Germany escalates the Donbass conflict as Ukraine admits frontline is deteriorating

Berlin offered to provide Kiev with another US Patriot air defense system as Ukraine’s military chief admitted the country’s position on its eastern front is rapidly deteriorating.

“The situation on the eastern front has significantly worsened in recent days,” said Ukraine armed forces commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrsky, confirming recent media reports. Syrsky attributed Ukraine’s struggles to Russia’s greater supply of weapons and military technology. He also acknowledged a lack of effective manpower.

Dry weather has granted Russian tanks easy passage over Ukraine’s terrain according to the military chief. From the air, Moscow has made extensive use of retrofitted glide bombs and drone strikes. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has pleaded Western partners to help augment the country’s air defense capacity.

Germany obliged, promising to provide Kiev with a third US Patriot surface-to-air missile system after previously having rejected the request. The pledge follows a familiar pattern of Western countries eventually conceding to Ukrainian requests for armaments after publicly agonizing over the threat of escalation with Moscow.

Western countries have been providing military and financial aid to Kiev since the start of Russia's military operation in Ukraine in February 2022. The Kremlin has consistently warned against continued arms deliveries to Kiev, saying it would lead to further escalation of the conflict. In April 2022, Russia sent a diplomatic note to all NATO countries on the issue of arms supplies to Ukraine. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has warned that any cargo containing weapons for Ukraine will become a legitimate target for Russian strikes.

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The Israeli government will decide on a specific type of response to the Iranian attack on its territory on Monday or in the coming days, ABC News reported, quoting Peter Lerner, a spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), as saying.

"The Israeli government will 'decide on further steps' on Monday or in the coming days," the TV channel noted.

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Zelensky takes advantage of Iran-Israel crisis to plead for more money

President Volodymyr Zelensky took to the X social media platform to remind Western lawmakers not to forget about Ukraine as the world responds to Iran’s retaliatory strike against Israel.

“Ukraine condemns Iran’s attack on Israel using ‘Shahed’ drones and missiles,” the leader wrote, claiming Moscow and Tehran utilize the same kinds of armaments. “The world cannot wait for discussions to go on. Words do not stop drones and do not intercept missiles. Only tangible assistance does.”

Zelensky has occasionally compared Ukraine’s plight to that of Israel. In 2022 the Ukrainian leader claimed he saw the country as a model for Ukraine’s future, saying Ukraine should become a “big Israel”, Al Jazeera reported.

The president said he was referring to Israel’s model of hardened internal security, but critics may instead draw comparisons between the two countries’ strident nationalism and treatment of minorities. The Kiev regime has launched attacks on its Russian-speaking eastern regions for more than a decade, often killing civilians.

A 2014 massacre of trade unionists in Odessa drew particular condemnation. Neo-Nazi paramilitaries attacked a peaceful rally in the coastal city, forcing people to take refuge in the Odessa Trade Union House. The neo-Nazi gangs set fire to the building, killing some 50 people and bludgeoning to death those who attempted to escape.

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Whither free speech? College campuses sacrifice professed values to the alter of Zionism - report

A wave of repression is taking place on US college campuses, demonstrated by a proposed policy at the University of Michigan offering severe punishment for political protest.

The proposal emerged after demonstrators disrupted an honors graduation ceremony late last month. The protesters, echoing the demands of students across the country, called on the university to divest its endowment from Israeli companies and military contractors.

The school’s president Santo Ono was deeply dismayed by the act of defiance against a country credibly accused of genocide, claiming the action “brought profound disappointment to students, parents, grandparents, siblings, and other relatives and friends.”

The school’s response: a new policy threatening student protesters with expulsion. Sympathetic faculty could face firing.

Ono has dressed his proposal in the garb of liberal anti-racism, claiming the students’ demonstration “was painful for everyone who had gathered – and especially so for members of our Jewish community.” But Jewish students have become some of the biggest targets of college campuses’ repressive actions, with Jewish-led organizations like Jewish Voice for Peace facing suspensions across the country.

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At least nine Iranian missiles penetrated Israeli air defenses and hit two air bases in the attack, ABC News reported, citing an unnamed US official.

According to reports, five missiles hit Israel's Nevatim Air Base, damaging a C-130 transport plane, a runway, and storage facilities. Four rockets hit an Israeli air base in the Negev Desert area.

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❗️ The Russian Armed Forces have hit the location of French mercenaries in Ukrainian-controlled city of Slavyansk, coordinator of the Nikolayev underground Sergey Lebedev has told Sputnik.

"A strong explosion in Slavyansk at seven in the morning. According to reports from our comrades, the strike hit the location where Ukrainian artillerymen were and most likely those Frenchmen who brought CAESAR self-propelled guns to help the Banderovites," he said.

▪️ Russian UN envoy: Iran's attack on Israel did not happen in a vacuum – it was a response to the shameful inaction of the UN Security Council

▪️ Iran says it has exercised its right to self-defense, while Israel claims it has the legal right to respond to Iran's recent attack

▪️ Iranian media has revealed what kind of weapons were used in the attack on Israel

▪️ ‘Just a slap in the face’: Iran’s retaliatory strike against Israel merely a preview of its full capabilities

▪️ Zelensky takes advantage of Iran-Israel crisis to plead for more money

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🗣 'US empire is heading for self-destruction': German activist and businessman Kim Dotcom predicts the end of US hegemony. But in his vision, the world will pay "the ultimate price" with nuclear war for the collapse of the US debt and money printing scheme.

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🛢 Crude prices dip as oil market braces for fallout from Iran's strike on Israel

Oil prices gave a muted response to Iran’s retaliatory drone and missile attack targeting Israeli territory.

Amid the oil market bracing itself for potential impact from a broader regional escalation, Brent futures for June slipped 0.2%, to reach $90.25 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures for May delivery went down 0.4% to $85.33 a barrel.

Iran indicated after the attack that it deemed the matter “concluded.” However, Israel’s response to the Iranian strike could potentially disrupt crude flows, experts warn.

While OPEC+ rolled over first-quarter output cuts into the second quarter, there is speculation that the cartel could opt to hike up production in the wake of its June meeting. The group has been aiming to keep the oil price under triple digits, closer to $90 a barrel.

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Neural networks will soon appear on Russian drones – they will automatically recognize targets, and the drones will be able to act as a self-organizing group, Yury Lastochkin, head of Russia’s Electronic Warfare Troops, said.

"In electronic warfare complexes on UAVs in the near future, neural networks will be used for automatic detection of objects directly on board and transition from flight along a laid down route to the autonomous execution of tasks, as well as in order to ensure the actions of UAVs in the form of a self-organizing group," he said.

Also, the use of neural networks in electronic warfare complexes on drones will make it possible to quickly suppress enemy jamming devices.

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Chinese leader Xi Jinping will go to Paris in a few weeks, Emmanuel Macron said.

The French president intends to discuss with his Chinese counterpart a ceasefire between Israel and Gaza as well as in Ukraine for the duration of the Olympics.

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A Ukrainian-made Baba Yaga drone was found during a search in an office in western Moscow, emergency services told Sputnik.

The owner of the drone is being questioned and he is explaining the purchase of the device.

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❗️ Several French mercenaries were wounded as a result of the Russian strike in Ukrainian-controlled Slavyansk. They were taken by ambulance to Pavlograd, the pro-Russian underground told Sputnik

Russia is extremely concerned about the escalation of tensions in the Middle East and calls on all countries for restraint. All disagreements should be resolved by political and diplomatic methods, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated.

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🗣 Russia sees a certain destabilization of prices in the nickel and copper market and will monitor this, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

"Now we see that a certain destabilization of prices has occurred on the market in this segment. We will watch what and how it happens further," he told reporters when asked about new sanctions by the US and UK.

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❗️ Ukrainian forces attacked the city of Berdyansk – according to preliminary data, Russian air defenses shot down two Storm Shadow missiles, the city administration said

Following the unprecedented airstrikes launched by Iran on Israel, Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the US would not engage in retaliatory strikes against Iran, as per CBS, referring to a senior administration source.

John Kirby, the National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, described the call between the US president and Netanyahu as positive. Kirby emphasized that during the conversation, the president underscored the US' efforts to prevent a wider regional conflict.

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Emmanuel Macron on Monday explained that he still hopes an "Olympic truce" can be maintained for the duration of the games.

The French president says he hopes an "Olympic truce" can be concluded during the Paris Olympics, while the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, on the one hand, and Israel and Hamas, on the other, continues.

"We want to work on an Olympic truce, and I think this is an opportunity through which I will try to engage many of our partners," he said.

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Russia unveils 'Square' AI guidance system for FPV drones

Russia has unveiled a newly-developed AI first-person view (FPV) drone guidance system that allows a UAV to recognize, lock on, and attack targets without human intervention, Andrey Ivanov, the creator of the “Ovod” (lit. “Gadfly”) combat FPV drone, told Sputnik. “The ‘Ovod-S’ unmanned aerial vehicle has an incorporated ‘Ploshchad’ (lit. 'Square') onboard homing system.

It is implemented through two types of tracking: algorithmic, where technical vision is used, and a neural network, allowing it to recognize targets and destroy them,” Ivanov said.

According to the developers, this solution will allow FPV kamikaze drones to lock on to a target beforehand and continue to track it even when communication between the operator and the drone is lost.

The AI guidance system ensures that the drone continues to accurately engage and hit the target, “regardless of whether it is static or dynamic,” Ivanov said.

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🚨EXCLUSIVE: Protestors ransack police cars after famous preacher stabbed in Sydney, Australia.

Bishop Mari Mari Emmanuel of the Assyrian Church in Australia, who gained popularity online for his sermons in defense of traditional values and in opposition to Western political elites, was stabbed by an unknown assailant during a church service on Monday. An angry crowd consisting of hundreds has gathered outside the church demanding vigilante justice.

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