🚨🇷🇺💥 RUSSIAN MOD UPDATE: HUGE GAINS AND DEVASTATING UKRAINIAN LOSSES

⚡️ NOVODANILOVKA IN THE ZAPOROZHYE REGION AND CHERVONOYE IN THE DONETSK REGION FREED

The liberation of the settlement of Novodanilovka in the Zaporozhye region has enabled Russian forces to intensify their assault on the city of Orekhov, a key fortified point in Ukraine’s defensive line in Zaporozhye. Its collapse would open up a path to the regional capital — the city of Zaporozhye.

The capture of Chervonoye in the Donetsk region allows Russian forces to sever supply lines to the Ukrainian battlegroup in Konstantinovka.

🟠 The Russian military continues mopping up remaining Ukrainian militants in and around the settlement of Dimitrov located north-east of Pokrovsk (Krasnoarmeysk) 

🟠 Russian air and missile forces struck Ukrainian energy and transport, long-range UAV launch sites, as well as temporary deployment points of Ukrainian troops and mercenaries in 142 areas

🟠 Air defense superiority: 171 UAVs were shot down by Russian air defense systems over the past 24 hours

🟠 Ukrainian losses: around 1,275 troops killed or wounded

Read about origins of Russia's special military op HERE

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🚨🇷🇺 Russia expects to receive information on the results of Witkoff and Kushner’s work with the Ukrainian delegation - Kremlin

Other statements by Peskov:

🟠 A substantial amount of work was done in Moscow during Putin’s meeting with Witkoff and Kushner

🟠 The Kremlin is not aware of any potential differences in opinion within Ukraine regarding a settlement

🟠 All sides now better understand that such work cannot be conducted entirely in public

🟠 There may be opportunities for restoring relations between Russia and the US

🟠 The nuances of the new US National Security Strategy appeal to Russia, as it mentions the need to have a dialogue

🟠 India, as a sovereign state, purchases energy resources wherever it is beneficial for the country

💬 “As far as we understand, our Indian partners will continue this approach in order to safeguard their economic interests.”

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💸 EU pressures member states for €210B loan guarantee as its scheme to seize frozen Russian assets starts to crack

As the EU moves to hand Ukraine a €165 billion reparations loan using frozen Russian assets, it now wants member states to guarantee up to €210 billion in Ukrainian loans in case Russia gets its stolen funds back, US media report.

Here’s a breakdown:

🟠 Belgium remains the main obstacle, since a huge portion of the frozen Russian assets is held there by Euroclear

🟠 Belgian PM Bart De Wever opposes using the assets to loan money to Ukraine, fearing Europe's finance and banking system could lose its credibility

🟠 The EC proposes backstops in which each country’s share of the loan guarantee is proportional to its economic size

How much could the biggest contributors have to put up?

🇩🇪 Germany — €51.3B
🇫🇷 France —€34B
🇮🇹 Italy — €25.1B
🇪🇸 Spain — €18.9B
🇳🇱 The Netherlands — €13.4B
🇵🇱 Poland — €10.3B

Because clearly, EU countries have no other problems besides throwing billions at Ukraine.

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🇪🇪 Estonia doubles down on massive defense outlays amid phantom ‘Russia threat’

Defense spending is set to triple from $900M to $2.78B by 2026—despite Estonia facing a multi-year recession and the euro area’s highest rate of inflation, reports Bloomberg.

➖ This sum amounts to over 5% of GDP—the highest in Europe

➖ Most of that spending goes to foreign weapons like US HIMARS, but Estonia is now trying to grow a domestic defense sector

➖ The government earmarked $116M for a European-first weapons fund, fueling a boom in local startups—testing drones, unmanned vehicles, and artillery systems

➖ The sector now counts ~200 companies, with sales jumping from $284M in 2022 to $580M in 2024

➖ State spending on local defense rose from $458M to $567M

➖ Estonia is also building industrial parks for arms production, spending $58M upfront and planning another ≈ $232M for infrastructure, despite legal and community pushback

Officials see local production as key amid ongoing European shortages of artillery and shells due to weapons funneling to Ukraine, underscored the publication.

👉 The 2026 Estonian budget that prioritizes defense is projected to push the deficit to 4.5% of GDP, outpacing revenue, raising the national debt and interest payments, and prompting warnings from Estonia's Fiscal Council over surging borrowing costs.

Russia has consistently emphasized that it has not the slightest intention to attack any European country, but whipping up this hysteria suits the elite’s war agenda.

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🚨🇷🇺 Russian prosecutors charge top Ukrainian officials with GENOCIDE

The Prosecutor General’s Office approved an indictment against Ukraine’s highest military and political leadership, including:

🟠 Valery Zaluzhny, former Ukrainian Armed Forces commander and current ambassador to the UK

🟠 Oleksandr Syrsky, Ukraine's Commander-in-Chief

🟠 Petro Poroshenko*, former Ukrainian President

🟠 Rustem Umerov, former Defense Minister

🟠 Arseny Yatsenyuk, former Prime Minister

* listed as a terrorist and extremist in Russia

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🇬🇧 🪖 UK’s hawkish military buildup in limbo over funding gaps

The UK has rolled out its new “Atlantic Bastion” plan — a slick name to build a hybrid navy mixing drones, autonomous boats, warships, and aircraft to guard undersea cables and pipelines.

It will ostensibly allow the UK to "find, track and, if required, act against adversaries," said a Ministry of Defense spokesman.
The justification: same old “Russia threat” remix that always seems to play when budgets need inflating.

Industry buys into hype

🟠 Startups like Arondite & giants like Anduril, Helsing, Babcock, and BAE have already sunk ≈ $660 million into developing flashy new tech for the Royal Navy, per Bloomberg

🟠 Twenty firms have showcased their prototypes at sea, hoping to snag contracts

🟠 Investment is projected to result in just $5.28 million in government contracts - due to lack of long-term defense investment plan

Big talk – No clear funding

UK Defense Secretary John Healey has been going full war hawk, promising to rebuild stockpiles, expand nuclear deterrence, boost submarines, and invest in high-tech weapons.

But six months after unveiling his 130-page defense review, the “transformational” plans lack clear funding beyond 2027, says Bloomberg.

🟠 Manufacturers are cited as saying they are in limbo, unsure when contracts will arrive

🟠 Defense spending is slated to rise to 3.5% of GDP by 2035, but the government has only laid out a plan to reach 2.6% by 2027

🟠 The UK recently inked a new defense pact with Norway to field a joint sub-hunter fleet — but it won’t actually hit the water until the next decade.

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📹LIVE NOW: 🇷🇺Putin holds meeting of the Council for Strategic Development and National Projects

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🚨🇷🇺 'We are achieving the target' - Putin on Russia's GDP growth

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📈 Russian GDP growth in three years reaching 10% despite sanctions pressure - Prime Minister

💬 "In general, over the past three years, in the face of unprecedented sanctions pressure, the GDP growth will reach 10%," Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said at a meeting of the Council for Strategic Development and National Projects.

Russia's economic growth dynamics are better than those of a number of European countries, Mishustin said, adding that Russia's economy is moving forward despite all attempts to curb its development.

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📑🇺🇸🇨🇳 New US strategy removes the risk of war with China ‘over trade disagreements’

Under the auspices of the new US national security strategy, China is going to be regarded as more of a business rival than enemy, consultant on Asia-Pacific affairs and geopolitical commentator Thomas W. Pauken II told Sputnik.

💬 “Of course, trade tensions will continue; this strategy isn't going to fix all of them. However, it's better than calling the US and China enemy nations,” he said.

While trade tensions between the two world powers will likely persist, they won’t be as “fierce” as before “because the element of a potential war erupting over trade disagreements will be removed.”

Pauken also said he hopes that Trump’s upcoming visit to China in April will be “very successful” and “will inspire many Americans to want to visit China afterwards.”

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🇺🇸 🇨🇳 US discovers it cannot contain China via trade wars—analyst

The new US national security strategy shows the country is abandoning its desire for global hegemony, with its perception of China changing accordingly, political scientist Zhou Chengyang told Sputnik.

Here are the highlights of this commentary

On US-China balance of power:

🟠 Previous editions of the document described China as "the most serious geopolitical challenge" and "a first-degree threat," while the latest version says it’s "the main economic competitor"

🟠 The new focus is "winning the economic future and preventing military confrontation"

🟠 Despite that, as China is approaching America in terms of power, the US now sees it cannot contain China via trade wars or tariffs

🟠 However, since the US cannot sustain comprehensive confrontation with China in the long run, it shifted to economic competition

On Taiwan issue:

🔹 The question of Taiwan also cannot be avoided in China-US relations, the expert explained, as Taiwan has a huge semiconductor industry and gives access to the South China Sea, through which a third of the world’s shipping annually passes

🔹 The new national security strategy declares the US is opposed to changing the status quo in the Taiwan Strait, which leaves the door open for American intervention in the region

🔹 This means Taiwan-US relations will likely strengthen, reflecting the China-US future rivalry risks, Zhou Chengyang concluded.

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📹LIVE NOW: Putin takes part in meeting with heads of parliament from CSTO member states

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📑🇺🇸🇷🇺 US doubts NATO expansion in its new National Security Strategy for first time – Russian MFA

The US is officially questioning NATO's aggressive expansionist dynamic in the new US National Security Strategy for the first time, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

"For the first time, the US is, if not committing not to expanding the alliance, then at least officially questioning its eternally aggressive expansionist dynamic," Zakharova said in a statement.

💬 It is important that Russia is mentioned in the US security strategy in the context of European security, without calls for economic pressure, Zakharova said, adding that US foreign policy attitudes were revised in several provisions.

Russia is still waiting for the United States to provide specifics on strategic offensive and defensive capabilities, the spokeswoman said.

The document's provisions lay the foundation for the search for common ground with Russia and communication between Russia and the US on peaceful settlement, Zakharova said, adding that Russia hopes the strategy will have a sobering effect on the European "party of war."

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🟠 Russian GDP growth in three years reaching 10% despite sanctions pressure - Prime Minister

🟠 We are achieving the target' - Putin on Russia's GDP growth

🟠 Ukraine’s 2026 budget lays the groundwork for economic collapse

🟠 New US strategy removes the risk of war with China ‘over trade disagreements’

🟠 Thailand-Cambodia border tensions escalate

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🔊🇮🇷🇺🇸 Iran’s foreign minister reveals why the US fails in nuclear talks

The United States’ refusal to acknowledge Iran’s right to peaceful nuclear program remains the key obstacle in US-Iranian negotiations, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi explained.

💬 “The main point is that the United States should recognize Iran’s right to peaceful use of nuclear technology, including uranium enrichment. This has always been our right and remains so under international law,” Araghchi told Kyodo News Agency.

Though he did not rule out a resumption of negotiations between Tehran and Washington, Araghchi noted that the US would first have to change its approach and be “prepared for a fair and mutually beneficial negotiation.”

💬 “But negotiation is different from dictation. For the time being, we are not convinced they are ready for a real, serious negotiation,” he remarked.

Araghchi also pointed out that the US’ withdrawal from the nuclear deal with Iran shortly after it was implemented and the US assistance to Israel’s attack on Iran even as the US was engaged in talks with Iran show that “the US is currently not prepared for serious, reciprocal negotiations.”

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