🇵🇱 More than 100 agricultural tractors blocked the road right next to the A1 motorway exit in the Polish village of Gorzyczki. Farmers are demanding that the Polish-Ukrainian border be sealed and the inflow of agricultural products that do not meet EU standards be stopped, according to Polish Wyborcza.

One of the machines featured the USSR flag and a message addressed to Putin, according to the media.

"Putin will deal with Ukraine, Brussels, and our government," the banner on one of the tractors says.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Israeli economy contracts 20% after war outbreak

Tel Aviv's economy has suffered one of its worst slumps on record after the war with Hamas paralyzed business, as well as forced people to flee their homes and hundreds of thousands of reservists were called up to the army.

◾️Gross domestic product shrank a 19.4% year-on-year in the final three months of last year;

◾️The shekel weakened slightly on the news and was trading 0.4% down at 3.62 per dollar at 3.53 p.m. in Tel Aviv, heading for its first drop in four days;

◾️Private consumption spending fell almost 27% year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2023, while fixed investment fell almost 68%;

◾️Public sector consumption expenditure increased by more than 88%;

◾️Exports fell by 18%, and imports by more than 42%;

◾️GDP growth in the third quarter of 2023 was revised down to 1.8% from the original 2.7%.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Russia’s Aurus good as gold: here’s the details on Putin’s luxury automotive gift to Kim

Russian President Vladimir Putin gifted North Korean leader Kim Jong Un an Aurus luxury car, as confirmed by Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday.

North Korea’s media earlier reported that Putin had presented a Russian-made luxury automobile to Kim as “a clear demonstration of the special personal relations” between the two leaders.

Aurus is Russia's premier luxury car brand, representing a bold symbol of resilience and triumph against Western sanctions. It serves as a prime example of Russia's success in the face of adversity. Here are more details on this top-of-the-line automotive brand:

▪️ The Aurus family includes the Senat limousine and sedan, the Arsenal minivan and the Kommendant SUV, all built on a modular platform and featuring Russian-made components;

▪️ These four-wheel drive vehicles are used in the motorcades of the president and prime minister of Russia, as well as by an array of senior Russian officials;

▪️ The Senat limousine was first used by Russian President Vladimir Putin during his inauguration ceremony on May 7, 2018;

▪️ Since 2021, Aurus automobiles have primarily been produced in the Alabuga special economic zone in Russia’s Tatarstan, with the plant having an annual production capacity of up to 5,000 cars;

▪️ Should average customers seek these top-of-the-line vehicles, they would be expected to shell out 38.5 million rubles ($416,570) for a sedan and 37.5 million rubles ($405,750) for an SUV, respectively;

▪️ Aurus is thought to be the combination of the Latin word “aurum” (gold) and the сlipped word pertaining to Russia, something that therefore can be interpreted as “Golden Russia” or “Russian Gold.”

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

▪️Presidential address to Russian parliament: what will Putin say?

▪️First steps to self-destruction: a chronicle of Ukraine’s Maidan coup

▪️What are the key fronts of Russia's special operation in Ukraine?

▪️Who really runs the world?

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

▪️Why Rafah matters for the Israeli Defense Force?

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

▪️US House lawmakers urge support for new bill on Ukraine aid

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

‘This is a sacrilege’: Ukrainians strike Donetsk library

Sputnik correspondent Russell Bentley (@TXDPR) reports from the scene of the attack

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Lack of US funding will force Ukraine to make choices on what cities to hold, Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said

"If we don't get more, if we don't get the supplemental … we will not be able to provide these critical PDA (Presidential Drawdown Authority) packages, and Ukraine will have to make choices and decisions on what cities, what towns they can hold with what they have..." Singh said during a press briefing, when asked what Ukrainian cities are next at risk of falling after Russia took control of Avdeyevka.

The Russian Defense Ministry said that the Russian military had taken full control of the city of Avdeyevka, on Saturday.

On Tuesday, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said the Ukrainian armed forces lost some 2,400 soldiers over the last two days of the fight for Avdeyevka. Ukrainian forces also left many wounded soldiers, weapons, and mined areas when leaving Avdeyevka, Shoigu said.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Russia supplied abroad 66 million tons of grain worth $16.5 billion in the 2022-2023, which is an absolute record, said the Minister of Agriculture Dmitry Patrushev at a meeting with President Putin.

Russia has managed to reroute grain supplies for two years, now 90% of all agricultural products are sent to friendly countries, according to the Minister. In the 2023-2024 Russia expects to supply abroad up to 70 million tons of grain.

The Minister added that Russia supplied 200 thousand tons of grain to African countries.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Tucker Carlson says Boris Johnson wants $1mln for interview

US journalist Tucker Carlson said that former UK PM Boris Johnson wants $1 million from him to talk about the Ukraine conflict in the wake of Carlson’s recent interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"It gets out that we’re doing it [interviewing Putin], and I’m immediately denounced by this guy called Boris Johnson … So I put in a request for an interview with Boris Johnson," Carlson said in an interview with TheBlaze. "Finally, one of his advisers gets back to me and says, ‘He will talk to you, but it’s going to cost you a million dollars.’ He wants a million dollars."

Johnson’s adviser said the former prime minister would be willing to explain his position on Ukraine for the six-figure fee, Carlson said.

Putin did not request $1 million to participate in an interview, Carlson noted, adding that Johnson is "a lot sleazier" than Putin.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

The UK Trident firing exercise failed as missile fell into the ocean a few meters from the British nuclear submarine that launched it, The Sun reported.

"It left the submarine but just fell, right next to them," The Sun wrote, quoting a source inn know as saying, whole noting that UK Secretary of State for Defence Grant Shapps was in the submarine during the exercise.

The nuclear submarine crew were executing the "doomsday" drill and the Trident 2 missile was launched. But its first stage failed to ignite and the 58-ton missile, equipped with dummy warheads, fell into the ocean and sank.

It's the second consecutive failed launch after a misfire in 2016 with the cost of a single Trident missile is up to £17 million ($21 million), newspaper reports.

The British Ministry of Defense acknowledged there was an "anomaly" during the drill, but stated that UK nuclear deterrent remained "effective."

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

"850 to 1,000 [Ukrainian] soldiers appear to have been captured or are unaccounted for" during their retreat from Avdeyevka, the New York Times reported, quoting "two soldiers with knowledge of Ukraine’s retreat" as saying.

"The chaos that unfolded ... as the defenses collapsed was directly responsible for what appears to be a significant number of soldiers captured," the newspaper writes, anonymously quoting Ukrainian soldiers and Western officials.

Their names were omitted due to the fact that the interviewees' statements do not coincide with claims by the Ukrainian leadership about the relatively low number of Ukrainian soldiers missing or captured.

Those interviewed by the newspaper emphasized that "Ukrainian withdrawal was ill-planned and began too late" as the main reasons of Ukraine's possible hidden heavy losses.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has set up torture rooms in the Ukrainian-controlled city of Zaporozhye, the head of the Zaporozhye civic movement "We are together with Russia," Vladimir Rogov, told Sputnik.

"In [the city of] Zaporozhye, the SBU torture rooms are set up in basements. Torture continues. Regular disappearances of people and lack of information about the fates of anti-fascists who have gone missing are being recorded," Rogov said.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️ Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has arrived in Brazil, where he will take part in the meeting of the G20 foreign ministers, Sputnik correspondent reports.

The Minister was met by a guard of honor.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

How Avdeyevka was liberated and what comes next

Manpower shortages, shell shortages, communication breakdowns, a lack of air defense on the Ukrainian side and Russia’s heavy use of long-range FAB guided bombs were the critical factors that led to Avdeyevka advance, Mark Sleboda, a security and foreign policy analyst told Sputnik’s Fault Lines on Tuesday.

“It was monthslong, but then when [the Ukrainians] broke, it broke [with a] kind of real quickness at the end,” Sleboda explained.

The quick collapse of the city angered Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who hoped the city would hold at least until the end of the Munich Security Conference, if not the Russian presidential elections. “He was extremely embarrassed,” said Sleboda.

After Avdeyevka, Sleboda said that it is difficult to know where Russia plans to go next, noting that they could continue to move forward because Ukraine didn’t build fortifications behind the city, but that Russia has gathered forces on multiple fronts and is active in Rabotino and outside of Artemovsk as well.

Read more in the full article

Russia will respond with reciprocal countermeasures if Ukraine confiscates its assets, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Galuzin told Sputnik.

Galuzhin was commenting on the Verkhovna Rada's decision to seize Russian property and the Ukrainian Ministry of Justice's plans to confiscate two An-148-100E airplanes.

The US is grooming Asia for a war with China, peace activist and political analyst KJ Noh told Radio Sputnik

Discussing reports that the US will have nearly half of its aircraft carriers deployed in the Pacific, Noh noted that it is the largest gathering of US naval forces in the Pacific since World War Two.

“Remember, it's not just five aircraft carriers. It's at least five to ten attack submarines, plus 30 service combatants, including Aegis destroyers and three to 500 planes, [including] F-18s and F-35s. So it's an extraordinary projection of firepower, and it has a very, threatening message,” he summarized.

“This also serves to normalize aggressive shows of force. It’s like grooming Asia for war and, of course, there’s the ratchet effect from that normalization … It just signals that the escalation is coming.”

The neocons “know their time is running out on Taiwan, their advantages are ticking down and so I think they want to pivot rapidly,” Noh argued. “China is a war that both parties can get behind as opposed to Ukraine, which they consider to be a tough slog because so many Republicans are opposed [to it].”

Read more in the full article

🇷🇺 Kherson Governor Vladimir Saldo posted a video of a Russian flag being raised in the village of Krynki, which recently came under Russian control.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Euromaidan was part of West's proxy war against Russia - CIA veteran

"They were looking for a long-term strategy to isolate Russia," Larry Johnson, a retired CIA intelligence officer, told Sputnik.

"And the key to this was to get Ukraine into the western camp, to bring Ukraine into NATO, to bring Ukraine into the EU, and therefore to completely isolate, at least they thought they could isolate Russia."

The CIA veteran noted that after 2014, even though Ukraine was not a formal member of NATO, it was regularly included in the alliance's joint annual exercises. This meant that Ukraine then became a proxy for a Cold War, according to Johnson.

The West had a plethora of opportunities to avoid hostilities in Ukraine, but it appears that it did not want to do so, according to the CIA veteran. The West gave a nod to the bloody regime change in Kiev in 2014, even though President Viktor Yanukovych met the opposition's demands.

The West allowed the Kiev regime to shred the Minsk agreements. It encouraged Ukraine's NATO bid, knowing it was a "red line" for Moscow. Eventually, the US and NATO snubbed Russia's draft security agreements of December 2021 and scuttled Russia-Ukraine preliminary peace agreements of March 2022.

"[Ukraine] became a proxy for the West to fight against Russia," Johnson said. "Western governments don't want anything good to happen to Russia. (...) What's going on in Ukraine is almost demonic. It's satanic."

👉 Follow the link to learn more

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Key statements by Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin from his interview with Sputnik:

▪️ Neither Ukraine nor the West show any desire for a peaceful settlement of the crisis, seeing a way out only through the prism of hostilities;

▪️ Russia has not heard of any new peace initiatives regarding Ukraine recently;

▪️ Europe, against the background of Ukraine's statements on the future of the contract on the transit of Russian gas, is in no hurry to put an end to this issue. Russia intends to develop cooperation in the energy sector with those countries that are interested;

▪️ Russia will take mirror retaliatory measures if Ukraine confiscates its assets, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Galuzin told Sputnik, commenting on the Ukrainian Parliament's decision to seize Russian property and the Ukrainian Justice Ministry's plans to confiscate two An-148-100E aircraft.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇷🇺🇻🇪 Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Key statements by Ukrainian opposition politician Viktor Medvedchuk from his interview with Sputnik:

▪️ An economic union of Ukraine with the European Union is impossible, it is a meaningless abstraction.

▪️ Ukraine's economy can be restored only in cooperation with Russia.

▪️ Viktor Yanukovych is the last legitimate president of Ukraine, his removal from power in 2014 was illegal.

▪️ The actions of the Kiev regime in recent years have led to the virtual disappearance of the Ukrainian state: "In general, I think, and I have enough arguments to argue that Ukraine has lost its statehood."

▪️ Ukraine is now the poorest country in Europe because of the West's "rule" there, and the free trade agreement with the European Union has destroyed it's economy.

▪️ The opposition Ukrainian politician, chairman of the council of the "Other Ukraine" movement, said that he wants to return to Kiev when there will be no Nazism in the country.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

1. Watch Russian flag being raised in the village of Krynki, which recently came under Russian control

2. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has arrived in Brazil to attend G20 meeting

3. UK Royal Navy faces second in a row failure of Trident firing exercise

4. Boris Johnson demanded $1mln for interview with Tucker Carlson

Check out Sputnik analysis:

5. How did Russia liberated Avdeyevka and what might happen next

6. Euromaidan was part of West's proxy war against Russia - CIA veteran told Sputnik

7. The US is grooming Asia for a war with China, Sputnik expert comments on US aircrafts in the Pacific

Subscribe to @SputnikInt