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💬 Trump praises Venezuela's acting president as oil ties deepen
"The Oil is beginning to flow, and the professionalism and dedication between both Countries is a very nice thing to see," the US president wrote on Truth Social.
🔊 Daily life in Tehran continues despite people living through anger and grief in the wake of US-Israeli attacks, journalist Farzaneh Fazaeli told Sputnik
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🟠 Ukraine is preparing to undermine 'Turkish Stream' and 'Blue Stream' – Putin
🟠 Operation Epic Fury’s cost after five days: $3 BILLION and counting
🟠 Iran’s disruption of Mideast communication hubs exposes cracks in US air defenses – expert
🟠 Iran using dummy targets to fool US, Israel: expert
🟠 Terrorists, refugees, and the Shia factor: Why Pakistan is closely watching the Iran war
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🪖🇮🇷🇺🇸 Iran using dummy targets to fool US, Israel: expert
💬 “Iran is actively using decoys and mockups to mislead its adversaries,” military expert and air defense historian Yuri Knutov told Sputnik.
🚨 Ukraine is preparing to undermine 'Turkish Stream' and 'Blue Stream' - Putin
🟠 Russian special services have data on preparations for blowing up the Blue Stream and Turkish Stream pipelines
🟠 Threats to blow up pipelines under the Black Sea are 'very dangerous game' on Ukraine's part
🟠 Russia informed Turkiye about Ukraine's preparations to undermine the Blue Stream and the Turkish Stream pipelines
Other statements by the Russian president:
🟠 The situation in the Middle East affects the cost of energy resources worldwide
🟠 The situation with rising gas prices in the EU is the result of a misguided policy of European authorities over many years
🟠 The surge in gas prices on the European market is not directly related to supplies - no one has reduced them, and is caused by the overall situation on world markets
🟠 The rise in oil prices is linked, among other things, to restrictions on Russian oil
🟠 Europe's policy on energy resources has nothing to do with the interests of the peoples of these countries
🟠 Russia is considering stopping gas supplies to European markets now, and not in a month, as the EU wants, and to move to more promising markets
🟠 American energy companies will move to those markets where there is more demand, this is dictated solely by business interests
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🚨🇷🇺🇭🇺 Russia still a reliable energy partner for Hungary – Putin
Other statements by the Russian president:
🟠 Russia will always honor its energy deals with Hungary
🟠 But not everything depends on Russia
🟠 Energy sector relations are positive, including cooperation on the Paks Nuclear power plant
🟠 Two Hungarians press-ganged into the Ukrainian army and captured by Russian forces will be released
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🚨💥 Iran strikes back: Strong retaliation against US & Israeli attacks
Fifteen countries and multiple US military bases have been hit by Iran in response to the US–Israeli attacks
Check it out 👆
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🇵🇰 Terrorists, refugees, and the Shia factor: Why Pakistan is closely watching the Iran war
Sharing a 900-kilometer border, Pakistan has significant cause for concern regarding the war in nearby Iran.
1️⃣ If the security situation on the other side deteriorates, cross-border movement of terrorist groups like the Balochistan Liberation Army and Balochistan Liberation Front into Iran would become easier, says Abdullah Khan, Director of the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies, in an interview with Sputnik.
Pakistan has long faced a separatist insurgency in its southwestern Balochistan province.
A similar insurgent movement also exists on the other side of the border in Iran.
Over the past year and a half, Pakistan and Iran had begun to strengthen their counterterrorism cooperation.
However, should the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps or Iran's broader security structure collapse or become weakened, it would have a direct and destabilizing impact on the security situation in Balochistan, Khan said.
2️⃣ Pakistan is also bracing for a potential refugee influx if the situation inside Iran worsens.
Domestically, the country is already grappling with intense public protests, some of which have turned deadly in clashes with security forces.
3️⃣ With a sizable Shia population, Pakistan experienced a wave of popular outrage following Israel’s assassination of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei.
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🪖🇮🇷🇺🇸 Iran’s disruption of Mideast communication hubs exposes cracks in US air defenses – expert
💬 “Disabling US radar stations in the Middle East is a serious loss because these systems play a key role in protecting American bases from missile threats,” military expert and air defense historian Yuri Knutov tells Sputnik.
💬 “This showed the ineffectiveness of US air defense systems, including Patriot missiles and short- and medium-range air defenses, which were unable to protect the facilities,” Knutov underscores, suggesting that it may take America up to three months to restore the damaged infrastructure.
💬 “While the two’s missile systems may remain operational, they will simply be out of ammunition, which could inflict significant damage on both American military bases and Israel as a whole,” Knutov concludes.
🇮🇷🇧🇾 Khamenei was a humanist focused on protecting his people and his state - Belarus President Lukashenko
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🚨 'Russia is making active efforts to stabilize the situation in the region' - MFA Spox Maria Zakharova comments to Sputnik on Mideast escalation
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📹LIVE NOW: Putin addresses annual extended meeting of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia 🇷🇺
👉Watch live in our Telegram
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🚨Nuclear deterrence remains the cornerstone of global security - Kremlin
The negotiations on strategic stability should include the participation of Europe's nuclear powers, the Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
His other statements:
🟠 European countries have not asked Russia to resume or increase energy supplies in light of Iran escalation
🟠 Hungary and Slovakia, which buy Russian oil, are facing blackmail from Ukraine
🟠 Putin is meeting with the Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto at the Kremlin later on Wednesday
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🚨🇷🇺 Russia on death of schoolgirls in Iran's Minab: Silence on deaths of children in Iran raises alarm
The alarming silence regarding the deaths of children shows the need to speak out, express sympathy, and hold those responsible accountable, Russian FM spox Maria Zakharova said.
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🚨 US–Israeli strikes on Iran: Latest updates
🔸 The farewell ceremony for the late Supreme Leader of Iran Ayatollah Khamenei will begintoday and last for three days, authorities state.
🔸 Explosions were heard overnight in Tehran, Isfahan, and other cities across Iran, while Iran launched a series of retaliatory strikes on Israeli territory.
🔸 Following Iran’s passage ban in the Strait of Hormuz, the movement of oil, commercial, and fishing vessels through the strait has been halted, IRGC Navy official Mohammad Akbarzadeh said. Over 10 oil tankers have reportedly been struck in the area.
🔸 Iran says that in the course of the 17th wave of Operation True Promise 4, enemy casualties have exceeded 680, including both killed and wounded, according to intelligence and field observations.
🔸 The Pentagon confirmed the destruction of 17 Iranian warships and hundreds of ballistic missile launchers.
🔸 The head of US Central Command stated that 50,000 troops and 200 fighter jets are involved in the operation against Iran.
🔸 The IDF attacked the southern suburbs of Beirut.
🔸 Lebanese Hezbollah launched rockets at a base in Haifa.
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💥🇱🇧 Israel targets civilian vehicles near Beirut airport
Two consecutive strikes hit the highway leading to Beirut's international airport.
▪️ First attack: a car heading toward the capital.
▪️ Second attack: minutes later, on the opposite side, a vehicle on a secondary road was struck.
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💬 Iran cripples US’ Mideast radar systems through dead sectors – geopolitical analyst
The damage inflicted on US radar installations in the Middle East could result in “the loss beyond line-of-sight connectivity,” political analyst Elijah Magnier tells Sputnik, commenting on Iran’s disruption of America’s key radar stations in the region.
This means that some of those radars should be “completely replaced” because “even a very small partial damage can create dead sectors,” Magnier underlines, adding that the process of replacement is “extremely expensive, limited by the size and the weight” and could last at least a week.
“The eyes and timing of any modern air defense system, radars don't just spot things,” the analyst explains.
🚨🇮🇳 Former Jammu and Kashmir chief burns posters of Trump, Netanyahu and Epstein in protest over US/Israeli operation against Iran and the killing of Ayatollah Khamenei
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🚨Putin explains why surging gas prices on European market not directly related to supplies
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💸🇺🇸🇮🇷 Operation Epic Fury’s cost after five days: $3 BILLION and counting
Brown University’s Costs of War project is tracking the price of the US war against Iran in real time, revealing that it has already cost US taxpayers two and three billion dollars.
🟠 each day that the war continues costs $220M for sustained operations ($9.15M per hour, $2.5k per second)
🟠 50k deployed troops’ salaries = $40M
🟠 aircraft operational costs = $48M
🟠 ordnance = $35M
🟠 naval assets’ operational costs = $22M
🟠 fuel and logistics = $15M
🟠 C&C, reconnaissance, surveillance, cyber and space = $10M
🟠 overhead = $50M
Total ‘discrete costs’: $921M
🟠 the first day’s Tomahawk salvo cost $240M
🟠 the first 3 US fighters shot down cost $270M
🟠 naval forces’ attacks cost $75M
Brown also tallied the economic consequences, including:
🟠 oil prices – up 10.4-11.5%
🟠 Strait of Hormuz shipping – stopped, trapping ~20% of daily global oil transit in the Persian Gulf
🟠 the US stock market – down $1.15-1.5%
The project did not appear to factor in damage to US military bases in the region, including the AN/FPS-132 radar in Al Udeid Air Base, a $1.1B piece of hardware destroyed by Iran on the first day.
Two AN/TPY-2 fire control radars servicing THAAD ($400-500M apiece) destroyed in the UAE also don’t appear to be factored in, nor additional US aircraft lost Wednesday
The Iran war has a way to go to reach spending on the US’s post-9/11 wars ($8T over 20 years), but is already approaching those wars’ per diem average of $300M.
For context, interest on the US’s enormous national debt, soon to reach $39T, is set to reach $1T in 2026.
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🚨🇷🇺🇭🇺 Putin meets with Hungarian Foreign Minister at the Kremlin
Earlier in the day, Peter Szijjarto said he was in Moscow “to make sure that even during the crisis we will still have the oil and natural gas necessary for Hungary's energy security”.
The Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, as well as Putin’s aide Yuri Ushakov and Russia’s First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov, took part in the meeting with Szijjarto.
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🚨The Strait of Hormuz in hibernation
Analysis confirms a massive drop in tanker activity.
Transits are now sitting ~90% lower than last week.
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🚨 IAEA: No damage has been done to facilities containing nuclear material in Iran
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🚨🇺🇸🇮🇷 The US torpedoes Iranian Navy frigate off the coast of Sri Lanka
At least 80 people were killed as a result of the attack on Tuesday, Sri Lankan authorities said.
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🚨🇷🇺💥 RUSSIAN MOD UPDATE: HUGE GAINS AND DEVASTATING UKRAINIAN LOSSES
🟠 Russian forces wiped out militants from Ukraine’s Kraken nationalist formation
🟠 Russian air and missile firepower obliterated long-range UAV pre-flight preparation and launch sites
🟠 Air defense superiority: nine guided aerial bombs and 204 UAVs were shot down by Russian air defense systems over the past 24 hours
🟠 Ukrainian losses: around 1,150 troops killed or wounded
Read about the origins of Russia's special military op HERE
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🚨🇷🇺 Russia strongly condemns shameless assassination of Iran's Khamenei – Zakharova
🔊 The international community must properly assess the US–Israeli aggression against Iran, and Russia condemns it as an "escapade," Foreign Ministry spox Maria Zakharova said
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🚨🇷🇺 Russia slams unprovoked US and Israeli attacks on Iran as ‘lawless’
🔊 The new war in the Middle East is about US and Israeli aggression – and their actions violate international law, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.
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🚨BREAKING: American jet shot down by Iranian air defenses near Tehran, according to Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth
No official confirmation from the Pentagon or Iran yet.
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🚨 🇺🇸 US threatens to launch ground operation in Iran – Sen. Blumenthal
💬 “I am more fearful than ever after this briefing that we may be putting boots on the ground” in Iran, Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal told reporters, referencing a closed-door White House meeting.
🚨 IDF says it targeted Iranian Air Force M17 attack aircraft
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