A Russian heavy multi-functional reentry marine drone, based on the autonomous boat "Vizir" is to be armed with light missiles, with up to eight launchers on one side, Mikhail Danilenko, managing director of the military-industrial holding, KMZ (Kingisepp Mashzavod), told Sputnik.

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❗️Hungarian PM Orban sent EU leaders proposals on the settlement of the Ukrainian conflict following his mission to Russia, US and Ukraine, an aide to the prime minister said.

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❗️Putin's security provided at appropriate level — Kremlin

Security of the Russian president has been strengthened in view of the escalation of tensions in the world and regardless of the assassination attempt on Trump, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated.

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🔼Trump's stocks soar after the assassination attempt, gaining more than 100% on pre-market trading.

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Despair is growing among Zelensky's circle because the West is not making clear decisions to increase support for Ukraine, according to Bild.

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Donald Trump foresaw that his potential re-election would be obstructed by all means, Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán's political director Balázs Orbán (no relation) has said.

Balázs Orbán remembered the dinner during the Hungarian prime minister’s visit to Mar-a-Lago two days before the assassination attempt. There, Trump said that everything would be done to “prevent him from returning and restoring order.”

"But it was already clear that he had such strength and pressure that he would not give his skin away cheaply. Fortunately for us, this is what happened," he said.

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West never learns from its own mistakes

Security measures at the Republican convention in Milwaukee will not change after the assassination attempt on Donald Trump, NBC News reports.

The coordinator of the US Secret Service told the channel that they have been working on organizing security for the event for 18 months.

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Did American liberals and lefties invite Trump's wannabe assassin?

The attempted assassination of Donald Trump has evoked memories of inflammatory rhetoric on the part of his political opponents, liberal donors, celebrities and the media over past years.

⚡️ Just a day before, President Joe Biden tied Trump to a US think tank's conservative outlook "Project 2025", calling it "the biggest attack on our system of government, our personal freedoms, that has ever been proposed in the history of this country."

⚡️ MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow on July 2 said Trump "has activated pro-Trump paramilitary groups… celebrating literally right-wing death squads".

⚡️ US actress Lea DeLaria on July 1 called upon Biden to assassinate Trump: "Joe, you’re a reasonable man… [Trump] is Hitler. And this is 1940. Take him the f*** out! Blow him up."

⚡️ In May, Politico compared Trump and his MAGA supporters to German Nazis.

⚡️ George Soros' son Alexander tweeted in January a controversial picture with a bullet hole in the glass and $47 which some users interpreted as a reference to Trump's potential murder (Trump could be elected as the 47th president).

⚡️ US actress Whoopi Goldberg told a popular ABC talk show "The View" in January that Trump would "disappear" dissenting Americans and journalists if he wins.

⚡️ Democrat lawmaker Stacey Plaskett on June 18, 2023, accidentally said Trump should "be shot" during an interview on MSNBC.

⚡️ A New York-based arts organization in June 2017 staged Shakespeare’s "Julius Caesar" starring a Trump look-alike main actor and showing him being stabbed by Roman senators.

⚡️ Comedian Kathy Griffin in May 2017 released a photo showing her holding a fake bloody head that resembled then-President Trump. She posted an edited version of the pic in August 2023, featuring DoJ special counsel Jack Smith's face in her place.

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❗️Russia's Zapad Battlegroup took more advantageous positions and repelled four counterattacks, with enemy losses amounting to up to 585 militants.

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

▪️ Russia's Sever Battlegroup inflicted damage on four Ukrainian brigades and repelled one attack, with enemy losses amounting to up to 200 militants and three tanks

▪️ The Ukrainians lost up to 540 militants and two Humvee armored vehicles in the area of responsibility of Russia's Yug Battlegroup

▪️ Russia's Tsentr Battlegroup improved its tactical position, inflicted damage on six Ukrainian brigades, with enemy losses amounting to up to 340 militants

▪️ Russian forces struck Ukrainian personnel and equipment in 109 areas

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Germany has secretly transferred a new batch of military supplies to Ukraine

Ukraine received ten Leopards, 20 Marder BMPs, three HIMARS units, as well as IRIS-T SLM and IRIS-T SLS air defense systems, the German publication Merkur has reported.

The deliveries took place in late June and early July.

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📹 Russian military personnel of the Vostok Battlegroup destroyed Ukrainian dugouts, militants and armored vehicles in South Donetsk using first-person view drones.

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Almost half of Ukrainians (46%) do not consider it shameful to evade connoscription during draft, a poll has showed, the results of which are published by Ukrainian media. Of the respondents, 29.1% hold the opposite opinion.

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Russia is a world leader in some sectors of the metallurgical complex, Vladimir Putin said.

The president particularly focused on the production of nickel, aluminum and titanium products.

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Ukrainian deserters staged a shootout with border guards near Odessa

Seven Ukrainian deserters exchanged fire with Ukrainian border guards while trying to cross the border between the Odessa region and Moldova. There were losses among the border guards, the coordinator of the Nikolaev underground movement Sergei Lebedev told Sputnik.

“About a week ago, seven military men, four of whom were mobilized, and three who had already been in battle, went AWOL. They were met at the border and [authorities] tried to detain [them]. Those who had already been in battle staged fierce resistance. As a result, the border guards retreated, suffering losses," Lebedev said.

According to him, the deserters got rid of their weapons and shoulder straps in the river to try to become non-combatants and thus subject to refugee norms.

Previous cases of Ukrainian deserters have been seen on other borders in the past, even by those charged with patrolling those borders.

“Border crossings by border guards themselves are known - by prior agreement with colleagues on the other side. Thus, half a [Ukrainian] company left Transcarpathia for Hungary in early July. Such cases are carefully hidden,” Lebedev noted.

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📹 Russia's Yug Battlegroup identified and destroyed a British-made AS-90 self-propelled artillery unit being used by Ukrainian forces close to the village of Ilyinka.

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Ukrainian deputy Maryana Bezuglaya was recalled from her post as chairwoman of the Rada's Subcommittee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence after her criticism of the country's military leadership.

In one of her latest statements, Bezuglaya claimed that Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrsky does not believe in the victory of Ukraine and is ready to negotiate surrender. At the same time, she referred to sources close to the general.

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Ad with Trump's alleged shooter removed by world’s largest investment company BlackRock

Thomas Matthew Crooks, who is accused of shooting at Donald Trump during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, appeared in a 2022 ad for Inc. BlackRock, the US-based money manager.

“In 2022, we ran an ad featuring a teacher from Bethel Park High School, in which several unpaid students briefly appeared in the background, including Thomas Matthew Crooks,” the investment company stated, noting that the ad has been removed.

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A Florida court has dismissed a case against Donald Trump for illegally storing classified documents, according to The New York Post.

The court cited a violation of the rules for appointing its special prosecutor. It was established that he did not have the authority to initiate the case.

After the assassination attempt, Trump said that Biden could ask the Justice Department to drop two cases against him.

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Wonder defense: Russia unveils unique bomb suppression blanket

Russia's state arms firm Rostec has developed a unique Egida bomb suppression blanket designed for fragment absorption and shock wave reduction.

▪️Rostec has carried out several tests of the blanket in protecting an all-wheel drive UAZ minibus – a vehicle widely used in the zone of the special military operation.

▪️The vehicle was shot at with a Stechkin 9mm automatic pistol from a distance of 3 m and hit by anti-personnel F-1 fragmentation defensive grenades which were detonated at a distance of 2.4 m near the vehicle. The sectors of the mini-bus covered by the bomb suppression blanket received small to no damage.

▪️"Only one fragment pierced the UAZ vehicle," Research Institute of Steel Protection department head Dmitry Chumachenko said. "Even the glass remained intact. That is, the entire area that we protected with blankets is intact. We believe that the blanket has met its requirement 100% percent."

▪️The blanket was also tested by exploding F-1 and RGN hand grenades with the initial velocity of fragments of 700 m/s at a distance of 3 and 5 m. The blanket stopped over 85% of fragments, while those piercing it lost their destructive power.

▪️The Kalashnikov Concern's Research Institute of Steel (part of Rostec) kicked off the blankets' production in 2023.

▪️The blanket has several layers of high-strength materials such as ballistic nylon, ultra-high molecular-weight polyethylene and aramid fabrics which effectively absorb and dissipate the blast energy and can restrain grenade fragments or bullets.

▪️The blankets' size (1 x 2 m) and weight (8.4-10 kg) make it handy for individual protection or for covering vehicles, windows and door openings.

▪️The Research Institute of Steel has designed two versions of the blankets: the Egida and Egida-U blankets with fragmentation resistance of 450 m/s and 550 m/s, respectively.

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Russian Air Forces received the first batch of repaired and modernized MiG-31 fighters this year

The MiG-31 is designed to intercept and destroy air targets in any weather conditions and at any altitude, against active and passive radar interference, as well as false thermal targets.

The MiG-31K modification is armed with state-of-the-art hypersonic Kinzhal missiles, posing a serious threat to the enemy's air defenses.

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Missiles and maneuvers: Inside the Russo-Chinese Maritime Interaction 2024

The joint Russian-Chinese military exercise, Maritime Interaction 2024, is taking place in the Pacific from July 15 to July 17, following an inaugural ceremony at the Chinese port of Zhanjiang on July 14.

▪️The ships participating in the exercise include the pair of Russian Pacific Fleet corvettes Gromkiy and Rezkiy, as well as Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s Type 052D destroyer Nanning, two Type 054A frigates and replenishment vessel Weishanhu.

▪️Gromkiy has been part of the Russian Pacific Fleet since 2018, while Rezkiy joined in 2023. Both Project 20380 corvettes are armed with Uran anti-ship missiles, Redut anti-aircraft missiles, and A-190 artillery systems.

▪️Nanning, a Type 052D destroyer commissioned in 2016, is equipped with universal vertical launching systems for anti-ship, anti-submarine, and anti-air missiles.

▪️Type 054A frigates are equipped with anti-ship missiles, torpedo launchers, anti-submarine rockets, and surface-to-air missiles to handle diverse threats.

▪️During the exercise, Russian and Chinese warships are expected to engage in live fire drills involving missiles, artillery and anti-aircraft weaponry.

▪️The exercise is also going to include anti-submarine drills involving anti-submarine aircraft of the China’s People’s Liberation Army, and a mock rescue operation.

▪️The first joint Russo-Chinese naval exercise was held in 2005. Since 2012, such exercises are being held on a regular basis.

This year’s naval drills are being carried out as the United States and its NATO allies criticize China over its close relations with Russia.

During the NATO summit earlier this month, the bloc members’ leaders even branded China as Russia’s “enabler” in the Ukrainian conflict, quietly omitting NATO’s own role in triggering and prolonging said conflict.

Meanwhile, both Moscow and Beijing stress that their joint exercises are not a threat to anyone and merely help Russian and Chinese navy personnel to share experience.

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