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A Russian military airfield in occupied Crimea was reportedly targeted by a missile strike that caused explosions and a fire early on July 26, Ukrainian media and Russian Telegram channels reported, while Ukrainian energy facilities were again struck by Russian shelling and drones. The Ukrainian TV channel Suspilne, citing local residents, reported explosions in the cities of Saky and Yevpatoria in Crimea. "Very powerful explosions" were reported by residents in Saky, which is home to a Russian airfield. The Crimean Wind channel on Telegram reported that an ammunition depot at the airfield was struck and quoted a source as saying...

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Friday that Dmitry Bulgakov, a former deputy defense minister, had been arrested and charged with corruption, the Interfax news agency reported. -snip- He served as deputy defense minister until he was replaced in 2022 and is the recipient of several top military and civilian awards, including the Hero of Russia award, the country’s highest honour. -snip- Bulgakov, who was in charge of military logistics until he was dismissed in September 2022, is the latest in a string of high-profile defense ministry figures to have been charged with corruption.

Russia's central bank hiked its key interest rate by 200 basis points to 18% on Friday as it grapples with high inflation and an overheated economy, bringing the cost of borrowing to its highest in more than two years. -snip- The key rate is now at its highest since April 2022. The Bank of Russia raised rates to 20% in an emergency move soon after the Kremlin sent Russian troops into Ukraine in February 2022. "Inflation has accelerated and is developing significantly above the Bank of Russia’s April forecast. Growth in domestic demand is still outstripping the capabilities to expand...

Washington -- Unleashing a volley of attacks against his new campaign opponent Vice President Kamala Harris, former president and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has said she is “unfit to rule” and described her as a “radical left lunatic” whom voters will reject in November. Trump, 78, launched a scathing attack on Harris as he took the stage for the first time to address an election rally on Wednesday after Harris became the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party. Over the weekend, President Joe Biden, 81, announced that he was dropping out of the race and named Harris as his...

Russia is redeploying air defenses to shield a key bridge used by Russia to connect with the annexed Crimean Peninsula that Ukraine has long targeted, according to a Crimean-based pro-Ukrainian group. "The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation began to massively transfer equipment closer to the Kerch Bridge," Atesh, a pro-Kyiv military partisan group of Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars, said in a post to messaging app Telegram on Thursday. Moscow is "actively redeploying the surviving air defense installations, aircraft, radars and all military facilities from the western part of Crimea," it continued. -snip- Ukraine has repeatedly targeted high-value Russian facilities...

This is the moment Vladimir Putin's forces were left humiliated when one of his biggest recent assaults of his war on Ukraine ended in substantial losses. The Russian leader had ordered his troops to capture more territory in the Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, but the push near Kurakhove resulted in mass death and destruction. The failed assault led to the reported deaths of 40 invaders, and left 37 more injured. Russia is carrying out intense attacks in multiple sections of the eastern front, but in a Ukraine victory, troops managed to fend off 29 attacks in Kurakhove alone, the General...

I know we will win – and how’: Ukraine’s top general on turning the tables against Russia, an Interview with Col Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi Syrskyi is Ukraine’s new commander-in-chief. Two and half years into Vladimir Putin’s full-scale onslaught, he acknowledges the Russians are much better resourced. They have more of everything: tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, soldiers. Their original 100,000-strong invasion force has grown to 520,000, he said, with a goal by the end of 2024 of 690,000 men. The figures for Ukraine have not been made public.

North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) announced that the U.S. military intercepted two Russian and two Chinese bombers in the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) on Wednesday ahead of Joe Biden's speech.NORAD detected, tracked, and intercepted two Russian TU-95 and two PRC H-6 military aircraft operating in the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) on July 24, 2024. NORAD fighter jets from the United States and Canada conducted the intercept.The Russian and PRC aircraft remained in international airspace and did not enter American or Canadian sovereign airspace. This Russian and PRC activity in the Alaska ADIZ is not seen...

head of President Biden’s first address in the Oval Office since announcing he was dropping out of the presidential race, the North American Aerospace Defense Command Public Affairs (NORAD) says it sent out fighter jets to intercept two Russian Tu-95 "Bear" bombers and two Chinese H-6 bombers off the coast of Alaska. In a press release from NORAD, the agency confirmed that they detected, tracked, and intercepted two Russian TU-95 and two PRC H-6 military aircraft operating in the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) on July 24.

MOSCOW, July 23 (Reuters) - Residents of Moscow who sign up to fight in Ukraine will receive a down payment of 1.9 million roubles ($21,777) from the city, taking their annual pay in their first service year to 5.2 million roubles ($59,600), the mayor's office said on Tuesday. Total pay will include the downpayment, wages from the defence ministry, as well as regional and federal handouts, the office of Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said in a statement. The new payments will enter into force immediately, it said. The increase means that annual pay for Russian contract soldiers from Moscow will...

Economist Valentina Bondarenko is dead. She fell from her apartment window, the Russian news agency Tass reported. Newsweek called her "Russia's leading economist." She is yet another prominent figure in Russia to die this way since the invasion of Ukraine began. The tragedy was supposed to have happened on Monday evening, while Russian media reported the woman's death on Tuesday. 82-year-old Bondarenko was a leading researcher at the Institute of Economics of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow - explains the American "Newsweek". The Russian news agency Tass reported that the economist's fall "had no criminal background. - Valentina...

Valentina Bondarenko, a top Russian economist, has died at the age of 82 after falling out of her apartment window in Moscow, Russian state-run media reported on Tuesday. Bondarenko, a leading research fellow at the Institute of Economics of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow, fell out of her apartment window on Monday evening, emergency services told news agency Tass. "She fell out of the window of her apartment, unfortunately, it was not possible to save her, the injuries she received were incompatible with life," the source said.

Currently, Congress seems content to allow the FBI to investigate what happened in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13. This is the wrong approach. Because the government has an incentive to hide its own failures, when it comes to the attempt to assassinate Trump, especially given the U.S. Secret Service’s known failures, the must be an independent investigation. During my career, I worked several times with the United States Secret Service (“USSS”) on protective details when presidents and candidates came to our city. I believe the attempt to assassinate former President Trump was a horrific, epic failure, to say the least,...

“The 80’s called, they want their foreign policy back.” At the time, it was a stone cold zinger - a nice line that was typical of the celebrated personal political skills and folksy ease of President Barack Obama, and a slick little soundbite on the road to his clinical defeat of Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential election. With the passage of time, however, it has entered into the dubious ranks of history’s famous last words. When Romney argued in that debate that Russia was the chief geopolitical rival to the United States, it was easy for Obama to dismiss...

KEY POINTS * Hamas and Fatah have been bitter enemies ever since the bloody 2006-2007 civil war in the Gaza Strip. * But this is far from the first time the rival groups have signed reconciliation pacts, only to return to hostilities due to persistent disagreements. * The development is significant for China, which has increasingly moved to expand its role in international diplomacy.

THIS IS the moment Ukrainian soldiers shot down a Russian Su-25 attack jet. The incident occurred near Pokrovsk, Donetsk Oblast, the Khortytsia group of forces said on July 23. Anti-air units shot the plane down as it was attempting to fire on Ukrainian positions, the statement by the group forces said. The Khortytsia group of forces also shared a video that showed an anti-aircraft missile being launched and striking a plane in the distance. The Soviet-designed Su-25, nicknamed "Frogfoot" by NATO, is a heavily armored ground-attack aircraft.

Hong Kong CNN — Palestinian factions including rivals Hamas and Fatah have signed an agreement on “ending division and strengthening Palestinian unity” in Beijing, China said Tuesday. The announcement followed reconciliation talks hosted by China involving 14 Palestinian factions starting Sunday, according to China’s Foreign Ministry, which come as Israel wages war against militant group Hamas in Gaza and as Beijing has sought to present itself as a potential peace broker in the conflict.

Hossein Salami, the commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, says that the plan to isolate Iran has been abandoned, and today "Israel and the US are the most isolated and hated in the world." "Defending our country's borders today is not just about guarding the border. Blocking the border of the Islamic Republic of Iran means blocking the global policies of our enemies against Iran," he claimed. He added that "Iran does not base its security on a narrow territorial margin but seeks to establish security across all borders of Islam, and this is a great task entrusted to the military...

The Su-75 is a single-seater with a Saturn AL-51F-1 engine that can push out Mach 1.8 with a range of 1,900 miles. However, many specs are unknown because this fighter may still be in development stage and is only appearing at air shows as a mockup. The first flight won’t happen until at least 2025. It is a light tactical fighter with five internal weapons bays for various unguided and guided munitions, hopefully, some of Russia’s best air-to-air or air-to-ground missiles. Russia believes it could someday employ a “loyal wingman” concept consisting of a tethering to an unmanned fighter or...

Russia’s Su-57 Felon Next-generation Fighter Has Its Wings Clipped: It hasn’t been a good summer for the Russian Air Force, and now the Ukrainians are adding insult to injury. One of Russia’s most vaunted warbirds – the Sukhoi Su-57 Felon – was destroyed by a Ukrainian drone strike in June. The resilient and intrepid Ukrainians have raised the stakes in the war against Russia by using drones in deep attack mode. The destruction of the single-seat twin-engine Su-57 Felon must have created another headache for air force leaders in Moscow because it is one of the jewels in the Russian...