❗️Ukrainian forces lost more than 30 000 militants in Russia's Kursk region since the beginning of combat operations, the Russian Defense Ministry reported.

🇷🇺 🪖 Other statements from the Russian Ministry of Defense's daily briefing on the situation in the Kursk region:

▪️ Russia’s Battlegroup Sever hammered ten Ukrainian formations and repelled four counterattacks in its combat zone. The enemy lost as many as 30 militants and two armored vehicles.

▪️ Russian aviation and artillery strikes hit concentrations of personnel and equipment of 12 Ukrainian brigades in the Sumy region.

▪️ In total, Ukrainian losses over the day amounted to more than 250 militants, with eight armored vehicles and eight cars destroyed.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

US political establishment corrupted by defense contractors profiting off wars – expert

Both Democratic and Republican parties have been corrupted by major US defense contractors profiting off wars, Dr. Jeremy Kuzmarov, Managing Editor of CovertAction Magazine, told Sputnik.

This explains why foreign policy has become the least important issue for voters in the 2024 elections, he speculated.

“For instance, the Ukraine war. They made a fortune off the war selling weapons. And they also make a fortune selling weapons to Israel. I mean, the US is the number one arms supplier in the world. And they pay off politicians in both parties. They invest equally in the Democratic and Republican parties. So that ensures that you don't have any crusaders in those parties that will challenge the foreign policy establishment and rein in the so-called military industrial complex,” he said.

Kuzmarov noted that “people don't have confidence right now in the American economy”, adding:

“The cost of living has gone way up. A lot of people are struggling, and they see the Biden administration not really addressing the problem of inflation.”

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️The Kremlin has rejected accusations of attempts to interfere in the US presidential election.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Trump wins: What does it mean for US foreign policy?

"It's clear to me that [Donald Trump] does not want to continue funding [of the Zelensky regime]. He does not want to continue a proxy war. He doesn't want any wars because during his first administration, there were no wars. And this is one of the dramatic things that people don't realize, as opposed to the Biden administration, that we've poured hundreds of billions of dollars into war,” Michael Maloof, ex-DoD analyst, told Sputnik.

Maloof did not exclude Trump having “a new perspective on NATO”, suggesting that “begrudgingly he'll [Trump] probably keep the structure, but he's going to put more requirements on the members and be much more definitive with them in terms of responsibilities.”

“What we see now in terms of NATO being more of an offensive alliance as opposed to a defensive alliance, I think he's going to want to curb that. Because it's been this offensiveness by NATO that has gotten us into this mess with Ukraine,” Maloof concluded.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Liberal TV journalist on Trump's victory: "There are a lot of men, black and white, who just simply don't trust a woman to be chief executive, Commander in Chief"

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

THROWBACK: Ukrainian priest denounces Trump as the "Antichrist" and prays that he doesn't return to power.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🎥🎥 Lavrov talks to media after Valdai Discussion Club Session

👉 Watch the livestream here or follow the link to the Sputnik's website

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🙏 Hope that our colleagues from the Washington Post and New York Times are doing okay

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

💬 What does Trump’s win change for Middle East?

On Israel, Donald Trump may take U-turn as compared to his previous term, Michael Maloof, former senior security policy analyst in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, told Sputnik.

Trump has already been “somewhat critical of [Israeli Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu in terms of continuing this war [in Gaza and Lebanon] endlessly,” Maloof said.

“He's recently said to Netanyahu, get this done, finish it, stop the fighting, come to terms. And if he doesn't, then I think he's going to have to undertake a different approach whereas in his first administration, he was very supportive of what Netanyahu wanted. He gave the Israelis everything they wanted,” the ex-Pentagon analyst pointed out.

Trump is going to look more towards Saudi Arabia as the kingdom is now insisting on a two-state solution in exchange for normalizing relations with Israel as well as reactivating the Abraham Accords, according to the analyst.

“This is going to mean a redirection in foreign policy. It's going to mean less emphasis on what Israel wants and perhaps more on what the Gulf Arab countries might want,” Maloof emphasized.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

📑 Key Congressional races unfold as Trump clinches White House victory

As Republican Donald Trump appears poised to defeat Democratic contender Kamala Harris in the 2024 US presidential election, having crossed the crucial threshold of 270 electoral college votes, it's essential to examine another significant political contest.

🔸 The Republicans are projected to have secured the 51 votes necessary to control the upper chamber of the US Congress - the Senate - following Senator Deb Fischer's reelection victory in Nebraska.

🔸 The GOP anticipated gaining Senate control after successfully flipping two key Democratic-held seats in Ohio and West Virginia.

🔸 In contrast, Democrats were unsuccessful in their bid to flip two Republican-held Senate seats, with GOP Senators Rick Scott and Ted Cruz winning reelection in Florida and Texas, respectively.

🔸 The battle for the House of Representatives, the lower chamber, remains undecided. Current projections indicate that Republicans have secured 198 seats compared to 180 for the Democrats, according to CNN the Associated Press.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

💬 What will Trump's Asia-Pacific policies be?

With regard to the US’ Asia policy, Donald Trump may “try to reactivate his relationship with Kim Jong Un to try to get the North Korean leader to back down on any further testing, Michael Maloof, former Pentagon senior security policy analyst, told Sputnik.

He stressed that the international community was “almost on the precipice” of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula during the Trump administration.

“I think one way you do that is to stop all further US-South Korean military exercises, which North Korea views as a provocation. And I think that if that's diminished, I think then there's a basis for discussion. I think China would probably welcome that as well,” Maloof said.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

📑Wall Street analyst gives top three reasons why Trump won

Donald Trump has been declared the winner of the 2024 presidential race, prompting a meltdown in the Kamala Harris camp and the US corporate media – who are struggling to understand what went wrong.

Wall Street analyst Charles Ortel gives the top three reasons behind Trump's victory:

1️⃣ Abject Failure of “Bidenomics”

Despite Borrowing and Spending Trillions of Dollars*: "Americans vote thinking first about their economic welfare and prospects," Ortel told Sputnik.

"The only beneficiaries of the Biden-Harris administration were connected political donors and insiders. Wages after taxes and inflation for private sector workers – the core slice – are way down and under continuing threat."

2️⃣Soaring Crime, Especially in Cities

"The Biden-Harris Open Borders approach, coupled with George Soros-funded district attorneys refusing to prosecute and the 'defund the police' movement, pushed moderates and first-time voters into the MAGA movement."

3️⃣"Incompetent team backed by classless celebrities”

"The 2024 Democrat 'campaign' was even less competent than Hillary in 2016 and Joe in 2020," the Wall Street analyst points out.

"This time, Harris and Walz were obviously inauthentic, incompetent and abysmal at connecting with likely voters, whereas Trump built a diverse Dream Team of authentic heroes – while Trump himself is a master leader and salesperson."

Ortel drew attention to a high number of black, Latino and women's votes for Trump, even though those demographics have long been considered pro-Democratic.

The analyst believes Democrats tried to rig the 2024 election "in countless ways" but the wave of support from Trump’s supporters "was too big to rig." Misconduct by Democrats can only be fully exposed after Trump gets his cabinet picks confirmed into key positions, Ortel believes.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

💬 Trump’s victory: What awaits NATO?

Donald Trump may “be much more stringent” toward NATO members and “insist that they not only increase their allotments to it or pull out,” Michael Maloof, former senior security policy analyst in the Pentagon, told Sputnik.

Trump will want to make NATO “less aggressive in terms of being offensive in nature, as they've demonstrated in Ukraine, because it's absolutely wrecked the economy of Europe. So the Europeans now have come to realize that and they're paying the consequences. And they do blame the United States for leading them in this direction in the first place,” Maloof said.

According to him, Trump will “begin to cut back on NATO,” which he said is going to “potentially fracture under a Trump administration and become much more regional in nature.”

“There will be far less US encouragement for NATO to survive and thrive than it had under the Biden-Harris administration,” the analyst argued.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

⚛️ The Ukrainian Armed Forces are attacking Energodar and the shoreline near the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant using drones; at least five explosions have been recorded, and the air defense systems are actively responding, stated the governor of Russia's Zaporozhye region, Yevgeny Balitsky.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt