❗️Russian air defense systems hit 15 HIMARS rockets and 151 Ukrainian drones.

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

▪️The Russian Tsentr Battlegroup repelled six Ukrainian counterattacks, with the enemy losing over 405 militants;

▪️The Russian Dnepr Battlegroup destroyed a Ukrainian drone field ammunition depot;

▪️The Russian Vostok Battlegroup struck the manpower of four Ukrainian brigades, Ukrainian territorial defense, and the national guard, with enemy losses up to 115 militants;

▪️The Russian Sever Battlegroup struck four enemy brigades in the Kharkov region, with the enemy's losses up to 170 militants;

▪️Ukrainian losses in the Russian Zapad Battlegroup's combat zone amounted up to 490 militants, along with an American armored personnel carrier and two field depots;

▪️Ukrainian forces lost up to 750 militants in the Russian Yug Battlegroup's combat zone;

▪️Russian forces destroyed a mobile radar for detecting and tracking low-altitude targets ST68, and a Ukrainian drone production facility.

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What benefits could the new Russian-Iranian gas project bring?

The new joint Russian-Iranian venture to supply Russian natural gas via pipelines should help Iran become a natural gas hub and “optimize” the natural gas pipeline infrastructure in the country, Igor Yushkov, an expert with Russia’s National Energy Security Fund, tells Sputnik.

The project may open new possibilities to re-export Russian gas to countries such as India, Yushkov says.

“India is a large market for natural gas, which keeps growing to boot,” he remarks, arguing that there is plenty of room for both Russian and Iranian gas on the Indian market.

He was echoed by Stanislav Mitrakhovich, a leading expert of the National Energy Security Fund. “It is possible to build a pipeline from Iran to India,” he says, adding that it may be beneficial for Russia to acquire India in terms of purchasing Russian natural gas.

Mitrakhovich notes that building such a natural gas pipeline would require either working out an agreement with Pakistan – if the pipeline from Iran to India were to be built through that country – or constructing a direct underwater pipeline from the Iranian to Indian coast.

The overall successful implementation of this Russian-Iranian project, however, would require dealing with a number of issues such as, for example, the problem with building an undersea pipeline across the Caspian Sea to ship natural gas directly from Russia to Iran. Namely, building such a pipeline would require consent of all the Caspian littoral states, including Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, aside from Russia and Iran.

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📹The Russian Ka-52M helicopter crew destroyed targets in the special military operation zone. The strike was carried out by unguided S-8 aviation missiles, and guided aircraft missiles "Vikhr" at specified coordinates.

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Zaluzhny's latest UK comments conjure up memories of Goebbels famous Total War speech

Former Ukrainian Commander in Chief Valery Zaluzhny, July 2024:

"Society must agree to temporarily give up a range of freedoms for the sake of survival. Modern wars, unfortunately, are total. They require the efforts not only of the army, but also of society as a whole."

Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels, February 1943:

"Total war is the demand of the hour… We must use our full resources… Are you and the German people willing to work, if the Führer orders, 10, 12 and if necessary 14 hours a day and to give everything for victory?"

It seems history repeats itself, even in nuances.

Zaluzhy, who was recently downgraded to Kiev’s envoy to the UK, delivered a speech where he urged Western societies to mobilize their resources and give up comforts and freedoms in order to defeat Russia. The speech was delivered in the wake of prolonged Ukrainian setbacks on the battlefield.

Chief German propagandist Joseph Goebbels said almost the same things 81 years earlier. When it became evident that Soviet Russia was prevailing in WWII, he called for strict austerity measures and urged Germans to work 14 hours a day if necessary, dubbing it a “total war”.

So, do you see any differences between Zaluzhny’s words and Goebbels’ speech? Answer in comments.

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🇭🇺 Hungary will not OK the allocation of €6.5 billion from the peace facility fund for weapons to Ukraine until Kiev resolves the issue of oil transit, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said.

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📹The Houthis showcased the Yafa barrage munition, which was launched in the direction of Israel's Tel Aviv last week.

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❗️Joe Biden reportedly required emergency medical care during a trip to Las Vegas last week, Dossier reported.

After receiving a signal about Biden’s condition, intelligence services surrounded the local medical center to prepare for the president’s arrival, but Biden’s team decided to refuse hospitalization.

The publication writes that a simple positive test for Covid would not be the basis for such a reaction.

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Сyprus as a hub for military bases

Turkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has signaled his country’s readiness to build a naval base in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), accusing rival Greece of seeking to create a similar base of its own on the island.

🔸Erdogan told reporters that “if necessary,” Ankara “can construct a naval base and naval structures in the north” of Cyprus, in a nod to the territory of the TRNC, a breakaway state proclaimed by Turkish Cypriots in 1983 and only recognized by Turkiye.

🔸Ankara currently maintains its Gecitkale Air Base (Lefkoniko Airport) in northern Cyprus, amid reports about Turkiye’s new strategy, which “involves transforming the Lefkoniko into a significant military base, alongside planned bases in Bogazi and Karpasia, all falling under the Turkish Naval Forces.”

🔸The Greek Cypriot administration earlier announced plans to build a naval base near the southern Cyprus village of Mari with Greece's support, which Defense Minister Vasilis Palmas called a long-term project aimed at "offering services to friendly countries."

🔸Сyprus is also home to the UK’s Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia, a British Overseas Territory, which includes two large military bases and installations, created under the London and Zurich Agreements in 1960, when Cyprus achieved independence from the British Empire. The deals stipulated that the UK, along with Greece and Turkiye, was a guarantor of independence, territorial integrity and security of the Republic of Cyprus.

🔸Cyprus has been de facto partitioned into Greek and Turkish portions since Ankara’s military operation in the island in 1974, which was triggered by a coup staged by those calling for the island to become part of Greece. The UN-mediated negotiations on the reunification of Cyprus, which have been underway since the island's partition, finally came to a standstill in 2017.

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🇬🇪 Georgia's State Security Service has arrested suspects it accuses of plotting a terrorist attack against the founder and honorary chairman of the ruling Georgian Dream - Democratic Georgia party Bidzina Ivanishvili and other senior officials of the party, according to the Georgian TV channel Imedi.

The suspects have been questioned in court for several days, and it turns out most of them were mercenaries who fought in Ukraine. “Yes, Bidzina Ivanishvili,” answered Gela Kakhabrishvili, who fought in Ukraine, when asked who the target was, according to the TV channel,

Kakhabrishvili also reportedly confessed that a terrorist attack was being prepared against other high-ranking officials during questioning in the Tbilisi City Court. At the same time, his lawyer told reporters that the preparation of a terrorist attack with the aim of overthrowing the government was being investigated.

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Not only Fatah and Hamas: A guide to Palestinian political parties

Representatives of 14 Palestinian political groups and factions signed an agreement in Beijing to create an interim reconciliation government. Usually only Fatah and Hamas appear in media outlets as the main Palestinian parties, but in fact, there are many more. Here is a brief guide on Palestine's parties and movements:

🔸Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) is a coalition, which in fact rules the Palestinian administration on the West Bank. It consists of 10 groups:

◾️Fatah: social-democratic party established by Yasser Arafat in the late 1950s. Now it is led by Mahmoud Abbas and remains the largest and most dominant party in both the PLO and Palestinian administration;

◾️The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP): the second largest faction and the main opposition force to Fatah in the PLO. The party poses itself as revolutionary socialist group;

◾️Fatah – Democratic Reform Bloc: a democratic wing that split from Fatah in 2016;

◾️National Democratic Assembly: a democratic party established in 2021 by Yasser Arafat’s nephew, Nasser Kidwa. He wanted to take part in Palestinian legislative elections in 2020, which were later canceled;

◾️ Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP): Marxist-Leninist party formed as an offshoot of the PFLP. The DFLP has been responsible for attacks against Israeli targets (including civilians) in Israel and the occupied territories of West Bank;

◾️ Palestine Democratic Union (FIDA): was founded in 1990 as an offshoot of the DFLP, but with social democratic reformist ideology;

◾️ Palestinian People’s Party (PPP): a Palestinian communist movement. Members of the party have repeatedly served in Palestinian Authority governments. In 2021, it announced its withdrawal from the government of Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh, where it held the labor ministry portfolio. But the threat was not implemented.

◾️The Palestine Liberation Front (PLF): the movement is close to the pan-Arab Baath socialist party, which, for example, is still the key political power in Syria but traditionally aligned itself closely with Fatah in Palestinian administration.

◾️The Palestine Popular Struggle Front (PPSF): a leftist party led by Ahmad Majdalani, ex-minister of social affairs, who is seen as a close ally of Abbas.

◾️The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command (PFLP-GC): left-wing national movement, whose leadership are mostly based in Lebanon and Syria, being supported among Palestinian refugees there.

Even though, the majority of these parties have lost their popular support base and contribute very little to politics, they are still part of the PLO and Palestinian political system in general.

🔸 The Committee of Popular Resistance group, also known as The Resistance or Islamic Resistance, is active in the Gaza Strip and includes Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). Inspired by political Islam and the Muslim Brotherhood* movement, these groups have controlled Gaza since 2007, isolating it from Palestinian Authority politics. In 2017, Hamas revised its political platform to distance itself from the Muslim Brotherhood*. Both Hamas and PIJ have their own military wings and jointly combat the Israeli army.

🔸Others. the Fatah-Hamas struggle in 2007 led not only to political distancing between the West Bank and Gaza Strip, but also to formation of several new secular parties. One of them is a liberal-democratic Third Way, which poses itself as an alternative to the two-party Hamas-Fatah leadership system. The second one is The Palestinian National Initiative (PNI), which presents itself as a democratic movement of non-violent resistance to Israeli occupation.

*Muslim Brotherhood is a terrorist organization outlawed in Russia.

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