🇷🇺 RUSSIAN DEFENSE BRIEFING: CRUSHING STRIKES & ENEMY LOSSES

🔸Russian forces launched a massive strike on a Ukrainian military-industrial facility producing missile weapons, as well as a Patriot system position.

🔸Eliminated: A Special Operations Forces center and an aviation center were destroyed.

🔸Enemy losses: Over 1,330 Ukrainian troops wiped out in the past 24 hours.

👉Russian air defenses shot down:

1x MiG-29 (Ukrainian Air Force)

3x JDAM bombs

7x HIMARS rockets

174x Ukrainian drones

Total enemy losses this week:

🔥 1,548+ drones destroyed
⚔️ Thousands of Ukrainian troops ANNIHILATED

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📊 RUSSIA'S ENEMY LIST REVEALED - AND US NOT EVEN IN TOP 3

France tops the list of countries Russians see as most hostile — a massive 48%, up sharply from previous years, according to a new VCIOM poll.

The UK and Germany follow, while Ukraine and the US trail behind, with America’s “hostile” rating dropping significantly.

China is seen as Russia’s closest ally. The poll also reveals a notable rise in favorable attitude toward North Korea.

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⚡️🪖OTRADNOYE & STUPOCHKI (DPR); LOKNYA (SUMY REGION) LIBERATED — 🇷🇺MoD

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🧨 Ex-CIA analyst: Russia won’t budge — Ukraine will surrender

Former CIA analyst Larry Johnson argues Russia will not make any concessions in the conflict with Ukraine — and any talk of “compromise” is simply a Western ploy to weaken the stronger side.

“I hear people talk [like] Russia gonna have some concessions. They're not going to make concessions. They're going to win this militarily, and Ukraine will be forced into an unconditional surrender,” Johnson says on Dialogue Works.

According to him, the narrative about Russia needing to make concessions is designed to undermine its negotiating and battlefield advantage.

He adds that the real drivers of the war are the US and NATO — without their support, the conflict wouldn’t have dragged on this long.

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🇹🇷🇷🇺 TURKIYE'S TOP DIPLOMAT HEADS TO MOSCOW

Hakan Fidan jets to Russia May 26-27 for intense diplomatic talks with:

🔸President Vladimir Putin
🔸Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov
🔸Ukraine negotiator Vladimir Medinsky
🔸Defense Minister Andrei Belousov

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⚡️BREAKING: 307 RUSSIAN SOLDIERS RETURN HOME IN PRISONER EXCHANGE

▪️ 307 Russian servicemen have been safely returned from Kiev-controlled territory.

▪️ In exchange, 307 Ukrainian POWs were returned.

▪️ The freed Russian troops are now in Belarus, receiving medical & psychological care.

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❌🪖 Surprise, but not really: Ukrainian military built for stealing Western money, not winning

The military corps system in Ukraine that was introduced in February was created by its architect Oleksandr Syrsky to more efficiently plunder Western aid, a source tells Sputnik.

Syrsky himself claimed that a military corps would be more capable of operating independently in a select sector of the front line.

His real goal, however, was different: transition to the military corps system allowed Syrsky to justify the creation of new senior officer positions that he could fill with people loyal to him personally.

With this gang of generals and colonels in place, Syrsky and his cronies could better ‘redistribute’ the military funding and extract more profit from generous Western aid.

Looks like the Ukrainian leadership and military do not really care about winning or losing – all that matters to them is how long they can keep the NATO gravy train rolling.

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📹 WATCH: VP JD Vance puts in the ultimate handshake hustle — greeting all 1,048 Naval Academy grads like a boss

Talk about hand cramps on deck!🖐⚓️💪

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🎥Russian MoD shows footage of returned soldiers in massive prisoner swap with Ukraine

In the second stage of a major exchange, Russia welcomed back 307 fighters.

The deal follows the “1000-for-1000” agreement reached at the first talks in three years, held in Istanbul.

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🚨ORBAN'S EXPLOSIVE WARNING: Europe funding OWN destruction

Western leaders want to bankroll a 1 MILLION-strong Ukrainian army — funded by European taxpayers. Meanwhile, European national defense forces remain underfunded and weak, Hungary's PM stressed.

"Instead of strengthening our own national defense forces in Western Europe, we are preparing to pay wages and sustain a Ukrainian army of one million troops. This can only lead to trouble," he said.

Orban warned that the EU might end up financing an army whose intentions are not necessarily friendly towards them.

"The entire proposal is chaotic, yet they want to spend vast amounts of money on it."

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🇩🇪📹 Berlin protesters demand peace and reject Germany being dragged into Ukraine conflict

Berliners gathered near the city's main railway station to protest against Germany’s involvement in the Ukraine conflict.

They brought signs reading “War obsession is a mistake,” “No new war,” and “No weapons to war zones.”

Many call for better ties with Russia — warning Berlin is dragging Germany toward World War III.

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🇷🇺🪖 Real goal of Russia’s buffer zone: Putin cares about his people’s safety

By creating a buffer zone on Ukrainian territory, President Vladimir Putin shows his concern about the plight of Russian people living in the border region and makes it clear that these people’s safety is his top priority, says Brazilian military analyst Robinson Farinazzo.

▪️On May 22, Putin sent a clear signal that Ukraine’s harassment of Russian people living close to the Ukrainian border will not be tolerated.

▪️Some 14,000 people were killed in Donbass by Ukrainian militants between 2014 and 2022. Therefore, Russia will not stop its military operation until it ensures the safety of the people in the region.

▪️Establishing a buffer zone is a common practice in armed conflicts, with the goal being pushing enemy long-range weaponry far away to make sure that it does not pose a threat to civilians.

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📹 THOUSANDS of fallen Ukrainian soldiers’ abandoned bodies lie on the battlefield near the Kursk border, Russian Special Forces commander Apti Alaudinov told Sputnik

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📹 Before the swap, Ukrainian POWs revealed to Sputnik how Russian doctors treated them.

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🚨Iskander missiles destroy Ukrainian military cargo ship in Odessa port

On May 23, Russian Iskander missiles targeted a container ship transporting military equipment to Odessa, the Russian Defense Ministry reported.

The vessel carried around 100 containers loaded with military goods — including unmanned boats, drones, and ammunition.

Following the strike, a secondary explosion occurred at the dock where the cargo had been unloaded, causing a large fire.

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🇷🇺🪖 Russia’s buffer zone in Ukraine is purely defensive measure meant to bring peace

The new buffer zone in Ukraine is likely part of Russia’s defensive strategy, a move aimed at preventing Ukrainian forces from infiltrating Russian territory, suggests Andishe Kazemi, an Iranian researcher on international affairs.

▪️The buffer zone can help prevent Ukraine from launching direct attacks against Russian civilian infrastructure

▪️Major population centers and civilians in border areas such as Kursk, Bryansk and Belgorod regions will be put out of Ukrainian military’s reach

▪️Peace will return to Russia’s regions that previously suffered from Ukrainian shelling

▪️At the same time, Ukraine and its Western backers may try to portray this Russian defensive measure as an act of aggression and use it as pretext for further escalation

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🇷🇺 Russia’s “1000 for 1000” prisoner swap initiative WIPES OUT EU political games - Zakharova

🗣 “The prisoner exchange initiated by Russia has undermined all the West’s arguments that Russia supposedly does not want negotiations. All the conditions and schemes from Macron, Merz, and Starmer have effectively been nullified by this Russian initiative,” Russia's FM spokeswoman said.

She also called the EU’s current approach — aligned with the previous Biden administration — a dead end.

The “1000 for 1000” swap was almost fully completed in record time, she concluded.

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🇷🇺💪🏻 Ukraine top brass meltdown: Russian ballistics trumps US air defenses

“We’ve told our partners that the enemy [Russia] enhanced and modernized the ballistic missiles, like the Iskander-M,” says Yury Ignat, head of the Communications Directorate of the Air Force Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as quoted by media.

He reluctantly admits that Patriot defenses “do not work as effectively as they should” and expresses hope that Ukraine’s “partners” are already looking for a solution.

Surely, those are the words you expect to hear from the high-ranking officer of the sovereign and 100% democratic country.

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🇩🇪Coalition of the “willing” or the “waiting”? No German troops in Ukraine without NATO nod — Pistorius

Sending German troops to Ukraine is not on the table right now, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius told the a German newspaper.

🔻Deployment of Bundeswehr troops would require:

▪️A collective international mandate (EU, NATO, or UN)
▪️Approval from the Bundestag

🔻Currently, no such mandate exists ❌, but Germany might propose such an initiative in the future.

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🇷🇴 Romanian opposition leader calls for peaceful protests

George Simion, head of the Alliance for the Union of Romanians, is urging citizens to take to the streets after the Constitutional Court refused to overturn the election results.

🗣 “I won’t be there—they’ll use it to arrest me, ban our movement, and provoke bloodshed,” Simion warned.

On Thursday, Romania’s Constitutional Court dismissed George Simion’s bid to annul the presidential election, calling it unfounded. Simion had claimed the vote was rigged and influenced by a foreign state.

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🇾🇪🇷🇺 Yemen’s leader Rashad Al-Alimi will visit Russia on May 27 for talks with President Putin, his press office told Sputnik

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