▪️ Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrived on a visit to Venezuela

▪️ Ukraine planning to use poisonous chemicals to hinder Russia's advance, Sputnik expert explains

▪️ What present did Russian President Putin gift to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un?

▪️ Israel seemingly set Ramadan as the deadline for Hamas to return hostages

More stories to cover:

▪️ What does the report on leak of NATO sub secrets near Nord Stream mean?

▪️ EU members will be stripped of their sovereignty with eurobonds to arm Ukraine

▪️ Watch Russian Rostec testing a prototype of a vertical take-off drone

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⚡️ President Putin to deliver annual address to Federal Assembly (Russian parliament) on 29 February, Kremlin announced

Ukraine deteriorated and actually collapsed after Maidan coup – Former PM Azarov (Part 1)

Former Ukrainian Prime Minister, Nikolai Azarov, stated in an interview with Sputnik that, a decade after the 2014 Maidan coup, it has become evident that as far as Ukraine is concerned, the EU has failed to become a viable substitute for the Russian market.

“Over these ten years, we can say that the country has degraded and, in fact, collapsed. If we talk about the standard of living, it cannot even be compared with 2013, because food prices have skyrocketed: from five to thirty times and higher,” Azarov stressed.

▪️ Ukraine’s real gross domestic product (GDP) currently does not exceed $60 billion (as compared to $175 billion in 2013).

“The Kiev regime distorts all official data and blatantly lies. Here they show that, for example, GDP is $175 billion, nearly the same as it was in 2013. So does that mean that GDP doesn’t depend on anything? The trick here is very simple, they include all grants and substantial assistance received as part of their GDP calculation,” he explained.

Ukraine deteriorated and actually collapsed after Maidan coup – Former PM Azarov (Part 2)

▪️ The European Commission’s plans to make Ukraine’s army and its military-industrial complex part of the EU’s military capabilities are an absolutely unrealistic scenario.

“The military-industrial complex of Ukraine was once powerful... but it has now been destroyed… This is an absolutely unrealistic scenario [to make Ukraine’s military industrial complex part of the EU], and this Ursula von der Leyen would be better off minding her own business. She has strictly defined functions, as the President of the European Commission, and these functions do not include the creation of any industry in Ukraine or other similar issues,” Azarov highlighted.

▪️ Volodymyr Zelensky postponed Ukraine’s presidential elections for fear of losing his job.

“His decision [to postpone the elections] is illegal, and on May 21, 2024, he becomes a nobody. Because his term of office as president expires, the Constitution of Ukraine does not provide for any term extension. If the constitution does not provide for it, then you become a nobody. You can invoke anything: martial law, war. By the way, he did not declare war. Formally, officially, there is no war. So why was the election postponed? Only because of one thing - the fear of losing this election,” the former Ukrainian PM concluded.

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Ukraine's position is getting weaker every day, it should have concluded a peace agreement a year ago, says Elon Musk

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US House lawmakers urge support for new bill on Ukraine aid

The Senate earlier passed the $95bln foreign aid bill that includes $60bln for Ukraine aid and $14bln for Israel, but excludes US border policy reforms.

A bipartisan group of House lawmakers has called on other members of the lower chamber to support an alternative bill that includes US military aid for Kiev in addition to border security policy.

In a “Dear Colleague” letter obtained by The Hill, Republican Brian Fitzpatrick Jared Golden from the Democratic Party noted that Ukrainian soldiers “are running out of ammunition and withdrawing from the East, paving the way for Russia’s further advance”, which is “a direct result of Congress’ gridlock.”

The alternative version of the bill stipulates allocating $47.69bln and $10.4bln to support Ukraine and Israel, respectively. The legislation separately stipulates the suspension of entry of illegal migrants and requires immigration officers to detain and immediately expel inadmissible aliens.

The US media has meanwhile reported that the new bill “may lose some momentum” given that it was released just before the House had embarked on a nearly two-week recess. The lower chamber is going to return to session on February 28.

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⚡️ Sergey Naryshkin, Director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), on the death of defector Maxim Kuzminov in Spain: "This traitor became a moral corpse while planning his crime".

Kuzminov was shot dead in Spain on February 19, according to media reports.

Ukrainian mass media and Telegram channels had earlier claimed that the Russian pilot had hijacked an Mi-8 helicopter from Kursk on the orders of Ukrainian intelligence and flown it to Ukraine. Two people were on board with the hijacker, and they died. The Russian Ministry of Defense has not commented on the situation.

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🇧🇾 President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said that about 32 thousand NATO troops, more than a thousand armored vehicles, 235 planes and helicopters are deployed near the borders of Russia and Belarus

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❗️ Alexander Lukashenko said that 2 divisions of S-400 anti-aircraft missiles and 2 divisions of Iskander-M missile systems have been put into operation in Belarus

In Avdeyevka, preliminary information suggests the existence of secret torture and burial sites, with Kiev detaining residents for political reasons, stated Rodion Miroshnik, the LPR representative to the Joint Center for Control and Coordination of Issues Related to Ukraine's War Crimes, in an interview with Sputnik.

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❗️ According to preliminary information, four people were wounded when Ukrainian troops shelled the Kievskyi district of Donetsk. Sputnik's correspondent reports from the scene.

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❗️ President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said that Polish and American intelligence are preparing a provocation against Polish civilians, which will be blamed on Russia and Belarus

🗣 'Free Julian Assange'

Protesters gather and chant slogans outside the High Court in London, where British judges are hearing WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's appeal against a decision to extradite him to the US.

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❗️ Assange is not feeling well and will not attend his extradition trial, Reuters reports

🪖 Rostec delivered the first batch of BMP-3s to the troops in 2024

The BMP-3 is manufactured by Kurganmashzavod of the High-Precision Complex holding, which is part of Rostec. The number of infantry fighting vehicles delivered to the Russian Army since the beginning of this year is one and a half times higher than in the same period of 2023.

Each unit is equipped with anti-shock grills and armor shields. Such sets of additional protection are also supplied to the customer as separate products for installation on vehicles already in service with the troops.

In 2023, the company doubled its production of military products compared to 2022.

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Footage of the consequences of new attacks on the center of Donetsk, the republican authorities reported two Ukrainian missiles fired from MLRS

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Why Rafah matters for the Israeli Defense Force?

🔸The city of Rafah is located on the Gaza-Egypt border, in the north of the Negev Desert on the Sinai Peninsula. The city's area is approximately 151 sq km.

🔸Part of Rafah is located on Egyptian territory. The only operating checkpoint to Gaza is located here. Humanitarian aid is delivered through it to the strip.

🔸According to the latest census (2017), Rafah's population was 171,889 people, but the city is also home to about 1.5 million refugees fleeing fighting between Israel and Hamas.

🔸The Israelis consider Rafah to be “the only remaining Hamas stronghold” in the enclave, so the IDF is preparing an operation to storm the city.

🔸The Israeli side believes that up to 134 hostages whom Hamas captured on October 7 may be near Rafah.

🔸Israeli military cabinet member Benny Gantz said on Monday that Israel would launch a military offensive on Rafah if Hamas does not release the hostages by March 10.

🔸Secretary of the Defense and National Security Committee of the Egyptian House of Representatives Mohammed Rady previously told Sputnik that any violation of the borders by Israel jeopardizes the 1979 Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty.

🔸The US is pushing for the UN to support a temporary Gaza ceasefire and oppose an assault on Rafah.

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📹 Zelensky’s decision not to hold elections is illegal and is connected to his fear of losing, Ukrainian ex-Prime Minister Nikolai Azarov told Sputnik.

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❗️ US Senator Lindsey Graham has been placed on a list of terrorists and extremists maintained by Russia's federal financial monitoring service

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Ten years after Euromaidan, Ukraine has essentially "degenerated and collapsed,” prices for food, housing and utility services have increased significantly, and zombie propaganda continues to poison the minds of Ukrainians, ex-Prime Minister Nikolai Azarov told Sputnik.

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Assange’s potential extradition to US poses danger to freedom of speech

The London High Court's two-day hearing is about to seal the fate of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, an Australian citizen, who can be extradited to the US to face up to 175 years behind bars for espionage.

"The whole case seems to hang on the United States wanting revenge," Paul Goncharoff, businessman, top manager, owner of the consulting company Goncharoff LLC, told Sputnik. "Revenge against a non-US citizen who published information about US Government activities and did so from an EU-based website."

According to Goncharoff, the case "brings together Australia, the EU, the UK, and the United States as a bloc that appears quite content to allow for the prosecution by American laws that are now seen to stretch beyond US borders and can capture and punish anyone, of any nationality, anywhere in the Western world."

Assange, 52, has been held in a UK high security prison since 2019. The espionage charges brought forward by the US revolve around Assange publishing thousands of classified documents concerning Washington's alleged military crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq provided by then US Army private and whistleblower Chelsea (born Bradley) Manning.

"Should Assange be extradited, the implications are grim for the future of the human right to freedom of speech, and for highlighting when governments themselves are acting inappropriately," stressed Goncharoff.

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