🗣 The UK has never limited the possibility of attacks on Russian territory using Storm Shadow missiles, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said.

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❗️LIVE: Lavrov Chairs Russian MFA's Business Council Meeting on Bolstering Cooperation With BRICS

👉 Watch the livestream here or on Sputnik's website

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❗️ Germany and the rest of the West are in agreement that Ukraine can use Western weapons to repel attacks in the Kharkov region, the German government said

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🗣 The peace conference in Switzerland must be recognized by Russia and Ukraine, otherwise it will be difficult to play a significant role in restoring peace, China's Foreign Ministry said.

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❗️ With the mediation of the UAE, 75 Russian servicemen who were in mortal danger in captivity have been returned from Ukraine-controlled territory, and 75 Ukrainian prisoners of war have been handed over in their place, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

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❗️ Attempts to strike Russian territory with US weapons are already being carried out, which speaks eloquently about US involvement in the conflict, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

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Russia holds on to world’s No.4 biggest economy spot based on purchasing power parity

The Russian Federation has consistently maintained its position as the world's fourth-largest economy in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP) since 2021, according to updated data from the World Bank and calculations by Sputnik.

Back in 2021, Russia accounted for 3.8% of the global GDP, surpassing Japan (3.7%) and Germany (3.4%). Russia's PPP GDP in 2021 reached 5.7 trillion dollars, while Japan and Germany had indicators of 5.6 trillion and 5.2 trillion dollars, respectively.

By the end of 2022, the World Bank announced that Russia had officially become the fifth-largest economy in the world, surpassing Germany. However, it is important to note that these calculations were originally based on 2017 data, and have since been updated to incorporate data from 2021.

Russian President Vladimir Putin had previously established the goal of positioning Russia as the fourth-largest economy in the world in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP). In line with this objective, the Cabinet of Ministers was tasked with developing and implementing measures to achieve this goal by March 31,2025.

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❗️ US officials expect that the first attacks on Russian territory using American weapons could begin within hours or days, the NYT reported, citing sources.

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Clooney's foundation targets prominent Russian journos across Europe

The George and Amal Clooney Foundation for Justice’s Docket Project plans to hunt down Russian journalists through secret arrest warrants.

Anna Neistat, director of legal affairs for the Docket Project said that the criminal codes of some European countries have an article on “war propaganda.”

The fund noted that it was preparing requests to launch cases in countries where such laws exist. If a warrant is then issued, journalists could be detained throughout Europe at the Europol level.

Neistat added that no requests have been sent yet. The names of the journalists they want to prosecute were not disclosed. The foundation says it is targeting “the most obvious Russian propagandists, the most visible of them.”

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Italy’s constitution prevents the use of Italian weapons supplied to Ukraine on Russian territory, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani has said.

“We have a constitution that says very clearly in Article 11: ‘Italy rejects war.’ We cannot supply weapons to strike Russia on its territory,” the statement said.

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❗️WARNING! GRAPHIC CONTENT

In Mannheim's market square, a man with an eastern appearance attacked Michael Sturzenberger, a well-known German publicist and political activist. A police officer was also stabbed, and the attacker was shot dead.

Sturzenberger is a self-described critic of Islam. He opposes the construction of mosques in Germany and accuses German politicians of not taking seriously the perceived dangers posed by the religion, which is practiced by many refugees in the country.

UPD: The police press release changed the details, saying the attacker was just “hurt” and he's alive.

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Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of Sputnik's parent media group, Rossiya Segodnya, commented on recent reports on the Clooney Foundation for Justice hunting Russian journalists:

"A week ago, I was told that Amal Clooney was working on my arrest. And here comes the confirmation.

Girls! You don’t understand anything about us propagandists. For these ‘other countries’ of yours, where you are going to arrest us, I personally wouldn’t give five kopecks. Moreover, in our homeland the cherries are now in full bloom."

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Houthis threaten ‘immediate and direct response’ to US and UK shelling of Yemeni ‘targets’ in the Red and Arabian seas

“The American-British aggression will not prevent us from continuing our military operations,” Houthi official Mohammed Al-Bukhaiti said on X, formerly Twitter, vowing to “meet escalation with escalation.”

The Yemeni movement has already struck US aircraft carrier the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower in the Red Sea, Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said, according to media reports.

Earlier in the day, American and British fighter jets carried out a series of simultaneous strikes on the barracks and equipment of the Yemeni Ansar Allah group in Sanaa (central Yemen), Hodeidah province in the west of the country and Taiz province in the southwest.

The intensive attacks on Yemen came after Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi said the movement had carried out attacks against more than 100 Israeli, US and UK vessels in the Red, Arabian, Mediterranean seas and the Indian Ocean since November last year, with ten vessels coming under Houthi attacks this week.

In November 2023, Yemen's Houthi rebels vowed to attack any ships associated with Israel until it halts military actions in Gaza.

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Serbian Deputy Prime Minister reveals the only thing that is allowed to be hated in Europe

💬 “This incredible idea, this anti-Russian hysteria has taken over all of Europe, and not only Europe. In Europe, at least formally, it is forbidden to hate anyone. You can't comment on anything. A man wants a uterus? Bravo, he should have a uterus, that's just a super idea, bravo! There are idiots who say we should lower the age of sexual consent. And that's fine too! The only thing to hate is Russia. I am eternally proud of President Vucic, of all of Serbia, that we haven’t become part of that. We do not hate the Russians. On the contrary, we love them very much. And what are you going to do to us?” Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vulin told Sputnik in an interview.

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🤡 NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg called on alliance members to commit to keeping annual military aid for Ukraine at a minimum of €40 billion ($43 billion), after member states’ foreign ministers debated long-term support for Kiev.

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Germany orders more US-made Patriot systems after Ukraine aid hollows out stocks

Germany has rustled up an order for four additional Patriot systems after its own stocks were depleted by Ukraine aid, Tagesspiegel reported.

The announcement was made by Germany’s Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, who noted that his country had transferred two such systems to Ukraine, and that a third is on the way. As this comprises over "a quarter” of the number Berlin needs for itself, “The purchase of four more Patriots is being worked out,” Pistorius said.

The first batch was ordered in March, with delivery dates set for 2026. There are plans to order the same number of US-made air defense missile systems by 2027, NDR added.

Resourcing additional Patriot systems for the Kiev regime has become a headache for its Western patrons. The Biden administration is reportedly working on sending an additional Patriot air defense missile system to Ukraine within the Germany-initiated Immediate Action on Air Defense (IAAD) initiative. Not all of Zelensky’s European allies are eager to share their costly Patriots with Ukraine amid Russia’s advances further into Ukrainian defenses in the Kharkov region.

Since the beginning of the year, the Ukrainian Armed Forces have lost five Patriots, the Russian Defense Ministry reported in March. Moscow has repeatedly underscored that the Patriot PAC-2 air defense systems are a legitimate target for its military like all other weaponry fueling NATO’s proxy conflict.

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