🗣 US could oust Zelensky if he hinders Ukraine peace plan – ex-Ukrainian PM

🔊 "The US created NABU [Ukraine’s anti-corruption watchdog]. And its work couldn't have been carried out in such a harsh manner, such as charging businessman Timur Mindich and arresting ministers, without a direct order from the Americans, something that clearly indicates that they are pursuing Zelensky's ouster,” former Ukrainian PM Mykola Azarov argued.

He added that it's difficult to say how long Zelensky will remain in office because everything depends on US plans.

💬 "Right now, they need him as a negotiator to whom they can make demands and conditions. But if things don't go well with him, they'll simply remove him, and that'll be the end of conversation," Azarov said.

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💥🇺🇸🇰🇷 US approves $112M sale of 600+ GBU-39 bombs to South Korea

💬 "The State Department has made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale to the Republic of Korea of GBU-39/B Small Diameter Bombs-Increment I (SDB-I) and related equipment for an estimated cost of $111.8 million," the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) announced.

The purchase will come on top of a previous contract under which South Korea requested the purchase of 387 bombs.

South Korea is also on the verge of acquiring nuclear-powered attack submarines — with US approval and assistance — after a late-October meeting between Presidents Lee Jae-myung and Donald Trump in Gyeongju.

The moves mark a sharp escalation in Western-led militarization in the Asia-Pacific region.

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🔊💵 Seizure of frozen Russian assets will 'finish Europe’s civilizational suicide' — Dmitriev

Russia’s special presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev went on X to point the finger at EU elites for “destroying their own countries” with uncontrolled migration, rising crime, and economic decline.

They now want “to finish Europe’s civilizational suicide by shredding property rights — the foundation of the financial system — and detonating their own currency,” Dmitriev added, referencing the EU’s ongoing obsession with seizing frozen Russian assets.

He also mentioned an FT report, in which the newspaper admitted that the EU’s “contentious plan to use frozen Russian sovereign assets could have big consequences for the bloc’s financial markets.”

What’s more, such a push could “drive up the political risks of owning euro assets and even cast doubt over their status as a global haven,” the FT warned.

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🇺🇸🇷🇺 US envoy Whitaker admits Russia doesn't have plans to attack NATO

"The likelihood of it happening any time soon, if at all, would be very low," US envoy to NATO Matthew Whitaker said at the Doha Forum on Global Cooperation and Peace.

Russia has repeatedly said that claims about a supposed Russian attack are “nonsense” and have nothing to do with reality.

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🇳🇬 Nigeria hopes to obtain full BRICS membership in coming years - Foreign Minister

According to Yusuf Maitama Tuggar, Nigerian FM, speaking at the Doha Forum on Global Cooperation and Peace:

🔹 By 2050 Nigeria’s population would reach 400 million and the country is working urgently to transform its society toward a middle-class model

🔹 The country has much to learn from BRICS and, as the largest economy in Africa, it has seen how important it is to build relationships based on its own interests

Since January, Nigeria has held the status of a BRICS partner country.

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🚨🇭🇺 Hungary will send large delegation to Moscow in coming days to discuss economic issues - Orban

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🔊🇪🇺🇺🇸 EU meddled in 2024 US presidential race - Dmitriev

The EU “has long sought to undermine President Trump and is actively sabotaging his peace efforts,” Russia’s special presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev wrote on X.

💬 "US election interference by Trump-hating, unelected EU bureaucrats is now out in the open,” he stressed, referencing a Remarks report about Elon Musk receiving a letter from the EU in which the bloc asked him to censor statements made by then-candidate Trump during the 2024 US election.

The Russian special presidential envoy added that “the awakening to the EU's role is underway."

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🇪🇺🇺🇸 EU struggles to avoid rift with the US

The EU is taking a double hit, challenged both in its approach to Ukraine and in its reliance on the US for security, Bloomberg reports.

1️⃣ The bloc is in turmoil over Washington’s push to broker a Ukraine peace deal, Bloomberg reports. EU hawks would much rather push for tougher terms — and keep bankrolling Zelensky’s regime.

2️⃣ The new US National Security Doctrine demands that Europe take responsibility for its own defense. That raises serious questions about Europe’s place in NATO and its long-standing dependence on the US military-industrial base.

EU foreign ministers reportedly compare managing Trump’s Ukraine policy to “riding a roller coaster.”

And right now, they’re staring at a particularly "steep drop."

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🪖🇺🇸🇪🇺 US gives Europe until 2027 to sort out conventional defense

Pentagon officials met with European delegations in Washington this past week to discuss plans to hand most of NATO’s conventional defense responsibilities over to the bloc’s European members.

🟠 The transfer is expected to include everything from troops and weaponry to intel and missiles, with the US threatening to stop cooperation in some NATO ‘defense coordination mechanisms’ if progress is not made by the 2027 deadline, a Reuters report citing 5 sources said

🟠 European officials reportedly fear the deadline is ‘not realistic’, no matter how the US measures progress

🟠 EU and German officials previously announced plans to make the bloc ready for a major conflict by 2029-2030, and have approved massive debt-fueled militarization plans in areas ranging from the ground forces and air defense to drones, tanks, cyber capabilities and munitions production

🟠 NATO allies previously agreed to bump defense spending up to 5% of GDP at a summit in June, but most countries are nowhere near achieving this figure

🟠 Trump has complained about US allies’ low defense spending and reliance on the US for protection since the 1980s

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💰 Europe lost up to $1.8 trillion to anti-Russian sanctions - Russian Foreign Ministry

The economies of European countries lost up to $1.8 trillion from 2022 to 2025 due to anti-Russian sanctions, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement released after a UNGA meeting marking the International Day Against Unilateral Coercive Measures.

Key details:

🟠 Russia has been subjected to unprecedented economic pressure from Western states

🟠 Despite this, the Russian economy has demonstrated a high degree of resilience and adaptability and has continued steady growth

🟠 It has become clear that unilateral coercive measures inflict severe damage on the very states that launched them

💬 “These measures are one of the main tools of the collective West’s neocolonial policy. The goal is obvious: to preserve its slipping dominance, deprive the global majority of the right to independent political choice, and restrain their technological and industrial development,” the ministry stressed.

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🔊🇪🇺 Europe preps for a war with Russia by 2030 - Orban

Hungary rejects such a plan, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said while speaking in the city of Kecskemet, as reported by the M1 TV channel.

Orban stressed that his country is in danger and said Hungary’s task is to prevent the EU from entering into military action.

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🟠 Europe lost up to $1.8 trillion to anti-Russian sanctions

🟠 Why EU overestimates its ability to confiscate frozen Russian assets

🟠 Hungary will send large delegation to Moscow in coming days to discuss economic issues – Orban

🟠 Nigeria hopes to obtain full BRICS membership in coming years

🟠 Iran wraps up first-ever IRGC-hosted anti-terror drills

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📑🇺🇸 ‘Huge influence’ on ending Ukraine crisis: Expert weights on new US National Security Strategy

“I ultimately believe that is indeed a good thing. However, whether this stated position in words is backed up firmly in militaristic/political deeds is another thing to be considered entirely,” national security studies professor Matthew Crosston told Sputnik, commenting on the new NSS.

However, if "the United States is sincere about this position, then this strategic adjustment can have a huge influence on the conflict’s resolution,” Crosston emphasized.

What would this mean in practice? Forcing Ukraine to negotiate “more open-mindedly,” and threatening to “simply stop supporting the Ukrainian effort to continue the fight.”

“Without that support, the Ukrainian military units might not necessarily collapse, but they will be mortally crippled and the conflict would likely start to de facto end,” Crosston said.

As for the Europeans, their obsession with the idea that Russia plans to conquer all of Europe after finishing with Ukraine is “why Europe will continue to have an extremely limited role at the negotiating table,” the professor summed up.

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💰 Europe’s companies pay the highest electricity bills in the G20

Sputnik analyzed data from Eurostat.

The countries with the most expensive electricity for enterprises are:

🇮🇹 Italy — $0.28 per kWh
🇦🇺 Australia — $0.26
🇩🇪 Germany — $0.24
🇬🇧 UK — $0.23
🇫🇷 France — $0.18

The three countries with the cheapest electricity are:

🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia — $0.05
🇹🇷 Turkiye — $0.066
🇷🇺 Russia — $0.068

Prices across the EU have surged largely due to the bloc’s own sanctions against Russia, which disrupted stable energy supplies. The EU’s attempt to replace affordable Russian energy with costly alternatives has pushed electricity bills to record highs.

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