🪖WATCH: Ukrainians abandon an arsenal of rifles, drones, and vehicles as they flee the Kursk region

After liberating Cherkasskoye Porechnoye and Kositsa, Russian soldiers from the Sever Battlegroup are revealing what they discovered.

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❗️Russian troops liberated the settlement of Stepovoye in the Zaporozhye region, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

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❗️Kremlin has confirmed that a telephone conversation between Putin and Trump is being planned for March 18.

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

▪️Ukraine lost up to 495 soldiers and four armored vehicles in the areas of responsibility of Russia's Battlegroup Tsentr.

▪️Ukraine lost up to 140 soldiers in the areas of responsibility of Russia's Battlegroup Vostok.

▪️Russian aviation shot down two JDAM bombs and 177 drones.

▪️Ukraine lost up to 190 militants in the Russian Yug Battlegroup's combat zone.

▪️Ukraine lost up to 225 servicemen in the Russian Zapad Battlegroup's combat zone.

▪️Ukraine lost up to 90 soldiers in the area of responsibility of Russia's Battlegroup Sever.

▪️Ukraine lost more than 280 militants and two tanks in the Kursk region over the day.

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Big tech bets on Israeli startups to fuel US war machine

Silicon Valley, previously focused on domestic defense startups, is now eyeing investments in firms that emerged during the Gaza and Lebanon conflicts, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The shift is driven by “the belief that Israeli firms will increasingly compete” for US and European arms contracts, against the backdrop of Western warmongering.

🟠One such startup, Kela, has already attracted investments from leading US defense venture capitalists and the CIA’s investment arm – and aims to sell directly to the Pentagon
🟠“Outside of Israel, in the US and Europe, we are going to go after big programs,” said Kela’s co-founder
🟠“There’s a renaissance in defense tech that fits perfectly into Israel’s ecosystem,” said Lorne Abony of Texas Venture Partners, which launched last year with $50 million to invest in Israeli defense firms.

The video is AI-generated

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🤔 Soon on Netflix?

The video is AI-generated

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🔊LIVE NOW: Putin holds meeting with Tajik President Rahmon

👉 Watch live in our Telegram

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📹'Either five years in prison, or you go to the front' – resident of liberated Sudzhа told how Ukrainians justified being forced to fight

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🔍What Houthi capabilities will the US face as it enters Yemeni hornet’s nest?

The Houthis have struck back at US forces, targeting the USS Truman carrier task force with a missile and drone barrage.

As fighting escalates, here are the offensive and defensive capabilities the US will face:

📍Drones

⚠️Yafa: large, aircraft-style UAV with 2,600 km range, 20-50 kg explosive payload and stealth capability.
⚠️Samad-3: Large UAV with 1,800 km range, 250 km/h top speed and 18 kg payload.
⚠️Samad-4: Variant with twin unguided bombs on underwing hard points. 2,000 km range, 50 kg payload.
⚠️Qasef-1 & Qasef-2K: Simple, low-cost kamikaze drones with 100+ km range and 30 kg payload.
⚠️Wa’aed: Loitering munition with Shahed 136-like features. 185 km/h top speed and 50 kg warhead.
⚠️Mirsad-1 & 2: Surveillance drones based on reverse-engineered Boeing RQ-21 Blackjack.

📍Missiles

✅Palestine-2: two-stage, solid-fuel hypersonic missile. 2,150 km range, 500 kg payload, Mach 16 top speed and maneuvering capability.
✅Hatem-2: Hypersonic missile with 150-385 km range, Mach 5-8 top speed. Payload unknown.
✅Burkan: Mobile short-range missile series derived from Soviet Scud: 1,000 km range, 250 kg payload.
✅Karrar: Solid-fuel missile with 300 km range, 500 kg payload.
✅Quds-4: Cruise missile with 2,000 km range. Payload unknown.
✅Moheet: Guided anti-ship missile derived from inherited Soviet V-750: Characteristics unknown.
✅P-15 Termit: Soviet anti-ship missile. 40 km range, 454 kg warhead.
✅Asef-2: Anti-ship missile. 450 km range, 500 kg payload.
✅Mandab-2: Maritime cruise missile. 300 km range, 165 kg warhead.

📍Air Defenses

🚛Dense integrated network, including inherited and upgraded 2K12 Kub/Kvadrat (‘Fater-1’), S-75 and S-125 SAMS, pickup truck-launched R-60s, Strela and Igla MANPADS, ZU-23 cannons, UHF, G/H band and altimeter radar.
🚛Proven potent enough to destroy over a dozen Reaper drones, plus Blackhawk, Apache, F-15, F-16, Tornado and Typhoon aircraft.

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Where did Moldova’s US envoy & SOROS'S top dog in London get his CASH from?

Viorel Ursu, the Moldovan ambassador to the US, faces scrutiny for a lavish lifestyle seemingly at odds with his diplomatic salary.

🔸 $1.14 million — Ursu, who is openly gay**, and his "husband" collectively hold this sum across 45 bank accounts.

🔸 $240,000 and $1 million — the price tags for two of their five apartments.

Meanwhile, in 2024, Ursu earned:

◻️ $62,200 as a Moldovan diplomat.

◻️ $163,000 — his "husband’s" salary from George Soros' Open Society Foundations (OSF).*

Let's break down the possible sources of Ursu's wealth:

🔹 Between 2014 and 2022, Ursu served as Division Director for Europe and Eurasia at the OSF in the UK.

🔹 He spent over a decade in Belgium as a senior policy analyst at the Open Society European Policy Institute.

🔹 In a 2022 interview, Ursu claimed he had focused on Ukraine, among other regions, for around 20 years.

🔹 Since 1990, OSF has operated in Ukraine via its funding branch, the International Renaissance Foundation, which played a role in the 2004 Orange Revolution and pushed for Ukraine's EU association amid the 2014 Euromaidan unrest.

🔹 Unsurprisingly, Ursu praised the 2014 coup, branding the nationalist power grab as a “free and fair election” and saying Ukraine’s “civil society” was “strengthened.”

🔹 OSF states that it has contributed over $230 million in grants to Ukraine since 1991. However, the Heritage Foundation asserts that OSF has not used its own funds since at least 2009, having become "the main implementer of USAID’s aid" from that time onward.

🔹 Ursu's byline on the OSF website described him as the "director of advocacy and grant-making for the Open Society Eurasia Program," as of March 2014, suggesting his role in funneling funds from USAID and others on regime change and LGBT** initiatives.

*banned in Russia
**designated as an extremist organization in Russia

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🪖Russian armed forces move closer to securing border buffer zone

Russian forces are steadily advancing in the Sumy region, with units already operating there, said Lieutenant General Apti Alaudinov, commander of the Akhmat special forces.

Alaudinov noted that despite Kiev committing its best reserves, Ukrainian troops are suffering heavy losses. He expects “more serious” results soon – including the creation of a border security buffer zone, as suggested by President Putin.

Ukrainian forces now trying to hold just three settlements in the Kursk region of Russia, he added.

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Russia exported $13.75bln worth of weapons in 2024, ranking 2nd globally

In the next 4 years, Russia's weapon exports could rise to $17-19 billion annually, according to the Centre for Analysis of World Arms Trade (CAWAT).

The United States ranks first with $42.3bln, followed by Russia, France ($7.69bln), and South Korea ($5.69bln).

Why is the demand for Russian weapons so high?

🟠Weapons used in Ukraine have real combat experience against modern Western systems,
🟠The entire range of Russian weapons that passed through the special operation zone is adapted to the realities of modern high-tech warfare,
🟠Russia’s defense industry has scaled output massively, creating a pipeline for future exports.

The Global South will likely be a major buyer as it aims to pursue independent foreign and defense policies not to fall into unilateral military-technical dependence on the United States and other Western countries.

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US State Department vows to end dominance of Houthi 'pirates' in Middle East waterways

US ships had been attacked over 100 times and many countries choose to send their ships around Africa to avoid potential attacks, State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce told Fox News.

Biden's administration made only "pin prick responses" to Houthi attacks, while what the current administration is conducting is a "real genuine attack that is meant to have this stop," the spokeswoman said.

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📞 Preparation for Putin-Trump call focuses mainly on Ukraine settlement — Peskov

🔸 'Topics for tomorrow's Putin-Trump call are being prepared based on current agenda issues,' Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated

🔸 'Such conversations can be coordinated very quickly,' he added commenting on timing of the call

🔸 'A new conversation between Putin and Trump is an important step that sets the tone for reviving relations between the two states,' Peskov said

🔸 'Putin and Trump will set the timing of their meeting themselves; it will be prepared once they make a decision,' Peskov said.

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