A negotiated settlement to end the conflict between Ukraine and Russia is both possible and desirable, a report published by the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft said.

Former CIA analyst George Beebe and Eurasia expert Anatol Lieven, the authors of the 43-page paper, believe that it is possible to reach a compromise by diplomatic means.

"Conventional wisdom holds that a negotiated end to the Ukraine war is neither possible nor desirable. This belief is false. It is also extremely dangerous for Ukraine’s future," the US think tank highlighted in the report.

The United States and its allies cannot fix Ukraine’s "acute manpower problems" without direct involvement in the conflict, the authors clarified.

"The war is not trending toward a stable stalemate, but toward Ukraine's eventual collapse," the report emphasized.

Russia has withstood sanctions and improved its military, whereas Ukraine has gradually exhausted its forces, according to the authors. There is "little realistic prospect" of future Ukrainian territorial gains, Beebe and Lieven insisted.

Ukraine’s best hope lies in a negotiated settlement that prevents future escalation and bolsters regional and global security, the analysts highlighted.

US public rhetoric should demonstrate openness to peace talks instead of a belief that the conflict ought to continue indefinitely, the analysts stressed.

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Why is the Ukrainian stronghold of Avdeyevka in Donbass so important?

During the last few weeks, Ukrainian forces have been desperately trying to hold their positions in Avdeyevka in the face of advancing Russian troops who now threaten to cut off the Ukrainian garrison. There appears to be a number of reasons why Kiev is so intent on holding Avdeyevka despite the losses incurred in the process, says a veteran Russian academic specializing in military and international affairs, Andrey Koshkin.

🔸Ukrainian troops have been fortifying Avdeyevka ever since they seized control of the city in 2014 at the onset of the Ukrainian conflict, investing considerable resources and efforts into turning this population center into a fortress;

🔸Ukrainian artillery in Avdeyevka can shell residential areas of the nearby Donetsk with relative impunity;

🔸Liberating Avdeyevka will allow Russian forces to push further to the west, driving back the Kiev regime forces and preventing them from launching further attacks against Russian towns and cities.

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❗️ The Russian air defenses shot down two Ukrainian drones over the Belgorod region, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.

No injuries were reported per preliminary information.

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Western media prefers an interview with ‘evil’ Hamas over the Russian president

The double standards of Western mainstream media were on vivid display recently when US television network CBS aired several minutes of footage from an interview with a Hamas recruiter, but nothing from journalist Tucker Carlson’s historic interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The discussion with the representative of Hamas, which is heavily stigmatized and labeled as a “terrorist” group in the West, was conducted by CBS foreign correspondent Debora Patta. In total, more than 12 minutes of television coverage were dedicated to the interview.

Although the network’s coverage was peppered with loaded language and bias against Hamas, at least the network conducted reporting on the group. Meanwhile, CBS, along with other US mainstream news outlets, devoted no coverage at all to Tucker Carlson’s interview with the Russian president despite the discussion racking up over two hundred million views online.

The only reference to the interview at all was offered cryptically during a short discussion of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s power struggle with former military chief Valery Zaluzhny. During the coverage, an on-screen chyron briefly noted that President Putin had expressed openness to negotiations on the Donbass conflict – a revelation that emerged from Carlson’s historic sitdown.

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❗️ Russian air defense systems have intercepted four Ukrainian drones over the Kaluga region, Governor Vladislav Shapsha said.

According to the governor, there were no injuries or damage reported.

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A new survey of US Navy servicemembers reveals significant culture and morale problems within the institution.

37% of sailors reported being “severely” or “extremely” stressed in the 2023 survey, an increase of more than 10% over the last four years. More than a quarter reported a high level of burnout, while satisfaction with work-life balance was also deemed “suboptimal.”

The Navy and other branches of the US armed forces have faced challenges in meeting recruiting targets for several years, forcing them to repeatedly lower standards in terms of fitness, education, and criminal history.

Americans’ overall satisfaction with the military is at its lowest point in over two decades, falling sharply among Republicans as adherents of Donald Trump’s “America First” philosophy have questioned the prioritization of military spending over domestic concerns.

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❗️ Russian air defenses have destroyed three more Ukrainian drones over the Kaluga region, Governor Vladislav Shapsha said.

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❗️ Russian air defense systems shot down five drones over the Bryansk region, Governor Alexander Bogomaz said.

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❗️ Russian air defenses intercepted two Ukrainian drones near the city of Voronezh, regional Governor Alexander Gusev said.

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Heavenly Hundred: a myth to legitimize neo-Nazi coup d'etat

On February 20 the Kiev regime commemorates "the Heavenly Hundred" – the participants of the 2014 Euromaidan coup d'etat allegedly killed by the Yanukovich government's police forces.

Modern data shows, however, that among that so-called Heavenly Hundred were dozens of people that had nothing to do with snipers or protests and who died, for example, from pneumonia, heart attacks or even allergy-related complications.

"These figures can be compared to the figures given by Western governments during the pandemic to justify the emergency measures; they simply added people who died 'with' COVID to those who died 'from COVID'," Dr. Marco Marsili, researcher at Cà Foscari University of Venice, told Sputnik.

The idea behind the US-backed Maidan coup was to create a puppet government in Ukraine, he said, adding that extremist elements quickly hijacked the protest and then cooked up the list of "martyrs" to justify their atrocities.

It is still unclear whether those shot dead at the Maidan were killed by Berkut special police forces or nationalist thugs and snipers.

Furthermore, Ukrainian nationalists are ideological heirs of WWII-era Nazi collaborators Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevych, currently glorified as war heroes in Ukraine, the expert noted.

Thus, the ‘Heavenly Hundred’ de facto legitimized the brazen regime change in the eyes of the Western public: as a result "we can all easily observe, the ‘Maiden Revolution’ (…) is perceived by most of the [Western] audience as a ‘genuine’ revolution that overthrew an authoritarian and corrupt government," Marsili stressed.

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📹💥 Russian Su-25 attack aircraft struck Ukrainian camouflaged equipment and manpower in the DPR.

The target was successfully hit.

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❗️Russian air defense systems intercepted and destroyed 33 Ukrainian drones over the Kaluga, Voronezh, Bryansk, Belgorod, and Kursk regions overnight, the defense ministry said

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❗️Three civilians, including a teenager, were killed and four injured in the shelling of the village of Panteleymonovka (DPR) by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the head of the administration of the Yasinovataya district, Dmitry Shevchenko, said.

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▪️Ukraine withdraws its units from Avdeyevka. What’s so special about this stronghold in Donbass?

▪️What myth did the Kiev regime use to legitimize the neo-Nazi coup in 2014?

More stories:

▪️Angry residents of East Palestine, Ohio, met Biden during his ‘too late’ visit

▪️What plagues the US Navy? A survey has revealed

▪️Double standards of the Western MSM: preferring an interview with the ‘evil’ Hamas over one with Putin

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The Houthis have attacked a British tanker in the Red Sea

"The naval forces of the Yemeni Armed Forces carried out a targeting operation against the British oil ship ‘Pollux’ in the Red Sea with a large number of suitable naval missiles, and the strike was accurate and direct," Yahya Sare'e, spokesman for the Yemeni Armed Forces, said.

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Heavenly Hundred: Ukrainians were abused to create illusion of righteous resistance

The ‘Heavenly Hundred’ is the term that Ukrainians have adopted for those who died during months of anti-government protests in 2013-14. Many of them were victims of Maidan leaders who spilled their blood to make the regime change operation irreversible, according to Janus Putkonen, Finnish geopolitical analyst and investigative journalist with the Patriotic Network, who was working in Kiev in April 2014.

"The Right Sector* movement and the nationalists and the junta started to praise them as martyrs. These guys who I met knew the truth about it. And the truth was that they were shot in the back. They were slaughtered by their own leadership," Putkonen told Sputnik.

"I never believed that this massacre was done by the police, because there was no proof. All the proof that we had was questioned almost immediately when it happened. And this massacre was just done in order to justify the armed coup that was then taking place," the analyst stressed.

Many facts remain under-reported in the West, including the role of hooligan gangs and foreign mercenaries during the protests, ballistic and video evidence of shooting, as well as the heavy drug consumption among the protesters, Putkonen said.

Ukrainians were abused in order to create an illusion of righteous resistance, he said. After it turned out that the Heavenly Hundred list also contains dozens of random people unrelated to the clashes with the police, it has become more of a burden than a useful myth, the analyst concluded.

*banned in Russia for extremism

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‘Symbolic strikes’? NYT claims Israel responsible for attacks on Iranian energy infrastructure

Israel is behind explosions at two major natural gas pipelines that occurred in southern Iran on Wednesday night, the NYT reported, citing two Western officials and a military strategist affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

The sabotage targeted several points simultaneously, but it remains unclear whether the pipelines were struck with drones, explosives attached to the pipes, or some other means, the report added. Israel also carried out a separate blast at a chemical factory on the outskirts of Tehran on Thursday, the article says.

These strikes were symbolic and served as a warning to the Iranian authorities about Israel’s ability to escalate tensions in the Middle East, one official reportedly said.

A powerful blast occurred on the main line of the Iranian gas pipeline in the city of Borujen, followed by a fire that could be seen from a distance of 60 kilometers.

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❗️Zelensky on the withdrawal of troops from Avdeyevka: 'the decision was made to save people's lives'

Ukrainian forces are chaotically leaving their positions in Avdeyevka, abandoning the wounded, Yan Gagin, adviser to the head of the Donetsk People's Republic, told Sputnik.

"Yes, indeed, parts of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are leaving Avdeyevka, we notice that they are withdrawing, they're withdrawing scattered. It is not like Syrsky wrote they would withdraw – nothing like that. What is happening now is they are fleeing," Gagin said.

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Kiev decided to withdraw troops from Avdeyevka not to "save lives,” but because it can only fight for money, the rest does not matter, Maria Zakharova, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, said, commenting on Zelensky's remarks

"No, that's not because of this. It is because Zelensky and the gang only know how to ‘fight’ for big money that goes directly into their pockets, and only against civilians. Everything else does not matter to them," Zakharova wrote on her Telegram channel.

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The US will supply Israel with weapons worth tens of millions of dollars, despite Biden's calls for a ceasefire, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The proposed arms delivery includes 1,000 of each MK-82 bombs, KMU-572 Joint Direct Attack Munitions that add precision guidance to bombs, and FMU-139 bomb fuses, the newspaper reported, citing US officials.

The planned weapons supply comes amid Israel's preparation to launch an assault on the city of Rafah in southern Gaza, where over a million Palestinians have sought refuge from the war.

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‘They told me about it beforehand, that there will come a war in Donbass’

Janus Putkonen, Finnish geopolitical analyst and investigative journalist with the Patriotic Network who worked in Kiev in April 2014, explained the origins of the nationalist groups in Ukraine that became "heroes" after the imposition of the new regime.

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