command due to its strategic significance. Ukraine’s weakening positions there mirrored how the situation in Artemovsk (Bakhmut) unfolded last year. In May, 2023, Russian forces liberated the city, dealing a huge blow to the Ukrainian Army.

Zelensky’s decision to remove Zaluzhny from his post was based on arguments that the Ukrainian people had grown tired of the conflict, Western military aid was drying up, and that such changes could improve the situation, The Washington Post wrote earlier. Another point of contention was the fact that Zaluzhny insisted on mobilizing additional 500,000 Ukrainians to the front lines, a proposal Zelensky did not approve of.

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🔸Were American troops in control of the Patriot system that shot down the Il-76 carrying Ukrainian POWs? Former Pentagon analyst explains.

🔸Steadfast Defender 2024: What to know about NATO’s biggest drills since Cold War

🔸Quick facts about Patriot missile system Kiev used to down planeload of Ukrainian PoWs

🔸Who supplied Patriot air defense systems to Ukraine and when?

🔸Does Gaza have a future while Netanyahu is in power?

🔸Ex-CIA Agent: FBI psyop possible against Texas Convoy

🔸What’s in Ukraine's new mobilization bill?

❗️ The Ukrainian state needs to recognize that it is unable to strengthen troops without "unpopular measures", and that Russian forces have a “significant advantage”, said Ukrainian Armed Forces commander-in-chief Zaluzhny

❗️ Yemen's Ansar Allah (Houthis) movement shelled a UK commercial ship in the Red Sea heading to a port in Israel, said Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree.

"As a sign of support for the oppressed Palestinian people and as part of the response to the US-UK aggression against our country, the naval forces of the armed forces of Yemen attacked a UK commercial ship in the Red Sea, which was heading to a port of the occupied territories of Palestine, with appropriate anti-ship missiles," Saree said on Telegram.

Forgotten EU farmers: Brussels focused too much on climate agenda and Ukraine

The farmer protest movement has been increasingly engulfing Europe since January, with massive demonstrations in Belgium, Germany, Italy, Poland, Romania and the Netherlands.

"European agricultural sector has traditionally faced a lot of challenges, especially because it is an industry which is very difficult to compete against production coming in from outside Europe because production costs are much higher here in Europe," Josep-Maria Arauzo-Carod, professor of economics at the Rovira i Virgili University (URV), chair of the Research Center on Economics and Sustainability (ECO-SOS), told Sputnik.

Under these circumstances, the influx of cheap products from Ukraine — which was freed from all tariffs and quotas by Brussels under the pretext of the ongoing conflict — decoupling from Russian energy imports has sent European prices higher, accelerating inflation, while an aggressive climate agenda dealt a heavy blow to the continent's agricultural sector.

The EU’s "green agenda" push is last straw, the expert said. Arauzo-Carod pointed out that European farmers have had to bear the brunt of of the costs of energy transition. "And then they are arriving to a point in which in some sectors and places it is very, very difficult to survive," the expert stressed.

DoD insider details level of possible US involvement in Ukraine training Patriot missile system operators

“I think that it’s fair to say that there are either American, Israel or some European military people [in Ukraine], or contractors who are experts in the use of the Patriot system. The team for the Patriot is over 90 people. It’s very complex,” former Pentagon and National Security Agency officer and retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Karen Kwiatkowski told Sputnik, when asked whether it was possible that there was some kind of American oversight over the Patriot missile system which downed the Il-76.

“My experiences with contractors and contractor systems [has been that] they don’t want their systems to be broken or mishandled. They want to be able to be there looking over the shoulder. There’s always kind of training transition. So I would expect that there are contractors, very possibly people in the direct employ of the United States, or possibly contractors in Europe that use the Patriot and possibly obviously the Israelis or retired military,” the retired Air Force Officer said.