🎥 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s video address to participants in the BRICS International Youth Camp (August 2, 2023)

💬 The younger generation’s active involvement in our common work clearly indicates the appeal of the very concept of BRICS.

Cooperation within the five is a remarkable example of modern multilateral diplomacy. We have neither leaders nor followers; all decisions are based on consensus and a careful and fair balance of interests.

🇧🇷🇷🇺🇮🇳🇨🇳🇿🇦 We view this association as one of the pillars of the more just multipolar architecture of the world order that is taking shape today.

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Good morning, India! 🌞 शुभ प्रभात, भारत!

📸 Can you guess location on the photo?

The correct answer will be posted in comment section later today!

📅 Operation Rail War started on August 3, 1943, in the occupied western regions of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Belarus and Ukraine, with partisan units seeking to make it harder for the Germans to bring supplies and reinforcements to the eastern front. This effort was designed to help the Red Army’s offensive in the Battle of Kursk.

The Soviet command assigned this task to 167 partisan brigades and detached regiments, manned by about 100,000 fighters. Legendary Soviet special operations operative Ilya Starinov headed the operation, which was prepared under complete secrecy.

Operation Rail War began with the counteroffensive on the Voronezh and Steppe fronts simultaneously. A total of 42,000 railway tracks were destroyed and dozens of enemy trains were derailed during the very first night.

In a matter of weeks, Soviet partisans destroyed some 215,000 railway rails or over 1,500 kilometres of enemy railway lines. Communications between the German army groups South and Centre was disrupted, and by autumn, German railway shipments decreased by 40 percent. To a large degree, it was the well-coordinated actions by the Soviet partisans that enabled the Red Army to win the Battle of Kursk.

This partisan warfare operation was unprecedented in terms of its scale and the high level of preparation and coordination. It was the first time the partisans worked so closely with the Armed Forces command to ensure that combat action was accompanied by acts of sabotage behind the lines. The Soviet command later used the experience acquired during Operation Rail War in other offensive operations.

🎖 The heroism demonstrated by Soviet partisans while carrying out extremely challenging missions behind the enemy lines deserves special attention. About 300 partisans and underground resistance fighters were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for their feats during the Great Patriotic War.

🎙 Briefing by Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova (Moscow, August 2, 2023)

🔷 FM Sergey Lavrov’s schedule
🔷 #RussiaAfrica Summit
🔷 Ukrainian crisis
🔷 Kiev regime’s crimes and use of terrorist methods
🔷 Actions against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church
🔷 Developments in Niger
🔷 New evidence of militarist Japan’s crimes

And more...

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#Ukraine

Сriminal activity involving the open use of terrorist methods has long become routine for the Kiev regime. Its representatives are no longer afraid to admit this openly, assuming responsibility for attacks on civilian facilities and acts of terrorism against civilians.

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Western countries are not only verbally encouraging the terrorist methods of the Kiev regime, but are also directly involved in the organisation of terrorist acts by supplying weapons and passing on the necessary intelligence.

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With the Ukraine conflict moving into a more intensive phase, we are witnessing major violations of the OSCE Document on Small Arms and Light Weapons by the United States (2000) and the Principles Governing Conventional Arms Transfers (1993). By supplying all these weapons to the neo-Nazis in Kiev, the West encourages human rights violations by the receiving state, escalates the armed confrontation and becomes an accomplice in the war crimes perpetrated by the Ukrainian Armed Forces against civilians.

🇷🇺🇺🇳 Russian Mission to the UN:

🎙 Statement by Russia's Chargé d'Affaires to the UN Dmitry Polyanskiy at UNSC open debate on famine and conflict-induced global food insecurity (3 August, 2023)

💬 Many food crises have been provoked, either directly or indirectly, by acts of the US and its allies or have followed from their longstanding policies.

• By UN estimates, technically there is no acute shortage of food in the world. It is not that we produce insufficient amount of food. We produce enough.

☝️ The problem is that it is distributed unevenly. There is excess in the West and shortages in developing states. The second reason is what economy analysts call pricing environment. In layman’s terms, this means that major agricultural manufacturers benefit from maintaining the prices for their products at a high level. I mean the four agricultural giants, three of which are American (Archer Daniels Midland, Bunge, and Cargill) and one Dutch (Louis Dreyfus), who account for 75% to 90% of global agricultural turnover.

• Despite all the good slogans, donor assistance of Western states does not come for free. It always comes along with some political preconditions. Here is a telling example – the situation with Syria’s cross border humanitarian mechanism (CBM). In fact, Western states are blackmailing the Syrian people in an attempt to effect a regime change.

• The habits and methods of former colonizers have not changed. They simply come in a new wrapping, and that’s that. For every dollar they ostensibly have spent on aid, they will demand to pay off with your sovereignty and political independence. Many African states have already experienced this and do not want to accept this approach.

🇷🇺 Russia has never viewed Africa, Asia or Latin America as a space to draw profit from. Despite all the obstacles imposed by the US and its allies, we have helped, are helping, and will continue to help those in need around the world.

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🎙 Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova’s answer to a media question about foreign aid to Ukraine

❓ Question: In July, the Review of Ukraine Foreign Assistance Coordination and Oversight by the Inspector General of the US Department of State was published online. It reads that over the longer run “corruption in the Ukrainian government and private sector poses risks to the effectiveness of US foreign assistance that requires robust oversight.” <…> the EU prefers to avoid this issue. Why is Brussels so shortsighted?

💬 Maria Zakharova: The more money is pumped into Ukraine, the more displeased its Western sponsors will be at Kiev’s inability to at least limit the stealing of funds. <…>

If the US begins to talk about the seriousness of the issue, the EU has been apparently been told to remain silent for the time being. <...> European taxpayers have the same right to know as the Americans how their money is spent. After all, according to the European Commission, as of July, the amount of funds promised to Ukraine by the EU, its member countries, the European Investment Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has already reached about 76 billion euros. <…>

Brussels refrained from its traditional threats to cut off funding if nothing is done to eradicate corruption although corruption in Ukraine is already astronomical.

The European Commission has recently proposed a special 50 billion euro fund for Ukraine for 2024-2027. To control its spending, it suggested establishing a multi-level auditing system that will include the creation of dedicated oversight bodies and regular planned and unplanned EU inspections. It would be interesting to see how successful Brussels will be in this venture.

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⚡️ Joint Statement Issued following the Engagement between the President of the Russian Federation and the Leaders of the African Peace Initiative

🗓 On 28 July 2023, in Saint-Petersburg, the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin and the Leaders of the seven countries leading the African Peace Initiative continued their discussion on the African Peace Initiative, which they started on June 17, 2023.

African Leaders attending the meeting on 28 July 2023 were President Azali Assoumani of the Union of the Comoros in his capacity as Chair of the African Union; President Cyril Ramaphosa of the Republic of South Africa; President Denis Sassou Nguesso of the Republic of the Congo; President Abdel Fattah-el Sisi of the Arab Republic of Egypt; President Масkу Sall of the Republic of Senegal; President Yoweri Museveni of the Republic of Uganda and the Foreign Minister of the Republic of Zambia, Stanley Kakubo.

The Leaders recognised progress achieved since then on proposals they discussed at the first meeting on 17 June 2023 on humanitarian issues, in particular, related to the rights of children in areas of armed activities and prisoner exchanges between Russia and Ukraine, and agreed that humanitarian efforts would continue to bring further results.

The Leaders called for specific steps to remove obstacles to Russian grain and fertilizer exports, thus allowing the resumption of the full implementation of the Black Sea package initiative of the United Nations Secretary-General as endorsed on 22 July 2022 in Istanbul.

The Leaders also called upon the United Nations to take necessary action in order to release 200 thousand tons of Russian fertilizer blocked in European Union seaports for immediate and free delivery to African countries.

The Leaders agreed to continue their dialogue on the African Peace Initiative so that a door to peace can be opened.

🗓 The heroic defence of Odessa from the Nazi invaders began #OnThisDay in 1941.

Odessa became a frontline city almost immediately after the start of the Great Patriotic War. On August 5, 1941, when the enemy approached Odessa, the Southern Front received an order from the Supreme High Command General Headquarters to retain control of the city at any cost.

The Separate Coastal Army under the command of General Georgy Sofronov was charged with the defence, with the Black Sea Fleet rendering assistance to the city’s defenders.

❗️ Up to 100,000 residents took part in building the city’s defences. Thanks to their efforts, three lines of defence with a total length of 250 km were built in Odessa; 250 barricades were erected in the city’s streets.

Thanks to the efficient organisation of defence, the enemy’s attacks were successfully repelled despite the Nazis’ almost tenfold numerical superiority.

The heroic defence lasted for 73 days and paralysed up to 18 enemy divisions. During the battles, according to various estimates, more than 160,000 enemy soldiers and officers, approximately 200 aircraft and 100 tanks were put out of action, which hampered the advance of the right wing of Army Group South to the East.

After the enemy invaded Odessa, around 40,000 residents left for the catacombs and continued to offer resistance right until the liberation of the city by the 3rd Ukrainian Front forces on April 10, 1944.

🎖 On December 22, 1942, the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the Soviet Union established the medal For the Defence of Odessa, which was awarded to more than 30,000 people.

🕯 #OnThisDay in 1945, the United States dropped a nuclear bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, instantly killing almost 80,000 people. About as many people would die in agony later from radiation poisoning. This was the first time in human history that a nuclear device was used in warfare. In fact, it was a merciless test on the civilian population.

The United States has been carrying out research on military applications for nuclear weapons since 1939, seeking to create a formidable weapon that would enable Washington to impose its will on the entire world. Codenamed Manhattan, the project received almost $2 billion in funding.

Three nuclear bombs were developed by mid-summer 1945, cynically codenamed the Gadget, Little Boy and Fat Man. The Gadget was to be used in a test explosion, while the other two were intended to intimidate Japan and also impress the USSR as it reinforced its positions.

Almost all clocks in Hiroshima stopped ticking at 8:15 am. The city was completely wiped from the surface of the Earth with the blast from the explosion turning people into ashes.

Attempts by Western historians to justify this monstrous crime by saying that the United States wanted to force Japan to withdraw from World War II do not hold water. Japan’s military resources were largely depleted by early August 1945, and it was the USSR’s entry into war in the Far East that played a decisive role here.

Therefore, the atomic bombing of Hiroshima was nothing other than a barbarous display of force and an attempt to justify all the money that had been invested in the Manhattan Project. It never occurred to President Harry Truman or any of his successors in this office to apologise for the suffering the people of Hiroshima had to endure.

💬 Sergey Lavrov on the atomic bombing of Hiroshima (August 6, 2020): To this day, the terrible death of innocent civilians strikes a chord with millions of people on our planet. It is hard to fully understand what the masterminds and perpetrators of such an inhumane act were guided by.

📄 Russian MFA Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova's article for Rossiyskaya Gazeta (August 7, 2023)

The world leader of black transplants: In Ukraine, organs are traded online and offline

💬 Ukraine has long been known as a world leader in organ trafficking. Scandals involving the illegal removal of organs from corpses began to appear in the late 1990s. The problem began to mount in the early 2000s.

Organ trafficking increased in scale after the start of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine, following the Kiev regime’s passage of laws that drastically simplified the work of transplant specialists in the country.

It has been reported in the media that organs of killed soldiers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces were available for sale in one of the biggest shops of the darknet. A heart, liver, kidneys & other body parts with price tags starting at 5,000 euros are on offer. There is information to the effect that people involved in the Kosovo Liberation Army may own or at least deal with this shop.

In June of 2023, a man was detained at the Ukraine-Slovakia border. An employee of a charity organisation, it was discovered that he was involved in trafficking Ukrainian children abroad, in part, for transplants. A court released him on bail set at a suspiciously low 1 million hryvnias despite the grievous nature of his crime, & he disappeared. That said, an astronomical sum of 33 million hryvnias was assigned as collateral to Metropolitan Pavel, the father superior of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra.

👉 This is conclusive evidence that the Ukrainian state is covering up and encouraging this bloody business. There is information pointing to the involvement of Zelensky’s entourage.

In Ukraine, organs are traded not only on the darknet but also offline. There is information indicating that in June 2023, representatives of the health ministry of a NATO country agreed with the Ukrainians on the delivery of a refrigerated train car with human organs & body parts that are most often used for transplants.

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✈️ #OnThisDay in 1941, Viktor Talalikhin became one of the first pilots in the history of Great Patriotic War to perform an aerial ramming at night. In the early hours of August 7, he flew his Polikarpov I-16 aircraft straight into the tail of a Nazi Heinkel He-111 bomber that was escaping pursuit.

This happened in the first weeks of the war, when the young Soviet fighter pilot was defending the sky over the south-west of Moscow. The German aircraft was shot down, and the wounded Talalikhin miraculously managed to parachute out of the aircraft and remained unharmed. On August 8 he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

At the time of his feat, Talalikhin was only 22 years old. Unfortunately, he did not live to see the end of the war: in the autumn of 1941 he fell in an unequal battle with the Nazis in the vicinity of Podolsk.

During the heavy fighting in the summer of 1941 Talalikhin's selfless feat inspired millions. In total, Soviet pilots rammed more than 600 enemy aircraft during the Great Patriotic War.

#FacesOfVictory

🕯 August 8 marks the 15th anniversary of the Saakashvili regime's military aggression against the people of South Ossetia and Russian peacekeepers from the Joint Peacekeeping Forces in the zone of the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict.

In the early hours of August 8, 2008, on the orders of the then President of Georgia, the Georgian armed forces launched the so-called "operation to impose constitutional order on the territory of South Ossetia," which resulted in numerous casualties, including among Russian citizens.

❗️ Georgia’s actions were a flagrant violation of international agreements on the peaceful settlement of the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict. The fact that those actions were deliberate was documented in the report of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Conflict in the Caucasus established under the auspices of the European Union.

Russia’s involvement prevented the conflict from escalating further. The criminal military escapade undertaken by the Saakashvili regime met with an adequate response: in those extreme circumstances, Russia first conducted a successful operation to force the aggressor to peace, and then recognised South Ossetia, as well as Abkhazia, which was destined to the same fate as the neighbouring republic, as sovereign independent states, taking them under its protection.

#NoStatuteOfLimitations

📸 Stenin Contest 2023: Indian Photojournalist Work Wins Online Vote

🇮🇳 The spotlight is on Kabir Jhangiani, an exceptional talent hailing from India, as his breathtaking photograph "Seagulls around Yamuna River" takes first place in this year's Andrei Stenin Press Photo Contest.

🗯 Describing his work, Jhangiani eloquently shares: “A man rows his boat along the banks of the Yamuna River in New Delhi. Migratory birds come to India for the winter. They get to different parts of the country by October and usually leave in March.”

🕊 Jhangiani's lens beautifully captures the harmony of man and nature during this enchanting migration period.

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