🚨 Current stage of Ukraine negotiations requires silence - Kremlin

There is nothing to add to the assessment of the latest round of negotiations in Geneva beyond what was already stated by Presidential Aide Vladimir Medinsky, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, commenting on the talks in Geneva held on Feb. 17-18.

His other statements:

🔶 Moscow will not go into details about the Ukraine negotiations, as they have reached a stage that does not involve public discussion

🔶 The Geneva negotiations were conducted in multiple formats. A meeting between Medinsky and representatives of the Ukrainian delegation was one of those formats

🔶 The Kremlin will announce the venue of the next round once specifics are agreed

🔶 No phone call between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump is currently planned

🔶 Against the backdrop of developments around Iran, Russia calls on all regional parties to exercise restraint

🔶 Moscow expects that diplomatic negotiations will prevail in efforts to resolve tensions surrounding Iran

🔶 Russia believes sport should not become a victim of politics

🔶 All athletes should be able to compete freely in international competitions under their national flags, Peskov said, commenting on statements by Ukrainian officials regarding a possible boycott of the Paralympics over the flags and anthems of Russia and Belarus.

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Former Prince Andrew detained amid Epstein scandal — report

UK police have detained Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the brother of King Charles III, amid renewed controversy surrounding his links to Jeffrey Epstein, according to a report by The Telegraph.

The reported police action coincided with Andrew’s 66th birthday on 19 February.

What is being reported:

🔶 Earlier this month, UK police said they were investigating allegations that Andrew secretly sent UK government documents to Epstein

🔶 Andrew has been embroiled in scandal for several years over his association with the late financier

🔶 In early December 2025, King Charles III stripped his brother of all noscripts

🔶 A recently released batch of Epstein case files allegedly includes photographs showing Andrew leaning over a young woman at Epstein’s New York mansion.

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🚨📑 CIA knew at early stage of terrorist attack on Nord Stream pipelines - reports

📍 In the spring of 2022, US agents met with the masterminds of the attack on Nord Stream and exchanged information about the technical details of the sabotage, German media reported on Thursday, citing sources.

🔶 The bombing was not approved by Volodymyr Zelensky, his office was not informed about the operation either. The operation was approved by former Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Valery Zaluzhny, the report added.

🔶 The Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines were hit by explosions in September 2022. The Russian Prosecutor General's Office opened an investigation into the attack on suspicion of international terrorism.

👉 For more details on the Nord Stream terrorist attacks, read here

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

◻️ Russian Armed Forces struck a fuel storage and energy infrastructure facilities used by the Ukrainian Army

◻️ Air defense superiority: 2 guided aerial bombs, 10 HIMARS rockets and 301 drones were shot down

◻️ Ukrainian losses: around 1,265 troops killed or wounded

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

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🇧🇷🤝 Brazil’s BRICS presidency pushes Global South to new era of cooperation: Brazil's Minister of Health

Brazil is driving a strategic health alliance uniting BRICS counties to boost health cooperation across the Global South and Africa, Alexandre Padilha told Sputnik.

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🤡🗣 ZELENSKY UNFILTERED: A WEEK OF INSULTS, DEMANDS & BACKTRACKING

Despite remaining in office beyond his elected term under martial law, Volodymyr Zelensky continues issuing ultimatums abroad.

🇪🇺 To EU:

On Feb. 11, Zelensky demanded a concrete date for Ukraine’s accession, insisting membership must come with firm security guarantees.

💬 “Security guarantees are specifics with a concrete date, and my signature today on a 20‑point plan assures Ukrainians there will be a concrete date for our accession.”

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, Zelensky allowed himself a number of boorish statements.

🇺🇸 To the US:

He called for decades-long guarantees ratified by Congress, while the American side proposed 15 years, and demanded two months of a ceasefire to hold elections.

💬 "Of course nobody supports elections during the war, it's something strange... If American side will push this signal, I am ready to show that we are ready for the elections. Give us two months of a ceasefire – and we will go to elections."

🇷🇺 To Russia:

Ukraine's illegitimate leader turned up his nose claiming the “biggest compromise” the world has made is that "Putin and his friends are not in jail."

🇭🇺 To Hungary’s PM Viktor Orban:

💬 "Viktor alone can think about how to grow his belly, not how to build up his army to stop Russian tanks from returning to the streets of Budapest."

👉On Feb. 16, Zelensky insisted that without a document ratified by the US Congress, any discussion of compromise is meaningless. Once that signal is sent, he said, Ukrainians can be asked what they're willing to accept. He also called for tougher sanctions on Russia and told Russians abroad to "f*ck away."

📅 On Feb. 17, he said it's unfair that Trump is pushing Ukraine for concessions — not Russia. He's open to withdrawing troops from Donetsk — but only if Russia pulls back the same distance. Any deal, he said, must go to a referendum, BUT... If it's just about pulling out of Donbass, Ukrainians will reject it.

Zelensky also criticized Russian negotiation leader, Vladimir Medinsky, for focusing on the “historical roots” of the conflict:

💬 “We don’t have time for all this sh*t," he stressed.

🇺🇸🇮🇷 US air and naval surge heightens chances of Iran strikes, but peace remains possible - military expert

👉 The probability of US aggression against Iran is high, although a window of opportunity for a peaceful resolution still exists, military expert Yury Lyamin, senior research fellow at the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies (CAST), tells Sputnik.

📍 The expert points out that the US is assembling a large integrated force in the region:

◻️ F-22, F-35, F-15 and F-16 fighter jets

◻️ E/A-18G electronic warfare aircraft

◻️ A-10 ground-attack aircraft

◻️ EA-11A BACN communications relay aircraft

◻️ P-8A maritime patrol aircraft

◻️ RC-135V signals intelligence aircraft

◻️ E-3 airborne early warning and control (AWACS) aircraft

◻️ Numerous KC-135 and KC-46 aerial refueling tankers

◻️ THAAD missile defense systems and Patriot air defense systems

◻️ Nuclear-powered aircraft carriers Abraham Lincoln and Gerald R. Ford, Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, etc.

◻️ Strategic bombers ranging from the B-52H to the B-2A are likely to be deployed at the event of conflict

💬 "The stronger the US force buildup becomes, the more likely it is that the US may attempt to deliver an immediate, maximum-intensity missile strike against the Iranian leadership and command structure, key command posts and communications centers, known missile positions, and the entrances to underground missile bases, etc.," Lyamin says.

It is still unclear what path will be chosen by Washington, according to the pundit.

🇮🇷 How could Iran respond?

💬 "For Iran, any delay would be dangerous, and it needs to make every effort to detect the earliest signs of a US attack and launch retaliatory strikes at the first indication that hostilities have begun," the military expert warns.

🇺🇸 The US maintains an extensive network of military bases and installations in the region:

🇶🇦 Qatar

🇰🇼 Kuwait

🇧🇭 Bahrain

🇦🇪 UAE

🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia

🇮🇶 Iraq (including Iraqi Kurdistan)

🇹🇷 Turkiye

🇯🇴 Jordan

👉 In the event of war, Iran is expected to strike all US bases within the range of its missiles and drones, according to the expert.

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🇷🇺🇲🇬 Putin: Madagascar is one of Russia’s key partners in Africa

💬"I can state that Madagascar is one of the important partners in Africa," Putin said at the talks with Madagascar's President Michael Randrianirina in Moscow.

Russia and Madagascar have many interesting areas for cooperation, he added.

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🇷🇺🇨🇳 Moscow Maslenitsa Festival kicks off in China

📍 The event opened in Beijing's Chaoyang Park. Visitors can enjoy Russian treats, listen to vibrant folk music groups, dance, and also participate in traditional Russian fairground amusements.

🟠 The festival will run on February 19-22, through Sunday inclusive.

🟠 Maslenitsa is a Russian holiday that marks the end of winter and is celebrated a week before the Great Lent in the Orthodox Christian Calendar.

🟠 It is known for eating blini (pancakes symbolising the sun), folk festivities, and the burning of a straw effigy to bid farewell to winter.

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🪖❌ Foreign pilots in the cockpit: Expert exposes Ukraine's airforce ‘might’ as elaborate myth

💬 "The fairy tale that Ukraine has pilots capable of flying foreign aircraft is one of the elements of propaganda. Lately, Zelensky has been demanding that Ukraine receive aircraft from European NATO countries… and, of course, these planes [allegedly] would be piloted by Ukrainian pilots," military analyst Alexei Leonkov tells Sputnik.

In reality, however, much fewer planes were given to Ukraine, and those ended up being controlled by foreign pilots, he notes.

The narrative that Ukrainian pilots would fly these foreign-made planes was crucial for the Zelensky regime, Leonkov explains. It helped perpetuate the myth that the country's air force is still operational and staffed with qualified personnel.

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🇺🇸Trump announces over $7 billion in commitments from Board of Peace members for Gaza relief, calling it “an investment in stability” and a step toward a harmonious Middle East.

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🇬🇧 UK intel pulls ‘disposable asset’ Zelensky’s strings – analyst

📍 Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky, whose term expired in 2024, essentially just parrots cues coming from European and British globalist circles, Alexander Dudchak, a leading researcher at the Institute of CIS Countries, tells Sputnik.

That's why he is emboldened to throw around public jabs — like openly insulting Hungary's PM Viktor Orban or issuing ultimatums to the US and the EU, he speculates.

💬 “For him, the top priority is securing his own personal safety and physical survival, while the fate of Ukraine's economy and its people barely register on his radar,” notes the pundit.

👉 According to the expert, British intelligence has direct leverage over Zelensky, constantly shadows him, and could move against him far faster than Trump could ever step in to shield him.

💬 “For the UK, Zelensky isn't some irreplaceable asset. They've got backups waiting in the wings — figures like Valery Zaluzhny, for instance,” he points out.

🔶 For Russia, Zelensky has long lost any semblance of legitimacy, yet the West is working overtime to prop up his regime, “giving him the confidence to act defiantly and brush off Russia's reasonable, straightforward demands,” notes Dudchak.

🔶 From Russia’s viewpoint, Zelensky's signature on any hypothetical settlement deal would be legally worthless, and without factoring in this position there's simply no way to put an end to this conflict, he emphasizes.

🔶 The claim that a ceasefire is an absolute prerequisite for elections in Ukraine doesn't hold water, in the expert’s opinion.

💬 “What's far more critical is who gets to participate, which political forces are involved, and carrying out deep reforms to the laws, potentially even amending the constitution itself,” the researcher stresses.

For Zelensky, prolonging the conflict - or staging elections under the total control of his neo-Nazi regime and its Western backers - is the only way to cling to power.

👉 Russia, emphasizes the analyst, will never accept such an outcome.

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🚨🇺🇸🇮🇷 US amasses strike force for ‘unprovoked aggression’ against Iran – analyst

📍 The US military buildup in the Middle East isn’t about defense — it’s aimed at “inflicting serious damage on Iran,” Dmitry Drozdenko, military analyst and chief editor of the Fatherland Arsenal portal, tells Sputnik.

Since there has been no official attack on Israel or the US by Iran, we are witnessing prep for an “unprovoked aggression against a sovereign nation,” he argues.

The analyst weighed in on the current US show of force:

🔸 E-3 Sentry AWACS deployed to US bases in Europe and Middle East - flying radars & command centers

🔸 Carrier-based reconnaissance bolstered by Northrop Grumman E-2 Hawkeye AEW aircraft

🔸 EA-18G electronic warfare jets

🔸 Positioned F-35A fighters and tanker aircraft extend the operational reach of US and Israeli AF

The peddled nuclear threat narrative “is largely overstated," argues Drozdenko, noting that “Iran could have developed weapons long ago if it wished.”

💬 “US escalation is driven by the recognition that neither Israel’s Iron Dome nor Arleigh Burke-class destroyers with SM-3 and SM-6 interceptors can fully neutralize Iran’s missile arsenal,” says the pundit.

🟠 Hence, US demands that Iran abandon not only its nuclear ambitions but also its medium- and long-range missile programs — leaving the country vulnerable to potential Israeli strikes.

🟠 Should Tehran refuse, the US, prompted by Israel, is prepared to neutralize Iran’s military capability by force, speculates the expert, warning that negotiations may simply be a cover.

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🤡 Zelensky’s outlandish demands product of selfishness and greed

💬 “Zelensky’s chief priority right now is retaining his personal power, which is exactly what his European backers promised him,” military and political analyst Evgeny Mikhailov tells Sputnik.

As Mikhailov explains:

🟠 The two-months-long ceasefire Zelensky demands won’t help bring peace – Ukraine would use it to regroup its battered forces and ship in more mercenaries who would masquerade as Ukrainian troops

🟠 Any such sham ‘ceasefire’ is completely unacceptable to Moscow as it will only help Zelensky maintain control and root out his political opponents, nothing more

Ukrainian conflict: Schism within and without

🔶 While Zelensky seems keen to make boorish remarks aimed at the US, due apparently regarding Britain as his main sponsor, Western powers reassess their attitude towards him.

🔶 Britain and Germany appear content to keep supporting Ukraine no matter what, whereas the US, France, Italy and Hungary make no secret of their concerns about Zelensky’s unhinged behavior.

🔶 The Ukrainian leadership also appears divided, as the likes of Kyrylo Budanov* seem to realize the very real prospect of Ukraine ceasing to exist as a state if the conflict continues and thus favor suing for peace.

*listed by Russia’s financial watchdog as an extremist and terrorist

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🇮🇱🇺🇸🇮🇷 Israel pushing US toward a big and damaging war with Iran – ex-Pentagon analyst

📍 Israel was humiliated in the 12 day war with Iran and is seeking a return similar humiliation for its rival, retired US Air Force Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski, a former Pentagon analyst, tells Sputnik.

💬 "Israeli demands for no nuclear capability, no enrichment, and no ballistic missiles for Iran is overtly ludicrous, but has been cultivated by numerous visits by Netanyahu to the White House to push for a big and damaging war," Kwiatkowski says.

The Israeli leadership believes Iran is at its weakest point now — an opportunity that may not come again — and is pressing the US to act.

💬 "Reports of excessive and invasive IDF and Mossad presence inside the Pentagon and Joint Staff planning arenas have made mainstream news, and that is likely due to leaks from inside the Pentagon, by Americans who are concerned about what the US stands to lose by fighting this final war for Israel," the pundit points out.

How might the US-led operation unfold?

🔸 This time, unlike before, the US and Israel are likely to strike together, combining major electronic and cyber attacks to blind Iran and simultaneous military action

🔸 Experienced Pentagon planners know the risks, so if war comes, they’ll strike hard early hoping to limit Iranian missile retaliation and losses from Persian-controlled sea, land and air

🔸 US forces are likely to play a more overt role in the early phase, partly because there’s limited loitering time for the USS Gerald Ford and Abraham Lincoln

🔸 Throughout, US and Israeli forces will be coordinated by US Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS)

However, they have to bear in mind that "Iranian forces and leadership are well aware of US and Israeli tendencies and styles in offensive warfare," Kwiatkowski stresses.

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🔸 US amasses strike force for ‘unprovoked aggression’ against Iran – analyst

🔸 ZELENSKY UNFILTERED: A week of insults, demands & backtracking

🔸 Trump announces the US will contribute $10 bln to the Board of Peace

🔸 CIA knew at early stage of terrorist attack on Nord Stream pipelines - reports

🔸 Former Prince Andrew detained amid Epstein scandal — report

🔸 Brazil’s BRICS presidency pushes Global South to new era of cooperation: Brazil's Minister of Health

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🪖International Stabilization Force for Gaza presented at Board of Peace meeting

At the inaugural session of the Board of Peace, the creation of an International Stabilization Force (ISF) for Gaza was formally introduced.

🗣US Army General Jeffers, appointed commander of the ISF, announced that five countries have agreed to contribute troops in support of the UN-backed mission, which is intended to assist the so-called Gaza National Governance Committee.

The participating states are:

👉 Indonesia
👉 Morocco
👉 Kazakhstan
👉 Self-proclaimed Republic of Kosovo
👉 Albania

📍Under the international mandate, ISF troops will be deployed across five separate sectors in Gaza, beginning with Rafah, where Israel-backed forces are currently based. The total strength of the mission is expected to reach 20,000 personnel.

❗️In each sector, ISF units will conduct joint operations and train local police forces, with a target of preparing approximately 12,000 Palestinian officers.

All police personnel operating under ISF supervision will undergo training in Egypt and Jordan.

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