The Pentagon admitted that Ukraine will be able to use recently delivered ATACMS missiles to strike Crimea, the New York Times reported citing Pentagon officials as saying.

According to the US Department of Defense, the purpose of using longer-range systems will be to “increase pressure” on the peninsula.

Western countries have been providing Ukraine with military aid since the start of Russia's special military operation in February 2022. The support evolved from lighter artillery munitions and training to heavier weapons, including tanks and jets.

Russia has repeatedly warned NATO countries that arms supplies to Ukraine would be considered legitimate targets. Moscow has accused NATO countries of "playing with fire" by arming Ukraine, emphasizing that such actions hinder the possibility of Russia-Ukraine negotiations.

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Yemen's Ansar Allah movement, also known as Houthis, attacked an Israeli ship in the Gulf of Aden and launched missiles towards Eilat, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said.

"The naval forces of the Yemeni Armed Forces targeted an Israeli ship (MSC Darwin) in the Gulf of Aden, with a number of appropriate naval missiles and a number of drones, the operation has achieved its objectives successfully," the spokesman said in a statement.

Saree added that Houthis also launched "ballistic and winged missiles" at "several targets" in Eilat.

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The United States is expected to announce $6 billion in military contracts for Ukraine as soon as Friday, but they will not arrive in the country for several years, Politico reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

The report said that the contracts would include Patriot air defense systems, artillery ammunition, drones, counter-drone weapons, and air-to-air missiles.

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Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis confirmed that allies asked Greece to send S-300 or Patriot air defense systems to Ukraine, but Athens refused. Mitsotakis made the revelation during an interview with the Skai TV channel.

The interviewer asked about the accuracy of a Financial Times report claiming Greece was being asked to send S-300s or Patriots to Ukraine.

“Greece is not going to send either the S-300 or Patriot to Ukraine,” Mitsotakis said. “We have been asked and we have explained why we cannot do so."

“We have said from the beginning that we cannot provide weapons systems that are crucial to our deterrence capability,” he added.

“The air defense systems you mentioned are critical systems to protect Greek airspace and they will not be provided to Ukraine,” the prime minister insisted.

The Financial Times reported Monday that EU and NATO allies were putting strong pressure on Greece and Spain to provide Patriot and S-300 air defense systems to Ukraine because their needs were “not as great as Ukraine's.” Pressure was also applied at the recent EU summit, according to the newspaper.

Russia has repeatedly warned NATO countries that arms supplies to Ukraine would be considered legitimate targets. Moscow has accused NATO countries of "playing with fire" by arming Ukraine, emphasizing that such actions hinder the possibility of Russia-Ukraine negotiations.

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The assembly of key pieces for Gaza's temporary pier started offshore, with plans to initiate maritime humanitarian aid delivery by early May, a senior military official said during an on-background press briefing call.

Meanwhile, nearly a third of the children in northern Gaza are severely undernourished while about a quarter of the population in southern Gaza are facing the consequences of the worsening humanitarian situation in the Palestinian enclave amid Israel’s military operation against Hamas, a senior Biden administration official said.

"Nearly 30% of children in northern Gaza are showing signs of severe malnutrition. And in southern Gaza, nearly a quarter of the population is facing this kind of catastrophic food insecurity," the official said during a press briefing.

The official warned that the percentage of people suffering from severe malnutrition in Gaza will significantly increase in the coming months if no urgent humanitarian interventions take place.

On October 7, 2023, Hamas attacked Israel from Gaza. During the attack, some 1,200 Israelis - both military and civilian - were killed and some 240 others abducted.

Israel launched retaliatory strikes, ordered a complete blockade of Gaza and started a ground invasion of the Palestinian enclave with the declared goal of eliminating Hamas and rescuing the hostages. More than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed so far by the Israeli Defense Forces, according to local authorities.

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Blinken’s visit to China signals an ongoing hybrid war against the growing world power

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in China this week amid a period of strained diplomatic relations between the United States and the growing Asian power. The US has recently accused Beijing of “overproduction” of electric vehicles and other goods while threatening to sanction Chinese banks involved in trade with Moscow.

Journalist KJ Noh claimed the US is increasingly engaged in a “full spectrum hybrid war” against Beijing during an appearance on Sputnik’s Fault Lines program.

“They're going to send $8 billion to Taiwan to weaponize it… And then they're talking that China is using non-market practices against the United States,” said Noh. “They think they're talking to children. The Chinese know exactly what the score is.”
Noh claimed criticism of Beijing forms another part of a “hybrid war” being waged against China.

“This is all hybrid warfare,” said Noh, drawing a straight line from Trump’s tariffs to recent anti-China media narratives. “This trade war is simply a harbinger of a total full-spectrum hybrid war, including information warfare. This is why there is this fight over TikTok. Because the US considers [the] information space, mental space to be a domain of war. And they want to be able to manipulate and monopolize it.”

Noh said Beijing would be prepared in case of increased US sanctions and attempts at decoupling, claiming China has worked to strengthen internal demand and economic links with other countries.

“The world's largest banks on the planet are Chinese, and they will simply withdraw from the US market. They will stop using the US dollar – they already are. And then the blowback will be extreme for the United States.

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French servicemen are being promised a golden parachute for participating in fictitious "resignations" to fight in Ukraine said Nicolas Cinquini, a veteran of France's counter-terrorism intelligence service, to Sputnik.

Cinquini is currently searching for information about French nationals who fight in the conflict on the side of Kiev. According to his findings, French state agents may have been in Ukraine since the start of the special military operation in February 2022 along with ordinary French civilians who went to fight for the Kiev regime on their own.

“These are agents who remain very secretive and are difficult to identify,” the former intelligence officer noted.

“Sources told us that in the ranks of the French army, specialists were given attractive offers: a false resignation, a guarantee of reinstatement upon completion, and an income significantly higher than their usual earnings,” he said.

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The United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) is planning to reposition some of its forces from Chad as part of an ongoing review of security cooperation with the country, Pentagon Press Secretary Patrick Ryder said.

"As I understand it, talks continue with Chadian officials. US AFRICOM is currently planning to reposition some US military forces from Chad, a portion of which were already scheduled to depart. This is a temporary step as part of an ongoing review of our security cooperation," Ryder said during a press briefing.

The cooperation is expected to resume following the Chadian elections scheduled for May 6, Ryder added.

The announcement comes days after media reported, citing a letter, that Chad had threatened to end the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) with the United States, which governs how US military forces can operate in the country.

The letter ordered the United States to remove personnel from the French base in N’Djamena, although it did not explicitly demand the US military to leave Chad. Chadian authorities specifically raised the presence of a US Special Operations Task Force at the base.

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The United States should not interfere in China's domestic affairs or suppress its development, nor should it cross China's "red lines," Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi stressed at a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

"China's demands are consistent. It always advocates mutual respect for core interests. The United States should not interfere in China's internal affairs, should not suppress China's development, and should not cross Beijing's red lines regarding China's sovereignty, security and development interests," Wang said as quoted by China Central Television (CCTV).

China's legitimate rights to development are being constantly suppressed and its core interests are being challenged, the Chinese Foreign Minister emphasized.

Wang said China-US relations are facing various obstacles.
"China's legitimate rights to development are being unreasonably suppressed, and China's core interests are constantly being challenged," Wang said.

Although the relations between China and the United States have generally stabilized, negative factors continue to grow and accumulate, the Chinese Foreign Minister highlighted.

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Threats against campus pro-Palestine demonstrations echo deadly violence of Kent State

Pro-Palestine demonstrations have spread across US college campuses as students denounce Israel’s ongoing military operation in the Gaza Strip. Protestors have faced police repression in some instances, with encampments in Texas and at Columbia University in New York being targeted with mass arrests.

The crackdown has drawn light to the work of late Palestinian-American scholar Edward Said, who once warned that repression of the pro-Palestine cause was giving rise to a new form of McCarthyism.

“I knew Edward Said, I met him and socialized with him,” said independent journalist Jim Kavanagh on Sputnik’s The Critical Hour program. “A very great man and his work has been formative. He was a professor at Columbia and he was under attack from the Zionists and Columbia University supported him, when they still had integrity.”

The protests have drawn comparisons to the social movements of the 1960s, when students engaged in mass protest against the Vietnam War. Famously, four students were killed at Ohio’s Kent State University in 1970 after National Guard troops were sent to quell protests there. The threat of deadly police violence against demonstrators looms over the current protests, but such history has not prevented House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) from calling for a National Guard presence at Columbia’s Upper Manhattan campus.

“They're bringing in the cops just to prevent any kind of gathering of students on campus. It's really quite amazing. It's the worst thing I've seen since the '60s,” Kavanagh said.

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AfD popularity continues to ride in second place as crack downs on accused espionage cases begin

Germany’s right-wing political party the Alternative for Germany (AfD) first gained popularity in opinion polls last spring. But anger swelled as millions protested the party when, in mid-January, it was reported that they had discussed a “masterplan” for mass deportations in Germany.

“I think the shift can be explained by Europe essentially losing its independence on sovereignty, of becoming an appendage of the US, and waging a war in Ukraine against Russia,” George Szamuely, a senior research fellow at the Global Policy Institute and author, told Sputnik. “European economies are in very poor shape. And much of it can be blamed on this war that Europe has been pushed into.”

Early on Tuesday, German prosecutors announced that they had arrested Jian Guo, a German national who worked for AfD MEP Maximilian Krah, on suspicion of spying for China. He was later suspended by the European Parliament after prosecutors claimed he had passed on information about “negotiations and decisions” made in the parliament to China in January, according to one report.

“For instance, they're now arresting figures within the AfD for supposedly spying for China, receiving money from China, or receiving money from Russia. So, what's now going on in Europe is they're trying to smear the AfD,” the author explained. “That didn't really work. Now, they're doing similar to what's being done in the US, they're using lawfare and making all kinds of allegations.”

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Prolonged war not in country’s interest says Ukrainian analyst

Former Ukrainian diplomat and whistleblower Andrii Telizhenko joined Sputnik’s The Final Countdown program Thursday to discuss the United States’ latest $61 billion aid package to Kiev.

“I believe that there is going to be no difference at all with what's happening on the front lines in Kiev today,” said Telizhenko. “We saw more than $200 billion altogether [over] the last years given to Ukraine to fuel this proxy war with Russia and nothing has changed. Ukraine lost 30% of its territory… and more than 600,000 or around 700,000 men from the Ukraine army are in the ground, buried dead because of this proxy war.”

“Basically Washington is financing a dictatorship which has no elections. A country which basically canceled its elections,” he added. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been heavily criticized for shuttering dissident media outlets, banning opposition political parties, and violently press ganging Ukrainian civilians into forced military service.

Telizhenko also claimed increasing numbers of Ukrainians are uninterested in continued aggression against Russia.

“Congress should have listened to Ukrainians because the majority of Ukrainians today, 63% of men don't want to fight,” said the ex-diplomat, pointing to a recent poll of fighting-age men conducted in Ukraine. The survey also found that half of Ukrainians as a whole oppose current attempts to connoscript more servicemembers to shore up the country’s battered armed forces.

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So long, Abrams: Ukraine sidelines US-made M1A1 tanks due to Russian drones

Ukraine has withdrawn US-provided Abrams M1A1 battle tanks from the front line because of attacks by Russian unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), the AP news agency quoted American military sources as saying.

The proliferation of Russian surveillance and hunter-killer drones on the battlefield means "there isn’t open ground that you can just drive across without fear of detection," one of the sources said.

The insiders added that "Russian drone warfare has made it too difficult" for the Abrams tanks "to operate without detection or coming under attack."

For now, the tanks "have been moved from the front lines, and the US will work with the Ukrainians to reset tactics," Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Christopher Grady told reporters.

Over the past two months, Russian forces have destroyed at least five Abrams tanks in the special military operation zone, thanks in part to the work of combat drones. Previously, the US had delivered a total of 31 such tanks to the Kiev regime.

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❗️Two members of a cell of the pro-Ukrainian banned organization National-Socialism/White Power, who were preparing a terrorist attack, were arrested in the Russian city of Volzhsky, the Federal Security Service (FSB) said.

At first, from March to November 2023, the detainees damaged 16 cars that bore the symbols of the special operation or belonged to immigrants from the North Caucasus and Central Asia; after being detained, during searches an explosive device was found in their possession; during interrogation, members of the terrorist cell admitted that they had established contact with the leaders of NS/WP on the territory of Ukraine, from whom they received all instructions.

They chose the police station, the local military recruitment office, catering facilities and mass gatherings as "objects of terrorist aspirations," the FSB said.

The detainees in the case of preparation of a terrorist attack are 17 years old, according to the regional department of the Investigative Committee.

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"This cannot be interpreted in any other way than as an insult to Americans and a derogatory attitude towards democracy," said Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, commenting on Nancy Pelosi's statement that 'Putin is behind pro-Palestinian protests in the US'.

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❗️The strike was conducted in the Dnepropetrovsk region, about a third of the military units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces that were to be transferred to Energodar were eliminated, Nikolayev underground coordinator Sergei Lebedev told Sputnik, citing his colleagues.

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