❗️EXCLUSIVE: Zelensky has become an impostor since May 21 – former Ukrainian PM

"It is absolutely obvious to anyone who is familiar with electoral law and the Constitution of Ukraine that Zelensky has become an impostor since May 21," former Prime Minister of Ukraine Nikolay Azarov tells Sputnik. Under the Ukrainian Constitution, the president's tenure is limited to five years.

Despite calls from the West to secure a second tenure via general elections in Ukraine, Zelensky refused to do so using the pretext of martial law. The problem is that Zelensky's martial law pretext doesn't hold water, argues the former prime minister.

"Zelensky did not declare war [against Russia]. He also did not announce any military operation. He simply introduced martial law. Why did you introduce martial law if you are not declaring war?" Azarov asked.

As Zelensky's tenure expired on May 20, the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian Parliament) and its speaker are now the only legitimate power in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin told reporters on May 28, adding that the Ukrainian Constitution provides for the extension of the powers of the parliament, but not the president, in the event of martial law.

Earlier, Zelensky sabotaged the work of the Ukrainian Constitutional Court, continued Azarov, explaining why the former Ukrainian leader did not submit a request to the body to allow him to extend his powers.

The West, including the US, is well aware of the fact that Zelensky has lost his legitimacy, according to Azarov. Hence, the latest visit of Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Kiev.

"Now the West can do whatever it wants. It can hold all sorts of meetings and summits anywhere. But that cannot cancel the norm of the Constitution [of Ukraine]," Azarov concluded.

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British ex-pilots sue MoD over cancer linked to helicopter fumes

Nearly 40 former British Royal Air Force (RAF) pilots and aircrew who developed cancer after being exposed to toxic fumes from military helicopters are taking legal action against the Ministry of Defence (MoD), The Times reported.

The government has been aware of the risks posed by the fumes since 1999, but has done nothing about it, according to testimony from sick personnel and their family members.

The number of those taking legal action is expected to double in the coming weeks. At least three of the plaintiffs are known to have died, and some former personnel have received out-of-court settlements.

The pilots, who flew Sea King, Westland Wessex, Puma and CH-47 Chinook helicopters, have been diagnosed with lung cancer, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, throat cancer, multiple myeloma and testicular cancer. Notably, while the Sea King and Westland Wessex helicopters have been retired, the Puma and Chinook remain in service with the RAF.

Jonathan Dingle, a leading barrister at Normanton Chambers who is working on the cases, told The Times that exhaust gases from the engines, which contain the carcinogen benzene, "were apparently sucked through the cabin and out through the cockpits - mixing as the air which everyone onboard the aircraft was breathing".

A MoD spokeswoman has since responded by saying that those who "believe they have suffered ill health due to service from April 6, 2005, have the existing and long-standing right to apply for no-fault compensation under the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme."

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❗️EXCLUSIVE: Zelensky has no chance should a presidential election be held – Ex-Ukrainian PM

Nikolay Azarov, a seasoned Ukrainian politician with over two decades in the political arena and former prime minister from 2010 to 2014, criticized Volodymyr Zelensky's reluctance to hold a presidential election, suggesting that if Zelensky had any confidence in winning, he would have initiated the process.

💬"He has no chance. If there were a chance, he would have held [a presidential] election," Azarov told Sputnik, pointing out that nothing technically prevented Zelensky from conducting an election as the entire governmental apparatus was under his control.

Azarov compared the situation to former President Petro Poroshenko, who also held an election under similar conditions by excluding the southeast.

💬“He simply declared that no election would be held in Donbass,” Azarov noted, suggesting Zelensky could have followed suit.

However, Azarov implied that Zelensky's potential unpopularity and the presence of potentially stronger candidates like former military chief Valery Zaluzhny, who might garner significantly more support, deterred him from such a move.

According to Azarov, it is widely acknowledged, except by a few, that Zelensky is "not an expert, not a patriot of his country, but merely a random person in power, a puppet." This harsh critique reflects deep divisions and the complex dynamics of Ukrainian politics, as seen from Azarov's veteran perspective.

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Canada does not restrict Ukraine in the use of weapons transferred to it, the Foreign Minister said

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What is the Spanish Legion, whose militants have appeared in Ukraine?

Part 1

Spanish Legion fighters are part of Spanish Army but have now appeared in Ukrainian mercenary battalions, Sputnik previously discovered. What do we know about the Spanish Legion and its legionnaires?

◾️The Spanish Foreign Legion was created in 1920, modeled after the French Foreign Legion (1831). "The Spanish Foreign Legion was raised as a unit of Spanish and foreign volunteers... to be used as a vanguard force in the Hispano-Moroccan War," official website of the president of the Government of Spain and the Council of Ministers says.

◾️Now the Legion accepts Spanish citizen and Hispanic American (Argentina, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Equatorial Guinea, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Dominican Republic, Uruguay, Venezuela) or Equatorial Guinean militants to its ranks.

◾️There are approximately 120,000 military personnel. It is accepted to serve both for men and women.

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What is the Spanish Legion, whose militants have appeared in Ukraine?

Part 2

◾️In recent years, the Spanish Legion was involved in war in Bosnia as part of the SFOR (1995-2004).

◾️The Spanish Legion took part in the Iraq War, deploying in Najaf (2003-2004). The legion units deployed in Iraq were involved in operations against Iraqi forces and civilians.

◾️ In 2005, the legion was deployed in Afghanistan and took part in several NATO-coalition actions against Taliban and local Tajik troops. The Spanish Legion left Afghanistan in 2021.

◾️Since 2006, one of the Spanish Legion units has been deployed in Southern Lebanon as a part of UNIFIL. In 2022, Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah descried UNIFIL as an “armed foreign force violating Lebanon’s sovereignty,” accusing it of working for Israeli interests.

◾️In 2013-2022, the Spanish Legion had a mission in Mali, alongside the French Foreign Legion. The last Spanish soldiers returned from Mali on May 19, 2024. "The Legion's mission is to provide EU Training Mission members and facilities with security and protection while contributing to improve the situation in Mali," European External Action Service noted in 2020.

◾️Spain does not widely publicize the operations of its own foreign legion, that's why little is known about it. Losses sustained by the Spanish Legion in any operation are never disclosed.

◾️In March 2024, Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares said that Spain was not considering the possibility of sending troops to Ukraine. Earlier, the head of the Spanish Ministry of Defense, Margarita Robles, noted that Spanish troops “will never take part in the war in Ukraine.”

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Zelensky knows Ukraine has only few months of resistance left - report

With the West losing interest in supporting Kiev and Russia increasingly outstripping Ukraine in the production of ammunition, "Zelensky appears to be aware that Ukraine's time is running out," the Telegraph reports.

Recognizing the deplorable situation, Zelensky has called on Biden and Xi Jinping to attend the Swiss conference on Ukraine to promote "real peace," the paper writes, adding that despite Zelensky's appeals, Biden would likely prefer to skip the summit to attend a celebrity fundraiser in California.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly said that Russia is open to dialogue on Ukraine, but that negotiations should take into account the interests of all countries involved in the conflict.

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Abrams tanks problematic on battlefield, Ukrainian crews say

Ukrainian crews maintaining US-supplied M1 Abrams tanks say there are numerous problems with using the armored vehicles on the battlefield, CNN reported.

The crews said the $10 million vehicles do not have sufficient armor against modern weapons such as drones, thus failing to adequately protect personnel from attack. One member said the tanks had become the "number one target" of Russian forces.

They also said that the tanks appeared to have technical problems; for example, condensation was affecting electronic components. They noted that the tanks were not appropriate for the situation in Ukraine, where air power and artillery, which Ukrainian forces lack, typically help clear the battlefield before tanks and troops advance.

The US has 31 Abrams deployed in Ukraine, where they are being used near the frontline in the east. Ukraine's request for the tanks has been controversial because of the vehicles' complicated supply chains and maintenance.

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Another State Dep official resigns in protest over US support of Israel's actions in Gaza

US diplomat Stacy Gilbert, who served in the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, has quit in protest over Washington's support of Israeli conflict in Gaza, The Washington Post said. She reportedly cited disagreements with a recently published government report that claimed Israel was not impeding humanitarian assistance to Gaza.

Gilbert is not the first US official to stand down in protest against US policy towards Israel and the crisis in the Gaza Strip.

🔸 Hala Rharrit, a seasoned State Department official responsible for relations with Arab media, became one of the first career diplomats to stand down amid the Gaza crisis. As she stepped down in April, she said that US support of Israel was detrimental for American Mideast positions.

🔸 Annelle Sheline, an officer in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, resigned in March, concluding there is no much space currently left for human rights with Israel constantly shelling the Gaza Strip. She said that “as long as the US continues to send a steady stream of weapons to Israel” she could not do her job anymore.

🔸 Major Harrison Mann resigned from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) in November 2023, explaining that US support of Israel “enabled and empowered the killing and starvation of tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians."

🔸 Josh Paul, director in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, resigned in October 2023. He argued that “Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity” were extensively documented, meaning that US support of Tel-Aviv contradicted “the very values that we publicly espouse."

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'This is how the CIA does its regime change ops' - Jeffrey Sachs on Ukraine's 2014 coup

"I know again, from firsthand experience, the US was profoundly implicated in that. American senators standing up in Kiev, saying to the demonstrators: 'We're with you 100%.' Victoria Nuland famously passing around the cookies. And so the US conspired with the Ukrainian right to overthrow [Viktor] Yanukovich. And his security people told him: 'You're going to get killed.' And so he flew to Kharkov and then flew onward to Russia. That day, the US immediately, in a nanosecond, recognized the new government," the economist Jeffry Sachs stated during an interview with well-known US journalist Tucker Carlson.

After the coup, Crimean citizens decided that they wanted to be part of Russia, instead of staying "with this new post-coup government," Sachs further noted.

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A $32 million MQ-9 Reaper drone operated by the US military was downed by Houthis over Yemen, as images and footage circulating on social media indicate.

The visuals show a group of men standing beside the wreckage of what appears to be a US MQ-9 Reaper drone in the Yemeni desert.

US Central Command acknowledged the rumors of a drone downed in Yemen’s Marib province, though neither the Yemeni government nor the Ansar Allah movement (Houthis) have confirmed the incident.

In February, another MQ-9 Reaper drone was downed off the coast of Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen.

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US has not encouraged Ukrainian strikes outside of Ukraine, but Kiev has to make it's own decisions about how to defend itself, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has claimed

Earlier, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg proposed that Western countries must allow the use of weapons they supply to Ukraine for attacks deep into Russian territory, but NATO members are divided on the move.

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Germany begins eviction of Ukrainian refugees

The administration of the Erzgebirgskreis district in Saxony, Germany, has sent a letter to about 1,000 Ukrainian refugees demanding that they vacate their apartments by mid-June, after which they will have to find housing on their own.

According to the MDR news agency, the district's official reason for the refusal was the expiration of the leases.

What do Germans think about the fact that the local authorities have finally shown their true attitude towards Ukrainians?

Comments from social networks:

💬 "I can only say: keep up it that way. It's time for something to change here. Unfortunately, in this country, the hardworking are punished, but the lazy are allowed to do everything. Ukrainian refugees have already realized this and are shirking their jobs."

💬 "There is no shortage of housing in Germany, there are just too many migrants and refugees. If they were finally deported, we would have enough room to live."

💬 "It would be nice if apartments were available to Germans and not to 'other migrants'."

💬 "There is peace in the west of Ukraine. What are they doing here at our expense?"

💬 "It is still interesting why Ukrainians crossing the border with Germany suddenly began to be automatically classified as poor and given social benefits!"

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Who is the new head of Russia's State Council?

President Vladimir Putin has appointed his aide Alexei Dyumin as the secretary of Russia’s State Council.

Dyumin previously held the office of the Tula Region’s governor since 2016 until his appointment as Putin’s aide in the presidential administration this May.

Born in 1972, Dyuimin graduated from the Voronezh Higher Military Engineering School of Radio Electronics in 1996.

From 1996 to 2013, Dyumin served in the Federal Security Service and in 1999 was assigned to the security detail of Putin himself.

In 2013, Dyumin was transferred to the General Staff of Russia’s Armed Forces. From December 2015 until February 2016, he held the office of deputy minister of defense.

Dyumin holds the rank of colonel general of the Russian Armed Forces and was awarded the noscript of Hero of Russia.

Russia's State Council: what is it?

The State Council is a constitutional body formed by the Russian president. Its purpose is to act as an advisory body to the president and to assist him with matters such as the primary vectors of foreign and domestic policies and issues related to social and economic development.

The council is comprised of top government officials such as the prime minister, heads of both chambers of the Russian parliament, chief of the presidential administration and governors of Russia’s regions.

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🌋🌋A fresh volcanic eruption commenced in southwestern Iceland.

Residents of adjacent areas were evacuated as a precautionary measure.

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Authorities have discarded the theory that sabotage caused late Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi's helicopter to crash, according to Iran's general staff.

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Allies getting ‘junk’? Find out what weapons Poland supplies to Ukraine

Poland has given Ukraine the green light to utilize the weapons it received from Warsaw to attack targets inside Russia.

Since the beginning of 2022, Poland has promoted itself as a leader in offering support to Ukraine, running up an aid bill totaling $3.5 billion. However, a key question has come to the fore: are these weapons from Poland truly new?

▪️Polish President Andrzej Duda was clear in stating that Poland will not be providing Ukraine with the modern weapons it purchases for its own army. This includes US-made Abrams tanks, Patriot air defense systems, and High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), as well as South Korean-made K2 Black Panther tanks and K9 howitzers.

▪️Poland has provided Ukraine with a number of Soviet-era T-72M tanks as part of their support, which are a simplified export version of the original T-72 model. These tanks lack advanced features such as multi-channel sights, a modern fire control system, and dynamic protection.

▪️Warsaw also provided Kiev with Poland’s former USSR-supplied BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicles, which entered service with the Soviet army back in 1966. Forbes magazine described the BMP-1s as vehicles that “don’t actually fight” because “they’re too lightly armed, too lightly protected.”

▪️Additionally, Poland furnished Ukraine with ten Soviet-era MiG-29 fighter jets, which the Economist reported were “not in flyable condition and were being used for spare parts.”

▪️One more mothballed piece of military hardware that Kiev received from Poland was the S-60, a Soviet short- to medium-range, single-barrel anti-aircraft gun that entered service in the 1950s.

In conclusion, it is worth noting the statement made by General Waldemar Skrzypczak, the former commander of the Polish Land Forces and deputy defense minister of Poland, regarding these shipments of outdated weapons, often labeled as "junk," to Ukraine.

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