🇷🇺🪖 Latest statements from the Russian Defense Ministry’s daily briefing on the progress of the special military operation in Ukraine:

▪️Units of the Sever Battlegroup repelled eight counterattacks by Ukrainian troops in the Kharkov region. Ukrainian losses amounted to 305 soldiers;

▪️ Units of the Zapad Battlegroup improved the situation along the front line, the losses of the Ukrainian Armed Forces per day amounted to 450 soldiers;

▪️ Units of the Yug Battlegroup improved the situation along the front line and repelled the counterattack, the Ukrainian Armed Forces lost up to 635 soldiers and seven ammunition depots;

▪️Ukrainian troops lost up to 345 soldiers in one day in the area of responsibility of the units of the Yug Battlegroup;

▪️Russian air defenses shot down 33 Ukrainian drones in one day, as well as four Vampire and HIMARS missiles.

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❗️The UK, following the US, imposed sanctions against the Moscow Exchange, the National Clearing Center and the National Settlement Depository.

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Americans oppressed by Biden regime — Trump’s former adviser

"We're being suppressed by an illegitimate regime that usurped power here, and that's what we have to break. And look, I don't need to tell you they're on you every day, as you know. They're on everybody that stands up," said Steve Bannon, former Trump adviser.

Steve Bannon, former White House chief strategist under Trump, will be jailed on July 1, convicted of contempt of Congress in 2022 after failing to provide documents and testimony to the House Select Committee that investigated the January 6, 2021, US Capitol riot.

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❗️If NATO launches a mission in Ukraine, alliance troops will be there sooner or later, at least as peacekeepers, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's office said.

If NATO troops are attacked on Ukrainian territory, Hungary is not obliged to participate in Article 5 response actions, Orban's office declared.

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💀💀How many people does it take to explain directions to Joe Biden?

At least 5: Emmanuel Macron, Fumio Kishida, Georgia Meloni, Rishi Sunak, Ursula von der Leyen.

The first goal of the G7 summit - not to let Biden get lost or fall down - has been achieved.

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❗️If someone [Nikol Pashinyan] decided to distract attention from internal problems with the image of an external enemy, then this is a very short-sighted position, the Belarusian Foreign Ministry commented on the situation in Armenia and Pashinyan's statements.

Minsk also noted that it does not intend to worsen relations with Yerevan, no matter how much the Armenian leadership is pushed by external players.

At the same time, the Belarusian ambassador to Yerevan will leave for Minsk in the near future (Armenia previously recalled its ambassador to Belarus).

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PKZ machine gun: What you need to know about the new Russian chatterbox

Designers from the Russian city of Perm have developed the PKZ, a new compact machine gun for assault units who have to fight in constrained conditions.

🔸 The 7.62mm PKZ is based on the renowned Kalashnikov machine gun (RPK), according to the Perm-based design bureau Labi.

🔸 The PKZ will be of help to soldiers during attacks on сlosed premises and field strongholds, where using light and portable machine guns is of paramount importance.

🔸 Additionally, the PKZ will be needed to protect convoys.

🔸 The 85-centimeter-long PKZ weighs about 7 kg, 1.5 kg less than the RPK. The new machine gun’s effective range is about 1,200 meters (0,74 miles).

🔸 The PKZ is currently going through field tests and is expected to be delivered to the special military operation zone in the next three months, Labi Chief Designer Andrey Malkov told reporters.

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Hezbollah attacked 15 military sites in northern Israel today, including several unit headquarters, according to Al Jazeera.

The large-scale strike is meant to “deter” Israel following the assassination of senior Hezbollah commander Talib Abdullah earlier this week.

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📹 Vladimir Putin inspected the NICA Collider at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in the city of Dubna, Moscow region.

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G7 summit: doomed before it began?

Even before the G7 summit began, some media reports are calling it a failure.

According to Politico, low approval ratings, economic crises, and weak performances in local and European elections - each of the G7 leaders has plenty of pressing issues to deal with:

▪️French President Emmanuel Macron, in an effort to regain popularity, has called for snap elections after Marine Le Pen's National Rally outperformed his party in the European Parliament elections with 31-32 percent of the vote compared to 15 percent for the president's Renaissance.

▪️German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has been "humiliated" by the victory of right-wing parties in the European Parliament elections and could soon be "toppled" - the Eurosceptic Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is set to secure the second largest share of the EU vote, over 16%, in its best ever showing.

▪️British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, facing a historic defeat for his conservative party, called for snap elections in a desperate attempt to reverse his position. Some pundits, however, believe that Sunak may have to say goodbye to the premiership and that the Conservatives will most likely lose their status as a "governing party.

▪️Justin Trudeau, who has been Prime Minister of Canada for nine years, announced his intention to step down after the Conservative Party opened up a double-digit lead in the polls over his Liberal Party less than a year and a half before the next federal election.

▪️Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has been challenged by unprecedentedly low ratings ahead of upcoming elections.

▪️US President Joe Biden has reached his lowest approval rating of 36% just five months before the US general election, according to Reuters poll. Moreover, Biden is rapidly facing pressure from his fellow Democrats amid the Israeli offensive operation on the city of Rafah, which has also caused massive waves of protests against Israeli aggression across the US.

▪️ Italy's Prime Minister Georgia Meloni appears to be the only strong figure at the summit, says Politico, after her right-wing Brothers of Italy party strengthened its position over the past two years. Italy has also played a key role in negotiations between European and US officials over a G7 plan to use frozen Russian assets to provide a loan to Ukraine. But beset by domestic concerns, leaders are unlikely to find common ground on the issue.

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Israeli soldier shoots a flaming arrow over the border wall with Lebanon. Earlier, a viral video showed Israeli troops launching flaming projectiles into Lebanon.

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The silence of international institutions regarding Kiev's terrorist attacks means complicity in these crimes, said Russian FM spokeswoman Maria Zakharova commenting on Ukraine's attack against Russian journalists in the village of Golmovskiy in the Donetsk People's Republic.

“The blood of Russian journalists is not only on the hands of the Ukrainian Armed Forces militants, but also on the conscience of international officials in Vienna, Geneva, Paris and New York. I hope that at least now at the briefing of the representative of the UN Secretary General, Mr. Dujarric, this topic will not be left without comment, and they will find the strength to say who inflicted the blows and condemn them," she said.

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Could the petrodollar's end make the US economy scream?

The Saudi Central Bank has joined the Bank for International Settlements’ (BIS) cross-border central bank digital currency (CBDC) project, mBridge, which is seen as a step towards reducing global oil trade in US dollars.

The "petrodollar agreement" concluded between the US and Saudi Arabia in 1974, in which Saudi Arabia agreed to sell oil exclusively in US dollars, is said to have expired on June 9 this year. Neither Washington nor Riyadh has commented on the matter so far.

▪️"Petrodollars" are revenues paid to an oil-exporting country denominated in US dollars.

▪️The "petrodollar" agreement was struck by the US and Saudi Arabia following the OPEC oil embargo of 1973-1974 over US military aid to Israel.

▪️Earlier, in 1971, the US ended dollar convertibility to gold, turning the dollar-gold fixed Bretton Woods system into a fiat and more volatile one.

▪️The US and Saudi Arabia struck a major cooperation deal on June 9, 1974. Under the special agreement, Riyadh was allowed to buy US treasuries before they were auctioned. In return, Saudi Arabia agreed to sell its oil in dollars, investing its revenues into US debt and enlarging the dollar's liquidity.

▪️Saudi Arabia also convinced other OPEC oil producers to sell their crude in US dollars. Thus, the dollar became "pegged" to oil instead of gold.

▪️Nearly 80 percent of global oil sales are priced in dollars. However, Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, China, and others are increasingly shifting to local currencies in energy trade. In 2023, 20 percent of global oil was bought in other currencies, as per the Wall Street Journal.

▪️If world players significantly reduce the use of US dollars, the US' ability to issue dollar debt and earn dollars for exports will diminish and the nation's economy will shrink, according to international economists.

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Sputnik Afghanistan journalist Khaibar Akifi has returned to work after being injured when a Ukrainian drone crashed in the Belgorod region last year

Akifi, who has Russian citizenship, and his wife Olesya were seriously injured on the night of October 12, 2023, as a result of a Ukrainian drone falling on a house on the outskirts of Belgorod, where the journalist’s family was located; their four-year-old daughter Amina and the wife’s parents were killed in the fire.

It was reported that the journalist had burns on 15% of his body, severe mine explosion trauma, broken ribs, pelvic damage and brain contusion. Akifi was treated at the Vishnevsky National Medical Research Center for Surgery in Moscow. In early February, Minister of Health Mikhail Murashko told Sputnik that the journalist’s life was no longer in danger.

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