☢️ Ukraine's imports of spent nuclear fuel* is overseen by Volodymyr Zelensky's office head Andrei Yermak and sponsored by the Soros Foundation — Russian MoD

☢️ The Ukrainian Armed Forces have used chloropicrin many times near Donetsk, Bogdanovka, Gorlovka, Kremennaya and Artemovsk, head of the Russian Chemical Defense Forces, Igor Kirillov, has said.

In total, the ministry has recorded more than 400 cases of Ukraine's use of non-lethal toxic chemicals.

Other statements by the military department:

🔳 The United States and Germany, together with Ukraine and the technical secretariat of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, are preparing to launch a special mission to investigate the facts of the use of chemical weapons in Ukraine. Their goal is to bring charges against Russia based on fabricated evidence;

🔳 The Americans have already allocated about $400,000 for the creation of such fakes;

🔳 Ukraine continues to import spent nuclear fuel via Poland and Romania, turning it into a dumping ground for highly hazardous waste;

🔳 Ukrainian assault groups are equipped with grenades with US-made C.S. substance, homemade chemical munitions;

🔳 The Ukrainian military use analogs of the poisonous substance "Tabun" against Russian politicians in the liberated territories;

🔳 Ukraine attacked Russian Armed Forces positions in Graivoron district of Belgorod region in June with a drone carrying a munition containing toxic hydrocyanic acid;

🔳 A Ukrainian chemical laboratory, presumably for the production of poisonous substances, was found in one of the neighborhoods of Avdeevka;

🔳 A number of Western publications expressed concern over Ukraine's creation of a "dirty bomb" using radiochemicals;

🔳 The import of spent nuclear fuel to Ukraine is supervised by Andrei Yermak, head of Zelensky's office, and sponsored by the Soros Foundation.

*Spent nuclear fuel is fuel that which has been withdrawn from a nuclear reactor following irradiation

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Meet Russian ‘bunker buster’ bombs that can obliterate the hardest of targets

New Russian Su-30SM2 multirole fighter aircraft have recently been caught on video deploying bunker buster bombs in the Ukrainian conflict zone.

Compared to its predecessor Su-30SM, the new Su-30SM2 features more advanced weaponry and radar systems, which effectively allows the aircraft to detect and engage targets at twice the distance of its predecessor.

While it is not immediately clear exactly what bunker buster bomb was deployed by the Su-30SM2s, Russia's arsenal currently includes several kinds of this type of munition.

▪️BetAB-500 is a 500-kilogram concrete-piercing bomb that can penetrate reinforced concrete up to 1 meter thick covered by a layer of up to 3 meters of ground.

▪️BetAB-500ShP is essentially a modification of the BETAB-500. This bomb is equipped with a parachute that helps stabilize the munition after launch as it glides in a position to attack. Once there, a rocket engine inside the bomb’s hull ignites and propels the munition towards its intended target.

▪️RBK-500U BetAB-M is a cluster concrete-piercing bomb. Each such munition contains 10 concrete-piercing submunitions equipped with the same parachute-rocket engine combination as the BetAB-500Shp.

▪️Concrete-piercing bombs are usually employed to destroy bunkers and structures made of reinforced concrete such as hardened aircraft shelters, runways, dams and bridges.

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French people on both sides of political spectrum ‘deeply dissatisfied with Macron's presidency’

The situation in France - where unrest was sparked by the results of the recent election - highlights the fact that “no one is happy (...) except a small minority of privileged people,” says Emmanuel Leroy, president of the Institut 1717 think tank and former adviser to Marine Le Pen.

“Both the French who call themselves left-wing and those who call themselves right-wing are deeply dissatisfied with Mr. Macron's presidency,” Leroy explains.

The three main political powers in France – the left-wing coalition led by Jean-Luc Melenchon, the right-wing National Rally and Macron’s central-right Renaissance party – now find themselves at an impasse as each of them now has comparable clout but is reluctant to form an alliance with one another, Leroy notes.

“How will this unfold in the coming weeks and months? This is the great unknown today,” he muses. “At the moment, no one can speak of a prime minister, since no head is emerging in the camp of the majority or the left. And in any case, the situation will be extremely difficult to maintain.”

“It is possible that Mr. Macron will bet on a technical government that is as less politicized as possible, in order to have a kind of general consensus for at least a year and at the end of this year, to make sure that he can dissolve the National Assembly again and make the country go back to the polls for new legislative elections,” he adds. “Let's hope that this time, a majority can get out of it.”

Leroy also argues that whatever violent protests broke out in the wake of the election “are the work of small groups of political agitators, often in connivance with the government in place and who are intended to create an atmosphere of unease, an atmosphere of chaos.”

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❗️Destroyed HIMARS launchers were used by the Ukrainian military to strike Sevastopol on June 23, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported.

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🇷🇺🇮🇳 All-weather friends Russia and India continue to deepen cooperation

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold talks on July 9 within the framework of Modi's two-day visit to Russia. The last time Putin welcomed Modi in Russia was in 2019, while in September 2022 the two leaders met at a Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Uzbekistan. They have met 16 times since Modi assumed office.

How have Russo-India relations evolved?

▪️Despite the West calling upon India to join anti-Russia sanctions, trade turnover between the two leaped in 2023, reaching a record $65 billion and increasing 1.8 times compared to 2022. Russian exports reached $60.9 billion (+79.1 percent), supplies of Indian goods increased to $4.1 billion (+41.4 percent).

▪️Russia is India's fourth-largest trading partner after the US, China and the UAE. Russia is India's second largest partner in terms of volume of imported products (after China).

▪️India's crude oil imports from Russia have risen to 1.97 million barrels per day (mbpd) in June and constitute roughly 40 percent of the country's oil imports. It's the biggest buyer of Russia's seaborne crude despite the West's shipping sanctions against Moscow.

▪️India and Russia cooperate closely in a vast variety of international platforms, including the UN, G20, BRICS and SCO. India's presidency of the G20 and SCO in 2023 saw increased communications between the countries' officials.

▪️The two countries are continuing to enhance defense cooperation under the Agreement on the Program for Military Technical Cooperation for 2021-2031. Russia is India's largest arms supplier.

▪️Ahead of his July 8-9 visit to Russia, Modi hailed the "special and privileged strategic partnership between India and Russia," in an official statement.

▪️"Modi’s Russia visit showcases the importance of India-Russia ties for India, especially in energy and defense," as per the Indian press.

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The Baikal-Amur Mainline: Russia’s window to Asia that helped shape the country’s economy

Fifty years ago in July 1974, the Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM) railway was kicked off by the Soviet government as “the project of the century.”

It was not just hefty rhetoric: indeed, most of the 4,287 kilometers (about 2,500 miles) of railroad was built on permafrost. It runs through 21 tunnels (the longest one is 15,343 meters) and over 2,230 big and small bridges, including over the Amur River.

Now Russia’s “turn to the East,” made necessary by Western sanctions, has granted the BAM a new life, connecting Siberia to Asian markets. Key facts on the BAM:

▪️In 2023, BAM and its sister railroad, the Trans-Siberian railway (Transsib), two main lifelines connecting European Russia via Siberia, had the capacity of 173 million tons a year.

▪️In 2024, the transit capacity of BAM alone rose to 42 million tons a year. That is 300% of its capacity in 2012 (14 million tons), when Russia’s biggest trade partner was the EU, not China;

▪️By 2025, the transit capacity of BAM and Transsib will reach 210 million tons and by 2035 – 270 million tons. That will make the capacity of Russia’s Asian trade corridors exceed the capacity of its traditional European trade routes.

▪️Thanks to BAM, Russia developed new oilfields, as well as huge deposits of natural gas, copper, gold and other metals. The proximity of these natural resources to China and other Asian consumers allowed Moscow to cover the costs of BAM’s construction back in the 2000s.

▪️The railroad creates jobs for new arrivals from European Russia, who are invited to tap the natural resources of Siberia and Far East for high salaries, now offered not only by the state, but by dozens of private investors.

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From zero to "hero" in five weeks: Why NATO training doesn't help Ukrainians

Over 40,000 Ukrainian troops have completed training as part of the UK-led Operation Interflex, Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said during a press conference with his British counterpart John Healy in Odessa on July 7.

What's wrong with the much-touted NATO training of Ukrainian troops and can it prove effective?

▪️Operation Interflex, launched in June 2022, was designed to train ordinary Ukrainian men and women with little to no previous military experience "to survive and be effective in frontline combat," as per the UK government's website.

▪️Interflex's course is delivered over five weeks and includes "weapons handling, battlefield first aid, Law of Armed Conflict training, patrol tactics and rural environment training."

▪️Retired US Army Major General Paul E. Vallely and ex-Pentagon analyst Michael Maloof explained to Sputnik that it's virtually impossible to turn a Ukrainian soldier from zero to hero in five weeks or so.

▪️The training Ukrainian troops receive in different NATO countries also lacks uniformity which complicates combat coordination, CIA veteran Larry Johnson told Sputnik.

▪️Battlefield assessment by Germany’s Bundeswehr leaked during Kiev's botched counteroffensive in July 2023 said the Ukrainian military was failing to implement NATO training.

▪️Ukrainian soldiers slammed NATO training for being "rigid", "ineffective", and taken from manuals that were at odds with the realities on the ground in Ukraine.

▪️Politico reported in September 2023 that Ukrainian soldiers' training was based on NATO counterinsurgency warfare in Afghanistan and Iraq.

▪️Jack Watling of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) wrote in July 2023 that NATO troops and instructors appear unprepared for conventional warfare. Much of the training provided has been poorly designed and complicated by "bureaucratic constraints," as per the British analyst.

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Israel will take ‘decades’ to recover, Hezbollah claimed

“Israeli society is collapsing” due to Hezbollah’s pro-Palestinian operations and the country won’t recover for “the next few decades," a senior Lebanese politician has insisted.

Hezbollah’s operations were designed to protect Lebanon’s “national dignity and territorial integrity”, Mohammad Raad, head of Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc, told the Lebanese parliament.

“Even though such confrontation requires great patience and persistence as well as hefty costs, it is worth it as the enemy’s aggression leads to massive destruction and brutal occupation,” the politician added.

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🇷🇺🇮🇳 Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi meet over tea at Putin's residence in Novo-Ogarevo.

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🇷🇺🇮🇳 Vladimir Putin and Narendra Modi drive an electric car in Novo-Ogarevo

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🇷🇺🇮🇳 Narendra Modi thanked Vladimir Putin for the meeting in Novo-Ogarevo and published a photo with the Russian president on social network X.

The Indian prime minister expressed confidence that his talks with Putin on Tuesday will further strengthen friendship between India and Russia.

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There will be several big announcements about aid for Ukraine at the NATO summit, according to the White House.

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▪️Statements by representatives of the Kiev regime about an allegedly intentional missile strike by Russia on civilian targets are absolutely untrue

▪️All-weather friends Russia and India continue to deepen cooperation

▪️French people on both sides of political spectrum ‘deeply dissatisfied with Macron's presidency’

▪️The Russian Defense Ministry has published evidence of Ukrainian biolabs producing toxic substances

▪️The Baikal-Amur Mainline: Russia’s window to Asia that helped shape the country’s economy

▪️From zero to "hero" in five weeks: Why NATO training doesn't help Ukrainians

▪️Meet Russian ‘bunker buster’ bombs that can obliterate the hardest of targets

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🇷🇺🇮🇳 During an informal meeting in Novo-Ogarevo, Putin and Modi visited a stable where they were given a performance.

After the performance, the leaders fed the horses in the stables. Putin treated a horse named Glintvein with carrots.

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