⚡️ Ukraine will continue attempts to destabilize Russia's border regions, including the Bryansk region – Putin

Other important statements by the Russian president at the special meeting on the situation in the Kursk region:

⚡️ The situation in the region shows why the Kiev regime has refused Moscow's peace proposals and mediators.

⚡️ Ukraine is trying to improve its future negotiating position with its actions in the Kursk region.

⚡️ There is nothing to discuss with Kiev, which is attacking civilians and nuclear power facilities.

⚡️ The West is at war with Russia by the hands of Ukrainians.

⚡️ The action in the Kursk region pursues the military goal of stopping the offensive of Russian troops along the line of contact.

⚡️ The pace of the offensive of the Russian forces along the entire line of contact after the events in Kursk region has not only not decreased, but actually increased 1.5 times.

⚡️ The Russian president also demanded the armed forces provide reliable coverage of the border with Ukraine after the enemy is driven out of Russian territory.

⚡️ Putin added that the FSB and National Guard should ensure the counter-terrorism operation regime in the Russian border regions.

⚡️ The relative calm in Russia's Bryansk region today does not guarantee that such a situation will be maintained. It is necessary to prepare for different scenarios, Russian President Vladimir Putin stressed.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

⚡️ The situation in the Kursk region is difficult, with 28 settlements under enemy control, the deputy governor said at a meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Regional authorities do not know the fate of about 2,000 people in the 28 settlements under the enemy's control, the official stressed.

As of today, 121,000 residents have left the border region.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️Ukrainian Army hits Russian power company workers with chemical weapons in Kursk Region

When a Rosseti power company brigade went to restore the power supply in the Belovo district of the Kursk region, Ukrainian troops shelled them with chemical weapon ammunition, said Kursk region acting governor Alexei Smirnov.

The workers were not seriously injured, according to Smirnov.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Debt-riddled Ukraine blames 'slow' US aid, scrambles to pay its army

A debt-riddled Ukraine is blaming its Western sponsors for lagging cash and arms deliveries that have left it scrambling to pay its army. Kiev also holds the US responsible for its huge budget deficit, which has brought it to the brink of default.

A US loan of $50bn needs to be accelerated, the Zelensky regime’s finance minister Serhiy Marchenko told the Financial Times. He charged that the sluggish delivery of NATO weapons, especially from Washington, is to blame for a $12bn rise in military spending.

While the US Congress approved $27bn-worth of direct US military aid in April this year, Marchenko bemoaned the fact that its disbursement was too “slow.”

With the Western cash infusion delayed, the regime was forced to dip into its own coffers to buy weapons and ammunition, Marchenko said, using up money set aside “to cover salaries for our troops.”

To cover the gaping hole of military expenses, he claimed, Ukraine will have to resort to spending cuts, tax rises and selling off state assets.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️ A five-man Ukrainian military assault team has been taken prisoner in the Russian Kursk region, security agencies told Sputnik.

The captives served in Ukraine's 80th Airborne Assault Brigade. One of its commanders is a suspect in the criminal case opened by the Russian Investigative Committee over the attack on the Kursk region.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

‘Shoot men in the legs’ – Ukrainian PoW recounts orders from commander

During the attack on Russia’s Kursk region, a Ukrainian commander gave orders to shoot people in cold blood, a captured Ukrainian soldier revealed.

“The commander told us specifically to shoot men in the legs and throw them in the cellar or basement. If [they had] weapons, then kill them. There were no instructions about the prisoners,” he said.

The soldier noted that their main goal was to reach Kursk, then Belgorod in order to seize more Russian territories, so that they could be swapped during future peace talks between Russia and Ukraine.

“When [we] were entering the houses, yes, there was looting, [we] were taking everything [we] saw, probably everything valuable that could be taken away,” he added.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas arrived on an official visit to Russia

He will hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on August 13. The leaders will discuss bilateral cooperation and the settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, particularly the situation in the Gaza Strip.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️The Russian Armed Forces increased the pace of the offensive in the Donetsk region – Russian Defense Ministry

Russian troops have liberated the village of Lisichnoye in the Donetsk People's Republic and established control over urban areas in Krasnogorovka as a result of active operations, the ministry said.

The settlements of Ivanovka, Sergeevka, Makeevka, Kirovo, Artemovo and Zhelannoye in the Donetsk direction have been almost completely cleared of Ukrainian troops.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt