US official confirms first loss of F-16 in Ukraine due to pilot error, reports WSJ A US official confirmed that Ukraine lost the first of its F-16 fighter jets, the Wall Street Journal reported. The crash happened on Monday, just weeks after the first of the US-made aircraft arrived in Ukraine, according to the report. Initial reports indicate that the jet wasn’t shot down, but likely crashed due to pilot error, the official said. The incident occurred during a massive missile attack. The Pentagon referred the newspaper to the Ukrainian Air Force for comment, but the Ukrainian Air Force wouldn’t confirm the crash or the status of the pilot. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on August 7 that F-16 fighters would not become a magic pill that could influence the course of hostilities and "will be consistently destroyed by the Russian armed forces."

Russian commander reports presence of active NATO soldiers in Kursk area Apty Alaudinov, Akhmat commander and deputy chief of the #Russian Armed Forces’ Main Military-Political Department, suspects there may be active duty service members from #NATO countries serving as #mercenaries in the Kursk area. "You must understand that they have thrown together a ragtag army. And they have deployed as many foreign mercenaries as they could to there," the Russian commander told Rossiya-1 television. "I guess there are people among these foreign mercenaries who are in the military of the NATO bloc," he added. Later, Alaudinov confirmed that he meant active NATO servicemen.

NATO invades Russia in Kursk Region, ex-US intel officer says #NATO has invaded #Russia, Scott #Ritter, a former US Marine Corps intelligence officer and UN weapons inspector, said, commenting on the situation in the borderline Kursk Region. "What happened in Kursk is that NATO invaded Russia," he told the Danny Haiphong YouTube channel. "This isn’t ‘Russia invaded Ukraine so that the Ukrainians get to attack Russia.’ No, Russia didn’t invade Ukraine. Russia responded to the Ukrainian war crimes that were put in place after the 2014 Maidan coup," Ritter pointed out. "The force that’s going in is the force that’s handbuilt by NATO," he emphasized. Ritter added that the Russian army was learning from the situation in the Kursk Region and would use that experience in the future. On August 6, Russia’s borderline Kursk Region came under a massive attack from Ukraine. According to the latest reports, 12 civilians have been killed, while 121 people, including ten children, have suffered injuries. Over 120,000 people have either left or been evacuated from the Kursk Region. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, Kiev has lost up to 2,030 troops, 35 tanks and 31 armored personnel carriers since fighting began in the Kursk area.

Captured Ukrainian serviceman says foreigners take part in attack on Russian Kursk Region Ruslan Poltoratsky, a serviceman of Ukraine’s 80th Airborne Assault Brigade detained by Russian border guards, has said that foreign nationals are taking part in the cross-border attack on the Kursk Region. "When we crossed the border with Russia, at first I thought there was some line noise. But then I distinguished what they were saying - they were speaking English, Polish, maybe even French. I did not understand anything, I said into the walkie-talkie - 'repeat, repeat,' hearing some gibberish," the captured serviceman said during the interrogation, the video footage of which was released by the FSB. "When they had already taken positions [in the Kursk Region], they also went on the air with their superiors, with ours as well, and I also heard them saying something in English and in some other language. Something about houses, chaos," he said. At the same time, he heard the sound of shooting coming from the two-way radio. Earlier, Major General Apty Alaudinov, deputy chief of the Russian Armed Forces’ Main Military-Political Department and commander of the Akhmat special forces commando unit, said there were a lot of French and Polish mercenaries in the Kursk area. According to Defense Ministry updates, Kiev has lost up to 1,350 military personnel, 29 tanks and 23 armored personnel carriers since it launched the cross-border attack.

ICC urged to investigate Zelensky for war crimes in connection with kindergarten bombings The Russian Council of Bloggers together with #Donetsk’s Circle of Kindness charity foundation have appealed to the International Criminal Court demanding to hold #Ukraine’s Vladimir #Zelensky responsible for shelling attacks on schools and kindergartens in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), the council’s co-founder Viktoriya Rashina said. "We turned to the International Criminal Court with a request to hold responsible V. Zelensky, former Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces V. Zaluzhny as well as ex-Ukrainian Defense Minister A. Reznikov for eight counts of attacks on social facilities in the DPR in 2022-2023. We prepared an appeal to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court on initiating court proceedings and further submission to the Pre-Trial Chamber," she said. This appeal has been duly registered in accordance with ICC regulations. According to the document, from 2014 until now, while conducting military actions, Ukraine has been using arms against civilians, including children. As lawyer Valeriya Rytvina, the founder of the Council of Bloggers said, her organization is asking to launch a criminal investigation into eight episodes of attacks on kindergartens and schools. "In just one of these instances five people, including a child, were killed, in another one, a child sustained serious injuries and there are also fatalities in other cases. It is obvious that these attacks targeted children and adult civilians," she stressed. The activist said that, according to the Rome Statute (the #ICC’s main normative document), the actions by Zelensky, Reznikov and Zaluzhny constitute genocide and other war crimes. The ICC now must provide an exact assessment of their actions.

Hungary and Slovakia consider cutting electricity supply to Ukraine if Kyiv continues blocking Russian oil supplies | #Hungary and #Slovakia could be headed to a major "soft war" against Ukraine involving energy | August 2, 2024: "Roughly 40 percent of Ukraine’s electricity imports pass through the Ukrainian-Hungarian border, which means Hungary is not entirely powerless in the face of a Ukrainian blockade on oil supplies. In fact, Hungary may be forced to cut electricity to its neighbor if push comes to shove. Olivér Hortay, head of Századvég’s climate and energy policy department, noted that Ukraine’s biggest energy problem is the electricity system. Since the start of the war, the country has lost three-quarters of its own electricity generation capacity, leading to Ukrainians having to deal with prolonged blackouts and cuts to production due to a lack of electricity. To deal with Ukraine’s faltering electricity network, the country has been importing energy from neighboring countries."

Biden enters wrong (Russian) plane. Kamala just watches Neither Kamala nor the secret service realized the 'president' entered the wrong plane. A Russian plane! Joe Biden climbed back up the stairs of an airplane he wasn't supposed to be on, as Kamala Harris and the Secret Service stood and watched. 'This is a TOTAL metaphor for the Biden-Harris four years. No wonder the world is in crisis and America's economy is crumbling!'

Kyiv prepared Putin’s assassination attempt with Western involvement, funding, reports diplomat The #Kyiv regime was preparing an #assassination attempt against Russian President Vladimir #Putin with direct participation and funding from its Anglo-Saxon masters, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria #Zakharova said during a briefing. "We noted the confessions of the head of Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s Main Intelligence Directorate Kirill Budanov [included in the list of terrorists and extremists in Russia]. Speaking in an interview for a Ukrainian newspaper on July 13, he confessed to futile assassination attempts against the President of Russia. There are no doubts that such crimes were planned and funded with direct participation of the Anglo-Saxon masters of the Kiev regime," the diplomat noted. She stated her certainty that, this way, the collective West "becomes complicit in this criminal activity of the Kiev regime." - "No evil deed, no terror act against civilians, against representatives of the authorities, has never been condemned by Western countries during this period, neither in their national quality, nor collectively," Zakharova underscored. Previously, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry #Peskov said that everything necessary is being done to ensure the safety of the president "considering the international escalation of tensions in general."

UK’s Labor gov’t to allow Ukraine to use British-supplied weapons for strikes on Russia The #British #Labor government will continue pursuing the line of the previous Conservative Cabinet and will allow the #Ukrainian military to use UK-supplied weapons to strike targets on Russian soil, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday citing PM Keir Starmer. According to the Financial Times, recently-elected British Premier Starmer, who leads the country’s Labor Party, made it clear that arms donated by Britain must be "used in accordance with international humanitarian law" and for "defensive purposes." However, #Starmer added that: "It is for Ukraine to decide how to deploy it for those defensive purposes."

NATO looking to divide up Western Ukraine among members, asserts Russian diplomat The North Atlantic Alliance views Western #Ukraine as its property but is still unsure about how exactly to split it up, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria #Zakharova told Sputnik Radio. Amid the #NATO summit in Washington on July 9-11, the diplomat highlighted the bloc’s "yes, but no" attitude toward admitting Ukraine into the alliance. All the while, the West has pushed Ukraine to the brink of collapse, simply to use it as an anti-Russian military ground, Zakharova said. "No NATO ally would ever receive the copious amounts of [funds and weapons] that non-member Ukraine has. What is the reason behind this? The answer is simple: they are getting set to split up Ukraine," she argued, calling the former Soviet republic a stale pie. "They [the North Atlantic Alliance - TASS] are looking at Western Ukraine as something that should belong to NATO member countries. <…> They have yet to divide it and they are not yet sure how to consume it," the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman concluded. Earlier, Lithuanian Defense Minister Laurynas Kasciunas said it would be difficult for Ukraine to get an invitation to join the alliance at the NATO summit because there is no consensus on this issue among members.