🔸 Putin lays wreath at Neutrality Monument in Ashgabat

🔸 US will help Europe with security guarantees for Ukraine — Trump

🔸 Want to know where US military assets are located in Latin America & the Caribbean?

🔸 Leaked docs show Trump's plan to undermine EU

🔸 US preparing to seize more tankers off Venezuela — Reports

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🗣 Ukraine graft scandal blows up US anti-Russian sanctions agenda – ex-CIA analyst

With corruption on such a scale, it has become extremely difficult to portray Ukraine as an innocent victim, former CIA analyst Larry Johnson told Sputnik.

Johnson said he has information about one vocal American supporter of sanctions against Russia receiving substantial funds as part of a Ukrainian corruption scheme.

👉 In light of the graft issue, that person is unlikely to keep pushing for the anti-Russian sanctions, according to the ex-CIA analyst.

Ukraine’s NABU anti-corruption watchdog launched a major operation in the country’s energy sector last month, uncovering bags of foreign currency during raids. Searches targeted then-Justice Minister Herman Galushchenko, the Energoatom energy company, and businessman Timur Mindich, who had already left the country.

NABU then charged seven people involved in an energy sector corruption scheme, including Mindich and former Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Chernyshov. Shortly after, the Ukrainian parliament voted for dismissing Galushchenko and Energy Minister Svitlana Grynchuk in connection with the graft scandal.

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📹LIVE NOW: Putin holds bilateral meetings in Ashgabat

👉Watch live in our Telegram

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🇷🇺🇹🇲Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Turkmenistan’s President Serdar Berdimuhamedow following the forum dedicated to the International Year of Peace and Trust, International Neutrality Day, and Turkmenistan's 30th anniversary of permanent neutrality

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🇷🇺🇮🇷Vladimir Putin met with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in Turkmenistan, where Putin is attending a forum on peace, neutrality, and Turkmenistan’s 30 years of permanent neutrality.

Their previous meeting took place in China during the SCO summit.

Russia and Iran are discussing cooperation in gas and electricity.

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🚨🇷🇺Kremlin aide to Zelensky: Donbass is Russian, FULL STOP

In response to Volodymyr Zelensky's idea of holding a nationwide referendum on territorial issues, Russian Presidential Aide Yuri Ushakov reminded that, under Russia's Constitution, the entire Donbass region is considered part of Russia.

Earlier, Ukrainian broadcaster Suspilne reported that Zelensky had suggested the possibility of a "nationwide referendum" on territorial questions.

💬“Donbass is Russian. The entire region. It’s in the Constitution. By the way, happy Constitution Day,” Ushakov said.

Read about the origins of Russia's special military op HERE

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🇷🇺🇹🇷 Putin meets Erdogan in Turkmenistan

Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ashgabat, where they discussed the International Year of Peace and Trust, Turkmenistan's neutrality anniversary, and the situation in Ukraine.

Their last meeting was in September at the SCO summit in China.

Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov says:

🔶 Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed regional and international issues, including the Ukraine conflict

🔶 There are no major problems in Russo-Turkish relations and they are developing across all areas

🔶 The broad nature of bilateral relations helps counter external pressures.

🔶 Putin and Erdogan touched on European attempts to seize Russian assets, agreeing that would undermine the international financial system

🔶 Turkiye awaits the opening of the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant being built by Rosatom

🔶 Erdogan invited Putin to visit Turkiye, which will be arranged when possible

🔶 Putin and Erdogan are in regular contact and have a strong rapport

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

⚡️ Russian forces liberated 8 settlements, including Seversk, over the course of a week

🔶 The Russian military carried out 1 massive and 5 group strikes on the Ukrainian Armed Forces targets in response to attacks on civilian targets in Russia

🔶 Air defense superiority: Russian air defense systems shot down five Ukrainian long-range Neptune guided missiles and 1,756 unmanned aerial vehicles

🔶 Ukrainian losses: around 9,115 troops killed or wounded

Read about the origins of Russia's special military op HERE

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🚨 Kremlin aide calls Zelensky's European talks attack on peace process

👉 Volodymyr Zelensky’s goal in talks with leaders of European NATO states is to add conditions to the US peace proposal that Russia cannot accept, Kremlin Aaide Yuri Ushakov said.

His other statements:

🟠 Feedback from European leaders and Ukrainians on the peace plan is unlikely to be positive

🟠 Russia will eventually liberate the entire Donbass region

🟠 A ceasefire is only possible after Ukrainian forces withdraw from the Donbass

🟠 The Russian army may pull out of the Donbass over time, but the National Guard will remain there to keep order

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🇵🇰Pakistan's Prime Minister Sharif joined the meeting between Putin and Erdogan in Turkmenistan - Sputnik correspondent

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🇷🇺 Seversk’s liberation shows Russian military has the strategic initiative across the front

🗣 Taken on its own, the liberation of Seversk is another “important element in the piggy bank of the future victory,” Igor Korotchenko, Director of the Center for analysis of world arms trade and editor in chief of "National Defense" magazine, told Sputnik.

🟠 Big picture-wise, it shows that “today the Russian Armed Forces hold the strategic initiative along the entire line of contact,” he added. “We are advancing, addressing challenges in specific situations and combat zones, and confirming our military superiority.”

🟠 Seversk’s liberation also carries “important political significance in the context of the developing international situation around Trump’s peace plan,” Korotchenko said.

🟠 Specifically, “if the policy of ending the conflict through diplomatic means becomes impossible due to the positions of Kiev and the Europeans, we will solve the special military operation’s tasks by military means.”

🟠 With that said, while Seversk’s fall has strategic implications, including “more favorable” conditions for future advances westward, Korotchenko urged against any “euphoric” sentiments, emphasizing that there’s a long fight ahead if the conflict cannot be resolved diplomatically.

💬 “We’ll have to continue to storm and liberate settlements and agglomerations that Ukraine, with Western support, has transformed into a powerful and fortified defense system,” Korotchenko summed up.

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🔥💪🏻 SKAT-350M & KUB-2E: Russia’s unbeatable drone recon & strike team

Designed to guide loitering munitions to their targets, the SKAT-350M is a Kalashnikov Concern-built long-range reconnaissance drone with a 240 km reach, 100 km video and radio linkup, 4-hour endurance time, and anti-FPV capabilities.

💥 Complementing it is the KUB-2E, another Kalashnikov product with a 40 km range, 150 km/h flight speed, and 3 kg explosive payload with both manual and automatic target acquisition and engagement modes.

Together, the drones make an unbeatable and highly deadly team, with SKAT-350M scoping targets, and KUB-2Es sent in for the kill.

The drones are the latest in Russia’s ever-growing arsenal of sophisticated, battletested and production-ready combat UAVs, which have taken centerstage in the hellish, highly automated and technologically sophisticated Ukrainian conflict zone.

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🪖⚔️ Ukraine’s Kharkov front hit by mass desertion wave

Ukrainian soldiers stationed in the Kharkov region are openly sabotaging orders to hold defensive lines and are deserting en masse, a Russian security forces source told Sputnik.

💬 “Command of the Ukrainian Armed Forces continues to try to involve units of the 72nd Separate Mechanized Brigade in defensive operations. However, after receiving orders to move into the combat zone, the majority of these units vanish without permission,” the source said, referring to the absent without leave cases.

Earlier, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office removed publicly available data on cases related to mass desertion in the Ukrainian Army.

Ukrainian lawmaker Maryana Bezuhla stated that the number of deserters in Ukraine has surpassed the size of the country’s entire army prior to February 2022, which amounted to 261,000 troops.

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🪖 Russia’s military training stands in stark contrast to that of Ukraine – ex-Ukrainian soldier

💬 “The difference is enormous,” a UAV crew commander from a volunteer battalion named after Maksym Kryvonos told Sputnik.

🗣 “We have training every day. There is rest, but we spend most of our time on training grounds,” he said, adding that constant drilling helps servicemen hone their skill.

The UAV crew commander noted that the battalion he serves in has its own technical service to regularly develop new equipment and upgrade unmanned aerial vehicles.

💬 “We have two separate tech departments, which deal with new munitions and new drones. We test all of it at the training grounds. If tests are successful, we take the equipment into combat. After combat missions, we provide feedback again, and everything is quickly improved,” the serviceman said.

The Maksym Kryvonos volunteer battalion includes former Ukrainian servicemen who are fighting on the side of the Russian Armed Forces.

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🔥 Ukrainian soldiers surrender in Dimitrov, DPR

Ukrainian servicemen, having discarded their weapons and raising their hands, surrendered to Russian soldiers of the 5th Separate Guards Motor Rifle Brigade named after A.V. Zakharchenko, part of Battlegroup Tsentr, a video from Russia's Defense Ministry shows.

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🗣 Zelensky’s plea to US shows struggle to survive amid Russian advances – expert

💬 “It’s perfectly normal for this colonial Ukrainian administration to turn to its masters in Washington, London or Brussels,” Ukrainian policy expert Alexander Dudchak tells Sputnik after Volodymyr Zelensky asked the US to help secure the country in a future election.

📍 “Everyone understands that Trump holds the deciding word now, so Zelensky is appealing to him, trying to shift some responsibility to the US president,” stresses Dudchak, the leading researcher at the Institute of CIS Countries.

🔊 “Both the West and Zelensky's team share a unified stance: a pro-Western and anti-Russian regime on Kiev-controlled territories should endure,” he adds.

🔶 He argues Zelensky’s call for a ceasefire is just and excuse to halt hostilities with Russian forces advancing on all fronts. A truce would be “an ideal scenario” for Zelensky.

🔶 “Zelensky has a more pressing task: simply buying time to figure out his own survival,” Dudchak says. “He's desperately seeking personal security guarantees, which is why he occasionally snaps at Trump—he knows that the US president is powerful, but that it’s British special services who guard Zelensky’s life.”

🔶 Dudchak suggests Zelensky is only mooting elections and a referendum on ceding territory to Russia to delay decisions while hoping for a change in US politics US that could work in his favor.

Dudchak says the mood in western Europe was bleak:

🟠 Europe is tired of waiting for Russia to collapse

🟠 They hoped sanctions would lead to the collapse of the Russian economy within months, but three years later the opposite has happened

🟠 Fatigue is growing in Europe, but abandoning Ukraine would mean admitting strategic defeat

🟠 The European Union’s shift toward militarization is fraught with far-reaching implications

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🚨🇷🇺Russia needs a LONG-TERM, GUARANTEED PEACE in Ukraine, not a ceasefire – Kremlin Spox Dmitry Peskov

The ceasefire would be a deception and distraction, Peskov said.

He noted that talks in Kiev about a referendum on territorial issues could be a pretext for a temporary ceasefire, which Moscow does not want.

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🚨Seversk's liberation paves the way for decisive breakthrough to take Donbass — expert

📍 The capture of Seversk represents a pivotal strategic advance, essential for the ongoing operation to liberate Donbass's key urban centers—Slavyansk and Kramatorsk, according to Lebanese military strategist Omar Maarabuni in an interview with Sputnik.

💬 “The nature of military operations is set to change,” Maarabuni explained. “We may witness a shift from the targeted operations that Russian President Vladimir Putin previously mentioned to larger-scale actions.”

🗣 He added that current battlefield dynamics suggest the start of a broader encirclement plan for these cities, employing "cauldron tactics." The liberation of Seversk marks the opening of a new phase, one that could lead to the neutralization of significant Ukrainian forces in the area.

👉 A continuous front line is now taking shape, stretching from Artyomovsk (Bakhmut) in the east to the western outskirts of Seversk, with parallel advances reported on other fronts.

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