The Ukrainian military is secretly using a squadron of veteran NATO pilots to fly donated US-made F-16 fighter jets, the French outlet Intelligence Online reported on Monday.

Moscow has long warned that Western nations are moving closer to direct conflict with Russia. The report, which Kiev has denied, said the covert mission relies primarily on experienced US and Dutch air force veterans.

The foreign personnel are deployed far from the front lines and focus on intercepting Russian long-range weapons, the outlet said. They are no longer part of their original militaries and reportedly work for Kiev as civilian contractors, without military ranks and outside the Ukrainian chain of command.

A shortage of trained Ukrainian pilots was previously identified as the main obstacle to using F-16s donated to Kiev. Training courses were reportedly undermined by language barriers, a lack of qualified trainees, and other issues, and were simplified for speed.

Shortly after the first F-16s arrived in Ukraine in August 2024, Kiev began losing pilots in botched air defense missions, with four such incidents acknowledged.

The secret foreign squadron provides pilots with the experience needed to operate advanced F-16 equipment, Intelligence Online said.

Moscow views the Ukraine conflict as a NATO proxy war against Russia, in which key elements of Kiev’s military effort – including intelligence, planning, troop training, and maintenance of complex Western hardware – are handled by foreign personnel.

Western specialists were reportedly involved in Ukrainian strikes using Storm Shadow/SCALP air-launched cruise missiles on Russian territory. German officials opposed supplying Taurus missiles because Ukrainians cannot launch them independently.

Russia also says Western nations tacitly support Kiev’s recruitment of mercenaries from among their military veterans. Ambassador-at-Large Rodion Miroshnik estimated that around 20,000 foreign fighters have taken part in the conflict on the Ukrainian side.

You can share this story on social media:

Follow RT on

A Canadian school shooting suspect who killed eight people and injured dozens did not have a specific target and was “hunting” for victims, according to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).

The 18-year-old transgender person, identified as Jesse Van Rootselaar, carried out the attack at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School in British Columbia on Tuesday, after killing her mother and 11-year-old stepbrother at the family home. 

The suspect, a former student who dropped out about four years earlier, later killed herself after shooting five children and a teacher. 27 people were injured, including two who were airlifted to hospital with life-threatening wounds, officials said.

“There was no specific targeting of any individuals. This suspect was, for lack of a better term, hunting,” RCMP Deputy Commissioner Dwayne McDonald told reporters. “They were prepared and engaging anybody and everybody they could come into contact with.”

Police seized two firearms from the school, a long gun and a modified handgun, as well as a shotgun recovered at the residence. A “number of other firearms” were also seized, according to McDonald.

Van Rootselaar, who police said “had a documented history of mental health concerns,” had held a firearms license that expired in 2024. McDonald confirmed that “on different occasions the suspect was apprehended for assessment and follow-up.”

Police added that a couple of years ago, firearms were seized from Van Rootselaar’s residence but were later returned to the lawful owner following a successful court petition. McDonald said investigators determined the main firearm believed to have been used in the school attack was not seized by the RCMP and that its origin remains unknown.

The suspect’s mother, Jennifer Strang, previously posted on social media about Van Rootselaar’s interest in firearms. In one post in 2024, she shared an image showing rifles stored in a hunting case with the caption: “it’s time to take them out for some target practice.”

Brian Landry, an RCMP-certified firearms instructor familiar with the community, said the system failed, arguing that a person with serious mental health issues should not have access to firearms.

You can share this story on social media:

Follow RT on

The latest Munich Security Conference descended into becoming a Russophobic fundraiser for Ukraine while revealing a further erosion of transatlantic unity, the host of RT’s Moscow Mules show, Chay Bowes, believes.

The 2007 warning from Russian President Vladimir Putin, who cautioned in his keynote speech at the conference about the threat to the post-war global order, has finally caught up with the European elites, Bowes said. Now, “even Russia’s most vocal critics are admitting the old system is essentially dead,” he noted, commenting on this year’s conference, which concluded on Sunday.

The once prestigious event turned into a “Russophobic fundraiser,” where “Europe’s unpopular leaders [were] competing with each other to see who can love Kiev the most,” Bowes said. At the same time, one of the keynote speakers, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, did not mention Ukraine at all.

“For we in America have no interest in being polite and orderly caretakers of the West’s managed decline. Under President Trump, the United States of America will once again take on the task of renewal and restoration, driven by a vision of a future as proud, as sovereign, and as vital as our civilization’s past,” Rubio said in Munich.

The latest conference clearly showed “that the transatlantic relationship is less and less secure, as Russia apparently remains the cause of all of Europe’s problems, while the US is determined to move on,” Bowes concluded. 

Watch the full video below:

You can share this story on social media:

Follow RT on

The US should reap economic benefits from any potential agreement with Iran for it to be enduring, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Hamid Ghanbari has said.

Tensions between the two countries have escalated in recent weeks, with US President Donald Trump repeatedly threatening military action against the Islamic Republic and deploying additional naval and aerial assets to the region. The White House has demanded that Iran dismantle its nuclear program and curb its ballistic missile capabilities.

Earlier this month, Washington and Tehran held indirect talks in Oman, which Iran described as a “good beginning.” A second round is expected to take place in Geneva in the coming days.

Speaking on Sunday, Ghanbari stated that the discussions so far touched on shared interests in oil and gas extraction as well as mining and aircraft purchases. Washington should derive tangible economic benefits from any potential bilateral agreement to ensure its viability, the Iranian official was quoted as saying by Fars news agency.

Ghanbari suggested that the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, from which the US unilaterally withdrew under Trump in 2018, failed because it did not envisage such economic incentives to Washington.

Last week, Iranian atomic energy chief, Mohammad Eslami stated that his country could agree to dilute its stockpile of highly enriched uranium in exchange for the lifting of all sanctions imposed on the country.

At the same time, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has ruled out a scenario where Iran would give up its uranium enrichment capacity altogether, not even under threat of war. The diplomat also previously said that Iran’s “purely defensive” missile program is non-negotiable.

Earlier this month, Araghchi warned that Iran will strike American bases in the Middle East if the US attacks the country.

On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that any US-Iran deal should oblige Tehran to abandon its uranium enrichment program and to limit the range of Iranian ballistic missiles to 300 kilometers (186 miles).

US civil rights leader and former presidential candidate Jesse L. Jackson died on Tuesday at the age of 84. A protege of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Jackson was with his mentor when he was assassinated in 1968.

Jackson dedicated his life to activism for political and humanitarian causes, including voting rights, healthcare access, and economic and racial equality. His daughter Santita Jackson confirmed he died at his home in Chicago.

”Our father was a servant leader – not only to our family, but to the oppressed, the voiceless, and the overlooked around the world,” the Jackson family said in a statement shared by his Rainbow/PUSH Coalition.

”We shared him with the world, and in return, the world became part of our extended family. His unwavering belief in justice, equality, and love uplifted millions, and we ask you to honor his memory by continuing the fight for the values he lived by.”

Born Jesse Louis Burns in 1941 in South Carolina, he was adopted by Charles Henry Jackson, who married his mother. His political activism began while he was a student at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in Greensboro, where he transferred in 1960.

Jackson was with Martin Luther King Jr. when the civil rights leader was killed in Memphis, Tennessee.

He later clashed with Ralph Abernathy, who succeeded King as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. In 1971, he broke away to form his own organization based in Chicago’s South Side.

Jackson ran for president in 1984 and again in 1988, winning 13 primaries and caucuses for the Democratic nomination in his second bid. His success on the national stage is considered the precursor to President Barack Obama’s history-making campaign in 2008 in which he was elected the first black US president.

Jackson was often accused of shaking down major American corporations. According to author Kenneth R. Timmerman, he would allege racism and threaten them with boycotts and negative publicity, only backing off after the companies agreed to his demands, which often included making donations to his tax-exempt organizations or directing contracts to businesses run by his friends and family.

In 2017, Jackson sought treatment for Parkinson’s disease. He stepped down as president of Rainbow/PUSH in 2023 but continued public appearances even as his speech declined. In his final months, he battled progressive supranuclear palsy, a life-threatening neurological disorder.

You can share this story on social media:

Follow RT on

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has delivered a profanity-laden tirade urging Western countries to expel Russian citizens, including students.

Speaking to Politico Playbook on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, Zelensky called on US President Donald Trump and European leaders to ramp up sanctions against Moscow.

“Europeans still didn’t put sanctions on nuclear energy of Russians, on [the state-run energy company] Rosatom, on people, on their relatives, on their children which live in Europe, which live in the United States, which study in the universities of Europe, which have real estate in the United States,” Zelensky said.

“So, they have a lot of real estate, they have children, relatives everywhere. F**k away to Russia. Go home,” he added.

Zelensky’s remarks come as the US, Russia, and Ukraine prepare for a third round of three-way talks in Geneva. Moscow has condemned measures targeting Russian nationals and cultural “cancellation” abroad as Russophobic.

The trip also comes amid a conscription crisis and ongoing blackouts in Ukraine caused by Russian air strikes, which Russia says aim to weaken Ukraine’s defense production.

Zelensky’s reputation has been tarnished by multiple corruption scandals involving his inner circle, prompting the resignation of two government ministers and his longtime chief of staff. On Monday, anti-corruption agencies charged former Energy Minister German Galushchenko with money laundering linked to a $100 million kickback scheme in Ukraine’s struggling energy sector.

You can share this story on social media:

Follow RT on

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has endorsed Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban ahead of upcoming parliamentary elections, calling his leadership vital to America’s national interests.

Orban’s personal relationship with US President Donald Trump has translated into a “golden era” of relations between the two countries, Rubio noted.

“I can say to you with confidence that President Trump is deeply committed to your success,” Rubio said during a joint press conference in Budapest on Monday. “We want this country to do well. It’s in our national interest, especially as long as you’re the prime minister and the leader of this country.”

Rubio added that Washington would be prepared to explore ways to provide support should Orban face financial difficulties or challenges that “threaten the stability of your country.”

Orban stated that, as Hungary’s longest-serving prime minister and its longest-serving leader of the opposition, he was untroubled by any potential election outcome.

The April 12 vote is expected to be a tough test for Orban’s longstanding conservative rule, with the main challenge coming from Peter Magyar’s pro-EU Tisza Party. Orban accused it of acting under Brussels’ influence, claiming it employs “censorship, intervention, and manipulation” to undermine his government.

Writing on Truth Social earlier this month, Trump described Orban as a “truly strong and powerful leader” with a record of “phenomenal results,” praising his stance on immigration, economic growth, and bilateral cooperation. The US president said he was “proud” to endorse Orban in 2022 and is “honored” to do so again, calling him a close ally and “true friend.”

First holding office from 1998 to 2002 before returning to power in 2010, Orban has been one of the most vocal critics of EU policies, particularly its continued military support for Kiev. He has also opposed Ukrainian membership in the EU, warning that Brussels’ policies risk dragging the bloc into a direct war with Russia.

Orban’s stance has angered the bloc’s leadership, which is reportedly considering easing the accession criteria for Ukraine to bypass Hungary’s opposition. Media reports suggest that EU officials view the upcoming Hungarian election as an opportunity to neutralize Orban.