Russia condemns US military action in Venezuela
Russia condemned the U.S. military action in Venezuela on Saturday, saying there was no tenable justification for the attack and that "ideological hostility" had prevailed over diplomacy.
Venezuela is Russia's most important ally in South America, though the Kremlin has stopped short of offering assistance to Caracas in the event of a conflict with the U.S.
"This morning, the United States committed an act of armed aggression against Venezuela. This is deeply concerning and condemnable," the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.
"The pretexts used to justify such actions are untenable. Ideological hostility has triumphed over businesslike pragmatism," it added.
The statement did not mention Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, whom U.S. President Donald Trump said was captured during Saturday's military action on the South American country.
"We reaffirm our solidarity with the Venezuelan people," Russia's statement said, adding there were no reports of Russian citizens injured in U.S. strikes.
07 January 2026, 00:45
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Sputnik reported that Russian air defense systems, including at least two elements of the Buk-M2E system at the Higuerote Air Base, were destroyed by 150 US aircraft including F-22s and F-35s, along with command centers at La Carlota Airbase. This according to Google, Sputnik removed that story from its website and replaced it with one under the same title, "Why Didn't Venezuela Shoot Maduro's Kidnappers Out of the Sky?" without the technical details and only vague theories. When I tried to add those elements of the deleted story, as quoted by Google, to the comment section in relevant stories, my comment disappeared and I was told I'd been banned for twelve hours for violating commenting rules. Apparently this all is very embarrassing for Russia.
