US human rights activist in Donbass: Most Americans oppose supporting Ukraine

A majority of the US population is not in favor of providing aid to Ukraine, and polling also proves this, US human rights activist Dan Kovalik told Sputnik during a visit to Donbass.

"I am certainly the person in the United States who insists that the US should stop supporting Ukraine. And the majority of Americans, as polls show, agree with me and this aid should be stopped," Kovalik pointed out.

The human rights activist said he was visiting Donetsk for the second time. His first trip took place in November 2022, when Ukrainian forces were regularly shelling civilian districts in the city with artillery and missiles. Now, he said, the situation has changed for the better.

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UK has most illegals in Europe amid inability to fix migrant crisis – survey

The UK has been overrun by more illegal migrants than any other European nation, a new study has revealed. There are currently an estimated 745,000 unauthorized immigrants in the United Kingdom, according to Oxford University research.

In other words, illegal arrivals account for one in 100 of Britain’s population. This includes migrants who crossed the English Channel in small boats, failed asylum seekers, and migrants who have overstayed their visas.

The UK’s migrant numbers top those of Germany (up to 700,000), Spain (469,000), Italy (458,000), and France (300,000).

The total number of people crossing the Channel into the UK in 2024 has grown by 5% since September 2023, and is currently at 26,612 people in 503 boats.

Another dismal record of daily arrivals for 2024 was set on October 5, as 973 migrants in 17 small boats crossed the English Channel, per the Home Office. Data also showed there was an overall backlog of 224,742 asylum seekers awaiting a decision on their claim or appealing its rejection.

Growing anti-migrant sentiment in the country and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s failure to handle the crisis triggered a wave of violent riots that rocked Britain earlier this year. Namely, Starmer faced fire for taking too long to coordinate a response to the riots.

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▪️ US reportedly offers Israel 'compensation' for avoiding attacks on some Iranian targets

▪️ Clashes with police at pro-Palestinian march in Rome leave 34 injured

▪️ US human rights activist in Donbass: Most Americans oppose supporting Ukraine

▪️ UK has the most illegals in Europe amid its inability to fix the migrant crisis - survey

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❗️Ukraine is preparing a provocation to accuse Russia of using toxic substances in its special military operation, Igor Kirillov, head of Russia’s Radiological, Chemical, and Biological Defense Troops, said.

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❗️Materials with fabricated evidence of Russian use of poisonous substances will be presented within the framework of the 107th session of the Executive Council of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which begins on October 8, Igor Kirillov, head of Russia’s Radiological, Chemical, and Biological Defense Troops, said.

Other key statements by Igor Kirillov on the issue:

▪️ Ukraine will hand over “evidence” of Russia's use of toxic substances to OPCW representatives for them to draw up an “independent” report;

▪️ In the event the provocation is successful, Ukraine intends to seek to deprive Russian representatives of their positions in the OPCW Technical Secretariat;

▪️ The excessive supply of Ukraine with personal protective equipment is another indication of a forthcoming provocation accusing Russia of using toxic substances;

▪️ The US is involved in the provocation being prepared by Kiev, as evidenced by a statement by a US representative at the OPCW;

▪️ After Kiev's provocation with the use of toxic substances, a decision will be made on disenfranchising Russia as a party to the Chemical Weapons Convention (prohibiting the use of chemical weapons);

▪️ Another platform has been created on the basis of the OPCW that is controlled by the US and used to settle accounts with undesirable countries;

▪️ Materials on Russia's alleged use of toxic substances will be sent to the UN Security Council, as was done in the case of Syria.

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❗️Quds Force commander Brigadier General Esmail Qaani 'is fine' – Tasnim News Gency, citing Quds Force

Earlier Western media reported rumours that Qaani was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Beirut last Friday.

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❗️ Russian troops liberated the settlement of Grodovka in the Donetsk People's Republic, the Defense Ministry reported.

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❗️The Russian Armed Forces destroyed an Israeli-made RADA RPS-42 multifunctional radar station;

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

◻️ The Russian Armed Forces struck the infrastructure of two military airfields, ammunition depots, and military-technical equipment of Ukraine;

◻️ Units of the Russian Tsentr Battlegroup are operating in the Dnepropetrovsk region, hitting Ukrainian militants in the area of Raipol;

◻️ The Russian Yuzhnaya Battlegroup continued advancing deeper into enemy defenses, with Ukrainian militants losing up to 590 personnel;

◻️ Russian air defense systems destroyed three ATACMS missiles and five HIMARS rockets;

◻️ Ukrainian losses in the Russian Vostok Battlegroup's combat zone amounted to up to 120 militants;

◻️ Ukrainian losses in the Russian Tsentr Battlegroup's combat zone exceeded 420 militants; the list of lost tanks includes a German Leopard tank;

◻️ Ukraine lost up to 410 militants in the Russian Zapad Battlegroup's combat zone;

◻️ Combat operations by the Russian Dnepr Battlegroup resulted in up to 80 militants eliminated and a field ammunition depot destroyed.

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Slapping tariffs on Chinese EVs is a hypocritical move from ‘trade protectionist’ EU – analyst

It's “definitely hypocritical” on the part of the European Union to accuse countries like China of subsidizing their companies when many EU nations are “very trade protectionist” themselves, Thomas W. Pauken II, geopolitical commentator and consultant on Asia-Pacific affairs, told Sputnik.

He noted that “France, Germany, all of these countries do the same exact thing they're accusing China of. So it's really strange and odd that they would use these accusations against China as a reason to increase tariffs [on EVs].”

Those Chinese companies that “apparently thought that EU was a good market for them” will be impacted initially by the tariffs of up to 45% on their electric vehicles announced by the European Commission on Friday, the geopolitical analyst believes.

However, the move will prompt Chinese companies to rethink their long-term business strategy.

“Instead of focusing on Europe and the US, they're probably just going to focus more on consumers in China and in Southeast Asia and elsewhere,” the pundit underscored, adding that the Middle East is becoming a bigger player, too.

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🎥🎥 Lavrov attends CIS Council of Foreign Ministers plenary session

👉Watch the livestream here or follow the link to the Sputnik's website

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❗️Ukraine's total losses have exceeded 21,000 servicemen in the fighting in the Kursk Region, the Russian Defense Ministry revealed.

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❗️ US intelligence has been passing information to Ukraine for strikes on Russian civilian infrastructure since the very beginning of the conflict, the head of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) said.

The US and NATO are actively condoning Ukraine's criminal policy and bear no less responsibility for the deaths of the population and destruction of Russian infrastructure, said Sergey Naryshkin, director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service.

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Sergey Lavrov: Ukraine and its puppeteers play with fire, restoring peace is not part of their plan

Restoring peace is not part of Ukraine’s plan, while its Western patrons continue “playing with fire,” oblivious of the dangerous consequences, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with the US magazine Newsweek.

“Zelensky has not revoked his decree banning negotiations with Moscow. Washington and its NATO allies provide political, military and financial support to Kiev so that the war would go on. They are discussing authorizing the AFU to use Western long-range missiles to strike deep into Russian territory,” Lavrov explained.

Russia’s top diplomat emphasized that the February 2014 agreement was ripped up by the US-backed opposition, then the Minsk accords were sabotaged and subsequently revealed to have never been fulfilled by Ukraine’s patrons, and finally the 2022 Istanbul agreements were “not signed by Zelensky at the insistence of his Western supervisors, in particular, the then British prime minister [Boris Johnson].”

Lavrov reiterated the prerequisites for a settlement listed by Russian President Vladimir Putin:

▪️ complete withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from the DPR, LPR, and Zaporozhye and Kherson regions
▪️ recognition of territorial realities as enshrined in the Russian constitution
▪️ neutral, non-bloc, non-nuclear status for Ukraine; its demilitarization and de-Nazification
▪️ securing the rights, freedoms, and interests of Russian-speaking citizens
▪️ removal of all sanctions against Russia.

Since Ukraine’s Western patrons seek to inflict a “strategic defeat” on Russia, “we have no choice but to continue our special military operation until the threats posed by Ukraine are removed,” Lavrov stressed, adding that Russia “will take adequate decisions based on [its] understanding of the threats posed by the West.”

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Sergey Lavrov: While West seeks dominance, UN charter’s peace ideals remain a ‘dead letter’

Russia believes all states, including the US, “should comply with their obligations on an equal basis with others rather than disguise their legal nihilism with mantras of their exceptionality,” Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov underscored in his interview with the US magazine Newsweek.

“As long as the West continues seeking dominance, the ideals of peace set forth in the Charter of the United Nations will remain a dead letter,” he said, adding that the UN should remain “a forum for aligning the interests of all the countries.”

“Here we are supported by the majority of countries, which see how international law is violated with complete impunity in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, just the way it had earlier been violated in Kosovo, Iraq, Libya and many other places,” the Russian FM said.

Weighing in on the ongoing shift towards a multipolar world order, Lavrov described it as “a natural part of power rebalancing, which reflects objective changes in the world economy, finance and geopolitics,” noting that the West “has also started to realize that this process is irreversible.”

New centers of decision-making are gaining strength in the Global South and East, with regional associations such as BRICS, the SCO, Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), African Union, Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), and others, which “support mutually beneficial cooperation and respect for each other's interests,” Lavrov emphasized.

Weighing in on the potential outcome of the 2024 US presidential election, Lavrov noted that both the Democrats and Republicans “have reached a consensus as to countering Russia.” The Russian FM advised any future White House resident “to mind their domestic business, rather than look for adventures tens of thousands of miles away from American coasts.”

“At all events, we will promote Russia's interests decisively, especially as far as its national security is concerned,” Lavrov said.

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❗️Ukraine has lost more than 21,000 militants in the Kursk region since the start of combat operations, the Russian Ministry of Defense stated.

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🇷🇺🪖 More statements from the Russian Ministry of Defense regarding the military situation in the Kursk region:

◻️ Russian Battlegroup Sever repelled two enemy counterattacks in the direction of the settlements of Kremennaya and Plekhovo, and disrupted attempts to strike in the direction of Lyubimovka and Russkoye Porechnoye.

As a result, Ukraine lost up to 30 militants killed or wounded, along with an armored combat vehicle and a car.

◻️ Over the past day, Ukrainian losses amounted to over 150 militants, with three armored combat vehicles, two artillery pieces, four mortars, and two cars destroyed.

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❗️According to information from the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), the plan of the terrorist attack on the Kursk region included the seizure and mining of the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant, SVR Director Sergey Naryshkin stated.

Had Ukraine succeeded in capturing it, Europe would have faced an environmental and humanitarian catastrophe comparable to Chernobyl, he added.

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