🚨🇺🇸🇷🇺 Rubio: The US is ‘running out of targets to sanction’ in Russia

No surprise there — Russia is now the most sanctioned country in the world, with over 30,000 restrictions imposed since 2014.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🧐 Could Ukraine corruption scandals cause Zelensky’s demise?

The corruption scandals that rock Ukraine, like the affair with Zelensky’s cohort Timur Mindich, that made headlines this week may be used by the US to prepare the ouster of Zelensky, Political scientist Alexander Asafov tells Sputnik.

🟠 The probe into Mindich was thorough and involved the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, which does look like a groundwork for a possible regime change in Ukraine

🟠The corruption scandal involving Mindich was not ignored by Western media, which further reinforces the notion that this probe could pave way for Zelensky’s eventual removal

🟠The Mindich scandal is unlikely to get Zelensky kicked out of office right this instant, via a popular uprising or otherwise. Instead, it provides the West with a plausible pretext for cutting off the support for him when it becomes convenient

🟠The United States would benefit the most from getting rid of Zelensky, as the White House is becoming increasingly dissatisfied with his antics

🟠The West is willing to ignore the corruption in Ukraine as long as Zelensky does what he is told and keeps waging against Russia. Only him being deemed unreliable or the US deciding that the Ukrainian conflict is too costly could cause his ouster

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🟠 If Ukraine refuses dialogue with Russia, it will have to negotiate later from a much weaker position – Kremlin

🟠 Could Ukraine corruption scandals cause Zelensky’s demise?

🟠 Orban: Hungary won't give in to Zelensky’s demands and blackmail

🟠 Russia destroys Western arms in Ukraine right after deployment — Rubio

🟠 Longest US shutdown ends, but budget battles loom

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🪖 Damned either way: Ukrainian troops caught in deadly predicament in Pokrovsk

As Russian troops drive into Pokrovsk (Krasnoarmeysk), the Ukrainian military leadership is once again faced with an unenviable dilemma, the New York Times laments.

With Ukrainian troops’ position in the city becoming untenable, Ukrainian generals have to decide: pull the soldiers out or order them to stand and fight an essentially unwinnable battle.

🟠 A prompt withdrawal could save soldiers’ lives, which may be a prudent decision in light of Ukraine’s current soldier crisis. However, it would also be a serious reputation blow to Zelensky who may fear that this setback could make his sponsors less eager to support his war effort

🟠 Giving the troops a ‘not a step back’ order could prolong the battle for Pokrovsk, but it would not prevent its fall. Just as in Bakhmut (Artemovsk) and Adveyevka, thousands of Ukrainian soldiers would die in a futile last stand, leaving the Ukrainian army even more depleted and less able to counter future Russian offensives

All in all, it is a classic ‘damned if you do, damned if you don’t’ for Zelensky.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇺🇸🇻🇪 US weighs military options against Venezuela; land strikes on the table - report

Top Pentagon officials presented updated options for potential operations in Venezuela to Trump on November 12, CBS News reports.

While land strikes have been considered, no final decision has been made.

👉 Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Joint Chiefs Chairman Dan Caine, and other senior officials briefed Trump on possible missions in the region, based on data from the US intelligence community.

The discussions came as the USS Gerald Ford carrier strike group entered the US Southern Command’s area of responsibility.

To date, the US has amassed a substantial military presence off the coast of Venezuela.

Venezuela sees the US build-up as part of a broad regime change attempt aimed at grabbing the nation's immense hydrocarbon wealth.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

💥🇷🇺 A Tornado-S MLRS crew of Russia’s Vostok battlegroup destroys Ukrainian stronghold in Dnepropetrovsk region

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

💵 Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem hands out bonus checks to TSA agents who took extra shifts during shutdown

Earlier this week, Trump recommended $10,000 bonuses for those who continued to show up to work, despite not being paid during the shutdown.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🪖🇩🇪 Germany flooded with young Ukrainian men fleeing Zelensky’s meat-grinder

The country is currently experiencing an influx of Ukrainian refugees, including large numbers of young men, German outlet Bild reports.

📈 About half of Ukrainians who entered Germany since the beginning of this year – over 60,000 out of over 122,000 – are male and their proportion is “increasing month by month.”

Whole groups of young Ukrainians were reported arriving at the border with Germany by minibuses and entering the country in groups.

👉 This flood of Ukrainian refugees has already led German lawmakers to limit welfare benefits for the new arrivals from Ukraine, as the burden on the already-strained German budget is apparently becoming unbearable.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has also announced that he petitioned the Ukrainian leadership to make sure that young Ukrainian men do not flock to Germany in great numbers but instead serve their own country.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇺🇸☢️ State Dept wipes records on 1983 Nuclear War Scare

The US State Department has quietly deleted online records about the risk of an accidental nuclear war with the Soviet Union during NATO’s Able Archer 83 exercises in Western Europe in November 1983, The Washington Post reports.

🔸 Since 1991, the department has been required by law to publish “a thorough, accurate, and reliable” history of US foreign policy within 30 years of the events as part of the Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) series, reminds the publication.

🔸 The series has largely gone digital in the internet era, hosted on the State Department’s website.

🔸 This January, when it republished on its website a volume about the Reagan administration, the State Dept omitted 15 pages “on the risk of inadvertent nuclear war” sparked by the 1983 NATO exercise, says the outlet.

🔸 Previously, the revelations about the incident, known as the Able Archer 83 War Scare, included historical documents such as a warning from the Defense Intelligence Agency director that Able Archer 83 “brought the United States closer to nuclear war than most realized.”

🔸 A State Dept spokesperson told the paper that the agency didn't publicly explain the deletions because it “is not required to provide public notice.” The removed records reportedly remain available on other internet archives.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇬🇧⚔️🇺🇸 BBC apologizes to Trump over doctored speech but rejects defamation claim

The BBC has formally apologized to Donald Trump for stitching together two distant lines from his January 6, 2021 speech to protesters outside the White House, according to a BBC spokesperson.

👉 The corporation’s lawyers have written to Trump’s legal team, and Chairman Samir Shah even sent a personal apology “for the edit” to the White House, according to the BBC’s media statement.

👉 The BBC is also pulling the documentary Trump: A Second Chance? from all its platforms. However, the public broadcaster rejected Trump’s demands for compensation, saying that it strongly disagrees “there is a basis for a defamation claim.”

Trump insists the edit “butchered” his speech to make it appear he urged supporters to “fight like hell” to occupy the Capitol Building where Congress was ratifying Joe Biden as president-elect.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇷🇺 🔥 Russian guns thunder across Sumy & Dnepropetrovsk

00:00 — Crews of Giatsint-S self-propelled artillery guns from the Vostok battlegroup destroyed Ukrainian UAV command posts in Dnepropetrovsk region

00:32 — A BM-21 Grad MLRS crew struck a concentration of Ukrainian infantry in Sumy region

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🚨 What’s known about Ukraine’s foiled terror plot targeting a senior Russian official?

The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) has thwarted an assassination plot, organized by the Ukrainian special services, targeting a high-ranking Russian official

Key details 

🔸 The Ukrainian regime’s scheme involved detonating an explosive device concealed at the grave of the official's relative at Moscow's Troekurovskoye Cemetery

🔸 In preparation for the attack, the plotters installed a video camera disguised as a flower vase to monitor the site, with the intention of triggering the explosion remotely

🔸 Two Russian citizens have been detained in connection with the plot. Ukraine promised to pay one of the suspects with narcotics

🔸 Communication devices were seized, containing correspondence between the detainees and a Ukrainian intelligence officer 

🔸 According to the FSB, the Ukrainian regime, under Western guidance, is planning similar terrorist attacks in various other Russian regions

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🔸 What’s known about Ukraine’s foiled terror plot targeting a senior Russian official?

🔸 Ukrainian troops caught in deadly predicament in Pokrovsk

🔸 US weighs military options against Venezuela, land strikes on the table

🔸 BBC apologizes to Trump over doctored speech but rejects defamation claim

🔸 US State Dept wipes records on 1983 Nuclear War Scare

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇺🇸 💰 US to spend whopping $330M on jet parts for Taiwan — sure to anger China

The plan to transfer spare and repair parts for F-16s and C-130s has already been approved by the State Department, the Pentagon says.

👉 It's the first such move since Trump took office.

China has repeatedly said that US arms supplies to Taiwan constitute interference in its internal affairs, stressing that the island is an inalienable part of China and warning that any actions aimed at fueling tensions will be met with a firm response.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇬🇧 ☢️ US snubbed: UK rolls out homegrown mini nuclear plant project

Britain’s decision to have its Rolls-Royce SMR Ltd build the first small modular nuclear reactor on the Isle of Anglesey, North Wales, has infuriated the US, which had hoped for a large, American-led project there, reports Reuters.

🔸 The SMR promises a faster, cheaper way to boost energy security compared with decades-long large-scale plants.

🔸 But the US had pushed for its own energy firm, Westinghouse, to lead a large-scale project there as part of a broader effort to deepen American involvement in the UK’s energy sector.

🔸 US Ambassador Warren Stephens warned that Britain’s plan would not quickly lower energy costs or “get shovels in the ground,” echoing American frustration at being bypassed.

🔸 The UK did attempt to placate the US, with a government spokesperson saying that the decision “does not close the door to a larger plant elsewhere.”

🔸 The UK has scrambled to deal with industrial electricity prices — the highest among International Energy Agency (IEA) members and EU states.

🔸 UK Steel's September 2025 analysis shows the industry pays ~40% more for electricity than, for example, French producers. The SMR project, while not a quick fix, is hoped to reduce reliance on expensive gas-fired power while also stabilizing prices.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🚨Russia's Rosatom chief meets with IAEA head over Zaporozhye nuclear plant

Alexey Likhachev and Rafael Grossi are holding talks in Russia's Kaliningrad

The goal: discuss how to jointly prevent nuclear accidents at the Zaporozhye power plant amid RECKLESS Ukraine's attacks

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🚨🇷🇺 G20 retains its significance, importance for countries participating in it – Kremlin

Other statements by Peskov:

🟠 Russia is interested in the work of G20 but has always opposed politicization of its agenda

🟠 Compliance with international law currently in poor state in many parts of world

🟠 Russia sees problem with coordinating final joint documents at international forums due to inability to reach consensus

🟠Security issues are now top priority

🟠Russia highly values North Korea’s assistance in Kursk region, dangerous and difficult work continues

🟠 On work of North Korean sappers in Kursk region: Russia is grateful and appreciative of its friends from North Korea for their selfless assistance

🟠Russia hopes US won’t take actions that could destabilize situation in the Caribbean and around Venezuela

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

📹LIVE NOW: Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova briefs on current geopolitical agenda

👉Watch live in our Telegram

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt