Another Western journalist illegally visits Russia's Kursk region having published corresponding material

A journalist from the British newspaper The Times, Catherine Philp, visited the city of Sudzha and one of the nearby villages, where she witnessed how the Ukrainian military was showing the local population video materials that tried to discredit the Russian Army.

Earlier, correspondents of the German media corporation Deutsche Welle*, the French newspaper Croix and the Latvian TV channel Latvian Television, which were included in the list of media outlets for which measures were introduced to restrict broadcasting and access to the internet in Russia, illegally visited the Kursk region.

Materials about their journalists illegally visiting the Russian territory were also published by the American publications Washington Post and Daily Beast and the British newspaper Sun.

Russian FM spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated that each case of illegal entry of media employees into the Kursk region will be considered separately, this applies to journalists of all countries.

* An organization performing the functions of a foreign agent in Russia.

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❗️The main statements from the Russian Defense Ministry on the situation in the Kursk region:

▪️The losses of Ukrainian troops in the Kursk region in one day amounted to more than 380 militants and 22 units of armored vehicles.

▪️The Russian military repelled five Ukrainian attacks near Kremyanoye, Pushkarskoye and Cherkasskoye Porechnoye villages.

▪️Russian aviation struck Ukrainian militants in 11 settlements of the Sumy region.

▪️Ukrainian losses for the entire period of military operations in the Kursk region exceeded 7,800 militants, 75 tanks, while 507 armored vehicles were also lost.

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Friendly fire or defective old plane? How Ukraine lost its first F-16 jet and famed pilot

One of the first Ukrainian F-16 jets crashed on August 26, the Ukrainian Air Force confirmed on Thursday. Ukrainian MP Maryana Bezuglaya claimed the F-16 was hit by Ukraine's Patriot anti-aircraft missile system "due to a lack of coordination between units."

When were the first F-16s delivered to Ukraine?

▪️The first batch of six of the promised 80 F-16s arrived in Ukraine at the beginning of August.

▪️It's unclear who exactly provided the first batch: Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway earlier vowed to provide the Kiev regime with them.

▪️US President Joe Biden first authorized NATO's European allies to send F-16s to Ukraine in August 2023.

How much does the F-16 cost?

▪️The US-made F-16 that was delivered to Ukraine can cost up to $60 million depending on the configuration and possible upgrades, according to some estimates.

▪️As per the WSJ, many of the F-16s promised to Ukraine are second-hand and have decades of flying time already.

What's known about the crash?

▪️According to US officials, the jet wasn't shot down by the Russian military. Sources close to the Ukrainian military claim the crash's reason is "unknown."

▪️The plane was piloted by Oleksiy "Moonfish" Mes, one of Kiev's first pilots to be trained on the US-made F-16. He died during the crash. Mes had undergone months of training in Denmark, as per Forbes.

▪️US officials, cited by the WSJ, said Ukrainian pilots got an "accelerated training course" to learn to operate the F-16s and lacked flying hours.

What do Ukrainian general staff and the Pentagon say?

▪️The Pentagon said it cannot confirm the F-16 was downed by the Patriot system.

▪️The Ukrainian general staff stated that "a special commission... has been appointed to determine the causes of the crash."

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❗️WATCH LIVE: Mario Nawfal on Durov's arrest, globalist attacks on free speech, and what's next for X and Elon Musk

Join the livestream on X or on Sputnik's website

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Mario Nawfal: Durov’s arrest signals that free speech & privacy are becoming an illusion

“It’s a reminder that free speech and even privacy is becoming more and more of an illusion, rather than reality,” entrepreneur and popular X Spaces host Mario Nawfal told Sputnik, commenting on Telegram CEO Pavel Durov’s arrest in France.

“We’ve seen the censorship that happens in every single country around the world, including... Europe, the US, Brazil. Pavel’s arrest takes another social media platform off the list of those who want to censor, those who want power,” Nawfal explained, pointing to how the walls are closing in on free speech online.

“It’s a very concerning time for any journalist, it’s a concerning time for any social media platform, yet it’s a concerning time for any citizen, because we’ve seen in the UK recently as well with the riots what happens when free speech is cracked down [on], and it’s not pretty. We’ve seen people arrested and go to jail for months and years for things they said online.”

* Banned in Russia for extremism.

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🗣 "Mainstream media loses popularity, they are forced to either die or transform," X Spaces host Mario Nawfal told Sputnik.

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Mario Nawfal: I don’t feel safe traveling anymore amid crackdown on speech online

Mario Nawfal revealed that he himself was recently invited to interview an unnamed country’s president just days before Pavel Durov’s arrest. He’s now “very sure” that he “would probably end up like Pavel,” given his record of criticizing the country in the past, including for its crackdown on free speech, and of X's Elon Musk.

“I’ve added France to the countries that I would not go to,” Nawfal told Sputnik, discussing the Durov arrest saga.

“The UK with the crackdown on free speech, Brazil…Pakistan is on my list of countries that I can’t go to because of having [ousted Pakistani president] Imran Khan [on the show] and supporting Imran Khan. I never expected France to be one of those countries, but here we are,” Nawfal said.

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Mario Nawfal: Free speech is being weaponized

🗣 “I try not to take positions on any topic. That’s because nothing is black and white. There is no country that supports free speech in absolute terms – no country. Free speech is being weaponized,” entrepreneur and X Spaces host Mario Nawfal told Sputnik, commenting on the Durov arrest saga, and its broader context in the global battle for the online information space.

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📹 Mario Nawfal: Mainstream media’s cowardly coverage of hit job on Telegram

🗣 “You can only speculate here, but if you look again, we’ve talked about different patterns: mainstream media have increasingly been censoring narratives that don't fit their agenda, that of their advertisers or that of the government. The arrest of Pavel fits that denoscription," number one X Spaces host Mario Nawfal told Sputnik, commenting on the crackdown on Telegram CEO Pavel Durov and his platform.

“They don't want to bring awareness to censorship when they're complicit in that. So the skeptical, speculative guess that I have is that that was intentional, and they don't want to shed light on the crackdown on free speech around the world. The alternative is that the audience didn't care, but that seems to be less and less likely as you really look into the speed and the way it was covered. Not only how long it took them to cover it and how little awareness or attention they brought to the topic, a very, very serious topic, but also the way they've described it. It wasn't objective journalism,” Nawfal stressed.

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Politicians, big business corrupting journalism in the US, turning it into a ‘cabal’ - Mario Nawfal

🗣 “If you're talking about the amicable relationship or the kind of the biased relationship that journalists have with certain politicians, I think the only way to describe it is that it's more of a cabal,” popular X Spaces host Mario Nawfal told Sputnik, commenting on the state of democracy, free speech, and freedom of the press in the United States today.

“When I talk about the cabal, it's become systemic. You've got those unelected officials that behind the scenes have just got so much influence on various aspects of society,” Nawfal said, pointing to the example of the bombshell Hunter Biden laptop story ahead of the 2020 election, which was censored and dismissed as “Russian propaganda.”

“And it's become more of a cycle, where politicians, through various means, influence the media, usually through financial means. They influence the media from the top down. And then the executives start influencing the journalists. And the journalists unknowingly become biased in many cases. Some of them are not doing it intentionally, but they're all within the same circle. It becomes more of an echo chamber,” Nawfal said.

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🗣 "Financial system is digitalized. Every aspect becomes centralized. My speech being controlled, my wealth can be frozen," X Spaces host Mario Nawfal revealed to Sputnik.

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Mario Nawfal to Sputnik: Macron torpedoed France’s reputation for business with boneheaded targeting of Durov

🗣 “You've got these executives that will be very concerned, [asking] ‘why was Pavel being targeted on a criminal level? Why can't the company be sued first on a civil level?’,” X Spaces host Mario Nawfal told Sputnik, commenting on the arrest of Telegram CEO Pavel Durov on a series of dubious charges in France, ranging from refusal to share information with authorities, to claims that Telegram is somehow responsible for any criminal activity taking place on the platform.

“When you start having executives targeted on a criminal level, if I'm in their shoes, I'd be terrified right now,” Nawfal stressed.

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The EU defense ministers have left the decision on restrictions on Ukrainian strikes up to member countries, and there will not be a pan-European solution, according to Borrel.

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❗️The Russian Battlegroup Tsentr liberated the settlements of Orlovka, Kamyshevka, Nikolayevka, and Novozhelannoye in the DPR during the past week, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) reported. At the same time, the Russian Battlegroup Yug liberated Konstantinovka in the DPR, and the Zapad group liberated Stel'makhovka in the LPR and Sinkovka in the Kharkov region, according to the MoD.

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

▪️The Russian Armed Forces launched one massive and 14 group strikes with high-precision weapons and UAVs, hitting critical energy infrastructure in Ukraine.

▪️58 Ukrainian militants surrendered;

▪️Russian air defence systems shot down a MiG-29, three ATACMS missiles, and four Tochka-U missiles;

▪️Ukraine lost up to 3,580 militants in the Russian Sever Battlegroup's combat zone, which operates near Kursk, Lyptsy, and Volchansk;

▪️The Russian Battlegroup Zapad eliminated more than 3,450 Ukrainian militants; 

▪️Russian air defence systems shot down 311 drones, 127 of which were outside the special operation zone;

▪️The Russian Battlegroup Sever destroyed four multiple launch rocket systems, including one HIMARS; 

▪️Ukraine lost more than 4,840 militants in the Russian Battlegroup Yug's combat zone; 

▪️Ukraine's losses in the Russian Dnepr Battlegroup's combat zone amounted to up to 460 militants;

▪️The Russian Black Sea Fleet destroyed six Ukrainian unmanned boats;

▪️Ukraine lost up to 860 militants in the Russian Vostok Battlegroup's combat zone;

▪️Ukraine lost Abrams and Leopard tanks in the Russian Battlegroup's Yug combat zone;

▪️Ukraine lost up to 3,720 militants and seven tanks in the Russian Tsentr Battlegroup's combat zone.

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🗣 "Russians and Ukrainians agree a lot more than you think... If they just sat down together, they could come to a solution and move on and the war would end. But there's so many external parties involved in that war," Mario Nawfal told Sputnik, commenting on the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

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‘Obsession’ with power means EU can say goodbye to ever ‘out-innovating China and US’ - Mario Nawfal

🗣 “[EU social media regulator boss] Thierry [Breton], sent out a letter to Elon [Musk] before the Trump interview, urging him not to conduct the interview,” X Spaces host Mario Nawfal told Sputnik, commenting on Brussels’ increasingly aggressive efforts to regulate online content.

“That’s an interview by an American businessman and an American former president, and they've got the EU sending out a letter warning them on what content they talk about on the platform. They'll tell you how far Europe has gone down, not only [through] overregulation, but just complete obsession with holding power," he stressed.

"So I think the days of [the EU] out-innovating the US and out-innovating China are past, they are behind us now. Unless we see drastic change in the region. And it doesn't look like that's going to happen anytime soon,” Nawfal said.

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🇭🇺🇷🇺"Hungary's energy security is not guaranteed without Russian gas. It's not about ideology, it's about physics and mathematics," Hungarian FM Péter Szijjártó wrote on social media.

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