🗣❌🗣 The self-propelled Grandfather acts like he got one over on Trump…

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‘The only answer is to destroy them’: How Russia plans to handle Ukraine's Western-supplied F-16 jets

Ukraine has finally received the first small batch of F-16 fighter jets promised by the West, with some of them allegedly already participating in air defense missions, if recent Western media reports are to be believed.

While F-16 jets are indeed designed to counter relatively slow-moving airborne targets like cruise missiles, the effectiveness of these planes against Russian air raids is questionable, says Russian military analyst Dmitry Drozdenko.

“Using fighters to attack Geran-class drones is pointless, if only because the missiles used against them are much more expensive than the drones themselves,” Drozdenko explains. He further notes that any Russian group airstrike would involve up to twenty cruise missiles and the F-16 jets donated to Ukraine are unlikely to be able to shoot all these missiles down.

“I think they will try to engage in air combat and attempt to attack our Su-34 [jets] that currently inflict serious damage upon Ukrainian fortifications thanks to glide bombs with the universal gliding and correction module,” Drozdenko says when asked how else Kiev may try to use these F-16s.

“As for our response, we have Su-30s and Su-35s, aircraft that are more advanced that these F-16s. And I know that our pilots are preparing to meet the enemy in our skies,” he notes.

According to Drozdenko, the range of Russian warplanes’ radar systems and the range of their air-to-air missiles exceed those of the radar and missiles used by F-16 so Russian have all the means to deal with the new threat.

“The only answer to this situation is to destroy this hardware, just like those Leopard and Abrams tanks,” he says.

Drozdenko also speculates that Kiev may opt to station F-16s in Poland or in Romania to keep them safe from Russian airstrikes. An F-16 would then fly to an airstrip to quickly rearm and refuel, fly a sortie from that Ukrainian airfield and then quickly flee back to an airbase in one of the two aforementioned NATO countries.

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⚡️Eight Russians detained and imprisoned in a number of NATO countries have been returned to their homeland, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) Public Relations Center reported.

Their return was made possible thanks to the systematic work of competent government agencies and foreign partners, the department noted.

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❗️Russians who returned to their homeland were exchanged for a group of people who acted in the interests of foreign states to the detriment of the security of the Russian Federation, the FSB said.

As a result of the exchange, minors were also returned to Russia, the FSB said.

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⚡️Russia is fully satisfied with the prisoner exchange that took place, a reliable source in one of the competent Russian agencies said.

During the exchange, all parties involved fully complied with the agreements, the source added.

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❗️A group of people sentenced to long prison terms, including life sentences, have been returned to Russia, a source in the competent Russian agency said.

Those who returned to their homeland were accused of cooperating with Russian intelligence agencies, the source noted. In a number of cases, the guilt of those detained and convicted was not proven.

The returning Russians will undergo a full medical examination, the source emphasized.

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❗️Russian President Vladimir Putin signed decrees to pardon foreign citizens exchanged out of Russia, including Whelan and Gershkovich, the Kremlin said.

Moscow is grateful to the leadership of all countries that provided assistance in preparing the exchange, Kremlin added.

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❗️Artem and Anna Dultsev, Pavel Rubtsov, Vadim Konashchenko, Mikhail Mikushin, and Roman Seleznev, who were imprisoned in NATO countries, have returned to Russia, a source in one of the competent Russian agencies reported.

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Who is returning to Russia as part of the prisoner exchange with the US:

▪️Vadim Krasikov, a former Russian intelligence officer arrested in Germany in 2019 and accused by Berlin of terminating Chechen terrorist Zelimkhan Khangoshvili on German soil.

▪️Ludwig Gisch and Maria Mayer, arrested in 2022 in Slovenia and accused of being deep-cover Russian intelligence operatives whose names (if Western media is to be believed) are Artem Dultsev and Anna Dultseva.

▪️Roman Seleznev, a Russian IT specialist who was accused by US authorities of being a hacker and of defrauding banks of millions of dollars.

▪️ Vladislav Klyushin, a Russian businessman who was arrested in Switzerland in 2021 and extradited to the US. The American authorities accused Klyushin of participating in “an elaborate hack-to-trade scheme that netted approximately $93 million through securities trades based on confidential corporate information stolen from U.S. computer networks,” as the US DoJ put it.

▪️Vadim Konoshchenok, a Russian businessman who the US authorities claim has ties to Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB). In 2023 he was arrested in Estonia and extradited to the US to be tried on charges of smuggling dual-use technologies and ammunition from the United States to Russia.

▪️Mikhail Mikushin, a Russian national who was arrested in Norway while posing as a Brazilian academic called Jose Assis Gaammaria. Norwegian authorities suspected him of being a Russian intelligence operative but Mikushin only admitted to using a false identity to gain employment at the University of Tromso.

▪️Pavel Rubtsov, also known as Pablo Gonzalez Yague, is a Russian-Spanish journalist who was arrested in 2022 in Poland on suspicion of espionage.

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❗️FSB published a video of citizens who were pardoned by the Russian president and exchanged for Russian citizens boarding a plane before flying to Turkiye.

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❗️Russian President Vladimir Putin thanked his Belarussian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko for the gesture of goodwill and pardon of German citizen Rico Krieger, who was sentenced to death.

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Who left Russia with Putin's pardon as part of the prisoner swap deal:

Evan Gershkovich is a US journalist working for Wall Street Journal who was detained in Russia in March 2023 and convicted of espionage.

Paul Whelan is a Canadian-born former US marine who was arrested in Russia in 2018 and convicted of espionage two years later.

Alsu Kurmasheva is an employee of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (Western propaganda outlet branded as a foreign agent in Russia) who was arrested in Russia in 2023 on charges of spreading fakes about Russian Armed Forces.

Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian journalist who was arrested in Russia in 2022 and a year later convicted on charges of treason and spreading fakes about Russian Armed Forces.

Kevin Lick is a citizen of both Russia and Germany who was convicted on espionage charges in 2023. He was arrested in Russia when trying to flee to Germany with data pertaining to Russian troop movements.

Demuri Voronin is a Russian political consultant who was convicted in 2023 on charges of treason for helping deliver to German intelligence sensitive information about Russian military activities in Syria.

Andrei Pivovarov is a former executive director of the now-defunct Open Russia, a shady organization established in 2001 by the infamous Russian oligarch and convicted criminal Mikhail Khodorkovsky. In 2021 Pivovarov was arrested in Russia and convicted on charges of cooperating with an undesirable organization.

A number of Russian prisoners convicted on a variety of charges ranging from creating extremist organizations and trying to set up a terrorist network to spreading fakes about Russian Armed Forces: Ilya Yashin, Lilia Chanysheva, Ksenia Fadeeva, Vadim Ostanin, Aleksandra Skochilenko.

As part of the deal, Rico Krieger, a German mercenary working for Ukraine who was sentenced to death in Belarus this year after being found guilty of committing an act of terrorism on Belarusian soil, was pardoned by the President of Belarus and released. Moscow is grateful to Lukashenko for this goodwill gesture.

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⚡️🇮🇱WEST BEGS IRAN NOT TO RETALIATE AFTER ISRAEL KILLS HAMAS BOSS: most senior Western diplomats fly to meet Iranian and Hezbollah officials in Beirut and #Tehran as British Foreign Minister Lammy and Defense Minister Healy arrive in Lebanese capital.

Enrique Mora, one of EU’s most senior diplomats, was holding critical talks with officials in Iran’s capital on Wednesday after killing of Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran as Brett McGurk, White House’s top official in Middle East, held discussions in Saudi Arabia. "Everyone since last night is putting pressure on Tehran to not respond and to contain this" - MSM in article above.

🤯 Western diplomacy 101: Pressure #Iran to not strike back at #Israel after it violated its sovereignty and killed Haniyeh in Iranian capital with total impunity. Maybe pressure Israel for once to not act like rogue state?

Follow us as we keep a close eye on developments in the Middle East & boost us here @IntelRepublic

Full text of the statement from the FSB Public Relations Center on the exchange:

On August 1, 2024, as a result of an exchange at the airport in Ankara, eight Russian citizens who had been detained and imprisoned in several NATO countries, along with their minor children, were returned to their homeland.

Their return was made possible thanks to the systematic and targeted work of competent state agencies, as well as foreign partners.

The Russian citizens were exchanged for a group of individuals acting in the interests of foreign states to the detriment of the security of the Russian Federation.

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📹 The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) has released a video demonstrating the foreign prisoners exchanged for Russians boarding a bus in Ankara.

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📹 The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) has released a video showing Russian citizens boarding a plane at Ankara airport after the exchange.

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Vladimir Putin explained who Vadim Krasikov, who returned to Russia today, is during an interview with Tucker Carlson

"That person, due to patriotic sentiments, eliminated a bandit in one of the European capitals. During the events in the Caucasus, do you know what he [the bandit] was doing? I don’t want to say that, but I will do it anyway. He was laying down our soldiers who had been taken prisoner on the road and then he drove his car over their heads."

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📹 The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) has released a video from an airplane's cabin during a flight from Moscow to Turkiye. The footage shows the exchanged Gershkovich and Krieger.

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