⚡️ Putin: Ukraine in NATO will create security threat for Russia and will not increase security of Ukraine itself

❗️ Latest statements by Vladimir Putin:

▪️ Foreign tanks burn better than Soviet-made tanks;

▪️ Western-made missiles and tanks cause damage, but nothing critical happens in the war zone because of them;

▪️ Deliveries of new weapons to Kiev will only aggravate the situation for Ukraine;

▪️ Ukrainian soldiers often refuse to use foreign tanks as they are a priority target for Russian soldiers.

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❗️LIVE NOW: Putin's address to the media following the plenary session of the Future Technologies Forum

🇫🇷 Marine Le Pen, former president of the French right-wing National Rally party and the current chairwoman of its parliamentary faction, said it was "irresponsible" of the French president to pledge long-range missiles to Ukraine.

"I do not understand why Emmanuel Macron is not integrally focused on organizing a conference for peace to put an end to this [conflict]," Le Pen was quoted as saying by French media.

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"They ripped out my nails"

📹 Alexandra Valko, Russian-born Donbass resident, recalls how Ukrainian Nazis tortured her for a week

Read the full interview on Sputnik's website

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🗣️ On NATO’s interests in the Asia-Pacific region:

“So clearly the AP4 or, the IP4: Australia, New Zealand, Japan and [South] Korea, are set to join NATO in this informal fashion. That is to say NATO is coming into the Asia Pacific. It is preparing for war with China. And China is making a very, very clear statement. It's drawing a red line,” KJ Noh, peace activist, teacher, and writer, told Sputnik.

🎧 Listen to more of Noh’s analysis in our podcast The Critical Hour

Scott Ritter: NATO summit serves up cringe nothing-burger

Sputnik's columnist Scott Ritter summed up the results of the NATO summit with the participation of Zelensky and compared it with and old advertisement of Wendy's burgers without meat.

Check out his full article on Sputnik's website

🗣️ On the core of NATO:

“What is NATO, really? Jens Stoltenberg has no power. I mean, they're just told what to do. NATO is a sort of vassal state, meeting group, when all these major members are told what to do by Washington and when I say Washington as you implied, that it's not the people of the United States represented in Washington, it is those arms companies that lobby the politicians who then tell these NATO members how to act,” Afshin Rattansi, host of Going Underground, told Sputnik.

🎧 Listen to more of Rattansi’s analysis in our podcast Fault Lines

👉 Watch the full episode of our show on Rumble

"They put an empty flour sack on and wrap it with tape so tightly that the person actually suffocates"

📹 Andrei Sokolov, a civilian who was captured by the Nazis and spent almost two years in captivity, talks about barbaric methods of torture, used by Ukrainian nationalists

Read the full interview on Sputnik's website

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🇪🇹 🇪🇬 Leaders of Ethiopia and Egypt Discuss Crisis in Sudan, Disputed Blue Nile Dam

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi discussed the conflict in Sudan, bilateral relations, and Ethiopia's Blue Nile Dam (also known as the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam) at the presidential palace in Cairo, according to the Egyptian presidency.

On July 13, Egypt is hosting a conference of Sudan's neighboring countries to discuss the issue of putting an end armed clashes between opposing groups of the Sudanese military that have sparked a serious crisis in the region

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Biden promised $11-13 billion in IMF funds to Erdogan for the ratification of Sweden's application to NATO, Seymour Hersh said

The Turkish leader did not refuse the money, as he needs to restore the country's infrastructure after the devastating earthquakes, according to the investigative journalist.

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🔺Iran’s Raisi starts Africa trip by signing agreements with Kenya
🔺NATO expands to Asia-Pacific: Did Biden lie about not surrounding China?
🔺Germany to open tank factory in Ukraine

The Critical Hour will cover these and more stories! Tune in to Radio Sputnik at 6pm EST|3pm PST|12am CET via the website or app

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🇩🇪Mental diseases were the most common reason for hospitalization among minors aged 10-17 in Germany in 2021. In 2011, this type of illness accounted for just 13% of all cases in the same age bracket.

Among all mental disorders, depression was the most common reason for inpatient treatment of German teenagers, accounting for 27% of all hospitalization cases caused by mental illnesses in 2021.

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The Russian Army will "easily cope" with the Ukrainian offensive and will begin its own "massive" offensive in August, Seymour Hersh said

He noted that Kiev would face "real problems" and even US-supplied cluster munitions had no chance of changing the course of the conflict.

The investigative journalist is sure that the White House made a mistake in assessing the situation at the front and the Ukrainian offensive is failing.

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🗣️ On why corruption and war go hand in hand:

“We were hearing more about that [corruption in Ukraine] before Russia's invasion, as we were hearing a lot more about the Nazis and the neo-Nazis in Azov… And then, bam, ‘Russia invades’. And not only do we not get that kind of coverage, Bandera and all of these descendants in Azov are national heroes as far as we're concerned”, Mike Ferner, interim director of Veterans for Peace, told Sputnik.

🎧 Listen to more of Ferner’s analysis in our podcast Political Misfits

👉 Watch the full episode of our show on Rumble

🇫🇷 Paris police chief Laurent Nunez said on Thursday that the cause of mass riots in France is lack of respect for the French government's authority among the citizens and not the influx of migrants to the country.

Earlier in July, French President Emmanuel Macron and Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire admitted that there was a problem of authority in the French society.

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NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday that Sweden's entire territory is of interest for the alliance as it is strategically located at the Baltic Sea and has a well-trained professional army.

"Sweden has a strong, professional, well-trained defense and is strategically located at the Baltic Sea ... The borders with Norway and Finland allow for better coordination of land troops. In addition, there is Sweden's Navy in the Baltic Sea ... The entire territory of Sweden is of interest," he told a Swedish broadcaster.

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The Russian Embassy slammed US officials' statements that Kiev would use cluster munitions accurately as a "clumsy attempt to justify their own provocative actions"

The Embassy said "anyone who follows the conflict knows that Kiev has been using US security assistance to hit civilian targets in the hope of intimidating us and 'killing as many Russians as possible,'" adding that residential areas with no military facilities have been targeted in these strikes.

It would be "hard to imagine how many civilian casualties there will be, including Ukrainians, when the Kiev criminals start using US cluster munitions" the Embassy said.

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📹 A brawl erupted in the Kosovo parliament after an opposition lawmaker threw water on the prime minister, Albin Kurti, while he was speaking about government measures to defuse tensions with ethnic Serbs

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