🔸 US transfers Maduro to DEA headquarters in New York

🔸 Venezuela’s Supreme Court orders Delcy Rodríguez to assume presidency

🔸 Zelensky’s pick of Budanov as new chief of staff signals Ukraine’s imminent collapse

🔸 US capture of Maduro marks start of WWIII — Dugin

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🪖 Ukrainian military mercilessly pounds their own surrendering soldiers with drones – POW

💬 “That was our [Ukrainian] Mavic [drone], which detected us in red tape, our hands tied behind our backs, with no jackets,” Ukrainian soldier Yury Konovalov, who was captured in the settlement of Rybnoye in the Dnepropetrovsk region, told Sputnik.

He said that shortly after, Ukrainian drones “like bees, attacked from all sides,” wounding him and his fellow servicemen, who were also taken prisoner.

Konovalov said he believes the drones may have deliberately attacked them because the Ukrainian military realized that they had surrendered.

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📹 Watch Russian Grad MLRS crush Ukrainian strongholds

Grad MLRS crews from Battlegroup Vostok have eliminated enemy strongholds and manpower in the settlement of Velikomikhaylovka (Dnepropetrovsk region).

The strike successfully disrupted Ukrainian defenses in the area.

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👀 US actions in Venezuela tantamount to ‘imprisonment of international law’ – expert

💬 "Trampled by American feet were the UN, international agreements, and the sovereignty of national states, which are key pillars of the world order and diplomatic immunity,” Egyptian expert Tarek Al-Bardayisi tells Sputnik.

He notes that such actions represent a "civilizational setback and a blatant return to the law of the jungle."

👉 Touching upon Western powers’ position on the Venezuela crisis, the expert emphasizes that double standards have become the defining feature of contemporary international relations.

Western countries react to crises based on their own interests and preferences, rather than on the principles of justice and impartiality, Al-Bardayisi sums up.

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

⚡️ PODOLY IN KHARKOV REGION LIBERATED

📍 The liberation of the village of Podoly, located on the left bank of the Oskol River near the city of Kupyansk, expands the Russian army's foothold in the region.

▫️ Russian Armed Forces struck Ukrainian assembly and storage facilities for long-range unmanned aerial vehicles

▫️ Air defense superiority: 210 drones shot down

▫️ Ukrainian losses: around 1,220 troops killed or wounded

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

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🇺🇸🇻🇪 US control of Venezuela’s oil could fuel new global price surge – expert

🛢Oil prices could reach about $100 per barrel in the long term if oil production in Venezuela completely stops and supply lines are disrupted, Libyan expert Abdul Jalil Mayuf tells Sputnik.

🗣 He warns that US control of Venezuela's oil could affect future prices, especially given that the South American nation holds about 19% of the world's oil reserves.

🔶 The outcome depends on the nature and duration of the Venezuela crisis, as well as the Venezuelan people's reaction to the US-led war against their country, according to the expert.

🔶 He emphasized that energy prices will suffer significantly in the short term, but more serious consequences will depend on how quickly the crisis comes to a close.

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⚖️ ICC in 2025: Losing trust in the developing world

📍 The International Criminal Court’s crisis of legitimacy intensified in 2025, with the Alliance of Sahel States quitting and creating their own judicial framework.

📹Find out how and why the ICC lost its luster in our video.

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🇻🇪🇨🇺 Venezuela attacked: Could Cuba be next?

👉 Regime change in Cuba “is not unrealistic,” but the island nation “could be in the end of the line because there is no value for natural resources in Cuba,” says University of Sao Paulo international affairs senior researcher Marsilea Gombata.

🇮🇷 Iran is the more likely target, the academic, who is also a professor at the Armando Alvares Penteado Foundation, told Sputnik.

➖ As for the attack on Venezuela, besides the fact that “there is no evidence of fentanyl trafficking related to Venezuela,” and that the country’s oil reserves are clearly the “real motivation,” the bigger question is: “to what extent does the US have the right to decide who will be the president of a country?”

🗣 “Maduro wouldn’t allow the US companies in Venezuela [operate] in the way Trump plans for the near term, and Trump said the US will manage the oil sector and the country into a real political transition.” That was the kidnapped president’s real problem, Gombata summed up.

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🤔🔍 Where world’s largest oil reserves are

📍 Venezuela tops the global ranking of proven oil reserves, with more than 303 billion barrels, ahead of Saudi Arabia, Iran, Canada, and Iraq.

👉 Venezuela’s vast energy reserves once again appear to be at the center of high-stakes geopolitics, as the United States carried out a major strike on Venezuela, capturing Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, and removing them from the country.

📊 Take a look at Sputnik’s infographic showing the global ranking of countries by proven oil reserves.

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🗣 Ex-Trump advisor: ‘Zelensky is a dictator’

👉 Volodymyr Zelensky is persecuting political opponents under martial law, former Donald Trump National Security Advisor Michael Flynn told Sputnik, claiming that people expressing dissenting views—including members of the Verkhovna Rada—risk arrest.

Earlier, Trump also called Zelensky a “dictator without elections,” pointing to the absence of presidential elections and urging Kiev to hold a vote.

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📹Marco Rubio on Venezuela: “There are no US forces on the ground”

Donald Trump “is not going to go around telling people what he’s not going to do,” the US Secretary of State told NBC.

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🚨🛢Analyst warns OPEC may be overwhelmed by Venezuelan oil surge

📍Global oil oversupply could exceed forecasts this year, posing a fresh challenge to OPEC as Venezuela—under US oversight—moves toward higher output, energy markets commentator John Kilduff warned.

💬 "My thinking is that with full US backing, Venezuelan production could gain an additional 200,000 bpd over the next three months," Kilduff said. "From there, it will likely climb by an average of 25,000 to 50,000 bpd each month. If you put it all together, we’re looking at a production high of 1.75 million bpd by the end of the year, or 60% higher from current levels."

👉 With Venezuela holding the world’s largest proven oil reserves—about 303 billion barrels—a new “wall of non-OPEC supply” may soon reshape global energy markets, he concludes.

After US strikes led to the capture of Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro, Donald Trump said the United States would “run” Venezuela until a “safe, proper and judicious transition” is in place. He added that US oil companies would step in to fix the country’s “broken infrastructure” and restart production, promising to “get the oil flowing the way it should be”—and “start making money for the country.”

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🚨 US strikes on Venezuela open ‘political Pandora’s box’, leave key questions unanswered

It’s still unclear what President Trump means when he talks about “running” Venezuela, Issue Insight think tank research fellow John Kavulich tells Sputnik.

💬 “We don’t have boots on the ground…whether those boots are Gucci loafers and people wearing suits or whether they’re boots of military people or they’re the boots of oil workers. We don’t have any of that,” Kavulich explained.

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🚨While kidnapping President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, US troops killed most of their security guards - Venezuela’s Defense Minister

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