Ex-Ukrainian top general reportedly behind Nord Stream pipeline sabotage

The September 2022 “shoestring operation” to blow up the Nord Stream pipeline network was initially a plot by a handful of senior Ukrainian military officers, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing the officers involved in the plot. 

Volodymyr Zelensky initially approved the plan within a few days, and all orders regarding the operation were given verbally, so as not to leave any evidence, according to the sources.   

Zelensky ordered a halt after the CIA learned of “one of the most audacious acts of sabotage in modern history” and reportedly asked the then-Ukrainian president to pull the plug.  

Valery Zaluzhny, who served as Ukraine’s commander-in-chief at the time, ignored Zelensky’s order and his team modified the original plan to destroy the pipeline. However, Zaluzhny denied his involvement in the attack, saying that he wasn’t aware and that any suggestions to the contrary were "a mere provocation." 

The WSJ report comes after German authorities issued an arrest warrant for a Ukrainian man suspected of being involved in the Nord Stream explosion and identified only as Volodymyr Z., a diving instructor.

The new findings could worsen relations between Ukraine and Germany, the second-largest Kiev’s supporter, according to the WSJ.

Russia considers the Nord Stream sabotage an act of international terrorism. The Russian Foreign Ministry stressed that the West has deliberately dragged its feet on a probe into the Nord Stream blasts. Moscow proceeds from the assumption that Western countries are either hiding something or simply covering up the perpetrators.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🌋Etna volcano has woken up again in Sicily, Italy 

The column of ash reached 10 km in height. The resulting cloud of ash and smoke stopped flights at Catania airport. Nearby towns are covered with black volcanic ash, the local media report.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️Martynovka settlement in the Russian Kursk region has been cleared of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Apty Alaudinov, commander of the Akhmat special forces said.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️The Armed Forces of Ukraine continue to redirect reserves from other regions to the Russian Kursk region, Apty Alaudinov, commander of the Akhmat special forces said.

He added that Ukrainian forces in the Kursk region are being decimated daily and that the Ukraine's initiative is only temporary as they are expending massive resources on a single site.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️The Russian Tsentr battlegroup liberated the settlement of Ivanovka in the Donetsk People's Republic, the Russian Defense Ministry announced.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

An adviser to the head of Zelensky's office, Mykhaylo Podolyak, claims that Ukraine had nothing to do with the terrorist attacks on the Nord Stream pipelines.

He stated that Ukraine did not have the necessary technical and financial resources at the time of the explosions.

The topic of explosions on gas pipelines has been actively discussed in the media again in the last couple of days. Earlier, Germany published data on possible suspects, while the American media wrote that ex-commander-in-chief, Zaluzhny, was allegedly responsible for the operation.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️The Russian forces struck a missile and artillery weapons depot, an unmanned boat storage site, and a fuel truck parking area belonging to Ukrainian militants.

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

▪️The Russian Zapad Battlegroup took more advantageous positions in its combat zone, with Ukrainian militants losing up to 470 soldiers.

▪️Units of the Russian Vostok Battlegroup improved their positions along the front line, with Ukrainian militants losing up to 105 soldiers.

▪️Ukrainian losses amounted to 470 servicemen, an American BradleyIinfantry fighting vehicle, and a MaxxPro armored vehicle, as a result of actions by the Russian Tsentr Battlegroup.

▪️Russian air defense systems shot down 12 HIMARS MLRS rockets and 35 Ukrainian drones.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️The Russian defense industry is working actively, and production volumes are increasing, Russia President Vladimir Putin said.

"The Russian defense industry pays special attention to the development of the unmanned aircraft systems industry," Putin added.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇷🇺💥Daring motorcycle assault: Russian stormtroopers have tested a new tactic for capturing the Ukrainian strongholds in the DPR. 

The assault group on an armored transport vehicle enters enemy positions at maximum speed, while continuously firing at a strongpoint from a 30 mm automatic cannon and a Kalashnikov machine gun. 

At the same time, motorcycle groups advance through the enemy's stronghold, entering their trenches and destroying their manpower.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

US officials believe Israel will never destroy Hamas – report

A growing number of US national security officials reportedly insist that although Hamas was badly damaged by the Israeli military’s attacks, Tel Aviv “would never be able to completely eliminate the group."

The Israel Defense Forces' ongoing bombings are only increasing risks to Gaza civilians while the possibility of further weakening Hamas has diminished, the sources also argue, as reported.

The claims followed Hamas announcing that it will not partake in the indirect talks on a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal that are due to resume in Doha, Qatar on August 15.

The Palestinian group made it clear that they want a roadmap for implementing the agreement and would “not engage in negotiations for the sake of negotiations in order to provide cover for Israel to continue its war.”

The US, Qatar and Egypt earlier urged Israel and Hamas to resume urgent discussions so as "to close all remaining gaps" and start implementing a ceasefire agreement in Gaza without "further delay." The call came amid months of failed attempts to clinch the truce deal on Gaza, where Israel's continued bombardment has already killed around 40,000 Palestinians, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️Key statements by the Russian Defense Ministry on Ukraine's attack on the Russian Kursk region:

▪️Russian troops destroyed Ukrainian groups and took control of Krupets settlement in the Kursk region; 

▪️Russian forces repelled an attack by the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Kremyanoye and prevented Ukrainian attempts to break through the areas of Varvarovka, Safonovka, Sheptukhovka, Kauchuk, Alekseevsky and Matveevka settlements in the Kursk region;

▪️The Russian aviation struck the reserves of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, ammunition depots and material in the Sumy region;

▪️The Russian forces struck the Ukrainian manpower and equipment, National Guard and defense brigades at 7 settlements in the Kursk region;

▪️The Ukrainian Armed Forces lost up to 340 servicemen and 19 armored vehicles in the Kursk region during the day;

▪️Russian troops with Iskander-M strike destroyed a convoy of 15 tankers in the Sumy region;

▪️Ukrainian forces lost up to 2,640 soldiers, 37 tanks, 32 armored personnel carriers, and 23 infantry fighting vehicles since the attack on the Russian Kursk region.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

New Zealand authorities have decided to extradite Kim Dotcom, the founder of the Megaupload and Mega file sharing sites, to the United States.

The businessman repeatedly came to the attention of the FBI, and was accused of fraud, racketeering and money laundering.

Dotcom often criticizes the American authorities and speaks out on foreign policy topics. He has been living in New Zealand since 2010. Local media wrote that the businessman intends to appeal the decision on extradition.

"Oops 😬 Don’t worry, I have a plan," the businessman replied to the news of his possible extradition.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

German military’s failed ploy to whitewash Nazi Wehrmacht war crimes unveiled

An extension to the Bundeswehr's 2018 Tradition Decree, that was intended to assign a special role to the founders of the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) originating from the Nazi Wehrmacht, is no longer valid, Chief of Defense General Carsten Breuer announced on August.

"After justified outrage over the extension of the tradition decree, the Ministry of Defense thankfully withdrew it. The fact that they came up with this idea alone should give everyone a food for thought!" wrote Soren Pellmann, German MP from the Left Party.

The scandal was ignited by nothing less than an attempt to glorify Nazism:

🔺The Russian Foreign Ministry lambasted the extension that named Nazi soldiers and top brass involved in WW2 war crimes as examples "of military excellence, operational readiness and the will to fight to the goal when the mission requires it" as per the document.

Commenting on the document, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova singled out Nazi "war hero" Colonel Erich Hartmann; member of the NSDAP and SS Rear Admiral Erich Topp; and Brigadier General Heinz Karst.

🔺She stressed that for 80 years, Nazi Wehrmacht members have been deemed war criminals, but with the connivance of the Allied Forces of the US, the UK and France, many of them were allowed to join the ranks of the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany.

"Tradition decree. The world is upside down at the turning point in the politics of memory. Instead of reflecting on the 'brown' [Nazi] roots of the Bundeswehr, the argument is now that they were not 'brown' because they joined the Bundeswehr and cleared themselves of their identity," German historian Prof. Jurgen Zimmerer wrote on his X account.

In early August, the German newspaper Die Tageszeitung raised alarm bells over the "supplementary information on the guidelines for understanding and maintaining traditions in Bundeswehr" quietly signed by Lieutenant General Kai Rohrschneider, head of the Department of Operational Readiness and Support of the German Armed Forces, on July 12. The document referred to former Nazis as "tradition-forming" and "identity-creating" for the modern German army.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

The attack on the Nord Stream pipelines was possible thanks to an agreement between Polish President Andrzej Duda and Zelensky, believes the former head of German intelligence, August Hanning.

He also called on the German government to demand compensation from the Ukrainian and Polish authorities for damages due to the attack on gas pipelines.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Former Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Valery Zaluzhny, who now holds the post of ambassador to the UK, was summoned to Kiev, according to Ukrainian blogger Anatoly Shariy.

Earlier, the Wall Street Journal, citing sources, reported that Zaluzhny had disobeyed Volodymyr Zelensky's order to refrain from blowing up the Nord Stream pipelines in 2022. The CIA had reportedly demanded that Zelensky halt the attack.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Unpacking the latest developments regarding Russia’s Kursk region clashes

The Ukrainian Armed Forces have lost up to 340 soldiers and 19 armored vehicles in Russia’s Kursk region over the past 24 hours, the Russian Defense Ministry has stated.

Here are the latest updates on fighting in the region:

◾️ Russian forces are conducting mop-up operations in a number of local settlements, seized by Ukrainian troops, commander of the Akhmat special forces Apti Alaudinov told Russian media.

◾️ Kiev deployed 12,000 to the Kursk region, continuing to withdraw forces from the front line and using reserves, Alaudinov said.

◾️ The AP news agency reported in this vein that some Ukrainian battalions were pulled “from the hottest parts of the front line, where Russia’s advance has continued unabated.” So far, Moscow’s “overall strategic advantage” has been “intact,” according to AP.

◾️ The UK’s Challenger-2 tank is vulnerable to kamikaze drone attacks and can be eliminated by a single strike by a Russian loitering munition, the Russian state corporation Rostec said, commenting on the destruction of the Ukrainian military’s Challenger-2 in the Kursk region. Sky News earlier reported Ukraine used the Challenger 2s during the Kursk attack.

◾️ Additionally, one of Ukraine’s Polish-made PT-91 Twardy tank has been destroyed in the Kursk region as a result of a Russian Lancet drone strike, the first such loss of the Kiev regime in the area, Polish media reported.

◾️ Russia’s Ministry of Defense and National Guard are doing their best to ensure the safety of the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant, which currently operates as usual, Kursk Region Acting Governor Alexey Smirnov wrote on Telegram.

◾️ The Pentagon didn’t get the heads-up about Ukraine’s Kursk offensive and US officials are still trying to discern Kiev’s long-term objectives for the attack, a senior military official told the Defense One news outlet.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️Much of the ammunition requested by Ukraine is no longer produced in the US and has been reduced to a minimum; their volumes are insufficient for the medium-term goals of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, according to the Pentagon.

The Armed Forces of Ukraine are experiencing a shortage of weapons and ammunition, which makes it impossible for them to carry out large-scale offensives for at least six months, the Pentagon's report read.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Zen and the art of shooting yourself in the foot: What caused Germany's economy to slow down to historic lows

From 2019, the German economy’s growth rate has been the slowest since the Federal Republic of Germany was established in 1949, claims German political analyst Nils Heisterhagen in an article published by Bild.

Furthermore, real wages in the Germany in the first quarter of 2024 were lower than during the first quarter of 2018, according to the German Federal Statistical Office.

🔺Bert Rurup, a German economist and former chair of the German Council of Economic Experts, told the newspaper that the biggest problem is the so-called debt brake rule that essentially limits the issuance of government debt.

🔺Rurup also advocated amending the unemployment benefit system, which he claims currently stimulates some Germans to simply collect their benefits while also working off the books instead of seeking legal employment.

🔺Germany has got itself into more trouble by cutting off from the Russian energy that has long been a tremendous boon to its economy. With the destruction of the Nord Stream pipelines in 2022 and various sanctions imposed on Russia, Germany depends on more expensive energy imports, which drove the cost of production up and effectively deprives Germany of a competitive edge on foreign markets.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt