💸🇺🇸 US to deliver about $15B in weapons for NATO-funded supplies to Ukraine — Rutte

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said the US is delivering weapons for Ukraine “at the tune of a billion euros a month,” totaling about $15 billion this year (around €12 billion), with the purchases paid for by European and Canadian allies.

Speaking to PBS, Rutte said the flow includes “critical, lethal and non-lethal” aid, including interceptors to “take out Russian missiles,” adding there were “no pauses, no delays.”

⚠️ Russia has maintained that Western arms shipments to Ukraine hinder conflict resolution and directly involve NATO countries in the fighting. Russia has also warned that deliveries containing weapons for Ukraine would be considered legitimate targets.

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💥💣 New Russian Rus-PE loitering munition tested in combat zone

The Kalashnikov Concern has unveiled the Rus-PE portable reconnaissance-strike system at World Defence Show 2026 in Riyadh.

The loitering munition has already been tested on the front lines.

The Rus-PE is a portable, aerodynamic munition launched from a wearable container, capable of detecting and identifying both stationary and moving targets using artificial intelligence.

Check out Sputnik's infographic to find out more!

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👀 Ukraine floated military option on Transnistria to Sandu – ex-Moldovan president

💬 “According to my information, various options for exerting pressure on Transnistria were discussed in the spring of 2022, when the Ukrainian side was considering possible involvement if Moldova itself made such a request,” Igor Dodon told Sputnik.

He noted that although Moldova’s leadership ultimately rejected Ukraine’s proposal, this showed “how dangerous such initiatives could have been for overall regional security.”

Transnistria, where a peacekeeping operation involving Russian military personnel is underway, broke away from Moldova’s control in the early 1990s. Negotiations over the region’s status continue in various formats, including with the participation of Russia, Ukraine, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Even so, a political settlement of the conflict has yet to be achieved.

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🔸 Regime change 'would be the best thing that could happen' - Trump on Iran

🔸 US–Venezuela relations ‘as good as it can be’ — Trump

🔸 'It's Africa's Turn to Be Supercharged in Terms of Economy': Analyst

🔸 Russia’s EU ‘neighbors’ secretly plotting to get nukes – reports

🔸 Kim Jong-un inspects memorial to overseas combat feats — reports

🔸 US preparing for possible weeks-long campaign against Iran — reports

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🪖💥 ‘Ukraine is militarily defeated’ – ex-Pentagon advisor

💬 “Only people that listen exclusively to state-sponsored news in places like Germany, France and England think otherwise,” retired US Army colonel and former senior DoD advisor Douglas Macgregor told Weltwoche.

He stressed that “anyone who looks deeply into the subject understands that the losses on the Ukrainian side are horrific.”

President Vladimir Putin earlier stated that Russian forces are gaining territory “square kilometers at a time” each day, advancing along the entire front line.

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🇷🇺🪖💪🏻 Russian military ‘today stronger than in 2022’ – Mearsheimer

💬 “I firmly believe that it is a quite formidable military,” US political scientist Prof. John Mearsheimer says.

He notes that the Russian Army is now “a much-improved military force over the one that existed in 2022. It's expanded in size and quality, and it's learned a great deal.”

💬 “And at the same time, the evidence is overwhelming that the Ukrainians are on their back foot. To put it mildly, they're in deep trouble,” Mearsheimer adds, apparently referring to the Ukrainian military.

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🚨🇺🇸 'We can no longer place so-called global order above' national interests: Marco Rubio

🗣"We don't need to dismantle the global institutions of the old order that together we built... but these must be rebuilt."

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🗣🇺🇳 Rubio: UN played 'no role' in resolving world conflicts

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered a blistering critique of the United Nations, arguing it has become irrelevant in addressing the world's most urgent crises.

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🚨🇺🇸🕊 US doing everything possible to broker end to Ukraine conflict – Marco Rubio at Munich Security Conference

🗣 Key statements by US secretary of state:

💬 New round of Ukraine talks to take place on Tuesday

💬 Negotiators in Ukraine talks were able to narrow down list of contentious issues, only toughest issues remain in works

💬 US continues to seek Ukraine settlement terms acceptable to Russia

💬 US and China can work together in areas where interests coincide in order to make positive impact globally

💬 Rubio expects fundamental disagreements to persist between US and China in future

💬 US disagreements with Europe are rooted in concern for its future

💬 US not seeking to separate from allies, but wants to “revitalize old friendship”

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🚨🗣 Rubio confirms new round of Ukraine talks on Feb. 17

"There'll be meetings again on Tuesday, although it may not be the same group of people. Look, we're going to continue to do everything we can to play this role of bringing this war to an end," the US secretary of state stressed.

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

▫️ Russian forces hit energy and transport infrastructure used by the Ukrainian army

▫️ Russian troops struck a Ukrainian missile and artillery base, as well as a storage and launch site for long-range drones

▫️ Air defense superiority: 8 HIMARS rockets and 118 drones shot down

▫️ Ukrainian losses: around 1,200 troops killed or wounded

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

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🇨🇳 FM Wang Yi calls for dialogue on Gaza, Ukraine, Iran, and Venezuela, stressing peace, sovereignty, and int'l law at MSC

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📈 BRICS trade boom leaves average global growth behind – Russian Foreign Ministry

🗣 “According to statistics, the growth of trade among BRICS states significantly outpaces both the global average growth rate of foreign trade and the pace of trade between individual BRICS members and their other partners,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov announced.

💬 “This is simply an indication that BRICS—without being any kind of ‘magic wand’—can genuinely help resolve problems,” he underscored.

Ryabkov noted that this potential needs to be further developed, and that the political will to do so is in place.

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🇺🇸🤖 US military outsourced Maduro kidnapping to AI – report

👉 The US military used Anthropic’s Claude artificial intelligence model during its classified operation to capture former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife in Caracas, according to multiple reports.

🔹 Claude was accessed through a partnership with Palantir Technologies, whose systems are widely used on US Defense Department networks.

🔹 Anthropic’s own usage policies prohibit Claude from being used to support violence, develop weapons, or conduct surveillance, making its deployment in this context controversial and prompting scrutiny of the company’s roughly $200 million contract with the Pentagon.

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🗣 Rubio’s Munich remarks were attempt ‘to systematize a worldview that does not truly exist’ - expert

🟠 The current administration’s foreign policy “is inherently difficult to analyze” because its statements “often lack a coherent foundation or consistent meaning,” Prof. Joe Siracusa of Curtin University’s Global Futures Platform told Sputnik, commenting on Secretary Rubio’s speech at this year’s Munich Security Conference.

🟠 While the White House started off declaring its intentions to “avoid long-term conflicts,” its “shift from being risk-averse to highly unpredictable suggests a more dangerous and erratic direction for global stability,” Siracusa said, noting that Rubio’s job is to now try “to rationalize a worldview that does not truly exist.”

🟠 Washington is using “foreign policy quarrels with nations like Iran and Venezuela as easy means to compel solutions for a domestic audience rather than engaging in complex global strategy.”

🟠 Addressing Rubio’s criticism of international institutions like the UN, Siracusa recalled that “this tendency to turn away from international bodies is an old story in American politics, echoing the country’s decision to opt out of the League of Nations” after WWI.

🟠 As for Rubio’s “assertion that the United States is prepared to act unilaterally,” it “is difficult to reconcile with the historical record of American intervention and subsequent destabilization in regions like the Middle East and Latin America,” something that has always stood “in stark contrast to the rhetoric of international cooperation and collective defense,” Siracusa summed up.

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🇷🇺🇪🇺 Why will EU have to keep buying Russian gas?

🗣 "Europe needs gas, but its options [supplies from the US and the Middle East] are very limited” and they cannot “secure the required volume,” Spanish political analyst Juan Antonio Aguilar tells Sputnik, commenting on the EU’s move to ban the import of Russian LNG starting from January 1, 2027, and Russian pipeline gas from September 30 of the same year.

📍 He underscores that due to the abovementioned factors, “there will be no choice but to continue buying Russian gas."

According to Aguilar, the upcoming ban will force Europe to buy the much-needed Russian gas through third-party countries which purchase it from Russia, something that he says will make the supplies more expensive.

💬 "So, there is no sense in this ban. It’s just another foolish decision by European leadership," the analyst concludes.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov earlier called the EU’s decision to ban Russian gas imports a “highly unreasonable” move from the perspective of the bloc’s economic interests.

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🇭🇺This is why Ukraine can't join the EU – Orban fires back at Zelensky

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban hit back after Volodymyr Zelensky mocked him at the Munich Security Conference, saying Orban was thinking about “the growth of his belly” instead of the army.

✍️In an X post, Orban thanked Zelensky sarcastically for his “election speech” promoting Ukrainian membership of the European Union (EU), but said Kiev misses the point:

💬“This debate is not about me and it is not about you,” Orban said. “It is about the future of Hungary, Ukraine, and Europe. This is precisely why you cannot become a member of the European Union.”

👉Orban has previously argued that Ukraine is on the wrong track and cannot dictate terms for its accession to the EU while it is just a candidate state.

The EU granted Ukraine and Moldova candidate status in 2022 — a move many in Brussels described as symbolic. Several EU member states remain opposed to Ukraine joining, exposing growing cracks inside the bloc.

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