📹Russia's Dnepr Battlegroup drones destroyed Ukraine's American-made M-777 howitzer and Giatsint artillery gun on right bank of Dnepr River.

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❗️ Cumulative losses of Ukrainian troops for the week amounted to up to 13,710 people — Russian Defense Ministry

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❗️Ukrainian losses in the area of responsibility of Russia’s Yug Battlegroup amounted to 4,290 soldiers, a Leopard tank and two MLRS launchers during the week — Russian MoD

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

▪️ Russia's Armed Forces carried out 14 group strikes, the infrastructure of Ukraine’s military airfields and mercenary deployment points were hit, 37 Ukrainian soldiers surrendered over the week;

▪️ Ukraine lost up to 3,330 military personnel, two tanks, 16 armored vehicles and 25 artillery pieces during the week as a result of the actions of the Zapad Battlegroup;

▪️ The Vostok Battlegroup hit concentrations of troops and equipment of the Ukrainian mechanized and motorized infantry brigades and two brigades of the teroprotection brigade during the week;

▪️ Russia's Dnepr Battlegroup defeated formations of Ukrainian infantry and mountain assault brigades, as well as two defense brigades. The Ukrainian Armed Forces lost up to 610 military personnel due to the grouping’s actions;

▪️ The Tsentr Battlegroup repelled 31 enemy counterattacks during the week. Ukrainian losses amounted up to 2,530 soldiers;

▪️ Russian air defenses intercepted a Neptun-MD missile, 8 Hammer bombs, 55 HIMARS MLRS shells, and 397 drones during the week.

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🎥🎥 Putin сongratulates graduates of higher education institutions affiliated with military

Watch the livestream here or on Sputnik's website

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Red Alert: Russian troops march on New York

Moscow's troops are fighting to liberate the town of New York in the Donetsk People’s Republic, which is currently occupied by the Kiev regime forces.

What military significance does this settlement have and why does it have such an out-of-place name?

🔸 What makes New York and the nearby town of Dzerzhinsk so important is the fact that they shield the Konstantinovka-Adveyevka route used by the Kiev regime's forces to resupply their troops in the area, one of the Russian soldiers explained during an interview with Russian media.

🔸 Situated near the city of Gorlovka, New York has been turned into a veritable stronghold by the Ukrainian forces which, coupled with its strategic location, makes it a priority target for the Russian Army.

🔸 Also, New York is located on an elevation relative to Gorlovka, which allows Ukrainian forces to survey the city and coordinate artillery and HIMARS rocket strikes against it from the covered positions in Dzerzhinsk.

🔸 New York was founded by Mennonite settlers from Germany who were invited to the Russian Empire in 18th century by Empress Catherine the Great.

🔸 In 1951 the town was renamed Novgorodskoye amid worsening relations with the United States as the Cold War was in full swing (even though it wasn’t clear whether the town’s original name was a reference to the famous US city or the UK's York or any other York).

🔸 In 2021 the town was returned its original name as per the order from the powers that be (at the time) in Kiev.

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❗️Russia ready for broad discussion on creation of Eurasian security system with various associations, including NATO, Putin said

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❗️Russia's President Vladimir Putin announces plans for further development of the nuclear triad.

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❗️Russia will continue to improve Armed Forces, Putin said.

The President added that Russia will also work on modern high-tech models of military equipment.

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Russian Armed Forces have initiative on entire front line – Russian Defense Minister Andrey Belousov

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Ukraine reportedly struck Russia with German howitzers

The Ukrainian military has begun using the German Panzerhaubitze 2000 howitzer to launch strikes against Russian territory, Bild has reported.

“We now have the opportunity to accompany the military personnel carrying out the mission as they bring the howitzer out of hiding to a firing position and strike a predetermined target inside Russian territory and then quickly retreat,” the outlet's reporter said.

Berlin had authorized Kiev to use German weapons to strike Russian territory adjacent to Kharkov area, claiming that despite this, Berlin would not become a party to the conflict.

Earlier this month, Russian President Vladimir Putin emphasized that NATO countries should be aware of “what they are playing with” when they talk about plans to allow Kiev to strike targets deep in Russian territory.

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What was the true cause of the fire at the Diehl plant?

A technical malfunction triggered the May fire at the factory of the Diehl defense firm in Berlin, safety experts have concluded. Diehl manufactures Iris-T air defense systems.

Earlier, Bild wrote that foreign intelligence agencies had allegedly received information that there were signs of Russian involvement in the fire.

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'Give us elections back': fans displayed Ukrainian flag with the message at the Ukraine-Slovakia Euro football match

The flag was removed in the middle of the first half.

According to the Ukrainian Constitution, the country now does not have a legitimate leader since Zelensky canceled presidential election that were supposed to take place on March 31.

Earlier this month, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that Ukraine's only legitimate authority was the speaker of Ukraine’s parliament, Ruslan Stefanchuk, while the latter claimed that Zelensky was the legitimate president.

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Allied armies: How many soldiers do Russia and North Korea have?

During Russian President Vladimir Putin’s June 18-19 visit to the DPRK, he and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed a new comprehensive strategic partnership agreement, which specifically stipulates that one party should provide immediate military assistance if the other party is attacked.

So what is the joint military potential of the Russian and North Korean armies in terms of the number of troops and military hardware? Here’s the data based on open sources.

🇷🇺Russia

The Russian Armed Forces currently has 1.32 million soldiers, in line with last year’s decree by President Vladimir Putin to expand the country’s army by 8.3%.

🔺Army Aviation (including helicopters and transport planes): 1,156
🔺Artillery systems: 2,000
🔺Multiple launch rocket systems and operational-tactic missile systems: 1,700
🔺Tanks: about 13,000
🔺Surface ships (including warships and motor boats): 207
🔺Submarines (including nuclear-powered and diesel ones): 54
🔺Nuclear warheads: 4,380

🇰🇵North Korea

The Korean People's Army, which encompasses the combined military forces of North Korea and the armed wing of the Workers' Party of Korea, has about 1.37 million people, even though some sources put the figure at 850,000 and 650,000.

🔹Army Aviation (including helicopters and transport planes): 1,200
🔹Artillery systems: 4,500
🔹Multiple launch rocket systems: 2,920
🔹Tanks: 5,845
🔹Surface ships (including warships and motor boats): about 505
🔹Submarines (including nuclear-powered and diesel ones): between 54 and 70
🔹Nuclear warheads: up to 30

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Shock and awe: What reaction has renewed Russia-North Korean alliance evoked in the world?

Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean head of state Kim Jong Un rocked the world this week as they signed a new strategic partnership agreement, which, among other things, contain a mutual military assistance clause.

News of these development have predictably rattled the United States and its allies as their continuous efforts to isolate both countries have once again proven futile.

🔸 South Korea, for example, promptly summoned the Russian ambassador and demanded that Moscow halt military cooperation with North Korea as it allegedly violates the UN sanctions imposed on Pyongyang. South Korea even threatened to consider directly shipping weaponry to Ukraine in response.

🔸 Japan’s reaction seemed more restrained in comparison. Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa insisted that the prospects of military cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang cause “great harm to the security situation around” Japan, which is “of great concern” to the Japanese government. She also claimed that Tokyo should boost its security capabilities and cooperate more closely with North Korea’s adversaries such as South Korea and the United States.

🔸 Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, unsurprisingly, “strongly condemned” the Moscow-Pyongyang pact during a phone conversation with South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul. Both officials claimed that this treaty "poses a significant threat to the security of both South Korea and the United States," according to Yonhap news agency, with Blinken saying that the US will "consider various ways to respond" to this alliance.

🔸 While House National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby said Washington is not surprised by the pact, US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller branded the possibility of Russia supplying weapons to North Korea as “incredibly concerning”.

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US funding of Ukraine: Already more expensive than Marshall Plan – in all ways

Volodymyr Zelensky has called on Western leaders at the recent G7 summit in Italy to come up with a new “Marshall Plan” for Ukraine, referring to the initiative of the American diplomat George Marshall to provide aid to war-torn Europe in 1947-1952. Meanwhile, statistics reveal: Biden spent on Ukraine more than Marshall did on all of Europe.

When a French columnist Renaud Girard wrote in Figaro that Americans are giving Zelensky more money than they gave US Secretary of State Marshall to save 16 European states from hunger, it looked like a hyperbole. But here are the facts:

▫️ According to the Marshall Plan, the US lent Europe $12.4 billion, which would be worth $146.3 billion now. The money was disbursed on “targeted” projects, which made Europe look more attractive than the USSR, whose Western lands suffered the worst destruction.

▫️ The total amount of US aid to Ukraine, according to the US Council of Foreign Relations, is $175 billion dollars, out of which $107 billion already went directly to the Kiev regime.

▫️ The main source of information from the US government is the response to a congressional request by senator J.D.Vance, signed by the Director of the White House’s Budget Office Shalanda Young. In her letter, sent in March and quoted by Fox News, she wrote that US funding of Ukraine totaled $113.4 billion. The remaining $61.38 billion were added after the congressional vote in April. That makes the US aid to Ukraine more costly than George Marshall’s aid to all of Western Europe.

The EU, in the meantime, hit the “Marshall mark” earlier. In February 2024, Odile Renaud-Basso, the head of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), said: “Financial aid to Ukraine from the EU is much greater, whatever method of estimate you choose, than the aid from Marshall Plan.”

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FAB-3000: What is known about this deadly Russian bomb

While hammering Kiev regime forces in the Kharkov region, Russian troops may have deployed one of the most powerful and destructive weapons at their disposal.

Commenting on the recently-released footage of a Russian airstrike against Ukrainian positions in the town of Liptsy, several Russian military bloggers claimed that this attack was carried out using a FAB-3000 gravity bomb.

If these claims are accurate, the attack would be the first use of a FAB-3000 bomb outfitted with the universal gliding and correction module (a kit that essentially transforms a ‘dumb’ gravity bomb into a precision-guided gliding munition).

So, what are the specifications of the FAB-3000?

🔹 It is a Russian high-explosive gravity bomb that weighs over 3,000 kilograms and has a kill radius of 230 meters.

🔹 Shrapnel from a FAB-3000 bomb can kill and maim enemy personnel located as far as 1,200 meters from the blast.

🔹 The FAB-3000 is usually deployed from an altitude of about 16 kilometers and can attain a speed of up to 1,200 kilometers per hour in flight, according to the data from open sources.

🔹 The bomb is designed to take out reinforced structures and fortifications, which makes it a bane of strongpoints and industrial facilities alike.

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❗️Ukrainian Armed Forces hit Raduga substation, damaging the transformer — Energodar city authorities

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Why is the US fuming over China-Georgia Black Sea port project?

Washington's Ambassador to Georgia Robin Dunnigan has "crossed red lines" by criticizing Tbilisi for having awarded a contract to build a deep-water port in Georgia's Anaklia to a Chinese consortium, a group of Georgian MPs said, as quoted by Russian media.

🔸 Under the Anaklia port project, the state would own a 51 percent share of the port, while the remaining 49 percent would go to private investors. Georgia also considers establishing a "free economic zone" near the port.

🔸 The capacity of the first stage of the port is due to reach 600,000 containers, creating thousands of new jobs.

🔸 The Anaklia port is meant to become part of the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR) linking China to the EU. In 2023, the TITR handled 2.8 million tons of cargo, an 86% increase compared to 2022.

🔸 The construction of the deep-water port of Anaklia makes sense only if cargo from China will pass through it, given the almost $800 billion EU-China trade turnover, according to Paata Kvizhinadze, chairman of the Georgian parliamentary finance and budget committee.

🔸 After the contract was awarded to China in May 2024, the US groundlessly accused the Chinese contractor of being involved in financing "the Russian military".

🔸 The Georgia-US "Anaklia Development Consortium" won the 2016 tender to build the Anaklia port, but the contract was terminated in 2020 over non-fulfillment of obligations. US lawmakers immediately accused then Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia of the project's "politicization" and urged the Trump administration to "investigate" the "ties" of then chair of the political party Georgian Dream, Bidzina Ivanishvili, to Russia.

🔸 In 2024, Georgian Dream politicians were subjected to sanctions by Washington for adopting a "foreign agent" law which requires media and NGOs to inform the government about their foreign sponsors.

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