❗️ In its briefing, the Russian Ministry of Defense officially confirmed the destruction of a US-made Abrams tank, having been hit in the Avdeyevka area. Three BMPs, including a Bradley, were also destroyed in the area over the course of the day.

❗️The total losses of the Ukrainian Armed Forces (UAF) in the Donetsk region exceeded 420 servicemen.

🇷🇺🪖 More statements from the Russian MoD’s daily briefing on the progress of the special military op in Ukraine:  

▪️The Russian Armed Forces repelled two counterattacks of the UAF near Kupyansk; the enemy lost up to 30 servicemen.

▪️The Russian Armed Forces repelled three attacks by Ukrainian assault groups in the south to Donetsk; enemy losses amounted to up to 130 servicemen.

▪️Russian air defense systems shot down a Ukrainian Su-25 aircraft in the Nikolaev region.

▪️The Russian Armed Forces hit a fuel warehouse for military equipment of the UAF, the P-18 radar, and the control center of the 128th defense brigade.

▪️The Russian Armed Forces took advantageous positions near Avdeyevka and repelled nine Ukrainian counterattacks; the enemy lost up to 485 servicemen.

▪️The Russian Armed Forces repelled seven counterattacks by Ukrainian assault groups in the Donetsk region near Krasnogorovka, Georgiyevka and Novomikhaylovka.

▪️Russian air defense destroyed 69 Ukrainian drones.

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🇷🇺🪖 Today is the 15th anniversary of the Russian special operations forces

Founded in 2009, these forces perform the most difficult tasks today. Participating in Russia’s special military operation, members of the special operations forces regularly conduct raids and ambushes behind Ukrainian lines.

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🇵🇱🚜 Polish farmers are holding a large protest in Warsaw. There is even an Abrams tank (but not quite real and not quite on the move)

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❗️ Sputnik’s first footage from the settlement of Severnoye in the DPR, which the Defense Ministry on Tuesday reported had been liberated

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What are French Mirage 2000 jets Ukraine once refused but is now begging for?

French President Emmanuel Macron has refuted Volodymyr Zelensky’s remarks about talks on supply of Mirage jets to Ukraine.

“Today we are not negotiating about Mirages, but we are training pilots,” said Macron.

Previously, Kiev rejected the Mirage 2000 as an outdated model. Now, apparently, beggars can't be choosers.

What are the French Mirage 2000 jets?

The French fourth-generation, multi-role, supersonic single-engine fighter Mirage 2000 was developed by Dassault Aviation in the 1970s and entered service in 1984. The lightweight fighter with its distinctive delta-shape wing has single- and twin-seat versions. Its characteristics are:

▪️ Wing span - 29.9 ft
▪️ Length - 47 ft
▪️ Combat weight - 21,000 lbs/9,500 kg
▪️ Internal weapons - two 30 mm cannon
▪️ Top speed: 1,450 mph/2,330 kph (Mach 2.2)
▪️ Operational ceiling - 60,000 ft

The Mirage 2000 has been developed into updated variants.

Mirage 2000C:

• Air defense-optimized
• Single-seat
• M53-P2 engine
• RDI pulse-doppler radar
• Night vision-compatible cockpit
• Provision for radar-guided MICA (Multi-Mission Air-to-Air Missile System) air-to-air missiles and laser-guided bombs.

Remaining Mirage 2000Cs retired in 2022 but still had “a bit of potential,” said an unnamed French official.

Mirage 2000D

• Optimized for ground-attack missions
• Two-seat, single-engine, supersonic jet
• Compatible with Safran Armement Air-Sol Modulaire (AASM) Hammer guided bombs France has pledged to Kiev
• Compatible with SCALP-EG cruise missiles already in Ukraine

Out of 86 Mirage 2000D fighter-bombers the French Air Force acquired about 30 years ago, around 20 are surplus to France’s needs. But French officials have reportedly said training Ukrainian pilots on the Mirage 2000 might take too long. Maintenance of ageing jets could also prove difficult.

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💀 Time travel is possible: "My 2020 agenda is to finish the job" - Joe Biden and the question "what is your agenda for 2024?"

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A CNN report dating back to 2014 went viral on X, shedding light on the suffering of Donetsk civilians at the hands of Ukraine's forces
The report accused then-president Petro Poroshenko of killing his own people in the region. It featured footage of civilians caught in the crossfire between pro-Russia rebels and Ukrainian troops.
One Donetsk resident, Alexander Omelyavenko, shared his sentiment, saying, “We are Ukrainian but they kill us, so we probably need our own country. Because these people in Kiev, they are not brothers for us.”

After the onset of the special military operation in Ukraine, CNN referred to it as "Putin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine".

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Special Operations Forces: Meet Russia’s Elite Commandos

Tuesday is the professional holiday of Russia’s Special Operations Forces (SOF), the high-readiness, high-mobility, specially trained and equipped troops reporting to the chief of the Armed Forces General Staff and tasked with carrying out the most complex and difficult missions and covert operations.

The SOF’s mission and capabilities include:

▪️ Reconnaissance and sabotage, including collection of information and the destruction of important enemy targets behind the lines.

▪️ Counter-terrorism, including preventing and suppressing acts of terror, freeing hostages, and conducting covert missions to eliminate terrorist leaders and groups.

▪️ Ensuring the safety of individuals, facilities and locations in difficult conditions – like providing security at the Olympics in Sochi, or ensuring President Putin’s security during his visit to Khmeimim Air Base in late 2017.

▪️ Special operations at sea and in the air, from the seizure or release of ships, to anti-piracy and smuggling missions.

SOF troops played a decisive role in the operation to secure Crimea in 2014 in the aftermath of the Euromaidan coup in Kiev amid the imminent threat of Maidan thugs descending on the peninsula to crush a pro-Russian uprising. Their surprise appearance on the peninsula, lack of identifying markings, and courteousness toward the local population gave rise to their popular nicknames ‘polite people’ and ‘little green men’.

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Zelensky must prove his legitimacy as president before May 20

The Office of the Ukrainian President has prepared the text of an appeal to the Constitutional Court (CC) of Ukraine regarding the legitimacy of Vladimir Zelensky’s tenure as head of state after the expiration of his powers on May 20, the local publication “Mirror of the Week” reports, citing sources in the Zelensky administration.

It is noted that they want to pose several questions to the judges. In particular, despite the fact that, according to the constitution, voting cannot be organized during martial law, the office plans to clarify whether the basic law allows for presidential elections to be held under these conditions.

The second question concerns the legitimacy of the powers of the president after the expiration of his five-year term in office. The publication writes that, according to the plan of the leadership of the presidential office, deputies from the pro-presidential Servant of the People party will make an appeal to the Constitutional Court. But the appeal has not yet been transmitted to parliamentarians.

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French civil servants secretly confer with Le Pen, undercutting Macron's grip on power - report

Meetings between French civil servants and the leader of the right-wing National Rally parliamentary group Marine Le Pen signal diminishing influence of President Emmanuel Macron, as strategists craft blueprints for Le Pen's potential ascent to power, The Economist reports.

The National Rally is cultivating ties with Parisian elites, strategically positioning itself as a viable alternative to Macron's administration. With the recruitment of top civil servants and figures like Fabrice Leggeri, Le Pen's party is set to pose a formidable challenge in the upcoming elections, the report says.

As Macron grapples with mounting criticism and policy setbacks, the National Rally is undergoing internal reforms, shedding its once controversial image and focusing on core national interests, the report concluded.

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Are NATO soldiers already fighting in Ukraine?

Sputnik correspondent Russell Bentley (@TXDPR) explains that “professional killers” from NATO militaries have been operating in Ukraine since 2015, often under the guise of mercenaries.

“These are the guys that run the complex equipment. Ukrainian soldiers aren't the ones shooting the HIMARS. Ukrainian pilots won't be the ones flying F-16s here. So, the professionals have always been here, but they've kept a low profile.”

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Macron’s ‘pseudo-martial’ remarks show his ‘megalomania got the better of reason’

Emmanuel Macron’s belligerent statement about the possible dispatch of NATO soldiers to Ukraine is mostly posturing – but it could easily take Europe down a slippery slope, becoming a “de facto declaration of war,” Mikael Valtersson, a former defense politician and chief of staff with the Sweden Democrats, told Sputnik.

He suggested that the French president was using “the paralysis within the US political system about support for Ukraine” to try to replace Washington as the leading pro-Kiev power.

“NATO is partially incapacitated, especially in regards to Ukraine… The second tier nations now try to fill the empty space created,” Valtersson said. “Even if this suggestion probably is posturing, it opens up a door to talk about direct Western military involvement in Ukraine.”

According to the ex-officer, “a full-scale military conflict between Russia and several European countries” could be the end result of the French president’s escapade.

Macron must be aware that it is “game over” for Ukraine, ex-Colonel of the French Special Forces Task Group under NATO command in Kosovo Jacques Hogard added.

Macron may be under the delusion that he is “showing off his muscles,” but “they are those of a paper puppet,” Hogard added, stressing that the French president’s “megalomania” seems to be getting the better of reason.

“We are convinced that the defeat of Russia is indispensable to security and stability in Europe,” Macron told reporters after Paris hosted a meeting of some 20 European leaders to discuss the situation in Ukraine on Tuesday.

However, France failed to get any viable support, turning the “demonstration of European unity” into proof of Europe’s deep disillusionment in Ukraine.

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❗️Special forces officer: If Russians hadn’t intervened in 2014, Crimea would’ve been in total shambles

Nikolai Brovchenko is the deputy commander of the special forces battalion. He took part in the operation to defend Crimea and later volunteered for the Donetsk People's Republic militia. Ten years ago, at the end of February 2014, he came to Crimea in order to protect people from Ukrainian neo-Nazis.

"My former colleagues and I put together a group and went to Sevastopol. I had to work at Chongar, together with Berkut, to organize a defense line there. And when our regular troops arrived, we gave up these positions, left for Sevastopol itself, and carried out work in Sevastopol, Simferopol, and Feodosia," he revealed in an interview with Sputnik.

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Battle of Donbass: Where will the next big showdown take place?

Following the fall of Avdeyevka, Russian forces have begun moving ahead towards the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk defensive line, the last major Ukrainian fortification in the Donbass. Sputnik correspondent Russell Bentley (@TXDPR) breaks it down.

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Retreating Ukrainians try (and fail) to halt Russia's advance with bungled chemical weapons terror plot

Ukrainian saboteurs plotted a terrorist attack in Russia's Zaporozhye region using an analog of a US-made BZ (3-Quinuclidinyl benzilate) chemical warfare agent, the Russian Federal Security Service revealed. This would-be act of terrorism was foiled and three Ukrainian suspects behind the plot are now in custody.

"The chemical warfare agent has been used by the US since the late 1950s," Igor Nikulin, military expert, former member of the UN Commission on Chemical and Biological Weapons, told Sputnik.

"BZ is considered a non-lethal weapon, but it incapacitates a person for quite a long time. Even if one gets just one milligram of the substance, that person becomes incapacitated for 70-80 hours."

Despite being considered a non-lethal weapon, BZ can lead to paralysis of the heart muscle and death if used in large doses, Nikulin cautioned.

The expert noted that BZ was developed by the US military at the Edgewood Arsenal in Maryland. Though it was claimed the United States had destroyed its chemical weapon stockpiles, no one can be sure, the expert emphasized. Unlike Russia, the US did not allow OPCW inspectors into their facilities. To date there has been no independent confirmation that the United States has eliminated its chemical arms, Nikulin stressed.

The expert presumed that the US supplied the BZ-like substance directly to Ukraine in violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention: "The Ukrainian military is losing on the battlefield and are trying to stop the Russian offensive with acts of [chemical] sabotage."

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❗️The United States will not send military personnel to Ukraine to participate in hostilities there, White House National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said following Macron’s statement about the West discussing sending troops.

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🔺Western leaders get cold feet over Macron’s idea to send NATO troops to Ukraine

🔺Special forces officer: If Russians hadn’t intervened in 2014, Crimea would’ve been in total shambles

🔺Are NATO soldiers already fighting in Ukraine?

🔺Battle of Donbass: Where will the next big showdown take place?

🔺Special Operations Forces: Who are Russia’s Elite Commandos?

🔺What are French Mirage 2000 jets Ukraine once refused but is now begging for?

🔺Is Communism making a comeback in the West?

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The US Army is reducing its strength by about 24 thousand people (almost 5%) as part of the restructuring

As ABC News says, citing a report from the armed forces, this will help to participate more effectively in future wars.

According to the document, most of the job cuts are related to countering insurgency abroad. A reduction of about 3 thousand will be made to the Army Special Operations Forces. Now these places are empty, which emphasizes serious problems with recruitment into the US Army, the channel notes.

Instead, it will add air defense and counter-drone units, as well as five new task forces around the world with expanded reconnaissance and long-range strike capabilities.

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