How the West drags Armenia to its side amid NATO proxy war in Ukraine

The Armenian Defense Ministry announced on Wednesday that joint military exercises with US "Eagle Partner 2023" will be held in Armenia from September 11-20. The drills cause concerns in Moscow as they come amid Washington's proxy war against Russia in Ukraine.

Last Friday, Yerevan signaled readiness to continue cooperation with NATO within the Individual Partnership Action Plan, while the next day Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan gave an interview to Italian outlet La Repubblica claiming Russia's peacekeeping mission in Nagorno-Karabakh "failed," and that Russia is "leaving" the South Caucasus.

What's behind mixed messages coming from Yerevan?

Check out Sputnik's article to find out

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Lockheed Martin will once again delay its delivery of the latest upgraded versions of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter to the US armed forces because of continued problems in the software needed to fire its weapons

"We have updated our F-35 TR-3 schedule projections with a first TR-3 aircraft delivery between April and June 2024. As a result, we now expect to deliver 97 aircraft in 2023, all in the TR-2 configuration," Lockheed said.

Delivery of the long-delayed and problem-plagued TR-3 version of the aircraft was previously due to start this December, but the software still has to be validated in testing, the company said.

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📹 The Russian Federal Security Service prevents terrorist attacks ahead of elections in DPR by Ukrainian saboteurs

Employees of the Russian Federal Security Service have found a weapons cache in the city of Dokuchaievsk, which was planned to be used to carry out terrorist attacks by Ukrainian saboteurs ahead of the elections in the region for September 8-10, FSB has told Sputnik.

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Two people were killed while trying to enter the French military base in Chad after the incident with the death of a soldier, a local informed source told Sputnik

On Wednesday night, residents of Faya-Largeau gathered to hold protests and attempted to infiltrate a French military base after the local soldier died at the hands of a French doctor. Immediately after the incident, most of the French military base was evacuated by plane to the Chadian capital of N'Djamena.

Chadian political scientist Evariste Ngarlem Tolde told Sputnik on Wednesday that members of the Chadian parliament had demanded the withdrawal of French military forces from the country after the death of a local resident in care of a French doctor in Faya-Largeau. He added that the protests could spread across the country.

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📹 Footage shows the exact moment when the drone came crashing down in the center of the city.

A state of emergency has been introduced in the area where the drone crashed in Russia’s Rostov-on-Don, the regional governor there reported.

🗣 The potential for conflict among nuclear powers could escalate into an open military confrontation in the Asia-Pacific region, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov cautioned 

The senior diplomat added that the open military pressure on Russia is dangerously teetering on the brink of an armed conflict between global nuclear powers.

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The Ukrainian army attacked the city of Energodar, near the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, with drones, the regional administration told reporters.

"The Kiev regime's militants used unmanned aerial vehicles to strike Energodar. No casualties were reported. The information is being verified," the Zaporozhye region administration said.

Police and emergency services are currently working at the scene.

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Russian troops inflicted a heavy blow on the units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces that were rotating near villages of Verbove and Rabotino, according to Yevgeny Balitsky, the acting governor of the Zaporozhye region

He said the enemy's losses amounted to up to 100 people.

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🥴 Burger diplomacy goes awry in Kiev: Ukraine's FM Kuleba, a self-styled vitamin buff, makes US Secretary of State Blinken cringe with his McDonalds hangover tales

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Donald Trump believes that Russia would not have launched the special military op in Ukraine if the US had not "rigged elections", that is, if Democrat Joe Biden had not come to power in 2021

💬 "I’ll tell you this. Ukraine is so sad. Every time I turn it on, that was a war that I knew it was the apple of Putin’s eye. He would have never done it if the election weren’t rigged, our election. It was rigged and stolen. If that election wasn’t rigged, if I were president, you would right now have millions of people living that are dead," Trump said.

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💬 "What is it: lies or silliness?"

The White House's claims that depleted uranium ammunition is not radioactive are nonsense, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said

The rate of cancer diagnoses increases in places where depleted uranium ammunition was used, she recalled. This was experienced by Italian soldiers who took part in the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, Zakharova added.

On Wednesday, US National Security Council Strategic Communications Coordinator John Kirby said that depleted uranium rounds were neither radioactive nor carcinogenic.

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The US military scrapped a test of what was meant to be the army's first hypersonic long-range missile in its arsenal

The Pentagon did not specify the reasons for the cancellation.

The Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon has a reported range of over 1,725 miles and travels at roughly five times the speed of sound.

The Western media pointed out that this decision raises concerns whether the US will be able to compete in hypersonic warfare with Russia and China. Hypersonic LRMs have the ability to surmount traditional air defenses and can be armed with nuclear warheads.

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🗣 Putin's speech at the G20 summit via video link is not planned, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said

📌 The summit will be held in India next weekend. The Russian delegation will be headed by Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov.

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In this fresh episode of our New Rules podcast, we are joined by Scott Ritter, former US Marine intel officer and UN weapons inspector.

🗣️ He covers the topic of the Ukrainian counteroffensive. Has it finally reached a breakthrough or is it just another bust?

Find out in the new episode of our show! You really don't want to miss it

🔊 Tune in to Radio Sputnik at 6am EST|3am PST|12pm CET|10am GMT via the website or app!

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

💬 “This will not be taken for granted”

The Kremlin reacted very negatively to Antony Blinken's statement about using confiscated Russian assets for the needs of Ukraine, promising further litigation.

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'We know where the enemy is'

📹 Russia's motorized rifle unit’s spotters and grenade throwers in action at the frontline

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🇳🇪 The United States is considering the option of physically eliminating the "putsch leaders" who came to power in Niger, according to the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service.

Representatives of the American intelligence services are directly discussing potential perpetrators of possible assassination attempts with partners, the service said.

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📹 Russia's Federal Security Service has arrested smugglers who supplied spare parts for military aviation to Europe

The criminal group acquired components of combat aircraft in Russia for their illegal export, including for the needs of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

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The US is reportedly going to send another batch of cluster munitions to Ukraine in the near future to support Kiev's counteroffensive attempt

Washington has not specified how many cluster munitions were included in the first batch, out of the hundreds of thousands that the Pentagon has at its disposal, according to a US news outlet.

US officials said that Ukrainian forces fire about 8,000 artillery rounds per day, including hundreds of cluster shells. The newspaper reported that Kiev's requests for ammunition are expected to rise as many units now increasingly rely on heavy artillery to prepare for infantry advances rather than NATO-style combined arms combat, which is difficult for the Ukrainian army to master.

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The Russian MoD's latest statements on the Ukraine crisis:

▪️ The Russian Armed Forces have repelled 14 Ukrainian attacks in the Zaporozhye region. The enemy's losses included up to 110 Ukrainian servicemen, 2 tanks, 4 infantry fighting vehicles, 2 armored fighting vehicles, 3 motor vehicles, an M109 Paladin self-propelled artillery system, and 1 US-manufactured M777 artillery system. They also lost a Gvozdika self-propelled artillery system, a UK-manufactured FH-70, an Msta-B, D-30 howitzers, and one Bukovel-AD electronic warfare station for detecting UAVs and blocking their control and navigation channels.

▪️ The Russian Armed Forces have successfully repelled 9 attacks by enemy assault groups in the DPR. The enemy's losses amounted to over 320 Ukrainian servicemen killed and wounded, 1 tank, 2 infantry fighting vehicles, 12 motor vehicles, Polish-manufactured Krab and Gvozdika self-propelled artillery systems, 2 D-30 howitzers, and 1 D-20 gun.

▪️ The Russian Armed Forces have repelled one attack by enemy assault groups in the LPR. The enemy losses were up to 60 Ukrainian personnel, 2 armored fighting vehicles, and 3 pickup trucks.

▪️ The Russian Armed Forces have inflicted one fire defeat on Ukrainian units in South Donetsk. The enemy's losses were up to 180 Ukrainian servicemen, 2 armored fighting vehicles, 5 motor vehicles, 1 Polish-manufactured Krab self-propelled artillery system, 2 D-30 howitzers, and 1 Giatsint-B gun.

▪️ The enemy's losses in the Kherson region were up to 25 Ukrainian servicemen, 2 motor vehicles, and 2 US-manufactured M777 artillery systems.

▪️ One S-300ps SAM system has been destroyed in the Zaporozhye region.

▪️ Air defense facilities have intercepted 11 HIMARS multiple-launch rocket systems, as well as one JDAM guided aerial bomb.

▪️ Some 467 airplanes; 248 helicopters; 6,467 unmanned aerial vehicles; 436 air defense missile systems; 11,711 tanks and other armored fighting vehicles; 1,148 fighting vehicles equipped with MLRS; 6,274 field artillery cannons and mortars, as well as 12,776 special military motor vehicles have been destroyed during the special military operation.

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US intelligence acknowledged that Washington had underestimated Russia's forces ahead of the Ukrainian counteroffensive, a UK newspaper reported, citing Pentagon intelligence analyst Trent Maul

He stated that most of the Russian fortifications are still unscathed.

One Biden administration official says that Ukraine has around six to seven weeks of combat left before its offensive culminates. There are private disagreements over how much progress can be made in that time, the newspaper wrote.

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