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🗣Le Pen: We teach Russia democracy, they returned lesson

French National Rally faction leader Marine Le Pen said on Wednesday that the Kremlin's reaction to her sentence was a response to the constant "lessons in democracy" from the West, which Russia "returned like a boomerang."

On Monday, a Paris court found Le Pen guilty of embezzlement and sentenced to a five-year ban from elected public roles, which means her disqualification from the 2027 election.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that more and more European states are following the path of violating democratic norms and do not hesitate to go beyond the boundaries of democracy.

"Put yourself in the place of the Kremlin, which is taught democracy lessons morning, noon and night. Now they said: 'We will return this lesson to them like a boomerang.' For the Kremlin, this is obviously a way to put [French President Emmanuel] Macron in a difficult position," Le Pen told Le Parisien newspaper.

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❗️Russian forces struck Ukrainian drone storage facilities, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense.

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

▪️Ukraine lost up to 285 servicemen in the Russian Yug Battlegroup's combat zone.

▪️Russian aviation shot down 177 Ukrainian drones.

▪️Ukraine lost up to 435 troops in the Russian Tsentr Battlegroup's combat zone.

▪️Ukraine lost up to 110 soldiers in the Russian Vostok Battlegroup's combat zone.

▪️Russia's Battlegroup Sever has struck eight Ukrainian brigades in the Belgorod region, Ukrainian lost up to 95 servicemen.

▪️Ukraine lost up to 60 soldiers in the area of responsibility of Russia's Battlegroup Dnepr.

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Great Patriotic War 80 years on: the Faces of Victory

The Second World War saw fighting across continents by million-man armies, but ultimately came down to the individual soldiers risking their lives to liberate Europe from the scourge of Nazism.

One of those soldiers was Soviet radio-telegraph operator Boris Ruchyev. Here is an excerpt from a letter Ruchyev wrote to his mother describing the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps, written prior to his death, less than two weeks before Victory Day.

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⚔️US ‘seriously considering’ Iran’s indirect nuclear talks proposal as Trump threatens bombing – report

The Trump administration considers direct talks like those proposed by the president in his letter to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to have ‘a higher chance of success’, but ‘isn’t ruling out’ okaying the Iranian proposal of having Oman serve as mediator for indirect negotiations, US officials informed on the deliberations said.

“After the exchange of letters we are now exploring next steps in order to begin conversations and trust building with the Iranians,” an official told Axios.

Trump threatened to bomb Iran in a manner “the likes of which they have never seen before” last week, with Khamenei warning Monday that any aggression will be met with a “heavy blow in return.”

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❗️Ukrainian forces have struck the Svatovo gas distribution station in the Lugansk People’s Republic using drones, LuganskGaz says.

Ukraine has been repeatedly violating the moratorium on energy strikes which was agreed upon earlier this month.

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🪖Greece DIALS UP Defense, rolls out multi-billion plan for military REVAMP

NATO member Greece is aggressively ramping up its militarization efforts, with arms spending already nearing 3% of its GDP – almost double the EU average.

The country’s ambitious $26.99 billion defense upgrade, set to stretch until 2036, will fund new submarines, cutting-edge drones, a communications satellite and the "Achilles Shield" – a state-of-the-art anti-aircraft and anti-drone system, according to sources quoted by Reuters.

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❗️Kirill Dmitriev, Special Envoy of the Russian President for investment and economic cooperation will meet with Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, today at the White House, a CBS News journalist reports, citing sources.

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🔥Russian operators adjust UAVs IN SECONDS to combat Ukrainian FPV drones

In a remarkable display of adaptability, operators of the Russian armed forces from the 40th Separate Guards Marine Brigade of the Pacific Fleet have shown their ability to quickly reconfigure unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to counter threats from Ukrainian Armed Forces’ first-person view (FPV) drones.

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