🇷🇺 The Russian military has tested the first batch of the new "Obereg" armored vests that can stop NATO sniper bullets of 8.6 millimeter caliber, said the first deputy director general of Rostec, Vladimir Artyakov, in an interview ahead of the international military-technical forum "Army-2023".

"And we succeeded. The weight of the "Obereg" is only about 11.7 kilograms. The novelty was tested not only with standard 7.62x54 mm bullets for the Br-5 class, but also with bullets of a more powerful caliber - 8.6 mm (.338 Lapua Magnum). The ceramic plate withstood such a hit. We also shot American and Chinese classmates. The tests showed that foreign vests are powerless against such a test," Artyakov said.

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🗣️ US foreign policy establishment will block any attempt at a diplomatic solution in Ukraine:

“Any president, any administration that decides to seek a negotiated solution to the Ukraine conflict is going to know that every day there will be people appearing in the media on the talk shows, talking about how Ukraine is being betrayed and how the United States, how the president of the United States and his administration is engaging in appeasement and is letting Ukraine, a key ally of the United States, a heroic ally of the United States, fighting against the Russian colossus, how they are betraying it and letting it down. And that is a potent message,” Alexander Mercouris, writer and international affairs analyst, host of The Duran on Youtube, told Sputnik.

🎧 Listen to more of Mercouris’ analysis in our podcast New Rules

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🛰🇺🇸 Maxar satellite imagery shows what Lahaina, Hawaii, looked like before the fires and what was eventually left of the city

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🗣️ On the significance of cluster ammunitions for Ukraine:

“The only thing these cluster munitions do for Ukraine is allow them to continue firing artillery a little bit longer so that the offensive has dragged on much longer than expected with no results at all. This allows Ukraine to put some more time up on the clock to try to make something happen here... The real determining factor is who is taking more positions from whom and who is losing more troops. And the answer is very clearly Ukraine. Ukraine is losing more troops,” Brian Berletic, ex-US Marine, independent geopolitical researcher, and writer based in Bangkok, told Sputnik.

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

🇷🇺Russia's state corp Rostec quadruples armored vehicle production

"Deliveries are often made ahead of schedule. I would like to note that the vehicles we send to the front are constantly being improved, taking into account the combat experience. Their protection is improved and so on," Rostec's First Deputy Director General Vladimir Artyakov said.

Factories Uralvagonzavod and High-Precision Complex produce a wide range of armored vehicles, including T-72B3, T-80, and T-90M tanks, BMP-3 infantry fighting vehicles, BMD-4M paratrooper infantry fighting vehicles, Msta-S howitzers, and other equipment. Artyakov also recalled that since the beginning of the special operation, the production of ammunition for self-propelled artillery and MLRS has increased 20 times.

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☦️ The court in Kiev granted the reserve's claim to the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra for "removing obstacles in the use of property". Now the monks can be evicted, the lawyer said.

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🗣️ On the US policy of "circling the wagons" of its allies:

“The policy of Biden and the US is to circle the wagons of those allies that are really heavily dependent on the US, the G7, Europe and Japan, South Korea, Australia and so forth - the circle of the wagons, and to make sure that that core of its empire is protected… The US is circling the wagons of its reliable allies, economic and political, which is a sign of great weakness, by the way. And it's engaging in more force, military adventures here to try to protect this empire, but it's really fraying at the edges very seriously,” Dr. Jack Rasmus, professor of economics and politics at St. Mary's College in California, told Sputnik.

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

📹 Three Ukrainian soldiers crossed the Dnepr River and surrendered in the Kherson region

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🗣 'Hunter is a Geopolitical Disaster': Ramaswamy Slams Biden Over Security Aid to Ukraine

💸 US presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy said that Biden’s “failure” to articulate how aid to Ukraine advanced American interests “reeks of corruption”.

The 37-year-old Indian-American presidential contender reiterated his charge that Hunter Biden’s past association with Ukrainian energy company Burisma could be a possible reason why Washington has been helping Kiev.

🗯 “It's now fair game to ask whether the geopolitical disaster known as Hunter Biden has something to do with it,” Ramaswamy wrote on social media platform X.

👉 Read full story on Sputnik India!

🇷🇺🇨🇳 The first group of Chinese tourists arrived in Russia under the agreement on visa-free travel. They were warmly welcomed at the Moscow airport.

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