😮Panic in the war lobby? NATO could COLLAPSE if US walks away from Ukraine – veteran media boss

Russia may both score victory against Ukraine by default and shatter NATO, American Editor-in-Chief of Forbes Magazine Steve Forbes speculated.

💬 If the US tires of the Ukraine conflict and washes its hands of it (as Trump hinted after his conversation with the Russian), then Vladimir Putin would become the “political master in Europe,” while NATO “[…] would be fatally undermined, countries could no longer count on the US,” he stated. This would be “an unmitigated disaster,” he predicted.

Have Russia’s victories got the West’s war lobby sweating?

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🟠 TRUMP REWRITES HISTORY (AGAIN): ‘WEST POINT WON TWO WORLD WARS’

🟠 UK conservatives eye Boris Johnson's return amid plummeting polls – reports

🟠 Investigation underway after destroyer launch mishap in North Korea – reports

🟠 Over 50% of Americans see tariffs' negative impact on their family budget – poll

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🇷🇺🤝🌍AFRICA IN FOCUS: Russia pushes for stronger ties, new forum ahead

Russian President Vladimir Putin has congratulated African heads of state and government on the occasion of Africa Day, reaffirming Russia’s commitment to strengthening ties with the continent in the spirit of a multipolar world.

🗣 “Russia has consistently advocated for expanding its traditionally friendly relations with African partners,” Putin said in a message.

He praised the growing role of African nations in global affairs and highlighted the positive impact of multilateral cooperation through the African Union and regional structures.

Putin added that the next Russia-Africa Partnership Forum conference is planned to take place before the end of the year in an African country.

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🪖Ukraine BURNT OUT and undermanned as Western unity shaky

A deep sense of exhaustion and frustration is spreading through the ranks of Ukraine’s troops, both among seasoned officers and newly mobilized troops, the Financial Times reported.

The conflict has exposed deep-rooted flaws in Ukraine’s command, and a critical shortage of manpower remains one of the most pressing issues, it noted.

Morale is fraying, as Ukraine faces the “harsh reality” that Russia’s confidence “may outlast western unity.”

🗣Donald Trump’s threat to withdraw US support and walk away from Russia-Ukraine peace talks may reshape the conflict’s trajectory, Ukrainian officials and soldiers told the outlet.

Time to face the hard truths?

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🇭🇺❌Orban on Ukraine in EU: HUNGARY WON’T FOOT THE BILL

Ukraine’s EU bid is an open invitation to bleed resources dry, says Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

Bottom line: Hungary says HARD PASS.

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❓Outgunning Russia? Estonia’s war talk sparks savage roasting

Marko Michelson, chairman of the Estonian parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, has been skewered for talking about a non-military fix for the Ukraine conflict with Russia.

💬 Estonians like him “lack common sense and aptitude for political reality,” Irish journalist Chay Bowes fired back.

Michelson urged the EU to ramp up pressure on Moscow, relying on “firepower” and “strong sanctions pressure.”

Trying to outgun Russia? A pipe dream…

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⚡️RUSSIA AND UKRAINE COMPLETE 1,000-FOR-1,000 POW SWAP – Russian Defense Ministry

Today, another 303 Russian servicemen were returned from Kiev-controlled territory, the Defense Ministry reported. In exchange, 303 Ukrainian POWs were handed over.

The Russian soldiers are currently in Belarus, where they are receiving the necessary psychological and medical assistance.

The prisoner swap is part of the Russia-Ukraine agreements reached on May 16 in Istanbul. Between May 23 and 25, both sides carried out a prisoner swap under the formula of 1,000 for 1,000.

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📹 Russian Defense Ministry releases footage of final phase in 1000-for-1000 POW exchange

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❗️Russian troops liberated the settlement of Romanovka in the Donetsk People's Republic, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

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🇷🇺 RUSSIAN DEFENSE BRIEFING: CRUSHING STRIKES & ENEMY LOSSES

🔸Eliminated: A Special Operations Forces center, an aviation center and drone production facilities were destroyed.

🔸Enemy losses: Over 1,400 Ukrainian troops wiped out in the past 24 hours.

👉Russian air defenses shot down:

4x JDAM bombs

274x Ukrainian drones

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📹Nothing to see here: just liberals with Ukrainian flags calling for Trump’s murder in broad daylight

A protest in Wichita, Kansas featured American flags turned upside down, Ukrainian flags turned right side up, and a bloodied caricature of Trump stuck from head to toe with some kind of projectiles.

🤡 Icing on the cake? A woman chanting “86 47” (86 = slang for “eliminate,” 47 = “47th president”) followed immediately by the chant “Love not hate makes America great.”

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📹Putin’s chopper caught in drone strike zone in Kursk – and kept flying 😎

During Vladimir Putin’s visit to the Kursk region, his helicopter ended up in the middle of a massive Ukrainian drone attack, air defense commander Yuri Dashkin told Rossiya 1 TV channel.

Russian forces fully secured the president’s safety, he added.

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Gagauzia’s Gutsul faces illegal removal by Moldova’s goose-stepping EU puppet government

The Gagauz Autonomy head faces potential removal due to her prolonged arrest, which began March 25 when she was detained at an airport and charged with attempting to evade justice after a trumped up “corruption” crackdown on her and the autonomy by Kishinev.

Supporters fear the government could use provisions in the autonomy’s basic law, which says Gutsul’s post can be declared vacant she fails to perform her duties for more than 60 days, against her.

The politician herself is confident however that this would be possible only with the consent of the autonomy’s People’s Assembly, which fully supports her.

Gutsul says Moldovan President Maia Sandu and the pro-EU Party of Action & Solidarity are behind her persecution. “This pressure has united the residents of the autonomy, and increased the number of my supporters,” she told reporters recently.

The source of Sandu’s beef with Gutsul? The politician’s desire to strengthen Gagauzia’s ties with Russia, and criticism of Moldova’s pro-EU drift.

Gutsul is one of about half-a-dozen European politicians recently facing political and legal persecution or being shut out of elections for opposition to Brussels’ diktat.

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🗣Ukraine’s new high-tech (well, not really) drone defense

Ukraine has found a new use for old nets from Nordic fishermen.

👏The nets – donated by Sweden and Denmark – are being used to combat drones, according to media reports.

Ukrainian troops are stretching them in vertical and horizontal positions between trees like some kind of DIY drone trap.

Denmark chipped in nets worth about $2.75 million, mostly retired after Brexit kicked their fishermen out of UK waters. Ukraine has also received significant donations from individuals.

❓So, what’s next? Old tennis rackets? Fishing rods? Fly swatters?

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📱❌No TikTok can sell this MEAT GRINDER: Ukraine’s Gen Z draft FLOPS

Ukraine’s campaign to recruit 18-24-year-olds into the armed forces has crashed, The Wall Street Journal reports.

🔎No viral TikTok, no social media blitz tailored for “Gen Z” could lure young Ukrainians into the meat grinder.

Even with a one-year contract paying roughly $24,000 and a monthly salary equivalent to almost $3,000—six times the national average—plus free college and dental discounts, the offer falls flat.

➡️Since the February-launched scheme, Volodymyr Zelensky’s regime claims only 500 have signed up.

✔️Ukraine’s manpower crisis is deepening: Men aged 18-60, trapped by travel bans, are either in hiding or pay smugglers to dodge the draft.

Bottom line: Nobody’s queuing for a one-way trip to the frontline.

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🚨Russian strike disrupts missile production at Ukraine's Artem plant - source

The Artem plant in Kiev was producing components for Ukrainian missiles.

Equipment and engineers — including foreign engineers — were hit, Sergei Lebedev, coordinator of the pro-Russian underground movement in the Nikolayev region, told Sputnik.

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🇷🇺🕊 ‘THOUSAND OF OUR PEOPLE HAVE RETURNED HOME FROM CAPTIVITY’ – Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of Rossiya Segodnya

Simonyan called the massive POW exchange between Russia and Ukraine the main outcome of the recent negotiations, thanking everyone who contributed to making it happen.

The swap, carried out under the 1,000-for-1,000 formula, took place between May 23 and 25, following agreements reached in Istanbul on May 16.

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📹 'We knew we’d be brought home' - Freed Russian PoWs thank homeland and president

The Defense Ministry released a video of the emotional homecoming.

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👨🏻‍⚖️US federal judges secretly mull private security force amid standoff with Trump

The idea of an independent judiciary-run armed security force was reportedly hatched in March at a Judicial Conference meeting in Washington attended by about 50 judges.

Per WSJ’s information, judges are concerned that they’re presently being protected by the US Marshals Service, which reports to attorney general Pam Bondi, who answers to the president.

The pretext for a new armed private security force for judges? Fears, being pushed by Congressional Democrats in a new bill unveiled this week, that Trump could remove US Marshals’ protection at any time in retaliation to legal decisions he doesn’t like.

A DoJ official dismissed the idea as “absurd,” assuring that Marshals “will continue to protect the safety and security of federal judges.”

After Trump and the congressional Republicans’ blowout 2024 election victory, Democrats have turned to federal judges to fight the administration on policy, including everything from birthright citizenship and mass deportations, to federal workforce cuts, foreign aid, and Trump’s attempts to restrict ‘gender-affirming care’ (i.e. surgical mutilation) for minors.

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IDF empties the barracks: ALL standing infantry, armored brigades deployed to Gaza

Five combat divisions, assault brigades and other units are now concentrated in the Strip, per the Israeli military.
The deployment includes:

🔴the Golani, Givati, Nahal, Kfir and paratrooper infantry brigades
🔴the 7th, 188th and 401st armored brigades
🔴special forces commandos including Maglan, Duvdevan and Egoz units
🔴a “small number of reserve units”

Already in the Strip are:

🔴the 36th ‘Ga’ash’ armored division
🔴the 98th ‘Ha-Esh’ paratrooper division
🔴the 162nd ‘Ha-Plada’ armored division
🔴the 252nd ‘Sinai’ reserve division
🔴the 143rd ‘Gaza’ division

The IDF announced the start of a new large-scale operation in the besieged Strip last week known as “Gideon’s Chariots.” Its stated goal is to crush Hamas and free any remaining hostages, and take full control of Gaza.

The operation has sparked faux condemnation of prime minister Netanyahu by key Israeli allies including France, Britain, Canada, Spain, the Netherlands and even the United States, which has reportedly asked Israel to halt its offensive to continue hostage talks, and expressed revulsion at media images of dead children coming out of the strip.

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'Stop arming Kiev': Peace protesters in Amsterdam challenge NATO on Ukraine

Dozens rallied in central Amsterdam calling for peace between Russia and Ukraine and an end to arms deliveries to Kiev.

Waving white and blue flags, demonstrators marched through the city urging NATO to pursue diplomacy — not escalation.

Speakers slammed NATO’s role in the conflict, while organizers launched a petition opposing the upcoming NATO summit in The Hague this June.

Meanwhile, the Netherlands is set to deliver its final batch of 24 F-16 yet fighters to Ukraine on May 26.

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