🥴🤝 Trump and Macron exchange weird handshake... AGAIN

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⚡️ Zelensky's rating is twice lower than Valery Zaluzhny's — Vladimir Putin

The president added that Zelensky had driven himself into a dead end by forbidding himself to negotiate with Russia and was becoming a toxic figure for the Ukrainian military and for society as a whole.

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🔍Why USAID’s $14 mln project to fund Ukrainian NGOs flopped

The goal was “to secure a pro-Western alignment that could serve as a strategic counterbalance to Russian influence,” Marco Marsili of the Research Center of the Institute of Political Studies at the Portuguese Catholic University tells Sputnik.

At the end of the day, the project was evaluated as unsuccessful because its core objectives regarding the Maidan protests were not met, the researcher says. “Although the protests catalyzed political change, the expected long-term transformation of Ukraine’s governance structures was never fully realized,” he concludes.

A Sputnik analysis of publicly available USAID program reports shows that the agency pumped over $14.3 million in supporting pro-reform non-governmental organizations in Ukraine over five years leading up to the Euromaidan protests in 2013.

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🚨 Putin offers US partnership on rare earth metals

🔻 Russia is open to working with US on rare earth production

🔻 Russia holds FAR MORE rare earth reserves than Ukraine

🔻 Foreign partners welcome — including in Russia's Lugansk, Donetsk, Zaporozhye, Kherson, and Crimea.

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⚡️ Putin: it's a good idea for both the US and Russia to cut defense spending by 50%

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⚡️ Russia is ready to supply 2 million tons of aluminum to US market, it would stabilize prices — Putin

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❗️ There is a good reason to resume talks with Putin - Macron

The US president, in turn, noted that his team is in constant contact "with Putin and his people," which was not the case under Biden.

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🪃 EU sanctions on Russia actually have BOOMERANG effect

▪️Europe’s self-imposed ban on purchasing affordable Russian natural gas caused EU gas prices to skyrocket. Over the past month, European natural gas prices surged by 30%, topping $620 per 1,000 cubic meters.

▪️Rising energy prices inevitably led to an increase in wider production costs in Europe, with EU economic powerhouses like Germany thus losing their competitive edge on global markets.

▪️All this led to a recession in Germany and fueled the cost-of-living crises in countries such as Britain.

▪️While some EU members hailed what they described as independence from Russian pipeline natural gas, they apparently failed to notice that it led to a dependence on LNG shipments from countries such as the US.

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❗️ The UN Security Council approved the US-proposed resolution on Ukraine.

The US-proposed resolution, approved by 10 votes in favor and five abstentions, calls for a lasting peace between Russia and Ukraine and for a rapid end to the conflict.

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⚡️ Suspect in Russian Consulate General attack is detained in Marseille

Two people, 48 and 59 years old, were detained after a pro-Ukrainian rally, local media reports. One of them is suspected of involvement in the attack on the Russian Consulate General.

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💬 We appreciate Trump's understanding of the 'root causes' of the Ukrainian conflict - Russia's UN envoy

Vassily Nebenzia also urged not to let the "overdue ruler in Kiev and his puppeteers" derail the efforts of Russia and the US to resolve the conflict in Ukraine.

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Pete Hegseth will visit Guantanamo on Tuesday — DoD

Guantanamo Bay currently holds illegal immigrants awaiting deportation to their countries of origin.

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🤦‍♀️🚨 TikToker threatens Elon Musk — gets instant regret

A woman's online call for Musk's assassination caught the attention of the head of DOGE and the US attorney.

"We're going to put you in the system," Ed Martin confirmed the investigation.

Bonus: she admitted to 8 years of unpaid taxes.

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🇷🇸 'Shameful mistake': Serbia apologizes to citizens for voting for anti-Russian UN resolution

"I think Serbia made a mistake, I apologize to the citizens of Serbia, and I think I made a mistake too," said Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.

Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vulin said Serbia's representatives at the UN had disgraced the country.

"I don't believe in a mistake, because every Serb will think twice before voting against Russia," he said in a media release.

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❗️ Russia and the US can reach a ceasefire in Ukraine in the coming weeks, Macron said in an interview with Fox News.

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🫣 Rep. Dan Crenshaw threatens Tucker Carlson on hot mic

Behind-the-scenes footage of the Republican congressman from Texas has gone viral after he said he would "kill" Tucker Carlson if he met him.

"Why don’t you come sit for an interview and we’ll see how you do? I’ll send you my address," the American journalist responded on X.

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3 killed, 5 injured in highway bridge collapse in South Korea

The incident occurred at a highway construction site in Cheonan, 85km from Seoul, killing workers, Yonhap reported. Some of the workers may still be buried.

📹 Footage from local media

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‘Ceasefire alone is not a solution’ for Ukraine crisis - Russian Deputy FM

Moscow will engage diplomatically to demonstrate that the Ukrainian crisis can only be resolved within the framework proposed by President Vladimir Putin, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said in an interview with Sputnik.

Here are takeaways of his statements:

💬Ukraine crisis resolution framework suggested by President Putin is a gesture of goodwill, Russia is willing to negotiate on a balance of interests’ basis.

💬A ceasefire without long-term settlement of the Ukrainian crisis will lead to a swift resumption of a conflict with even more severe consequences for Russia-US relations. Russia does not desire such an outcome, a ceasefire alone is not a solution.

💬Currently, Russia maintains two parallel tracks of talks with the US, which are politically intertwined: the Ukrainian crisis and bilateral relations.

💬Dialogue on strategic stability and arms control is possible provided Russia observes tangible improvements in US policy.

💬Russia would welcome if president Trump revises the previous administration's decision to station American short and medium-range missiles in Germany, as it would be beneficial to European security.

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🔥 WATCH: Russian artillery wipes out Ukrainian positions near Kharkov

The Russian Defense Ministry shared footage of reconnaissance units of the Sever Group of forces observing the firing position of an enemy portable mortar, only to hit it with the precise shot of artillery.

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