❗️ The head of the Kherson region administration, Vladimir Saldo, was poisoned with ricin in August 2022, with the substance being found in biomedical samples, said Igor Kirillov, chief of the Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Protection Troops.

Saldo told Sputnik that a man from his inner circle who had been recruited by the Security Service of Ukraine was involved in his poisoning and that the poisonous agent had been added to his food.

Also, the head of the LPR, Leonid Pasechnik, received severe poisoning with phenolic compounds in December 2023, Kirillov said. Pasechnik's poisoning had not been reported earlier.

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❗️Ukraine is developing new combat tactics that involves blowing up containers with hydrocyanic acid and ammonia during the advance of Russian troops.

From September to October 2023, chemicals were delivered to the areas of Kramatorsk and Kupyansk, and are planned to be placed along highways, said Igor Kirillov, chief of the Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Protection Troops.

🇪🇺 Ursula von der Leyen has confirmed she will be a candidate for a second term as president of the European Commission

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Spy Versus Spy: Chinese Intelligence Agency Slams CIA

The US Central Intelligence Agency, known for its long history of morally dubious activity, was criticized by Chinese officials in a post on the WeChat platform Sunday.

In a rare bilingual article China’s Ministry of State Security strongly criticized the CIA’s recent focus on China, responding to a missive from CIA director William Burns published in US media last month.

China’s Ministry of State Security said the CIA’s anti-China crusade represents “another typical case of hegemonic, domineering and bullying practices of the US.” Previously the agency has accused the CIA of promoting a “Cold War mindset” against the country.

Anti-China narratives have pervaded Western media in recent years as the country solidifies its status as the world’s largest economy by purchasing power parity.

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💬 "The Armed Forces of Ukraine uses toxic compounds not only in military operations, but also for acts of terrorism. For example, on August 9, 2022, the head of the administration of the Kherson region, Vladimir Saldo, was rushed to the hospital with signs of poisoning. Laboratory tests showed the presence, in the biomedical samples, of the substance ricin, listed as a primary toxin in the Chemical Weapons Convention," Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov said in his statement on violations of the Chemical Weapons Convention by the US and Ukraine.

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🤡 Clown world: CNN’s Fareed Zakaria attempts to rationalize away the superiority of the Moscow metro

Zakara chides Tucker Carlson for praising the Moscow metro system, arguing that it doesn’t matter that Russians enjoy clean and safe public transportation because Joseph Stalin built some stations in the 1930s.

He then goes on to claim that Americans should be grateful for their decaying metro systems because they are “expressions of democracy.”

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Neocon-in-chief Lindsey Graham drools over Ukraine’s resource riches

The US is “$34 trillion in debt” and doesn’t have the money to send to Ukraine without getting something in return, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham has said. “Ukraine has minerals, have a lot of resources…Why don’t we make this a favorable loan?” Graham said in an interview Sunday.

What kinds of Ukraine’s resources may the West want?

▪️ Ukraine possesses 21 of 30 rare earth elements identified by the European Union as "critical raw materials," with lithium, cobalt, scandium, graphite, tantalum, niobium among them.

▪️ Ukraine is rich in a wide variety of mineral resources, worth some $14.8 trillion, according to a 2023 Forbes assessment. They include coal, manganese ores, titanium, gold, bauxite, potassium and rock salts, mercury ores and uranium. Small pockets of natural gas and petroleum deposits are also present.

▪️ Ukraine’s 206,000 km-worth of rivers make it ideal for hydroelectric power generation, with a network of power stations built in the Soviet period providing it with some 11 billion kWh of electricity. The country also operates three major Soviet-built nuclear power plants in Rovne, Khmelnytsky and Nikolaev regions. These have a generating capacity of up to 3,400 Megawatts.

▪️ Ukraine is home to the largest reserves of chernozem (‘black earth’) in the world, accounting for a quarter of the highly fertile, humus, phosphorus and ammonia compound-rich soil, perfect for agriculture. Ukraine has up to 30 million hectares of chernozem.

▪️ The country is also home to vast forest resources, which comprise over 16 percent of its total territory and include over 30 types of trees, from pines and oaks to beech, birch, spruce, alder and ash.

Ukraine's wealth in natural resources explains the interest of Western countries in military support for the Kiev regime, as they eventually seem to benefit from their investments.

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💬 How did the Ukraine crisis and Donbass war begin? Alexander Matyushin, former Donbass commander and war correspondent, breaks it down.

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