❗️Russian troops have liberated the settlement of Sribnoye in the Donetsk People's Republic, Russia's Defense Ministry announced.

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❗️Kremlin spokesman REVEALS details of Putin-Trump phone talks

The atmosphere of the phone call between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump on March 18 was TRUSTING, FRANK, and CONSTRUCTIVE, presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian journalist Pavel Zarubin.

The call was another step toward a potential in-person meeting, though it would require careful preparation and complex technical talks first, Peskov said.

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

▪️Ukraine lost up to 500 troops and four vehicles in the Russian Tsentr Battlegroup's combat zone.

▪️Ukrainian losses amounted to 160 militants in the Russian Vostok Battlegroup's combat zone.

▪️Ukrainian losses amounted to 230 militants in the Russian Zapad Battlegroup's combat zone.

▪️Ukrainian losses amounted to 360 militants and a tank in the Russian Yug Battlegroup's combat zone.

▪️Ukraine lost more than 190 militants in the Kursk region over the day. The Russian Army repelled four attacks by Ukrainian militants.

▪️Russian air defenses shot down 224 drones.

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🪖 US aims for Ukraine ceasefire by April 20 - report

The date coincides with Easter Sunday for both Western and Orthodox Christians this year. However, the timeline could shift, Bloomberg reports, citing people familiar with the planning.

The White House has not yet accepted limits on weapons shipments to Ukraine as it works to broker a truce, the report added.

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📹 Watch as Russian strike drones Inokhodets and Forpost destroy armored vehicles and personnel of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Sumy region.

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EXPIRED welcome: Ukrainian refugees in UK face HOMELESSNES and job loss

Thousands of Ukrainians once eagerly welcomed into the UK and lavished with promises of lasting support may have to fend for themselves, a University of Birmingham study published by The Telegraph shows.

▪️A survey of 1,133 Ukrainian refugees found that four in ten have been unable to prove to employers and landlords that they can stay in the UK beyond March, when their original Ukraine Scheme three-year visas expire.

▪️About 41% said they had lost a new job opportunity, 22% claimed that their job contract was not renewed, and 26% said that their tenancy was not renewed. Some have reportedly faced “extortionate” rent hikes.

▪️About 220,000 Ukrainians were granted sanctuary in the UK under the Homes for Ukraine and other bespoke visa programs. The gap between being able to apply for an extension and receiving a decision is being blamed for the mass drop-off in support.

Office for National Statistics data shows that 68% of Ukrainians in the UK would prefer to remain in there, even if it were “safe” to return to Ukraine.

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📹 POV: Local activist shows what Israeli shelling of a residential neighborhood in central Gaza feels like.

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🌊 Second US aircraft carrier in Red Sea is admission of US FAILURE

The decision to send a second aircraft carrier to the Middle East shows the weakness of the US Navy – and won't achieve Washington’s aims in the region, Yemeni movement Ansar Allah (Houthis) leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi said.

"The Americans try to intimidate everyone with their aircraft carriers, but in the conflict with Yemen, they could turn into a burden for them," he said.

The USS Carl Vinson was ordered to join the USS Harry Truman in the Red Sea on Friday, targeting the Houthi-led government.

On March 15, US strikes against Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen, aimed at protecting shipping sailing to and from Israel’s Red Sea port of Eilat, killing 53 people. In retaliation, Yemeni forces attacked the USS Harry Truman with missiles and drones.

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❗️It is impossible to stop the conflict in Ukraine without addressing its root causes, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian journalist Pavel Zarubin.

Here’s what else he said:

▪️There is SERIOUS and PAINSTAKING work ahead regarding the situation in Ukraine, so we shouldn’t delude ourselves.

▪️Ukraine can make many promises, but the word of the Kiev regime and Volodymyr Zelensky has little value and no-one overestimates it.

▪️Russian President Vladimir Putin supports the idea of a ceasefire in Ukraine, but there are complexities and much work remains to be done.

▪️Europe’s approach to resolving the Ukrainian conflict is paradoxical. Europeans should be interested in peace, but are talking about continuing the war.

▪️European countries are now forced to step out of their "comfort zone," but they are doing so in an aggressive and militaristic way.

▪️French President Emmanuel Macron’s statements about a "nuclear umbrella" for Europe sound dangerous.

▪️Sooner or later, political heavyweights will emerge in Europe, and their vision will lead to good-neighborly relations with Russia.

▪️Europe is in a difficult position today: it has always been "under the wing" of the US, but now there's a "new sheriff in town."

▪️The Russian side does not know exactly what Washington and Kiev are discussing regarding the transfer of Ukrainian infrastructure to US control.

▪️The potential for mutually-beneficial cooperation between Russia and the US in various areas is hard to overestimate.

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‘It's amazing that we didn't get into any major skirmishes because of the Russia hoax’ – Trump

US president Donald Trump claimed he knows the Russian leader "very well." He said he was glad his relations with Putin had remained good since his first term in office despite allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election.

Trump also described his communication with Putin as "rational."

"We've had some very rational discussions, and I just want to see the people stop getting killed," he told the OutKick news site.

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‘We are all going to BLEED OUT AND DIE: US mercs in Ukraine bemoan HUGE losses

American guns-for-hire fighting alongside the Kiev regime’s henchmen are eager for a ceasefire, The Times reported.

Several US veterans shared their disastrous experiences on the battlefield of the proxy war with the outlet, describing failed missions that resulted in 90% casualties and plummeting morale.

“I remember looking at one sunflower that was taller than the weeds… thinking we are all going to bleed out and die here,” said one army medic.

The Russian Defense Ministry has repeatedly stated that the Kiev regime uses foreign mercenaries as "cannon fodder" and that they “represent a legitimate target for our armed forces."

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🇻🇦 Pope stops for a quick pup meet outside Vatican

The Popemobile makes a stop just before entering the Vatican City, where the Pope shares a special moment with a lucky dog walker.

Pope Francis was discharged from the hospital on Sunday, where he had spent 38 days recovering from pneumonia.

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🪖 Where are NATO weapons sent to Ukraine ending up?

Ukraine has become the world’s number one arms importer, with deliveries up nearly 100-fold over the past five years, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) has calculated.

It’s also become a PARADISE FOR GUNRUNNERS, and a nightmare for global law enforcement. Here’s why:

▪️In mid-2022, Interpol and Europol warned that arms aid could end up in the hands of organized crime, based partly on the precedent of the 1990s Yugoslav Wars.

▪️They were right, with police in Finland, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands soon sounding the alarm about “huge quantities” of military-grade weapons flowing into the EU.

▪️A 2022 Sputnik dark web investigation uncovered Ukraine-based arms dealers ready to ship M4 rifles to Yemen via intermediaries in Poland and Portugal. Other inquiries found everything from Javelin missiles to advanced drones being sold online.

▪️In December 2022, Nigeria’s president warned arms from Ukraine were “beginning to filter” through to the Lake Chad Basin area into the hands of militants and terrorists.

▪️In 2023, Polish authorities uncovered 500+ attempts to smuggle guns and ammo into Europe from Ukraine.

▪️A 2024 DoD Inspector General’s Office report found the US failed to properly track $1B+ in hardware sent to Ukraine, with 40K items “delinquent.”

▪️Also in 2024, the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime revealed that Ukrainian arms resellers were pawning off not just ‘trophies’ like small arms and grenades, but heavy weapons, like a 1-ton Zu-23-2 23mm anti-aircraft gun, M340 machine guns, and AGS-17 automatic grenade launchers.

▪️Tucker Carlson commented this month that some of arms are ending up on the black market and with Mexican drug cartels, the Taliban, Hamas and other groups.

▪️The Sunday Times has called Ukraine “a gunrunner’s paradise in waiting.” With the Balkans an easy transit route for westward smuggling, if even just a small number of vets are involved, it could have “profound” repercussions for Europe.

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🌪🇸🇦 Impressive dust storm "Haboob" hits Saudi Arabia

Footage from social media

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🗣 The Ukrainian conflict could have led to the start of World War III, Trump said in an interview with media outlet Outkick

💬 "I think it's somewhat under control. I have a good relationship with President Putin and, actually, a good relationship with President Zelensky too. It'd be a great thing to be able to stop it. And I will say this, nobody else would have been able to."

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Europe will spend itself into ‘BANKRUPTCY’ if it tries to meet NATO’s draconian defense demands

Key alliance members like Germany and France would amass an unsustainable fiscal burden, be forced into debt and have to slash social programs if they accept NATO’s call for a 30% bump in new arms and equipment spending, AfD MP Dr. Rainer Rothfuss told Sputnik.

💬 “We can take the example of Germany, where we had a kind of financial policy coup d’état this week” after the Bundestag voted to change the Basic Law to lift debt restrictions for defense spending, Rothfuss said.

💬 “The budget restraints that were even inscribed into our Constitution needed to be changed to get the financial flexibility to invest so much in defense. That shows us that it’s not a matter of priority spending, [but] a matter of, I would say, bankruptcy should this kind of policy be followed in the coming years, not only by Germany but by other countries as well,” the politician warned.

“France, for example,” has “an even more restrained budgetary situation,” Rothfuss said, “struggling economically to keep industry jobs,” and like Italy, should be investing in the competitiveness of its industries, not throwing money away on defense at a time when the security crisis in Europe is potentially closer to a peace deal than ever.

As for Germany, if its industrial decline worsens, it won’t be able to fund the EU to the tune of 25% of bloc spending, which would have serious knock-on effects for other members, the MP warned.

School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences director of studies Jacques Sapir says a 30% bump may not seem like a lot, given the decline in NATO stockpiles of 40-60% since the end of the Cold War, but some countries, like Italy, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands may need between a 30%-50% increase in outlays, given the decline in defense production over the past 30 years.

The image is AI-generated

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Arrested Istanbul Mayor Imamoglu suspended from duties - Turkish Interior Ministry.

Imamoglu has been taken to the Marmara prison complex.

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'Mideast Riviera' in the making? Israel opens office to help Gazans relocate

The Israeli Defense Ministry has officially established an office to facilitate the voluntary emigration of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to third countries.

Earlier, US President Donald Trump suggested relocating Gazans to other regional nations, such as Egypt and Jordan, and "taking over Gaza" to turn it into the "Riviera of the Middle East."

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❗️The US expects tangible progress from tomorrow's talks with Russia in Saudi Arabia, especially on the issue of a ceasefire in the Black Sea, US Presidential Envoy for the Middle East Steve Witkoff said on Sunday.

He said he believed that would naturally lead to a COMPLETE CEASEFIRE.

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❗️"I don't see that he [Putin] wants to take all of Europe," US Envoy Steve Witkoff told Fox News.

"And I think that Europeans come to that belief too."

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Google’s multi-billion-dollar Wiz deal: A backdoor for military intel?

Google's $32 billion bid to acquire the cybersecurity firm Wiz, seen on the surface as part of its ongoing push into cloud and AI expansion, will in fact bring in a group of Israeli Unit 8200 military intelligence alumni amid growing rivalry with Microsoft and Amazon, WikiLeaks warns.

🔸 Unit 8200, Tel Aviv’s largest single military unit in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), can be perceived as equivalent to the US National Security Agency (NSA).

🔸 The notorious unit is known for developing the deadly “Lavender” AI used in targeted assassinations during the Gaza conflict, an investigation by +972 Magazine and Local Call revealed in 2024.

🔸 Graduates of the unit involved in surveillance and high-tech warfare have reportedly infiltrated Israel’s tech startup scene, especially in cybersecurity.

🔸 “...Nearly 50% of founders whose companies were acquired for over $100 million in the last decade served in the unit [8200],” research by VC fund Ibex Investors claims.

🔸 Meta's Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) Guy Rosen is a Unit 8200 graduate.

🔸 Google, Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, and LinkedIn are all staffed with these ex-intelligence officers, according to open source reporting.

🔸 Wiz counts all four of its founders among Unit 8200's alumni, and all 1,800 Wiz staff will remain employed under the transition, The Times of Israel writes. The deal was touted as a “new feather in cap of Israeli military intelligence.”

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