🔥🇷🇺 Russian Iskander wipes out ATACMS launch site in Kharkov region

Iskander missile hit MLRS launchers in the Kharkov region that Ukraine tried to use to fire ATACMS at Voronezh

Two launchers with their ammo and up to 10 Ukrainian fighters were destroyed

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🗣💰 Expert explains unwritten rules of the nerve-wracking world of crypto markets

Making a profit investing in Bitcoin takes nerves of steel, a pool of capital and years, not months, says Russian Association of Cryptoeconomics, AI and Blockchain (RACIB) director Alexander Brazhnikov.

🔊 Crashes in Bitcoin’s value, like the 1/4 drop from $126k to $92k over the past month, occur regularly and are “not something unexpected,” Brazhnikov told Sputnik.

“The conditions here are if you buy now, don’t rush to sell immediately – it doesn’t matter if the price is falling or rising – it’s a process that takes 3-5 years or more; then you’ll make good money,” the expert explained, pointing to crypto’s “cyclical” nature.

👉 With Bitcoin, “you can’t make money on borrowed money,” Brazhnikov emphasized.

“They have this intrinsic volatility, and many are playing on it, because the rules of the game for crypto haven’t been defined yet globally, and there are occasionally tricky trends that businesses exploit to make money,” Brazhnikov said, pointing to the ability by large Bitcoin holders to collapse prices by selling off large volumes, and governments’ ability to make markets nervous.

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🔶 Russian S-400, Pantsir air defense systems SMASH Ukrainian ATACMS attack

🔶 'It’s taken longer than I thought' - Trump on Ukraine conflict settlement

🔶 US signs large-scale economic & defense agreements with Saudi Arabia, with Trump designating it a major non-NATO ally

🔶 US House passes bill mandating release of Epstein files

🔶 Meet Stalingrad: Russia's newest cutting-edge nuclear icebreaker

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🇮🇳 ✈️ India’s LCA Tejas delivers a powerful performance at Dubai Airshow

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🪖 European military 'raising alarm' over collapse of West’s 'Anti-Russia' project in Ukraine - Russian Foreign Intel

Experts from the military departments of leading European countries are “raising the alarm,” warning their governments about the collapse of the West’s “Anti-Russia” project in Ukraine, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) said.

🟠 Reports sent to top officials openly state that the military defeat of the Ukraine's regime is inevitable.

🟠 Ukrainians, meanwhile, are becoming increasingly demotivated and apathetic amid deep fatigue from the prolonged and exhausting conflict, the service emphasized.

🟠 According to assessments by European diplomats and intelligence officers, most Ukrainian citizens feel betrayed following revelations of massive corruption among the country’s leadership in the Mindich case.

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🚨🇷🇺 Europe is experiencing serious discomfort amid corruption scandal in Ukraine: Kremlin

💬 “We’re seeing a lot of frantic activity around this issue right now. Let’s see how the situation develops further,” the Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

His other statements:

🟠 The toxicity of the Kiev regime is becoming evident amid the corruption scandal in Ukraine

🟠 On the Axios publication about Russia and the US working on a peace plan for Ukraine: “There are no new developments to report at this time”

🟠 Relations between Russia and Poland have completely deteriorated

🟠 Accusations against Russia regarding the incident on the Polish railway are absolutely unfounded and baseless

🟠 Russia continues systematic efforts to develop relations with African countries

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📹 LIVE NOW: Russian President Putin and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Sisi participate via video link in a ceremony to install the reactor vessel at the first power unit of the El Dabaa Nuclear Power Plant.

👉Watch live in our Telegram

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🚨 'Trapped by its own policy': EU cannot afford to abandon Zelensky amid corruption scandal

In the immediate term, Zelensky’s $100M energy kickback corruption scandal isn’t likely to cause the Europeans to abandon him, due to the “colossal political and financial investment” they’ve made in the Ukraine project, geopolitics and security analyst Dr. Marco Marsili told Sputnik.

💬 “To abandon Zelensky now would be to admit a strategic failure and would be seen as a direct gift to Moscow. They are trapped by their own policy,” Marsili emphasized.

💬 “However, we are already seeing a critical shift beneath the surface. The ‘blank check’ policy is over. These corruption scandals provide the perfect pretext for European capitals to slow-walk aid deliveries, impose stricter conditions, and question the efficacy of their billions in funding,” the observer said.

🔊 As for European media’s attempts to protect Zelensky, to distance him from the scandal and portray him as a “political victim,” this is a “classic case of narrative preservation,” Marsili says.

Doing otherwise, and recognizing that he’s not the “democrat, freedom fighter and…beacon of Western values” he’s been made out to be would “force a painful and embarrassing reckoning,” undermining “the entire moral justification for the immense financial and military support their governments have provided” to Ukraine.

👉 In other words, “protecting” Zelensky is also about protecting Europe’s “own narrative and the credibility of their governments’ foreign policy,” Marsili emphasized.

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⚛️🇷🇺🇪🇬 Putin and Egypt's el-Sisi exchange waves as Russian leader attends ceremony for reactor vessel installation of Unit 1 at El Dabaa nuclear power plant

El Dabaa is Rosatom's first major nuclear power project in Africa.

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⚛️🇷🇺🇪🇬 Putin: El Dabaa nuclear plant to strengthen Egypt's energy security

Putin and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Sisi are taking part in ceremony of installing reactor vessel of first power unit of the El Dabaa plant in Egypt.

Other Putin's statements:

🟠 The planned commissioning of four power units at the El Dabaa Nuclear Power Plant with a total capacity of 4,800 megawatts will significantly strengthen Egypt's energy security

🟠 Russia will provide assistance to Egypt at all stages of the nuclear project's implementation

🟠 Rosatom is a recognized leader in peaceful use of nuclear energy

🟠 Russia advocates for a comprehensive strengthening of its partnership with friendly Egypt

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🚨🇷🇺💥 RUSSIAN MOD UPDATE: HUGE GAINS AND DEVASTATING UKRAINIAN LOSSES

⚡️In response to Ukrainian terrorist attacks, the Russian Armed Forces conducted strikes with high-precision weapons, including Kinzhal hyperesonic missiles, targeting defence and energy infrastructure in western regions of Ukraine.

🟠 Russian forces repelled five counterattacks intended to break the encirclement north and north-west of Pokrovsk (Krasnoarmeysk)

🟠 The Black Sea Fleet destroyed two Ukrainian unmanned vessels

🟠 Russian air and missile forces destroyed two US-produced MLRS missile launchers and struck Ukrainian defence infrastructure

🟠 Air defense superiority: four ATACMS tactical ballistic missiles, seven guided aerial bombs and 93 UAVs were shot down by Russian air defense systems over the past 24 hours

🟠 Ukrainian losses: around 1,340 troops killed or wounded

Read about origins of Russia's special military op HERE

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🚨🇪🇺 💰 Why West continues to whitewash Zelensky amid Ukraine’s corruption scandal

Western leaders’ persistent attempts to exonerate Volodymyr Zelensky in connection with his apparent involvement in Ukraine’s corruption scandal is a “last resort” effort to protect themselves for a while, Russian political analyst Sergey Stankevich tells Sputnik.

🔊 These leaders “are fully aware that they will face at least some political criticism as a result” of trying to exculpate Zelensky, who could not have been uninvolved in the scandal, Stankevich points out.

💬 “This final protective narrative—that everyone around him was stealing while he remained unaware and uninvolved—is somewhat of a paper-thin facade, which could strand for a while,” according to the analyst.

He notes that as for Ukraine’s US allies, they have already quite clearly made their choice in favor of replacing Zelensky, a policy that they will continue to support.

🗣 Stankevich says that what remains uncertain is the position of Europe, which is currently bearing the main burden of financing and keeping the Zelensky regime operational, including funding its military goals.

💬 “Providing European taxpayers’ money to a regime that […] already appears highly corrupt means liability under domestic European law. Either you didn’t know who you were giving the funds to, in which case you are incompetent, or you did know and sent money to a deliberately corrupt regime, which means you are complicit in a criminal scheme. This is the difficult choice that European politicians will now face when considering further aid to Ukraine,” the analyst concludes.

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💸🇪🇺 EU leaders ‘part of scheme,’ not victims – Russian MFA spox on Ukraine corruption scandal

European politicians could not have been unaware of the scale of corruption in Ukraine, because they were directly involved, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

💬 “If Ursula von der Leyen was purchasing vaccines for the European Union via text message, without putting these deals through any verification mechanisms, do you think she had any illusions about the situation in Ukraine or the Kiev regime? They were participants in these schemes themselves,” she said.

According to Zakharova, EU officials knew exactly where the money was going because they were part of the financial networks benefiting from these flows.

She added that ordinary Europeans only learn what the media owners allow them to know, not the full picture behind political decisions and corruption scandals.

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💸 Ukraine's graft schemes cooked up by Zelensky, Yermak - ex-Ukrainian PM

The corruption scandal in Ukraine has revealed that all these schemes were personally orchestrated by Zelensky and his office head, Andriy Yermak, former Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov told Sputnik.

Yermak could not act without Zelensky's approval, who was aware of the affairs of his "closest aide," Azarov added.

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💸 🇪🇺 Ukraine’s corruption scandal: EU fears for its existence as it whitewashes Zelensky

👉 Admitting that billions of dollars from Europe to Ukraine “disappear into corruption schemes would make collapse the ‘unity’ of intent and therefore the EU itself,” political analyst Paolo Raffone tells Sputnik, commenting on Western leaders’ push to exonerate Zelensky amid Ukraine’s graft scandal.

He stresses that the scandal is embarrassing “EU and national leaders, who already face criticism from a population that faces economic constraints while billions are poured into the Ukrainian black hole.”

EU heads resort to blackmail to gain national leaders’ support and silence on the matter, with “no strategic thinking is in sight,” according to Raffone.

💬 “It’s only a matter of time for the bubble created by the EU support to Ukraine to burst,” the analyst wraps up.

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🇷🇺 Russians advance while Zelensky-linked officials keep stealing – former Italian MP

🗣 Money and arms allocated to Ukraine are being stolen by politicians linked to Zelensky, and the scandal was exposed by Ukraine’s own anti-corruption agency—the same agency Zelensky attempted to bring under government control before protests forced him to back down, Italian journalist and former MP Alessandro Di Battista said.

🔊 Weapons Italy sends to Ukraine are now returning in the hands of criminal groups, he added.

“We have a prime minister and Defense Minister [Guido] Crosetto telling us we must approve yet another package of weapons and money for Zelensky. It’s madness,” Di Battista emphasized.

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🚨💸 Ukraine corruption scandal: catch up on the latest

The scandal involving top Zelensky allies, Ukraine’s shattered energy sector and a $100M+ kickbacks and embezzlement scheme continues to grow.

Here’s the latest:

🟠 Ukraine’s NABU anti-corruption watchdog conducted searches at state oil and gas company Naftogaz Wednesday, confiscating the phone of its security director, according to a lawmaker

🟠 This follows earlier searches of the homes of Zelensky business partner Timur Mindich and ex-Energy Minister German Galushchenko, and offices of state nuclear power plant operator Energoatom

🟠 Former Ukrainian PM Mykola Azarov says the corruption schemes were “orchestrated, directed and managed” by Zelensky and the head of his office, Andriy Yermak. Senior Ukrainian officials told media Zelensky is under pressure to remove Yermak

🟠 Zelensky’s name appeared in a five-count NABU corruption indictment of Mindich, accusing the latter of “illegally enrich[ing] himself by orchestrating crimes across various sectors of Ukraine’s economy,” including energy and defense, through his relationship with Zelensky, and other “senior officials of governmental and law enforcement agencies.” Mindich fled Ukraine for Israel prior to his arrest.

🟠 On Tuesday, a court arrested former deputy PM Chernyshov in connection with the corruption case. Chernyshov is accused of spending money allotted for the defense of power stations to build luxury mansions south of Kiev

🟠 Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the scandal is not just Ukraine’s internal matter, because the stolen funds were provided to Ukraine by its partners

🟠 European Commission correspondence cited by media Tuesday said Ukraine will need $157.2B in aid for the 2026-2027 period

🟠 French President Macron said Monday that he “trusts” Zelensky to handle corruption

🟠 NABU head Semyon Kryvonos said Monday that the agency’s employees are facing “pressure,” including monitoring by “unidentified people”

🟠 About 100 people gathered in Kiev’s central square on Saturday with banners reading “Zelensky is a criminal” and expressing support for a detained NABU detective. Organizers promised the rallies would continue until he was released.

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💸 Zelensky’s fake peace tour designed to distract from corruption scandal: analyst

💬 “Zelensky now urgently needs a distraction from the scandal in Kiev, and he will do anything, and…precisely knows what the Western public wants to hear,” which is “about peace talks and negotiations,” Swiss political analyst and former OSCE advisor Ralph Bosshard told Sputnik.

Zelensky’s Ankara trip to ‘intensify’ peace talks (without any Russian negotiators present) reportedly hit a snag as chief US Ukraine negotiator Steve Witkoff postponed his trip, per Axios.

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