❗️Ukrainian troops conducted a drone attack on the road used by the employees of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant and created a direct threat to the personnel’s safety, the plant’s press service said, adding that there were no casualties.

The International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors present at the Zaporozhye NPP have been informed about the Ukrainian attack and visited the site of the shell landing, the statement read.

"At 7:00 a.m. today [04:00 GMT], a Ukrainian drone dropped a charge on the road that runs along the power units from the outside of the perimeter. The staff is constantly moving along this road. Nobody was injured. But a direct threat to the safety of personnel and the station has been created again," the NPP said in a statement on Telegram.

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📹🇷🇺Russian Grad MLRS paratroopers destroyed the command and observation post of the Ukrainian forces, and disrupted the enemy's rotation on the right bank of the Dnepr river in the Kherson region.

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❗️Two people were injured in Ukraine's repeated attack on the Galaktika shopping center in Donetsk; a house and a market were under fire, Sputnik correspondent reports.

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❗️Russian troops destroyed two HIMARS, four launchers and two AN/MPQ-65 radar stations of the Patriot complex.

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❗️Russian air defense systems shot down 10 HIMARS rockets, two Hammer bombs, and 35 Ukrainian drones

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

▪️Units of the Russian Vostok Battlegroup improved their positions along the front line, with Ukrainian militants losing over 105 servicemen;

▪️Ukrainian militants lost up to 680 personnel due to actions by the Russian Yug Battlegroup;

▪️The Russian Tsentr Battlegroup repelled an attack by Ukraine's Lyut assault brigade, struck six enemy brigades, and Ukrainian militants lost up to 420 personnel;

▪️Russian forces destroyed a Su-24 frontline bomber and three Ukrainian Air Force helicopters, including two Mi-8s and a Mi-17, at airfields. The Russian Black Sea Fleet destroyed two unmanned boats of the Ukrainian Navy.

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❗️If Ukraine begins to implement criminal plans for a man-made disaster, tough military and military-technical response measures will be taken, Russian Defense Ministry informed.

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Gas prices in Europe soared by 19% in August — data

The average gas price in Europe reached $435 per 1,000 cubic meters in August, according to the trading data on the ICE exchange. By contrast, the average cost of energy was $366 per 1,000 cubic meters in July.

At the same time, gas futures were trading at $390 at the beginning of the month. The sharp increase in quotations began on August 6 against the background of hostilities in the Russian Kursk region, where the Sudzha gas measuring station is located — the only route for the transit of Russian gas to Europe through the territory of Ukraine at the moment. Prices peaked on August 12, rising above $480 per 1,000 cubic meters for the first time since December last year.

For now, Russia's Gazprom supplies gas to Europe through Sudzha in the amount of 42.3 million cubic meters per day.

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❗️The Russian Defense Ministry is taking the information received through independent channels about Ukraine's preparations for a strike on the Kursk nuclear power plant very seriously.

The purpose of this provocation is to accuse Russia of "self-shooting" the station in order to create grounds for attacks on nuclear power facilities in Ukraine.

"We regard such actions by the Kiev regime with the support of Western patrons as a direct and clear violation of the international convention adopted by the UN General Assembly resolution of April 13, 2005 on combating acts of nuclear terrorism,'" the Russian MoD said. 

If the Kiev regime begins to implement criminal plans aimed at creating a man-made disaster with radioactive contamination of vast territories in the European part of the continent, harsh military and military-technical measures will be taken immediately.

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Key statements by the Russian Defense Ministry on Ukraine's incursion into the Russian Kursk region:

▪️Ukraine's losses in the Kursk region during the day amounted to 300 militants, 31 armored vehicles, including three tanks; 

▪️The total losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine during the fighting in the Kursk border area amounted to 3,160 fighters, 44 tanks and 43 armored personnel carriers; 

▪️The Russian Sever Battlegroup is searching for, and destroying, Ukrainian mobile groups in the area of Alekseevsky and Kauchuk settlements in the Kursk region; 

▪️Russian troops destroyed the Iris-T air defense missile launcher and the TRML-4D radar station in the Sumy region.

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❗️The head of Rosatom, Alexey Likhachev, discussed the situation at the Kursk and Zaporozhye nuclear power plants with the head of the IAEA, Rafael Grossi, by phone, Rosatom said.

Likhachev stressed that the situation around these nuclear power plants continues to deteriorate.

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More Ukrainian soldiers surrender: Check out the latest on fighting in the Kursk region

In the past 24 hours, Ukraine has lost more than 300 troops and a whole range of military equipment, the Russian Defense Ministry has stated.

In separate developments:

🔸 Russian troops successfully tackled Ukraine’s around-the-clock attempts to break through in the Kursk area, “burning the enemy’s military equipment and destroying their exhausting reserves,” commander of the Akhmat special forces Apti Alaudinov told reporters, adding that more Ukrainian soldiers started “to actively surrender.”

🔸 Twenty-four Ukrainian soldiers earlier surrendered in “an organized manner” to Russian forces near the village of Komarovka in the Kursk area,” a spokesperson for a Russian security agency told Sputnik.

🔸 Russian marines destroyed a Ukrainian motorized convoy consisting of armored vehicles used by NATO countries, an officer of the Marine Corps unit with the call sign Veter (Wind) said in an interview with Sputnik.

🔸 A British Challenger 2 main battle tank supplied to Ukraine has been destroyed in the Kursk region as a result of a Russian drone strike, Britain’s The Sun reported.

🔸 The Kiev regime’s plans to attack the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant with the support of Western patrons is “a direct and clear violation of the international convention adopted by the UN General Assembly on April 13, 2005, on combating acts of nuclear terrorism," the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.

🔸 Volodymyr Zelensky decided on the Kursk attack so as to hush up the looming defeat of the Kiev regime in Donbass, Ukrainian lawmaker Oleksandr Dubinsky, who is in custody in a pretrial detention center on suspicion of treason, wrote on Telegram.

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❗️The Russian Foreign Ministry called on the United Nations and the International Atomic Energy Agency to immediately condemn the provocative actions being prepared by the Kiev regime against Russian nuclear facilities and to prevent violations of nuclear safety.

Kiev's provocations at Russian nuclear facilities could result in a large-scale man-made disaster in Europe, the Russian Foreign Ministry added.

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Where will Kadyrov send the Tesla cybertruck he received from Musk?

Chechnya's head Ramzan Kadyrov said that Elon Musk sent him a Cybertruck to the capital of the Chechen Republic Grozny, which he will later send to the special military operation zone.

"We received a Tesla cybertruck from the respected Elon Musk. I was happy to test the new equipment and personally saw that it is not by chance that it is called the "Cyberbeast". Based on such excellent characteristics, the cybertruck will soon be sent to the special military operation zone, where it will be in demand in the appropriate conditions. I am sure that this "beast" will bring a lot of benefit to our soldiers.

I express my sincere gratitude to Elon Musk! He is, of course, the strongest genius of our time and a specialist. A great man!

Elon, thank you! Come to Grozny, I will receive you as my dearest guest!"

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Does Kamala Harris practice what she preaches?

In her first speech focused on economic policy, US Democratic presidential nominee and Vice President Kamala Harris has vowed to ease inflation, fix the housing market and reduce taxes for middle-income families, among other things.

The big question is whether she would be able to deliver on her promises after entering the Oval Office after the November elections.

In this vein, it’s worth taking a look at Harris’ 2020 election campaign, during which she, in particular, touted a pay inequity proposal to scrap the gender pay gap by holding corporations accountable when men are paid more than women.

It seems, though, she failed to practice what she preached, at least in 2018, when men received a higher median salary than women both in Harris's Senate office and on her campaign, according to an analysis by the Washington Free Bacon news outlet.

In her Senate office, the median male and female salary disbursement stood at $34,999 and $32,999, respectively, between April 1, 2018 and September 31, 2018, “leaving women with just 94 cents of every dollar paid to men,” according to the analysis.

In February 2019 - the first full month of Harris' 2020 presidential campaign – the median female salary disbursement for the month, $5,763.97, was about 87% of the median male salary disbursement, $6,632.23, the survey showed.

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