Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni acknowledged there are "objective difficulties in legal and financial terms" if Russia's sovereign assets are used to benefit Ukraine.

Ray McGovern: ‘Sheer incompetence and ignorance’ led to plan to attack Crimean Bridge

“Here’s this wise man, Bobby Gates, saying ‘Oh let's get into World War Three,” Ray McGovern, a peace activist and former CIA analyst with over 27 years of experience, told Sputnik’s The Critical Hour, referring to comments made by former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates that matched the leaked German audio that included plans to destroy the bridge. “I mean, if he is speaking for an influential element not only in the White House but also the German Army, my God.”

“It’s just sheer incompetence and ignorance,” McGovern continued later. “He reads the intelligence. Previous presidents and previous CIA directors are given special treatment, they can read the latest and most sensitive intelligence. … The intelligence has been so bad that Bobby Gates could be led to believe this would teach the Russians a lesson.”

“If I were Putin, I would have my focus on full alert because one of these acolytes [might] say ‘hey, Mr. Biden… we did the cluster ammo, we did the depleted uranium, who’s going to complain if we do just a mini-nuke?’ So that’s the danger here,” McGovern warned.

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Italian warship shoots down drone in Red Sea

"This afternoon, guided by the principle of self-defense, the ship Duilio shot down an unmanned aerial vehicle in the Red Sea. The unmanned aerial vehicle, similar in its characteristics to those already used in previous attacks, was approximately 6 kilometers [3.7 miles] from the Italian ship and was flying towards it," the Italian Defense Ministry said in a statement.

Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto called the Houthi attacks "terrorist," adding that they were a "serious violation of international law" and an "attack on the safety of maritime transport" on which the country’s economy depends, the statement read.

Yemen's Ansar Allah movement, also known as the Houthis, vowed in November 2023 to attack any ships associated with Israel until it halts military actions in the Gaza Strip. This led the US to announce the creation of a multinational operation to secure navigation in the Red Sea. Forces of the US and the UK later launched major strikes against Houthi positions in a bid to degrade the rebels' ability to target commercial vessels.

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🎯 Russian sniper units continue to carry out combat missions near Kupyansk

Snipers of the 1st Guards Tank Army covertly destroy crucial targets and troops from a distance of over 1,000 meters, to support motorised rifle and tank units, and also cover AGS grenade launchers.

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▪️ How likely are tensions between Berlin and NATO following the intercepted conversation between high-ranking German officers?

▪️ Ray McGovern: ‘Sheer incompetence and ignorance’ led to plan to attack Crimean Bridge

▪️ Sputnik’s expert explains why the Ukraine crisis is a major defeat for powers which had become used to ‘dominating Earth for hundreds of years’

▪️ Russia intercepts and destroys 38 Ukrainian drones over Crimea overnight

▪️ ‘Largest CIA operation in history’: ex-US State Dep. official predicts outcome of the Ukraine conflict

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A secure line was not used during an online meeting in which Bundeswehr officers discussed the possibility of attacking the Crimean Bridge, German newspaper Bild reported.

The conversation was organized via the Bundeswehr office’s landline phone on the US WebEx conference software installed on the officers' mobile phones. The use of WebEx by the officers was previously also pointed out by the DPA news agency.

German security services are now checking whether the WebEx version used is authorized for the exchange of information of the lowest level of secrecy ("Classified information - for official use only").

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Germany to stick to its 'no Taurus missiles to Ukraine' decision – report

Chancellor Olaf Scholz will not revise his opinion on the delivery of Taurus missiles to Ukraine in the wake of the leaked conversation between high-ranking German military officials, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported, citing sources close to the chancellor.

Scholz remains opposed to the transfer of the long-range cruise missiles to the Kiev regime, the publication added.

The outlet noted that Russia had “turned the tables” on Berlin by publishing the intercepted telephone conversation involving Bundeswehr representatives discussing a potential attack on the Crimea Bridge with the weapons. The bombshell leak, coupled with Olaf Scholz's acknowledgment that British and French troops are assisting Ukrainians to fire SCALP and Storm Shadow long-range cruise missiles at Russian targets feed into Berlin’s Taurus “fiasco,” the German outlet summed up.

Scholz can be expected to stick to his decision, while his “allies” will have increasingly more reason to doubt Germany, it added.

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The audience is packed minutes before Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of RT and Rossiya Segodnya, Sputnik's parent media group, is set to address participants of the World Youth Festival on the Sirius Federal Territory. The topic of the event is “Russia Today: History in Every Day”

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❗️ WATCH LIVE: Rossiya Segodnya Editor-in-Chief Simonyan Speaks at World Youth Festival

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📹 The Russian media is successfully fighting Western imperialist propaganda in various parts of the world, said Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of RT and Rossiya Segodnya, Sputnik's parent media group, at the World Youth Festival on the Sirius Federal Territory.

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Russia ‘delivers blow to NATO ranks’ with trannoscript of leaked German war talks - experts

By publishing the Bundeswehr officials' alleged attack-plotting, Moscow did more than “shed light on the hybrid war waged by a united Western front against Russia for years,” Iranian political scientist Ruhollah Modabber, told Sputnik.

Russia also “blew a hole in NATO ranks,” while demonstrating its own "strength and capabilities," stated the expert stated.

The possibility being mulled of striking Russian territory with Taurus cruise missiles indicates the “military bankruptcy of Berlin,” Nabil Surur, Lebanese expert on Russian affairs, underscored.

As for the West, it is “now in a critical state, having exhausted its forces by providing weapons, equipment, artillery and aviation to the failing Kiev regime,” Surur added.

Ahmed Al-Haj Ali, Lebanese international and regional relations expert, said that Moscow has enough similar files “that could affect the reputation of major Western countries,” adding: “Now the [NATO] alliance will have to admit its defeat, signs of which have become clearly visible in the fighting in Ukraine, and American help and an ‘umbrella’ this time will not protect it from collapse.”

Germany's denial of leaks of military conversations “will not protect Berlin, and will not change the fact that the West is involved in supporting Ukraine in many attacks that threaten Russia’s national security,” Ali Hamud, another Lebanese expert, warned.

“NATO policy since the bloc’s creation has been aimed at defeating Moscow and controlling Russia in all aspects, but pumping the Kiev regime with weapons and money has not, and will not, cause serious harm to it.”

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📹 Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of RT and Rossiya Segodnya, Sputnik's parent media group, has shared her advice on how to make Vladimir Putin feel at ease without saying anything silly

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❗️ Fierce fighting with counterattacks is taking place in the village of Rabotino on the Zaporozhye front line, Vladimir Rogov, head of the regional public movement "We Are Together with Russia," told Sputnik

❗️ The intercepted conversation between Bundeswehr officers indicates that Germany is preparing for war with Russia, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev said

Déjà vu: Why West has reasons to doubt Zelensky amid fresh demands for arms aid

Ukraine’s president issued a sharp rebuke to his Western sponsors on Saturday, accusing them of getting caught up in “internal political games” instead of ramping up support for Kiev. “This is impossible to understand. It is impossible to agree to this. And it will be impossible to forget; the world will remember this,” Volodymyr Zelensky said, referring to the $60 billion+ in cash for Ukraine held up held up by the US Congress.

However, Western hesitancy might be better understood if Ukraine’s president remembered that at about this time last year, Western officials and NATO planners had bought into assurances about a swift Ukrainian victory in a counteroffensive against Russia.

▪️ “Our support is making a real difference for the Ukrainians. Helping them not only to survive, but also to push back the Russian invader, and liberate their territory,” NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg confidently assured in early February 2023, about four months before Ukraine’s counteroffensive began.

▪️ Ukraine would have a “very good chance” of launching a successful counteroffensive, Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin told Senate lawmakers in March 2023, boasting about Kiev’s “significant advantage” over Russian forces and suggesting Russia was running out of tanks.

▪️ “Over 98 percent of the combat vehicles are already there,” General Christopher Cavoli, NATO’s top military commander, told the House Armed Services Committee in April. “I am very confident that we have delivered the materiel that they need, and we’ll continue a pipeline to sustain their operations as well,” Cavoli said, emphasizing that “the Ukrainians are in a good position” thanks to “very generous” deliveries from the US and its allies in tanks and armored fighting vehicles.

Déjà vu: Why West has reasons to doubt Zelensky amid fresh demands for arms aid (part 2)

▪️ “Regardless of when or where and what units he decides to use to conduct offensive operations inside his country, [Zelensky’s] got pretty much everything he needs…in the weeks and months ahead,” US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby assured in May 2023, pointing to the delivery of a $300 million US weapons aid package for Kiev – the latest in arms worth over $35.7 billion from Washington alone at that time.

▪️ The same month, retired US Army Europe commander Ben Hodges told NPR he was “impressed” by Ukraine’s general staff, and said he expected the counteroffensive to “be quite successful” because “they’ve been training hard” and “the West has provided a lot of very good equipment.”

▪️ Former Chief of British General Staff Gen. Richard Dannatt went further, suggesting in the spring of 2023 that “after Kiev’s successful counteroffensive, Vladimir Putin may be swept out of the Kremlin.”

▪️ In late May 2023, former general and CIA director David Petraeus said he expected the counteroffensive to be “really quite successful,” and that the Russians would be forced “to withdraw under pressure of this Ukrainian offensive…I think that this counteroffensive is going to be very impressive.”

▪️ “The Russians are in for a rude awakening when the Ukrainian counteroffensive begins,” perennial pro-war US Senator Lindsey Graham said the same month. “I expect major gains in the coming days and weeks. I think they can expel Russia from Ukraine,” he said.

▪️ On June 4, 2023, the day the counteroffensive kicked off, White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan assured CNN that Washington was confident “that the Ukrainians will meet with success in this counteroffensive.”

▪️ The same month, Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe senior policy advisor Paul Massaro said that “full Ukrainian victory is coming” and “sooner than you think.”

▪️ In September 2023, months into the counteroffensive, even as US and European officials had privately began to admit to media that the campaign was “not meeting expectations”, Secretary of State Antony Blinken assured that “progress” in the counteroffensive had “accelerated in the past few weeks,” with the latest US assistance expected to “help sustain it and build further momentum.”

Public expressions of doubt to these whimsical narratives were few and far between, with Czech President Petr Pavel, a veteran soldier, being one of the few to warn, back in May 2023, that Ukraine should expect to face “terrible losses” no matter how its counteroffensive turned out. “Attacking an enemy like Russia will be difficult and Russians will not be caught by surprise for a second time,” Pavel said. As the counteroffensive collapsed, Zelensky and his staff began blaming Western powers for the lack of even more military and economic support.

But the question arises as to why Ukraine, once the second-most-powerful military arsenal in the Soviet bloc –with the ability to build everything from small arms and tanks to jumbo military jets and intercontinental ballistic missiles, can’t step up and create its own functional defense sector.

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📹 Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of RT and Rossiya Segodnya, Sputnik's parent media group, spoke about the West's superiority in propaganda tools and how it is used as a weapon

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