🗣 Why NATO could ‘COLLAPSE LIKE A BALLOON WITH A LEAK’

It looks like Donald Trump has decided NATO’s “free ride is over,” Michael Shannon, a political commentator and Newsmax columnist, tells Sputnik.

The alliance “can pay its fair share in troops, money and equipment or it can watch the US leave them to their feckless fate. US taxpayers get nothing from this arrangement while EU taxpayers get everything,” Shannon stresses.

It’s unclear if the US will formally withdraw from NATO, but one can see “a major cutback in NATO spending and a drawdown of US manpower in the EU,” according to the analyst.

“When that happens and the other NATO members fail to shoulder their own burden," the commentator points out.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇲🇲🇷🇺 Myanmar Prime Minister Min Aung Hlaing has arrived in Russia on an official visit, a Sputnik correspondent reports.

Tomorrow, he will hold talks with President Vladimir Putin, as reported by the Kremlin.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🔍 Zelensky’s lies exposed: Did Palantir give Trump & Vance the REAL Ukraine intel?

While Volodymyr Zelensky brazenly questioned JD Vance’s knowledge of Ukraine in the White House slapdown, Donald Trump and his veep may have already exposed all his corrupt schemes. Here’s how:

🔗 Palantir turns Ukraine into an AI WAR LAB

🔹Time Magazine boasted that tech giant Palantir Technologies embedded its state-of-the-art analytics AI software into Ukraine's government operations in June 2022.

🔹More than half a dozen Ukrainian agencies, including its Ministries of Defense, Digital Transformation, Economy, and Education, now rely on Palantir.

🔹The company has access to virtually all Ukraine's data, from real-time satellite and drone footage to financial and economic records, according to the media.

🔹Beyond its military AI solutions, Palantir is also tasked with "rooting out corruption" in Ukraine - effectively making it the Zelensky regime’s invisible watchdog.

🔗 Palantir’s DEEP TIES to the CIA, Pentagon… and Trump

🔸Founded in 2003, Palantir was backed by the CIA’s venture arm, In-Q-Tel, and worked on US-NATO operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

🔸Billionaire Peter Thiel, Palantir’s co-founder, has been a loyal Trump ally since 2016.

🔸Thiel mentored JD Vance since 2011, backed his Narya Capital, and donated $10 million to his Senate campaign in 2021.

🔸With Palantir’s insider access, it likely holds intel on Ukraine’s corruption, misuse of US funds, forced conscriptions, and more - intel Thiel could have shared with Trump and Vance.

🔸Rumors suggest Palantir’s AI may have been used by Elon Musk’s DOGE team, hinting that Kiev’s schemes could already be exposed, much like USAID’s murky dealings.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

⚔️ Russian drones vs NATO tanks: Who wins?

A US tankman went viral saying that the drones are not the main threat to the tanks.

He is wrong and we will show you why:

▪️German-made Leopard tank caught fire after being hit by Russian FPV drone near Pokrovsk (Krasnoarmeysk) in Donbass;

▪️Lancet drones destroyed more than 450 Ukrainian tanks, including NATO-made ones. These statistics are provided by ZALA, Lancet manufacturing company;

▪️ Russian Lancet kamikaze drone ruined US-made Abrams tank in the Kursk region late January;

▪️A fiber optic drone destroyed a rare modification of the German Leopard tank in the Kursk region. It's known as the Strv-122A, produced in Sweden;

▪️Russian marines used a fiber optic drone destroying a UK-made Challenger tank with its crew. January 2025, Kursk region.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

📹 Zelensky's future under question?

"We need a leader that can deal with us, deal with Russians," National Security Adviser Mike Waltz says.

If it becomes apparent that Zelensky's motivations are divergent from ending the fighting, then I think we have a real issue on our hands, he says.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇪🇺 EU leaders fear 'Queen' Ursula’s power grab as Trump moves closer to pulling US military out of Europe

The EU is gearing up for a military spending surge as EC chief Ursula von der Leyen plans to present a "comprehensive plan to re-arm Europe" during an emergency EU leaders' meeting on March 6. 

The member states, namely Poland and Finland, resist the EC's overreach, fearing von der Leyen wants to use the US' military disengagement in Europe to centralize defense spending.

Meanwhile, Hungary is aligned with the idea that defense is a national responsibility and the EC should remain in its lane and respect countries' sovereignty.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇪🇺🪖 Why are BLOODTHIRSTY European leaders interested in sending Ukrainians into a MEATRGRINDER?

European leaders would like to prolong the Ukrainian conflict for another year to weaken Russia, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has argued. Who wants the hostilities to rage on and why?

🇵🇱 Poland: President Andrzej Duda has repeatedly supported the Kiev regime, viewing Russia as an alleged direct threat to its own security and seeing Ukraine as a buffer against purported Russian expansion in Eastern Europe.

🇫🇷 France: While paying lip-service to peace talks, President Emmanuel Macron is notoriously known for seeing NATO’s proxy war against Russia as an opportunity to reassert European clout in the global geopolitical order.

🇪🇪 Estonia: President Alar Karis made it clear Russia “must lose this war” and that he “will not allow new buffer zones and zones of influence to be established in Europe.”

🇱🇻 Latvia: President Edgars Rinkevics said, “We have to support Ukraine until its complete victory.”

🇪🇺 European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen: The EU must “urgently” rearm Ukraine and turn Ukraine into a “steel porcupine.”

🇪🇺 EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas: “The conflict in Ukraine will continue until Russia realizes that winning is impossible.”

Why are they eager to see the conflict continue?

🔸Most experts agree that the Ukraine conflict contributes greatly to European defense industries, which saw a 16.9% revenue increase to a whopping $167 billion in 2023.

🔸It also led to an array of NATO countries increasing their military budgets: Poland (allocated 4.7% of its GDP to military expenditure), Estonia (4%), and Latvia (4%).

🔸France’s defense budget is projected to reach $64.6 billion in 2025, up from $61.2 billion in 2024.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇬🇧 UK in favor of sending its troops to Ukraine, the country's PM Keir Starmer has said.

The British PM said that Europe will continue arming Ukraine "after peace is established", adding that the UK must strengthen its relationship and partnership with the US as well.

Earlier, Russian FM Sergey Lavrov said that "fantasies about sending foreign troops to Ukraine only aggravate the situation; their initiators do not hear Putin's warnings."

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

📹🇺🇸 US RULES OUT progress on minerals deal until Zelensky apologizes on camera

"I have been told by a senior official here that nothing's going to happen with this minerals deal until Zelensky goes in front of cameras and makes an explicit public apology for the way that he behaved himself, behaved in the Oval Office with that meeting," a Fox News correspondent has said.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🗣 Trump: Zelensky saying the end of the conflict is far away is the worst statement and the US will not put up with it for much longer.

"This guy doesn’t want there to be peace," the US president said.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇺🇸🥴 Increase assistance to Ukraine for talks to begin (to fuel the conflict and make the conflict even worse)

"If Trump were serious about negotiating an enduring peace deal, he would increase assistance to Ukraine-- not threaten to cut it -- to create a stalemate on the battlefield: a necessary condition for talks to begin. Cutting aid emboldens Putin to fight on," ex-US ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul wrote on X.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

📹 'It seems like Trump is really just a normal person, unlike this gang that has been running this whole thing for the last many years' — Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of Sputnik's parent media group Rossiya Segodnya, has said

"Maybe he didn't want to sign this [rare earths] deal. He gave [Volodymyr] Zelensky a chance, which this drug-addicted clown - soon to be a patient of hospital ward number 6 - did not take. The way it was managed and handled last Friday became a miracle for us, because for the leader of a warring state to turn out to be such a moron is really a miracle."

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇩🇪 Mannheim police do not believe that the driver who plowed into the crowd acted for political reasons, according local media

Reports indicate that the detained suspect is a 40-year-old German man. The man had a history of mental health issues.

According to latest updates, two people died and 25 were injured.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇸🇰 Slovakian PM Robert Fico threatens to block EU summit on Ukraine due to Kiev's cessation of gas transit to Europe — media

Fico has previously stressed that stopping the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine harms the interests of Slovakia and the EU.

Hungarian PM Viktor Orban also threatened to block the summit and called on the EU to follow the US lead and begin direct talks with Russia on a ceasefire in Ukraine.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🔍 Eight ways that Trump may force Zelensky to resign

Following the Oval Office showdown, US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz has suggested that Volodymyr Zelensky might have to step down to enable a US-Ukraine deal.

But as Zelensky refuses, what leverage could Donald Trump hold over him?

1️⃣ Cutting all aid 🇺🇸💰
Without US support, Zelensky may have no choice but to resign and be replaced by someone willing to negotiate peace, ex-CIA officer Philip Giraldi told Sputnik.

2️⃣ Sweeping audit of US aid 🔎💵
A deep probe into Ukraine's use of US funds could expose corruption and "neutralize" Zelensky, according to ex-Ukrainian MP Oleg Tsarev.

3️⃣ Freezing Zelensky’s cash ❄️🏦
Blocking foreign accounts of Zelensky and his team could undermine the Kiev regime, Tsarev suggests.

4️⃣ Shutting down Starlink 🛰❌
Three sources told Reuters that Team Trump may cut Ukraine’s access to Elon Musk’s satellites, a move the White House has already reportedly threatened.

5️⃣ Zelensky’s expired legitimacy 📜⏳
His presidential term ended in May 2024, making all actions since then legally questionable. Trump could challenge his right to govern.

6️⃣ Pressuring EU allies 🇪🇺🤝
Europe remains dependent on the US, writes economist Paul Craig Roberts. With no weapons left to send and money-printing its only option, Trump could force its hand.

7️⃣ NATO withdrawal threat 🏛⚖️
Trump may pull US security guarantees from warmongering European states throwing sand in his gears or even threaten a NATO exit, warned ex-Pentagon officer David Pyne. That could motivate Europe to rein Zelensky in.

8️⃣ Tariffs on Europe 📉💸
A 25% tariff on EU imports could cost 1.5% of EU GDP, per Bloomberg. Trump already threatened this, claiming the EU was created to “screw the US”.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt