Russian air defenses destroyed 16 Ukrainian Vampire MLRS missiles over the Belgorod region at about 8:30 p.m. Moscow time, the Russian Defense Ministry reported.

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❗️ The Russian-speaking minority has been subjected to discriminatory treatment in Ukraine, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said in a report.

Russian prisoners of war were tortured in Ukraine in December 2023 through February 2024 and such stories are trustworthy, according to the report.

Ukrainian authorities have not been sufficiently prosecuting those responsible for torture and violence against civilians and prisoners of war, the OHCHR stressed.

The Kiev regime continues to intimidate priests and members of the Ukrainian orthodox church, the United Nations Human Rights Office added.

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❗️ Russian prisoners of war have been tortured in Ukraine between December 2023 and February 2024, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said.

The employees of the OHCHR visited 44 Russian prisoners of war in Dnepropetrovsk, Kharkov, Lvov, Nikolayev, Sumy, Vinnitsa and Zaporozhye regions of Ukraine from December 2023 to February 2024.

"While these Russian POWs did not make any allegations of torture occurring at these facilities, they provided credible accounts of torture or ill-treatment in transit places after their immediate evacuation from the battlefield," the OHCHR said in a report.

Ukrainian authorities do not sufficiently prosecute those responsible for torture, violence against civilians and prisoners of war, the OHCHR emphasized.

"OHCHR has documented arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, and the use of torture and ill treatment, including sexual violence, by Ukrainian authorities during the detention of conflict-related civilian detainees and Russian POWs, as well as the summary execution of at least 25 Russian servicemen hors de combat (all in 2022 and early 2023)," the report said, adding that "Ukrainian authorities have launched at least five criminal investigations into allegations of violations committed by their own security forces, involving 22 victims."

These results show a lack of progress in the investigation and prosecution of such violations, the OHCHR said.

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NATO pilots will be the ones flying F-16s in Ukraine

The alliance has promised to supply the first batch of F-16s to Ukraine by summertime. However, it is likely that NATO will actually entrust Ukrainian pilots

“If they give that kind of machine to some guy who took a six month crash course, then that's what it's going to be, a crash course. He's going to fly for about one hour before he has to hit the ejector seat, if he's lucky enough to be able to do that,” said Sputnik correspondent Russell Bentley.

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Ukrainian authorities continued intimidating the priests and members of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church — Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) from December 2023 to February 2024, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said.

"Clergymen and parishioners of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) continued to experience intimidation during the reporting period. OHCHR recorded six cases across five regions where groups of people forcefully broke into UOC churches, justifying their actions with decisions from local authorities to register new religious communities of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) at the same address as existing UOC communities," the OHCHR said in a report.

The Russian-speaking minority in Ukraine is subjected to discriminatory treatment in comparison to other linguistic minorities that speak EU languages, the OHCHR highlighted.
OHCHR examined the law adopted by the Parliament of Ukraine on December 8, which amends a number of legislative acts related to the rights of national minorities.

"While the law is a significant step forward in improving the rights of national minorities, it maintains a discriminatory differential treatment between, on the one hand, national minorities speaking an official language of the EU, and on the other hand, national minorities whose languages are not official languages of the EU, such as Russian, Armenian or Romani. Although the first category of national minorities saw their rights broadened, as described above, national minorities whose language is not an EU language will not be able to enjoy the same rights," the OHCHR said in a report.

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❗️ Russian President Vladimir Putin called claims about Russia's plans to attack Europe “absolute nonsense”.

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❗️ It was not Russia that moved to NATO countries' borders, they came close, Russia is only protecting its people, Russian President Vladimir Putin stressed.

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❗️ Russia will destroy F-16 fighter jets just like other military aircraft and tanks if they are delivered to Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.

If F-16s are launched from third countries, they will become legitimate targets for Russia, the president insisted.

Supplying the fighters to the Kiev regime will not change the situation on the battlefield, Putin said.

Putin said has no doubt the Russian Armed Forces will fulfill their assigned tasks.

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❗️ Russian President Vladimir Putin highlighted that representatives of all peoples of Russia show their best on the battlefield. Putin said the unity of Russian people must be cherished.

“Russia is a multinational, multi-faith country; we need to treat everyone with respect,” the president stressed. Inter-ethnic peace in Russia must be cherished, Putin insisted.

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❗️ Russian President Vladimir Putin praised the work of combat aviation in the special operation zone and assessed it as perfect.

During a working visit to the Russian town of Torzhok in the Tver Region, Putin met with military pilots and widows of Heroes of Russia who participated in the special military operation in Ukraine. The president was asked how he assesses the actions of Russian combat aviation in the course of the special operation.

"Perfectly. Everyone works perfectly. They contribute significantly to the achievement of a common goal," the president said.

Putin added that the Russian military aviation carries out very hard work. The president also praised the work of army and bomber aviation, as well as military transport aviation, and said they fight fearlessly.

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Russia has no plans to go to war with NATO, this is nonsense as the difference in military expenditures is significant, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said.

During a working visit to the Russian town of Torzhok in the Tver Region, Putin met with military pilots.

"In 2022, the United States spent [on military] ... $811 billion, and the Russian Federation - $72 billion ... Are we going to go to war with NATO at this ratio? Well, this is just nonsense," the Russian president said.

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🇷🇺 Russian President Vladimir Putin slams accusations of planned attack on Europe.

“What they say about us going to attack Europe after Ukraine is complete nonsense,” said Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The West has been scaring its people with a “Russian threat” solely to funnel money to the military-industrial complex, the president explained.

“Intimidation of their own population solely to get money out of them, out of their own people. Especially against the background of the fact that the economy is declining, the standard of living is falling. It's obvious,” Putin said.

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Billionaire financier George Soros overtaken by Trump in list of world’s wealthiest

Billionaire financier George Soros has been surpassed by former US President Donald Trump on Bloomberg’s index of the world’s richest individuals. The news outlet’s updated rankings showed the prominent liberal donor at number 378 on the list with an estimated $7.16 billion net worth. Trump was ranked just above Soros at number 377.

The wealthy financier’s political giving has made him a controversial figure. A 1991 article in the Washington Post dubbed Soros an “overt operative” of US-backed regime change operations in Europe.

Alongside US government organizations like the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), Soros funneled his massive wealth towards pro-Western activists who helped bring down Russian and socialist-aligned governments.

Soros’ Open Society Foundations played a key role in Ukraine’s 2014 coup d'etat by funding a 3-D model “reconstruction” pinning the blame for a massacre of protesters at Kiev’s Maidan Square on government forces. The rendering was touted by The New York Times and other news outlets as "proof" that President Viktor Yanukovych’s government was using deadly force to repress demonstrators, a key event that led to his overthrow.

The reconstruction was later found by a Ukrainian court to be a complete fabrication, a piece of “deliberate fraud and disinformation” that allowed Soros to interfere in Ukrainian politics with deadly consequences.

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Russian troops spotted a camouflaged Ukrainian tank near Bakhmut

Camouflage and armour did not help the tank, and it soon turned into a burning pile of scrap metal after it was hit by Orlan-30 loitering ammunition.

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The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) aims to expand participation in peacekeeping initiatives beyond the organization’s area of responsibility, CSTO Secretary General Imangali Tasmagambetov said.

“The organization traditionally pays special attention to the peacekeeping track.... The CSTO aims to expand participation in peacekeeping initiatives outside of the organization’s area of responsibility as well. Close interaction with influential international organizations is necessary here," Tasmagambetov told the Natsionalnaya Oborona (National Defense) magazine.

Moreover, the possibility of the enlargement of the CSTO is not ruled out, the need for political and military alliances is increasing significantly, the CSTO secretary general stressed.

“The fact is that against the backdrop of the breakdown of the old world order, accompanied by the resumption of old conflicts and the emergence of new ones, the need for military and political alliances is significantly increasing,” Tasmagambetov highlighted.

The CSTO is a regional security alliance of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan.

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Could ethnic strife in the Baltic states fuel the next war?

Tensions are growing in the Baltics between nationalist forces and ethnic Russians who, as in other Eastern European countries, make up sizable minorities. Could racial strife lead towards violent conflict in the Baltics as it has in Ukraine? Journalist Dan Lazare joined Sputnik’s The Critical Hour program Wednesday to examine that question.

“I think the comparison [to Ukraine] is absolutely appropriate,” said Lazare. “All through Eastern Europe you have essentially nationalist regimes that have targeted their Russian-speaking residents as somehow disloyal or somehow contrary to the national project and have implemented various forms of discrimination. It's especially severe in Latvia, but it's also the case in Estonia and Lithuania.”

“They're threatening them with deportation, they are firing them from jobs, they're forcing them to take language tests,” the author continued. “Washington… says absolutely nothing about these abuses because they work in favor of US foreign policy.”

Host Wilmer Leon read from a piece in German magazine Der Spiegel recounting the story of a Latvian woman whose cousin received a government letter declaring he “must immediately leave the country for the protection of national security.” Federal agents appeared at his door shortly after, giving him one hour to pack before sending him to a detention center to be deported to Russia.

“It's outrageous,” said Lazare. “Latvia for the Latvians. Where have we heard that before?” He warned that praise and nostalgia for anti-Soviet Nazi collaborators is on the rise in the region.

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At least four people have been killed and another six have been injured in an Israeli strike on a cafe in the southern Lebanese city of Naqoura, Al Mayadeen broadcaster reported.

The victims of the attack have been taken to the Lebanese-Italian Hospital in the city of Tyre, where dozens of citizens have donated their blood for those in need, the report said.

A local source told Sputnik that the strike had been launched from a drone, and the cafe has suffered damage. He added that ambulances have been evacuating the wounded to hospitals in Tyre.

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Macron’s proposed escalation in Ukraine risks ‘nuclear annihilation’ – experts

"Sending 2,000 French troops to Russia is nothing," former US security analyst David Oualaalou told Sputnik.

“Russia can wipe them out in no time…. France is saying all this because they wanted to show that we still matter after being kicked out of Africa.” The European power has recently been expelled by Niger, Burkina-Faso, and other former colonies.

“Should this move forward it's not going to bode well for the French soldiers,” he warned. It appears the French public would also reject Macron’s escalatory move – a recent poll found 68% of people oppose it.

Media outlet Consortium News published a memo from the group Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity this week warning of the consequences of French President Emmanuel Macron’s proposal to send French troops to Ukraine.

“This would be introducing combat troops of a NATO country into a theater of war, making them ‘lawful targets’ under the Law of War,” read the memo. “The American people need to understand that Europe is leading them to the cusp of nuclear annihilation.”

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