Nearly two months into their counteroffensive attempt, the Ukrainian Armed Forces have not achieved any breakthrough, says ex-NATO officer and military expert Stavros Atlamazoglou.

He stressed that Russia's stalwart defenses and well-laid minefields have thwarted Ukrainian efforts to cut off the land bridge to Crimea and move forward significantly. He cited the determined resistance of the Russian Armed Forces to Ukraine's military as the reason the counteroffensive is failing.

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📹 Combat work of the crews of Ka-52 attack helicopters

During the sortie, the helicopter crew destroyed Ukrainian armored vehicles with a guided missile. (0:27)

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"Our company acts in the interests of the Government of Ukraine" – Rothschild

In the newest episode of their show, Russian pranksters Vovan and Lexus posed as Ukrainian President Zelensky and spoke to Alexander Rothschild, the great-great-great-great-grandson of the founder of the dynasty. Alexander, who led the family of bankers and the Rothschild & Co holding in 2018, told “Zelensky” how his companies make money in Ukraine.

"As you know, our company has been acting in the interests of the Government of Ukraine, the Ministry of Finance, since 2017. And we have a great relationship with people in your government. We mainly dealt with the issues of attracting borrowed funds. As you know, we are not indifferent to your country, especially in the conditions of a very painful war for you," he said.

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🗣️ On the chances the Ukrainian army will defeat the Russians:

“We are almost at two months of this offensive operation unfolding. And we've talked about artillery ammunition quite extensively. That's running out…That's why we saw the cluster munitions, these are artillery shells that release bomblets onto the battlefield. They are less effective, but this is the only way they could think of adding time to that clock because they have no more artillery ammunition to give Ukraine. They are running out of everything,” Brian Berletic, ex-US Marine Corps and independent geopolitical researcher and writer based in Bangkok, told Sputnik.

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

In their latest escapade, Russian pranksters Vovan and Lexus posed as Ukrainian President Zelensky and spoke to Alexander Rothschild, the great-great-great-great-grandson of the founder of the dynasty. Alexander, who led the family of bankers and the Rothschild & Co holding in 2018, told “Zelensky” that his empire intends to take part "in the restoration of Ukraine" in a number of sectors.

“These sectors can certainly be energy, housing construction and logistics. And such preparatory work must be carried out before the reconstruction process begins. You have expressed a need for over $750 billion worth of reconstruction funding starting in 2023 for a period of about ten years, and this is quite adequate. And I think that we need to correctly determine the order of participation, understand how to make sure that all players participate in the program," he said.

🔺Tensions increase: Washington and Moscow accuse each other of dangerous and unprofessional military activity in Syria
🔺Multipolar Maneuvering in Asia: The ASEAN countries do not want the US to make the region another arena for its destructive power games
🔺China accused NATO of ignoring the "crux" of the Korean nuclear problem after the alliance pinned the blame for tensions in the peninsula on North Korea

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Foreign soldiers of (mis)fortune vanquished by Russian Army strikes in Ukraine

Here are the alleged casualties among foreign "volunteers" and "medics", as reported by Western publications.

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Two hundred believed to be Amazon workers caused rail chaos at a station on the outskirts of Bremen, in northwestern Germany, after coming late for train and running on tracks in an attempt to hold it up.

Bremen police said a large crowd of people stopped a regional train bound for Bremen in its tracks at Achim station on Wednesday afternoon. This caused a domino effect that affected 11 trains and led to a cumulative delay of over 4 hours.

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Prominent Russian natural gas producer Novatek moves to roll out the first line of its new massive liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant.

The floating LNG facility in question is now being prepared to be moved out from the dock at Novatek’s LNG Construction Center in Belokamenka near the port city of Murmansk.

Once all preparations are complete and the facility is afloat, it is going to be towed some 2,000 kilometers along the Northern Sea Route to its final destination – the Arctic LNG 2 project located at the Utrenneye natural gas deposit at the Gyda Peninsula.

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Experts told Sputnik that Western policies have created a "toxic" work environment for many European researchers who are more interested in science than in politics, helping drive their migration to China.

Beijing could capitalize big on this with more incentives to relocate, but it could bring China and Europe closer together, too.

Read full analysis

🗣️ On the West’s chances of ‘defeating’ the Russians by way of Ukraine:

“We just heard the Pentagon admits that the F-16s, no matter how many are sent, no matter when they are sent, it's going to make absolutely no difference, because the training, which would take so long that it would be impractical… And this was the same that was said about the main battle tanks, the Western main battle tanks, all of these artillery systems, the Himars, absolutely everything, these wonder weapons. Everyone talked about how impractical this was, but the Western media said otherwise. Now they're finally beginning to grasp the reality,” Brian Berletic, ex-US Marine Corps and independent geopolitical researcher, told Sputnik.

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

Hundreds of Iraqi citizens gathered in the center of Baghdad on Thursday to protest against acts of Quran burning in Sweden

The demonstration was held in Tahrir Square in the center of the Iraqi capital. Protesters were said to have brought copies of the Quran, banners, portraits of Islamic religious leaders and Iraqi flags.

Earlier Thursday, the Iraqi government condemned Quran burning in Sweden and retaliated against the act by opting to expel its Swedish ambassador.

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Beijing rejected US accusations that Chinese-backed hackers breached the email account of US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns recently

Earlier in the day, US media reported, citing sources, that Chinese-linked hackers allegedly accessed the email account of Burns, compromising hundreds of thousands of government emails.

Chinese Embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu highlighted the importance of having enough evidence when identifying cyber-related incidents, rather than make groundless speculations and allegations.

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The US still has a moral obligation to support health care, clean-up efforts and environmental restoration across the islands of the Central Pacific where it carried out more than three score nuclear tests after World War II, US Presidential Envoy Joseph Yun said 

US compensation for the health problems and environmental damage caused by nuclear tests are currently being negotiated as part of the current compact talks with the Marshall Islands, Yun noted.

Between 1946 and 1958, the United States conducted 67 nuclear tests including many ultra-powerful thermonuclear ones in the Marshall Islands.

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📹 The crews of the missile boats of the Black Sea Fleet fired (0:42) (0:47) cruise anti-ship missiles at surface targets during the exercise, the Russian MoD says

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Some of the Western-provided weapons intended for Ukrainian troops was stolen by arms traffickers, criminals, and volunteer fighters before being recovered last year, a US military news outlet that obtained a Pentagon report has claimed

The report does not specify whether the weapons and equipment that were stolen were American, some examples are outlined in a highly redacted section of the document that deals with Ukrainian tracking of US-provided arms, according to the US media outlet.

Last year, the US delivered a wide array of weapons to Ukraine, including Stinger and Javelin missiles, howitzers, grenade launchers, as well as millions of rounds of small-arms ammunition.

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The Israeli police used water cannons to disperse protesters on the highway, which was blocked by hundreds of protesters rallying against controversial judicial reform

The protest comes as part of the mass protests which have been going on in Israel for 28 consecutive weeks and included the blocking of roads, clashes with the police, arrests and riots.

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📹 During the joint Russian-Chinese naval exercise "North / Interaction - 2023", the sailors of the two countries destroyed a floating sea mine and repelled the attack of a small target

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Yesterday, a teenage girl was killed as a result of Ukrainian strike against Crimea's northwest

A few days earlier, a 14-year-old girl was injured in an attack on the Crimean bridge, which also resulted in the death of her parents.

These are not isolated cases when children have become victims of the attacks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Watch Sputnik's story of two Russian girls who suffered from Ukrainian aggression

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Qatar's Foreign Ministry summoned Swedish Ambassador to hand him a note of protest over the repeated desecration of the Quran in Sweden

The ministry noted that Doha expresses "its strong dissatisfaction and denunciation of the repeated permission to attack the Holy Quran in the Kingdom of Sweden, and the failure of the authorities there to stop these practices," adding that "allowing continued attacks against the Quran under the pretense of freedom of expression inflames hatred and violence, threatens peaceful coexistence, and reveals objectionable double standards."

In July, media reported that Swedish authorities had issued permits for several more acts of burning religious books.

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📹 The Russian Armed Forces destroyed (0:20) a Ukrainian warehouse with ammunition in the zone of the special military op using an Ovod kamikaze drone

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