Why has Ukraine started talking of peace?

Volodymyr Zelensky’s recent declaration of intent to “prepare a real foundation” for ending the Ukrainian conflict is the product of Kiev’s Western backers realizing that their plan to fight Russia “to the last Ukrainian” is no longer feasible, Ret. Col. Anatoliy Matviychuk, a Russian Armed Forces veteran and military analyst told Sputnik.

1. It may be a ploy. Yet while Kiev may indeed push for a truce, it currently has no intention to settle the conflict permanently, Matviychuk warns. “Of course it is a ruse,” he explains. Receiving Western military deliveries shows that Ukraine does not want peace, that it does not want to be a neutral state.

2. Avoid more battle losses. As the Russian forces continue to break through Ukrainian defenses and push forward, the Ukrainian leadership desperately wants to avoid the scenario where they end up watching a Russian flag being raised over Kiev.

3. Win a pause. Matviychuk reasons that the best option for Ukraine may be to sign a peace treaty in order to “recuperate, restore their military capability and perhaps the economic potential, secure NATO’s support, revive their army and train new personnel, with all the ensuing consequences.”

According to Matviychuk, Ukraine seeks an alternative to Zelensky’s so-called “peace formula” – which is, in fact, nothing more than an ultimatum to Russia – and may even agree to make territorial concessions to Moscow.

The condition of recognizing Russia’s sovereignty over Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, as well as over Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics was stated by Russian President Vladimir Putin in June, along with requirement for Ukraine to become a neutral, non-nuclear state that is not part of any bloc.

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Zelensky’s motion for peace talks spurred by fear of a civil war in Ukraine

The Ukrainian head's sudden call to lay the groundwork for ending the Ukrainian conflict comes as Ukraine tethers on the brink of a massive social upheaval, Russian military analyst Anatoly Matviychuk told Sputnik.

“There are not just the radicals who oppose Zelensky – virtually all of Ukraine’s population is against Zelensky,” Matviychuk says, pointing at a growing number of Ukrainian military recruitment centers being torched by the locals in response to Kiev’s brutal press-ganging tactics.

“So if the situation on the frontline is not resolved, if this slaughter – a terrible slaughter that has already become critical for the people of Ukraine – is not stopped, then Ukraine will end up not just with a war but with a civil war on its hands,” the analyst warns.

According to him, Zelensky’s Western handlers have likely arrived at the same conclusions and advised him to sue for peace in order for Zelensky to keep power and stay alive.

Matviychuk also suggests that the current crisis in the Middle East also does not do any favors to Ukraine as Kiev’s Western sponsors now direct all of their resources towards the Middle Eastern theater.

“No handouts for Ukraine are to be expected anytime soon, I think, even until the elections,” he says, referring to the upcoming presidential election in the US.

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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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📹 China unveils 'amphibious' underwater drone

Social media users have shared footage of a hybrid Chinese drone that can be launched underwater, has fixed wings for vertical takeoff and landing, and can land on its tail.

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Who is who in Hamas' political and military structure?

In the wake of the assassination of Hamas Politburo head Dr. Ismail Haniyeh, the Palestinian movement signaled it won't water down its negotiation demands. According to the Western press, Hamas has a history of replacing fallen leaders smoothly through the group’s Shura council, its main consultative body.

Who are the major leaders of Hamas?

▪️Khaled Mashal is the head of Hamas' Political Bureau abroad. He was the head of Hamas' Politburo between 1996 and 2017.

▪️Khalil al-Hayya is deputy head of Hamas’s regional Politburo in Gaza since 2017. Prior to that, he served as head of Hamas's parliamentary bloc in the Palestinian Legislative Council in 2006.

▪️Nizar Awadallah is a senior member of Hamas’s Politburo since 2009.

▪️Yahya Sinwar is a member of the Politburo since 2017. He is the leader of Hamas in the Gaza strip and the founder of the Hamas security service known as Majd.

▪️Zaher Jabareen is Hamas‘ deputy leader in the West Bank, who was elected to the group’s Politburo in 2021. He is also a member of Hamas’ military branch, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades (IQB).

▪️Husam Badran is a Qatar-based senior member of Hamas’s Politburo and head of Hamas' national relations.

▪️Mohammed Deif is the leader of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades since 2002.

▪️Mohammed Sinwar is the commander of Hamas’ Southern Brigade and a younger brother of Yahya Sinwar.

▪️Khaled Mashal, Khalil al-Hayya and Nizar Awadallah are named by some Western and Arabic media pundits as possible replacements of Haniyeh.

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🇮🇹🌋 Etna volcano eruption from space

One of the latest eruptions of Mount Etna in Sicily was captured by satellite on August 4. The video was released by the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Satellites.

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❗️Niger is immediately severing diplomatic relations with Ukraine due to its alleged aggression against Mali, a representative of the military transitional government said.

He also noted that Niamey would appeal to the UN Security Council about the aggression against Mali by Ukraine and its sponsors.

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❗️Russian air defense forces destroyed and intercepted 11 Ukrainian drones over the Russian Belgorod, Kursk, Voronezh and Rostov regions overnight, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

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Key statements by the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in an interview with Sputnik:

▪️Negotiations on the creation of a government of national unity in Palestine will begin after the end of the war in the Gaza Strip, and if the Hamas movement accepts the terms of reconciliation, the president said.

▪️General elections in the Palestinian territories will not take place until Israel ensures the participation of Palestinians from East Jerusalem, Abbas explained. "Israel is preventing this, so we decided to postpone the presidential and parliamentary elections," he added.

▪️The Palestinian authorities will appeal to international courts if Israel does not return the tax charges withheld for several months, the president warned. "In accordance with the Paris Agreements of 1994, Israel collects taxes and customs duties, and transfers them to the accounts of the Palestinian Authority," the official recalled.

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💬The attack by Ukrainian forces on Russia's Kursk region is another terrorist attack directed against the civilian population, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

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❗️Russia has been waiting for the prisoners exchange between Russia and NATO countries for a year and seven months, Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) Sergei Naryshkin told Sputnik, adding that the exchange was a landmark event for the SVR.

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Not by drones alone: Check out Russian combat robot Kuryer 

Apart from unmanned aerial vehicles, Russian troops are successfully using advanced land-based combat robotic platforms against Ukrainian forces in the special military operation zone. 

Let’s take a look at one of them, the Kuryer (Courier) modular ground-based robotic system.  

🔺The 1.4-meter-long tracked vehicle, which weighs 250 kilograms, can move at a maximum speed of 35 km/h.

🔺Control range is up to 10 km and operating time runs from 12 to 72 hours, depending on combat missions.

🔺Armament includes the 30-mm automatic grenade launchers AGS-17 with 150 rounds of ammunition, or the 12.7-mm heavy machine gun “Utyos” (Cliff) with 250 rounds of ammunition. 

🔺The platform can also be armed with disposable grenade launchers and flamethrowers. 

🔺The robot can be equipped with various electronic warfare systems.  

🔺The Kuryer, being a modular robotic system, means that it can be used as a vehicle to transport mines or cargos.

🔺Operating as combat robots, the Kuryers helped Russian forces liberate the strategic city of Avdeyevka, and the village of Berdychy, in February and May, respectively.

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❗️Russian forces struck in the Kiev region in the area of the Ukrainian arsenal and military base, where more than a thousand Ukrainian soldiers could be trained, the resistance told Sputnik.

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🇷🇺🇮🇩Russian and Indonesian sailors will hold their first ever bilateral exercises in Java on November 4-8, the commander of the Indonesian Armed Forces said.

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❗️Israel immediately informed US officials that it was behind the assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, The Washington Post reported, citing sources.

White House officials reacted to the death of Haniyeh with surprise and outrage, seeing it as a serious setback in their attempts to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza, the report said on Tuesday.

Last Wednesday, Hamas confirmed the death of Haniyeh in an Israeli strike on his residence in Tehran, where he had arrived after attending the inauguration of Iran's new president. The movement blamed Israel and the US for Haniyeh's death and said the attack would not go unanswered.

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US companies dread joint production with Ukraine

American military companies have no desire to establish joint production in Ukraine, the Defense One portal writes. 

The point is that they are concerned about corruption in Ukraine’s defense industrial base. Another stumbling block for American companies is whether they are insured against political risks — financial protection for their investments in Ukraine. 

Despite pressure from the Pentagon, American firms are more reluctant to sign contracts when compared with European ones.

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Russia understands why Mali severed diplomatic ties with Ukraine — Russian Foreign Ministry 

"Zelensky's regime condones terrorist groups breeding in Russia-friendly African states," said Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Zakharova, stressing Kiev's cooperation with terrorists is not at all surprising.

"Moscow will continue to draw the attention of the international community to Ukraine's openly barbaric behavior," she added.

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Why Israel’s Iron Dome missile shield may fail to cope with looming Iran attack 

With Israel bracing for a potential coordinated attack from Iran and its allies after the assassination of Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, the Jewish state’s “vaunted” Iron Dome anti-missile system may fail to provide a relevant level of protection, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has reported. 

Israel currently has 10 Iron Dome batteries, each containing up to 80 interceptor missiles.

▪️Although the Iron Dome successfully shot down short-range rockets launched by the Palestinian militant group, Hamas, earlier, “Iran’s and Lebanon-based Hezbollah’s capabilities are another matter,” according to the WSJ. 

▪️The Iranian military has scores of unmanned aerial vehicles and ballistic missiles that the Iron Dome “isn’t designed to stop”, the newspaper pointed out. 

▪️As for Hezbollah, the group “has an arsenal with tens of thousands of mortars, rockets and precision-guided missiles that could threaten to overwhelm” the Iron Dome, per the WSJ. 

▪️In the same vein, CNN earlier quoted an unnamed senior Biden administration official as saying that they “assess that at least some” Iron Dome batteries “will be overwhelmed” in case of Israel’s full-scale war with Hezbollah militants, who are reportedly able to fire 3,000 missiles a day. 

▪️А single Iron Dome battery is capable of protecting a relatively small area (about 150 square kilometers). Israel currently has 10 such batteries, each containing up to 80 interceptor missiles.

▪️The Iron Dome is extremely effective only when dealing with a few targets coming from the same direction, Russian military historian, Yuri Knutov, told Sputnik earlier.

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