The drones that Kiev used to strike the Crimean bridge were developed as part of an operation involving the CIA and other Western intelligence services, according to the Washington Post.

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More excerpts from the Washington Post article:

▪️The CIA-Ukraine cooperation took root in the aftermath of the 2014 political protests that led the former Ukrainian president to flee the country;

▪️The CIA worked with the SBU to create an entirely new directorate, officials said;

▪️The the new unit was prosaically dubbed the "Fifth Directorate" to distinguish it from the four long-standing units of the SBU;

▪️A sixth directorate has since been added to work with Britain's MI6 spy agency, the officials said;

▪️Training sites were set up outside Kiev, where hand-picked recruits were trained by CIA personnel, the officials said;

▪️The plan was to form units "capable of operating behind the front lines and working as covert groups," a Ukrainian official said.

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The Irish authorities intend to limit the period for which Ukrainian refugees will be provided with housing to three months. The reason is the high cost; the authorities spend 1.5 billion euros a year for these purposes, according to the Irish Examiner.

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📹 Russian paratroopers destroyed a Ukrainian tank in the Zaporozhye direction

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Over 15,000 Palestinians were injured, the Palestinian Health Ministry stated.

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⚡️ Erdogan proposes to Turkish parliament to ratify protocol on Sweden's membership in NATO

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❗️Key points of the Russian Defense Ministry briefing on the progress of the special military operation in Ukraine:

▪️In the Kupyansk direction, the Russian Army repelled nine attacks by Ukrainian forces near the settlements of Sinkovka, Ivanovka;

▪️In the Kharkov region and Novoegorovka in the LPR. Ukrainian losses amounted to 195 military personnel, three armored combat vehicles, three cars, one Grad MLRS combat vehicle and one D-20 gun;

▪️ In the Krasny Liman direction, the Russian Army repelled 12 attacks by Ukrainian troops. Ukrainian losses amounted to 480 military personnel, four armored combat vehicles, three cars and a D-30 howitzer;

▪️In the Donetsk direction, Russian forces repelled one attack by Ukrainian troops. Ukrainian losses amounted to 165 military personnel, two armored combat vehicles, four vehicles, one Msta-B howitzer and one D-30 gun;

▪️In the South Donetsk direction, Ukrainian losses amounted to 160 military personnel;

▪️In the Zaporozhye direction, the Russian Army repelled seven attacks by Ukrainian troops in the area of the Rabotino settlement, Zaporozhye region. Ukrainian losses amounted to 80 military personnel, one tank and three armored combat vehicles;

▪️In the Kherson direction, Ukrainian losses amounted to 90 military personnel, one Grad MLRS combat vehicle, two D-30 howitzers;

▪️Russian air defense systems destroyed 19 Ukrainian drones.

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🇺🇸 US urges Israel to defer Gaza ground offensive, according to reports

Washington wants Israel to delay its ground offensive into the Gaza Strip in order to buy time for talks on hostages and to allow more humanitarian aid into the territory, unnamed US sources were quoted as saying by an American newspaper.

The sources claimed that the “fast-moving events” since the Palestinian militant group Hamas freed two American women last week “have spurred the Biden administration to more urgently suggest that the Israelis allow time to negotiate the release of 212 other hostages.”

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📉 Shekel shaken as crisis with Hamas further batters Israeli economy

The Israeli New Shekel was trading at 3.86 to the US dollar on October 7, the day the armed wing of Hamas launched a surprise rocket and ground attack from the besieged Gaza Strip. It now stands at 4.06 to the dollar, continuing a slide that began during a wave of domestic protests this summer against attempts by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government to shake up the supreme court.

The Bank of Israel has sold some $30 billion-worth of bonds and shares in a bid to prop up the shekel. But that has been undermined by ForEx speculators 'shorting' the currency — borrowing money short-term, exchanging it on the market and then buying it back after the exchange rate falls, pocketing the difference as profit.

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📹 TOS-1A heavy flamethrower crews wipe out enemy's strongholds

The system is armed with 24 thermobaric shells. Upon impact with the target, the projectile disperses and ignites an explosive mixture, generating temperatures of several thousand degrees and significant pressure. TOS-1A has a firing range of approximately 6 kilometres.

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🇷🇺🇮🇷 A meeting took place in Tehran between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi

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How Melitopol's crucial 'little Stalingrad' offensive enabled Crimea & Odessa's liberation

The Melitopol offensive has been likened to the Red Army's "Little Stalingrad." Recapturing the city from the Nazis required intense urban combat, and the victory essentially provided the key to liberating Ukraine's right bank and Crimea, Mikhail Myagkov, the scientific director of the Russian Military Historical Society, told Sputnik.

Exactly 80 years ago, on October 23, 1943, the Red Army freed Melitopol, which had been under Nazis' brutal grip since October 1941. The city endured two years of harsh occupation, marked by curfews, executions of civilians and forced labor of its youth in Germany.

Check out Sputnik's article to find out

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The Foreign Ministers of the EU countries were unable to agree on the allocation of the 8th package of funding for military assistance to Ukraine, Josep Borrell said.

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🗣️ On the global shift to the east:

“I think the world power and momentum, even the global economy is shifting east than west, and we see the decadent nature of the West and Western leadership. And it's almost a caricature of some of the terrible things that have gone on the past and an Orwellian nature of Western governments who have waged war, colonialism based for decades and centuries, based on the claim that they're going to civilize the natives, are going to spread democracy, and really they create a hellhole, whether it's Iraq or Vietnam or Libya... More and more people are waking up around the world and countries are more and more seeing a future with China, with Russia,” Jeremy Kuzmarov, managing editor of CovertAction Magazine and the author of several books, told Sputnik.

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📹 The crews of MiG-31 aircraft continue to perform air patrol missions in the special military operation zone.

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IDF: Since the beginning of the war, the IDF, directed by the ISA, eliminated five commanders of the Hamas Aerial Array

"The Hamas Aerial Array operates a variety of weapons against the State of Israel. The array took a significant part in the attack against Israel at the start of the war, and in recent days the IAF has eliminated a number of commanders in the array," the IDF claimed.

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Red Cross to receive 50 hostages with dual citizenship

According to Israeli media, the Red Cross are on their way to receive a group of about 50 of those who were kidnapped with dual citizenship. Qatar is said to be playing a crucial role in mediating. Israel will not be an official party in negotiations for the release of hostages with a dual citizenship.

The Israeli media reports that there have been no Israeli airstrikes on Gaza during these recent hours in order to allow Red Cross personnel to reach the area safely.

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