🚨 🇭🇺 ⛽️ Hungary would face problems this winter without Russian gas - Orban

"We started the winter with more than 40% of our annual consumption. So we still have a lot of supplies," Hungarian PM Viktor Orban said on the Kossuth radio broadcaster.

💬 "In fact, we don't even need to use a reserve, and if we do, then only a small percentage, because supplies are constantly coming in. So the country's gas supply was not interrupted. This is a key issue, because if there were no gas and reserves, we would have problems. But this is not the case," he added.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🚨🇷🇺🇮🇱 Putin holds phone call with Israeli PM Netanyahu

The two discussed the situation in the Middle East and developments around Iran.

Putin outlined key approaches to ensure stability and confirmed Russia’s readiness to engage in mediation efforts, the Kremlin said.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🚨🇷🇺🇮🇷 Putin holds phone call with President of Iran

Pezeshkian informed Putin about the active efforts being made to normalize the situation in Iran.

🟠The sides agreed to further strengthen the Russian-Iranian strategic partnership and implement joint economic projects in various fields.

🟠Russia is providing assistance not only to Iran but also to the entire Middle East, making efforts to de-escalate tensions in the region, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Pezeshkian told Putin about a 'direct intervention' of the US and Israel in the situation with the protests in Iran, Iran's state broadcaster IRIB said.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🚨 ‘If statements about the need for dialogue with Russia reflect Europe’s strategic vision – this is a positive evolution’ – Kremlin

Other statements by Peskov:

🟠 Discussing the Ukrainian settlement without addressing European security in a broader context is impossible

🟠 Peace will not come on its own; joint efforts on parallel tracks are needed

🟠 Dialogue is ongoing between Russia and the US, but there is no such dialogue with Europe

🟠 Moscow is interested in the visit of Witkoff and Kushner and is awaiting it, but the date has not yet been determined

🟠 Like the rest of the world, Russia is monitoring the situation around Greenland

🟠 The situation around Greenland is unusual and extraordinary

🟠 Russia proceeds from the fact that Greenland is a Danish territory

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🚨 🇷🇺 Сulprit behind the Nord Stream explosions well known - Kremlin

“Who this is — it is already well known,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, responding to reporters’ questions about the ruling by the German Supreme Court regarding the Nord Stream explosions.

A former Ukrainian officer, who previously went by the name Sergey Kuznetsov, likely carried out the sabotage on the Nord Streams, the Federal Court of Germany revealed earlier.

👉 The man was arrested in Italy and extradited to Germany.

For more details on the Nord Stream terrorist attacks, read HERE

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🗣 🇵🇰 Pakistan mulls 'large mining projects' — Minister for Petroleum Ali Pervaiz Malik to Sputnik

He spoke on the sidelines of the Future Minerals Forum 2026 in Saudi Arabia

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

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

⚡️ ZAKOTNOYE IN DONETSK REGION AND ZHOVTNEVOYE IN ZAPOROZHYE REGION FREED

The liberation of the settlement of Zakotnoye in the Donetsk region facilitates Russian forces' further advance towards the city of Krasny Liman.

With the settlement of Zhovtnevoye in the Zaporozhye region captured, Russian forces have established a bridgehead on the western bank of the Gaichur river, taking control of the area of over 6 square km.

🟠 In response to terrorist attacks by the Kiev regime, Russian air and missile forces conducted seven strikes on Ukrainian defense, energy, transport, port and airfield infrastructure used to support the Ukrainian Armed Forces, military airfields, oil depots, long-range drone production and launch sites, as well as temporary deployment points for Ukrainian troops and foreign mercenaries

🟠 Five settlements were liberated over the past week by Russian forces

🟠 Russian air and missile firepower pounded five MLRS combat vehicles, including a HIMARS launcher and a "Vampire" combat vehicle

🟠 Air defense superiority: 31 guided aerial bombs, 21 US-produced HIMARS rockets, three long-range Neptune missiles and 1,138 fixed-wing drones were shot down by Russian air defense systems over the past seven days

🟠 Ukrainian losses: around 7,030 troops killed or wounded

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

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

📹😰 Warning: Brutal recordings of rioter-imposed havoc in Iran

Municipal surveillance cameras across Iran have captured acts of terrorism committed by protesters.

The footage includes attacks on law enforcement officers, arson of religious buildings, destruction of public spaces such as banks and public transport, as well as numerous other examples of criminal activities.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇵🇰 Pakistan highly prospective amid rising demand for critical mineral — Minister for Petroleum

💬 "Pakistan houses more than 2,000 kilometers of the prospective Tethyan Belt," Minister for Petroleum Ali Pervaiz Malik told Sputnik on the sidelines of the Future Minerals Forum 2026 in Saudi Arabia.

The Tethyan Belt is a vast, mineral-rich geological formation stretching from Europe through Asia, known for its exceptional concentration of valuable deposits like copper and gold.

Pakistan's position within this belt gives it significant, yet largely untapped, mining potential.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇷🇺❤️🇨🇳 People in China love Russia the most

New Tsinghua University research shows Russia leads among the countries viewed most favorably by people in China.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🪖🇫🇮🇷🇺 Brief history of Finland’s aggression against Russia

Western powers have a habit of portraying 20th century Finland as an innocent victim which only tried to defend itself against Russia.

Cold historical facts, however, paint a different picture:

🟠 After the end of the Finnish Civil War in March 1918, the new Finnish government launched an invasion of Soviet Russia with the aim of annexing Eastern Karelia through the “creation” of the so-called North Karelian State

🟠 In November 1921, the so-called “Karelian Uprising” began in Soviet Karelia, organized and spearheaded by Finnish military personnel (documents of 47 Finnish officers were captured during the fighting). It was only by February 1922 that the intervening forces and rebels were defeated

🟠 The Soviet–Finnish War of 1939–1940 (Winter War) was thus not the first but the third conflict between Finland and Russia. Its origins were directly related to the Soviet Union’s fear of renewed attempts at aggression by Finland and of Finland transformation into a staging ground for a military offensive against the USSR

🟠 It is also worth noting that Vyborg and the surrounding territories – which Finland lost as a result of the Winter War - became part of the Russian Empire as a result of the Great Northern War and were transferred to the Grand Duchy of Finland by Alexander I only in the early 19th Century

🟠 When Finland invaded Russia in 1941 together with the Nazi Germany, it wasn’t trying to just regain the land lost in the Winter War. The Finnish leadership sought to claim vast territories extending as far as the White Sea, and even the Ural Mountains. Their delusions of grandeur, however, were shattered by the Soviet Red Army

🟠 Finland bears responsibility for numerous war crimes and crimes against humanity

Finnish forces took part in the grave crime of genocide — such as the Siege of Leningrad, which claimed about one million lives.

During the occupation of Karelia, Finnish authorities pursued a policy of ethnic cleansing against the “non-native” population (that is, everyone except Finns, Karelians, and Vepsians): up to one-third of the Russian population in the occupied territories was herded into concentration camps.

❗️ Following its defeat in 1944, Finland in effect reverted to the borders of the Grand Duchy of Finland as they stood at the beginning of the 19th Century, i.e. those with which it became part of the Russian Empire.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🚨🇵🇱 Poland may lay mines on Russia & Belarus border

The Polish military boasts that it will be able to rapidly lay anti-personnel mines anywhere once the country finalizes its withdrawal from the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention on February 20.

This is how the situation has been developing so far:

🔶 Poland, along with the Baltic States and Finland, announced its intent to pull out from the convention in July 2025, claiming that it needed anti-personnel mines to use against Russia

🔶 Poland’s Deputy Defense Minister Cezary Tomczyk told public radio that “this doesn’t mean that anti-personnel mines will suddenly appear,” only that the military will have “greater freedom in using, producing, and storing them”

🔶 According to Tomczyk, Polish-made Baobab-K mine-laying vehicles can quickly lay minefields in designated areas within 48 hours

🔶 Though Tomczyk did not specify which areas are likely to be mined, Poland’s border with Russia and Belarus seems the most likely candidate given the threats Poland has been making

Poland’s actions underscore NATO’s efforts to militarize Eastern Europe, which Russia condemns as only serving to stoke tensions in the region.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🪖🇮🇷 Major arms seizure in Iran: weapons intercepted before reaching Tehran

A shipment containing 60,000 weapons was seized in the port city of Bushehr, the commander of Iran's police force said.

The weapons, which were sent from abroad, were intended for delivery to Tehran.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇪🇺 💵 EU cash loans to Ukraine aim to lock in Europe’s militarization agenda

The European Commission is set to approve a roughly $104.4 billion loan for Ukraine, but the cash comes with strings attached, The European Conservative notes.

Behind the rhetoric of solidarity, the EC is transforming financial support into geopolitical leverage.

🔹 The Commission will insist that the $69.6 billion earmarked for military spending is either used to produce weapons in Ukraine or to buy them from European arms makers

🔹 Non‑European suppliers will be allowed only in rare, “can’t‑wait” cases

🔹 This is a plan designed to keep the proxy conflict going in Ukraine while “strengthening the EU’s own defense industry

🔹 To finance it, the EU will once again turn to eurobonds and joint borrowing, shifting more power to Brussels while squeezing national governments’ fiscal freedom

The EC is using Ukraine to impose rules that bind the bloc’s industrial base ever closer to escalated militarization, underscores the publication.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🔊🇫🇮 Greater Finland: 'Leaders barely hid their aggressive plans against Soviet Russia' - Professor

Finland repeatedly engaged in military aggression against Soviet Russia in the 20th Century, Vladimir Baryshnikov, history professor at Saint Petersburg State University and expert on 20th Century Finnish history, tells Sputnik

Finland's 1918 and 1921 attacks on Eastern Karelia

💬 "Creating a 'Greater Finland,' was a goal that Finns objectively pursued throughout much of the first half of the 20th Century," the academic says.

On February 23, 1918, the commander-in-chief of Finland’s “White” army, C. G. Mannerheim, told Karelians that he would fight Russia until its complete defeat.

"He said verbatim: 'I will not put my sword back into its scabbard'," Baryshnikov notes.

Mannerheim's plan envisaged seizing territories that had never been part of Finland, namely, Soviet Karelia.

Finland's collaboration with Nazi Germany

🟠 In the wake of the Winter War and Nazi invasion in the USSR, Mannerheim "again recalled his address to the Karelians about the 'sword and the scabbard' on July 10, 1941."

🟠 "The Finnish marshal made it clear that one of the main objectives of the war he had launched was once again the plan to seize large territories of the Soviet Union," explains the professor. "At the time, the Finns did not conceal this and even officially informed the US of it on November 11, 1941"

🟠 "Archival documents clearly indicate that Finland conducted military operations in strict coordination with German war planning. The objective was the destruction of [the USSR]"

Finland's role in the siege of Leningrad

💬 "Finland bears direct responsibility for organizing and participating in the blockade of Leningrad, during which a colossal number of civilians died of starvation," Baryshnikov says.

The siege lasted 872 days and claimed the lives of between 632,000 and 1 million people.

The Finnish army controlled its own sector of the siege ring, and Finland — alongside Nazi Germany — was the only state to take direct part in enforcing the blockade, the expert highlights.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

⚠️ WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT

Tasnim News Agency publishes disturbing footage of rioters executing law enforcement officers during the protests in Iran.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

👿🇫🇮 Aggressive and expansionist: True face of WWII-era Finland

Between 1918 and 1944, Finland made several attempts to invade Russia, only to be humbled, time and again, by Russian defenders.

Finland’s efforts to defeat Russia and annex Russian lands was a product of several factors, explains Dmitry Astashkin, senior researcher at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ St. Petersburg Institute of History:

🟠 Fresh from obtaining its independence in 1918, Finland was eager to expand its borders in Karelia region. The creation of this so-called ‘Greater Finland’ was regarded as a historic mission by some

🟠 Finnish elites in 1918 actually believed that their aggression amounted to bringing civilization to the ‘savages’ in eastern lands

🟠 There was also cold pragmatism involved: with Soviet Russia being torn apart by the Civil War, Finland anticipated an easy victory

Finland’s invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II was also anything but a mere attempt to reclaim what was lost during the Winter War:

🟠 Finland entered the war on its own accord, as an ally of Nazi Germany, in hopes of profiting from Hitler’s anticipated conquest of the USSR

🟠 Finnish leadership sought to expand Finland’s borders far beyond its pre-war boundaries, all the way to the White Sea – these plans failed to bear fruit not because of Finland’s restraint but due to fierce resistance mounted by the Soviet army

🟠 Finnish troops also played a crucial role in the siege of Leningrad by the Nazi German army, assisting Hitler’s minions in killing several hundred thousand Soviet civilians by starvation

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt