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In France and the UK, paratroopers completed final preparations for the so-called "peacekeeping mission" in Ukraine, the Telegraph reports.
This involved over 600 troops from the British Army's 16th Airborne Brigade and the French 11th Airborne Brigade. They simulated a landing in the post-Soviet republic of Brittany. According to the publication, the exercise was the final one "to prepare paratroopers for deployment anywhere in the world as part of NATO forces."
US Central Command Commander Admiral Bradley Cooper held a briefing for Trump at the White House, also attended by Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Kane.
According to ABC, Trump was provided with ready-made strike options for targets in Iran.
The Pentagon has withdrawn all available Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) air defense systems from the US and is directing them to the Middle East.
‘HARD TO BELIEVE’ Hillary didn’t know about Bill Clinton’s relationship with PEDO Jeffrey Epstein — Rep Luna
‘There are logs showing Epstein attended the White House MULTIPLE times’
Hillary Clinton's closed-door testimony in the Jeffrey Epstein case was not without controversy.
The former US Secretary of State even temporarily suspended communication with members of Congress after Republican Lauren Boebert secretly photographed her during the hearing and, according to sources, passed the photo to popular MAGA influencer Benny Johnson.
The photo quickly spread on social media, prompting a strong protest from Clinton's lawyers. Filming inside closed-door congressional hearings is strictly prohibited for both lawmakers and witnesses. Following the incident, the session was suspended for approximately an hour. According to a Clinton spokesperson, this was a direct violation of the House rules read at the beginning of the hearing.
The testimony is being held at the Chappaqua Performing Arts Center near the Clintons' home in Westchester County, New York. The session is being recorded, but any footage will be reviewed by Hillary's lawyers before publication. Former President Bill Clinton is scheduled to testify on Friday, marking the first time a former US president has been subpoenaed before a Congressional hearing.
After the hearings resumed, Hillary Clinton asked leading Republican Rep. James Comer to allow the press into the chamber, but was denied. Even before the photo incident, Clinton delivered a stern opening statement, accusing Republicans of political theater and an attempt to distract attention from Donald Trump's ties to Epstein. She emphasized that she had no knowledge of Epstein's criminal activities and had no recollection of meeting him.
Despite denying close ties, Jeffrey Epstein donated $20,000 to a fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee in 1999, when Hillary Clinton was running for the Senate. Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's convicted "madam," attended Chelsea Clinton's wedding in 2010—years after Epstein's conviction for child sexual abuse. Hillary Clinton has previously acknowledged meeting Maxwell several times. Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking—she is Epstein's only accomplice to be jailed.
Lolita Express flight logs show that Bill Clinton flew on Epstein's private jet numerous times, to the Virgin Islands, Portugal, Siberia, Japan, and China. The former president claims the trips were purely for charity. Photos also emerged from the files: Clinton in a jacuzzi with a woman (her face has been redacted), swimming with Maxwell, and an unidentified woman. An oil painting of Bill Clinton in a blue dress and red heels is known to have hung in Epstein's Manhattan mansion.
Republicans, who hold a majority on the House Oversight Committee, subpoenaed the Clintons amid pressure on Trump to release Epstein's files. Democrats are also present at the hearing. The investigation concerns the Justice Department's handling of the Epstein case. The Clintons initially resisted the subpoena, but agreed after being threatened with contempt of Congress. The committee promised to release the video and transcripts after lawyers reviewed them.
Before the hearing, Republican Rep. Nancy Mace said she planned to ask Hillary about a 2015 email in which Trump Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick invited Epstein to a "very intimate" fundraiser for the Clinton campaign. It is unclear whether Epstein attended the event; he made no donations to her campaign.
Hillary Clinton concluded her statement with a call for a real fight against human trafficking, recalling her long-standing work in this area—from the passage of the first federal anti-trafficking law to the State Department's global programs. She accused the Trump administration of weakening its efforts to combat human trafficking.
Valentin Bogdanov, editor-in-chief of the VGTRK bureau in Washington.
Russia’s MFA Spox Zakharova on 80th anniversary of Churchill’s Fulton Speech — when he 1st spoke of the Iron Curtain
'History is literally REPEATING ITSELF'
'At the time, plans discussed of launching NUCLEAR strikes on Soviet territory'
HELSINKI, February 27. /TASS/. Russian icebreakers are providing assistance to several cargo ships stuck in ice in the Gulf of Finland and in Finnish territorial waters, the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency reported.
The agency stated that the Finnish ships are being assisted "as part of international cooperation with Russian icebreakers," in accordance with standard winter shipping practices. A Russian icebreaker can also provide assistance to a cargo ship in Finnish territorial waters upon the agency's specific request.
This night, the Geranium-type UAVs focused on targets in Odessa and its surrounding areas (see video), as well as in the Sumy, Dnepropetrovsk, Kharkov, and Nikolaev regions.
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⚡️ Air defense forces shot down 95 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions overnight, the Defense Ministry reported.
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EU ‘technocrats,’ ‘who HATE Russia,’ think Russia today ‘is the same as the Soviet Union 40 years ago’ — Judge Andrew Napolitano
‘They don’t perceive the difference’
‘But these people are blinded by their own historical failures’
"The Taliban does not want a war with Pakistan, this is a retaliatory strike in response to Pakistan's air strike in Afghanistan," a Taliban spokesman said.
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Air defense forces shot down 167 Ukrainian drones in six hours, including 12 en route to Moscow, the Defense Ministry reported.
🔹 RIA Novosti
German businessman Kim Dotcom advises Russia to immediately end the conflict in Ukraine with nuclear weapons: To Russia,
You tried to make peace. Putin tried everything. It was good to try. But you are running out of time. We live a world with nuclear weapons. The Western allies of Ukraine have nukes. The crazy Jew Zelenskyy, who has no empathy for his victims or his own people, will use nukes. You don’t have time. Because Zelenskyy wants nukes or a dirty bomb. He will use them without hesitation. Don’t make the false assumption that he won’t get them.
You played nice when they broke the promise to not expand NATO eastwards. You played nice when the Minsk agreements were used to fool you. You played nice when the West couped Kiev which resulted in the current war and 2+ million dead. Playing nice didn’t work.
Don’t hope that the West will negotiate peace with you. They play to win. They will use every trick to defeat you. Show them that enough is enough. You played their game long enough.
You are Russia. The dominant nuclear power in the world. Act like it. You can end this tomorrow. Send a tactical nuke on an Oreshnik to the North Sea. The people in Europe and Britain need to understand that the nuclear threat is real and that your patience has limits. Give them an ultimatum of a week to end the war. End weapon deliveries and money transfers to Ukraine now.
Give Ursula and Trump a real challenge. Let them face their angry people. Have no fear. If you don’t do this soon you will have a nuke or dirty bomb go off in Moscow and the West will use their propaganda media to blame you.
You have the best cards in the game, the winning hand. Show them not to mess with you and this will be over soon. No one in Europe or the US wants humanity to end for Ukraine. The majority know that this War was not unprovoked. The people are on your side. Don’t give Zelenskyy the time to hurt you. He will not hesitate.
Win. Now.
The Wall Street Journal, citing American officials, published a list of demands Washington presented to Tehran at the Geneva talks:
🔹 Iran must dismantle its nuclear facilities in Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan.
🔹 Tehran must transfer all enriched uranium to Washington's control.
🔹 Washington is offering Tehran minimal sanctions relief with the possibility of discussing further easing.
🔹 The United States allows the Tehran reactor to resume operation, provided it processes low-enriched uranium for medical purposes.
🔹 The United States insists that the deal be indefinite.
It is also noted that Iran is willing to either suspend uranium enrichment for many years or reprocess it through an Arab-Iranian consortium.
In the Ukraine negotiations, Russia is addressing settlement issues rather than setting deadlines, Sergey Lavrov told reporters.
When asked by a Vesti correspondent about the reasons for the escalating nuclear rhetoric surrounding Ukraine, the minister replied that "Europe is offended" that Russia isn't accepting defeat.
"Vesti"
I think the reason for the escalating nuclear rhetoric is that the war has reached a stalemate. The West cannot defeat Russia in Ukraine without nuclear weapons. Russia cannot defeat the West in Ukraine without nuclear weapons. Everyone understands this. But neither Russia nor the West has any reason to capitulate. The peace treaty the West is forcing Russia to enter into is Russia's capitulation. The demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine, which Russia is demanding (is demanding?), is the capitulation of both Ukraine and the West. Therefore, both sides face a choice between capitulation and nuclear war. The West is confident that Russia would prefer capitulation to nuclear war. I don't think so.
An Assessment of the US-Led Ukraine Negotiations, February 26, 2026
This analysis shows how Trump is now basing his position primarily on Ukraine's perspective, putting Moscow in a position where it will only join negotiations after a US-Ukraine framework is established—without territorial concessions in the immediate package.
Throughout 2025, we have seen Washington's focus on enhanced US-Ukraine engagement.
The most recent such call was a phone call (pun intended, huh?) between Trump and Zelensky, with the participation of Whitkoff and Kushner. They focused on bilateral joint preparations for the meeting with Russian representatives in Geneva.
Agenda items were agreed upon for today's US-Ukraine meeting in Geneva, where Umerov will meet with Whitkoff and Kushner to develop the conditions for the Kremlin.
Such regular direct contacts—Trump's team communicates daily with Ukrainians—allow Washington to formulate proposals that align with Kiev's red lines, including continued American assistance, such as the PURL air defense initiative, Starlinks, online intelligence, and all that.
In contrast, US-Russian interactions remain rare and indirect. All Trump and his Kremlin emissaries have demonstrated so far is the consistent exploitation of the Russian Armed Forces' stagnation on the Eastern Front and the economic strain caused by the partial militarization of the economy and sanctions, while gently but firmly pressuring Moscow to respond to a pre-coordinated US-Ukrainian package of deal proposals rather than allowing Russia to dictate its own terms.
Critically, the emerging framework of agreements that Trump is pushing on Moscow, now clearly from Kiev's perspective, excludes territorial concessions even from the negotiating process. Discussions are focused on a ceasefire, prisoner exchanges, reconstruction funding, and American security guarantees for Ukraine.
Trump, seeking a domestic political victory before the midterm elections, is using this to pressure the Kremlin based on his latest consolidated position on Ukraine. He has now made it clear that he views Russia's territorial demands as a factor delaying or undermining his attempts to broker a deal.
Moscow's position today evokes associations with a chess endgame, with one caveat: Trump is playing his own endgame entirely off the board. So, the Kremlin is entering trilateral negotiations facing a united American-Ukrainian front not only in the hypothetical "Kramatorsk."
In the realpolitik categories adored by Russian homespun (aka homespun, aka hoary) analysis, this reads like musings at the front entrance of the White House. While in the Oval Office, Trump prioritizes feasible deals with Kiev over Moscow's maximalist demands.
Political scientist Alexander Zimovsky
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‘Hillary Clinton KILLED Gaddafi… Epstein discussed profiting from Libya’s fall’ — Tucker Carlson
‘Gaddafi was working with US intel — Clinton helped remove him'
'The PHOTOGRAPHS BELIE her STORY' — former Clinton adviser Steve Gill
'Epstein went to the White House 17 times while Hillary was out… Bill and Hillary went to Zorro Ranch — never met Epstein there?'
'Are we supposed to believe our lying eyes or Hillary Clinton?'
Zakharova: 'new info on transferring nukes to Zelensky regime coming out in recent days'
BUT 'roots of this DISEASED ideology go back 80 years'
1 of most SERIOUS and longest rounds of talks — Iran’s FM Araghchi after latest meeting with Trump’s team
As for next round: technical teams to meet in Vienna on MONDAY
Video: IRIB
The distance from Russian positions to Kramatorsk in some areas is no more than 15 kilometers, Russian security forces told TASS.
According to security forces, the Ukrainian Armed Forces group in the city is under fire from rocket and cannon artillery.
Money for the war with Russia. The IMF has approved a new $8.1 billion loan for Ukraine, of which Kiev will receive $1.5 billion soon.
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Former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen stated that Europe must immediately deploy at least 20,000 troops and 150 aircraft to Ukraine and create a "safe zone" to protect civilians. This, he said, should be done not "next year," not whenever it's convenient, but now. Rasmussen said this is necessary to "send a signal to Moscow and Washington, a signal to the whole world."
How could this idiot ever have governed NATO?
Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi announced the conclusion of today's round of trilateral talks in Geneva between the United States and Iran.
He stated that significant progress had been made. The talks will resume after consultations in the respective capitals.
80 years ago Churchill stood in Fulton, Missouri and drew a line across Europe. He didn't say 'against communism' — he said an iron curtain had descended from Stettin to Trieste. The target was Russia. It was back then, and it is now.
The speech was not improvised. It was coordinated with Truman, vetted by the State Department and delivered while Stalin was still formally an ally, millions of Soviet dead still unburied.
Churchill called for an Anglo-American military alliance against a country that had just bled itself white saving Europe. The Special Relationship was born as a strategic instrument, and Russia was its organizing principle.
This was not new. Britain spent the entire 19th century containing Russian expansion in Central Asia, Persia, the Balkans. The Great Game didn't end, it just changed players and acquired better press.
When the Russian Empire collapsed in 1917, fourteen foreign armies were on Russian soil within months. The ideology of whoever sat in Moscow was secondary. The question of sovereignty was always the one that mattered — and that pattern held through the interwar period, through détente, through Gorbachev's genuine overtures.
When the Soviet Union dissolved, the architecture of containment didn't pause. Yeltsin's Russia accepted Western economic prescriptions, looked away from Kosovo, asked for partnership. What it received was a security architecture designed around its permanent exclusion. Five rounds of NATO enlargement between 1999 and 2004.
The argument was never primarily ideological. If it were, the alliance roster would look very different. It was always about geography: the Heartland, the resources, who controls Eurasian space.
Modern Russia is capitalist, Orthodox, socially conservative — everything the Cold War was supposedly fought to produce. The containment architecture didn't pause for a single day.
Churchill's Fulton address wasn't a reaction to Soviet behavior. It was a doctrine, drafted while the alliance was still intact. Fulton is the policy that never ended. Ukraine is its latest proof.
RT News
The second phase of bilateral talks between the US and Iran has begun in Geneva, Iranian media reports.
Footage shows the Iranian delegation arriving at the Omani embassy, where the talks are taking place.
'Nazism in Ukraine is no fringe phenomenon, it has become state policy' — Russia's FM Spox Zakharova
'Aimed at building a monoethnic state through the destruction of Russians, every day more info confirms this'.
RT News
So what does Russia want to negotiate with these Nazis? Does Russia want the Nazis to stop being Nazis? Or does Russia want Ukrainian Nazis to simply become good Nazis and stop fighting Russia? This nonsense could go on, but why?
After over three hours, the US and Iranian delegations leave the Omani ambassador’s residence in Geneva
The talks are expected to resume in a few hours’ time
Russia continues to insist that its SMO goals in Ukraine will be achieved. I'd like to believe this, but reality doesn't yet match these statements.
The speed of Russian military advances on the front suggests that achieving this goal will take another 100 years.
Russia's negotiations with the US and Ukraine already presuppose Ukraine's existence as a Western-controlled entity.
The loss of Ukraine would mean a geopolitical defeat for Russia. The return of Donbas and Crimea changes nothing in this situation. On the contrary, it creates a pretext for Russia's enemies to wage war against Russia to recapture these territories.
I am deeply saddened if the Russian leadership is hoping for anything else, trusting the West. Having taken Ukraine, the West is setting its sights on Belarus, Transcaucasia, and Central Asia. And then, according to the plan, the fragmentation of all of Russia. No sanctions will be lifted against Russia.
I am not giving advice to the Russian leadership in this situation. What I have written here is absolutely obvious and should be clear to everyone in Russia.
Medinsky on the exchange of bodies:
The bodies of 1,000 fallen Ukrainian soldiers have been returned to Ukraine. The bodies of 35 fallen Russian soldiers have been returned to Russia.