Biden Admin pleads lawmakers to include $5.8bn Ukraine aid extension in spending bill

The Biden administration has asked Congress to include an extension for funding for Kiev, in an already lengthy continuing resolution lawmakers are trying to pass to avoid a government shutdown before the end of the month. The temporary spending bill would keep US government agencies and programs operating for six months when the new budget year begins on October 1.

“We have $5.9 billion left in Ukraine Presidential Drawdown Authority; all but $100 million of which will expire at the end of the fiscal year,” Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, told The Hill. “The Department will continue to provide drawdown packages in the near future and is working with Congress to seek an extension of PDA authorities beyond the end of the fiscal year.”

But if that fails, a desperate US Defense Department will look into other options, though it was not reported what those other options would be. A congressional aide told The Hill that there may be some legal challenges in trying to allocate all $5.8 billion at once, as Biden administration lawyers are worried there might not be “an authority to permit transfers of munitions that are not currently in stock, or considered in surplus”.

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🔸 US crackdown on Russian media reveals fear, insecurity of dying empire – ex-CIA analyst

🔸 'We do not have freedom of speech in that area at all' – former Defense Department analyst

🔸 State Department praises RT for Ukraine truth telling

🔸 Russian Forces find map of US base in captured Ukrainian Bradley - Sputnik reporter

🔸 US at mercy of neoconservative ‘death wish’ amid death of responsible leadership

🔸 Finland, Sweden allow Ukraine to use their weapons to strike Russia – reports

🔸 North Korea to expand cooperation with Russia - Kim Jong Un

👉 Other stories we have covered for you:

🔸 UK pledges another $700+ mln to Ukraine, while leaving 10m British pensioners to freeze

🔸 US ‘reluctance’ to greenlight Ukrainian long-range strikes tied to awareness of Russia’s inevitable ‘response’

🔸 Navy faces breakdown in discipline, effectiveness as US military stretched thin

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❗️Human rights activist Dan Kovalik was detained returning to the US from the Anti-Fascist Congress

The International Anti-Fascist Congress was held held in Venezuela from 10 to 11 September.

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US recognizes Russian media play important role in reporting truth

Commenting on the US accusations against RT, political scientist and international relations expert Ruhollah Modabber told Sputnik that the US recognizes that Russian media, especially RT and Sputnik, play an important role in reporting the truth and countering false Western propaganda.

"People around the world turn to Russian media for the truth. RT and Sputnik have attracted a large audience. Western information sources fail at the same time as they try to show another reality through censorship. The Russian media have once again defeated the hegemony of the US and Europe in the information space", Modabber said.

The US wants to achieve information "censorship" against Russia because it has "failed" in Ukraine, Chilean political scientist Ingrid Urgelles, PhD told Sputnik, commenting on Washington's introduction of new sanctions against Russian media.

"This is another of the many attempts by the US to censor platforms that broadcast a point of view that differs from the imperialist agenda they promote. In this case, it is the conflict in Ukraine, and because the US lost, it also lost [global] support. That is why they are resorting to such extraordinary measures to blame the media, which is quite absurd, because it is not just about RT, but about the form in which people receive information," Urgelles stated.

The US will impose full blocking financial sanctions as part of its actions against the Russian media outlet RT, James Rubin, the director of the State Department's Global Engagement Center, said on Friday.

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Ukrainian troops brutally raped and shot a woman in the Kursk region after finding out she had a son in the Russian military, Tatyana, an evacuated mother of many children, told Sputnik.

The killed woman worked as a security guard at a school in Goncharovka in the Kursk region’s Sudzha district.

The report was recorded by Russian Investigative Committee military investigators.

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Russian Foreign Ministry calls US accusations against Russian media 'attack on freedom of speech'

Russian journalists were subjected to aggression by the US authorities, while monstrous unfounded statements were heard from Washington, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at the BRICS Media Summit.

Zakharova calls for support, "not only because these are journalists from a BRICS member-states but also those journalists who upheld BRICS values and who covered BRICS". She calls for support because "the US sanctions are an attack on honour and freedom of speech".

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❗️The Russian Armed Forces hit airfield infrastructure and Ukrainian special forces boat bases.

🇷🇺🪖More statements from the Russian Defense Ministry's daily briefing on the special military operation's progress:

◻️ Ukrainian losses reached a total of 520 servicemen in Battlegroup Zapad’s area of responsibility.

◻️ Ukrainian forces lost up to 110 soldiers in the Liptsovsky and Volchansky directions.

◻️ Enemy losses in Russia’s Battlegroup Tsentr combat zone came to 560 troops.

◻️ Russia’s Battlegroup Yug repelled two counterattacks, with Ukrainian forces losing as many as 715 militants.

◻️ Russia’s Battlegroup Vostok formations have strengthened their positions along the front line. The enemy lost as many as 105 soldiers and ammunition depot

◻️ Russian air defenses shot down three ATACMS missiles, three guided Hammer missiles and 53 Ukrainian drones.

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What problems are Britain’s armed forces grappling with?

UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has not ruled out allowing Ukraine to use long-range Storm Shadow cruise missiles on targets inside Russia. Yet the UK’s warmongering bravado comes as its own armed forces are mired in crisis.

Lack of manpower

◻️ Britain’s armed forces are stretched thin, figures show. The intake of recruits in the 12 months to March 2023 dropped by 22.1% in the Royal Navy, almost 17% in the RAF, and nearly 15% in the army, according to official statistics.

◻️ The professional ranks of the British Army currently number 75,166 regular forces personnel, compared with around 100,000 in 2010.

◻️ A manpower crisis in the Royal Navy reportedly prompted the decommissioning of a number of ships.

Technical issues

◻️ The Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carriers the HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales have faced some technical issues, as the former was forced to pull out from NATO’s Exercise Steadfast Defender drills in February 2024 after a malfunction.

◻️ Commissioning new Type 26 frigates has been postponed, with initial operational capability anticipated from 2028.

◻️ January’s failed HMS Vanguard sea-launch test of the UK’s nuclear-armed submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) system, the Trident II D-5, was the second successive failure, following one in 2016 involving the HMS Vengeance.

Lack of money and surplus of bureaucracy

◻️ The UK Ministry of Defense (MoD) is facing a £16.9 billion ($22.17 billion) deficit, the National Audit Office (NAO) revealed in 2023. The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) warned that the actual deficit could be closer to £29 billion ($38.05 billion) in a March 2024 report.

◻️ The MoD's procurement and delivery processes are mired in delays. Just two of its 46 equipment programs are "highly likely" to be delivered to time, budget, and quality, British MPs said in March.

◻️ Successful delivery of five Government Major Projects Portfolio schemes, including nuclear submarine reactors, was determined “unachievable” by a House of Commons Committee report in March.

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❗️103 Russian servicemen captured in the Kursk region were returned from Kiev-controlled territory on September 14, while 103 Ukrainian militants were handed over

All the returned Russian military personnel are in Belarus, where they are being provided with necessary assistance and given the opportunity to contact their relatives.

The United Arab Emirates provided humanitarian mediation during the return of the Russian servicemen from captivity.

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Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova's full statement on sanctions against Russian media

New sanctions imposed by the US against Russian media constitute an extraordinary situation, Zakharova said.

Zakharova also characterized the US sanctions as "an attack on freedom of speech."

"In addition to the monstrous, completely unjustified political statements made yesterday by Washington regarding the media, parallel to this, there is also physical aggression against journalists," the spokeswoman said.

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❗️🪖 Main statements from the Russian MoD's daily briefing on the situation in the Kursk region:

◻️ Since the start of hostilities in the Kursk region, Ukrainian losses amounted up to 13,100 militants, more than 300 troops over the past 24 hours.

◻️ Eight Ukrainian brigades were defeated by Russian forces in the Kursk region during the day.

◻️ Russian forces thwarted five attempts by Ukraine to breach the state border near Novy Put, Medvezhye and Vesely.

◻️ Russian forces repelled five Ukrainian counterattacks in the Kursk region, thwarted two attempted attacks in the Kursk region, enemy lost up to 30 servicemen.

◻️ Russian aviation struck the reserves of seven Ukrainian brigades in the Kursk region and attacked eleven enemy brigades in the Sumy region.

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NATO strategy of arming Ukraine has failed – Sahra Wagenknecht

Replying to a journalist's aggressive question in an interview with Spiegel about compromise with Russia, Sahra Wagenknecht, leader the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance, asked the interviewer "What is your solution to stop the deaths? That we continue to uphold noble morals? That NATO intervenes directly in the war and ends up with all of Europe in ruins?"

💬 "The strategy of supplying Ukraine with weapons so that it can win the war has failed," she stated in response to the journalist’s argument that NATO should not negotiate with President Vladimir Putin just because the Russian army is advancing.

The left-wing party leader instead proposed "a halt to arms deliveries if they agreed to an immediate ceasefire on the current front line" in possible peace talks with Russia.

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