🎙 Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova’s comment on the Ukraine crisis

💬 The criminal Kiev regime continues to deliver strikes at innocent civilians in Russian cities and villages. While suffering setbacks in the zone of combat operations, Ukrainian neo-Nazis carry out deadly terrorist attacks against the civilian population.

<...>

▪️ On the night of August 6, Ukrainian militants attacked the town of Sudzha in the Kursk Region. Five people, including three children, were wounded and several residential buildings damaged.

▪️ On August 6, Ukrainian armed units used a drone to attack a moving vehicle in the Graivoron urban district in the Belgorod Region, killing one civilian.

▪️ On August 6-7, Ukrainian neo-Nazis launched a mass terrorist attack in the Kursk Region using considerable infantry forces and heavy armoured vehicles. Zelensky sent Ukrainian citizens into this meat grinder in order to quietly extend the deadly Ukrainian mobilisation for another three months. Today he signed the relevant law.

Russian Armed Forces fought back strongly against the enemy that sustained substantial losses. Meanwhile, according to the available information, 24 civilians, including six children, were wounded and injured in the Kursk Region as a result of the shelling by Ukrainian militants. A drone strike on an ambulance killed a paramedic and the driver.

By their barbarous attack in the Kursk Region Ukrainian Banderites attempted to spread panic among local population and show at least some activity amidst permanent drawbacks of the Ukrainian armed forces in the conflict area. Obviously, the neo-Nazis’ plans failed here as well.

❗️All these bloody crimes are taking place against a background of cynical silence on the part of the West, which continues to cover up for its puppets in Kiev. All this only strengthens the feeling of impunity of the Ukrainian neo-Nazis, who are confident that they can get away with any atrocity. We call on the international community not to stand aside and resolutely denounce the criminal actions committed by the Kiev regime.

<...>

🔻On August 4, a grandiose handover ceremony took place in Ukraine for the F-16 fighter aircraft from NATO. Attending Zelensky was falling over himself saying thank you to his NATO sponsors. <...>

This step is part of the Western course for escalation of the Ukrainian crisis and does not create conditions for political and diplomatic settlement. <...>

The F-16 supplies for the Ukrainian Army will not become the magic pill that Kiev is betting on and will fail to have an effect on the situation in the combat zone. The Russian Armed Forces will consistently destroy them.

🔻 Chief of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Defence Ministry Budanov once again declared plans to strike the Crimean Bridge. He claims that preparations are underway for more terrorist attacks. Meanwhile, on June 17, Ukrainian Navy spokesman Pletenchuk admitted that the Crimean Bridge no longer plays the same role for military logistics and, therefore, does not constitute a military target. Apparently, Kiev terrorists are maniacally seeking to destroy this civilian facility mainly to create panic among the population of the peninsula and tourists. Millions of Russians, including families with children, are using the Crimean Bridge for tourist purposes. <...>

👉 These facts prove yet again that the special military operation pursues timely objectives dealing with de-Nazifying and demilitarising Ukraine and removing threats coming from its territory. Make no mistake, we will deliver on all these objectives.

Read in full

🕯 August 8 marks the 16th anniversary of the tragic events in South Caucasus.

It was 16 years ago in the early hours of August 8, 2008, when the Saakashvili regime carried out its treacherous attack against South Ossetia, while also assaulting the dislocation of a Russian peacekeeping force.

☝️ By acting this way, Georgia committed a grave violation of international agreements on settling the Georgia-South Ossetia conflict by peaceful means. Established under the EU’s auspices, the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Conflict in the Caucasus concluded that Georgia undertook these actions intentionally.

▪️ The so-called operation to restore the constitutional order in South Ossetia resulted in multiple casualties, including among Russian nationals.

Russia stopped this criminal intervention by undertaking a peace enforcement operation against the aggressor and ensuring security for the people of South Ossetia, as well as Abkhazia, by recognising the independence of these two republics.

#NoStatuteOfLimitations

#Antifake

❗️Deepfake using video footage from Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova’s briefing

Ukrainian special services, assisted by their Western supervisors, continue to actively use deepfake and other AI-based technologies to disseminate false information on the situation in our country’s border areas.

We have paid attention to another coarse imitation: a video was uploaded to the Internet, in which Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova allegedly stated that "the Russian side is ready to consider the transfer of the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant under Kiev’s control in return for a voluntary withdrawal of the Ukrainian Armed Forces from the Kursk Region." This address is a deepfake, glued together at short notice based on a video recording of Maria Zakharova's briefing of July 18.

☝️ We emphasise: Maria Zakharova has never said anything of the sort. Genuine comments by the Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman are available in her telegram feed and in the Foreign Ministry’s official resources.

The actual information on the real situation at the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant is available in the formal note of the Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the International Organisations in Vienna to the IAEA Secretariat dated August 9, 2024.

Earlier this week, the Ukrainian resource network of the Centre for Information and Psychological Operations (CIPsO) also circulated a video where Alexei Smirnov, Acting Governor of the Kursk Region, is allegedly making an appeal to the men of Kursk to join the militia. This "statement," which has nothing to do with reality, was immediately refuted in the official telegram channel of the Kursk Region Government.

⚠️ In view of this, we, once again, strongly encourage Internet users to display extreme vigilance and give no credence to data from dubious sources. Unbiased information about the situation in the Kursk Region is promptly posted on official resources of the Russian Presidential Executive Office, Russian Defence Ministry, Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Kursk Region Government.