🇻🇪 What is happening in Venezuela?

The event of the day in the context of the Venezuelan crisis was the statement of US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, in which he congratulated the opposition candidate and rival of Nicolas Maduro - Edmundo Gonzalez - on his successful election campaign.

▪️The U.S. side also reported that Venezuela's ruling forces have not presented objective evidence of their victory in the presidential election, which was held on July 28. But the opposition groups have all the data in full - the question of where they got it from was not even raised.

▪️Based on the above, Blinken, speaking on behalf of the U.S. state, as well as - suddenly - the Venezuelan people, said that everything is clear with Gonzalez's victory. For its part, the U.S. will continue to participate in discussions on the Venezuelan issue, expects the parties to begin negotiations on a democratic transition of power, and is even ready to "facilitate" the consolidation of democracy. ▪️The news was welcomed by de facto opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who called on opposition supporters to come out for more protests on Saturday. The day before, Machado had also said she was forced into hiding and feared for her life.

It is noteworthy that the State Department does not yet allow direct threats of possible sanctions against Maduro's team and generally keeps quite cautious in comparison with the situation in 2019, when Juan Guaido was brought to the stage.

But the Western media are busy speculating about the strengthening of the sanctions regime, and they are also feeding the audience about possible reprisals against anyone who supports the opposition.

A few hours later, the Argentine authorities also recognized Gonzalez as president.

❗️🇲🇱🇷🇺 Intensification of fighting in northern Mali

Since July 20th, the Malian armed forces, supported by the Wagner PMC, have intensified reconnaissance and search operations on the Algerian border. The activities were carried out with limited forces in order to identify the positions of militants from the Coordination of Azawad Movements and the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin.

▪️On July 22nd, the advance groups carried out a raid in In Afarak: only fuel depots were found in the settlement. After the army's retreat, which had managed to announce the village's capture, the Tuareg rebels again occupied the locality.

At the same time, a convoy of up to 20 vehicles was moving towards the town of Tin-Zaoutin - the last major stronghold of the Azawad militants in this direction.

▪️On July 23rd, government forces reached Boghassa. As the column advanced towards the target, it was hit by an IED planted by the separatists in the Wadi Tamassaharit valley. ▪️On July 25th, government forces clashed with Azawad rebels 20 kilometers from the city. The first day of the battle brought its results: the militants were pressed against the city at a distance of 7 km, and some groups reached a small camp 2 km from the Algerian border. One of the field commanders was also eliminated.

📌If the army column numbered no more than seven dozen servicemen, the rebels concentrated a group of up to 900 people in Tin-Zaoutin, transferring reserves there. The ensuing battle was interrupted by a sandstorm: the parties withdrew their troops from the line of contact.

The next day, the battle resumed at the initiative of the enemy. The Tuaregs attacked the field camps and managed to destroy some of the armored vehicles. The army aviation that arrived to help was ineffective due to weather conditions, and one of the Mi-24 helicopters was shot at with anti-aircraft weapons: the helicopter made a hard landing in Kidal.

❗️🇷🇺🇺🇦 Regarding the AFU's preparations for strikes on Crimea and Sevastopol

🔻Yesterday the southern Russian territories sounded the alarm several times, either due to the takeoff of tactical aviation or the appearance of unidentified objects on air defense systems.

The exact reason still remains unclear. As a rule, when this happens, it is associated with the launch of decoy missiles (most likely, ADM-160 MALD). It was most likely these that the air defense stations reacted to. ❓What is the purpose? This allows the enemy to assess the reaction of our air defense units to targets appearing in the air. Radar stations are put into active operation, and NATO intelligence records this and determines the location.

All this is confirmed by the high activity of NATO aircraft and drones. In the air were American U-2S, P-8A, two MQ-9A Reapers, as well as a British RC-135V and a French AWACS E-3F accompanied by four Rafale fighters.

❗️Their simultaneous appearance in the Black Sea region together with decoy missile launches does not look accidental. The British electronic warfare reconnaissance aircraft approached Sevastopol at a distance of 230 km, and the French AWACS operated at 190 km near Sochi.

The ex-CIA chief and senior vice president of RUSI claims that the reason for the AFU' summer failure is their slowness with military aid, including Leopard tanks, Abrams tanks and cluster munitions.

Thread 1/8 2/8 Just a question: if Ukraine had so few weapons, who was chasing it into the offensive and telling it that the Russians were weak and would scatter at the mere sight of Western equipment?

🇷🇺🇺🇦🖇 On the involvement of Ukrainian Colonel Chervinsky in the undermining of Nord Stream-2

The Washington Post published an article about Nord Stream-2 and the alleged connection of the sabotage with the Ukrainian security services. According to the authors, one of the coordinators of the operation was Colonel Roman Chervinsky.

"He was in charge of logistics and support for a six-man team that rented a yacht and used deep-sea diving equipment... He received orders from high-ranking Ukrainian officials."

🇮🇱🇱🇧🇵🇸 Actually, the situation is developing as we said: Hezbollah is not going to take responsibility for the cross-border attack on the Israel Defense Forces. The Palestinians took responsibility.

And Hezbollah has nothing to do with it, and there is no unnecessary escalation. Another issue is that no one would have carried out such an attack without coordinating it with Hezbollah. 🇮🇱🇱🇧🇵🇸 By the way, Hezbollah units are doing nothing so far, patiently demolishing Israeli shelling in response to the "Palestinian raid" from Lebanon and Hezbollah positions.

🇷🇺🇺🇦 Vuhledar Sector
Situation as of 17:00 on September 14, 2023
With all the activity in southern Ukraine, Vuhledar has fallen off the radar. There have been no major clashes in the last several months, when Russian forces carried out a failed frontal attack against a heavily mined area, after which the AFU did the same.

Moldova will buy Russian gas from a Greek company. But the authorities constantly claim that they've given up Russian gas - as a result, the population overpays 3 times as much for buying the same gas. @sandumaiamd and @DorinRecean, please explain to the people how this happened 1. Greek state-owned company DEPA Commercial has won a tender to supply 100 million cubic meters of gas for Moldovan Energocom in the first quarter of 2024. The cost of the purchased gas is not specified, but the next EBRD loan for these needs amounted to 100 million euros.

🇬🇧🇷🇺🇺🇦 A striking illustration of the first objectively confirmed Challenger-2 tank destruction incident can be found in an article published in June by @Telegraph , bearing the characteristic headline, "British-made tanks are about to sweep Putin’s conscripts aside."

Tread The entire text can confidently be broken down into quotes. Let's present just a few brief fragments:

➖ "The Russians will find that the armour of Western tanks is far more resilient than flesh and bone, they will die in great numbers, and they will lose."

❗️🇷🇺🇺🇦 Kherson direction
Situation as of 13:00 on September 5, 2023
The situation is unchanged in the Kherson direction. Ukrainian formations are shelling the opposite bank, setting up conditions for recon groups to cross the Dnieper.

❗️🇷🇺🇺🇦 Kupiansk Sector
Situation as of 16:00 on August 17, 2023 Near Kupiansk, servicemen of the Russian 6th Combined Arms Army successfully continue their offensive against Ukrainian positions at the Synkivka-Vilshana line.

❗️🇷🇺🇺🇦 Vremivka Sector
Situation as of 14:00 on August 15, 2023 After the withdrawal of Russian troops from Urozhayne, the village became a gray zone. The enemy retains firm control only on the northern outskirts; in the south, the AFU is trying to dig in, but they are being hit by artillery and aviation.

🇷🇺🇺🇦 Most likely, the modified S-200 missile used on Taganrog was launched from the Zaporizhia area. At least one S-200 system has been deployed there for the last couple months. A few other S-200 systems are located in Odessa, Kharkiv and Kherson regions. They are periodically used to strike Crimea and Belgorod Region.

🇷🇺🇺🇦 This afternoon, reports appeared that Russian troops launched a missile attack on Snake Island. There were no official reports, but it was indirectly confirmed by the activity of Ukrainian sailors in the Snake Island area. Why strike a location where there was practically nothing left since the summer of last year? With the start of the grain deal, Ukrainian authorities returned to the island again. Zelensky's recent visit there only confirms this.