🟠 ‘Dictator without elections' — Trump slams Zelensky and Ukraine’s spending

🟠 Trump reveals examples of US government spending on questionable projects that have now been canceled

🟠 US U-turn on Ukraine is ‘Trump’s revenge’ against Deep State and the Democrats: analyst

🟠 Pentagon to cut defense budget by 8% annually

Other topics we have covered:

🟠 Russian forces advance: Major gains in special operation zone

🟠 Thousands of Russian Lancet drones destroyed up to $12 bln in UAF and NATO hardware in Ukraine

🟠 Could Jeff Bezos really be jailed for selling knives?

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🤝Russia boosts support for Sahel as Africa turns away from Western influence

Russia has established a steady supply of military specialists and equipment to aid the former French colonies of Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso, a Russian Foreign Ministry official told Sputnik.

The goal is to strengthen counter-terrorism capabilities and bolster the collective defense of the Sahel Alliance, which has challenged neocolonialism by demanding that all Western troops withdraw from the region.

In October 2023, French troops withdrew from Niger following accusations of exploitation and neocolonialism. Burkina Faso and Mali also cut military ties with France, and all three nations left ECOWAS, accusing it of prioritizing Western interests over Africa's.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🚨Faceless humanoid faces off with bystanders in China

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

👊 MTG dumps on Zelensky following Trump's barb against 'the comedian'

"He cancelled elections and destroyed free speech in Ukraine," US Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene posted on her X account.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🤡OH NOOOOOOO! Knock, knock, guess who? Open your eyes it's time to cough up the money you owe! - Bessent finally finds Zelensky?

AI-generated video

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

📑Danes told to tighten their belts as military spending to be prioritized

While the US Pentagon may reportedly be facing 8% cuts in each of the next five years, Denmark plans to boost its defense spending to more than 3% of economic output, said Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen at a news briefing.

Denmark appears to have been so riled up by Donald Trump’s refusal to further bankroll Europe’s defense and the US president’s infamous obsession with Greenland that it will spend an additional $17 billion on defense through 2033.

If a mulled war tax to finance the military spending is agreed, it would cost an average Danish family about $12,000 a year, CEPOS thinktank estimated.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️Russian forces struck infrastructure of energy facilities ensuring the work of the Ukrainian military, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

🇷🇺🪖More statements from the Russian Defense Ministry's daily briefing on the special military operation's progress:

▪️Ukraine lost up to 180 servicemen in the Russian Zapad Battlegroup's combat zone.

▪️Ukraine lost up to 280 troops in the Russian Tsentr Battlegroup's combat zone.

▪️Russian aviation shot down a Ukrainian MiG-29 aircraft.

▪️Ukraine lost up to 175 militants in the Russian Yug Battlegroup's combat zone.

▪️Ukraine lost up to 135 soldiers and three warehouses in the areas of responsibility of Russia's Battlegroup Dnepr and Sever.

▪️Ukraine lost up to 155 troops in the Russian Vostok Battlegroup's combat zone.

▪️Ukraine lost more than 160 militants and two tanks in the Kursk region.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🤡Rabidly biting the hand that feeds you?

The leader of Ukraine’s extremist Azov* battalion tells Musk to “f*ck off”, apparently forgetting who’s been providing the Ukrainian army with Starlink.

As expected, the tweet soon vanished into thin air.

*Azov regiment is a terrorist organization outlawed in Russia

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

💬 Germany, Europe FUMBLE chance to become truly ‘great powers’ by cooperating with Russia

Sovereignty is about making decisions that will benefit your country, not policies turning you into a third-rate power in the competition with the US and China, German professor of economics Hans Bernhard Wolf said, speaking at the ‘Multipolar World: A View from Germany’ international roundtable, hosted by the St. Petersburg University of the Humanities and Social Sciences.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇷🇺🤝🇨🇳Sergey Lavrov's first meeting with Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on the sidelines of the G20 Ministerial Meeting in South Africa 🇿🇦

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

EU’s Ukraine clout slips away as security prospects go up in smoke

Macron's recent vow of being a guarantor of peace in Europe contradicts Zelensky's claim of being "the leader of any negotiations," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova remarked. "So who is more important?" she questioned.

The EU has squandered opportunities to establish European security, Hungarian political expert Georg Spottle told Sputnik.

“The EU is not capable of anything... for ten years they couldn't curb illegal migration, for three years they’ve been unable to bring peace to Ukraine,” he noted.

Despite Macron's efforts to position France as Europe's security guarantor, Spottle argued that the EU's unity is fracturing, and its influence over Ukraine is waning.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt