🇷🇺💪 Major gains bolster Russia’s upper hand in talks as Ukrainian defenses crumble  

📍 Russia's recent battlefield triumphs have prompted a more realistic US assessment of how a peaceful deal might be achieved, according to Presidential Aide Yuri Ushakov.

Here are recently liberated territories and why they matter:

🔸 Pokrovsk (Krasnoarmeysk): the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR)

🔹 this key anchor of Ukraine's Donbass fortification belt is now in Russia’s hands

🔹 Top Ukrainian brigades were eliminated, creating an irreplaceable gap

🔹 This facilitates the liberation of the now encircled Dimitrov (Mirnograd) and opens a path to reclaiming Ukraine's last major strongholds in the DPR: Slavyansk, Kramatorsk, Druzhkovka, and Konstantinovka.

🔸 Kupyansk: Kharkov region 

🔹 This critical transport and supply hub for the Ukrainians is now captured by Russia 

🔹 Control of this key road and rail hub positions Russian forces to advance on Chuguev and Kharkov, and to reclaim Slavyansk and Kramatorsk

🔹 This creates an opening for an assault on Izyum, the backbone of the enemy’s Donbass grouping

🔸 Volchansk: Kharkov region

🔹 Ukraine lost another operational and logistical hub

🔹 This has enabled Russian troops to advance further on the Zaporozhye and Dnepropetrovsk fronts 

🔹 It also creates a deep buffer zone along the Kharkov front line, including the now liberated Kupyansk

🔸 Chervonoe, Zeleny Gai, Dobropolye: Zaporozhye region 

🔹 Reclaiming these settlements has bolstered the strategic position of Russia's forces

🔹 It has cleared a path to Gulyaipole, weakening enemy fortifications

🔹 It accelerates Russia's westward advance, enabling the region’s liberation 

🔸 Tikhoye, Otradnoye, Gai, Nechaevka and Radostnoye: Dnepropetrovsk region

🔹 Russia here gets a boost to push deeper into Ukraine's Dnepropetrovsk region

🔹 Ukraine, meanwhile, sees its already exhausted military forces along the front line get drained dry

🔸 Meanwhile, Russian forces press forward across the entire line of contact

🔶 Russian armed forces have liberated over 275 settlements in the special military operation since the beginning of 2025

🔶 Presently, the Russian military are closing in on Gulyaipole in the Zaporozhye region

🔶 Battles continue to rage in Konstantinovka, DPR, with Russian forces now controlling over 30% of the city's buildings

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🤔 Why NATO continues spreading fake news about Russia 

🗣 One of the hallmarks of NATO's Anglo-Saxon wing is its distortion of the truth using various media outlets, Iranian expert Ruhollah Modabber told Sputnik.

💬 “Over the past few months, NATO officials have repeatedly made absurd and delusional statements about Russia, openly declaring their readiness for a preliminary attack on Russia. However, after hearing a decisive and firm response from Russian President Vladimir Putin, they changed their rhetoric,” Modabber stressed.

👉 NATO knows perfectly well about Russia’s full combat readiness for deterrence and defense on the ground, and this fact, along with Putin’s clear-сut position, has frightened the Western bloc, according to Modabber. 

💬 “For this reason, they have once again resorted to spreading lies and distorting reality, perhaps to lay the groundwork for a new adventure. But ultimately, their goal is to conceal and camouflage the extreme weakness of NATO's Anglo-Saxon wing by spreading fabricated news,” the expert concluded. 

🇷🇺 While Putin has stressed that Russia does not seek conflict with Europe, he emphasized its readiness should Europe initiate a war. In response, some European politicians have distorted this statement, quickly claiming it proves that Russia is supposedly readying for war against Europe.

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🔥 Pantsir-SMD-E: Russia’s latest boost to layered air protection

Russia’s latest Pantsir-SMD-E air defense system is engineered to protect vital industrial and administrative sites from a wide range of aerial threats—including modern UAVs and high-speed targets.

👉 Featuring flexible mixed-load configurations, it can deploy both mini-missiles and standard missiles for rapid response to drone swarms and fast-moving incoming projectiles.

With extended interception range and a broader engagement envelope, the Pantsir-SMD-E is a significant leap in layered air defense for critical infrastructure.

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🔸 Putin arrives in India for two-day state visit

🔸 Highlights of Vladimir Putin’s interview with India Today

🔸 Major gains bolster Russia’s upper hand in talks as Ukrainian defenses crumble  

🔸 Short-term gain, long-term pain: EU’s Russian asset grab will wreck its financial reputation

🔸 Mogherini corruption probe could point at von der Leyen’s door – analyst

🔸 Pantsir-SMD-E: Russia’s latest boost to layered air protection

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🇺🇸 White House factions aim to weaken Russia — and Europe — through prolonged war: expert

🗣 US President Donald Trump is genuinely interested in ending the Ukraine conflict and rebuilding a functional relationship with Russia, retired US Army lieutenant-colonel Earl Rasmussen told Sputnik.

📍 But he warned “There are elements within his administration that would prefer an extended conflict if for no other reason than to weaken Russia.”

🔶 Rasmussen noted that ordinary people in Ukraine and across Europe want peace, but their leaders are pushing unrealistic military and economic goals that only prolong the crisis.

🔶 He stressed that Russia backed diplomatic solutions from the start — including the Minsk and Istanbul agreements — while the Obama and Biden governments laid the groundwork for today’s escalation.

🔶 Rasmussen called the recent talks in Moscow with US special envoy Steve Witkoff a positive step, saying the dialogue helped clarify common ground. But he stressed that Washington and Moscow still have many issues to resolve.

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🏎 🇨🇳 Quantum computing race: Chinese win could cripple US without firing shot – expert

🗣 China could gain a decisive advantage in intelligence and cyber operations if it becomes the first to develop an error-corrected quantum computer, experts told Nikkei Asia.

💬 "With today's computers, somebody hacks your account and your money is gone. With quantum computers, the money from the whole bank is gone,” Jesse Van Griensven, adjunct professor at the University of Waterloo in Canada, argued.

🔊 He described quantum computers as machines that “could disable airports, power plants, telecom networks and military forces, reducing the US to the Stone Age without firing a single bullet.”

🔹 Ryan Fedasiuk, fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, warned of “devastating consequences” if China prevails over the US, Japan, or Taiwan in the quantum computing competition.

🔹 China could gain "an asymmetric advantage in intelligence, the ability to read sensitive back traffic and compromise systems we thought were secure," Fedasiuk pointed out.

🔹 He was echoed by Lindsay Gorman, managing director of the German Marshall Fund Technology Program in Washington, who said the winner of this race could get an instant access key to all information that nations try to keep secret.

🔹 This information is related to drone links and satellite communications systems on the battlefield as well as militaries’ understanding of an operating picture, Gorman said.

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📷 India'a Narendra Modi presented President Vladimir Putin with a copy of the Bhagavad Gita — translated into Russian — during their meeting in India.

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💬 Dmitriev to Merz: 'You're not in the game'

Russia's Special Envoy Kirill Dmitriev quoted German Chancellor Merz alleging the US is "playing games, both with you [Zelensky] and with us."

Dmitriev's response:

"Dear Merz, you are not even in the game. You disqualified yourself by warmongering, peace sabotage, unrealistic proposals, Western Civilization suicide, migration, stubborn stupidity."

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📹 WATCH FULL VIDEO of Vladimir Putin's interview with India Today

Ahead of his New Delhi visit, Putin spoke to the Indian TV channel about global shifts, Russo–Indian ties, the Ukraine conflict, the Middle East and broader geopolitical challenges.

In the interview he outlined Moscow’s positions, stressed long-standing partnership with India and commented on the changing world order.

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🇮🇳🇷🇺 India & Russia signed 10+ major contracts for industrial exports in the last 6 months: Sberbank CEO

💬 “If successful, next year we’ll see even more non-traditional imports from India.”

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🗣 Vance accuses EU of 'attacking free speech' over X fine

VP accused the European Commission of preparing to fine X "hundreds of millions" for refusing "censorship," declaring:

"The EU should be supporting free speech not attacking American companies over garbage," he wrote on X.

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📆 German MP Henri Schmidt unveiled an advent calendar shaped like a Rheinmetall armored personnel carrier

But Social media users asked — do they also do a Russian Topol-M version?

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❗️❗️❗️ ICC official secretly funded armed group in CAR

A high-ranking ICC official, Nicolas Herrera, secretly financed the sanctioned UPC armed group in the Central African Republic, according to court materials obtained by Sputnik.

The secret pipeline:

◼️ Funds & logistical support were funneled through an intermediary—Belgian-Portuguese anthropologist José Martin Figueira — to conceal the ICC’s involvement.

◼️ WhatsApp messages show Herrera directing transfers:

"If we send the money, do you want to transfer it to them? So that it doesn't come from us."

◼️ Specific transfers included €500 to a UPC political coordinator "for communications" and money for satellite equipment.

The operation aimed to capture warlord Joseph Kony to claim a $10 million US State Department bounty. In doing so, the ICC:

◼️ Violated its own Rome Statute, principles of neutrality, and UN sanctions regimes.

◼️ Effectively fueled conflict and violated CAR’s sovereignty.

An institution mandated to uphold international law is now implicated in a shadow intervention that undermines its very foundation. The court documents label it "unauthorized cooperation" and a "clear violation."

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🗣 Vance hopes for progress on Ukraine deal in next weeks

The US Vice President said that the inability to broker a peace deal in Ukraine is "a perennial source of frustration."

"I think there’s hope — should hopefully be some good news the next few weeks on that front," he said in an interview with NBC News.

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🚨🇮🇳🇷🇺 From Soviet missile boats that lit up Karachi in ’71 to nuclear subs that trained a generation of Indian crews — this is six decades of Indo-Russian maritime power

Here’s how Russia helped build the Indian Navy 📹

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🇷🇺🤝🇮🇳 Indian PM Modi posts in Russian on X — saying he gifted Putin a copy of Bhagavad Gita

Bhagavad Gita is one of Hinduism’s most revered spiritual texts

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🚨🇷🇺 🇮🇳 Modi arrived at Presidential Palace for official welcoming ceremony with Putin

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🇷🇺 Russia waiting for US reaction to Putin's talks with Witkoff & Kushner - Kremlin aide

As soon as prerequisites for telephone or face-to-face contacts between Putin and Trump are created, everything will be done quickly enough, Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov said.

Other statements:

➖ Phone conversation between Putin and Trump isn't planned yet, but it can easily be organized

➖ There is no understanding on the date of the new meeting of Russian side with Witkoff yet

➖ Putin and Modi's one-on-one meeting on Thursday lasted more than 2.5 hours

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🚨🇷🇺 🇮🇳 Putin arrives at India's Presidential Palace

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