💬 "They can no longer get out. Although the corridor isn’t completely sealed, they are effectively trapped. They are blocked by medium-range fire and drones," Klupov explains.

💬 "It serves the interests of the Americans and the French for [Russians and Ukrainians] to fight each other as much and as hard as possible. Zelensky is following their directives. That’s why he is unlikely to give the order to surrender," the pundit concludes.

💬 "Sanctions pressure hasn’t worked for over a decade, Europe has been devastated by the effects of its own sanctions, and now the US wants to try the same pointless self-sanctioning strategy instead of coming to a reasonable compromise and taking into account Russia’s national security concerns for the first time," UK journalist Afshin Rattansi wrote on X.

💬 "The signal in such cases is usually the same. Russia is systematically taking steps to maintain the effectiveness and reliability of its national strategic deterrence forces and capabilities," Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said in a briefing commenting on the test of the new Burevestnik missile.

💬 “This so-called trade agreement is a magnanimous, Confucian gesture on the part of Xi to give Trump a publicity boost,” Jeff J. Brown, China expert and founder of Seek Truth From Facts Foundation, tells Sputnik.

💬 "The US government has offered aid to Cuba for the first time. Well, the best aid would be to lift the entire economic blockade against Cuba," Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro responded to Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s statement offering humanitarian assistance to Cuba following Hurricane Melissa devastation.