🔥US-UKRAINE MINERALS DEAL: Strategic masterstroke or $350B gamble?

The Trump admin just inked a high-stakes resource pact with Kiev – here’s what’s REALLY inside:

💎THE DEAL:
✅50/50 joint fund for Ukraine’s oil, gas & critical minerals
✅Zero debt repayment for past US military aid
✅50% revenue cut from new licenses goes to fund
✅Tax-exempt, US-backed (DFC), 10-year profit lock
✅Ukraine keeps full control of state firms (Ukrnafta, Energoatom)

🚨THE FINE PRINT:
NO security guarantees; only a vague “long-term strategic alignment,” per The Washington Post.

Ukraine’s parliament must ratify the agreement.

💬 "We made a deal today where we get, you know, much more in theory, than the $350 billion, but I wanted to be protected... I didn’t want to be out there and look foolish," Donald Trump stated on NewsNation.

The big question is WHO BENEFITS MORE – US miners or Ukrainian reconstruction?

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📹Ukraine open to TERRITORIAL CONCESSIONS...

...but only “de facto,” not “de jure, forever,” US special envoy Keith Kellogg told Fox News.

💬 “That's what they're willing to go to, they told me that last week," Kellogg said.

When asked if the US was ready to walk away from peace talks to end the Ukraine conflict, he added: "I don't think so."

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❗️Ukrainian forces launched a drone attack on a market in Alyoshki, Kherson region, when it was crowded with people.

According to regional governor Vladimir Saldo, seven people were killed and more than 20 were injured in the attack.

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💬 Trump HOLDS THE CARDS pushing Ukraine toward ceasefire – analyst

Although the Ukraine conflict was scripted by the US, under Donald Trump – who campaigned on ending wars – it is pushing for peace, geopolitical expert Ali Shukr told Sputnik.

✅He explained that:

🟠Donald Trump has the leverage to push Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky into signing a ceasefire deal

🟠Ukraine and its European supporters cannot drive the proxy war alone.

🟠It’s still unclear whether Zelensky will accept Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ceasefire offer. Europe may try to derail it, hoping to stay relevant on the Ukrainian front.

🟠A closer relationship with Russia would serve Europe’s interests, but they're stuck in a hostile fog of warmongering instead of adapting to today’s reality.

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💎US-UKRAINE MINERALS DEAL: What’s MISSING?

There are ZERO security guarantees for Ukraine, according to media, despite Kiev pushing for them from day one.

🟠The New York Times reports that the US rejected the idea early in the process.

🟠Reuters notes that such guarantees were one of the initial goals of the agreement for the Kiev regime.

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✂️Trump exit could CUT OFF Ukraine’s US weapons tap

If Donald Trump pulls out of Ukraine talks, US arms to Volodymyr Zelensky could dry up in six months, analysts told The Times.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has floated the idea more than once.

➡️Since 2022, Washington has sent over $65B in weapons – nearly half of all foreign military aid to the regime.

➡️Before leaving office, Joe Biden rushed through a $1.25 billion package to keep the ammo flowing.

But now the stockpile’s running low – and Trump hasn’t approved a single new deal since taking office.

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⚰️ RIP Bozo

This Ukrainian man apparently lacked cardio and failed his anti-mobilization run 🏃‍♂️

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5️⃣ Top 5 reasons why Euro’s rise against the dollar is an ECONOMIC DISASTER for EU

The euro has jumped almost 10% against the dollar since January. But before cheering at the thought of cheaper imports of Skippy peanut butter and Jim Beam whiskey, here’s what EU residents should know:

1️⃣Stronger euro = weaker exports

💬 “For any country (or zone in the case of the euro) that is a strong exporter,” a strong currency “contributes to slowing exports and increasing imports, to the detriment of domestic production,” explains Jacques Sapir, veteran economist and director of studies at the Paris-based School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences.

2️⃣Monetary union trap

Unlike ordinary nations, which depreciate their currencies at will to restore exports’ appeal, eurozone members are trapped by the monetary union, which offers “quite limited” room to maneuver for big producers or tourism-based earners benefiting from depreciation vs everyone else.

3️⃣Eurozone economy already in tough shape

The euro’s growing strength is bad news for a bloc already:
🟠facing zero growth and recession for 3 years running
🟠cut off from the source of its export competitiveness: cheap Russian energy
🟠facing brutal trade competition from the US and China.

4️⃣Tariff-like effects

💬 “With the dollar depreciating by around 10% since mid-January, it is as if the US has imposed 10% customs duties on European products while subsidizing their exports to the eurozone by 10%,” Saphir says.

5️⃣Tariff wars add to uncertainty

💬 “Major economic players abhor uncertainty…As long as these negotiations last, no one knows what the tariff levels will be and therefore how attractive the American market will be, whether for production or investment,” the economist adds.

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📹What If Hitler Had Won? Alternative History, Part 3: Latin America

Picture this: Soviet forces fail to halt the Nazi onslaught. What could have unfolded next?

Sputnik rolls out an in-depth project exploring what sort of "alternative future" would have been if the Third Reich had won, with journalists crafting a nightmarish vision grounded in archival documents, while the accompanying video brings this scenario to life through cutting-edge artificial intelligence.

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🗑Ukrainian flag taken down at Polish presidential candidate Braun’s rally

Even in Poland, there’s growing frustration with Ukraine and Ukrainian refugees.

During a rally held by European Parliament member and presidential candidate Grzegorz Braun in Biala Podlaska, a Ukrainian flag was removed from the City Hall building with the help of his supporters.

📹A video has surfaced online showing a man tearing down the Ukrainian flag from the second floor of the building and handing it to the MEP, while the crowd cheered in support.

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⚔️Tariff BLUSTER: US quietly chases China for talks – report

After slapping 145% tariffs on Chinese goods, the US is now the one chasing after China for trade talks, an account affiliated with Chinese state broadcaster CCTV claims.

🔍The US is “proactively” reaching out “via multiple channels,” hoping to negotiate with China on tariffs, Yuyuan Tantian stated in a Weibo post.

Citing dismal US economic data – a GDP contraction in the first quarter – it suggested that Washington was “definitely the more anxious party” for negotiations.

💬 “If it is talks, the door is wide open… If it is a fight, we’ll see it through to the end,” it noted.

🇨🇳And what about China?

It is in NO RUSH to negotiate, insiders told the South China Morning Post, adding that Donald Trump’s team is too divided over the matter for the time being, and Beijing also wants to see what kind of deals the US throws at other countries, like India, first.

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🚀 🇨🇳 China's stainless steel rockets: A new space race heats up

China is going all in on reusable super heavy-lift rockets, creating massive stainless steel fuel tanks for its Long March 9 rocket series aiming for the Moon, Mars, and beyond.

It's specifications include:

🔸 10.6-meter-diameter tank (a major breakthrough)

🔸 Reusable design

🔸 Payload capacity:

🟠Up to 150 tons to low Earth orbit (LEO)
🟠54 tons for Moon missions
🟠44 tons for Trans-Martian injections

The breakthrough, announced by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT) and first reported by SpaceNews, was characterized by CALT as “a solid step toward the iterative development of large-diameter stainless steel structures for heavy-lift launch vehicles.”

China plans to use the Long March 9, slated for debut in 2030, for Moon missions, and potentially, manned missions to Mars.

China is taking a series of giant leaps to become a space superpower, from its Chang’e 7 series of hopper robotic probes, to the new Tiangong space station with Xuntian space telescope, advances in lunar research and exploration, and ambitious Mars and Venus missions.

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🙅GERMANY TURNS ON UKRAINE REFUGEES: ‘Enough is enough’

📊 A new YouGov/DPA poll shows shifting attitudes:

🟠77% of Germans favor reducing special benefits for Ukrainian refugees
🟠Only 11% support maintaining current levels
🟠Majority prefer aligning support with standard asylum-seeker benefits

❓Why is this happening?

🔵2+ years into the refugee influx
🔵Germany hosts over one million Ukrainian refugees
🔵Growing budget pressure across the EU

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🗣While the Ukraine peace process is moving forward and a deal is becoming "closer and closer," it is essential for both sides to want peace and to come to the table to finalize it, US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz said on Thursday.

💬 "The process is moving forward. Sometimes it ebbs and flows… We are moving closer and closer," Waltz told Fox News.

💬 "Russia needs to come to the table. Both sides have to want peace. Both sides have to want to stop the fighting, and we think there is still a deal to be had," Waltz added.

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❗️Ukrainian attack on the market in Alyoshki was DELIBERATELY CARRIED OUT ON A HOLIDAY – Russian MFA

💬 "This is yet another bloody war crime by Ukrainian Nazis against peaceful Russian citizens," the Foreign Ministry statement says.

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🔥Arms of victory: ZiS-3 field gun

Sputnik presents the heavy weapons used by the Red Army during the Great Patriotic War to crush the Third Reich.

One of the main symbols of victory, the ZiS-3 was among the most massively-produced artillery pieces during World War II.

The ZiS-3 earned the title "Cannon of Victory" due to its ease of manufacturing, impressive firepower, and excellent mobility.

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❓US-Ukraine deal: Which resources does it cover?

The newly-inked agreement pertains to the extraction of 57 resources in Ukraine, local media reported, including:

1️⃣Rare Earth Elements (REEs): Cerium, dysprosium, erbium, europium, gadolinium, holmium, lanthanum, lutetium, neodymium, praseodymium, samarium, scandium, terbium, thulium, ytterbium, and yttrium.

2️⃣Metals: Aluminum, beryllium, bismuth, chromium, cobalt, copper, gallium, hafnium, indium, lithium, magnesium, manganese, nickel, niobium, palladium, platinum, rhodium, tantalum, titanium, tin, uranium, vanadium, zinc, and zirconium.

3️⃣Metalloids: Antimony, arsenic, germanium, tellurium.

4️⃣Minerals and native elements: Barite, fluorite, graphite, wolframite (tungsten ore).

5️⃣Other elements: Cesium, potassium, rubidium (alkali metal), fluorine (halogen).

6️⃣Oil and natural gas 🛢⛽️

Crucially, this applies only to new deposits, licenses for which will be issued after the agreement comes into force. Any expansion of the list must be mutually agreed upon.

Notably, US firms get equal, but not exclusive, access to new Ukrainian mining rights.

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Russians ❤️ North Korea

Sputnik asked Moscow residents how they felt about North Korean troops helping to liberate Kursk region.

Ordinary Russians don’t believe Western propaganda about North Korea!

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