"It's time to stop the meat grinder. Should have been done a year ago,": Elon Musk wrote on X after Carlson's interview with Putin.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Biden's entourage tacitly admitted mistakes in the US administration's approach to the Gaza conflict, NYT reported.

At a private meeting, Jonathan Feiner, deputy national security advisor to the US president, spoke about "missteps in the course of responding to this crisis since Oct. 7." According to the official, he did not have "any confidence" that the Israeli government is ready to take "meaningful steps" towards the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️ Last night, the Kiev regime tried to attack Russian civilian transport vessels in the southwestern region of the Black Sea using unmanned boats, the Russian Defense Ministry says. Russian Navy patrol ships and aircraft carrying out missions in the area were deployed to repel the attack. One unmanned boat was destroyed by artillery fire, while the others were suppressed by electronic warfare equipment.

Civilian transport vessels and Russian Navy ships were not damaged, the ministry added.

The Russian strike on the Ukrainian oil depot in Kharkov hit 11 pieces of equipment, including tanks, Nikolaev underground coordinator Sergey Lebedev told Sputnik.

In addition, according to Lebedev, in the east of the Kharkov region a blow was struck at the place where officers celebrated the appointment of Syrsky as commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️ During the week, Russian forces shot down MiG-29 and Su-25 aircraft, 34 multiple rocket launcher projectiles, including HIMARS and Vampire missiles, as well as 488 drones.

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

▪️ Near Kupyansk, 36 attacks by Ukrainian forces were repelled, with enemy losses totaling over 725 military personnel

▪️ During the week, 31 combined strikes with high-precision weapons and UAVs were carried out against Ukrainian military facilities. The strikes hit production facilities of Ukrainian enterprises engaged in the production and repair of aircraft, UAVs, and unmanned boats.

▪️ Near Krasny Liman, Russian troops improved their position on the front line during the week, repelling 14 attacks by Ukrainian forces, with the enemy losing up to 1,500 military personnel killed and wounded.

▪️ During the week, strikes hit the locations of Ukrainian forces, nationalist formations, and foreign mercenaries. The objectives of the strikes were achieved.

▪️ In the southern DPR, Russian troops improved their positions on the front line during the week. Five Ukrainian attacks were repelled, and enemy losses totaled up to 1,160 military personnel

▪️ In the Zaporozhye region, the Kiev regime lost more than 210 servicemen and a Grad MLRS combat vehicle.

▪️ In the DPR, during the week, the Russian Army took more favorable positions and repelled 26 Ukrainian attacks, with the enemy's losses amounting to more than 2,190 soldiers.

▪️ In the Kherson region, Ukrainian losses totaled more than 245 servicemen, as well as a HIMARS MLRS combat vehicle.

▪️ Over the past week, two S-300 anti-aircraft missile system launchers and a radar were hit, as well as eight Ukrainian ammunition depots.

▪️ 36 Ukrainian servicemen surrendered during the week.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Journalists, including cameraman Mohammed al-Hila, who works with Sputnik, have found themselves surrounded by the Israeli Army at the Nasser Hospital complex in Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip; communication with the operator was lost on Saturday night, a Sputnik correspondent reports from Gaza

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇳🇱 Dutch politician Eva Vlaardingerbroek contrasted Putin's historical account in an interview with Tucker Carlson about Russia and Ukraine with the lack of similar historical knowledge among Western leaders.

"Putin's 30 minute account of Russia's history was incredibly interesting, not just because of its current political relevance, but especially because it directly highlights the fact that not a single Western leader today could give such a detailed historical account of their own nation the way Putin did.

We in the West no longer have any idea who we are. We have no idea of our own history. Why would we? It's been actively suppressed and rejected. In fact, the only thing our current political ''leadership'' prides itself on, is the rejection of our ''backwards history''. When asked what The West is about, most people will repeat some type of cliché narrative that we've evolved past our nationalistic barbarism into enlightened ''liberal democratic societies''.

It's ironic because as the Putin interview confirmed once again on multiple accounts, ''liberal democracy'' in the West is an illusion. With the current President of the United States being undeniably senile, it couldn't possibly be more in our face. Our government leaders -let alone our parliamentary representatives - aren't actually the ones pulling the strings, but that obvious fact isn't causing the outrage you'd expect. Most people simply play along, even though they know the emperor has no clothes on. For some it might be because they don't know where to start or there's a level of cognitive dissonance and they aren't willing to face the truth, but there are many who are so brainwashed that they actually don't realize they're pawns in a globalist play," she said.

She also questioned the portrayal of Russia as an expansionist aggressor in light of geopolitical events such as the conflict in Ukraine and suggested that the interview could help de-escalate tensions.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇷🇺 Two Tu-95ms strategic missile carriers of long-range aviation of the Russian Aerospace Forces completed a planned flight in the airspace over the neutral waters of the Bering Sea, near the western coast of Alaska, the Russian Defense Ministry reported.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Big cat with deadly claws: What we know about Russia's new Manul IFV

Russia's Defense Ministry and High Precision Systems (a division of Rostec) are putting the finishing touches on the final design of the prospective Manul infantry fighting vehicle, a deeply modernized variant of the legendary BMP-3 IFV design, reports say. And just as its namesake – the Pallas’ cat - it promises to be elegant, unstoppable, and deadly to its enemies!

🔺The Manul will feature a turbocharged, 816-horsepower UTD-32T engine mounted toward the front of the vehicle.

🔺Troop-carrying capabilities are unknown, but the base BMP-3 with which the Manul shares many design elements can carry up to seven troops and has a crew of three.

🔺For weapons, variants of the Manul with the Bumerang-BM and AU-220M Baikal automated weapons mounts have been spotted. The former comes with a 30 mm autocannon, Kornet missiles, and PKT 7.62 mm coaxial machinegun. The latter has a 57 mm automatic gun and 7.62 mm 6P7K machinegun.

🔺According to Kurganmashzavod, which works on the Manul, it will feature many components found in the base BMP-3, allowing “an easier transition to a next-generation vehicle.” That should help dramatically reduce development, manufacturing, and repair costs, and simplify training.

🔺The Manul is one of a series of Russian IFVs in development. Others include the Kurganets-25, the T-15 Armata, and the Bumerang wheeled fighting vehicle.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia has called for a meeting of the UN Security Council due to the situation in Rafah

Saudi Arabia has warned of the dangerous consequences if Israel were to launch an offensive on the city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have moved after the start of the conflict. This was reported by Arab News, citing a statement from the Kingdom's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

"Rafah represents the last refuge for hundreds of thousands of peaceful inhabitants forced to flee by the cruel Israeli aggression," the ministry's statement said.

"Deliberate violations of international humanitarian law underscore the urgent need for a Security Council meeting to prevent Israel from causing an inevitable humanitarian catastrophe," Saudi Arabia said.

According to the UN, as reported by the publication, about half of Gaza's 2.4 million residents are currently sheltering in the city, with many reportedly sleeping on the streets in tents and makeshift shelters, raising concerns about food and water shortages.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Mainstream media has been bashing Tucker Carlson, claiming that he is not a real journalist. Watch this CNN reporter show him how to really put a national leader on the spot with challenging and impartial questioning. Gold-standard journalism indeed.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇩🇪🏭 Germany faces deindustrialization without Russian energy

Berlin is caught in a deep crisis triggered by its decision to cut itself off from Russian energy. In a Bloomberg piece ennoscriptd ‘Germany’s Days as an Industrial Superpower Are Coming to an End’, industrialists and officials shared a grim outlook on the manufacturing giant’s future.

“You don’t have to be a pessimist to say that what we’re doing at the moment won’t be enough,” Volker Trier, foreign trade chief at Germany’s Chambers of Commerce and Industry, said.

“We are no longer competitive,” German Finance Minister Christian Lindner admitted at a business event in Frankfurt on Monday. “We are getting poorer because we have no growth.”
German opposition figures have blamed Berlin’s slavish dependence on Washington, which helped push the country into the current crisis while sucking producers out using cheap energy and generous subsidies.

The consequence is an economy “bursting at the seams, with businesses closing and moving abroad,” Alternative for Germany lawmaker Eugen Schmidt told Sputnik. Germany is paying “crazy amounts of money for American liquefied natural gas at the same time that we’re imposing sanctions on [Russian] pipeline gas.”

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇷🇺 Russian artillerymen of the Battlegroup Dnepr destroyed a Ukrainian ammunition depot in the Kherson region using a 152-mm towed D-20 gun.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🔺Germany faces deindustrialization without Russian energy

🔺Saudi Arabia has called for a meeting of the UN Security Council due to the situation in Rafah

🔺Dutch activist, Eva Vlaardingerbroek, commented on the Carlson-Putin interview

🔺X users have ridiculed a BBC article "fact-checking" Putin's remarks about the history of Ukraine

🔺Vladimir Putin outlined the priorities for foreign policy in his congratulatory message on Diplomatic Worker's Day

🔺CNN shows the gold-standard journalism

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Two US military facilities sitting on natural oil and gas fields in eastern Syria came under fire on Saturday, local Syrian sources told Sputnik.

"Four missiles fell on the territory of a US base in Koniko," a source said.

The missile strike on the Koniko gas field in the Syrian province of Deir ez-Zor was followed by a drone attack on a US installation in the Omar oil field in the same province, another source said.

"Three drones attacked an American base. Several explosions were heard at the base," the source said, adding US air defenses failed to foil the attack.

These are the latest in a string of more than 160 attacks on US facilities in Syria and neighboring Iraq that Washington attributes to Iran-backed militias. The Pentagon retaliated last week by striking targets belonging to militant groups who it says killed three US troops in an attack on a US outpost in Jordan in early February. Iraq and Syria condemned the US aggression against their territories.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Poland, South Korea rethink $22 bln arms deal amid danger of sparking regional wars

Seoul's arms deliveries to Poland have been stalled in a loan-related deadlock as the South Korean government does not want to antagonize Russia amid its special military op in Ukraine, political analyst Peter Kolchin has told Sputnik.

"In the case of Poland’s rearmament, the situation is also very slippery due to the fact that Russian-Polish relations have deteriorated significantly in recent years,” the observer said, noting that Seoul could become an unwitting “accomplice” of Warsaw should it use its South Korean-sourced weapons against Russia.

“Russia has many of the latest military technologies without analogue in the world, and if the DPRK receives the opportunity to develop at least some of them, of course this would be a threat to South Korea. Therefore, it’s quite possible that, given that both parties doubt the feasibility of the contract, it can either be altered or, in principle, terminated,” Kolchin said.

Recently elected Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said in January that there was a “problem” in the proposed loan conditions for new purchases of military hardware from South Korea. Former Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak accused Tusk of “looking for savings” and “preparing soldiers and public opinion for withdrawals from weapon contracts.”

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Two Israeli fighter jets launched airstrikes at Al-Dimas airport near the Syrian capital of Damascus, a senior Russian military officer told a news briefing.

"Two tactical F-35 fighters of the Israeli air force … fired four precision-guided air bombs at military infrastructure in Al-Dimas airfield," Rear Adm. Vadim Kulit said.

The Israeli airstrikes caused material damage, the official said. The jets came from the southern Golan Heights and did not penetrate into the Syrian airspace.

US Utah GOP Senator Mike Lee's "long" speech against the Ukraine funding bill goes on for more than 3 hours.

Earlier, Lee accused his colleagues of trying to pass an aid bill for Ukraine, taking advantage of the fact that the Americans' attention would be drawn to the Super Bowl, the US National Football League's championship final, and promised 'long' speech.

Lee said that US cannot send billions of dollars to Ukraine while America's own borders are bleeding, while noting that American people are distracted by sports, family and entertainment.

Previously, US Kentucky Senator Rand Paul slammed GOP minority leader Mitch McConnell's for his support of the military aid bill for Ukraine, calling it "outrageous" and "criminal neglect".

“It’s criminal neglect for Mitch McConnell, Chuck Schumer, and Joe Biden to get together to send $100bln overseas to fix someone else’s border before addressing our border,” Paul told Fox Business in an interview.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

US Senator Mike Lee spoke non-stop for three hours and 56 minutes, protesting against the Ukraine aid bill and urging a vote against it.

Lee said he "must have missed that day" when Ukraine had become the 51st state of the US, warning that US has already poured a 12-figure sum and adding 60 more billions won't get things better.

The fate of the Ukraine aid bill in the Senate could be decided on Sunday, when a vote is expected to finalise the document and send it for approval.

🇷🇺 'Eye opener': expert comments on Putin's geopolitical insights in interview with Carlson

Russian President Vladimir Putin's interview with American journalist Tucker Carlson sheds light on the geopolitical situation in Eastern Europe, including Ukraine, Prof. Lere Amusan, Professor of International Relations at North-West University, told Sputnik Africa.

"For me, the interview is an eye opener, it let us know exactly what is going on in the Baltic and in the eastern part of Europe and the rationale behind why Russia is in Ukraine, in order to maintain sanity in the region," the expert noted.

Regarding Russia's actions in Ukraine, the professor noted that the majority of the country's inhabitants, especially in the area of the capital Kiev, are Russian-speaking, and Russia "cannot leave its own people because of the cultural implications and for the stability of its own country."

👉 Read the full story!

Subscribe to @sputnik_africa

🔸 TikTok | Sputnik Africa | Boost us on Telegram 🔸

A bill that would require US lawmakers to “serve on the front lines” if they vote for more aid to Ukraine, was put forth by Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna (Rep.-FL).

Called the 'Senators Can Help Underpin Military Engagement and Readiness, or SCHUMER, Act,' Luna said she introduced the bill in response to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (Dem-NY) ultimatum that if Russia is allowed to defeat Ukraine, US troops may be used to fight Russia in Eastern Europe.

After the bill was leaked to the media, Luna defended it vehemently. “I make no apologies,” she said. “My bill, the SCHUMER Act, would require Members of Congress to fight on the front lines in Ukraine if they support Schumer’s calls for American sons & daughters to fight.”

She added that the bill was “In honor of Chuck Schumer.”

“If we don’t aid Ukraine, Putin will walk all over Ukraine, we will lose the war and we could be fighting in eastern Europe and a NATO ally in a few years. Americans won’t like that,” Schumer said earlier this month on American television.

While the bill is unlikely to pass or even come to a vote, it will provide lawmakers with an opportunity to put their name on something that implies politicians should fight in the wars they advocate for. Luna said that her fellow lawmakers will have until February 12 to be one of the bill’s original co-sponsors.

Read more in the full article