Which 2023 event was the most vivid and memorable for Vladimir Putin?

At a meeting with female pilots of the Krasnodar Higher Military Aviation School, the Russian president explained that for him, that the most significant things happened on the battlefield in the special operation zone.

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Germany’s intention to revive military connoscription ‘might result in new arms race in Europe’

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius’ consideration of reintroducing compulsory military service in his country is a clear sign that rearmament is taking place in Europe, Mikael Valtersson, former officer of Swedish Armed Forces, told Sputnik.

Such a process “might result in a new arms race and increased confrontations in Europe,” Valtersson warned.

“With connoscription, the entire society becomes much more militarized, since a large part of the population has military experience,” he added.

By significantly enlarging its military, Germany will inevitably gain greater “influence in European security and politics”. Additionally, he emphasized that with a military that includes connoscription, Germany's ability to potentially supplant the US as the primary conventional defender in Europe will become even stronger.

He was echoed by Stefan Keuter, German politician for the Alternative for Germany, who told Sputnik that if strengthened, the European “axis of the alliance” could lessen its dependence on the United States. The AfD politician emphasized the importance of remaining prepared for defense, expressing uncertainty about future developments in Washington. Keuter appeared to allude to Donald Trump's comments about not defending NATO countries that fail to meet spending requirements.

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What does the Biden administration want to do with the 2025 defense budget?

With the clock ticking for the Biden administration’s March 11 unveiling of the US defense budget for the fiscal year (FY) 2025, some details on the matter have already emerged. The budget reportedly includes the following:

▪️The White House will request a 1% increase in defense spending to $849.8 billion, about $10 billion less than Washington had forecast;

▪️The Department of Defense (DoD) will reduce orders for fifth-generation F-35 fighter jets and much-delayed Virginia-class submarines;

▪️The Pentagon earlier included a request for 83 new F-35s in the FY2025 defense budget, but the number would now be reduced to only 70, saving $1.6 billion;

▪️The US Navy’s request for Virginia-class submarines will be cut from two to one;

▪️Procurement spending for the USS Wisconsin, the second Columbia-class submarine, is expected to stand at $9.6 billion for the FY2025, up from $5.8 billion in procurement requested for this year;

▪️The Biden administration will request that Congress approve $167.5 billion for procurement of weapons systems and $143.2 billion for research and development;

▪️The figures are out of sync with last year’s projections that Washington would seek $175.3 billion for procurement and $145 billion for R&D;

▪️Additionally, the White House considers tapping about $200 million in Pentagon funding to support Ukraine as the 60$ billion support package remains stalled in Congress.

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The protocol on Sweden's accession to NATO has entered into force, the US Department of State announced.

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💥 Round the clock: Russian paratroopers eliminate Ukrainian soldiers near Seversk, the DPR

Grad MLRS crews defeat the enemy on a daily basis, supporting the advance of Russian infantry units and preventing Ukrainian troops from rotating in forward positions.

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Moldova is planning to arrest the head of the autonomous region of Gagauzia, Evgenia Gutsul, after her return from Russia, according to opposition politician Ilan Shor.

"We have insider information that they are preparing to arrest Yevgenia Gutsul right at the airport," Shor said.

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France will open a permanent defense mission in the Moldovan capital of Chisinau in the coming months, Macron announced at a meeting with the country's President Maia Sandu in Paris.

This measure will reportedly make it possible to work more effectively to train the armed forces, the French president said.

Earlier, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov noted that the refusal to dialogue with Russia is a monstrous mistake and that the Kremlin hopes that Moldovan authorities will understand this.

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😄 Participants of the World Youth Festival in Sirius were satisfied with the work of the Russian police.

“Russian police is the best!” the participants proclaimed enthusiastically.

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Russian artillerymen hunt for Ukrainian crews and tanks round the clock

Artillery units conduct combat missions as one coherent mechanism. They fire at a range of up to 30 kilometers. Artillery soldiers call the howitzer a sniper weapon for its high accuracy and range.

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What helped Russia's T-72B3 tank destroy Ukraine’s Abrams?

Prominent skills of the crew and intelligence work added to Russia’s T-72B3 winning a first tank duel against Ukraine’s US-made M1 Abrams, Russian military expert Alexander Bartosh tells Sputnik.

Another aspect is Russian military technical specialists, who very accurately identified the Abrams' vulnerabilities and calculated how and where the T-72B3 should fire, according to him.

Last but not least, the performance characteristics of the T-72B3, which is equipped with an excellent gun and special equipment, made it possible to destroy the Abrams with the first shot, the Russian expert points out.

When asked whether it will affect the West’s drive to send more similar tanks to Ukraine, Bartosh says that Western countries’ resolve “has already been shaken”, not least because the destruction of the Abrams and the Leopards is “a serious blow to the competitiveness of Western firms.”

“Secondly, the West sees that its equipment is used on the battlefield not as they expected, namely, it turns out to be vulnerable,” Bartosh emphasizes.

Ukraine’s US-supplied M1Abrams tank was recently destroyed by a single shot from Russia’s T-72B3, the third such armed vehicle that has been obliterated in the special military operation zone in the past few weeks.

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Moldova's threats to the head of the Gagauz autonomous region, Evgenia Gutsul, show that Moldovan President Maia Sandu is using the rule of law for political settling of scores and pressure, Russian FM spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

"Sandu is no longer even ashamed of her actions, although everyone understands perfectly well that she uses the rule of law for exactly the opposite purposes of the law... as an element of political settling of scores, pressure", Zakharova said.

According to Zakharova, under the guise of democracy, the Sandu administration is trying to build a dictatorship on its territory.

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Kremlin lambasts Macron after the French president pushes ‘consultations’ on Ukraine

In his interview to Russian journalist Pavel Zarubin, the Kremlin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the French President Emmanuel Macron “continues to heighten the degree of France’s involvement in this [conflict in Ukraine],” presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalist Pavel Zarubin

▪️“It is obvious that Macron is convinced in the rightness of his policy line on inflicting a strategic defeat to our country,” Peskov said. “From our point of view, this approach in no way serves the interests of the French people.”

▪️Meanwhile, Macron met with former presidents Nicolas Sarkozy and Francois Hollande in his Elysee palace in order to discuss the situation in Ukraine.

▪️The real intrigue was Macron’s meeting with Sarkozy, the president in 2007-2012. In his previously published book and several interviews, Sarkozy has supported neutrality for Ukraine and opposed EU and NATO memberships for Kiev.

▪️Sarkozy was discreet about his talk with Macron, “slipping out of the palace away from the cameras,” Le Monde reported.

▪️In his interview to Le Figaro, Sarkozy said he was unrepentant that France (under his presidency) and Germany blocked NATO membership for Ukraine, proposed by then US President George W. Bush at the alliance's summit in Bucharest in 2008.

▪️Sarkozy also told Le Figaro it was “an illusion” to expect that Ukraine could get Crimea back, which “had been populated and governed by Russians until 1954 and where the majority of the population feels itself to be Russian.”

▪️Hopefully, Macron will get even more enlightened by his meetings with the leader of the “non-systemic” National Rally party Marine Le Pen and the maverick founder of La France Insoumise (France That Did Not Submit) party Jean-Luc Melanchon, who has blasted his recent ponderings on sending NATO soldiers to Ukraine, Peskov concluded.

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The head of Moldova's autonomous region of Gagauzia, Evgenia Gutsul, intends to raise the issue of infringement of the rights and freedoms of the Gagauz people at the UN.

“I raised the question of the possibility of discussing at the UN the infringement of the Gagauz people and pressure from the central authorities of Moldova. We need to draw the attention of the international diplomatic community to the arbitrariness occurring in our so-called 'democratic' country,” Gutsul wrote on social media.

Earlier, during the meeting with Russian senior lawmaker Valentina Matvienko, Gutaul said the rights of Gagauzians are being suppressed by Moldova's central government.

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Pentagon's wasteful spending eats away at US defense capability

"The Pentagon does not 'save' money for rainy days, it would do what the White House asks, even if it is stupid or non-strategic, with the expectation of getting this money replaced in future budgets," retired US Air Force Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski, a former analyst for the Department of Defense, tells Sputnik.

"A lack of a reality-based defense strategy is bringing us more waste, more defense sector profiteering and more cost overruns – and failing to deliver actual defensive capability," she stresses.

The Pentagon is expected to get $10 billion less than it was initially planned in accordance with a spending cap agreed upon by Team Biden and Congress last year. Nonetheless, Joe Biden is seeking to tap the Pentagon's funds to get $200 million for the Ukraine regime.

According to Kwiatkowski, this is yet another example of wasteful spending by the US leadership.

Instead of throwing money down the drain, the US should order cheaper and more efficient weapons from its defense contractors in order to ensure the nation's security, as per the military expert.

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▪️What helped Russia's T-72B3 tank destroy Ukraine’s Abrams?

▪️Which 2023 event was the most vivid and memorable for Vladimir Putin?

▪️What does the Biden administration want to do with the 2025 defense budget?

▪️Kremlin lambasts Macron after the French president pushes ‘consultations’ on Ukraine

▪️Easy way to get benefits: Spanish soldiers change gender

▪️Miracles don't happen: an icon saved the life of a Russian fighter

▪️Germany’s intention to revive military connoscription ‘might result in new arms race in Europe’

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💬 Russian FM spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on Moldova's plans to arrest the head of the autonomous region of Gagauzia, Evgenia Gutsul.

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Ukraine can't construct fortifications fit for modern warfare

Ukraine currently lacks the capacity to build fortifications like the ones that helped Russian forces thwart Kiev’s counteroffensive last year, says military analyst and retired colonel of the Russian Armed Forces Anatoliy Matviychuk.

According to him, Ukraine’s military-industrial complex is in tatters and the supplies from the West are simply not enough to make a difference in that regard.

“We [Russia] could lay between 500 to 1,000 mines per one kilometer of front line, we established lines of dragon’s teeth with gaps no more than one-and-a-half meter wide, which would not allow modern main battle tanks to pass without special engineering assistance,” Matviychuk explains. “Today, Ukraine cannot do that.”

Thus, Ukrainian forces “dig into the ground” and “try to create some obstacle zones that are simply not effective and do not match the criteria of modern warfare.”

“They fail in both the quality and the quantity of such fortifications that they build along their defensive lines,” Matviychuk adds, referring to the Ukrainian forces.

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On March 5, Russian aerospace forces destroyed 2 bases of terrorists involved in the shelling of Syrian military positions in the Syrian province of Idlib, said Rear Adm. Vadim Kulit, deputy head of the Russian Defense Ministry's Center for Reconciliation of Opposing Sides in Syria.

"On March 5, Russian aerospace forces carried out strikes in the area of the settlement of Bsanqul in Idlib province destroyed two bases of militants involved in the shelling of positions of the Syrian government forces. More than 20 terrorists have been eliminated," Kulit told a briefing.

One Syrian soldier was killed due to shelling by terrorists in the province of Latakia, the official added.

Meanwhile, US-led coalition fighters breached deconfliction protocols and violated the Syrian airspace four times in Al-Tanf by a pair of F-16 jets and a pair of А-10 Thunderbolt attack aircraft, Kulit pointed out.

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Former Ukrainian commander-in-chief Valery Zaluzhny has been appointed as Ukraine's ambassador to the UK, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said in a statement published on its official website.

"On Thursday, March 7, [Volodymyr Zelensky] approved the candidacy of Valery Zaluzhny for the position of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland," the statement read.

There had been much speculation regarding General Zaluzhny's next steps following his ousting from command last month. Many interpreted his removal as stemming from Zelensky's disappointment over the Ukrainian forces' unsuccessful counteroffensive last summer. Additionally, concerns over Zaluzhny becoming a political rival given his popularity in Ukraine were also thought to have played a role.

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Delusional David Cameron wants to steal Russian assets "as a surety" to bail out Ukraine

Britain is prepared to loan Ukraine all frozen Russian central bank assets in the United Kingdom on the belief that it will pay those loans back with Russian "reparations" following the end of the war, says UK foreign secretary David Cameron.

“There is an opportunity to use something like a syndicated loan or a bond that effectively uses the frozen Russian assets as a surety to give that money to the Ukrainians knowing that we will recoup it when reparations are paid by Russia,” Cameron claimed.

Western countries have previously pledged a total of several billion dollars toward aiding Ukraine, using the profits they received from the frozen Russian assets. But Cameron’s announcement this week is the most extreme proposal thus far, as the previous proposals only discussed giving Ukraine the “windfall profits” from the frozen assets which are estimated to be about $4 billion.

Cameron excuses his proposal on the basis that Ukraine will win the war against Russia, and that Moscow will have to pay reparations to Kiev. But the idea that Ukraine could win a military victory against Russia is unimaginable. More and more Western media outlets have been acknowledging Russia's success on the battlefield.

Moscow has maintained that any attempt to confiscate its frozen assets would violate international law, with the Russian Foreign Ministry labeling such an action as theft.

Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov has also said that Moscow is willing to issue a "symmetrical" response to this form of Western financial aggression.

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Europe’s US vassal states are considering arms production to support Ukraine as opposition politicians challenge decades of anti-Russia hysteria promoted by Washington

The United States’ proxy war in Ukraine has brought Europe to a state of crisis, but leaders are fearful that recognition of Kiev’s defeat could return Donald Trump to the presidency.

“Joe Biden is more soft on not really voicing what he's doing with the Europeans,” said veteran war correspondent Elijah Magnier on Sputnik’s Fault Lines program. “But he's doing exactly the same as any other president - putting America first.”

The US has long offered Europe military protection under the aegis of NATO. But political power flows from the barrel of a gun, and along with the promise of the alliance’s nuclear umbrella has come a high degree of influence over European democracy.

“‘Why do we need to provoke other countries when we can be in peace and do business?'” he asked, summarizing the thinking of many throughout Europe. “Nevertheless, the problem remains [with] who is the leader, and in this case, the leader is America.”

Enjoy this deep dive examining how NATO and the CIA have been used as tools to control European politics and stoke Russophobia to the detriment of Europeans’ autonomy and standard of living.