US aid package doing next to nothing in Ukraine

There has been a “sudden renewal of desperation” among Kiev’s Western benefactors since the aid has failed to make an impact, international relations and security analyst Mark Sleboda told Sputnik’s Fault Lines.

It prompted French President Emmanuel Macron’s recent saber-rattling around Ukraine. “We saw this [desperation] through February and March, and then there was a brief, maybe not even quite a week, of these absurdly uplifted spirits” when the US aid passed, Sleboda said.

On Thursday, Western media posted an article noscriptd “No Safety in Retreat: Ukrainian Soldiers Say Rear Defensive Lines Barely Exist Amid Russian Advance.” It described Ukraine’s desperate attempts to build fortifications ahead of the rapidly approaching Russian forces.

“We entered the war with nothing,” a member of Ukraine’s engineering force told a media outlet, noting that they were only given equipment from the 1960s and shovels. “Accordingly, that’s the kind of trenches we made.”

The lack of an impact of the latest US aid package to Ukraine on the frontlines can be boiled down to two things: It was never what it was billed to be, with estimates suggesting only $14 billion of the $61 billion are marked for new weapons and not simply refilling US stockpiles, and a complete lack of manpower that Ukraine can use on the front.

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US pressures Qatar to expel Hamas if group continues to reject ceasefire deals with Israel

The US has told Qatar that it should oust Hamas if the group continues to turn down ceasefire agreements with Israel, the Washington Post reported, citing US officials.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken notified Qatari PM Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani in April, the report said.

Qatari officials have advised Hamas officials, including Ismail Haniyeh, the group's leader who currently lives in Doha, that they should prepare backup residency plans in case they need to leave, the report said, citing diplomatic officials.

The move by the US comes with some negative feedback from analysts and officials concerned that closing the Hamas office in Doha could further complicate efforts to communicate with Hamas leadership for future hostage negotiations, according to the report.

Earlier this week, US President Joe Biden and Amir Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani of Qatar had a call on securing the release of hostages and implementing a ceasefire in Gaza after Hamas was offered a 40-day ceasefire and the release of thousands of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for freeing Israeli hostages.

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Algeria requests UN Security Council meeting on mass graves in Gaza for Tuesday

Algeria has requested a closed-door UN Security Council meeting for Tuesday on the subject of mass graves discovered in the Gaza Strip in late April, a source told Sputnik.

"Yes, [the meeting was requested] by Algeria to Tuesday afternoon," a source said.

In late April, Al Jazeera reported that that Palestinian authorities had uncovered a mass grave with 180 bodies inside the Nasser Medical Complex in the Gazan city of Khan Yunis, from which the Israeli troops had withdrawn earlier in the month.

CNN later reported, citing Gaza civil defense workers, that more than 300 bodies had been found at the site. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said it was imperative to give international investigators access to mass graves in Gaza in order to establish the facts. Israeli officials said the Jewish state was not involved.

Israel launched a ground incursion into the Gaza Strip after Hamas attacked the Jewish state on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and abducting some 240 others. Over 34,500 people have been killed so far by Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip, according to local authorities.

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US, France are fleeing to the last bastion of ‘Françafrique’

The US and France, having been kicked out of much of the African Sahel, including Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad, are fleeing to Côte d'Ivoire, aka the Ivory Coast, and Senegal which are among the few remaining places on the continent where French influence still holds significant sway.

“Very few people thought they [US] were going to go there because Côte d'Ivoire is the place [and] is sort of one of the two most important countries, with Senegal, where the French or what's called "Françafrique" is still very strong,” Koffi Kouakou, an Africa analyst and senior research fellow at the Center for Africa-China Studies at the University of Johannesburg told Sputnik’s Fault Lines.

Kouakou also noted that the US submarine deal reportedly angered French officials, making them feel “a little bit suspicious” of the US.

The US has been in Niger since 2012, setting up bases there ostensibly to support the government’s fight against terrorism. Since the US entered Niger, instances of terrorism in the Sahel exploded from less than 200 incidents in 2011 to more than 800 incidents in 2021.

“French troops weren’t any help with [fighting terrorism],” international relations and security analyst Mark Sleboda told Fault Lines, “Or the Americans, it must be said.”

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❗️Russia's operational air defense systems destroyed four ATACMS tactical missiles fired by Ukraine over Crimea, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

"Last night, an attempt by the Kiev regime to carry out a terrorist attack using American ATACMS tactical missiles against facilities on the territory of Russia was suppressed," the statement said.

"Four tactical missiles were destroyed by the air defense systems on duty over the territory of the Crimean peninsula," the ministry added.

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Russian troops struck a Ukrainian drone warehouse in Kharkov, Sergei Lebedev, the coordinator of the Nikolayev underground, told Sputnik.

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Switzerland's initiative to convene talks on Ukraine makes no sense - top Belarusian diplomat

Switzerland's initiative to convene talks on Ukraine makes no sense without the participation of Russia and Belarus, and it will not be possible to achieve results at such a meeting, Belarusian Foreign Minister Sergei Aleinik said in an interview with Sputnik.

"I would like to point out the futility of these initiatives, which sounded just recently from Switzerland, to convene a peace summit, a peace conference on Ukraine without Russia's participation. This initiative has no prospects, no real diplomatic sense, because it is simply not designed to reach a concrete agreement," he said.

Minsk has not received an invitation to this meeting, Aleinik added.

"We assume that any peaceful settlement of this conflict and any, let's say, discussion of European and Eurasian security issues without the participation of both Russia and Belarus is absolutely futile," he said.

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US does not miss opportunity to blame Russia: now for Boeing troubles

"Boeing has more parts trouble, but this time it doesn’t stem from manufacturing snafus or the 737 jet. The blame goes to Russia sanctions still rippling through the jet maker’s supply chain," the Wall Street Journal reported.

In fact, the manufacturer of the temperature control part for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner shut down its Russian operations and moved production west. At the time, Boeing was building so few jets that the RTX supplier was able to meet demand. But now the jet maker is trying to increase production of wide-body jets, and the new RTX production lines in the US and UK are not producing enough, according to the newspaper.

The company is also struggling because Boeing has severed ties with a major Russian titanium supplier with whom it had formed a joint venture to develop key parts for aircraft.

Aircraft manufacturing has been among the industries hardest hit by sanctions imposed on Russia, a major player in the global aviation supply chain, the WSJ noted.

The West launched a comprehensive sanctions campaign against Russia after it launched its special military operation in Ukraine in February 2022. But these measures haven't stopped Russia's economic growth. President Putin has repeatedly stressed that Western sanctions against Russia have failed.

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🇮🇷 The naval forces of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps have for the first time carried out a long-distance navigation mission, their ocean liner Shahid Mahdavi has crossed the equatorial line and entered the southern hemisphere, Tasnim News Agency reported.

The Shahid Mahdavi is a 36,000-ton, 240-meter-long, 27-meter-wide commercial cargo conversion equipped with advanced weapons systems and the latest Iranian-made radar and defense electronics. It is also the first Iranian ship to be equipped with long-range ballistic missiles.

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NATO's Steadfast Defender exercises indicate that the alliance is preparing for a "potential conflict" with Russia, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

She also called NATO's accusations against Russia in hybrid attacks on the alliance disinformation that inflates the level of anti-Russian hysteria.

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Hamas is 'determined' to reach agreement with Israel during talks in Cairo - report

Intensive talks were held between the Hamas and Israeli delegations with the help of mediators, during which the obstacles related to the number and categories of Palestinian prisoners to be released in the first phase were overcome, the Saudi newspaper Asharq reported, citing sources.

Hamas received assurances from the US through Egyptian and Qatari mediators that the "stable calm" established in the agreement would constitute a permanent cease-fire, the report says.

Meanwhile, Hamas negotiators have already arrived in Cairo for talks, Egyptian television reported.

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Last preparations for Orthodox Easter celebrations in the special op zone

Military bakers of the Central Military District prepared Easter cakes for soldiers on the front line.

“On holidays we really put our hearts and souls into baking. Today on Easter we prepared Easter cakes. This is a joy for us, because in this way we can provide support to our comrades,” said the head of the mobile bakery.

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How would Russia benefit from the Swiss "peace conference"? Deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council explains

"The benefits for Russia are threefold," Dmitry Medvedev said.

Firstly, the conference will be further evidence of the "collapse of the so-called Zelensky peace plan," Medvedev pointed out, adding that if Zelensky personally flies to Switzerland, he will once again show his "worthlessness."

Secondly, the Swiss conference will be "visible proof" of the inability of the Western elites, who act on the "direct orders" of the United States, to bring the military conflict to an end, he explained.

Thirdly, the conference will allow Russian forces to continue to liberate the ancestral Russian lands from neo-Nazis "without hindrance" and without looking back at someone's useless peace initiatives, Medvedev concluded.

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