🇷🇺PACIFIC FIREPOWER: Russia launches missile drills in Sea of Japan

🔥The flagship of the Pacific Fleet, the Guards missile cruiser Varyag, conducted a live launch of the Vulkan anti-ship cruise missile.
🔥 Two missile boat strike groups from the Pacific Fleet attacked targets with four Moskit cruise missiles.
🔥 The coastal missile system Bastion strike team launched an Onyx cruise missile from a coastal position in Primorye.

According to the control data, all targets were successfully hit.

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🗣Trump says has nothing to offer Iran 'unlike Obama'

He stressed that he has not even spoken to Tehran since US strikes.

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🔶 Iran has no illusions about Israel honoring ceasefire, keeping its finger on the trigger: top general

🔶 Sen. Graham reportedly persuaded Trump to strike Iran

🔶 Zelensky’s withdrawal from anti-personnel landmine treaty will haunt generations of Ukrainians

🔶 Western-backed crackdown in Armenia risks causing major unrest – expert

🔶 Watch Kim Jong-un meet Russian Culture Minister in Pyongyang

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IAEA may have been involved in sharing data on Iran with US ahead of strikes

“That information was fed to the Israelis to help target those senior [Iranian] leaders,” US political analyst Earl Rasmussen said.

He stressed the whole operation was illegal, did not meet the objectives, and was “kind of an embarrassment.”

What were the ramifications?

🔸 The analyst pointed out that international institutions were used blindly, and their reputation has been undermined — not only in the eyes of Iran, but the entire world.
🔸 Rasmussen underscored that the very fact that the US allowed Israel to act casts a shadow on the Trump administration.
What could be the goal?
🔸 One of the main goals of the operation was an attempt at regime change in Iran and the establishment of a puppet government—similar to the "Shah regime," according to the analyst.
🔸 Rasmussen suggested that the operation could also aim to disrupt China’s energy routes and undermine its Belt and Road Initiative.

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🗣Attacks on the canonical thousand-year-old Armenian Apostolic Church are a cause for serious concern - Lavrov

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🇷🇺🪖 RUSSIAN DEFENSE BRIEFING: CRUCIAL STRIKES & ENEMY LOSSES

🟠 The Russian Armed Forces defeated the "Chimera" special forces unit;

🟠 Heavy Ukrainian losses: Over 1,350 troops eliminated in the special military operation zone;

🟠 Air defense superiority: 4 JDAM bombs and 144 aircraft-type drones shot down.

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🚨An ‘operation’ is being conducted at Sputnik’s office in Baku - the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Azerbaijan

The team of Sputnik Azerbaijan has not yet contacted the editorial office in Moscow.

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🚨 Russian embassy contacted Azerbaijani MFA & State Security Service but received NO response regarding situation with Sputnik office in Baku - 🇷🇺MFA Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova

There is concern that for more than two hours, Russian diplomats in Baku have been unable to contact the journalists.

The staff of the Russian embassy’s consular section are not being allowed access to the Russian journalists, and no information is being provided about the reasons for such actions.

❗️Sputnik's editorial team has stated that they have not received any official bans on their work in Azerbaijan, and throughout this time, there has been a constructive dialogue between the working groups of the foreign ministries of both countries regarding the resolution of potential disagreements.

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🗣Iran has right to enrich uranium in line with NPT – envoy

The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty stipulates that the Islamic Republic has “an exclusive right” to conduct research and development for a peaceful nuclear program, Iran’s Permanent Representative to the UN Amir Saeed Iravani stressed.

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🇦🇲Electric Networks of Armenia opposes efforts to nationalize the company

The Electric Networks of Armenia (ENA) company, owned by arrested Armenian businessman Samvel Karapetyan, intends to fight against the nationalization of the company by all possible legal means.

Last week, Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan said that the ruling Civil Contract Party in Armenia had developed a draft legislative amendment to nationalize the ENA.

💬 "We are going to fight this process with all legal means. We understand that domestic procedures are limited for us, but there are international organizations," the company's acting head told reporters.

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🇷🇺🇺🇸Russia takes note of Senator Graham’s statement about Trump’s alleged readiness to tighten anti-Russian sanctions - Kremlin

More statements by Kremlin spox Peskov:

◼️ In Kiev, they are well aware of what needs to be done to stop the fighting; these conditions were outlined by Putin a year ago;

◼️ We expect clarity to emerge soon concerning the date of the third round of Russia-Ukraine talks;

◼️ Moscow does not rule out that technologies for provoking color revolutions are being used during the protests in Serbia;

◼️ Moscow hopes that the leadership of Serbia will be able to restore legality in the country in the near future.

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🚨Azerbaijani security forces UNJUSTLY detain two Sputnik journalists

Two employees, head of Sputnik Azerbaijan newsdesk Igor Kartavykh and managing editor Yevgeny Belousov, were detained.

According to local media reports, they are absurdly accused of being "agents of the FSB."

Russian embassy staff were not allowed access to the detainees. Sputnik is attempting to establish contact with the unjustly detained journalists.

Sputnik is trying to establish contact with the detained journalists.

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🇮🇷 'Unlikely' that Iran's Fordow nuclear facility completely destroyed - expert

"Although the nuclear facilities at Natanz and Fordow were targets of American strikes, there is evidence that everything important was removed from there in advance. Moreover, due to the great depth of the Fordow facility, it is unlikely that it was completely destroyed," Iranian international affairs expert Mohammad Hossein Vahidi told Sputnik.

"Therefore, the West has focused on containing Iran's missile program, as it is even harder to destroy than the nuclear program. European countries, due to their geographical proximity to Iran, consider the threat of its missiles more serious than the United States does. However, they too cannot consider themselves safe because of their numerous bases in the Middle East," he added.

US President Trump earlier claimed that as a result of the US strikes the Fordow nuclear facility had been destroyed.

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📑 UN report exposes torture of Russian POWs in Ukraine

🔸 Ukrainian soldiers have executed at least 26 Russian military personnel, either taken prisoner or wounded on the battlefield since February 2022, according to a report by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

🔸 Furthermore, more than half of the Russian prisoners of war in Ukraine, whom the UN spoke with from December 2024 to May 2025, were subjected to torture.

🔸 At least 170 prisoners in Ukraine have been tortured since February 2022, allegedly for "collaborating" with Russia, according to the report.

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🚨More than ten employees of Sputnik Azerbaijan are still in the office in Baku, one of the agency's staff members told Sputnik.

"Many of our employees were summoned by the police to the Sputnik Azerbaijan office. However, there are also those who were not called anywhere. We've been unable to reach them by phone for several hours now. They are still in the office."

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🇦🇲 Authorities move to dismantle billboard demanding Karapetyan's release

👉 City workers in Yerevan are trying to remove a billboard calling for the release of businessman Samvel Karapetyan.
He was arrested after expressing support for the Armenian Apostolic Church amid government attacks.
The businessman has denied the charges.

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💬 Iran dodged a nuclear disaster - expert

🗣 Former head of Egypt’s Nuclear Materials Authority, Abu Al-Huda Al-Sairafi, comments on the US strike on Iran’s Fordow reactor:

“The US strike on the Fordo reactor was powerful and effective, using bombs designed to target depths up to 80 meters.”

“However, Iran evacuated enriched uranium from the reactor just 2-3 days before the attack, preventing a nuclear catastrophe in the region.”

“Had Iran not removed the uranium, we would have witnessed a disaster similar to Chernobyl & Fukushima with consequences beyond geographic borders.”

▫️ No radiation leaks have been reported in Iran or nearby countries, but there was a chemical-radiological leak after the Israeli strike on Natanz.

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‘We are witnessing what’s happening with Sputnik’s personnel in Baku and deem it to be an injustice’ – Dmitry Kiselev

“There have been no and there are no substantive complaints regarding the journalistic work of Sputnik Azerbaijan. We had agreed to resolve formalities during the visit to Moscow on April 8, when Azerbaijani President's Special Representative for Special Assignments, Khalaf Khalafov, came to discuss signing an intergovernmental agreement.

I personally participated in those negotiations at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Russian delegation was headed by Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin. At that time, we also agreed to continue the work of Sputnik Azerbaijan under a temporary legal scheme proposed by Baku,” said Dmitry Kiselev, general director of the Sputnik News Agency's parent organization Rossiya Segodnya.

“However, no temporary scheme was proposed. We are working while waiting for it, hoping that the agreements will be fulfilled. Suddenly, Azerbaijani security forces entered the editorial office and took the leadership of our department, treating them like 'FSB officers,' with hands twisted behind their backs and heads bowed, as if they were terrorists. Everything looks like a deliberate move to worsen interstate relations.

We hope this is one of those cases, as Putin once put it, where 'the middle level is acting on its own.' The relationship between the leaders of Russia and Azerbaijan does not suggest anything like this," Kiselev emphasized.

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💥 RUSSIAN STRIKES DESTROY UKRAINIAN MILITARY BASE

"Geran" drones hit hard in Sumy region—Ukrainian military positions and drone storage wiped out near the town of Konotop.

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