"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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What did world leaders look like in their youth?

Sputnik joined the 'Let's See You at 21' trend and prepared a special video to show you some of world leaders in their youth.

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2024 Munich Security Index: Most G7 nations no longer see Russia as top threat

Only the UK and Japan consider Russia to be a "major risk" while most G7 countries are now much more concerned about radical Islamic terrorism, mass migration and climate change, judging from the 2024 Munich Security Index (MSI). The poll saw Russia drop from the first to the fourth place in the "risk bump chart" for G7 industrialized economies.

▪️Canada ranked Russia third, placing extreme weather and destruction of natural habitats as the top two major risks.

▪️France ranked Russia sixth: the nation's top five perceived major risks now include: radical Islamic terrorism; mass migration; climate change generally; extreme weather and forest fires; racism and other discrimination.

▪️Germany ranked Russia seventh. The country's top six major risks are mass migration; radical Islamic terrorism; cyberattacks; international organized crime; destruction of natural habitats; rising inequality.

▪️Italy ranked Russia 12th.

▪️The US ranked Russia fourth (seeing cyberattacks, political polarization, and China as greater threats).

▪️Only Japanese and UK respondents say that Russia remains the number one threat for them.

For comparison's sake, in November 2021, Russia was ranked 15th in the risk bump chart for the seven industrialized economies.

The latest change in perception could be explained by growing domestic problems in G7 states as well as the Ukraine fatigue phenomenon amid the Kiev regime's failures on the battlefield and reports of swirling Ukraine corruption.

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Top 3 Joe Biden highlights from the past week:

✅ Spoke to a deceased French president

✅ Couldn't stand next to the king of Jordan

✅ Confused the presidents of Mexico and Egypt

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