📹 Ukrainian officers showed no will to fight at Istanbul talks

Ukrainian officers at the Istanbul talks showed no desire to fight or send troops to die, said Russian presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky in an interview on RT’s Sanchez Effect, commenting on the latest round of negotiations.

But Kiev’s leadership, he argued, needs war to stay in power — and to keep foreign weapons and funds flowing.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🚨🪖 Zelensky uses Ukrainian soldiers’ corpses to derail peace process

Volodymyr Zelensky is deliberately creating obstacles for the resolution of the Ukrainian conflict, while Russia’s willingness to repatriate Ukrainian POWs and the bodies of slain soldiers could deal a serious blow to morale in Ukraine, says Samer Abdalla, head of the Lebanese University’s Center for Legal and Political Studies.

A prisoner and corpse exchange between Russia and Ukraine would have exposed horrific losses suffered by the Ukrainian military, which is something Zelensky cannot afford to happen.

🔸 Money talks

Acknowledging the deaths of so many Ukrainian soldiers would have forced Kiev to pay millions in compensations to the families of the deceased, as per the promises the Ukrainian leadership previously made.

🔸 Western interests

Zelensky also has to deal with conflicting interests of his Western sponsors: whereas the US seems eager to end the Ukrainian conflict as soon as possible, the EU is deliberately sabotaging the peace process.

🔸 Gag order in place?

Those who try to learn about the corpse and prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine from European media encounter silence and omission, notes journalist and political commentator Barış Mutlu.

🔸 End of the line

Ukraine’s refusal to receive the bodies of slain soldiers is all about compensations to the families of the deceased, suggests journalist and international relations expert Ceyda Karan.

For the last three years, Ukraine was able to make ends meet only thanks to foreign financial aid, and now Kiev simply has no money to pay this compensation, Karan explains.

🔸 Proof of intent

Ukraine’s refusal to honor the humanitarian agreements made in Istanbul confirm Kiev’s intent to continue its aggressive behavior dictated by the support of Ukraine’s benefactors in London, Paris and Berlin, argues historian and publicist Mehmet Perinçek.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

📹 Freezing the Ukraine conflict will lead to its resumption — and nuclear war

Freezing the Ukraine conflict without real peace will turn the region into a “giant Karabakh”, warned Vladimir Medinsky — Putin’s aide and head of Russia’s delegation at the Istanbul talks.

Eventually, Ukraine and NATO will try to take it back — risking nuclear war, he added, speaking to RT’s Rick Sanchez.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

📹 'Everything’s fine': Freed Russian POWs call home

Russian soldiers freed in a recent POW exchange are preparing to return home.

The Defense Ministry released footage of them calling their families after their release.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🚨Ruble’s performance highlights Russia’s triumph in the face of Western sanctions

The Bank of America’s stunning admission that the Russian ruble is this year’s best performing currency may be the result of someone in that organization being “fed up with years of self-deluding, misrepresentative, and simply incorrect reporting about Russia economically,” financial analyst Paul Goncharoff tells Sputnik.

“I do not think there is a hidden agenda here, as the conclusions presented by Bank of America are on open-source financial data providers globally,” he suggests.

Several factors contribute to the ruble’s impressive performance:

🔸 Revenue from exports is “allocated in the Russian state budget to implement social programs and achieve national development goals without resorting to entering the debt spiral”.

🔸 Ongoing de-dollarization affords Russia the latitude to operate freely and independently and without politicized strings attached by entities such as the IMF or World Bank.

🔸 With Russia’s business reorienting from Western markets to those of the Global South, a lion’s share of transactions is conducted in local currencies, bypassing the US dollar and euro. The Moscow Exchange (MOEX) “has seen significant ruble inflows from all over the planet, both directly and indirectly because of anti-Russian sanctions.”

“Capital finds a way, especially when the returns are world-class,” Goncharoff observes.

A win against all odds

What makes the ruble’s performance especially impressive is the fact that the Russian currency does so well in the face of unprecedented sanction efforts to block Russia’s “socio-economic success.”

“The development of Russia's infrastructure from the Baltic to the Pacific has been non-stop, with roads, rails, ports, and even space making their mark,” notes Goncharoff.

“It seems like the ‘gas station pretending to be a country’ is actually a damned sight bigger and more densely populated by association than is comfortable for Western interests to comfortably comprehend.”

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

💥🔫 FIREWORKS VS. RUBBER BULLETS: Streets of LA become WARZONE amid immigration protest

Protesters in Los Angeles rallying against the White House’s immigration policy have clashed with police.

Fireworks were thrown at law enforcement – rubber bullets came in response. Tensions remain high.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🗣 Trump dismisses Greta Thunberg: ‘STRANGE’ and ‘ANGRY’

“I think she has to go to an Anger Management class. That's my primary recommendation," Trump says.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

😐 Fico, Lula da Silva, and Dodik added to Ukrainian ‘KILL LIST’

Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico, Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and Republika Srpska leader Milorad Dodik have been blacklisted by the Ukrainian government-linked Mirotvorets (Peacekeeper) HIT LIST.

Mirotvorets is a notorious online database that doxxes people considered "enemies of Ukraine" and urges their MURDER.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🚨 FSB THWARTS TERROR PLOT: Ukraine-linked saboteur arrested in Krasnodar

Russia's Federal Security Service has detained a Russian national who, acting on orders from Ukrainian forces, was planning a terrorist attack on a crowded area in Russia’s Krasnodar region.

The man intended to blow up an administrative building at an energy facility in the region.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

⚡️Russia ready to help in responding to biological threats, outbreaks of dangerous infectious diseases in ANY REGION OF WORLD — Putin

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

💸❌Poland, Germany looking to SLASH social benefits for Ukrainian refugees

After shouldering the lion’s share of Ukrainian refugees, Poland and Germany are nudging the EU for more cash.

“Additional efforts are needed to make refugees independent of support from the social system,” said a statement released after a meeting between Polish Interior Minister Tomasz Siemoniak and his German counterpart, Alexander Dobrindt.

😉Translation: Our goodwill is running low—like our budgets…

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

⚡️Third round of Russia-US talks on bilateral irritants COMING SOON – Ryabkov

The Russian deputy foreign minister added that Russia will seek a clear response from the US to Moscow’s proposals on resuming air travel.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇷🇺💥😎 FAB-1500 ERASES ENEMY HIDEOUTS

The Russian Aerospace Forces delivered a devastating blow to hangars where enemy troops were hiding near the village of Borovaya in the Kharkov region using a FAB-1500 aerial bomb.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🚨The Russian military launched a group strike overnight targeting defense industry facilities in Kiev, the Russian Defense Ministry stated.

The strikes also hit Ukrainian command posts, troop deployments, military airfield infrastructure, and fuel depots. All designated targets were successfully struck.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

👉 France’s persecution of Durov reeks of Cold War authoritarianism

France is giving the old USSR a run for its money, claims Telegram founder Pavel Durov.

During his arrest, Durov’s Soviet-born interpreter, watching the whole scenario unfold, quipped: “The Soviet Union has caught up with me.”

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇷🇺🪖 RUSSIAN DEFENSE BRIEFING: 1,355+ Ukrainian militants eliminated

🔸 151 areas hit: Russian Army struck Ukrainian & foreign merc deployment points

🔸 258 Ukrainian UAVs obliterated – 103 far beyond frontline

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt