Ukrainian forces are using British Challenger 2 main battle tanks inside Russia’s Kursk Region, Sky News reported on Thursday. | The UK government has donated 14 of its main battle tanks, and encouraged other NATO nations to provide their heavy weapons after the move was announced in January 2023. They were delivered to Ukraine’s 82nd Air Assault Brigade, but were mostly kept in reserve, after some were destroyed by Russian drones and artillery during Kiev’s attempted counteroffensive later that year. ● The 82th is one of the Ukrainian units currently participating in the incursion into Russia. Sky News said the expeditionary force has deployed some of the Challenger 2 tanks, citing an anonymous source. The outlet offered no further details on the use of British armor on Russian soil. ● On Wednesday, a Russian military-focused Telegram channel claimed that a video of a drone attack on a Ukrainian tank released earlier by another outlet shows the destruction of a Challenger 2. [...] The US and its allies have claimed that they did not have advance knowledge of the Ukrainian offensive into Russia, but expressed their support for it and the use of their weapons. Britain’s Labour government stressed this week that its policy on donated arms does not differ from that of the former Conservative government.

■ Britain: Ukraine can use donated weapons inside Russia (aNews)
■ FT Reports A Ukrainian Warcrime (Moon of Alabama)
■ Zelenskyy claims Ukrainian forces took control of town in Russia’s Kursk region (Anadolu)
■ More NATO members endorse Ukraine’s attack on Russia (RT.com)

The criminal regime of the overdue Zelensky continues to demonstrate its true neo-Nazi nature to the whole world. | Against the backdrop of a failed situation for the AFU in Donbas, the Ukrainian authorities launched a terrorist attack on the border territories of the Kursk region. Kyiv made no secret of the fact that by such a step it intended to improve its negotiating position in the long term, which, without any [sense of] embarrassment, was stated by M. Podolyak, an adviser to the head of Zelensky's office, on August 8.

■ According to the regional administration, the AFU shelling killed 12 civilians, including an ambulance crew and a pregnant woman, and wounded more than 120 people, including 10 children. On the morning of August 6, Ukrainian militants shelled the Hornal St. Nicholas Belogorsk Monastery from a tank right during the liturgy. [...]

■ Despite all these barbaric techniques, Zelensky's regime did not achieve its main goal - to distract Russian armed forces from Donbas and Slobozhanshchina. [...] Ukrainian neo-Nazis, sensing the carte blanche given to them by their Western handlers to make bandit raids into Russian regions, used a kamikaze drone to strike the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant from Kiev-controlled Nikopol, Dnipropetrovsk Region, on August 11. As a result, a fire broke out near the plant's cooling towers - fortunately, it was localized in time and the threat of an accident was eliminated.

■ This act of nuclear terrorism has once again shown what a danger to the entire world the Zelensky regime, incited by the West to more and more criminal adventures, continuous supplies of lethal weapons to Kyiv, and its regular financial support represent. [...] (Translation: DeepL + Language wash: Grammarly) (Full text in Russian HERE) (Image: France24.com)

■ FT Reports A Ukrainian Warcrime (Moon of Alabama)

Ivan Kesic | More than two weeks after the assassination of senior Axis of Resistance leaders in two separate attacks in Tehran and Beirut, preparations are underway to avenge their blood with a retaliatory military operation. | The exact nature and timing of the military operation is shrouded in mystery, but it is clear that it is imminent, as confirmed by sources to the Press TV website. ■ While Tel Aviv has been identified as one of the possible targets of the planned retaliatory operation, other potential targets are located in Haifa, a strategic city in the north of the occupied Palestinian territories. ■ Press TV website in a previous analysis reported about political, military, and intelligence installations in Tel Aviv as potential targets due to their direct involvement in the terrorist attacks in Tehran and Beirut. ■ Beyond Tel Aviv, Haifa is home to several important military bases, regime headquarters, and strategic military industries, making it a significant target of the imminent retaliation. ■ The credibility of Haifa sites as potential targets has been supported by recent reports in Israeli media outlets such as Haaretz and Yedioth Ahronoth, and more notably, in a speech by Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Nasser Kan'ani says that the US's all-out support for Israel is an absolute disgrace and makes Washington liable for prosecution, which can be pursued through legal channels. |

💬 “The Zionist regime is a racist terrorist regime that has been engaged in gross and systematic violations of the basic rights of the Palestinian people and perpetrating crimes against humanity for several decades with the full support from the West, especially the United States, the senior Iranian diplomat wrote in a post on his X social media platform, formerly known as Twitter, on Thursday.

The Israeli regime has killed 40,000 innocent Palestinian people, including some 15,000 children, and injured more than 100,000 people in the Gaza Strip during its genocidal war since October last year, according to Kan'ani. [...] He said the US's all-out support for Israel is an absolute disgrace and makes Washington liable for prosecution, which can be pursued through legal channels.

Critics have voiced concerns over Stasi-style surveillance methods | The German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) may soon be allowed to secretly enter and search homes, according to a draft reform proposal seen by Der Spiegel and RND. ● According to the document, police would also have the power to install spyware on suspects’ computers or smartphones, in addition to conducting covert searches of their homes. These powers would supposedly only be used in exceptional circumstances. [...] Critics have voiced concerns that such far-reaching interventions could undermine the rule of law, as the inviolability of the home is enshrined in Article 13 of the German constitution. Unless there is an “imminent threat,” the current process for searches requires a warrant from the prosecutor's office, while police must inform the person of specific suspicions and the purpose of the search. ● The Free Democratic Party does not support “Stasi 2.0,” Bundestag member Manuel Hoferlin said, referring to the notorious state security service of East Germany. While he acknowledged the need for “adequate and powerful investigative tools,” he noted that the secrecy surrounding searches was very concerning. ● The German Association of Journalists (DJV) has also come out strongly against the plans, with Federal Chairman Mika Beuster warning that journalists and whistleblowers could be affected by secret break-ins reminiscent of methods used by “police states.”

Support among Russians for the special military operation is at a high as Western governments scramble to cover up the United States' increasingly sloppy crimes. | International relations and security analyst Mark Sleboda joined Sputnik’s The Final Countdown program Wednesday to discuss the latest developments in the Western proxy war on Russia as well as the curious case of the Nord Stream pipeline explosion as the German government claims to have found a suspect for the crime. ● “The German news that broke is pretty interesting,” said Sleboda, referring to the German government’s release of the name of a supposed suspect behind the presumed sabotage of the Russo-German Nord Stream Pipeline in 2022. “This Volodymyr Z – according to German privacy laws, the full name is not released… this is the absolutely complete bull feces, cockamamie cover-up story that the United States and Germany have centered on.”

💬 “They can’t admit that the United States blew up the Nord Stream pipelines, because that would mean the end of NATO,” the analyst added. “It would be a member of NATO attacking a member of NATO. They can’t admit that. So they came up with this.”

In a case of reality sometimes proving to be stranger than fiction, the German government has claimed an amateur Ukrainian scuba diver by the name of “Volodymyr Z” is responsible for the explosion that blew up the Nord Stream 2 pipeline that formerly transported cheap natural gas from Russia to Europe.

■ 'Calling All the Shots': US Escalates Ukraine Conflict via Kiev Client State (Sputnik News)