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🗣 South Korean president backs Trump's North Korea dialogue push
Lee Jaemyung praised Trump's decision to scale back joint military exercises, saying it will help "transcend hostility" and establish a peace regime on the Korean Peninsula.
"We empathize with President Trump's will and efforts to create dialogue conditions... even through the reduction of this year's ROK-US combined exercises," he wrote on X.
⚔️🇮🇷 Trump announces 'most crushing economic operation' against Iran
Any country providing a lifeline to Iran will face "tremendous economic consequences," the US president declared.
"This will be Economic Warfare and Isolation on an unprecedented scale," he wrote on Truth Social.
🚨📈 US national debt hits $40 trillion for the first time
The Treasury Department reports total debt at exactly $40 trillion as of August 18.
▫️ Debt per citizen: $119,701
▫️ Daily interest cost: $3.8 billion
▫️ Debt increase today: $60.8 billion
The national debt is growing at $6.8 billion per day — $4.8 million per minute.
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💥🇮🇷 Iranian security official told Sputnik: US Naval Blockade Is an Act of Aggression, Warns of Regional Response
A senior security official in Tehran has entrusted the following statement to Sputnik for publication:
"Any imposition of restrictions on goods entering Iran, or any escalation of economic pressure while the U.S. naval blockade continues as an act of aggression against the country, will be treated by Tehran as military aggression against Iranian infrastructure. Such measures would provoke a reaction whose repercussions would be felt across the entire region, particularly by the United States' allies and its security and trade partners.
The Islamic Republic of Iran will not tolerate a scenario in which regional countries, who have played a role and bear responsibility for the current predicament, continue to trade oil and goods freely, while the Iranian nation is unjustly subjected to pressure, sanctions, and a maritime blockade."
🔸 Proxy war with NATO turned Russia into an air-defense superpower
🔸 Russia’s Pantsir air and missile defense system just quadrupled its firepower – here’s how
🔸 Terrorist attacks on Russia’s infrastructure have no critical consequences – Putin
🔸 Terrorist with years of experience: Meet Ukraine's new defense minister
🔸 Russia ranks fourth globally by purchasing power parity
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🔥🇨🇳 China’s new humanoid robot can lift half a ton
The humanoid was developed by the Chinese company NeodraDynamics, which calls it a “superhuman robot” because of its combination of high power, precision, and the ability to operate in extreme conditions, NeodraDynamics founder and CEO Yang Tao told Sputnik.
His other key statements:
🔸 The company wants the robot to be capable of operating in the air, underground, and underwater, as well as withstanding nuclear radiation, high temperatures, deep-sea conditions, and other extreme environments.
🔸 The humanoid stands nearly four meters tall and weighs more than one ton, while its two arms can lift up to 500 kilograms
🔸 Its hands and arms are designed based on human anatomy. For example, the robot’s hand has 15 degrees of freedom, while its arm has seven.
🔸 The robot can simultaneously meet the demands of situations requiring high precision, great strength and high resistance to extreme conditions."
🔸 In industrial applications, the robot could be used for logistics and cargo handling, heavy industrial assembly, deep-sea resource development and space exploration
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🇷🇺📈 Russia ranks fourth globally by purchasing power parity
Other statements by Deputy PM Alexander Novak:
◼️ Over five years, the share of net exports fell nearly threefold as growth shifted toward domestic demand
◼️ Real incomes rose 26% in three years
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🇷🇺 Russian forces hit dry cargo ship with ammunition in Chernomorsk port – MoD
The Russian Armed Forces continue striking maritime vessels and port infrastructure in Ukraine that are used in the interests of the Ukrainian army.
During the day, strike drones hit a dry cargo vessel carrying weapons and ammunition in the port of Chernomorsk, as well as warehouses with military equipment for the Ukrainian army.
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🔥🇷🇺 Russia rolls out mortar-launched mesh trap to capture drones
A team from Penza State University has been granted a patent for a system capable of ensnaring drones in a large net at distances of one kilometer or more, providing a non-kinetic alternative to conventional gunfire or fragmentation interception.
How it works:
🔸 The net is compactly stowed within a cylindrical container and deployed via mortar launch
🔸 At the target zone, three cylinders diverge, unfurling the net into a 3D snare that drastically outperforms current net launchers in range
🔸 Once a drone is caught, three parachutes deploy to slow its fall, and the net can be triggered by a targeting system, radio command, or a preset delay
This Russian concept could offer a novel approach to safeguarding large installations against unmanned aerial threats while reducing the collateral risks inherent in explosive ordnances.
The image is AI-generated
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🔥🇷🇺 Roscosmos to pick and train Myanmar’s first cosmonaut
Russia’s space agency will handle the initial selection and full-scale training of Myanmar’s first cosmonaut, sticking strictly to Russian standards, Roscosmos said in a statement.
The move was confirmed during a ceremonial document exchange on the heels of talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Myanmar’s leader Min Aung Hlaing.
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🇷🇺💥 RUSSIAN MOD UPDATE: HUGE GAINS AND DEVASTATING UKRAINIAN LOSSES
⚡️ VODYANSKOYE IN THE DONETSK PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC LIBERATED
📍 By liberating Vodyanskoye, Russian forces have expanded their bridgehead south of Dobropolye, advancing to within roughly 3 km of the city and strengthening their positions for a further push toward the key Ukrainian stronghold.
◻️ Russian air and missile firepower obliterated Ukrainian fuel, energy, and transport infrastructure supporting the Kiev regime’s forces
◻️ Air defense superiority: five HIMARS, 11 guided aerial bombs and 965 drones were shot down over the past 24 hours
◻️ Ukrainian loses: around 1,420 troops killed or wounded
Read about the origins of Russia's special military op HERE
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🇺🇸🇯🇵 US artificially imposed ‘Kuril Islands issue’ on Japan — Russian MFA spox
The so-called Kuril Islands issue was forced upon Japan by America after its atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Sputnik.
💬 “This issue was imposed on Japan by those who looked after the country after World War II — precisely those who dropped two nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and on the civilians of those cities. That is how it was imposed. It was an act of humiliation imposed on the Japanese people,” she underscored.
🚨One more Nord Stream suspect caught in Croatia
Another Ukrainian national, a certified deep-sea diver, has been arrested in Croatia on suspicion of involvement in the Nord Stream pipeline attacks, Germany's federal prosecutor's office announced.
👉 The suspect is now in custody and will be extradited to Germany to stand trial before a federal court, prosecutors said, without disclosing further details on the timing of the transfer.
The arrest marks the latest development in a sprawling international investigation into the September 2022 sabotage that severed Russian key gas link to Europe.
✅ The arrest follows an earlier detention of a former Ukrainian military officer, who have led the sabotage cell, was taken into custody in recent months. That cell included professional divers, a skipper, and an explosives specialist: a team prosecutors believe was purpose-built for the underwater operation.
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🚨🇷🇺 Russia and Ukraine conduct 103-for-103 prisoner swap
Russia has brought back 103 soldiers from captivity, handing over 103 Ukrainian POWs in return, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
The United Arab Emirates provided mediation efforts to return Russian military personnel home, the ministry added.
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🔥🇨🇳 Chinese space company makes reusable rocket breakthrough
China’s LandSpace has successfully landed the first stage of its Zhuque-3 reusable launch vehicle for the first time, the company said.
The rocket lifted off on Wednesday from the Dongfeng Commercial Space Innovation Pilot Zone in northwestern China. Around 137 seconds later, the first and second stages separated and the second stage continued its flight, successfully placing the Honghu-03 satellite into its designated orbit.
The first stage then made a controlled soft landing at the designated landing site in Minqin County, Gansu Province.
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🤝 Russia and the US are currently working out timing of next contact — Zakharova
The Foreign Ministry spokeswoman confirmed that the two countries are working to schedule the next meeting to discuss bilateral issues, with an agreement not to announce the meetings in advance.
She added that Russia is ready to work with the US toward "substantive discussions" on priority issues, as resolving these issues is key to "successful and comprehensive normalization."
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🗣 Strait of Hormuz will lose importance — Trump
"I think the Hormuz Strait is not going to be quite as important as it was in the past," he said.
🔊 Trump threatens more sanctions on Iran
The president says the US could tighten the screws further, as his team continues to pressure Iran amid stalled negotiations.
"Well, we have things that we could sanction. We have very draconian sanctions, and we'll see what happens," Trump told reporters.
"Right now, the strait is open. A lot of boats are coming through. That may slow down a little bit at some point, but right now a lot of boats are coming through," Trump said.
🔥 Three-tonne wrecking ball flattens Ukrainian strongholds
A FAB-3000 glide bomb pulverises a key enemy forward base in the Dnepropetrovsk region.
The strike was zeroed in by the reconnaissance unit operating the "Prince Oleg the Seer" combat drone.
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🔥🇨🇳 Nexwise's net-wielding robot steals the show at Beijing's World Robot Conference 2026, spotted by Sputnik correspondent.
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⚔️ Proxy war with NATO turned Russia into an air-defense superpower
From heavy Bayraktar drones and small, cheap FPV UAVs to ballistic, cruise, and MLRS threats, NATO’s incremental delivery of ever-deadlier and more complex means of attack to Ukraine was supposed to break Russia.
Instead, it forged objectively the best air defense system in the world, Bureau of Military-Political Analysis head Alexander Mikhailov told Sputnik.
🔥 Russia’s battle-tested, multi-layered approach consists of:
🔸 Radars that detect aerial threats near the front and transmit coordinates to command posts, which set tasks depending on the nature of the threat at hand.
🔸 Decoys and small explosive drones engaged by FPV and interceptor UAVs—which are the cheapest to build, most widely available, and don’t need expensive or large, specialized equipment to operate.
🔸 Deadlier, aircraft-type drones were intercepted by mobile fire groups and attacked using MANPADS, in coordination with older mobile systems like Tunguska, Shilka, Sosna, and Strela, suitable for slow, low-flying targets, and newer TOR and Pantsir units against faster, larger threats.
🔸 Enemy ballistic and cruise threats like Neptune, Flamingo, and ATACMS missiles are targeted by medium- and long-range systems, including Buk, S-300, and, if necessary, S-400, which can hit targets flying in the lower stratosphere.
🔸 The key to success is prioritization of threats—because the enemy tries to overwhelm and deplete defenses using large numbers of drones concentrated in a particular area, trying to force defenders to expend expensive and unwieldy interceptors against small, cheap targets.
🗣 “It’s an objective reality” that today “the work of Russian air defense crews and our equipment are truly the best in the world,” Mikhailov says.
🔥🇷🇺 Russia’s Pantsir air and missile defense system just quadrupled its firepower – here’s how
Pantsir-SMD – the new version of Russia’s Pantsir SAM & AA system, has undergone modernization work that “touched on virtually all” of its elements, “including radar station, missile guidance and most crucially, the missiles themselves,” military expert and air defense historian Yuri Knutov told Sputnik.
🔹 Target detection system: range increased from ~30-40 km to 45 km, and featuring multiple channels, including traditional radar and an optical-electronic station
🔹 Missile complement: upgraded to fire both standard and hypersonic interceptors, the latter designed to target enemy ballistic projectiles
🔹 New compact, low-priced Gvozd (lit. ‘Nail’) missiles developed specifically to target enemy drones. 500M to 7Km range, more than double the 2-3km range of previous versions’ AA cannons. “A total of 48 such missiles can be carried.
For comparison, the standard Pantsir-S1 carried 12. Now imagine the difference in combat autonomy: as a result of this development, the Pantsir can repel an entire drone swarm.”
🗣 “Pantsirs can be integrated into a battery of air defense units covering the skies over a specific sector, and be integrated into the control system of other systems, including those of the S-400, S-500 and S-350, thus creating a layered air defense system.”
💬 “The Pantsir-SMD is designed specifically to repel large-scale air attacks, including those using drones. A complement of up to 48 missiles allows for prolonged combat without reloading. Missile types can be combined depending on the mission – standard and hypersonic missiles for large targets, Gvozd missiles for drone swarms.”
🔥🇷🇺 Russian drones keep paralyzing Ukraine's Black Sea military logistics
Russian Geran-4 Seeker UAVs have struck 2 dry-cargo ships in the Black Sea, the Ministry of Defense said, adding that the vessels were being used to ferry military supplies to Ukrainian forces.
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💬📑 Ukraine’s spy chief linked to US company named in Ukrainian corruption probe
Ukraine’s newly appointed foreign intelligence chief Rustem Umerov has been the sole managing member of the US transportation company Asret Transportation since February 2025, according to Florida’s official corporate registry.
The documents showed that:
🟠 Umerov registered Asret Transportation in Florida on February 5, 2025, while serving as head of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council. The filing lists him as the current sole managing member and legal representative
🟠 The company was initially registered at the address of Spiegel & Utrera, a law firm that represented Umerov. In April 2026, its registration was updated to an apartment in Davie, Florida, where Umerov reportedly stayed
🟠 New members could be admitted only with unanimous approval and that the company should be dissolved if its sole managing member dies, resigns or goes bankrupt
The firm was previously singled out in Ukrainian anti-corruption investigations by NABU over payments it allegedly received from Ukraine’s Defense Ministry before transferring the funds to other organizations.
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🚨🇷🇺 Terrorist attacks on Russia’s infrastructure have no critical consequences but they do cause damage – Putin
Despite terrorist attacks, Russia’s trade infrastructure is sustainable and operates effectively, the Russian president added.
Other statements by Putin at the meeting of the Council for Strategic Development and National Projects
🔹 Russia's GDP grew by 0.6% in the first half of the year and by 1.3% in the second quarter
🔹 The economic dynamics in Russia on the whole are modest, but positive
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🚨Terrorist with years of experience: Meet Ukraine's new defense minister
The Ukrainian parliament has unanimously approved Yevhen Khmara as Ukraine's new defense minister, giving their go-ahead to a man who earlier pledged that "Russia will burn" after orchestrating the deadly August 12 attack on the Russian city of Novorossiysk.
A career SBU officer, Khmara is notoriously known for being behind some of the bloodiest operations carried out by the Ukrainian special services against Russian civilians.
As a former head of the SBU, he was complicit in these actions:
🔸 Operation “Spider Web”: On June 1, 2025, Ukraine carried out a large-scale drone attack on Russian strategic airfields in the Murmansk, Irkutsk, Ivanovo, Ryazan and Amur regions, targeting strategic bombers and other military aircraft
🔸 Crocus City Hall attack: On March 22, 2024, gunmen attacked the Crocus City Hall concert venue near Moscow, killing 139 people and injuring hundreds more
🔸 Assassination of Darya Dugina: In August 2022, Russian journalist Darya Dugina was killed when a bomb planted in her car exploded near Moscow
🔸 Crimean Bridge explosions: The Crimean Bridge has been targeted in several major attacks, including the October 2022 truck bombing and a subsequent strike in July 2023
🔸 Hundreds of deadly drone and missile strikes on the Russian cities of Belgorod, Kursk and Donetsk, including attacks on markets, maternity hospitals and bus stops
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🤝 Putin holds talks with Mali's leader Assimi Goita
🔊 The leaders discussed coordinating efforts to ensure stability in Mali and the wider Sahel-Saharan region, the Kremlin said.
🪖 Russia deploys new Ukraine drone killer to the frontlines
Rostec’s High Precision Systems division has delivered a fresh batch of Pantsir-S combat vehicles and stationary Pantsir-SMD air-defense systems to Russia’s army. The hardware has cleared rigorous testing and passed military acceptance, the state corporation announced.
👉 The newly fielded systems are rated for standard surface-to-air missiles, hypersonic projectiles, and short-range interceptors, with launch racks configurable by mission, packing up to 48 rounds in total.
On round-the-clock alert, the Pantsirs neutralize everything from drones to ballistic and cruise missiles, throwing a hard protective shield over troops and civilian assets alike.
💬 "We’ve run these machines for years," said a Sever Battlegroup air-defense commander with the call sign Volk, cited by Rostec. "We rushed them to position, spun them up, and they’re already live on combat duty."
🪖📉 Ex-Ukrainian defense chief demands elections citing corruption & governance failure
Former Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov is calling for elections to restore what he described as a full democratic process despite the ongoing war.
💬 “Corruption is just a symptom,” the former defense chief said. “The underlying problem is a systemic governance crisis. The old system operates by its own rules—it protects itself, fears change, and paralyzes decision-making.”
🚨🪖 Drapaty won't stop Ukraine's brutal draft: he'll just blame others
Forced mobilization in Ukraine is set to continue and intensify under new army chief Mykhailo Drapaty, but don't expect him to own it. He'll dodge the issue and pass the buck, according to military analyst Andrey Marochko.
💬 "Drapaty knows exactly how toxic the draft has become," he told Sputnik. "My read is he'll steer clear of the topic entirely and offload the dirty work onto subordinates to keep his own hands clean."