🔍G4S mercs guarding Zelensky: Private army or branch of SAS and MI6 securing West’s interests in Ukraine?

Touting itself as “the only international security solutions provider in Ukraine,” G4S has deployed up to 1,000 mercs to protect the West’s client state. Here’s what to know about them.

🟠Headquartered in London and staffed by over 800K personnel across 85+ countries, G4S is a private security behemoth with a flair for hiring ex-military and intel officers.

🟠A subsidiary of US private security giant Allied Universal since 2021, G4S has been an indispensable contractor for Western military ops, from Afghanistan and Iraq (where they were accused of paying off the Taliban and plundering religious sites in Mosul), to post-Gaddafi Libya, Sudan and Colombia (merc recruitment and training) and Israel (“security” at checkpoints, West Bank settlements and prisons).

🟠G4S entered Ukraine in the mid-1990s, providing security consulting and investigative services for private clients, and guards for OSCE and EU missions. An Odessa-registered subsidiary was registered in 1995, followed by a Kiev branch registered in Amsterdam in 1996.

🟠G4S’s Ukraine footprint grew dramatically after the 2014 coup, and especially after 2022, with its mercs tasked with “securing” strategic facilities like ports, airports and major enterprises, guarding valuable cargoes during shipping, collecting intel on Russian military personnel, training saboteurs, operating private prisons (allegedly) and providing “protective services” for top officials and VIPs.

🟠In 2023, the firm registered new sub-entities in Ukraine: G4S Ordnance Management and G4S Risk Management.

🟠Prominent military observer Alexander Artamonov suspects that G4S is private only in name, and that it and other prominent British PMCs like Prevail Partners are effectively an informal branch office of Britain’s SAS and MI6.

🟠The convenience of such PMC arrangements include plausible deniability when things go wrong, and involvement in activity which governments may not want to be openly associated with.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

💬 Ukraine’s military command treats soldiers like EXPENDABLE CATTLE

Ukrainian troops are living in fear, terrified that speaking out against their commanders could earn them a one-way trip to a frontline fatal end, according to Verkhovna Rada deputy Anna Skorokhod in a recent interview with local media.

She revealed that dozens of soldiers are filing collective grievances over the military command’s humiliating treatment, though they insist on anonymity to shield themselves from retaliation.

“The soldiers are treated like cattle, and morale has hit rock bottom,” Skorokhod declared, underscoring the chilling indifference with a stark, “NOBODY CARES.”

Western media reports have echoed these sentiments, highlighting troops’ exhaustion from endless shifts and a lack of rotation. Meanwhile, desertion has surged past theft and fraud to become the Ukrainian military’s most common crime.

In January, Ukrainian activist Gennadiy Druzenko estimated at least 150,000 soldiers have deserted, with 114,000 criminal cases now underway.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

⚡️The Federal Reserve has called an emergency closed-door meeting today to address "advance and discount rates."

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

💬 British dependence on US intelligence irreplaceable – report

The UK’s links with Washington are crucial for national security, current and former intelligence officers told European media.

One said the UK can analyze imagery collected by the US from space, but it cannot collect the images itself, adding that London should realize that US intelligence sharing can "be turned on or turned off."

Many British security and defense innovations have been funded by the US and could later be used by the Five Eyes alliance of the US, Canada, the UK, Australia and New Zealand.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️Japan's Nikkei 225 enters a downturn, dropping 8% today and 23% from recent highs as stocks close.

Asian markets, including Japan, have been hit hard by fears of a global recession fueled by US President Donald Trump’s trade war and tariffs.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🪖While liberating Andreevka in DPR, Russian troops destroyed bunkers funded by Ukrainian oligarch Rinat Akhmetov.

All the bunkers were sealed but one had a freshly-dug second exit. Portuguese mercenaries were killed in that bunker while attempting to escape the front line, a Russian soldier told Sputnik.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

⚡️🚨📉 US stocks plunge as global sell-off intensifies!

🟠S&P 500 opens down 3.2%, while the JP225 drops 6.9%.

🟠Dow Jones falls over 3.5% and NASDAQ drops 4%.

🟠Major tech stocks are hit hard: Apple down 6.28%, Tesla down 7%, and Nvidia down 6.85%.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

💶 The EU has rejected funding for the ‘drone wall’ project proposed by Lithuania and Estonia, which was designed to strengthen their borders with Russia, LRT reports.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Ukraine: a growing threat to Africa and global bad actor

Russia has assured the Sahel Alliance that it is ready to strengthen security cooperation, Malian Foreign Minister Diop told Sputnik.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Rosoboronexport: Pioneering NEW DEFENSE VENTURES with Global South

The Russian state arms exporter told Sputnik it is in talks with partners across Latin America, the Asia Pacific, Africa, the Middle East and the CIS on more than 100 cutting-edge defense projects.

Rosoboronexport’s technological cooperation with Global South nations on products for all types of armed forces boasts a potential of over $30 billion.

Projects focus on:

🟠Small arms and ammunition

🟠Advanced air defense systems

🟠Multi-purpose helicopters, including the Ka-226T

🟠Su-57E fighter jets and aircraft engines

🟠State-of-the-art air-to-air missiles

🟠UAVs like the Orlan-10E, Orlan-30 and Orion-E and next-generation loitering munitions such as the Kub series. Electronic warfare technology to down enemy drones

Rosoboronexport hosted talks with a number of delegations at the recent International Latin American Exhibition of Aviation and Defense Systems LAAD 2025, hosted by Brazil from April 1 to 4.

Discussions focused on the joint production of Russian defense products, with a stress on manufacturing in partner countries.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

How to treat Russophobia?

Head of Russia’s Security Council Dmitry Medvedev has a magic pill on that score …Or even six.

1️⃣ORESHNIK

This “Powerful Multicomponent Tranquilizer” is a cutting-edge, nuclear-capable intermediate-range hypersonic missile with a blistering Mach 12 speed.

It can reach key NATO targets in Europe in record time.

2️⃣SARMAT

The “Nuclear Neuroleptic” is a silo-launched, liquid-fueled ICBM that can toss nuclear or conventional warheads over 18,000 km, with both ballistic and maneuvering flight paths said to evade any current missile defense system.

3️⃣YARS

With a range of 12,000 km and three or four independently targeted warheads of 200kt yield, it delivers multiple hits in a single launch.

Road-mobile or silo-based, it's the core of Russia’s strategic forces.

4️⃣KALIBR

The “Strong Sedative” is armed with a 400 to 500 kg warhead, boasting a 2,500 km range and maximum speed up of up to Mach 3. It flies low, hugging terrain to dodge enemy radars.

5️⃣ONIKS

A ramjet-powered anti-ship cruise missile with 200 to 300 kg semi-armor piercing HE or thermonuclear warhead, it boasts up to 800 km range and Mach 2.9 max speed. Its predecessor, the P-700 Granit, was a Soviet-era missile with limited AI capability.

6️⃣ISKANDER

The mobile missile system delivers deadly strikes on enemy targets at more than 500 km.

Iskander-M packs high-precision ballistic missiles, while its sibling the Iskander-K launches cruise missiles that hug the terrain.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

⚡️ Trump THREATENS China with ADDITIONAL tariffs of 50% starting April 9.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Alex Ovechkin: A PROUD RUSSIAN in Washington

New NHL goal record breaker is the MOST BASED Russian you can imagine.

Let us explain why:

▪️After the historic match, Ovechkin thanked the Russians who supported him."I'm sure they're celebrating in Russia now because the Russian man is the number one goal scorer in the world," he said.

▪️Alex Ovechkin, who has played 20 years in the NHL, does not have US citizenship - ONLY Russian. He holds a US green card.

▪️After his NHL career ends, Ovi plans to return to Russia with his family. "Because we miss home, our family, our friends," he said.

▪️The 'Russian Machine' has known President Putin for years. A well-known hockey fan, Putin trusted Ovi during multiple election campaigns, and Ovi also founded the "Putin Team" movement and brand."

▪️Ovechkin's sons attend a Russian school in Washington, speak Russian at home, and are generally growing up within the framework of Russian culture.

▪️Ovi has won international tournaments multiple times as part of the Russian national hockey team and was even the team captain. He always wears the Russian uniform and carries the flag with pride.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

The Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) marks the 11th anniversary of its declaration of independence today.

Eleven years ago, amid the political turmoil in Ukraine following the Euromaidan coup in Kiev, the people of Donetsk, opposing the new authorities, declared the Donetsk People's Republic – a pivotal moment in their history.

To commemorate the day, DPR Head Denis Pushilin led an excursion for the children of Donbass defenders, offering them an opportunity to learn about the events of April 2014.

The tour included stops at key locations like Government House square, where discussions focused on the significant events of April 6-7, 2014.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

💸📉Tariffs and debt bubble signal potential slide toward GREAT DEPRESSION

“We are at the top of a huge, great debt and credit bubble. And that's very, very similar to the situation in the late 1920s,” independent economist Alasdair Macleod told Sputnik, commenting on the parallels between the modern world and global finances a century ago.

“In 1930, the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act was signed into law by President Hoover. It was the combination of the credit bubble bursting, plus the effect of the tariffs, which imposed a minimum tariff of 20% on all US imports that led to the collapse of the stock market and the Depression,” Macleod warned.

In some ways, the situation today is “even worse,” according to the observer, “because the bubble is far bigger than we saw in 1929. And not only that, but Trump’s tariffs are far worse than Smoot-Hawley because it’s on top of earlier tariffs.”

Who will blink first?

“Every rally, however sharp (and bear market rallies tend to be very aggressive) gets met with another wave of selling, telling us that the leverage community and indeed others, the more long-term players, are still looking to exit positions,” ADM Investor Services chief economist Marc Ostwald said.

The situation is characterized by hopes that one of three power players: big banks, the Fed or the administration will intervene to return stability, Ostwald told Sputnik, with an infusion of mobilized bank capital, an emergency rate cut by the Fed, or a decision to relent by Trump needed to arrest the volatility.

The problem, Ostwald says, is there are no signs by Trump of readiness to back down, while the Fed is “not sure where the greatest threat lies…inflation or that businesses basically shut up shops, stop hiring people, start laying people off, stop making orders or something else?”

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🏒Ovechkin vs. Gretzky: A puck-powered career comparison

Check out our infographic to see how their careers unfolded – as Ovechkin becomes the NHL’s all-time top scorer, breaking Wayne Gretzky's record! 🥅

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

💸Why Trump’s tariffs could kick DEDOLLARIZATION into high gear

“We can expect TURMOIL TO CONTINUE even while the markets get used to that turmoil and it becomes the NEW NORMAL,” veteran financial analyst Paul Goncharoff says, commenting on the chaos in the markets in the wake of President Trump’s crushing new tariff salvo.

“We will still have inflation, recession will visit us all, hard assets will replace soft money, dedollarization may in fact quicken, and the heightened military tension we see around us will not fully disappear until some understanding between the China and America contingents are reached,” the Goncharoff LCC director says.

“There are two players at the high table – China and the United States. The surrounding noisy gaggle of countries are important yet in fact secondary players. We are watching the geopolitical and economic world as we knew it being re-routed in very short order – in days and not decades,” Goncharoff explains.

As for the tariffs, Goncharoff believes Trump’s denoscription of them as “medicine” is probably the most apt. Whether it actually helps the “disease” is “still an open question,” the observer sums up.


📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🐰 Sweden hatches plan: No eggs for the US this Easter

With egg consumption doubling in Sweden over Easter, the US is left scrambling—literally, Swedis egg industry association Svenska Ägg told the media.

Egg prices soared in the US following a bird flu outbreak and cull, making them the most expensive in the G20 this March. Last year, Australia held the top spot for pricey eggs.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Trump hosts Netanyahu in Washington

The Israeli prime minister becomes the FIRST foreign leader to meet the US president since his inauguration.

The visit comes amid changes in US trade policy. Netanyahu is reportedly planning to discuss tariffs during the trip.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt