📹 “They can’t take it for long and just refuse”: A Ukrainian POW on how almost half of the soldiers refused to go into battle.

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Russian Region Bordering Baltics Has Been Repeatedly Probed by NATO Drones, Governor Reveals

💬 “We have never spoken extensively about this, but there have even been attempts to illegally cross our border with military drones and other aircraft. Such ‘peaceful engagement’ was in full bloom even before the start of the special military operation, and clearly the situation has become even more aggravated,” Pskov region governor Mikhail Vedernikov said.

The governor also listed off other acts of "good neighborliness" by the Baltic countries’ governments, including Latvian and Estonian authorities’ “empty statements about territorial claims” against Russia, and the “massive and targeted” issuance of EU passports to residents of areas of the Pskov region near the border.

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Iranian Parliament Backs Membership in Shanghai Cooperation Organization

The Iranian parliament voted on Sunday to back the Islamic Republic's entry to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, state news agency reported. Iran has been seeking to upgrade its observer status to full membership of the Asian security organization, which comprises China, Russia, India, Pakistan, and four Central Asian nations.

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👉 Follow our LIVE UPDATES on the Ukrainian crisis

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⚡️The European Organization for Nuclear Research has stopped the operation of the Large Hadron Collider prematurely because of the risk of energy shortages

"I survived war against the German Nazis, but haven't see anything like this before": A Donetsk pensioner shows her scars after she was wounded in her bedroom by Ukrainian shelling.

🦭 Experts from the Federal State Budgetary Institution 'Zapovednoe Podlemorye' - with the help of quadrocopters - filmed seals at rest in Chivyrkuysky Bay, Lake Baikal. There are vast areas of ice which have never appeared there before:

🗣 "By the end of the month, the ice shell will grow, and the number of seals will decrease. They will move to open Lake Baikal, preparing for the beginning of the winter ice age of life," the experts explained

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"It's f***g FSB!": Ukrainian neo-Nazis sift the civilian population in search of "FSB agents" denounced by neighbors.

⚡️EU Council approves decision to make sanctions circumvention a criminal offense.

The European Commissioner for Justice previously stated that adding attempts to circumvent sanctions to the list of criminal offenses in the EU opens the way to confiscate assets belonging to Russian businesses.

The Ministry of Finance is considering the possibility of exchanging Russian assets frozen abroad for funds of foreign investors frozen in Russia, and Russia's Minister of Finance has said that the topic is in the initial stages of consideration.

Soon after Russia began its special operation in Ukraine, the western coalition froze $300Bln of Russian assets with the total amount of Russian assets frozen by the EU amounting to $71,3Bln, mostly in Belgium.

Russia has repeatedly denounced the freezing of assets as theft.

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Russian Su-25 attack aircraft destroy Ukrainian camouflaged fortified field positions and armored vehicles (video courtesy of Russia's MoD)

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🗣 Russia and the United States have a channel to discuss the topic of risk management - especially nuclear - at intelligence agency level, at the meeting in Ankara, the Ukrainian settlement was not discussed. If necessary, CIA Director Burns and SVR head Naryshkin can talk again, Elizabeth Rood, US Chargé d'Affaires in Russia, said.

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🇮🇳🏍 How many people can ride a bike?

You might suggest one or two, but this scene from Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh proves that as many as five can fit on one!

Warning: this is not safe, so we do not advise you try it.

❗️Latest statements by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov:

▪️Tokayev's visit to Russia as first destination after his reelection proves the mutual importance of bilateral relations;

▪️Kremlin on reports that Russia allegedly plans to leave Energodar and the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant: no need to look for any signs when there are none;

▪️Kremlin on Vatican's idea of mediation between Moscow and Kiev: Russia welcomes such a notion, but such sites cannot be demanded by Ukraine now

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🔥 A chemical plant is on fire in Pamukkale in Turkey’s Denizli province, with explosions heard. The cause of the fire has not yet been established, while factory workers have been evacuated and firefighters are trying to localize the fire

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🎥 Combat firing of Russian artillery (video courtesy of Russia's MoD)

The precision of firing has been helped by drones called "birdies". The "Zoo" radar complex is also used by artillery units for reconnaissance of the positions of enemy fire weapons, calculating the trajectories of shells and missiles, adjusting the fire of friendly fire weapons, and tracking airspace.

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❗️ Russian MoD’s latest statements on the Ukraine crisis:

▪️ Eight armored vehicles and five motor vehicles of the Ukraine Armed Forces were destroyed while they were being loaded onto railroad transport in the Dnepropetrovsk region as a result of a high-precision strike by the Russian Air Force.

▪️ All attacks in the Kupyansk direction have been repulsed by the Russian Armed Forces. More than 50 Ukrainian servicemen, 1 tank, 2 armored personnel carriers, and 1 pickup truck were eliminated.

▪️ Russian artillery fire struck two Ukrainian company tactical groups in the Krasny Liman direction. The firepower's operation has resulted in scattering the enemy units. More than 30 Ukrainian servicemen, 2 armored vehicles, and 3 pick-up trucks were eliminated.

▪️ In the South Donetsk direction, 2 Ukrainian counterattacks have been repelled by artillery strikes and actions by Russian assault groups in the DPR. More than 50 Ukrainian servicemen, 2 armored fighting vehicles, and 1 infantry fighting vehicle were eliminated.

▪️ Operational-tactical and army aviation, missile troops, and artillery neutralized eight Ukrainian strongpoints in the Kharkov region, in the DPR, and in the Kherson region.

▪️ The Russian air defenses down 7 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles over the past 24 hours. Moreover, 2 HARM anti-radar missiles were intercepted in the Kherson region.

▪️ Some 333 airplanes and 177 helicopters, 2,572 unmanned aerial vehicles, 390 air defense missile systems, 6,866 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 904 combat vehicles equipped with MLRS, 3,624 field artillery cannons and mortars, as well as 7,395 units of special military equipment have been destroyed during the special military operation.

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⚡️Meeting of Turkish, Finnish and Swedish foreign ministers on NATO membership will be held on Tuesday in Bucharest, Turkish Foreign Minister Cavusoglu said.

🗣 "Bucharest will host a trilateral meeting tomorrow with the foreign ministers of Sweden and Finland. Some obligations under the Madrid Memorandum have been fulfilled, some have not yet been fulfilled. In particular, concrete steps have not yet been taken to extradite Kurdistan Workers' Party members and a number of necessary amendments to the legislation on combating terrorism. The process is moving in a positive way, but a number of concrete steps are needed, especially from Sweden", Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu added

🇯🇵 Japan is going to make 50 small optical and radar satellites over the next two years to monitor military targets and their movement from a low altitude, a Japanese newspaper reported on Monday

🛰 Optical satellites will be able to take high-quality photos and videos of the Earth's surface in good weather during daylight hours, and radar satellites, will take radar images regardless of the time of day and weather conditions, the newspaper added.

The Japanese Defense Ministry planned to create a hypersonic weapons detection network of Russian and Chinese design, but the first test device will be launched no earlier than 2027 because of the complexity of manufacturing an infrared sensor, the newspaper said

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⚡️ Norwegian ambassador summoned to Russian Foreign Ministry due to arrests of Russian citizens

▪️ The ambassador was told that such a practice is inadmissible.

▪️ Russia calls on Norway to stop persecuting Russian citizens on the basis of nationality.

▪️ Earlier, Norway’s Court of Appeal decided to keep the son of the ex-head of Russian Railways, businessman Andrey Yakunin, under arrest after having been detained for illegal filming using a drone in Svalbard.

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