💥A Lancet barrage munition destroyed a Ukrainian tank hidden in a wooded area in the border area of the Kursk region. 

As a result of a direct hit by the Lancet barrage ammunition, the tank of Ukrainian militants was hit, as confirmed by objective control footage obtained in real time.

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115 Russian PoWs back home, Zelensky issues threats, Russia continues to thwart Ukraine's Kursk incursion

Russia has swapped 115 servicemen captured in the Kursk region by the Ukrainian military for 115 Ukrainian captives, the Russian Defense Ministry announced on Saturday.

According to the ministry, all the Russian military personnel returned from captivity are now receiving medical care in Belarus. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) provided humanitarian mediatory assistance in the Russo-Ukrainian prisoner swap.

▪️Russian President Vladimir Putin met with the leadership of the Joint Group of Forces and was briefed on progress in countering enemy forces in the Kursk region, as well as the measures taken to destroy the aggressor. The Russian president also heard reports from Russian military commanders on the operational situation on the Kursk front by phone.

▪️Troops of the Sever battlegroup use a vast range of Russian attack drones to eliminate small mobile groups of the enemy in the Kursk region border areas, the Ministry of Defense said.

▪️The Washington Post reported that the Biden administration is still debating whether to provide the Ukrainian forces with further support to "hold and perhaps even expand" the captured territory in the Kursk region. Biden has no firm sense of Ukraine's goals in seizing territory inside Russia, according to the newspaper.

▪️Volodymyr Zelensky appears to record an address commemorating the 33rd anniversary of Ukraine's independence in the Sumy region, close to where the Ukrainian army launched its incursion into Russia's Kursk region. Zelensky issued threats to Russia, claiming that "Ukrainian Orthodoxy is today taking a step towards liberation from Moscow's devils" – an apparent reference to his recent ban of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (OUC).

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Hamas agreed to May version of ceasefire agreement, but Netanyahu deliberately jeopardized deal – reports

Ahead of a new round of ceasefire talks in Cairo, Hamas accused Israel of changing the agreement terms unveiled by US President Joe Biden in May, and accepted at that time by the Palestinian group.

▫️Following the May talks, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu privately added new conditions to Israel's demands, and presented them in late July to American, Egyptian and Qatari mediators, per the New York Times.

▫️The document, obtained by the NYT, shows that among other conditions presented to the mediators, was a provision for Israeli forces to remain in control of Gaza's southern border – a condition not stated in Israel's proposal back in May.

▫️According to reports, the Palestinian group is not only concerned about Israel's decision to proceed with the occupation of a southern border region known as the Philadelphi Corridor, but also Tel Aviv's intent to keep forces along the Netzarim Corridor. This would prevent the free movement of Palestinians between north and south Gaza.

▫️The NYT suggested in mid-August that Netanyahu deliberately derailed the talks with Hamas by hardening his negotiation position, and further placing the blame for the stalled talks on the Palestinian group. On August 20, the Times of Israel cited condemnation by Israeli sources, who were involved in the ongoing talks, of Bibi's sabotage of the negotiations.

▫️CNN reported on August 23 that Israel has come up with a new proposal for the Philadelphi Corridor, envisaging a reduced Israeli military contingent in the Gaza territory. Hamas' response to it would be critical for the Sunday talks, per the media outlet. CNN, however, quoted one source familiar with the talks as saying the situation is "near hopeless."

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🔥 Russian troops hit Ukrainian armored fighting vehicles using drones and Lancet loitering munitions in the border zones of Russia's Kursk region.

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Putin outplayed US neocon elite that planned to weaken and balkanize Russia – US military veteran

"Biden is not interested in peace," Earl Rasmussen, a retired US Army lieutenant colonel, told Sputnik. "They're not interested in democracy. Ukraine and Georgia have always been looked at as a mechanism to further encircle and weaken Russia."

During his August 23 speech in Arizona, Robert F Kennedy Jr., a nephew of President John F. Kennedy, endorsed Republican nominee Donald Trump and accused the Biden administration and US neocons of provoking the Ukraine conflict.

"Tiny Ukraine is a proxy in a geopolitical struggle initiated by the ambitions of the US neocons for American global hegemony," Kennedy said. He said the draft peace agreement agreed in Istanbul was derailed by the Biden administration that sent then-British prime minister Boris Johnson to convince the Kiev regime to tear up the deal.

Washington made preparations for a proxy war with Russia in Ukraine for years, Rasmussen believes. He suggested that the scheme probably originated in the 1990s, when the infamous Wolfowitz doctrine, aimed at retaining Washington's sole superpower status, was formulated.

The 2014 US-backed coup d'etat in Kiev and the decision to use the subsequent Minsk agreements as a ruse to buy time for the Ukrainian military buildup were part of the broader plan, the commentator said.

Anti-Russia sanctions, intended to halt Moscow's energy cooperation with Western Europe, were not decided overnight, the pundit said. The end goal was to foment regime change in Moscow and subsequently "balkanize Russia," he believes.

"I think Putin saw that," Rasmussen said, adding that the West completely underestimated Russia. "They didn't understand the Russian people and the Russian culture and how the Russian would react to the situation."

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‘With RFK’s endorsement Trump is forming a superhero team’

"With Robert Kennedy Junior‘s endorsement of Donald Trump for president Trump has essentially already won the presidency and will now accumulate the votes of the majority of independent and discontented Democrats as Trump will thereby achieve political victory. That is, of course, unless the Democrats have a preplanned election fraud strategy, combined with an incarceration of Trump during his sentencing …or worse," former State Department counterterrorism analyst Scott Bennet told Sputnik.

"Trump is essentially forming a superhero team of the most independent minded figures in America, which include Elon Musk, Tulsi Gabbard, and now Robert Kennedy Junior," the analyst added.

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‘Go woke, go broke’ principle makes US companies ditch DEI to save profits

Major US firms have found the hard way that the so-called “woke” agenda and DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) only alienates their customers.

▪️Legendary motorcycle manufacturer Harley Davidson announced this week that it no longer has a “DEI function” and “have not operated a DEI function since April 2024.” The company that previously sponsored the Wisconsin LGBT* Chamber of Commerce’s LGBT Entrepreneur Bootcamp now says it will “focus solely on growing the sport of motorcycling” and on retaining its “loyal riding community.”

▪️US farm machinery maker John Deere said in July that it revised its corporate guidelines to “solely focus on sponsorship supporting the business and brand,” adding that it “will no longer participate in or support external social or cultural awareness parades, festivals or events,” in a statement posted on X.

▪️In June, the Tractor Supply Company said it would distance itself from DEI initiatives and that it would no longer sponsor events such as gay pride festivals. Tractor Supply also seemed less concerned about climate change, no longer seeking to cut carbon emissions.

Those developments came amid a backlash from the more conservative segment of the firms’ customer base, who are not keen on being peddled LGBT propaganda and other “woke” narratives.

Brewing giant Anheuser-Busch InBev is another firm that suffered from “wokeness.” The corporation saw a massive sales slump last year when customers began boycotting its beverages after AB InBev employed controversial transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney to promote its lead product Bud Light.

▪️Disney admitted in a 2023 SEC filing that the company faces “risks relating to misalignment with public and consumer tastes and preferences for entertainment, travel and consumer products, which impact demand for our entertainment offerings and products and the profitability of any of our businesses."

Consumers' Research executive director Will Hild told Fox at the time that Disney was admitting that it had “become too woke,” while political commentator and attorney Jonathan Turley quipped that the “invisible hand is giving the ‘House of Mouse’ the middle finger.”

Fox noted that by November 2023, Disney’s stock dropped more that 50% on its value in early 2021, compared to a general 10% rise in stock market prices over the same period.

*LGBT movements are regarded in Russia as extremist organizations and are outlawed in the country

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The crew of the fault-riddled Boeing Starliner will not return from the International Space Station until February 2025, NASA chief Bill Nelson said.

Astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore will come back to Earth on the SpaceX Crew-9 mission. The Starliner spacecraft will return without a crew at an unknown date.

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Doubt, distress and confusion: what does Ukraine seek to achieve by attacking Russian nuclear plants?

Ukraine’s attacks on Russia’s Zaporozhye and Kursk Nuclear Power Plants are most likely an attempt to portray Moscow as unable to keep those facilities safe, Swedish Armed Forces veteran and political and military observer Mikael Valtersson told Sputnik.

“When it comes to the Zaporozhye power plant, I believe that Ukraine wants to create pressure from the international community towards Russia, that the power plant should be at least internationalized, so that Russia wouldn’t control it,” Valtersson explained. “They could say it's neutral now, the international community takes care of it.”

“When it comes to Kursk, I believe they want to sow distress, and maybe even panic among some part of the Russian population, at least those living nearby,” he added.

He also suggested that Ukraine tries to sow confusion by denying responsibility for these attacks.

“They said Russia attacked its own power plant in Zaporozhye, and they will probably say that if there were any Ukrainian drones, they were just passing by nearby, and they will all the time try to claim that it's a false flag operation from Russia,” Valtersson noted. “And in the West many will believe that.”

Even if Ukraine’s culpability is confirmed, there likely “won't be very severe reaction in the West,” he remarked.

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▪️Russia-Ukraine POWs swap: 115 Russians captured during Kiev’s incursion into Kursk freed

▪️What does Ukraine seek to achieve by attacking Russian nuclear plants?

▪️75 years on NATO’s legacy is really bloody: here’s why

▪️What does RFK’s endorsement of Trump mean?

▪️How has Putin outplayed US neocon elite?

▪️Taiwan’s military buildup incited by US hawks – check out the facts

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