❗️Despite the ceasefire announcement, Ukrainian troops have not ceased hostilities, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

Ukraine made two attempts to break through the Russian state border in the Kursk region, as well as an attack in the Dzerzhinsk area in the Donetsk People's Republic.

"Along the entire line of combat contact, Ukrainian units carried out 173 attacks from barrel artillery, tanks and mortars on positions of Russian troops, as well as four using multiple launch rocket systems. In addition, 300 strikes and drops of ammunition from unmanned aerial vehicles were carried out," the ministry said.

A total of 488 violations of the ceasefire were recorded.

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❗️The official negotiations between Putin and Xi Jinping have concluded, lasting 3.5 hours.

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❗️EU snatches another billion from Russia for Ukraine 🇪🇺💸

The European Commission has announced a new €1 billion loan to Ukraine, to be repaid from frozen Russian assets.

Russian FM calls the freezing of assets "theft" and warns it's not just private funds, but state assets targeted.

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🔥 Arms of Victory: Il-2 ‘Flying Tank’

Sputnik continues to detail the armaments used by the Red Army during the Great Patriotic War – the deadliest armed conflict in human history.

A combination of powerful armament and heavy armor led Soviet pilots to dub the plane a “Flying Tank”, while Germans nicknamed it the “Concrete Plane” and “Black Death” due to its ability to absorb heavy damage on ground-attack missions.

Armed with cannon and machineguns, unguided rockets and bombs, the plane rained terror down on enemy tanks, infantry and other ground targets, and featured a second seat for a gunner, who would operate a rear-facing machinegun against enemy fighters. Besides ground attack, it could fly escort and interdiction missions.

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🎥🎥 PUTIN-XI PRESSER FOLLOWING RUSSIA-CHINA NEGOTIATIONS

👉 Watch live in our Telegram

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❗️Putin and Xi Jinping issued a joint statement on global strategic stability

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📹 Footage from the signing ceremony of documents between Russia and China, taking place after the negotiations between Putin and Xi Jinping.

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🇷🇺🇨🇳 Putin stated that the negotiations between Russia and China took place in a warm, friendly atmosphere and were both meaningful and productive.

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🇷🇺🇨🇳Relations between Russia and China are self-sufficient and independent of the current global political and economic trends, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a joint press conference with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Moscow.

Other key statements:

🔻Putin promised that he and Xi Jinping would personally oversee all major aspects of the Russian-Chinese partnership.

🔻Putin outlined plans to significantly increase bilateral trade between Russia and China by 2030.

🔻Nearly all foreign trade operations between Russia and China are conducted in rubles and yuan.

🔻The two nations have built a resilient mutual trade system that is protected from the influence of third countries.

🔻Russia and China are successfully developing cooperation in the peaceful use of nuclear energy.

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🗣 So, the first country the US has a trade agreement with is... the UK

No details yet, just a lot of “Liberation Day” talk. Let’s see how that plays out.

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🇨🇺🇻🇪 The presidents of Venezuela and Cuba laid flowers at the monument to Simón Bolívar in Moscow, honoring his legacy as the liberator of several South American countries and a symbol of resistance against colonialism.

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📹 What If Hitler Had Won? Alternative History of the world

Picture this: Soviet forces fail to halt the Nazi onslaught. What could have unfolded next?

Sputnik rolls out an in-depth project exploring what sort of "alternative future" would have been if the Third Reich had won, with journalists crafting a nightmarish vision grounded in archival documents, while the accompanying video brings this scenario to life through cutting-edge artificial intelligence.

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