❗️In response to attempts to cause damage to Russian energy and economic facilities, a group strike was carried out on military-industrial facilities in Ukraine and aviation bases of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the goals of the strike were achieved, the Ministry of Defense reported.

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US President Joe Biden is given instructions with large print and photos on how to get to the podium at events, Axios writes. One of these documents came into the possession of the portal (pictured).

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❗️Statements by representatives of the Kiev regime about an allegedly intentional missile strike by Russia on civilian targets are absolutely untrue, Russia's Ministry of Defense has said.

Numerous published photos and video footage from Kiev clearly confirm the fact of destruction due to the fall of a Ukrainian air defense missile, the ministry noted.

Ukrainian statements about alleged Russian strikes on civilian targets are related to the NATO summit and the receipt of further funding, the ministry added.

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❗️Ukrainian losses amounted to 570 soldiers in the area of responsibility of the Yug Battlegroup over the last day.

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

▪️Ukrainian losses amounted to 140 soldiers in the area of responsibility of the Vostok Battlegroup;

▪️The Zapad Battlegroup defeated two Ukrainian brigades, enemy losses over the day amounted to more than 495 soldiers;

▪️Ukrainian losses amounted to 260 soldiers in the area of responsibility of the Sever Battlegroup;

▪️Ukrainian losses amounted to 385 soldiers in the area of responsibility of the Tsentr Battlegroup in one day;

▪️Russian air defenses shot down four Hammer guided bombs, five HIMARS missiles and 30 drones in one day.

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❗️The Russian military destroyed three HIMARS MLRS launchers and up to ten foreign specialists who serviced them, the Ministry of Defense reported. The Ukrainian Armed Forces also lost another Abrams tank.

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Indian PM Modi arrives in Russia on official visit

Modi's plane has landed at Moscow Vnukovo airport, Sputnik correspondent reports

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Modi is met by Russia's First Deputy Prime Minister Manturov

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Macron emerges as biggest loser in French elections

France is already "in the midst of a political crisis," Jacques Sapir, director of studies at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS) in Paris, tells Sputnik, commenting on the results of the French elections.

He notes that Emmanuel Macron is undoubtedly the biggest loser of this election, facing a complex political landscape without a clear majority.

Sapir explains, "Without a clear majority, and no forces able to secure an absolute majority, the political situation is poised to be a complex one."

He draws parallels to the early 1950s under the Fourth Republic, where both the right- and left-wingers were excluded from any governmental majority. This historical context reflects today's situation where forming a stable government seems challenging.

He further adds that if an alliance from the socialists to the neo-Gaullists of “Les Républicains” could be constituted, it would secure an absolute majority. However, he doubted the feasibility of such an alliance, questioning whether a socialist like Boris Vallaud could sit in the same government as a staunch conservative like Laurent Wauquier. Sapir warns that such weak governmental formations will not be able to address the economic and social crises in France effectively.

“With the economic and social crises now going on in France, it is quite clear that we couldn’t afford weak governments,” he says.

The real question, according to Sapir, is whether this political crisis could be patched up by unlikely but possible political alliances or if it will evolve into a regime crisis with potential riots and social unrest. He emphasized that the frustration on both the right and left could exacerbate the crisis, which might not be resolved before the Olympic Games.

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❗️More than 400 cases of Ukraine using non-lethal toxic chemicals have been recorded during the special military operation, said head of Russia's Radiation, Chemical and Biological Defense Troops Igor Kirillov.

Kiev likewise uses chemical agents to combat riots on a regular basis, with assault groups being equipped with them.

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❗️The United States and Germany, together with Ukraine and the technical secretariat of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, are preparing to launch a special mission to investigate the facts of the use of chemical weapons in Ukraine, said the head of Russia's Radiation, Chemical and Biological Defense Troops Igor Kirillov.

The goal is to bring charges against Russia based on fabricated evidence. The Americans have already allocated about $400,000 for this purpose, the Ministry of Defense noted.

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How France has been engulfed by protests over the past 10 years

The snap elections in France led to a surprise victory of the left-wing New Popular Front (NFP) coalition, with demonstrations held across France to celebrate the event, some of which resulted in violent clashes with police in Paris, Lille, Marseille, and Rennes.

Earlier, left-wing groups took to the streets in the wake of the first round of snap elections which suggested an imminent win for the right-wing National Rally (RN). The French government deployed 30,000 police officers across the country, including 5,000 in Paris.

Over the past 10 years France has been repeatedly rocked by protests:

▪️In January, French farmers' unions mobilized over 72,000 farmers with 41,000 tractors to stage large-scale protests in 85 of France’s 101 departments over Paris' ecological restrictions, tax hike on diesel fuel, and inadequate sales prices.

▪️The pension reform unrest continued from January through June 2023 over the government's decision to increase the retirement age from 62 to 64. Over a million people took to the streets in January 2023 alone.

▪️Between December 2019 and February 2020, French unions organized a first series of rallies over France's pension reform. More than 800,000 protested across the country.

▪️Hundreds of thousands of Yellow Vests took to the streets in November 2018 over rising fuel prices and the cost-of-living crisis. The movement marked its fifth anniversary in November 2023 with an enhanced set of demands including increased salaries, societal reforms, and France's withdrawal from NATO and the EU.

▪️In 2017 the country saw a series of union protests against President Macron's economic program targeting workers' rights.

▪️From March through June 2016, the French protested against proposed labor reforms (the El Khomri law) that made it easier to lay off workers, loosen restrictions on working hours, and reduce overtime payments.

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☢️ Ukraine's imports of spent nuclear fuel* is overseen by Volodymyr Zelensky's office head Andrei Yermak and sponsored by the Soros Foundation — Russian MoD

☢️ The Ukrainian Armed Forces have used chloropicrin many times near Donetsk, Bogdanovka, Gorlovka, Kremennaya and Artemovsk, head of the Russian Chemical Defense Forces, Igor Kirillov, has said.

In total, the ministry has recorded more than 400 cases of Ukraine's use of non-lethal toxic chemicals.

Other statements by the military department:

🔳 The United States and Germany, together with Ukraine and the technical secretariat of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, are preparing to launch a special mission to investigate the facts of the use of chemical weapons in Ukraine. Their goal is to bring charges against Russia based on fabricated evidence;

🔳 The Americans have already allocated about $400,000 for the creation of such fakes;

🔳 Ukraine continues to import spent nuclear fuel via Poland and Romania, turning it into a dumping ground for highly hazardous waste;

🔳 Ukrainian assault groups are equipped with grenades with US-made C.S. substance, homemade chemical munitions;

🔳 The Ukrainian military use analogs of the poisonous substance "Tabun" against Russian politicians in the liberated territories;

🔳 Ukraine attacked Russian Armed Forces positions in Graivoron district of Belgorod region in June with a drone carrying a munition containing toxic hydrocyanic acid;

🔳 A Ukrainian chemical laboratory, presumably for the production of poisonous substances, was found in one of the neighborhoods of Avdeevka;

🔳 A number of Western publications expressed concern over Ukraine's creation of a "dirty bomb" using radiochemicals;

🔳 The import of spent nuclear fuel to Ukraine is supervised by Andrei Yermak, head of Zelensky's office, and sponsored by the Soros Foundation.

*Spent nuclear fuel is fuel that which has been withdrawn from a nuclear reactor following irradiation

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Meet Russian ‘bunker buster’ bombs that can obliterate the hardest of targets

New Russian Su-30SM2 multirole fighter aircraft have recently been caught on video deploying bunker buster bombs in the Ukrainian conflict zone.

Compared to its predecessor Su-30SM, the new Su-30SM2 features more advanced weaponry and radar systems, which effectively allows the aircraft to detect and engage targets at twice the distance of its predecessor.

While it is not immediately clear exactly what bunker buster bomb was deployed by the Su-30SM2s, Russia's arsenal currently includes several kinds of this type of munition.

▪️BetAB-500 is a 500-kilogram concrete-piercing bomb that can penetrate reinforced concrete up to 1 meter thick covered by a layer of up to 3 meters of ground.

▪️BetAB-500ShP is essentially a modification of the BETAB-500. This bomb is equipped with a parachute that helps stabilize the munition after launch as it glides in a position to attack. Once there, a rocket engine inside the bomb’s hull ignites and propels the munition towards its intended target.

▪️RBK-500U BetAB-M is a cluster concrete-piercing bomb. Each such munition contains 10 concrete-piercing submunitions equipped with the same parachute-rocket engine combination as the BetAB-500Shp.

▪️Concrete-piercing bombs are usually employed to destroy bunkers and structures made of reinforced concrete such as hardened aircraft shelters, runways, dams and bridges.

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French people on both sides of political spectrum ‘deeply dissatisfied with Macron's presidency’

The situation in France - where unrest was sparked by the results of the recent election - highlights the fact that “no one is happy (...) except a small minority of privileged people,” says Emmanuel Leroy, president of the Institut 1717 think tank and former adviser to Marine Le Pen.

“Both the French who call themselves left-wing and those who call themselves right-wing are deeply dissatisfied with Mr. Macron's presidency,” Leroy explains.

The three main political powers in France – the left-wing coalition led by Jean-Luc Melenchon, the right-wing National Rally and Macron’s central-right Renaissance party – now find themselves at an impasse as each of them now has comparable clout but is reluctant to form an alliance with one another, Leroy notes.

“How will this unfold in the coming weeks and months? This is the great unknown today,” he muses. “At the moment, no one can speak of a prime minister, since no head is emerging in the camp of the majority or the left. And in any case, the situation will be extremely difficult to maintain.”

“It is possible that Mr. Macron will bet on a technical government that is as less politicized as possible, in order to have a kind of general consensus for at least a year and at the end of this year, to make sure that he can dissolve the National Assembly again and make the country go back to the polls for new legislative elections,” he adds. “Let's hope that this time, a majority can get out of it.”

Leroy also argues that whatever violent protests broke out in the wake of the election “are the work of small groups of political agitators, often in connivance with the government in place and who are intended to create an atmosphere of unease, an atmosphere of chaos.”

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