🚀 On August 11, the Soyuz-2.16 carrier rocket with a Fregat booster lifted off from the Vostochny Cosmodrome and launched the Luna 25 automatic station into Earth orbit.

Russia’s first lunar station in the contemporary history of the country will land near the lunar south pole, an area with a rough landscape, and carry out lengthy research. This mission is expected to kick off the exploration of the Earth’s natural satellite in Russia.

In keeping with Russian law, our country has fulfilled its international obligations, according to the established procedure, and advised the UN Secretary-General of the nuclear sources of energy on board the Luna 25.

#Opinion by Maria Zakharova

💬 The Kiev regime is a neo-Nazi malignant growth on the body of Eastern Europe. It gives the Hitler salute, stages torchlight processions, harasses the Jewish population and, of course, espouses total Russophobia.

But now new documents have come to light concerning yet another oppressed group of people, Muslim Tatars.

Journalists from the Turkish Aydinlik newspaper received access to the correspondence of Deputy Chief of the 3rd Sector of the SBU (Security Service of Ukraine) State Security Department for the Kherson Region Lt-Col D. Dosenko, including classified documents.

In them SBU employees report to their superiors that the Tatar (Crimean Tatar) population of Ukraine “continues to pose a threat to the territorial integrity and the constitutional system of the country”. We don’t know when this report was submitted but most likely it was in 2020-2021, according to experts.

The document is full of derogatory language about Ukraine’s Tatar population (I will recall that this is an official SBU report). This is from the background file on activist Gulnara Bekirova, a candidate of Zelensky’s party Servant of the People – “Holds nationalist views”.

The document also raised other issues, for instance, financial ones: “The financing of Lenur Islyamov’s initiatives and projects will be substantially reduced because he failed to fulfil his commitments and did PR events instead of real work”. More broadly, this shows once again the extent of the theft in Ukraine in all areas – from allocations for arms supplies to funds for national policy. It’s corruption from top to bottom.

While in Russian Crimea and the new territories, all ethnic groups live in peace and are able to move forward, speak their language and maintain their identity, neo-Nazi militants from Kiev continue their attempts to build a mono-ethnic state. They do not care who is crushed under the wheels of repression, be it Russians, Trans-Carpathian Hungarians, Jews, Roma or Tatars.

🎙 Comment by Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on the Kiev regime’s attempted terrorist attacks in Crimea

💬 The Kiev regime once again attempted a terrorist attack on the Crimean Bridge, this time by launching an S-200 surface-to-air guided missile converted to a strike munition. According to the Defence Ministry of Russia, the missile was promptly spotted and intercepted in the air by Russian air defence systems. There are no victims or destroyed property. Later, yet another enemy missile was shot down by the Russian air defence forces over the Kerch Strait.

In addition, Crimea came under a mass Ukrainian drone attack. Fourteen out of the 20 drones were destroyed by the air defence, with another 6 neutralised by EW systems.

❗️ We resolutely condemn these terrorist attacks. The Crimean Bridge is a purely civilian infrastructure facility, and attacks on it are inadmissible. It has been exposed to such attacks since last autumn, and they led to civilian casualties.

Thus, unable, despite the massive Western aid, to change the situation on the contact line, the Armed Forces of Ukraine are attempting to retaliate against civilian infrastructure and peaceful civilians by using underhand terrorist methods.

☝️ These acts of sabotage provide the international public with yet another opportunity to see the true nature of the Kiev regime. There is no excuse for these barbarous actions and they will not be left without a response.

📹 Address of the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin on the opening of the Army 2023 International Military Technical Forum

💬 Vladimir Putin: Over the past years, the forum has rightfully earned high prestige and broad recognition. The event has become one of the world's largest venues for showcasing innovations and modern military products, has made a significant contribution to the development of military technical cooperation, and overall, to the expansion of Russia's multifaceted ties with foreign countries.

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☝️ Russia is open to deepening its technological partnerships and military-technical cooperation with other countries on equal terms, and to working with all those seeking to assert their national interests and independent development path, all countries that believe that working together to build an equal and indivisible security framework is essential as a reliable safeguard for every state.

We are also pleased with more and more foreign defence companies joining the forum. Last year, 32 foreign participants exhibited their products here; this year, their number has grown to 82.

We intend to continue taking advantage of the already established cooperation ties as well as to create new ones based on many years of successful experience of mutually beneficial partnerships.

🤝 We propose developing cooperation in a variety of areas, including personnel training, training foreign military personnel and improving their qualifications, conducting joint command post and other joined exercises. And we expect that, as before, important agreements and export contracts will be signed on the sidelines of the forum.

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