🗣 🇪🇺 Under any scenario Ukraine’s NATO path is over - ex-UK diplomat

Russia “continues to hold a stronger hand of cards” throughout the ongoing peace negotiations, while Ukraine is “already functionally bankrupt,” says former British diplomat Ian Proud.

🔊 According to him, the one certainty in any peace deal is that Ukraine “will become militarily unaligned,” with NATO membership “finally have been taken permanently off of the table.”

According to Proud, after the Ukraine conflict is resolved, Russia’s army “will be the most battle-hardened and well equipped that it has been since the end of World War II.”

💬 “Russia's core aim to prevent NATO expansion into Ukraine will decisively have been achieved. Russia will have managed the economic shocks and consequences of war far better than Ukraine and its Western sponsors, in particular Britain and Europe,” he says.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🚨🇷🇺 Perpetrator of assassination attempt on General Alexeyev recruited by Ukraine's intel in 2025

Perpetrator of the assassination attempt Lyubomir Korba was recruited by a Ukraine's security service (SBU) officer in Ternopol in August 2025, the Russian security service (FSB) said. He was called up with the assistance of Polish intel.

The SBU promised $30,000 to the perpetrator for a successful attack.

Other statements:

🟠 Korba tracked high-ranking Russian military officers for monthly cryptocurrency payments

🟠 Korba received firearms training at a range in Kiev

🟠 He was sent to Russia in August 2025 via the Kiev-Moldova-Georgia-Moscow route

🟠 The perpetrator waited for General Alexeev at the elevator landing and shot him four times

🟠 Accomplice in the assassination attempt, Vasinin, is a supporter of the Anti-Corruption Foundation (ACF)* established by Alexei Navalny

🟠 He rented an apartment for the perpetrator Korba’s covert stay and gave him the electronic key

🟠 Arrested assailant and accomplice admit guilt in the assassination attempt

*recognized as extremist in Russia and eliminated

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🔹 Perpetrator of assassination attempt on General Alexeyev recruited by Ukraine's intel in 2025

🔹 Ukraine's assassination plot makes it a 'state sponsor of terrorism'

🔹 Mexico sends aid ships to Cuba, defies US pressure

🔹 Starmer's ship is being deserted — Putin’s envoy Dmitriev on UK PM’s crisis amid Epstein scandal

🔹 North Korea marks the 78th anniversary of its army

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🚨 🇷🇺 Lavrov: West’s dollar-centered world order is doomed as BRICS’ clout surges

💬 The West’s efforts to block the ongoing transition from the old world order - built around the dominance of the dollar and enforced via the IMF, the World Bank, and the WTO - “cannot succeed, because it is an objective, irreversible process,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov states in an interview for the international TV BRICS network.

👉 “For several years now, the BRICS countries’ growth rates and GDP volumes have, in terms of purchasing power parity, substantially exceeded the combined GDP of the G7,” he underscores.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🚨 🇷🇺 Lavrov: US stoops to coercive measures to force economic domination

Russia, just like India, China, Indonesia and Brazil, remains open to cooperation with all countries, including the US, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov notes in an interview for the international TV BRICS network.

👉 However, the US is “creating artificial obstacles in the way of this.”

💬 “They are trying to ban India and our other partners from buying cheap, affordable Russian energy resources, and are forcing them to buy US LNG at exorbitant prices. This means that the Americans have set themselves the task of achieving economic domination,” underscores Lavrov.

🔊 He adds: “This illustrates that the US objective – to dominate the world economy – is being realized using a fairly large number of coercive measures that are incompatible with fair competition, such as tariffs, sanctions, direct prohibitions, forbidding some from engaging with others.”

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🗣 🇷🇺 🇧🇾 West hopes to weaken Russia-Belarus ties, make it difficult to achieve military goals - Russian foreign intel

Western countries through NGOs intend to try to shake up situation, change constitutional order in Belarus, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) stated.

Key points:

🔹 They are looking for so-called liberal activists within Belarusian society to implement the color revolution scenario

🔹 The plan is to create a resource of "resentful individuals against [Belarus President Alexander] Lukashenko" targeting the 2030 elections, as the exiled figures led by Belarus opposition figure Svetlana Tikhanovskaya have admitted their complete impotence

🔹 In 2020, Belarus society received a strong "immunization" against attempts to destabilize the country, with people also observing the examples of Ukraine, Moldova, and many other countries destroyed in the name of pursuing the West's geopolitical ambitions under the guise of false slogans about defending democracy and human rights

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

📹LIVE NOW: FM Lavrov opens 15th Middle East Conference on the sidelines of Valdai International Discussion Club🇷🇺

👉Watch live in our Telegram

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🚨🇷🇺🇵🇸 Lavrov: Board of Peace should consider underlying causes of Palestine-Israel conflict

The situation in the Middle East in not expected to not ease in the near future, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

💬 "Unfortunately, at this stage, I do not think that [the situation in] this region [the Middle East] will calm down soon, despite the huge number of initiatives that we all know about," Lavrov said at the Valdai International Discussion Club.

Russia is closely following situation around iran, welcomes oman’s mediation efforts, he added.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🚨🇷🇺🇺🇸 Russia won’t publicly delve into the details of the agreements reached in Anchorage - Kremlin

The talks need to be conducted in a closed format, the Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

His other statements:

🟠 Russia has not yet received a response to the initiative to include funds from its frozen assets in the "Board of Peace"

🟠 The "chokehold methods" used by the US bring many difficulties to Cuba

🟠 Russia is conducting intensive contacts with Cuban friends through diplomatic channels

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🤝 🇷🇺 Lavrov: Greater Eurasian Partnership key to lasting common security

The foundation for building a common security model - the Greater Eurasian Partnership - is rooted in the “relations between the Eurasian Economic Union, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and ASEAN,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov tells the international TV BRICS network.

💬 “In this context, they also factored in the Belt and Road initiative by the People’s Republic of China,” he adds.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🚨 Would-be assassin of Gen. Alexeev got $2,000 a month for spying

The footage from the airport shows him heading to Dubai, planning to travel through Romania to reach Kiev after the shooting.

Accomplice Serebritskaya was a Ukrainian citizen until 2020 and carried the surname Antonuk.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

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

🟠 Russian air and missile firepower obliterated a military airfield, Ukrainian energy, and transport infrastructure supporting the Kiev regime’s forces and temporary deployment points for Ukrainian troops and foreign mercenaries in 142 places

🟠 Air defense superiority: three guided aerial bombs and 72 UAVs were shot down by Russian air defense systems over the past 24 hours

🟠 Ukrainian losses: around 1,075 troops killed or wounded

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

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

ICC is Not Impartial in Its Handling of Africa, Says Malian Lawyer

🗣The International Criminal Court (ICC) has lost legitimacy in the eyes of Africans by consistently focusing on cases from the continent, member of Mali’s National Transitional Council Kadidia Sangaré told Sputnik Africa.

“Although the ICC is supposed to be international, in reality it functions as an African Criminal Court. It almost exclusively prosecutes African leaders. This explains the growing distrust among African heads of state.”

In the Darfur case, arrest warrants issued against Omar al-Bashir and Laurent Gbagbo raised serious questions, according to the expert.

👉She highlighted that Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger have chosen to withdraw from the ICC due to these glaring shortcomings.

Subscribe to @sputnik_africa

🔸 Sputnik Africa | X 🔸

🔥 🇷🇺 ✈️ Russian Rostec sends 5th-gen Su-57 fighter jets with upgraded weaponry to battlefield

The system is capable of operating even against enemy's most advanced air defenses.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

📷 Stenin Press Photo Contest unveils new ‘Energy of Life’ category

For the first time, the Stenin Press Photo Contest has launched a category for photographers over 34.

Titled 'Energy of Life,' this new category widens the contest’s reach beyond its five existing categories, which are dedicated to supporting young photo artists aged 18 to 33.

Open to professionals and amateurs worldwide, the contest encourages photographers to share images that reflect today’s pressing issues, ranging from humanitarian crises to preserving national identity and more.

The contest is named in honor of Andrei Stenin, a Rossiya Segodnya photojournalist, who was killed in the summer of 2014 near Donetsk.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇷🇺🪖 RPG-29M: New Russian grenade launcher debuts at World Defense Show 2026

The RPG-29M is an upgraded version of the tried and tested RPG-29 rocket-propelled grenade launcher.

It is:

🟠 Three times lighter than the previous version

🟠 Equipped with a thermal imaging sight and an integrated fire control system

🟠 Can fire a wide assortment of munitions which allows it to tackle a greater assortment of targets

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🔥🇷🇺 Sarma: Russia’s new HIMARS competitor aimed at Global South markets

Sarma is making its debut at the World Defense Show 2026 in Saudi Arabia.

Light, mobile and quick to deploy, this new Russian multiple launch rocket system can hit targets with surgical precision.

🟠 Armaments – six 300mm rocket launch tubes that can fire all types of unguided MLRS rockets and three types of guided rockets (9M543, 9M544 and 9M549)

🟠 Range – 120 km

🟠 Chassis – KAMAZ-63501 armored truck

🟠 Maximum speed – 95 km/h on road

🟠 Defenses – Sarma’s armor can withstand shrapnel and 7.62mm armor-piercing rounds

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇮🇷 Iranian Red Crescent deploys drones for rescue missions

Its fleet will be expanded with:

✅ 125 drones designed for operation in extreme weather and terrain conditions

✅ Cargo drones for rapid search, assessment, and delivery

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🪖🇭🇺🇪🇺 Orban lambasts NATO and EU for pushing Europe toward war

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has criticized NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte’s statement that alliance troops should be present "on land, at sea, and in the air" in Ukraine.

💬 "Every week brings new developments that push Europe closer to war," Orban tweeted on February 9, attaching a clip of his speech.

He cited Rutte’s proposal to station European troops in Ukraine, as well as the words of European People’s Party leader Manfred Weber, who had earlier said he would like to see EU‑uniformed soldiers there.

💬 "We are members of the European Union, but we don't want to see such soldiers on the territory of Ukraine and especially not young Hungarians wearing such uniforms there," said Orban.

The Hungarian prime minister warned that the EU is planning a war for 2030, stressing that the years between 2026 and 2030 could become the most pivotal for the continent.

💬 "Hungary must not be drawn into this madness," he highlighted.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇮🇷🇺🇸 Uranium transfer not on the table in Oman negotiations - Iran atomic chief

Head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization Mohammad Eslami rejected reports that transferring enriched uranium abroad was discussed during recent nuclear talks with the US in Oman.

Although some countries have offered proposals aimed at supporting the talks, the issue was not raised during the Muscat negotiations, Eslami told reporters, as cited by Tasnim.

When asked if diluting Iran’s 60 percent enriched uranium was on the table, Eslami said it all depends on full sanctions relief.

Iran’s relationship with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) remains in place, he noted, stressing, however, that the agency still has an "unfulfilled duty" regarding the condemnation of military attack on Iranian nuclear facilities under safeguards.

In December, Iran urged the agency to explain its stance on Israeli and American strikes on Iranian nuclear sites

If Iran is under IAEA supervision, certified by the agency, and contributes to its credibility, the IAEA cannot stay silent about the June 2025 attacks on its peaceful nuclear facilities, according to Eslami.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇷🇺🚀 Roscosmos prepares Proton-M rocket launch

The Proton-M rocket with the electro-L no. 5 weather satellite has been installed on the launch pad at Baikonur Cosmodrome.

Roscosmos specialists continue to prepare the launch scheduled for February 12.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt