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.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

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.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

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.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

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.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

▪️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’

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

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

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

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.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

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.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

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.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

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.

👉 Follow the link for more details

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.

Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated all Russian women on International Women's Day and wished them mutual understanding, success and happy moments.

“Dear women, I cordially congratulate you on International Women’s Day. We look forward to it with joy and excitement. We are preparing in advance for this wonderful spring holiday. And today in every home, in every family, the most tender, warm wishes are expressed to our mothers, wives, daughters, grandmothers, friends,” Putin said in a video message.

The president emphasized that motherhood is a glorious mission for women.

"Motherhood is a glorious mission for women. A difficult and critically important mission, but also a source of so much joy and happiness," Putin stressed.

The president assured that the Russian authorities would do everything possible to support families in Russia.

"The family, its interests and needs are in the spotlight and an absolute priority in Russia today. We will certainly do everything we can to ensure that families with children, including large and young families, young mothers, feel supported and assisted by the state," he said.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

US President Joe Biden said in his State of the Union address to Congress that there are no US soldiers on the ground in Ukraine taking part in the ongoing conflict with Russia and he is determined to keep it that way.

"They [Ukrainians] are not asking for American soldiers. In fact, there are no American soldiers in the war in Ukraine and I'm determined to keep it that way," Biden said.

NATO military personnel have been in Ukraine for a long time and are actively assisting the Ukrainian military on the ground, according to Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. Earlier, Moscow warned NATO that putting boots on the ground in Ukraine could lead to a direct confrontation.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Biden says he ordered the Pentagon to build a temporary port to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza, with no US military presence envisioned there.

Addressing the leadership of Israel, Biden says humanitarian assistance cannot be a secondary consideration or bargaining chip.

Biden says Israel has the right to go after Hamas but bears responsibility for protecting innocent civilians in Gaza.

The US has regularly impeded any UN Security Council resolution on Gaza that may hinder Israeli military operations. On December 8, Washington blocked a United Arab Emirates-drafted resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and a Brazil-drafted resolution on October 18.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

US President Joe Biden told the families of Hamas-held hostages attending his State of the Union address to Congress that he would not rest until they are all freed.

"Here in the chamber tonight are American families whose loved ones are still being held by Hamas. I pledge to all the families that we will not rest until we bring their loved ones home," read the text of Biden’s speech released by the White House.

Bold talk for a leader who has spent 443 days of his presidency on vacation.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

US President Joe Biden fails to correctly pronounce words, and seemingly invents a few new ones, mumbling and slurring during his address to Congress.

"It's chans-shormative!" declared Biden confidently.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt