🇷🇺Putin honors fallen soldiers on the 84th anniversary of the Great Patriotic War start

On June 22nd, 1941, Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union without declaring war.

Russian President Vladimir Putin paid tribute to those who died in the fight against the Nazi invaders by laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier near the Kremlin Wall.

The President also laid flowers at the memorials of Hero Cities that suffered most during the war.

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🗣Trump's arrogant claim for Iran to surrender 'completely ridiculous'

The US strikes were rather ineffectual, Tim Anderson, academic and Director of the Centre for Counter Hegemonic Studies, told Sputnik.

💬 "Trump claimed to have destroyed these nuclear sites; apparently, there's very little damage, but it's a symbolic act, and he was looking for some sort of psychological impact on the Iranians," he said.

🟠Netanyahu wants war—and Trump’s green light just handed him the keys.
🟠Iran won’t back down—expect more strikes on Israeli military & infrastructure.
🟠Israel won’t stop until it faces a real military defeat—and by then, who knows how far this will escalate?

The US and Iran were against the escalation, Anderson noted. But Netanyahu’s obsession with confrontation + Trump’s blind support = a ticking time bomb.

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🚨🇮🇷‘The US betrayed diplomacy’ – Iran’s FM Araghchi

Here are the highlights of his statement following US bombing of Iranian nuclear sites:

🟠 The US government bears full responsibility for the serious consequences of this aggression

🟠 Trump betrayed diplomacy and succumbed to the criminal ambitions of a country accustomed to exploiting the lands and wealth of nations to achieve Israel's goals

🟠 We call on the International Atomic Energy Agency to fulfill its legal duties in response to the dangerous attack on our peaceful nuclear facilities

🟠 The Security Council, the Secretary-General of the Organization and the IAEA must respond to the clear violation of international law by the United States

🟠 The UN Security Council should hold an emergency meeting and condemn the US action

✈️🇷🇺 Mr. Araghchi also said that he will fly to Moscow later in the day to have “serious consultations” with President Putin on Monday, June 23.

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🇷🇺Russia's 'Vostok' battlegroup liberated the settlement of Perebudova in the DPR in less than 3 days, the Russian Ministry of Defense said, showing footage of the battles for the village.

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🚨🇷🇺🇵🇰 Pakistan’s Minister for Petroleum just gave an exclusive interview to Sputnik on the sidelines of St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

TIMELINE:

(05:47) Rethinking Oil Routes
(07:30) Railway Through Iran?
(08:56) Joining INSTC? “We support Putin’s ‘Look East’ vision”
(15:11) Message to Russian Investors: Pakistan is open, untapped, & ready

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🚨🇮🇷IRGC WARNS TRUMP: Iran is preparing response to US that will make it regret bombing nuclear sites

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🗣Purpose of US strikes on Iran nuclear facilities was to 'destroy or severely degrade' Iran's nuclear program - Pentagon

Other statements by US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth:

🟠 Strikes on Iran have not been about regime change

🟠 US's overnight strikes on Iran didn't target Iranian troops, people

🟠 The Pentagon chief confirmed that B-2 Spirit strategic bombers and bunker-busting bombs were used in the attack on Iran.

🟠 Any retaliation by Iran will be met with 'force far greater' than overnight strikes

🟠 Strikes on Iran was 'highly classified mission', deception effort known only to 'extremely small number' of people

🟠 Throughout the operation targeting Iran nuclear facilities, us forces retained the element of surprise

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🚨 US strikes on Iran SHAKE global markets

🛢 Crude:
🟠Brent crude +0.40% ➡️ $77.32/barrel
🟠WTI crude +0.73% ➡️ $74.04/barrel
🟠Prices could spike to $80 next week

💸 Crypto:
🟠Ethereum drops 7.7% ➡️ ~$2,200 — lowest since May 9
🟠Bitcoin briefly dips below $101K
🟠More downside expected: ETH ➡️ $2,000 | BTC ➡️ $100K

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🚨🇮🇷Iran agrees to CLOSE the Strait of Hormuz - Parliament

The final decision must be approved by the country's National Security Council.

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🚨🇦🇲Armenian Catholicos slams persecution of businessman as illegal

The Catholicos of All Armenians, Garegin II, called the persecution of businessman Samvel Karapetyan by the Armenian authorities illegal.

💬 The church will continue to defend national interests and people's rights, he added.

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🚨🇷🇺🇵🇰Pakistan-Russia $1B trade turnover is NOT A LIMIT - Pakistani Minister for Petroleum

💬 If you look at the issue of bilateral cooperation in the energy sector, the potential is huge, Ali Pervaiz Malik underscores in an exclusive interview with Sputnik at the SPIEF.

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🇮🇷🧠Iran’s response: Smart. Calculated. Painful

🗣Donald Trump likely decided to attack Iran after yielding to pressure from US war-hawks, political and security analyst Ali Rizk told Sputnik.

Trump “increasingly adopted the Israeli line of thinking” and his insistence that Iran cannot be allowed to enrich uranium essentially torpedoed the US-Iranian talks.

With no tangible evidence or intelligence suggesting that Iran has been working on a nuclear weapon, the US attack hardly seems legitimate.

“But regardless, this is something we're used to,” Rizk notes, with “US presidents pursuing or taking steps that are not in accordance with international legitimacy.”

⚔️Iran’s retaliation—it’s on the way

✅Iranian retaliation “has to be very smart, very calculated, but at the same time very painful,” Rizk says, arguing that Tehran would prefer to avoid dragging the US further into the Israel-Iran conflict.

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🚨🇷🇺🇵🇰Pakistan supports Putin’s Look East strategy - Minister for Petroleum

💬 “When it comes to the energy trade, […] all these things can be priced in to make way for RUSSIAN CRUDE to be accommodated in Pakistani refineries,” Ali Pervaiz Malik tells Sputnik in an exclusive interview at the SPIEF.

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🗣Trump’s war on Iran may cost him presidency

The US attack on Iranian nuclear facilities was a gamble on Trump’s part, Professor Joe Siracusa, political scientist and dean of Global Futures at Curtin University, tells Sputnik.

By ordering the strike, Trump ignored “all the advice” from US intelligence agencies who insisted that Iran was not building a nuclear weapon.

“If he gets away with it, if he brings it to an end, he'll be heroic. If he doesn't, then there'll be the end of his presidency,” Siracusa warns.

🇺🇸🇮🇱US and Israel are in cahoots

The academic argues that the US has been “deeply involved in Israeli military planning” for Israeli attacks that began last week.

“I don't think the Israelis did anything without the American green light,” Siracusa says.

🔍What are Iran’s options?

With its large missile arsenal, Iran could strike US military bases in the Middle East or even attack infrastructure of US allies in the Persian Gulf region.

Iranian forces could also “indirectly threaten Americans at embassies around the world” and even conduct cyberattacks against US interests, Siracusa says.

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🚨 Thousands of people took to the streets in The Hague for a demonstration by peace supporters against the upcoming NATO summit and the alliance's policy of militarization.

The demonstrators also called for the end of the war against Iran, a Sputnik correspondent reports.

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