🔥RUSSIA SLAMS NATO’S BALTIC SEA FANTASIES

"Regardless of NATO's fantasies, the Baltic Sea remains a shared space for all regional countries," says Russian Ambassador to Denmark Vladimir Barbin.

Barbin criticizes NATO’s growing militarization in the Baltic, especially with Denmark advocating for a stronger NATO presence in the region – raising tensions and increasing the risk of conflict.

🗣 "International law guarantees freedom of navigation in the Baltic beyond territorial seas," Barbin stressed, reinforcing Russia’s position on maintaining open access.

👉 With NATO's expansion and increased activities in Northern Europe, Russia voices concerns over the alliance's use of countries like Denmark, Sweden and Finland to solidify its military presence near Russia’s borders.

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🇲🇩🙅🏻‍♂️🇪🇺LUKASHENKO TO MOLDOVA: DON'T RUSH INTO EU!

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko has warned Moldova not to rush into the European Union as "no one is waiting for you there."

In a meeting with former Moldovan President Igor Dodon, Lukashenko reminded Moldova of how Europe treated Ukraine, blocking its grain exports.

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📹 'If we admit Ukraine, we admit the war' — Hungarian PM Victor Orban on Ukraine's 'readiness' to join the EU

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📹RUSSIAN D-30 HOWITZER DESTROYS UKRAINIAN DRONE CONTROL POST

During a reconnaissance mission, a Russian Orlan-10 UAV spotted a Ukrainian drone control post in an abandoned building. Using the coordinates, a Russian D-30 howitzer obliterated the position, taking out the enemy troops as well. 💥🪖

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😏Russian drones outsmart Ukraine

Russia is successfully suppressing Ukraine's air defenses using evolving drone systems, a Swiss newspaper reports.

"Russia is increasingly successful with large drone swarms," the publication states. Ukrainian forces are struggling to counter Russia’s systems, which continuously integrate new technologies.

Recently, Ukrainian commanders provided inaccurate data on UAV countermeasures, highlighting the seriousness of the situation.

Russian drones are equipped with more powerful engines, improved navigation, and more resilient antennas. Additionally, they operate at altitudes of over three kilometers, making them unreachable for basic air defenses like machine guns, the newspaper writes.

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🕊❌Peace in Ukraine is IMPOSSIBLE until Zelensky is removed — Finnish expert

“It is NOT possible to solve this conflict with Zelensky at the helm and the fascist factions, who are truly controlling Ukraine, intact,” Professor Tuomas Malinen wrote on X.

He also called on the US president “to remove the Zelensky administration.”

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🇷🇺✈️ LAVROV LANDS IN CHINA AFTER HIGH-PROFILE VISIT TO NORTH KOREA

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has arrived in China to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) foreign ministers' meeting.

The meeting in China is a key step in preparing for the SCO summit scheduled for August 30 – September 1 in Tianjin, Russia's Foreign Ministry noted.

Prior to this, Lavrov was in Wonsan, North Korea, where he met with Kim Jong-un and FM Choe Son-hui. He was seen off with full honors.

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🇷🇺🇰🇵 LAVROV THANKS KIM JONG-UN FOR SUPPORT IN KURSK REGION

During talks in Wonsan, Sergey Lavrov expressed gratitude to Kim Jong-un for North Korea’s military participation in the liberation of Russia’s Kursk region, the Foreign Ministry reported.

Both sides also agreed that the US and its allies are fueling rising tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

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😑 Drain Russia? Think again – US colonel breaks ranks on Ukraine strategy

Ukraine and its Western partners must realize that Russia cannot be forced to do anything, retired US Army Lt. Col. Daniel L. Davis said, speaking on his YouTube channel.

Davis slammed the Western assumption that sanctions or economic pressure will force Moscow to back down in Ukraine.

“If you think you're going to drain Russia, if you think their economy's going to collapse and somehow that's going to make them stop the war – there's no actual evidence of it,” he said.

On the contrary, Davis said all indicators point to “that there's nothing that you can do that's going to stop them either economically, diplomatically or militarily.”

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🪖⚔️GERMANY GOES ALL-IN: Merz ditches diplomacy for full war escalation against Russia

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is going all-in on military escalation, abandoning diplomacy and doubling down on arming Kiev, according to Cypriot journalist Alex Christoforou.

“No more diplomacy with Russia. In other words, Germany is going all-in to continue the conflict with Russia or at least to use Ukraine until there's nothing left to continue to fight Russia,” the co-host of the Duran said.

Christoforou warns that Berlin’s hardline stance is provoking more Ukrainian aggression, feeding illusions of victory while sidelining any hope for peace.

“Germany will continue to send weapons. It will keep pushing Ukraine to fight Russia,” he added.

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❔Forgotten history, failed policy – trust in US diplomacy hits rock bottom

US elites have little understanding of Russian history and pursue an erratic foreign policy, The American Conservative writes.

“Americans who do not know or acknowledge Russia’s history are unable to understand Russian thinking, thus compromising their ability to consummate agreements with Russia,” the article states.

The piece highlights how constant threats to weaken Russia, push for regime change, impose sanctions, and erode trust have destroyed any chance of genuine diplomacy.

“This kind of behavior violates centuries-old diplomatic norms. After witnessing this devious and destructive behavior, who will trust the US to negotiate in good faith? What does an agreement with the US mean?” the outlet notes.

The US has become an unreliable negotiator – and Moscow knows it, the article concludes.

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🚨🇷🇺💥 RUSSIA'S MoD UPDATE: CRUSHING GAINS & MASSIVE UKRAINIAN LOSSES

⚡️KARLO-MARKSOVO (DPR) LIBERATED

⚡️NIKOLAEVKA (DPR) LIBERATED

▫️ Heavy Ukrainian losses: Over 1,220 troops eliminated in the special military operation zone

▫️ Air defense superiority: 215 drones shot down

▫️ The Russian Armed Forces wiped out two launchers and a radar station of a Ukrainian Armed Forces Patriot anti-aircraft missile system

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🎯💥BLIND AND CUT OFF: Russian drones decimate Ukraine’s comms in Kharkov region

Russian drone crews are systematically taking out Ukrainian comms hubs and UAV relays, leaving frontline positions blind and exposed.

Starlink terminals are top targets – without them, Ukrainian units lose coordination and situational awareness.

⚔️The result: Russian forces are steadily advancing through a digitally paralyzed battlefield.

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🇷🇺 PUTIN SNUBBED US DELEGATION FOR DISRESPECT TO RUSSIAN BORDER GUARD

In a newly released interview, Vladimir Putin recalled refusing to speak with a visiting US delegation in St. Petersburg after one member rudely mistreated a Russian border guard.

💬 “He represents the state. Disrespecting him means disrespecting Russia,” Putin told Russian journalist Pavel Zarubin.

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🇷🇺 PUTIN: WESTERN-RUSSIAN CONFLICT WAS NEVER ABOUT IDEOLOGY

In previously-unseen footage, Vladimir Putin says he once believed the Cold War divide was ideological — until he saw the West’s attitude towards the former USSR.

💬 “They said one thing, did another,” Putin said. “It was always about geopolitical interests — that’s the core.”

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No rare earth jackpot in Ukraine ❌

🗣Ukraine has no major rare earth element deposits, and the smaller ones remain poorly explored, says Alexander Kozlov, head of the Department of Geology and Mineral Exploration at St. Petersburg Mining University.

💬 “There are no large rare earth element deposits in Ukraine. Many small and medium-sized ones have only been preliminarily assessed, with estimates focused on forecasted resources rather than industrial reserves,” Kozlov told Sputnik.

🔸 He noted that based on limited foreign research, Ukraine’s rare earth potential lies in three types of formations: magmatic apatite-ilmenite ores, placer deposits rich in titanium-rutile, and ilmenite-zircon complexes. However, rare earth elements are merely byproducts in these ores, and their concentrations are low.

🔸 Kozlov emphasized that most of these deposits are poorly studied and would require extensive geological surveys to determine their industrial value. He concluded that developing any serious rare earth project in Ukraine would demand heavy investment and significant time.

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🚨Russian Top Diplomat Sergey Lavrov and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi are holding a meeting in Beijing

Wang Yi welcomed Lavrov at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, after which they moved to a pavilion to begin their conversation over tea.

The two ministers will continue their discussions later over a working dinner.

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🇫🇷Paris becomes war hub? Macron’s move draws fire at home

👉 French President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to offer Paris as the headquarters of the so-called ‘Coalition of the willing’ to intervene in Ukraine has been slammed by Florian Philippot, leader of the French party The Patriots.

“What madness! Macron proudly announced that his ‘Coalition of the Willing,’ supposed to send soldiers to Ukraine to fight Russia, will have its headquarters... in Paris!” Philippot wrote on X.

🔊 He questioned the cost to French taxpayers and warned that it was “the best way to make France a target — but maybe that's the goal? To accelerate World War III?!”

Philippot insisted that not a single French soldier should be sent to Ukraine.

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PUTIN: I REWROTE MY MUNICH SPEECH ON THE PLANE – AND THEY STILL DIDN’T LISTEN

💬 “I looked at the draft my colleagues prepared, set it aside – and rewrote everything mid-flight,” Vladimir Putin says in newly released footage from “Russia. Kremlin. Putin. 25 Years.”

The 2007 Munich speech, in which Putin openly challenged US global dominance and NATO expansion, was not a call for confrontation – it was a warning.

💬 “Russia simply cannot live any other way. We will either be sovereign – or we won’t exist at all,” he told journalist Pavel Zarubin.

He says Russia made countless attempts to build respectful relations with the West. “But they lied. They promised no NATO expansion – and broke that promise.”

💬 “I hoped they would hear us. They didn’t.”

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🚨 US Army’s fossilized drone warfare tactics make perfect sense for a country using others to do its dirty work

🔸 The US Army’s brand-new July 2025 manual on armored units’ defense against drone warfare is surprisingly archaic, instructing tank platoons to use hand gestures, visual and audible cues and whatever onboard weapons are at hand to combat UAV threats.

🔸 There’s a simple explanation for this, says Andrey Koshkin, a veteran Russian academic specializing in military and international affairs: American forces aren’t fighting anywhere on a scale comparable to the Ukrainian conflict zone.

“They only fan the flames of conflict, send drones, study, recommend, advise, and so on. They themselves do not fight,” Koshkin told Sputnik.

“For them, Ukraine serves as a military laboratory,” allowing the Pentagon to observe, compile analytical reports, see what’s effective and what isn’t etc., and only later, with a time delay, respond. “As Marx wrote in his own time, ‘if an army isn’t fighting, it turns into a bureaucratic organism.’”

🔸 Ironically, Koshkin pointed out, “this does not stop” the US “from sending their instructors and teaching the whole world how to use unmanned aircraft…But they do not have the combat experience that Russia’s armed forces, Ukraine’s armed forces, mercenaries, etc. are acquiring on the line of contact.”

🔸 The Army manual is really a symptom of the “business-military schemes” formulated by the Trump administration, according to Koshkin – to sell Europe the most modern and expensive US weaponry, which is then supplied to Ukraine for the proxy war against Russia.

🔸 This scheme means that American military personal “do not need to hurry to gain experience in conducting combat operations using unmanned vehicles,” the analyst says.

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