🇱🇧 A short while ago, the Lebanese Cabinet convened to discuss the disarmament of Hezbollah and other armed groups in Lebanon.

The Shiite parties, Amal and Hezbollah, oppose the meeting and previously attempted to obstruct it, but failed due to international pressure on President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, particularly from Saudi Arabia and France.

Just before the meeting—which is currently underway with the presence of 22 ministers at the Baabda Palace—Lebanese Army forces were deployed around the palace. Joseph Aoun and Nawaf Salam also held a meeting at the palace ahead of the session (#Photo).

🇺🇸/🇺🇦/🇷🇺 A source close to Kremlin told Reuters that Russian President Vladimir Putin is unlikely to bow to the sanctions ultimatum expiring this Friday from US President Donald Trump, and that Putin retains the goal of capturing four regions of Ukraine (Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia & Kherson) in their entirety.

Putin's determination to keep going is prompted by his belief that Russia is winning and by skepticism that yet more US sanctions will have much of an impact after successive waves of economic penalties. He does not believe now is the time to end the war.

🇷🇺/🇺🇦/🇺🇸 Kremlin is weighing options for a concession to US President Donald Trump that could include an air truce of missiles and drones with Ukraine to try to head off the threat of secondary sanctions, even as Russia remains determined to continue its war, according to Bloomberg.

🇱🇧 The Cabinet meeting has concluded with no agreement on Hezbollah’s weapons, and the matter will be postponed until next week.

🇱🇧 At the conclusion of a meeting that lasted over five hours, the Lebanese government decided to task the Lebanese Army with developing a plan to collect weapons from all armed groups, including Hezbollah, by the end of the current year.

The government instructed the army to submit the plan by August 31.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam affirmed the state’s commitment to implementing United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, stressing that the state alone has the right to bear arms.

🇺🇸/🇷🇺 Donald Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff will visit Moscow on Wednesday to meet with Russian leaders, as Trump's deadline to impose fresh sanctions over Russia looms.

Its still unknown if the meetings will include Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom Witkoff has met with several times previously.

🇺🇸/🇷🇺 Trump confirms that a delegation will meet with the Russians tomorrow.

REPORTER: “Do you still plan to follow through on your threat to impose 100% tarrifs on all countries that purchase Russian energy, including China?”

US President Trump: “Well, I have never said percentages but we will do quite a bit of that and see what happens over the next fiery short period of time. But we will see what happens, yeah. You know they have a meeting tomorrow. We have a meeting with Russia tomorrow. We gonna see what happens. We will make that determination.”

🇺🇸/🇺🇦 US President Donald Trump on the Ukraine War: “This is Biden’s war, not my war. And we're working very hard to get us out of it. I stopped five wars in the last five months, actually. And I'd like this to be the sixth, frankly. And that doesn't even include Iran.”

🤝 — 🇺🇸/🇷🇺 US Special Envoy, Steve Witkoff, met today with Russian President Vladimer Putin in the Kremlin, and held talks with him, two days before the expiry of a deadline set by President Donald Trump for #Russia to agree to peace in Ukraine or face new sanctions.

It was not clear what Russia might offer to Witkoff in order to stave off Trump's threat, but Bloomberg reported that the Kremlin might propose a moratorium on air strikes by Russia and #Ukraine – an idea that was mentioned last week by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko during a meeting with Putin.

🇺🇸/🇺🇦 The US State Department has approved a $104 million foreign military sale contract to support #Ukraine’s M777 howitzers, covering equipment, repairs, sustainment, technical assistance, training, and related logistics.

Additionally, a separate $99.5 million contract for transportation, consolidation, and logistical services will have a contractor chosen from approved US suppliers.

🇺🇸/🇷🇺/🇺🇦 The meeting between US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian officials regarding a peace deal in #Ukraine has concluded, lasting about three hours.

The American delegation is currently leaving Kremlin, accompanied by Russian Police.

According to Kremlin aide, Ushakov, the talks were useful and constructive, and both sides have sent some “signals” to each other.

🇷🇺/🇺🇦 Overnight, roughly two dozens of Russian “Geran-2” UAVs struck the Orlivka Gas Compression and Pumping station on the Trans-Balkan route in Odessa, near the border with Romania, which is part of an LNG imports scheme from the US and Azerbaijan.

🇺🇸/🇷🇺 A US Air Force (USAF) WC-135R “Constant Phoenix” nuclear sniffing aircraft with the call sign COBRA29 and designed to detect radioactive clouds in real time, took off from Royal Air Force (RAF) Mildenhall, a major UK airbase east of England, before traveling north along the coast west of Norway, where it circled around the Barents Sea for 14 hours, north of Murmansk and west of the Russian Arctic archipelago of Novaya Zemlya, home to several naval and strategic air bases, including those serving Russia's Northern Fleet, as Moscow may soon carry out tests of its 9M730 “Burevestnik” nuclear-powered cruise missile at a launch site on Novaya Zemlya.

🇱🇧 Hezbollah released a statement regarding yesterday’s meeting by the Lebanese government that was held to disarm all non-governmental groups, including Hezbollah itself, saying that they will act as if the disarmament decision doesn’t exist.

Following Hezbollah’s statement, Youssef Raggi, #Lebanon’s Foreign Minister, said on X that the “[disarmament] decision is final and irrevocable.”

🇺🇸/🇷🇺 US President Donald Trump plans to meet in person with Russian President Vladimir Putin as early as next week, according to the New York Times.

Trump then plans to meet with Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. The plans were disclosed in a call with European leaders on Wednesday.

Trump also told Chancellor of Germany, Merz, that the talks today between Witkoff and Putin were productive more than expected.

❗️— 🇱🇧/🇮🇱 The Israeli Air Force (IAF) is carrying out intense airstrikes at what it seems to be Hezbollah weapons/missiles depots in southern Lebanon.

At least two people were reported to have been killed as a result of the strikes.

🇺🇦/🇷🇺 While its not clear at all, new satellite imagery shows the impacts of the SBU’s Alpha Special Operations Center (CSO “A”) drone strikes on the Russian “Saky” military airbase in Crimea, which resulted in the destruction of a Su-30SM fighter jet.

🇺🇸/🇷🇺 One White House official told the CNN that while Trump said he intended to meet with Putin as early as next week, it would likely be difficult to execute a meeting on that timeline given the negotiating that would have to be done, as well as the logistical hurdles.

🇺🇸/🇷🇺 US Secretary of State Macro Rubio on a potential meeting next week between President Donald Trump and Russian President Putin regarding a peace deal in Ukraine:

“I don't know if it will be next week or not. It remains to be seen.You know, I think it will depend a lot on how much progress we can make. Again, this is important in the sense that we think what happened was good, because we have a sense now of what conditions the Russians would require in order to end the war.”