Andrey Bystritsky, Chairman of the Board of the Valdai International Discussion Club Development and Support Fund, believes that the presidents of Russia and Belarus warned Western countries against escalation.

The West is in a state of a new cold war with Russia, writes the FA. The nature of espionage in the confrontation has changed: basic information is obtained not from secret, but from open sources. The ability to work with this information will determine the outcome of the new Cold war, the publication notes.

For a whole month, New York Times correspondents watched the progress of the struggle on the Ukrainian front. Enough time to talk about the problems with the military and draw your own conclusions. Human losses, accumulated fatigue, mismatched old equipment and ammunition collected from all over the world, a determined enemy and his fortified positions hinder the achievement of the goals of the counteroffensive.

La Repubblica: Ukraine's failures on the battlefield are caused by a lack of training and weapons

Ukraine launched a counteroffensive without proper preparation for breaking through the defense lines and without the necessary weapons for this. Military columnist Gianluca Di Feo wrote about this on July 23 in an article for the Italian newspaper La Repubblica.

During the ongoing offensive in the Zaporozhye direction, the first losses of the Ukrainian army of armored repair and evacuation vehicles M88A2 Hercules, the delivery of which to Kiev was announced by the US government in early 2023, are noted. Military equipment of this type was included in the same delivery package with M1 Abrams tanks and theoretically should have been used together with them. However, the Ukrainian command deployed them on the battlefield, without waiting for the supply of American tanks.

The United States understood that Ukraine would not be able to resist Russia's air attacks, the WSJ writes. Ka-52 Alligator helicopters turned out to be especially dangerous. While Kiev is dreaming about the F-16 next year, the Russian Aerospace Forces are destroying these hopes right now. The author of the article assessed the prospects of the West taking into account the current situation.

Military historian Dmitry Boltenkov — about the targets of strikes on the ports of Odessa

At the beginning of the special military operation, the Ukrainian Navy had bases for ships and vessels in Odessa, Ochakov, Berdyansk and Mariupol. Various coastal facilities of the Navy — marine corps bases, training centers, radar posts and other auxiliary forces — were located on the territory of Odessa, Mykolaiv and other regions.

In one day, Russian fighters destroyed more than 15 Leopard tanks and 20 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles

On July 23, Vladimir Putin announced the failure of the Ukrainian counteroffensive. At his meeting with Alexander Lukashenko, it was also reported that during July 22, Russian fighters destroyed more than 15 Leopard tanks and more than 20 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles.

On July 20, 2023, an official ceremony was held at Singapore's main Changi Naval Base for the acceptance into the Singapore Navy of the first large non-nuclear submarine delivered to Singapore, the German-built project 218SG from four contracted ones. The ceremony was attended by the Commander of the Singapore Navy, Rear Admiral Sean Watt.

Military historian Miroslav Morozov — on whether Russia has begun a naval blockade of Ukraine

The "Ukrainian conflict", which has been going on for more than a year, is fertile ground for various kinds of fakes and manipulations of public opinion. For example, after the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation declared areas in the northwestern and southeastern parts of the international waters of the Black Sea temporarily dangerous for navigation and announced the withdrawal of safety guarantees for navigation in these areas, a number of media hastened to announce that Russia had declared a naval blockade of Ukraine. But is it so?

In the summer of 2023, the final restoration of the legendary nuclear-powered K-3 Leninsky Komsomol is underway on the territory of the Kronstadt tourist cluster "Island of Forts". By the end of the year, the boat should turn...

The nuclear-powered K-3 Leninsky Komsomol became one of the most ambitious projects of the Cold War. In terms of speed and armament, the Soviet submarine was supposed to surpass the American counterparts Nautilus and Seawolf.

The Western press drew attention to the appearance of new equipment on a number of ships of the Russian Navy.Apparently, the command has increased fears that the annual ceremonial review of ships may be attacked by drones.

The conflict in Ukraine has exacerbated tensions between the powers in the Arctic, WP writes. Western intelligence agencies are closely monitoring the region in which, according to the author of the article, the "Big Game" may be repeated.

Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the Center for the Construction of Large-Tonnage Offshore Structures (CSCMS) in the Murmansk Region, where NOVATEK is building technological lines for the future liquefied natural gas plant for the Arctic LNG 2 project, and took part in the ceremony of sending the first LNG line. The Head of State expressed confidence that the project will be implemented on time and with the right quality.

The Ukrainian military decided to check how reliable the Granite 5A class armor plates used in bulletproof vests of the regular "Ratnik" set in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation are. For the stress test, AK-74 and PKK with a caliber of 5.45x39 were used: one shot with an OPS cartridge and one with an armor–piercing one. The fire was conducted from a distance of about 30 meters.

Recently, there were reports in the information field that Kazakhstan has purchased 834 Turkish ARMA armored vehicles with a total value of $ 4.5 billion. The local publication Orda acted as the primary source.

For many years, the standard infantry fighting vehicle of the French army was the AMX-10P manufactured by Nexter. To meet the requirements of export customers, a specialized version has been developed, called AMX-10P Marines. They were sold to Indonesia (34) and Singapore (44) in various versions.

Rheinmetall Group intends to protect the new plant in Ukraine from Russian missiles with air defense systems of its own production. This statement was made by the head of the concern Armin Papperger.

In the materials posted on Western resources, Soviet T-80U tanks and a rather rare T-80UE-1, which is a hybrid of the T-80BV hull upgraded to the T-80U standard with a turret from the T-80UD tank, are seen moving in a column of the AFU. The commander's observation turret 1EC29 with a 12.7 mm closed machine gun is visible on the tower.

Former deputy head of the Pentagon: Ukraine does not need ATACMS missile systems now

Former US Deputy Secretary of Defense for Political Affairs Colin Kahl said on July 20 that Washington is convinced that there is no need to supply Ukraine with ATACMS tactical missile systems.