The EU must spend more on its defense capabilities, French FM Stéphane Séjourné said, claiming the so-called "Russian threat" to be the main reason.

Séjourné also promised that together with his counterparts from Germany and Poland, he would announce a joint project to combat disinformation. He said the ministers will explain in a transparent manner the tools of this disinformation and even provide "evidence."

Recently Russian President Putin, during an interview with Tucker Carlson, spoke about Russia's relations with NATO, and the fact those countries are trying to intimidate their populations with an imaginary Russian threat.

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The image of former Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valery Zaluznhy and the leader of the Ukrainian nationalist party the Right Sector* was an “explicit threat against [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky,” Mark Sleboda, an international relations and security analyst told Sputnik’s Fault Lines.

“We saw Zaluzhny pose over [the] last weekend for a photo with a commander of the Right Sector, the Banderite fascist, neo-Nazi battalion that is now an official part of the military,” Sleboda recounted. “In front of his giant portrait of Stepan Bandera, the West Ukrainian genocidal Nazi collaborator [...] and next to a red and black Banderite flag with the innoscription 'victory without negotiations.' So, I saw that as a pretty explicit threat against Zelensky.”

Earlier this week, Zelensky fired Zaluznhy after weeks of speculation, replacing him with General Oleksandr Syrsky, whom Sleboda said was disliked by Ukrainian troops.

“They call him General Butcher [...] and [it’s not] favorable,” Sleboda said. “It is in reference to his seemingly casual way of throwing away the lives of his own men.”The situation could lead to unrest among troops and the civilian population, but a lot will depend on Zaluzhny’s next move.

“Does he stay quiet [...] for the time being?” Selboda asked. “I don't know about that because he refused to resign and decided to make, obviously, a political issue out of this,” he concluded, referring to Zaluzhny’s reported refusal to resign.

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*The Right Sector is an extremist organization banned in Russia

Ukraine can expect a "cascading collapse" on the frontline as early as this year without US assistance, the New York Times has quoted Western officials and military experts as saying.

For example, US officials estimate that without regular imports of air defense equipment, Ukraine will have enough of them only until March.

Ukraine will also be able to conduct local counterattacks with difficulty starting from March, and by early summer its armed forces may face difficulties in defense as well.

The EU has threatened to bring the Hungarian economy to its knees due to the refusal to finance Ukraine, Balazs Orban, adviser to the Hungarian prime minister, confirms.

The Financial Times, citing an EU document, previously wrote that the bloc could sabotage the Hungarian economy if it would not lift its veto on aid to Kiev at the summit in Brussels on February 1. In such a case, the heads of state and government had promised to publicly declare the “unconstructive behavior” of the Hungarian prime minister, which would have prevented Budapest from unfreezing EU funds.

Now the Austrian newspaper Exxpress writes that Balazs Orban, when asked whether there really was blackmail and whether the situation was serious at the time, said that it was serious, and when then asked to clarify whether there was a misunderstanding on the part of the Financial Times, he answered three times "no."

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The chief executive of one of Africa's largest commercial banks, Access Bank, has died in a helicopter crash in the US. The Nigerian financial group operates in at least 14 countries on the continent and was also planning to enter the markets of a number of other African states.

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Trump said that the United States should stop giving money to foreign countries free of charge and convert all its foreign aid into loans. In his opinion, Washington should also be able to demand repayment under a number of conditions.

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🇫🇷 French politician Florian Philippot called Vladimir Putin's interview with Tucker Carlson a "global phenomenon" and a "huge slap" for the media of Western countries.

According to him, many people have already realized that the Western media has been deceiving them for two years about the conflict in Ukraine. The politician also urged his readers to help spread the video of the interview.

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▪️ French politician Florian Philippot called Vladimir Putin's interview with Tucker Carlson a "global phenomenon" and a "huge slap" for the media of Western countries

▪️ US military facilities in eastern Syria came under fire

▪️ Senator Mike Lee spoke non-stop for nearly 4 hours straight, protesting against the Ukraine aid bill and urging a vote against it

▪️ US lawmakers voting for more aid to Ukraine might be obliged to “serve on the front lines”

More stories to cover:

▪️ Did Russia shoot down the US Army’s next-gen scout helicopter program?

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

▪️ Did Zaluzhny make an “explicit threat against Zelensky”? Sputnik expert explains

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🇷🇺 Kremlin reveals how ball got rolling with Tucker Carlson's Putin interview proposal

Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Tucker Carlson himself proposed an interview with Putin and the president quickly agreed.

The Kremlin had fears that even before the interview began there would be "persecution" of Tucker Carlson, the West is becoming increasingly unpredictable, Peskov said. According to him, the American journalist could have foreseen the heat of passion around the interview, but it added to his popularity.

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Former Ukrainian First Deputy Defense Minister Oleksandr Pavlyuk has been appointed commander of the ground forces to replace Oleksandr Syrsky, who became the commander-in-chief. Kiev also replaced the commanders of the airborne assault troops and the joint forces of the Ukrainian Army.

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Trump issues stark warning to NATO: Pay up or US will encourage Russia “to do whatever the hell they want”

Donald Trump has said he wouldn’t defend any NATO country that refuses to allocate at least 2% of GDP for military spending and fails to fulfill NATO's own charter. The ex-POTUS’ remarks came on Saturday during a campaign rally in Conway, South Carolina, ahead of the state's Republican presidential primary on February 24.

“One of the presidents of a big country” at one point asked Trump whether the US would still defend the country if they were invaded by Russia even if they “don’t pay.”

“No, I would not protect you,” Trump recalled telling that president. “In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want. You got to pay. You got to pay your bills.”

Later, White House spokesperson Andrew Bates accused Donald Trump of "appalling and unhinged" comments, and touted Joe Biden’s foreign policy “efforts.”

NATO countries agreed in 2014 to halt post-Cold War spending cuts and move toward spending at least 2% of their GDP on defense by 2024. Trump has consistently stated that he does not believe NATO desires to defend the US. During his term in office, he expressed dissatisfaction with the work of the alliance and threatened with a US withdrawal from it if Washington’s European partners would not take on greater financial responsibility for their own security.

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UNRWA will face a negative budget balance starting in March, the agency's Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said in an interview with Japanese broadcaster NHK.

The problems came after more than 10 countries cut off funding for the organization amid Israeli accusations that agency staff were allegedly involved in the October 7 attack on the country by Hamas.

"We dismissed staff even before the investigation began. As an agency, we acted quickly and did everything we could at that stage," Lazzarini stressed.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said it was wrong to collectively punish the UNRWA before properly investigating the case. He pointed out that the UNRWA has been carrying out its functions in the region for many decades, and has implemented pivotal projects related to creating normal living conditions for Palestinians in the occupied territories.

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🇷🇺🇨🇳 Russia has become the leader in terms of the growth rate of trade turnover among China's partners, Ivan Zhelokhovtsev, a Russian Foreign Ministry official, told Sputnik.

"Russia actually became the leader in terms of the growth rate of trade turnover among China's main partners in 2023. With many other countries, including the United States, Japan, and the Republic of Korea, China's trade dynamics went negative and quite noticeably," he said.

He added that now more than 90% of bilateral settlements are made in national currencies, so it is more correct to say that trade between the two countries amounts to about 20 trillion rubles, or almost 1.6 trillion yuan.

On February 8, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping noted in a telephone conversation that bilateral trade had surpassed the $200 billion mark earlier than expected, reaching a record high of $227.7 billion.

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Emmanuel Macron has postponed his visit to Ukraine for security reasons, French magazine Challenges reported, noting that some Ukrainian diplomats were stunned when they heard about it.

It was expected that the French president might announce the signing of a bilateral agreement on security guarantees during his visit to Ukraine on February 13 and 14.

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