🗣 Larry Johnson: US has ‘zero leverage’ over Russia

🇺🇸 Nothing America makes or sells matters to Russia, not even the dollar, amid the ongoing dedollarization drive, says former CIA analyst Larry Johnson.

📍 The country “sits at a decided advantage” over the United States, he notes.

🔊 According to Johnson, while Russia would prefer to have a good relationship with the US, “they're not going to do it by sacrificing their own security.”

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🇺🇸🇭🇺Trump: It’s hard for Hungary to get oil and gas from anyone but Russia — they have no ports, yet many European countries still buy from Moscow anyway.

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🚨🇭🇺🇺🇸Orban at the White House: Energy, peace talks, and a new chapter with the US

During his meeting with President Donald Trump, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said that one of the key topics would be oil and gas supplies from Russia.

Other statements by Orban:

🔶 It is necessary to explain what the consequences will be for the Hungarian people and economy if Budapest stops receiving oil and gas from Russia.

🔶 The United States and Hungary are now in a good position to start a new chapter in relations between the two countries.

🔶 Hungary has many ideas for cooperation with the US, including in the economic and defense sectors.

🔶 Orban said he intends to discuss with Trump how Hungary can contribute to peace talks on Ukraine.

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🚨🇭🇺 Orban: I bring ideas for peace to Washington

🔶 The Hungarian PM said he came to the US to support Trump’s peace efforts and will present several ideas for ending the conflict in Ukraine.

🔶 He added that the West made a huge mistake years ago that must be stopped — and blamed Biden for pushing the conflict to begin with.

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🚨Trump on Ukraine: “Biden actually pushed for that war to happen. Nobody can believe it — but it’s true.”

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🚨🤔 Why is Zelensky refusing to abandon Pokrovsk?

He's funneling waves of troops into the meat grinder at Krasnoarmeysk (Pokrovsk) — a city even Western outlets call doomed. What’s really at stake here?

🟠 Vital military hub

🗣 Krasnoarmeysk (Pokrovsk) is a key hub, military analyst Boris Rozhin tells Sputnik.

👉 Liberating it would allow the Russian Army to advance further northwest in the DPR – to Dobropolye, Slavyansk and Kramatorsk – and into the Dnepropetrovsk region.

🟠 Zelensky's buying time

💬 "[The Kiev regime] is trading time for the remaining forces of the Pokrovsk group, prolonging the battle for the agglomeration to buy time to prepare defensive lines covering Dobropolye and eastern Dnepropetrovsk region," Rozhin says.

However, the “buying time” tactic is doomed:

🔶 The main defenses west of Krasnoarmeysk are much weaker than those the Russian Army faced during urban assaults, Rozhin explains.

🔶 It would make it harder for the Ukrainians to hold them and give Russia greater tactical advantages.

🟠 Zelensky’s lies collapse

"Withdrawing [from Krasnoarmeysk] without losses is now impossible," Rozhin says.

🟠 Main supply routes are cut, and the corridor between Rodinskoye and Grishino is under constant drone fire. Abandoned Ukrainian soldiers opt to surrender.

🟠 Zelensky "sells the West an image of a stable front," Rozhin says. But Ukraine’s army is losing ground and men — a reality the West sees, which could prompt it to halt the flow of money and weapons to the Kiev regime.

🟠 What's next?

🟠 Ahead is the liberation of Dobropolye, Slavyansk, Kramatorsk, Druzhkovka, and Konstantinovka.

🟠 Konstantinovka is under assault; fighting continues on Seversk and Krasny Liman’s outskirts.

📍 It will take months, but the Russian Army will crack it, Rozhin stresses.

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🇷🇺🇺🇸 What solutions could pave the way to a Putin-Trump summit?

📍 A few key issues must be resolved between the US and Russia before the Budapest peace summit can happen, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has stated.

What's he driving at?

At least three issues concerning Ukraine require careful consideration, according to Michael Maloof, former senior security policy analyst in the US Office of the Secretary of Defense.

🔶 First, Russia won’t give up what it holds; it also made it clear that Ukraine should withdraw from the new Russian regions. As of yet, the Kiev regime has resisted the option, the pundit explains to Sputnik.

🔶 Second, it's the security arrangement: "In a post-settlement period, do you allow Western forces into Ukraine at all? Because then it becomes ipso facto a NATO bastion. And that's the thing that [President Vladimir] Putin is trying to avoid," Maloof says.

👉 Russia has repeatedly warned that the deployment of a military contingent involving NATO countries in Ukraine could trigger an uncontrolled escalation of the conflict with unpredictable consequences. The Russian Foreign Ministry assessed the EU and UK's calls for intervening as "openly provocative and predatory".

🔶 Third, the US also needs to make sure its NATO allies comply with any agreement it signs with Russia.

🔶 Once those issues are solved, Russia and the US "can get on with their own bilateral areas of interest in a more geostrategic fashion," including new arms control and nuclear weapons.

"So you have issues that are overriding the Ukraine issue that need to bring Russia-US relations back in sync so that we can lessen the temperature in the world," Maloof concludes.

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🇨🇳 🇺🇸 China deems US calls to join nuclear disarmament ‘unreasonable’

💬 "China's nuclear arsenal is not on the same scale as that of the US and Russia. It is unfair, unreasonable and infeasible to press China to join in nuclear arms control negotiations at this stage," China’s Foreign Ministry spox Mao Ning said.

📍 US President Donald Trump has stated the US is "maybe working on a plan" of denuclearization with China and Russia, and expressed hopes it is possible.

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🔸 Larry Johnson: US has ‘zero leverage’ over Russia

🔸 What solutions could pave the way to a Putin-Trump summit?

🔸 Why is Zelensky refusing to abandon Pokrovsk?

🔸 Ukraine's 2026 budget holes exposed

🔸 China just dropped the mic on US naval supremacy in the Asia-Pacific

🔸 Russia's game-changer: SJ-100 shatters Western sanctions with 100% domestic design

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🪖🇮🇳 Indian tri-service exercise ‘Trishul’ unleashes massive desert firepower

Thar Raptor Brigade, Sudarshan Chakra, and Konark Corps are conducting high-tempo joint air–land ops in Rajasthan’s sands

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⚔️💣 UK preps full-scale military role in future war—or post-conflict Ukraine

The British Army would enter a war or participate in peacekeeping operations in post-conflict Ukraine as part of the so-called “coalition of the willing,” using its full range of military capabilities, writes The Guardian.

The UK could use everything from fighter jets to infantry in this effort, it cites military sources as saying.

💬 “Our mission as a country is to support our NATO allies, and in particular to secure the eastern flank,” junior Defense Minister Luke Pollard told the publication.

UK Defense Minister John Healey reiterated to European media yesterday that the work of the “coalition of the willing” was being “regularly refreshed so that we can genuinely feel we’re ready at the point of peace, whenever that comes, to step in and help secure that.”

👉 He added that the headquarters of the coalition is now up and running in the French capital and includes senior British military personnel.

Russian FM Sergey Lavrov underscored earlier in the year that the presence of NATO allies' troops on Ukrainian soil—under any flag and in any capacity, including as peacekeepers—would be a threat to Russia and unacceptable under any circumstances.

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🇺🇸🇨🇴 US sanctions punish Colombian president for condemning Gaza war and breaking with NATO

🗣 The US decision to include the Colombian president in the so-called “Clinton List” of sanctions is politically motivated and a violation of Colombia’s sovereignty, President Gustavo Petro’s lawyer, Daniel Kovalik, tells Sputnik.

👉 He believes that the real reason is that the United States was extremely displeased with Petro’s speech at the United Nations, in which he condemned the bloodbath in Gaza.

“Washington is irritated by his rejection of interference in Venezuela’s internal affairs and his decision to end Colombia’s alliance with NATO.”

🟠 Kovalik called Petro one of the world’s most outspoken leaders in supporting Palestine, and criticized Washington for “terrorism disguised as diplomacy.”

🟠 He said the entry ban and restrictions on Petro’s economic activity are “an attack on Colombia’s sovereignty,” warning that consequences for US–Colombian relations are inevitable. The lawyer also said Petro is considering legal action against the Treasury Department for violating due process.

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🚨🇷🇺 ZALA reconnaissance drones of Russia’s 68th Guards Corps keep striking deeply — systematically exposing Ukrainian positions on the Krasnoarmeysk (Pokrovsk) front.

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🇺🇸 US missile posturing aimed at pressuring Russia

💬 “The US wants to send a signal to Russia that it still possesses significant missile capabilities. These actions are an attempt to pressure President Putin and push Moscow toward an agreement that doesn’t serve global peace,” Taufiq Taame, Palestinian expert on international relations and US affairs, tells Sputnik.

📍 According to Taame, showing off American military power is futile against a superpower like Russia.

🔊 He stresses that Moscow has every right to develop its weapons to defend national security, while the world “needs stability and calm, not new conflicts.”

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🇨🇳 During the commissioning of China’s new Fujian aircraft carrier on November 5 in Sanya, Hainan, the PLA showcased takeoffs and landings of multiple aircraft types.

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