Zelensky plans to visit Germany, France to ask for more military aid. Again

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky may visit Berlin, Munich and Paris later this week to lobby for additional military aid for Kiev amid the Ukraine funding fracas in the US Senate, sources told Bloomberg.

This will be the Ukrainian leader's second Western European tour since the start of Russia's special military operation, a trip aimed at begging for money from EU members currently going through economic malaise.

The sources added that with ammunition supplies dwindling, Zelensky must "needs to make the case for [the West’s] faster military aid to push back" against the advancing Russian forces.

One of the sources suggested that the Ukrainian leader is likely to push for talks on security guarantees during possible meetings with EU leaders.

Earlier this month, EU members agreed to send 50 billion more euros ($53 billion) to Ukraine, a deal that came against the backdrop of attempts by a group of Republicans in the US Senate to thwart Washington's efforts to approve an additional $60 billion in aid to Kiev.

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▪️Scott Ritter: Tucker-Putin interview shows Americans are ‘hungry for information’ from Russia

▪️A woman from Mariupol died due to tests by Western pharmaceutical companies, her son told Sputnik.

▪️The US Senate moved closer to the final passage of a $95 billion supplemental funding bill for Ukraine and Israel aid, but US House Speaker Mike Johnson said that he will not bring it to the House floor

▪️Zelensky plans to visit Germany, France to ask for more military aid. Again

▪️Democratic congressmen want to fight Russia to 'the last Ukrainian drop of blood,' US Senator J.D. Vance said in an interview with Tucker Carlson

▪️The release of special counsel Robert Hur’s report made “the ground shifting beneath Biden’s feet,” Sputnik expert states

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White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre protested the request to invite Biden's doctor:

"So look... uh... you know... Special Counsel Hur is, as far as I remember, is a, is a, obviously a, a Republican... uh, uh, uh, a prosecutor!" she muttered at the press conference.

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Where in Europe are farmers protesting?

For months, European farmers have been protesting and demanding changes from their governments. Due to anti-Russian sanctions and the allocation of huge sums of money for useless aid to Ukraine, the EU is cutting the budget to continue funding the Ukrainian military, as well as cancelling tariff quotas to keep Ukrainian agriculture afloat, while Europeans themselves are suffering.

Farmers are protesting against increasing financial burdens, poorly regulated agricultural imports, rising fuel prices and other negative EU measures in the sector.

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An EU army would first and foremost be an army used against the European peoples who want to free themselves from the EU, Florian Philippot, leader of the Eurosceptic party The Patriots, commented on the proposal to create a "European army".

"Their justification is simple: the 'great Russian threat', which they themselves continued to agitate and fantasize about for months and months to create fear and impose their oligarchic agenda!" the French politician wrote on X.

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❗️LIVE NOW: Lavrov delivers a speech at the 13th Middle East Conference of the Valdai Discussion Club

👉 Follow the live here or on Sputnik's website

"This spending does not help Ukraine," Elon Musk said, arguing against providing additional financial aid to Ukraine.

"Prolonging the war does not help Ukraine... We want to do the right thing. We want to help people. The problem is prolonging the war and sacrificing the flower of Ukrainian youth," Musk said during the livestream with the US senators.

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🇷🇺 Key-points from Russian FM Sergey Lavrov's speech at the 13th Middle East Conference of the Valdai Discussion Club:

▪️US is pushing Israel and Palestine into catastrophe;

▪️Russia proposes holding an inter-Palestinian meeting to overcome internal divisions;

▪️Moscow sees no perspectives for Israel-Palestine settlement at moment.

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Big Pharma’s Mariupol hospital docs shows West’s obsession to keep Ukraine in US ‘orbit of influence’ – expert

Russia’s release of documents exposing major pharmaceutical companies in America and beyond confirms not only the existence of a secret bioweapon program, but explains why the West in general has become so pathologically obsessed with trying to keep Ukraine in the NATO-EU-US orbit of influence, Scott Bennett, former US Army psychological warfare officer and US state department counterterrorism analyst, told Sputnik.

“The large network of pharmaceutical and medical research and development companies involved show a constellation of connecting points that lead back into the heart of the City of London, the United States, and their secret intelligence proxies, mercenaries, and slaves willing to sell out their own country, Ukraine, for ‘30 pieces of silver,’ with the face of America on the coin,” Bennett pointed out.

Although the information will certainly “be shouted down as propaganda by the Biden administration minions warming seats in the UN, the documents, signatures and people who made them are the living proof of new crimes against humanity that must be presented to the world for judgment,” the ex-state dep. analyst notes.

Bennett was partly echoed by William Jones, former Washington Bureau Chief of Executive Intelligence Review, who said that given the lack of Kiev forces’ success on the battlefield and the refusal to compromise, “there is every reason to believe that such research could be used offensively, as weapons.”

“The same control mechanism that works could without a problem conduct experiments that would not be permitted on their own populations. The Ukrainian[s] have no government to protect them from this,” Jones added.

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❗️Canada has refused to extradite Ukrainian Nazi collaborator Yaroslav Hunka to Russia, citing the lack of an extradition treaty, a Foreign Ministry source told Sputnik.

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The "phenomenal" Carlson-Putin interview is a breath of fresh air in an otherwise censorship-ridden world, according to Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic, who said she expects the journalist to visit her country in mid-2024.

"He knows a lot about Serbia. He said he plans to come to Serbia in the middle of this year and that he has great respect and appreciation for President Aleksandar Vucic," the prime minister stated.

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A foreigner who planned to sabotage a gas pipeline in the Leningrad region said he was acting on the orders of the Ukrainian security service and had to take the explosive device to a hidden place.

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❗️The Russian Armed Forces hit two Ukrainian brigades in the Kherson region and one brigade of the National Guard in the Kherson region.

🇷🇺🪖 Other statements from the Russian Defense Ministry briefing on the progress of the special military operation in Ukraine:

▪️ Russian troops destroyed an ammunition depot of the 126th brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces;

▪️ In the Donetsk region, Russian troops repelled five attacks by Ukrainian troops; Ukrainian losses amounted to 325 soldiers, one tank and four armored vehicles. In the south of Donetsk the Russian troops destroyed up to 250 soldiers and 9 pieces of equipment;

▪️ In the Kupyansk area, Ukrainian troops lost up to 180 servicemen and nine pieces of equipment in one day;

▪️ In the Krasny Liman area, Ukrainian losses were up to 310 soldiers;

▪️ Russian air defense forces shot down 63 Ukrainian drones and three HIMARS missiles during the day.

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The US Senate votes to back a bill to fund Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.

70 senators voted in favor, 29 against. This comes ahead of taking it to the House of Representatives, where the prospects for the bill, according to experts, are not so rosy.

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Estonian Prime Minister Kaya Kallas has been put on the wanted list for destroying monuments to Soviet soldiers, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced.

"They will be held accountable for crimes against the memory of the world's liberators from Nazism and fascism," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

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UK aircraft carrier breakdowns reveal real state of Royal Navy

One of Britain’s two aircraft carriers, HMS Prince of Wales, failed to depart for NATO’s Steadfast Defender military exercises on Sunday as intended.

While it was not immediately clear why the HMS Prince of Wales did not depart on schedule, it took a whole day for the ship to finally set sail.

This hiccup came just about a week after HMS Queen Elizabeth, the British Royal Navy flagship and the Prince of Wales' sister ship ended up stuck in the dock after an issue with the ship’s starboard propeller was found.

The Prince of Wales also has its own long history of technical malfunctions: in 2022, the carrier had to be towed back to port after breaking down off the coast of the Isle of Wight.

Both of the British Royal Navy aircraft carriers are thus “getting a reputation for not being reliable,” retired Rear Admiral Chris Parry told the BBC this week.

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19 of 30* NATO countries fail to meet the alliance’s defense spending target

Former US President Donald Trump has reiterated his call for scolded NATO members who still fail to meet the trans-Atlantic alliance’s defense spending target.

Every member state of the alliance is committed to spending at least 2% of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on defense – something that is yet to be achieved by as many as 19 of NATOs 30 nations, according to the recently release NATO estimates from July 2023.

The top-ten list includes:

• France (1.9% spent on defense)
• Montenegro (1.87%)
• North Macedonia (1.87%)
• Bulgaria (1.84%)
• Croatia (1.79%)
• Albania 1.76%
• Netherlands (1.7%)
• Norway (1.67%)
• Denmark (1.65%)
• Germany (1.57%)

On their heels are the Czech Republic (1.5%), Portugal (1.48%), Italy (1.46%), Canada (1.38%), Slovenia (1.35%), Turkiye (1.31%), Spain (1.26%), Belgium (1.13%), and Luxembourg (0.72%)

*Iceland, a member state, does not have any armed forces, which is why it was omitted from the list.

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