🇷🇺🇪🇺 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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🚨 Ukraine deliberately disrupting Russian oil supplies to Eastern Europe via Druzhba pipeline – expert

💬 "The situation is that Ukraine is manually halting such supplies to Eastern European countries,” Russian expert Igor Yushkov tells Sputnik.

🟠 He doesn’t rule out that Ukraine is just claiming supplies have been halted, because “initially we only see the Kiev regime’s allegations about a strike purportedly resulting in reduction of deliveries.”

🟠 The transit of Russian oil to Eastern Europe through the Ukrainian section of the Druzhba pipeline has been suspended since January 27, Reuters earlier cited the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry as saying. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that Moscow has no information on the issue.

🟠 Hungary’s Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto for his part insisted that Ukraine blocked Russian oil supplies to his country via the Druzhba pipeline in order to create problems for the government ahead of the Hungarian parliamentary elections.

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🗣 Possible Russian palladium tariffs could devastate US industry – expert

💬 "The potential imposition of such insane tariffs could deal a severe blow to many sectors, from automotive manufacturing to chemicals and oil refining,” independent industrial expert Leonid Khazanov tells Sputnik, commenting on the US Commerce Department’s preliminary plan to slap anti-dumping duties on imports of Russian palladium with a rate of almost 133%.

🔶 He notes that the number of countries producing palladium is relatively small, “and none of them can replace Russia, which accounts for 30–35% of all palladium imports to the US.”

🔶 According to him, the negative impact on the US from Russian palladium import restrictions would depend on several factors, including the depletion of profitable global palladium deposits.

🔶 The proposed duty will not have a critical effect on Russia, which will most likely redirect its palladium supplies on the global market, Khazanov sums up.

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

🔸 Protesters in Munich rally against the NATO security conference

🔸 ‘Ukraine is militarily defeated’ – ex-Pentagon advisor

🔸 Possible Russian palladium tariffs could devastate US industry – expert

🔸 US military outsourced Maduro kidnapping to AI – report

🔸 New Russian Rus-PE loitering munition tested in combat zone

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🚨 Trump ‘to put more pressure on Zelensky to clinch Ukraine peace deal’ – MEP

💬 “The situation in the US is changing, so Trump's agenda will focus on the American public rather than on solving Ukraine's problems,” Belgian member of the European Parliament Rudy Kennes tells Sputnik

🟠 US President Donald Trump urged Volodymyr Zelensky this week not to miss “a great opportunity” for a peace deal with Russia.

🟠 Kennes notes that Trump is now increasingly focused on domestic issues and “no longer cares about Europe, or even Ukraine, because he's facing domestic problems. Everything he's doing now is tied to the mid-term elections in the US” which the Republicans risk losing.

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🇮🇷Iranian Foreign Minister mocks ‘CIRCUS’ of Munich Security Conference

Abbas Araghchi mocked the NATO-dominated meeting in Germany, saying rhetoric about Iran there had turned it into a "circus."

💬"Sad to see the usually serious Munich Security Conference turned into the ‘Munich Circus’ when it comes to Iran," he posted on X.

👉He said the European Union was confused about events inside Iran, adding that the Anglo-French-German axis had lost influence in the Middle East and was "empty-handed and peripheral."

Conference organizers withdrew invitations to Iranian delegates before the conference.


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🇨🇴📹 'Significant blow to drug trafficking' — Colombian military reports cocaine seizure in Caribbean

President Gustavo Petro said the Colombian Aerospace Force carried out an anti-narcotics operation in the Caribbean Sea, seizing a cocaine shipment and locating a clandestine shipyard used to build semi-submersibles near Uribia in La Guajira.

💬 “This is how the Colombian Aerospace Force seizes cocaine in the Caribbean Sea,” Petro wrote on X.

The Colombian Aerospace Force said the joint operation included intelligence work, aerial surveillance and inter-institutional coordination.

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