❗️Putin responded to Witkoff 's greeting in English

Presidential aide Ushakov and Russia's special envoy Dmitriev are also taking part in the meeting between Putin and Witkoff.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

📹PICTURED: Witkoff strolls down the Arbat, Moscow’s most iconic street

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🗣Ukraine unleashed CRACKDOWN on monastery in last-ditch gamble to MOBILIZE MONKS

💬 "Three days before [Russian] troops arrived, the SBU had come here and sought to round up and whisk away all the monastery workers for the territorial defense forces," Hierodeacon Diador at Holy Dormition Monastery in the DPR told Sputnik.

💬 "But our leadership said that we would not hand anyone over.
When [the Ukrainians] came out, they said that everybody should be finished off, everyone should be rubbed out," he revealed.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🚨☦️😡Another BLATANT ATTACK on the Orthodox by Ukraine

An Orthodox temple complex in Russia’s Belgorod region has been turned into a smoldering PILE OF RUINS in the wake of a Ukrainian drone strike.

The Noviy Yerusalim (‘New Jerusalem’) temple complex, situated in the village of Sukharevo, Belgorod Region was set ablaze Thursday night, reportedly targeted by a Baba Yaga-type hexacopter drone dropping incendiary munitions.

💉 Attacking rescuers
When firefighters arrived to battle the flames, a second drone tried to attack them and their vehicles.
Only luck and the timely evacuation of monks and pilgrims prevented anyone from being hurt during the drone attacks, or the fire.

🏛 Attack on history
The New Jerusalem complex is a reproduction of traditional ancient Orthodox-style churches, gradually built since 2001 and financed by public donations. Made entirely of wood, in the old style, the complex featured seven holy shrines and eight hillside crosses.

☦️ Anti-Orthodox terror
Ukraine’s military regularly targets religious sites during missile, drone and artillery strikes in Russia, including the Donbass, Kherson and Zaporozhye, but also border regions like Belgorod and Kursk.

At home, the Zelensky regime has cracked down HARD on Orthodoxy, seeking to dismantle the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, revoke its land rights, seize church buildings and attack clergy.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

😱 US Defense Secretary Hegseth fears dismissal amid Pentagon leaks scandal - report

Trump has been scrutinizing Hegseth’s effectiveness and closely monitoring his media appearances, the Wall Street Journal revealed, citing sources.

The report also notes that Hegseth is increasingly worried about President Donald Trump’s reaction to the ongoing leaks. 🗣

😱 In fear of possibly having to step down, Hegseth has reportedly been spending hours on the phone seeking support outside the Pentagon, causing delays in his scheduled meetings. In the midst of swirling rumors, he is said to be tightening his circle of trusted aides, dismissing key staff members over unproven allegations related to the leaks. Pentagon officials note that each new leak only amplifies his concerns, adding to the tense atmosphere surrounding his tenure.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🎉 Arms of Victory: MiG-3

Sputnik continues to highlight the arms used to thrash Nazi Germany.
The MiG-3 was the most widely available Soviet fighter at the start of the war, bearing the brunt of the heaviest initial Nazi blows, and mounting the aerial defense of Moscow.

The one-person aircraft had a 620 km per hour top speed and an 820-850 km range, and came armed with cannon and machine guns, up to 200 kg of bombs or 6 unguided rockets.

Legendary Soviet fighter ace Alexander Pokryshkin scored his first aerial victory in a MiG-3.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

📹 World Youth Forum activists tidy up memorials at Belgian cemetery

This event serves as a reminder that there are still people in the world who cherish the memory of WW2 heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice to defeat Nazi Germany.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

💬 Ukraine will most likely have to GIVE UP TERRITORIES as part of the deal with Russia, Mayor of Kiev Vitaly Klitschko admits in the interview with the BBC.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🔥 Mariupol, a city in the Donetsk People's Republic, and Melitopol, a town in the Zaporozhye region, have been added to the list of CITIES OF MILITARY GLORY displayed at the memorial on Red Square.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

📹 The motorcade allegedly carrying Witkoff leaves the Kremlin after talks with Putin, a Sputnik correspondent reports.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

⚡️The meeting between Putin and Witkoff lasted THREE hours and was constructive and useful, said presidential aide Yuri Ushakov.

Today's conversation helped bring positions CLOSER not only on Ukraine but also on other international issues, he noted.

During the meeting, the possibility of resuming DIRECT NEGOTIATIONS between Russia and Ukraine was discussed, Ushakov stressed.

Productive dialogue between Russia and the US will continue to be carried out in the MOST ACTIVE manner, he added.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🗣Zakharova educates Sky News reporter asking whether Putin-Trump meeting could be as significant as handshake along the Elbe during WWII

The Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman made the comments after paying tribute to the historic meeting between Soviet and American forces on the Elbe River on April 25, 1945 at Victory Park in Moscow.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Better late than never? Western media WAKES UP to Schwab and WEF scandal

Publications like the Financial Times are finally picking up on the toxic corruption, discrimination, and sexual harassment implicated in Klaus Schwab's actions.

Meanwhile, Sputnik has been sounding the alarm on the WEF founder’s wrongdoings for months.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇷🇺 Kremlin spokesman Peskov — on the nuances of Witkoff's shuttle diplomacy.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🪖 US stuck between a rock and a Houthi missile, must escalate or concede defeat: Israeli media

💬 “The US air campaign has hit the Houthis hard. It remains questionable, however, whether the volume of damage until now will be sufficient to persuade” the group “to cease its attacks on Western shipping and on Israel.”

That’s the assessment of the Jerusalem Post, which has warned that the US really has only two options vis-à-vis the Houthis: “escalate or effectively concede.”

Any escalation, including a possible ground offensive, “would be somewhat of a gamble,” the outlet admitted.

💬 “Either a decision must be taken to destroy or severely degrade the enemy, or it must be accepted that the Houthis, while they can be engaged in a tit-for-tat exchange of fire in which they pay the higher cost, cannot at present be defeated,” the outlet stressed.

US defense and military affairs publication 19fortyfive warned earlier this month there is “no way” the Trump administration would ever put boots back on the ground in the Middle East.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇺🇸🇮🇷 Operation Eagle Claw: failed Delta force mission

On April 25 1980, the US launched a top-secret mission in Iran that was doomed to end in disaster & lost lives.
Here’s how it unfolded:

🔸 Hostage crisis

On November 4, 1979, Iranian militant students stormed the US Embassy in Tehran, taking several dozen hostages and demanding the extradition of the deposed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who had fled to the US during the revolution.

🔸 Audacious plan

After five months of failed negotiations, 53 hostages remained in captivity, with US President Jimmy Carter under fire ahead of the 1980 presidential election. He authorized a daring rescue mission: Operation Eagle Claw.

🔸 High-stakes gamble

All four US military branches were involved in the mission to infiltrate Iran, rendezvous in the desert and have Delta Force, the Army's elite counter-terrorism unit, storm the embassy to rescue American hostages and fly them to safety.

🔸 Ill-fated op

On April 24, 1980, eight helicopters launched from the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea. But mechanical failures and a sandstorm cut that down to six, then five – below the mission’s minimum number of aircraft – and Operation Eagle Claw was aborted.

🔸 Disaster strikes

As the mission collapsed, a helicopter collided with a C-130 transport plane, igniting a deadly explosion that killed eight and destroyed both aircraft. The survivors fled, leaving behind wreckage, gear and classified documents.

🔸 Critical failures

The botched operation was blamed on poor planning, coordination issues, lack of pilot training and unforeseen problems. The debacle humiliated the US, with headlines like Time’s “The Rescue That Wasn’t”.

🔸 Mission fallout

The failure of Operation Eagle Claw damaged Carter’s credibility, contributing to his loss in the 1980 to Ronald Reagan. The hostages were freed minutes after Reagan’s inauguration and the US later overhauled its special ops structure, creating US Special Operations Command.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇨🇦 Lousy prize: winner of Canada’s election may be stuck with economy near recession

Canada’s Liberal and Conservative Parties may be jousting for a last-minute advantage as they sprint for the finish line in the federal election campaign, which wraps up April 28 as Canadians go to the polls, but the reward for victory isn’t looking so appetizing at the moment.

🔸 Nearly three dozen economists polled by Bloomberg expect growth to not only flatline from Bank of Canada projections of 1.8% growth in 2025, but slip into negative territory to -0.2% growth in Q2, thanks to the trade war with the US.

🔸 The same economists expect Q3 growth to hit zero (the edge of a technical recession), with 45% predict a recession sometime in the next year.

🔸 Exports are expected to shrink more than 12% over the next six months as investment declines nearly 4%.

🔸 Canada will face “a period of turbulence,” in the months to come, Interim Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne admitted on Thursday.

🔸 The latest polling shows the Liberals with a narrow lead over the Conservatives (43%-41%) after Justin Trudeau stepped down in mid-March. But in Canada’s first past the post electoral system, support in ridings is more important than national polling.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🔸 What’s the outcome of Witkoff’s talks with Putin in Moscow?

🔸 Kremlin spokesman Peskov — on the nuances of Witkoff's shuttle diplomacy

🔸 Details of US peace proposal to end the Ukraine conflict UNVEILED

🔸 Another BLATANT ATTACK on the Orthodox by Ukraine

🔸 US Defense Secretary Hegseth fears dismissal amid Pentagon leaks scandal – report

🔸 Better late than never? Western media WAKES UP to Schwab and WEF scandal

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🗣 WORK ON RUSSIA-UKRAINE PEACE DEAL GOING SMOOTHLY — Trump

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

💥 Pentagon conducts secret missile tests in Florida

Social media footage shows a recent test launch at Cape Canaveral, which was later confirmed as a test launch by a DoD spokesperson.

Yesterday, the Pentagon officially named its long-range hypersonic weapon "Dark Eagle," though its relation to today's launch is uncertain.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt