📊Trump's address tops Biden's final SOTU by millions of viewers

Around 36.6 million Americans tuned in to watch President Donald Trump’s 100-minute speech at a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night—the longest in modern history.

The live TV audience for Trump’s address was 13% higher than the 32.2 million viewers for former President Joe Biden’s final State of the Union (SOTU), The New York Times reported.

Approximately 71% of Trump’s live TV audience was aged 55 and older, according to Nielsen.

However, Trump's first appearance in his second nonconsecutive term attracted fewer viewers than his previous speeches. His 2017 address had 47.7 million viewers, while his SOTU speeches drew 45.5 million in 2018 and 46.8 million in 2019, according to the Los Angeles Times.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️Russian troops liberated the settlement of Andreevka in the Donetsk People's Republic, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🔊LIVE NOW: Russian FM Sergey Lavrov holds talks with his Zimbabwean counterpart Amon Murwira 🇷🇺🤝🇿🇼

👉 Watch live in our Telegram

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🚫New Zealand diplomat sacked for mocking Trump's peace effort

The country’s high commissioner to the UK, Phil Goff, has been dismissed following his comment comparing Donald Trump’s Ukraine plans to the 1938 Munich Agreement, signed by then-British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, which allowed Nazi Germany to annex parts of Czechoslovakia.

Reflecting on Winston Churchill's criticism of Chamberlain, who chose "dishonor" over "war" and "yet had war," Goff mocked the US president for placing a bust of Churchill in the Oval Office, suggesting it reflected a poor understanding of history.

New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Winston Peters condemned Goff's comments as "untenable" and not representative of the government's views.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

💬 'Macron’s remarks on the possible use of nuclear arms a threat to Russia' - Lavrov

More statements by the Russian FM:

🟠Macron's statements on Ukraine and Russia are nervous

🟠Without US, UK help with intelligence information, Kiev can not launch missiles

🟠The Ukraine conflict can end by stopping arms supplies by the West to Kiev

🟠Russia is ready for frank talks on resolving the Ukraine conflict, with Moscow's top priority to ensure its own security

🟠There can be no compromise on the possible deployment of European peacekeepers in Ukraine

🟠 The deployment of European peacekeepers to Ukraine will mean NATO direct involvement in war with Russia

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Ukrainian forces strike CIVILIAN infrastructure in Donetsk

Residential buildings and vehicles were damaged as a result of the attack last night, a Sputnik correspondent reports.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

📑Ukraine’s situation is ‘pretty bad’ without US help – reports

The cessation of US intelligence and military support to Ukraine “pretty much guarantees a Russian victory,” making a peace agreement unnecessary, CNN writes, citing sources.

One source described the situation as “PRETTY BAD,” emphasizing that without military and financial aid, Ukraine faces almost certain defeat.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️The Kremlin sees French President Emmanuel Macron's address to his nation yesterday as CONFRONTATIONAL and creating the impression that France is seeking to prolong the war, press secretary Dmitry Peskov said.

He also pointed out several inaccuracies in Macron's statements, including on the Ukrainian settlement.

Other statements by Peskov:

🔸 Moscow has repeatedly stated that the situation in Ukraine is a PROXY WAR, agreeing with the words of US Secretary of State Rubio.

🔸 Peskov exposed Macron’s false claims about the Minsk peace accords, saying: "One cannot forget that Paris had no intention of implementing them."

🔸 Russia's reaction to the possible deployment of French forces on Ukrainian territory is obvious to everyone.

🔸 Macron's speech was full of "nuclear rhetoric and claims to nuclear leadership."

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

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

▪️Ukraine lost up to 200 servicemen in the Russian Zapad Battlegroup's combat zone.

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

▪️Russian aviation shot down four JDAM bombs and 67 Ukrainian drones.

▪️Ukraine lost up to 230 militants and 2 warehouses in the Russian Yug Battlegroup's combat zone.

▪️Ukraine lost up to 95 soldiers in the areas of responsibility of Russia's Battlegroup Dnepr and Sever.

▪️Ukraine lost more than 170 militants in the Kursk region over the day.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt