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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Was the assassination attempt on Donald Trump predicted back in 2017?

Broadway play "Julius Caesar" with Trump's assassination⁠⁠ was staged with a scene in 2017 where a man specifically resembling Donald Trump was killed with knives on stage.

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🚁 A Russian Mi-35M helicopter crew hit a Ukrainian stronghold and militants in the area of responsibility of Russia's Sever Battlegroup.

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Ukraine conflict not unprovoked, West goaded Russia – retired Pentagon advisor

Douglas Macgregor, a retired Department of Defense advisor, dismissed the myth about the “unprovoked” nature of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine.

The West goaded Russian and Putin into moving troops in, said Macgregor, who went on to urge Americans to stop “regurgitating corporate media lies”. These lies hide a way out: “Putin wants to avoid clashes with the West," Macgregor adds.

Macgregor fits the trend: US media outlets more and more often admit that the West’s policy in 2014-2022 simply forced Russia to act. Here are a few examples:

▪️In his article for The American Thinker, Alexander G. Markovsky writes that until February 24, 2022, NATO used the “tactic of escalating Moscow’s anxiety about Ukraine’s impending NATO membership.” NATO’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg “inadvertently unveiled the truth,” saying recently: “So, he (Putin) went to war to prevent NATO, more NATO, close to his borders.”

▪️Markovsky, a senior fellow at London Center for Policy Research, proves that NATO in 2014-2022 worked hard to provoke a conflict with “devastating economic sanctions” after its start. “The objectives were the destruction of the Russian economy, the resignation of Putin, and, ultimately, the elimination of Russia as a European power,” he concluded.

▪️In his article for Time magazine, former adviser to the vice president for Russia and Eurasia, George Beebe, implored NATO to stop risky provocations: “It is true that Putin has proved quite reluctant to strike directly at the West in response to its military aid for Ukraine. But what Putin can live with today may become a casus belli tomorrow.”

▪️In his article for The American Conservative, Doug Bandow, former special assistant to President Ronald Reagan, decried NATO’s statement about the “irreversible” inclusion of Ukraine. It makes a clash unavoidable, since the US already “turned NATO into a weapon in the wars against Serbia and Libya,” which “never attacked any NATO member.”

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Ukraine is rapidly losing 2023 counteroffensive gains

The meagre achievements of the counteroffensive attempt carried out by the Ukrainian military in the summer of 2023 hav been nearly nullified, Vladimir Rogov, chairman of Russia's Civic Chamber’s commission for issues of sovereignty, patriotic projects and support for veterans, tells Sputnik.

The Kiev regime claimed to have captured over a dozen of small villages in the Donetsk and Zaporozhye regions with a total pre-conflict population of 5,000 between June and December of 2023. However, Ukraine is swiftly losing the apparent gains amid the ongoing retreat.

▪️The enemy has lost more than 80% of territories captured in 2023 in the vicinity to Vremevka, Vasilyevka and Orekhov in the Zaporozhye region, according to Rogov.

▪️On July 14, the Vostok Battlegroup liberated Urozhaynoye, located on the so-called Vremevka ledge at the junction of the Zaporozhye region and the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR).

▪️On June 10, the Vostok Battlegroup liberated the village of Staromayorskoye, located near the Zaporozhye region's border in the DPR.

▪️On May 23, the Yug Battlegroup recaptured the settlement of Andreyevka in the DPR.

▪️On May 22, the Yug Battlegroup retook the village of Kleshcheyevka in the DPR.

▪️On May 15, the Dnepr Battlegroup retook the village of Rabotino in the Zaporozhye region.

▪️The liberation of Urozhaynoye and Staromayorskoye opens the door for an advance to Vremevka, and westwards - from Priyutnoye to Malinovka and Gulyaypole in the Zaporozhye Region, as per Rogov.

▪️The occupation of Urozhaynoye, Staromayorskoye and Rabotino were presented as the major gains of the Ukrainian 2023 counteroffensive by the Kiev regime.

▪️Since the beginning of 2024, Ukraine has lost over 880 square kilometers of territory, including in the Kharkov region, amid the Russian offensive along the entire frontline.

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The European Commission has canceled its traditional visit to the capital of the country chairing the EU Council after Hungarian PM Viktor Orban’s “peace tour."

Such a visit was supposed to take place after the European Commission's summer holidays in the fall of this year.

The EC representative noted that European commissioners will also not participate in informal meetings organized by the Hungarian presidency.

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Trump’s would-be assassin did not act ‘on his own’ - ex-CIA officer

The recent attempt on Donald Trump’s life has, among other things, effectively “destroyed the ability of the Democrats going forward to demonize Donald Trump,” says retired CIA intelligence officer and State Department official Larry Johnson.

As the US Democrats consistently sought to brand Trump as an “existential threat… their very language encouraged violence, encouraged killing Trump.”

“Now they can't do that without being accused of inciting violence. And, so now they have to argue on just issues. And when they are supposed to argue on issues, that means, they're going to fail,” Johnson argued.

Currently, Trump’s political opponents can do little to curb the surge of his popularity in the wake of the assassination attempt, in no small part due to the fact that “they can’t argue the issues,” the ex-CIA officer notes.

“What are the issues? Illegal immigration? Well, the Democrats have been enabling that. Inflation? Well, the economy is still plagued with inflation, but people are feeling that at the grocery store and at the gas pump,” Johnson elaborates.

“So, their efforts to try to shift to issues, it's going to be difficult for them, because they've been so accustomed to describing Trump as, you know, the personification of Satan.”

While the FBI has already announced that the man who is suspected of trying to kill Trump, one Thomas Matthew Crooks, was acting alone, Johnson argues that it is “highly likely” that the gunman “had additional support.”

“I don't know what the network is, I don't know which organizations he is tied to, but he didn't do this on his own,” Johnson says.

On July 13 Donald Trump narrowly survived an attempt on his life when a gunman opened fire at him during a campaign event in Butler, Pennsylvania. One bystander was killed and two sustained serious injuries while Trump himself was shot in the ear.

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▪️Trump’s would-be assassin did not act ‘on his own’ - ex-CIA officer

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

▪️Ukraine is rapidly losing 2023 counteroffensive gains

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

▪️Ukraine conflict not unprovoked, West goaded Russia – retired Pentagon advisor

▪️Wonder defense: Russia unveils unique bomb suppression blanket

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