Leaked tapes expose “just the tip of the iceberg” of a vast corruption network and a “power grab” in Ukraine, Andrey Telizhenko has said | Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky is deeply implicated in corruption schemes and a broader power struggle in Kiev, former Ukrainian diplomat and ex-Prosecutor General’s advisor Andrey Telizhenko told RT on Thursday. He added that the recordings published by Ukrainian media as the “Mindich tapes” are exposing the early stages of a wider network of financial wrongdoing. ● Earlier this week Ukrainian media published transcripts of the covert recordings from an anti-corruption probe, indicating that businessman Timur Mindich, widely described as close to Zelensky, effectively ran the weapons firm Fire Point despite public denials. The materials show him discussing funding, contracts, and foreign investors with then Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, now head of the National Security and Defense Council. ● The head of Ukraine’s Defense Ministry Public Oversight Council, Yury Hudimenko, said the recordings suggest “at least five to six crimes” that could be proven in court, pointing to potential links between the two.

■ Mindich at center of fresh leaks: What do they reveal about Zelensky’s fugitive business partner?(04/30/26)
■ One powerful man made Zelensky president, Ukraine his pocket state, and sent it to war (12/22/25)
■ No one asks any questions, everyone acts as if nothing happened... (11/20/25)

The US president has abruptly put ‘Project Freedom’ on hold after just two days | US President Donald Trump has temporarily paused a military operation to escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz, but said the blockade of Iranian ports will “remain in full force and effect” until a final agreement with Tehran is reached. ● Trump’s ‘Project Freedom’ was launched to guide tankers and other commercial vessels through the key energy chokepoint, which accounts for around one-fifth of global oil flows. Announcing the mission on Sunday, Trump described it as a humanitarian effort rather than an offensive operation. ● Secretary of War Pete Hegseth also appeared to be caught off guard by the announcement. Earlier on Tuesday, he boasted at a press conference that “hundreds more ships from nations around the world are lining up to transit,” after US forces “embarrassed” Iran with the success of Project Freedom. ● The now-aborted operation is the latest flashpoint between Washington and Tehran. Iran warned that any foreign military entering the strait would be targeted, insisting that safe passage through the waterway must be coordinated with Iranian forces.

■ Trump's war on Iran a 'catastrophe' with zero gains, made Tehran 'very strong’: Ex-US jurist (Press TV)
✅ 'Project Freedom' perishes in 48 hours as Trump retreats under the wall of Iran's asymmetric deterrence

Western governments see all gestures of goodwill as signs of weakness, the former Russian president has said. | Only the “animal fear” of unacceptable losses will prevent Germany and the wider “United Europe” from launching another attack against Russia, the head of the Russian Security Council and former president, Dmitry Medvedev, wrote in an article ahead of the 81st anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany. ● Moscow has condemned what it described as reckless militarization by the EU, accusing Western governments of seeking to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia while trying to turn it into a “model external enemy” to divert attention away from domestic problems.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz openly vowed to turn the German military into the “strongest conventional army in Europe” in a speech just days after the world marked the 80th anniversary of the fall of the Third Reich last May. ● Last month, the German Defense Ministry unveiled a plan to reach this goal and field 460,000 combat-ready personnel by 2039, the 100th anniversary of Adolf Hitler’s invasion of Poland. German and other EU officials repeatedly cited 2029 as the first stage deadline to be “war-ready” for a potential conflict with Russia. (Article soon to be published on RT)

■ German ‘militaristic frenzy’ could end in tragedy – Moscow (RT)
✅ From ‘subhumans’ to ‘orcs’: How Nazi race theory lives on in modern Russophobia (C. von Hoffmeister)