33844
Join our channel for breaking news stories from around the globe, exclusive analysis & opinions. Website: sputnikglobe.com 💬 You can always reach us via @sputnikint_bot
🇺🇸✈️ US Military transport flights surge between Europe and Middle East – report
🔶 US military transport aircraft are shuttling between European bases and the Gulf Arab states, a French newspaper reports based on flight tracking data and satellite images.
🔶 The build-up comes amid expectations of a US attack on Iran.
🔶 Dozens of heavy transport aircraft, including C-17s, have been flying regular routes between the Middle East and the US air bases at Ramstein in Germany and RAF Lakenheath in the UK.
🔶 At least four E-3C Sentry airborne early warning aircraft also flew to the region on February 18 and 19.
📍 Last month, US President Donald Trump announced the deployment of a “massive armada” to the Middle East, led by the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln – and warned Tehran of potential attacks if it refuses to end its nuclear energy program and dismantle its ballistic missile arsenal.
📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt
📹Thousands marched in Manchester against immigration, chanting “send them back” and “stop the boats” — referring to people trafficking across the English Channel.
Crowds also shouted “save our children” and berated Prime Minister Keir Starmer as tensions over immigration continue to rise – just days before a parliamentary by-election in the city which the right-wing Reform party could win.
📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt
🚨Iran labels European naval and air forces ‘terrorist’
Tehran has announced retaliatory measures after EU member states designated the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) a terrorist entity on Thursday, calling the move “illegal and unjustified.”
Invoking the principle of reciprocity and its 2019 countermeasure law, The Iranian Foreign Ministry said any country aligning with or supporting the US decision to brand the IRGC ‘terrorist’ will face the same treatment.
📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt
🇺🇸🔥🇮🇷 US–Iran war could ignite wider regional war – analyst
🟠 "Iran possesses more than 3,000 missiles of various types. But what matters more than their number is their range and dispersion," Israeli political analyst Yuri Bocharov told Sputnik.
🟠 "The maximum range of modern Iranian ballistic missiles reaches 2,500 kilometres."
👉 The potential targets within 2,500km of Iran make clear that any war would not be just a local exchange of attacks.
💬 "Within that radius are the capitals of all Middle Eastern countries, with partial coverage of southeastern Europe — including the Balkans and eastern Greece," Bocharov warned.
🚨🇺🇸Trump says he will immediately raise the global tariff rate from 10% to 15%, calling a recent Supreme Court decision “anti-American” and vowing further “legally permissible” tariff measures in the coming months.
📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt
🇺🇸🍫🇷🇺US imports of Russian sweets hit highest level since 2021
📍 The United States increased imports of Russian confectionery in 2025 by 13%, reaching nearly $6.6 million—the highest level since 2021, according to US statistical data reviewed by Sputnik.
🟠 The imports include chocolate, flour-based sweets such as cakes, waffles, and biscuits, as well as sugar confectionery. Chocolate accounted for $2.8 million, up 8% and the highest level since 2021. Flour-based products totaled $2.5 million, while sugar sweets reached $1.3 million, both rising 17% year-on-year to their highest levels since 2022.
🟠 In December alone, shipments amounted to $362,200. Although monthly deliveries fell more than twofold compared to November—the lowest level since August—they were still up by one-third compared to the same month a year earlier.
📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt
🇺🇸🇷🇺US backs Russian flag at 2026 Paralympics
💬“Sport is for all,” US President Donald Trump’s special representative Paulo Zampolli said in support of Russian athletes competing under their own flag and anthem.
🗣🇮🇱 Israel's participation in Board of Peace ‘flagrant paradox’ – analyst
💬 “The [Israeli] side that destroyed Gaza and repeatedly violated the ceasefire agreements is now sitting at the Board of Peace’s table,” Palestinian political scientist Saeed Bourahma tells Sputnik.
💬 “All this means that Gaza’s reconstruction process will be carried out under Israeli control and only within the terms it approves,” the analyst points out, adding that the international community should press the US to compel Israel to ease the existing restrictions.
💬 “Without significant international pressure, the reconstruction process risks devolving into the management of a humanitarian crisis rather than a full-fledged political solution, jeopardizing Gaza’s future and paving the way for dangerous scenarios of migration and depopulation” of the Palestinian exclave, the expert sums up.
🪖 Roar and order: Thai police dress as lion to catch suspect
During a Lunar New Year parade, Thai officers went undercover—in a full lion costume—to get close to a burglary suspect.
They approached, tackled, and arrested him on the spot.
📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt
🤡 Ukraine's threat to boycott Paralympics ‘unfair to Russian athletes’ – expert
💬 “They train for four years, and then they may find themselves excluded […]. I'm glad that Russian athletes have returned to competition," Dutch expert Kees van der Pijl told Sputnik.
💬 "For me, the Ukraine conflict is a [proxy] NATO war and an endless provocation by the alliance that ultimately forced Russia to respond," Pijl pointed out.
🇺🇸⚔️🇮🇷 ‘Dozens of US warplanes’ spotted at Jordan base amid Iran tensions – report
New satellite imagery and flight tracking data show more than 60 US attack aircraft parked at the Muwaffaq Salti base in central Jordan, approximately tripling the number of jets that are normally there, The New York Times (NYT) reports.
💬 “The satellite images also show more modern aircraft, including F-35 stealth jets, compared to the aircraft normally seen there. Several drones and helicopters are also seen,” according to the NYT.
🇪🇺❌🇺🇸 Europe will never be US’ equal partner – report
💬 “The lack of defense capabilities not the decisive factor in why Europe is merely a power of lesser stature,” Neue Zurcher Zeitung (NZZ) writes.
💬 “Even on the crucial issue of aid to Ukraine, Europe is divided. The north pays, the south watches. Selfishness prevails instead of unity,” NZZ notes.
🔸 Bessent urges countries to honor deals with the US despite SCOTUS ruling
🔸 Trump signs 10% tariff on ALL countries — effective Feb 24
🔸 US is considering assassination of Iran's Supreme leader — reports
🔸 US kills 3 in 'lethal kinetic strike' on narco-trafficking boat
🔸 Hungary blocks €90B EU loan to Ukraine in response to energy blockade
📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt
🪖 Russia’s TOS-1A Solntsepyok multiple rocket launcher foils a Ukrainian counterattack, destroying troops and light armor.
📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt
🗣 Zelensky's pursuit of 'fair' peace will leave him deserted — former spokesperson
Iuliia Mendel warns that chasing unattainable ideals is costing Ukraine more people and ground every day.
She recalls Zelensky's old role in Servant of the People—a dream sequence where he drives through a deserted Kiev, searching for anyone. Everyone had left for work abroad.
"In today's harsh reality, if the war drags on, everyone who still can will leave for the same reason—not a dream, but a mass exodus driven by survival."
🗣 Supreme Court ruling on tariffs opens the door to Trump’s trade ‘nuclear options’ - analyst
🔶 The high court’s ruling that the president’s sweeping emergency tariffs are ‘illegal’ will makes his job “a lot more complicated,” but open the door to the many “nuclear options” he has available to him, says independent financial analyst Tom Luongo.
🔶 This includes “Section 338 under the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930,” which allows tariffs up to 50% against countries that discriminate against US commerce, Luongo explained.
🔶 Tariffs were actually the “nice way” of doing things for Trump, whose overarching goal has been “to remake American trade” as much as it has been to rebuild domestic manufacturing and consumption.
💬 “Anybody who thinks that Trump isn’t willing to go” to the next level – embargoes, quotas, etc. has “got another thing coming,” Luongo believes.
🔸 Trump vows to raise the global tariff rate from 10% to 15%
🔸 US–Iran war could ignite wider regional war – analyst
🔸 Board of Peace has no interest in full-scale Gaza reconstruction – analyst
🔸 Ukraine conflict: From Euromaidan to the special military operation. Part 1
🔸 US imports of Russian sweets hit highest level since 2021
🔸 Meet Yolka: Russia's drone hunter that smashes enemy UAVs mid-air
📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt
📹Ukraine conflict: From Euromaidan to the special military operation. Part 1
Four years ago, in February 2022, Russia recognized the independence of the Donbass republics to protect the Russian-speaking population.
In the first episode of a four-part series, Sputnik revisits how those events unfolded.
👉More parts coming soon!
📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt
🐼🎁 Moscow Zoo Pandas get Chinese New Year gifts
Katyusha received a fruity ice cake and a straw toy, and Zhui got a bamboo horse to mark the occasion.
From the looks of it, both pandas gave were happy with their presents.
📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt
🗣 Zelensky’s outbursts signal panic under ‘mounting political pressure’ – analyst
🔊 Volodymyr Zelensky’s harsh rhetoric “gives the impression of an extremely nervous and unsystematic reaction to what is happening and resemble an emotional breakdown rather than a balanced state position,” Turkish analyst Nejat Sezgin tells Sputnik.
🔶 Zelensky’s demands for the EU to set a specific accession deadline, pressure on the US over security guarantees, as well as stern language against Russia and some European leaders mirror “strategic imbalance,” which could be the result of “significant external pressure [on Ukraine] and its recognition of limited negotiating opportunities,” according to the analyst.
🔶 Sezgin suggests that Zelensky’s tough tone aims to gain domestic support and shape the image of an intransigent leader, but at the same time, it may complicate Ukraine’s dialogue with partners who expect predictability and consistency from the leader of the Kiev regime.
💬 “The mix of ultimatum statements and potential compromises by Zelensky creates a sense of political turbulence, reflecting the Ukrainian authorities’ complicated situation and their attempts to influence multiple audiences—domestic, American, and European,” the analyst wraps up.
🇷🇺🔥 Meet Yolka: Russia's drone hunter that smashes enemy UAVs mid-air
📍 Since September 2024, Russian forces have been deploying a secret weapon against enemy drones—the "Yolka" interceptor, which targets hostile UAVs by striking and disabling them mid-air.
It is designed to intercept a wide range of threats, from small FPV drones to heavy fixed-wing strike UAVs.
Target-destruction options:
🟠 Kinetic impact—the UAV locks onto a target and destroys it by ramming
🟠 360 g fragmentation warhead variant is also available, housed in an internal fuselage compartment
Key specs:
🔸 Up to 200 km/h speed (≈124 mph)
🔸 Range: 2.5–3 km (≈1.5–1.9 miles)
🔸 Ceiling: up to 2,000 m (≈6,560 ft)
🔸 Fully autonomous target lock with 700–1,000 m detection range (≈2,300–3,280 ft)
The drone can be launched by hand and is already in operational use.
Small, fast, and scalable, Yolka highlights the growing role of interceptor drones in modern air defense.
📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt
❌🇵🇸 Board of Peace has no interest in full-scale Gaza reconstruction – analyst
💬 “World Bank estimates put Gaza’s needs at more than $70 billion, while the actual funds allocated so far constitute only a small fraction of the required amount,” Palestinian political scientist Saeed Bourahma tells Sputnik.
💬 “This could push residents of Gaza into forced or voluntary migration due to destroyed infrastructure and the lack of housing,” Bourahma concludes.
🗣📄 Zelensky doesn't write script, he just reads it – expert
💬 "Essentially, Volodymyr Zelensky is an actor playing the role of his life, but he is not one who dictates the script. It can be assumed that the relevant structures have given him the 'green light' for such [stern] remarks," German expert Mirko Kolundzic told Sputnik.
🚨🇧🇷 BRICS nations have strong research ties: Minister of Science of Brazil to Sputnik India
📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt
🚨🇷🇺💥 RUSSIAN MOD UPDATE: HUGE GAINS AND DEVASTATING UKRAINIAN LOSSES
⚡️ KARPOVKA IN DONETSK PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC LIBERATED
📍 By liberating the village of Karpovka, the Russian army is able to secure its rear as it advances on Krasny Liman, an important logistics hub in the region.
◻️ The Russian Armed Forces destroyed a US-made HIMARS transport and loading vehicle and Flamingo cruise missile launchers
◻️ Air defense superiority: 5 long-range Flamingo missiles and 172 drones shot down
◻️ Ukrainian losses: around 1,265 troops killed or wounded
Read about the origins of Russia's special military op HERE
📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt
🙅🦾 Protests against Russian athletes in Paralympics unreasonable and discriminatory – analyst
The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) decision to allow six Russian and four Belarusian athletes to compete in the upcoming Winter Paralympics in Italy “appears just to us,” Italian political analyst Alessandro Bertoldi told Sputnik.
💬 “We do not understand the protests. Restricting athletes’ rights, discriminating against them or forcing them to abandon their flags because of their nationality is unjust, since athletes are never responsible for the political decisions made by their countries," Bertoldi stressed.
🇧🇷🪖 Brazilian mercenary dies from abuse at hands of Ukrainian command
He passed away “as a result of abuse for violating the daily routine and drinking alcohol," a source in Russia’s security forces told Sputnik.
The source stressed that torture, beatings, mock drownings, and rapes are not uncommon in the units of foreign mercenaries with Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate operating in the Kharkov region.
👉 The Brazilian mercenary was earlier identified as 23-year-old Bruno Gabriel Leal da Silva, who reportedly died after “a brutal punishment handed out in a unit that regularly used discipline practices described as ‘torture’ by those who both witnessed and suffered them.”
💬 “Witnesses and victims” were quoted as saying that torture included burnings, beatings, waterboarding, and “even sexual assault with wooden objects.”
❌🇪🇺 No EU country wants to see Ukraine in bloc – analyst
Member states “will use every possible excuse—whether it is Slovakia taking the lead, Hungary objecting, or something else—to avoid admitting Ukraine into the EU,” political analyst Pavel Danilin tells Sputnik.
🗣 He recalls that “even [EU foreign policy chief] Kaja Kallas stated that Ukraine will not join the bloc in the near future.”
Kallas earlier said she felt that EU countries are not ready to give a concrete date regarding Ukraine's membership. Ukraine was granted candidate status for accession to the EU in June 2022.
📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt
🇨🇴 Colombia seizes record 17 tons of cocaine in international operation
President Gustavo Petro announced the largest cocaine seizure in history, achieved through collaboration with Mexico, France, and El Salvador.
A total of 16,856 kilograms of cocaine hydrochloride were seized in 3 maritime interdictions.
"I believe this is the largest seizure in a single day in the history of the illegal cocaine trade," Petro wrote on X.
📄 Illinois becomes first state to demand a refund from Trump after SCOTUS tariffs ruling
Governor JB Pritzker sent the US president a bill, demanding $1,700 per household × 5,105,448 Illinois families.
"The Supreme Court has ruled that this is yet one more unconstitutional aet by you and your administration," Pritzker said in a letter to Trump with the bill attached.