Ukraine has reportedly withdrawn US-provided Abrams M1A1 tanks from the combat zone as their manufacturers' shares fall on the market. It is hard to sell military equipment that is so vulnerable and burns so easily, the head of the regional civic movement "We Are Together with Russia" Vladimir Rogov told Sputnik.

The Associated Press, citing sources in the Pentagon, previously reported that Ukraine had withdrawn US Abrams M1A1 tanks from battle because of their vulnerability to Russian drones. This information was later confirmed by Maxim Buzhansky, a member of Ukrainian Parliament (Verkhovna Rada).

“Shares of Abrams tank manufacturers have fallen sharply. It is hard then to sell equipment that is so vulnerable and so easily hit by our troops and burned, although it was touted as invincible and unstoppable. There is nothing personal here, just business, just marketing,” Rogov said.

In addition, Rogov speculated the incident marked the beginning of the formation of a buffer zone and the withdrawal of Western weapons from Russia's borders.

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US Central Command confirmed that Yemen's Ansar Allah movement, also known as the Houthis, has launched another attack on merchant ships in the Red Sea. The attack damaged one ship, the Andromeda Star, although it was able to continue towards its destination.

“Iranian-backed Houthis launched three anti-ship missiles from Yemeni-controlled territories into the Red Sea toward the Antigua and Barbados-flagged merchant ship Maisha, operated by Liberia, and the Andromeda Star, a British-owned Panamanian-flagged vessel,” the release said.

Earlier in the day, the Houthis claimed its members struck the British oil tanker Andromeda Star in the Red Sea with anti-ship missiles and shot down the US drone MQ-9 Reaper.

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Russian air defenses suppressed more than 10 Ukrainian drones overnight in several districts of the Krasnodar region. The Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles tried to attack oil refineries and infrastructure facilities, Governor Veniamin Kondratiev said.

No injuries were reported per preliminary information, according to the governor.

As a result of the attack by the Ukrainian armed forces a rectification column on the territory of a plant in the city of Slavyansk-on-Kuban was damaged and a fire was extinguished, local authorities reported, adding that there were no casualties.

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Facade of diplomacy masks US efforts to ‘smear, isolate, suppress’ China

Political commentator Anna Ge claimed the United States pursues discussions with China only to maintain its own interests in ongoing diplomacy, while otherwise seeking to undermine Beijing. The radio host offered the analysis on Sputnik’s Fault Lines program.

“These meetings serve more like guard rails, which aren't meant to stabilize or improve relations but to keep them from spiraling out of control while the US continues to implement containment policies, continues to stack military assets in the region, continues to pressure the Chinese government wherever possible,” said Ge. “And also continues to attack Chinese companies.”

“In essence the US is now raising the Chinese military assistance to Russia issue to forcibly link China and Russia,” she said, addressing US criticism of Beijing for carrying on trade relations with Moscow. “China, like many other countries, like Turkiye, and Egypt, etcetera, adopts a more neutral stance toward the Russia-Ukraine conflict. They take the needs of the two sides into consideration, not just Ukraine's, but also Russia's.”

“China and Russia have the right to carry out normal economic and trade cooperation, which should not be interfered with by any country or restricted… The Chinese government keeps saying that this is a problem between Russia and Ukraine, it's not a problem between China and the US, and the US should not try to turn it into one,” the commentator stressed.

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North African countries expel Western military presence

A wave of anti-imperialist sentiment is spreading across Africa as countries across the continent reject Western influence. The latest indication of the trend came Thursday when US officials revealed the country would comply with government requests to withdraw troops stationed in Chad. This week also brought news that the United States would be pulling troops out of the neighboring country of Niger, weeks after the government there had made similar requests.

The country’s government insisted on the United States’ exit while also expelling troops from France, which historically held Niger as a colony.

“It’s, I think, a very positive move that countries are finally beginning to tell the United States they have to leave, they don't belong there anymore, they're not wanted, they're not needed there, and, to go,” said journalist Robert Fantina on Sputnik’s Political Misfits program.

“We have to look at who the terrorists in Africa have been. It's been the United States, the French and others who exploit the people horrifically and have for decades and decades,” he added.

Namibia’s president underscored the point recently, issuing a scathing statement against Germany for its lockstep support of Israel’s military operation in the Gaza Strip. The country suggested Germany, and by extension the rest of the Western world, have yet to reflect on their destructive colonial legacy as they continue to exert influence around the globe. Germany formerly held Namibia as a colonial possession, presiding over what scholars consider the 20th century’s first genocide there.

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NATO arms shipments can't make up for Ukraine's manpower shortage

Although a shortage of ammunition could be alleviated to some extent by foreign aid, Ukraine's main weakness is its acute shortage of soldiers, the Western press acknowledges, commenting on Joe Biden's latest Ukraine package.

"Many [Ukrainian] commanders say that their combat units suffer from a 30-40% deficit in manpower," Volodymyr Oleynyk, a Ukrainian politician and former MP of the Verkhovna Rada, told Sputnik. "Entire brigades break the law, violate orders and arbitrarily leave combat positions."

Draft evasion has also plagued Ukraine. Oleynyk estimates that some 1.5 million men of military age are currently in hiding across Ukraine. Ukrainian military personnel are also increasingly deserting.

"It is believed that there are about 100,000 deserters on the run," the former Ukrainian lawmaker said.

In recent months, there has also been a significant increase in the number of Ukrainian troops using the special "Volga" 149.200 radio frequency to communicate their desire to disarm, according to Sputnik's sources.

The frequency was set up by Russian forces for Ukrainian troops wishing to surrender. Volodymyr Zelensky's draconian draft laws cannot solve the problem of manpower shortage, as morale is low and about 90% of Ukrainians are unwilling to join the military, Oleynyk continued, citing recent Ukrainian polls.

As a result, the Ukrainian authorities have intensified illegal methods of recruitment and mobilization, further aggravating public discontent, the former MP said.

"This is a dead end. People don't want to protect the interests of the Americans and the Zelensky gang," Oleynyk concluded.

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Russia seizes US-made Abrams-type Assault Breacher Vehicle from Ukrainian troops

Russian forces have removed Ukraine's M1150 Assault Breacher Vehicle (ABV), also known as Shredder, an armored minefield and obstacle breaching system based on the chassis of the M1 Abrams tank, from the battlefield, a Sputnik correspondent has reported.

The US-supplied ABV was earlier seized by servicemen of the Russian Army's Tsentr (Center) Battle Group, who managed to "blind" the vehicle by destroying its optics with the help of a First Person View (FPV) drone strike, a Tsentr officer with the call sign Volsk told Sputnik.

"After being 'blinded', the M1150 changed direction and drove into a minefield, where it was blown up," the officer said. He described the 70-ton ABV as a vehicle that "gets stuck in our black soil," which is why it cannot be used in the special military operation zone.

In a separate development, Tsentr servicemen retrieved the M88A2 Hercules heavy equipment recovery combat utility lift and evacuation system, another piece of US military equipment supplied to the Ukrainian military.

Like the ABV, the 63-ton Hercules, designed specifically to evacuate Abrams tanks, was hit by a Russian FPV drone in the Avdeyevka area. The key town of Avdeyevka was liberated from Ukrainian nationalists by Russian forces in February.

Previously, the Pentagon had been tight-lipped about reports that the Ukrainian army had withdrawn US-supplied Abrams tanks from the front line because of threats from Russian unmanned aerial vehicles.

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📹🔥Russian FPV drone operators destroyed a group of Ukrainian militants on the border with Russia's Belgorod region.

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America's Distorted Reality: blaming China for military activity in China

Taiwan detected 22 Chinese military aircraft, including Su-30 fighter jets, a day after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken ended a visit to China, Reuters reported, citing Taiwan's defense minister.

The news agency seemed surprised that China was conducting drills within its internationally recognized borders. Reuters noted that 12 Chinese aircraft crossed the "median line" of the Taiwan Strait, which "once served as the unofficial border between the two sides. China's air force now regularly sends planes across the strait because it does not recognize the line's existence, the article said.

Taiwan is recognized as part of China by most countries, including Russia and the US, while the latter continues to provoke the mainland with its policies toward the island.

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The US Air Force has signed a $13 billion contract with Sierra Nevada Corporation to develop a new 'Doomsday' aircraft to replace the E-4B.

Such aircraft are used as a command and control point in a nuclear war.

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Key statements by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov at a regular briefing:

▪️Ukraine's refusal to continue negotiations in Istanbul in March 2022 was direct pressure from the UK.

▪️Now there are no conditions for the resumption of negotiations - because of Kiev's position.

▪️Peskov stated that he had seen the Wall Street Journal material on the conclusions of the US intelligence services about Putin's non-involvement in Navalny's death, the article itself was not of very high quality, it was empty reasoning.

▪️On the EU's plans to restrict the transportation of liquefied natural gas: possible arguments are hardly appropriate, we must wait for solutions.

▪️Attempts to squeeze Russia out of the energy markets will continue, and Moscow will look for ways to overcome them.

▪️Russia will develop cooperation with China, which is capable of defending its interests.

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Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev, commenting on the controversial attempts by the West to confiscate frozen Russian assets, said that in response to the actions of the United States, it is necessary to provide in the legislation of Russia the possibility of termination of property and non-property rights of foreigners.

Officials in Moscow have also said that attempts to steal Russian assets are an expropriation of property and a violation of international law.

Medvedev recalled that in Russian legislation there is a concept of retaliatory retorts in response to restrictions on the rights of Russian citizens and legal entities.

According to the Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council, the rule must be expanded - because confiscation is in fact not only a restriction of rights, but also their termination. To do this, it will be necessary to adjust the law.

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❗️The macroeconomic indicators of the beginning of 2024 turned out to be higher than forecasts, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting on economic issues

"Inflation in Russia is gradually slowing down," he added.

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📹 A Russian sniper tells Sputnik how he eliminated several US mercenaries during the capture of the Svetlodar Thermal Power Plant.

The fighter says that the Ukrainian military mutilate the bodies of dead foreigners so that their identities - and as such the involvement of other states in the conflict - cannot be established.

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❗️The Moscow court arrested the 12th suspect in the case of the terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall.

The arrested defendant Dzhumokhon Kurbonov provided accomplices with means of communication and money to pay bills, the Moscow City Court reported.

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Ukrainian negotiator: 2022 Russia-Ukraine draft peace treaty was ‘best deal sides could have clinched’

One of Ukraine's negotiators has admitted the importance of a draft peace treaty between Russia and Ukraine drawn up by both sides during their talks in Istanbul on April 15, 2022.

“Even after more than two years of [NATO's proxy] war [with Russia], the deal - in hindsight - still seems like a good accord. It was the best deal we could have clinched," the negotiator told the German daily Welt Am Sonntag.

The remarks come as Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov сited London’s pressure on Kiev when asked whether Moscow put forward new demands to Ukraine after the Istanbul talks that were finally rejected and purportedly led to collapse of the parley.

“Everyone knows perfectly well that the document [peace deal] was, in fact, initialed. And everybody is also well aware of what exactly was behind Ukraine’s refusal to finalize work on the document. This was direct pressure from London, which was mentioned by Mr. Arakhamia. Everything else is speculation, and I call for focusing on primary sources of information,” Peskov stressed.

In late November 2023, David Arakhamia, a member of the Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence in the Ukrainian parliament, argued that hostilities in Ukraine could have ended in the spring of 2022 following negotiations with Moscow. However, then-UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged Kiev not to sign anything and “just fight.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin called Arakhamia’s statement “sad”. “So where is Mr. Johnson now? And the war continues,” Putin added.

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US inflation almost twice as high as forecasted: German statistical company

The unexpected inflation pace hinders the possibility of reducing the Fed key rate and leaves the amount spent on interest payments on the national debt at the end of the year above $1 trillion, Statista reports.

The PCE (personal consumer expenditures) price index increased at an annualized rate of 3.4% in the first quarter, nearly doubling the pace of the previous quarter. The core PCE index, which excludes food and energy, increased 3.7%, compared to the Fed's 2% target for the past two quarters.

Earlier this week, the US GDP was reported to have fallen below expectations, marking the slowest pace since mid-2022, according to the county's Department of Commerce.

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Russian Armed Forces carried out 35 group strikes with precision weapons against energy and military-industrial complex facilities of Ukraine in one week, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

The strikes were carried out in response to attempts by the Kiev regime to damage Russian energy and industrial facilities, the ministry added.

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