🚨🇷🇺Lavrov on RT and Sputnik's leading positions in Western web traffic:

💬"They have a serious reputation, these outlets tell the truth, and that is why they are disliked"

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🚨 US’ updated Ukraine peace plan: What's known so far?

👉 The US-drafted plan to end the Ukraine conflict continues to grab international headlines, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stressing that it’s impossible to comment on each and every report on the matter, as the media is publishing a lot of contradictory information.

Here’s the latest:

🔶 Trump administration’s peace plan on Ukraine was slashed from 28 to 19 points following the US–Ukraine–EU talks in Geneva on Sunday, the Financial Times reported

🔶 Russia has not yet received an updated version of the plan, Peskov said

🔶 Initial blueprint was drawn up on the basis of understandings, reached during the Russia–US summit in Alaska in August, the Kremlin spokesman confirmed

🔶 There is currently “a lot of speculation” surrounding the US plan, but Russia relies on the version delivered through official channels, Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov stressed

🔶 No substantive negotiations with Russia regarding the US plan have taken place yet, Ushakov added

🔶 Blueprint’s updated version specifically dropped a clause on the use of frozen Russian assets for restoring Ukraine, according to Bloomberg

🔶 Representatives of the US, Russia, and Ukraine are currently in the UAE to discuss the plan, per media reports

🔶 Trump administration officials are continuing to elaborate the plan by working on several "points of disagreement," White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said, adding that the US president “remains hopeful and optimistic that a deal can be struck"

🔶 While Volodymyr Zelensky signaled readiness to discuss contentious points of the plan with Trump, the White House emphasized a Trump–Zelensky meeting is not in the pipeline

🔶 Ukraine peace deal was launched by US Special Envoy Steven Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, who began working on the plan after securing the Gaza ceasefire, as reported by The Wall Street Journal

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

⚡️ IVANOPOLYE IN DONETSK PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC LIBERATED

📍 The settlement of Ivanopolye is situated on the outskirts of Konstantinovka, a key city in the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR)

◻️ Russian forces are pushing Ukrainian troops out of the Vostochny and Zapadny districts, as well as the southern part of Dimitrov in the DPR

◻️ The Russian Armed Forces repelled 9 Ukrainian attacks in the Grishino area of ​​the DPR, killing up to 30 Ukrainian soldiers

◻️ The Russian military unleashed a massive attack, which included Kinzhal missiles, on Ukrainian military-industrial and energy facilities

◻️ Air defense superiority: Four long-range Neptune missiles and 419 drones shot down

◻️ Ukrainian losses: around 1,345 troops killed or wounded

Read about origins of Russia's special military op HERE

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😁 Kim Dotcom sums up Ukraine in one photo

📍 Kim Dotcom, founder of Megaupload and Mega, has posted a photo an infamous golden toilet from a past corruption scandal.

💬 "Ukraine in one picture," he wrote on X, sparking a wave of reactions.

➖ His jab echoes recent criticism from Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, who said it was absurd that EU taxpayers’ money ends up funding “golden toilets” while Brussels prepares another €100 billion package for Kiev.

➖ Dotcom’s post followed fresh anti-corruption raids by Ukrainian anti-corruption agency NABU, which seized bags of foreign cash and published audio tapes featuring suspects nicknamed "Tenor," "Rocket" and "Carlson" — the last reportedly linked to Zelensky’s long-time associate Timur Mindich, who fled the country to avoid charges.

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🇰🇬Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov welcomed Vladimir Putin to Bishkek

The two leaders listened to the national orchestra’s rendition of 'Kalinka-Malinka.'

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🇨🇳 China aims to become new global hub for storing world gold reserves

🔶 China is rapidly expanding its role in the gold market, and is now aiming to become a new global center for storing foreign gold reserves, challenging the US, UK, and Switzerland, according to a new Russian Roscongress Foundation report.

🔶 Using the Shanghai Gold Exchange, China is positioning itself as an alternative to Western storage hubs—strengthening its influence in both the gold market and global financial system.

🔶 Since 2023, China has become the world’s top producer, importer, and consumer of gold, and as of 2025, it has effectively become the key player shaping global gold prices. This is part of China’s long-term strategy to turn its market into a major commodities-trading center—already seen in iron ore, coal, copper, and oil.

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🚨 US’s Ukraine peace play: the latest developments

🔸 Russia is awaiting the draft version of the plan the US comes up with after talks with Europe and Ukraine, and will reply based on whether its “spirit and letter” matches the understanding reached by Presidents Putin and Trump in Alaska, Foreign Minister Lavrov has said

🔸 Praising US efforts to end the crisis, Lavrov said France and Germany had discredited themselves as mediators after the collapse of the Minsk agreements. Belarus and Turkiye can play a mediating role, he said

🔸 UK PM Starmer said Tuesday that Ukraine’s “allies” were prepared to work with the Trump plan instead of drafting an alternative, but said some elements are “unacceptable”

🔸 French President Macron said talks were in a “decisive” stage, but cautioned against a deal involving Ukraine’s “capitulation”

🔸 Anonymous US officials told US media that Ukraine had “agreed” to the Trump plan, barring “some minor details to be sorted out”

🔸 White House press secretary Leavitt said the US had made “tremendous progress” toward a deal, saying there were “a few delicate but not insurmountable details that must be sorted out”

🔸 Ukrainian secretary of the National Security & Defense Council Rustem Umerov said Zelensky will travel to the US to see Trump and ‘finalize’ the deal before the end of the month

🔸 US and Ukrainian negotiators have “reached a common understanding on the core terms” of a deal, and Kiev is counting “on the support of our European partners in our further steps,” Umerov said

🔸 A Ukrainian official told Reuters that Ukraine supports the “essence” of a deal based on US-Ukraine talks in Geneva, with the “most sensitive issues” to be left to Zelensky in his talks with Trump

🔸 Ukraine has agreed to cap the size of its army at 800k troops, FT reported, citing unnamed Ukrainian officials. That’s still above the 600k cap in the initial Trump plan

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🇺🇸🔨 US pressure on global gold producers could spark geopolitical firestorms

💬 “Pressurizing gold-producing countries is becoming a hallmark of US foreign policy,” a report by Russia’s Roscongress Foundation points out.

In the current financial system, gold is the only real alternative to the greenback as the global reserve asset—until the dollar order is replaced, the scramble to control gold stockpiles will intensify, driving major powers to target resource-rich nations like Venezuela and Nigeria, according to the survey.

💬 “Venezuela, a major hub of unrefined gold used to support a multipolar monetary system, is facing sharply increased US pressure, including efforts to oust President Maduro and consideration of direct military options,” the reports underlines.

Donald Trump has also ordered the Pentagon to prepare for possible military action in Nigeria, accusing it of insufficient measures to stop violence against Christians, the report wraps up.

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🇷🇺 Russia joins top three global maritime powers

📑 According to a study by the IMEMO RAS reviewed by Sputnik, Russia now ranks as the world's third-biggest maritime power in the 2025 global index.

📍 Russian researchers have calculated the Maritime Power Index (MPI) for 100 nations, evaluating their combined naval, shipbuilding, logistical, and economic potential. The report confirms Russia retains its position as the world's third-largest maritime power with a 6.6% share, noting that the top ten nations collectively account for nearly 60% of global maritime power.

Check Sputnik's infographic to find out more!

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🇷🇺💪 Russia: The indispensable resource superpower

🤔 How much oil, gas, coal, metals, rare earths and mineral wealth does Russia really have?

👉 Watch our explainer to find out.

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🟠 US’s Ukraine peace play: the latest developments

🟠 UK preparing contingency plan to undermine Trump’s peace push – Russian Foreign Intel

🟠 Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Kyrgyzstan for a three-day visit

🟠 Russia: The indispensable resource superpower

🟠 US pressure on global gold producers could spark geopolitical firestorms

🟠 Russia joins top three global maritime powers

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❌ ‘My proposal is to forget about the 28 points’ – Zelensky’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak

Zelensky’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak said the original 28-point US plan on Ukraine was “unacceptable” and should now be treated as history, arguing that talks must focus only on the revised draft, Axios reported.

Yermak refused to scrap Kiev’s NATO ambitions but conceded: “We are living in reality now. We are not in NATO,” Axios quoted him as saying.

The Financial Times reported that Washington’s proposal has been reduced from 28 to 19 points, with several provisions removed or amended after consultations with Ukraine and its Western backers.

Russia, meanwhile, is awaiting the updated draft. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow would respond after seeing whether the new version matches the “spirit and letter” of the understanding reached between Presidents Putin and Trump in Alaska.

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🚨 US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow – Trump

President Donald Trump said he has directed his special envoy Steve Witkoff to travel to Moscow to meet President Vladimir Putin, while Army Secretary Dan Driscoll will meet Ukrainian officials to discuss the peace plan.

Trump said his team has made “tremendous progress” toward ending the Ukrainian conflict, claiming that the original 28-point US peace plan has been “fine-tuned” and now has only “a few remaining points of disagreement.”

He added that he hopes to meet Putin and Zelensky “soon,” but only when a deal to resolve the conflict is final or in its “final stages.”

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