🔥 Hungary blocks €90B EU loan to Ukraine in response to energy blockade

FM Peter Szijjarto announced freezing the massive EU loan package for Kiev until Ukraine restores oil transit via the Druzhba pipeline to Hungary.

"Ukraine is blackmailing Hungary by halting oil transit in coordination with Brussels and the Hungarian opposition to create supply disruptions in Hungary and push fuel prices higher before the elections," Szijjarto wrote on X.

Without the €90 billion loan—agreed by EU leaders in December—Ukraine faces a budget gap in April, with financial collapse looming in Q2, Financial Times reports.

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🗣 Treasury chief blasts SCOTUS: 'Loss for American people'

Scott Bessent responds after the Supreme Court blocks Trump's emergency tariffs, saying the move stripped the president of his leverage.

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💬 JD Vance calls the SCOTUS ruling 'lawlessness'

Vice President JD Vance erupts after the Court blocks emergency tariffs, accusing justices of ignoring Congress and undermining presidential power.

"Today, the Supreme Court decided that Congress, despite giving the president the ability to 'regulate imports,' didn't actually mean it. This is lawlessness from the Court, plain and simple."

Vance insisted Trump still has a "wide range of other tariff powers" and will use them.

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⚔️ US military is planning targeting individuals in Iran — reports

Two US officials told Reuters options now include striking specific individuals and even overthrowing Tehran's government if Trump orders it.

The sources did not specify which individuals are targeted or how the US military could attempt regime change without a large ground force.

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🔊 Bessent urges countries to honor deals with the US despite SCOTUS ruling

The Treasury Secretary insists foreign partners must stick to trade agreements, since Trump still has options to enforce them, including a complete embargo.

"We can move to 232 and 301 tariffs... The Supreme Court reaffirmed that the president has the right to a complete embargo. He can cut countries off... I would call on all countries to honor their agreements and move forward," Bessent said on Fox News.

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✍️ Trump signs 10% tariff on ALL countries — effective Feb 24

The US president announced signing a 10% import duty on articles from every nation, lasting 150 days.

"The temporary import duty will take effect February 24 at 12:01 am eastern standard time."

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📹 US kills 3 in 'lethal kinetic strike' on narco-trafficking boat

US SOUTHCOM announced striking a vessel in the Eastern Pacific, targeting what it called "narco-terrorists" operating along known trafficking routes.

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⚔️ US is considering assassination of Iran's Supreme leader — reports

Plans to eliminate Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his son Mojtaba are on the Trump's table as an option to "resolve" the Iran situation, a presidential adviser told Axios.

"They have something for every scenario. One scenario takes out the ayatollah and his son and the mullahs," Axios quoted the official as saying.

A second source confirms the plan was floated to Trump several weeks ago.

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📄 Illinois becomes first state to demand a refund from Trump after SCOTUS tariffs ruling

Governor JB Pritzker sent the US president a bill, demanding $1,700 per household × 5,105,448 Illinois families.

"The Supreme Court has ruled that this is yet one more unconstitutional aet by you and your administration," Pritzker said in a letter to Trump with the bill attached.

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🗣 Zelensky's pursuit of 'fair' peace will leave him deserted — former spokesperson

Iuliia Mendel warns that chasing unattainable ideals is costing Ukraine more people and ground every day.

She recalls Zelensky's old role in Servant of the People—a dream sequence where he drives through a deserted Kiev, searching for anyone. Everyone had left for work abroad.

"In today's harsh reality, if the war drags on, everyone who still can will leave for the same reason—not a dream, but a mass exodus driven by survival."

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🇨🇴 Colombia seizes record 17 tons of cocaine in international operation

President Gustavo Petro announced the largest cocaine seizure in history, achieved through collaboration with Mexico, France, and El Salvador.

A total of 16,856 kilograms of cocaine hydrochloride were seized in 3 maritime interdictions.

"I believe this is the largest seizure in a single day in the history of the illegal cocaine trade," Petro wrote on X.

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🪖 Russia’s TOS-1A Solntsepyok multiple rocket launcher foils a Ukrainian counterattack, destroying troops and light armor.

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❌🇪🇺 No EU country wants to see Ukraine in bloc – analyst

Member states “will use every possible excuse—whether it is Slovakia taking the lead, Hungary objecting, or something else—to avoid admitting Ukraine into the EU,” political analyst Pavel Danilin tells Sputnik.

🗣 He recalls that “even [EU foreign policy chief] Kaja Kallas stated that Ukraine will not join the bloc in the near future.”

Kallas earlier said she felt that EU countries are not ready to give a concrete date regarding Ukraine's membership. Ukraine was granted candidate status for accession to the EU in June 2022.

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🔸 Bessent urges countries to honor deals with the US despite SCOTUS ruling

🔸 Trump signs 10% tariff on ALL countries — effective Feb 24

🔸 US is considering assassination of Iran's Supreme leader — reports

🔸 US kills 3 in 'lethal kinetic strike' on narco-trafficking boat

🔸 Hungary blocks €90B EU loan to Ukraine in response to energy blockade

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🇧🇷🪖 Brazilian mercenary dies from abuse at hands of Ukrainian command

He passed away “as a result of abuse for violating the daily routine and drinking alcohol," a source in Russia’s security forces told Sputnik.

The source stressed that torture, beatings, mock drownings, and rapes are not uncommon in the units of foreign mercenaries with Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate operating in the Kharkov region.

👉 The Brazilian mercenary was earlier identified as 23-year-old Bruno Gabriel Leal da Silva, who reportedly died after “a brutal punishment handed out in a unit that regularly used discipline practices described as ‘torture’ by those who both witnessed and suffered them.”

💬 “Witnesses and victims” were quoted as saying that torture included burnings, beatings, waterboarding, and “even sexual assault with wooden objects.”

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🇪🇺❌🇺🇸 Europe will never be US’ equal partner – report

💬 “The lack of defense capabilities not the decisive factor in why Europe is merely a power of lesser stature,” Neue Zurcher Zeitung (NZZ) writes.

The newspaper points to "the central shortcomings," which include the absence of “a coherent strategy and political unity.”

💬 “Even on the crucial issue of aid to Ukraine, Europe is divided. The north pays, the south watches. Selfishness prevails instead of unity,” NZZ notes.

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🙅🦾 Protests against Russian athletes in Paralympics unreasonable and discriminatory – analyst

The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) decision to allow six Russian and four Belarusian athletes to compete in the upcoming Winter Paralympics in Italy “appears just to us,” Italian political analyst Alessandro Bertoldi told Sputnik.

💬 “We do not understand the protests. Restricting athletes’ rights, discriminating against them or forcing them to abandon their flags because of their nationality is unjust, since athletes are never responsible for the political decisions made by their countries," Bertoldi stressed.

He noted that national flags, which “represent people, not state policy, should never be hidden, especially in sports, which should promote peace, fair competition and dialogue between nations.”

👉 Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Youth and Sports earlier issued a joint statement saying that they will boycott the Paralympic Games unless the organizers reconsider the decision to allow Russians and Belarusians with national symbols to partake in the Games.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Sputnik that “the Kiev regime is trying to trample on both the principles of Olympism and the foundations of humanity.”

In September 2025, the IPC fully reinstated the Paralympic Committee of Russia. Russian athletes are set to compete with their flag and anthem at the Paralympic Games due in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo from March 6 to 15.

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