❗️LIVE NOW: Sergey Lavrov gives press conference in Panaji after SCO FM meeting
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Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky is the West's puppet, Lavrov told reporters after the SCO meeting in Goa, adding that Russia is ready to talk with Western nations as sooner or later, the talks are inevitable

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Check out highlights from 🇷🇺 Russian FM's presser after SCO meet in Goa 🇮🇳:

On Drone attack on Kremlin:

▫️ Zelensky is doing everything so that any self-respecting country doesn't want to communicate with Ukraine;

▫️ Russia will respond not with talk, but with concrete actions to attempted drone attack on Kremlin by Ukraine;

▫️ Without knowledge of its Western overlords, Kiev terrorists could not have conducted attack on Kremlin.

On SCO Agenda:

▫️ Work on expanding use of national currencies for settlements between SCO countries can no longer be stopped;

▫️ Schedules are being finalised for summit of SCO leaders;

On Afghanistan:

▫️US tries once again to interfere in Afghanistan's internal affairs.

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❗️Moscow is not ruling out the possibility of contacts with Washington, if it is necessary to ensure the interests of the country, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

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🇩🇪 "This was s***": German merc warns about chilling reality of fighting in Ukraine

Jonas Kratzenberg, a German soldier-turned-mercenary, who fled Ukraine after witnessing and experiencing extensive corruption, lies, and war crimes first hand, has shared his account of serving in Kiev's infamous International Legion.

💬 "The International Legion treated us volunteers much worse. Many of us were poorly paid or not paid at all. It was hard for us to defend ourselves because we could not speak Russian or Ukrainian. However, my unit was not wiped out. After the first losses, we were mostly sent to areas that were less dangerous. But I also saw footage of a commander who saw volunteers only as cannon fodder," Kratzenberg said.

For more of stories from Jonas Kratzenberg's experience, check out our article here

🫣 You won't see this highlight in a Ukrainian military daily briefing

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Catch our Fault Lines show, where we provide updates and analysis on all the most vital stories! Here's our line-up for today:

🔺To kick things off, we’ll be discussing the Bidens’ investigation
🔺Next, we’ll continue monitoring the US banking system’s issues
🔺Finally, we’ll touch upon the attempted attack on the Kremlin

More trending stories coming your way! Tune in to Radio Sputnik at 7am EST|4am PST|1pm CET via the website or app!

📻Also in the United States at 105.5FM, 104.7FM, 102.9FM, 1390AM, 1140AM

💰 Push For Dedollarisation: SCO nations back boosting payments in national currencies, 🇷🇺 Russia's FM says

There are practices being developed by the Eurasian Development Bank, the Asian Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the new BRICS Development Bank that can be used for this purpose, Lavrov said.

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🇵🇱 Poland has demolished a war memorial to the Red Army in the town of Glubczyce

The monument was dedicated to the memory of 676 fallen soldiers of the 1st Ukrainian Front who fought for the city in March 1945.

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🇺🇸🤖 Dems float bill to force disclosure of use of AI in campaign ads after GOP airs creepy 'Beat Biden' spot

A bill has been introduced by a House Democrat requiring that political campaign ads disclose the use of AI-created imagery.

This comes after the GOP released an AI-generated "Beat Biden" campaign video, which starts with the question "What if the weakest President we've ever had, were re-elected?"

It contains images of San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge interspersed with computer-generated shots of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. A robotic narrator offers AI-generated scenarios where a war between China and Taiwan has started, regional banks have collapsed, the flow of illegal immigrants has surged at the US-Mexico border, and the crime rate has escalated dramatically.

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📹 Russian T-80 battle tanks in action during special military op

The Airborne Forces' UAV crews observed a group of Ukrainian militants huddled in a dilapidated house in one of the settlements. The coordinates of the enemy positions were immediately transmitted to the command post, after which a decision was made to destroy it using a T-80 tank.

Having moved swiftly to the specified area, the tank crew requested the coordinates of the Ukrainian military fortifications and destroyed them with accurate fire from a 125mm cannon.

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🇨🇳🇪🇺 Borrell says EU needs own policy on China separate from US

💬 "On the EU-US-China triangle, we are closer to Washington, certainly, but we have to have our own way and we are working on that," Josep Borrell told a conference in Florence.

The chief EU diplomat said at an EU event in Italy ennoscriptd "Building Europe in Times of Uncertainty" that the 27-nation bloc should not stand in the way of China's ascent to global power status.

The US has been nudging Europe to take a tougher stance on China, its economic rival and a growing military power, to contain its rising global influence. This is despite the fact that the three remain the world's largest trading partners.

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🇧🇫 🇷🇺 Burkina Faso's Interim President Hails Russia as Key Strategic Ally in Fight Against Terrorism

📺 In a televised interview Thursday, Burkina Faso's interim President Ibrahim Traore was asked about Ouagadougou's international allies as it grapples with the ongoing struggle against a jihadist insurgency that has left thousands dead in Africa's Sahel region.

🗣 "The departure of the French army does not mean that France is not an ally," Traore responded. "But we have strategic allies too. We have new forms of cooperation. Russia, for example, is a strategic ally."

The Burkinabe leader expressed his satisfaction with his country's military cooperation with Moscow, saying, "It's frank."

He added that Ouagadougou will continue this cooperation, noting that the friendly country is a major supplier of military equipment to Burkina Faso

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⚡️ WHO strips COVID-19 of pandemic status

❗️Russian MoD briefing on the progress of the special military operation in Ukraine:

▪️In the Kherson direction, Russian air defense systems obliterated two Ukrainian Su-25s;

▪️In the Kupyansk direction, Russian forces wiped out as many as 95 Ukrainian troops, an Akatsiya self-propelled gun and an M777 howitzer;

▪️Near Chasov Yar, Russian forces destroyed a bridge, which Ukrainian troops used for transporting ammunition supplies and transferring reserves in the direction of Artemovsk;

▪️In the Krasny Liman direction, Ukrainian losses amounted to 65 troops, one armored vehicle and other motor vehicles;

▪️In the Kharkov region, one ammunition depot was destroyed;

▪️The activities of three Ukrainian sabotage groups in the Kharkov region were foiled;

▪️Two Ukrainian infantry brigade ammunition depots were destroyed close to Kramatorsk and Avdeevka in the DPR;

▪️In the South Donetsk and Zaporozhye directions, Ukrainian losses amounted to 90 troops, one tank, a D-30 howitzer and an M777 howitzer;

▪️In the Kherson direction, as many as 80 Ukrainian troops, 15 armored fighting vehicles and other motor vehicles were destroyed.

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🇩🇪 There is a conflict between German politicians and businessmen in light of the terrorist attack on the Nord Stream pipelines, geopolitical analyst and author Pepe Escobar tells Sputnik’s New Rules

💬 “They were already a first-class trading power on the way to becoming a superpower before the SMO, before the sanctions and before the bombing of the Nord Streams. And now they're going back to 100 years ago, to put it in Xi Jinping’s language,” Escobar said.

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