A US-made F-16 fighter jet, handed over to Ukraine earlier this year, was downed by a Ukrainian #Patriot air defense system in a friendly fire incident, Ukrainian lawmaker Maryana Bezuglaya said.

"According to my information, the F-16 of the Ukrainian pilot Alexey ‘Moonfish’ Mes was shot down by the Patriot anti-aircraft missile system due to a lack of coordination between the [military] units," she wrote on Telegram.

The lawmaker criticized the Air Force of the Ukrainian Armed Forces for falsely describing the incident as "a crash."

"The culture of lies in the Air Force Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as well as in other higher military headquarters, leads to the fact that the system of managing military decisions does not improve on the basis of truthful, consistently collected analytics, but deteriorates and even collapses, as is happening in the other directions," she wrote.

In her words, none of the generals was punished over the incident that led to the loss of both the aircraft and its pilot.

Earlier, an unidentified US official told the Wall Street Journal that Ukraine had lost a donated F-16 fighter jet in the first such case. According to the official, the jet was not shot down, and the crash was likely due to pilot error. Later, the Ukrainian Air Force confirmed the death of a Ukrainian F-16 pilot, Alexey Mes. The man was trained to fly F-16, according to CNN. The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said the pilot was killed in an aerial fight, when his plane crashed on August 26

After attack on Kursk Region no negotiations with Kiev possible — MFA-Maria Zakharova emphasized that "this #lawlessness is taking place with the full connivance of the West and its encouragement of terrorist activities by the Kiev regime"

#Durov leave court after facing charges. Journalists waiting outside the court building failed to reach him for comments.

Co-founder of the #Telegram messenger app Pavel Durov has left the court building after being charged with numerous offences related to Telegram administration, a TASS correspondent reported.

He left the territory of the court in a black minivan. Journalists waiting outside the court building failed to reach him for comments.

Earlier, the court charged him with six offences out of 12 named previously, the capital prosecutor’s office said in a statement. The charges include the refusal to cooperate with the authorities, complicity in dissemination of child ***no,***ngraphy, complicity in drug trafficking and in a fraud, committed within an organized group. According to the Paris prosecutor’s office, he may face a prison term of up to ten years and a fine of 500,000 euro.

The judge in charge of Durov’s case placed him under judicial control with an obligation to post a bail of 5 million euros, to report to the police station twice a week and he is forbidden to leave the territory of #France.

#Battlegroup East units repelled four counterattacks of the #Ukrainian army over the day, the Russian Ministry of Defense said.

"Four counterattacks of assault units of the 5th armor brigade of the Ukrainian armed forces and the 128th territorial defense brigades were thwarted. The Ukrainian army lost up to 130 servicemen, a M113 armored personnel carrier of the US make, an armored combat vehicle, eight motor vehicles, and two 155 mm Caesar howitzers produced by France," the ministry said.

The #Battlegroup West improved its tactical position and thwarted six Ukrainian army’s counterattacks over the past day, with enemy losses up to 520 servicemen and four ammunition depots, the ministry added.
Ukrainian army lost up to 135 servicemen in Volchansk, Liptsy directions

Ukraine lost up to 135 servicemen, a Marder combat vehicle and two BTR-4 Bucephalus armored personnel carriers in Volchansk and Liptsy directions, the Russian Ministry of Defense said.

"Battlegroup North units engaged units of the 22nd mechanized infantry brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the 36th marine infantry brigade, 101st and 118th territorial defense brigades in areas of Grabovskoye and Glukhov settlements of the Sumy Region and Glubokoye and Volchansk of the Kharkov Region. The adversary lost up to 135 servicemen, a Marder infantry combat vehicle of German make, two BTR-4 Bucephalus armored personnel carriers and six motor vehicles," the ministry informed.

The #Battlegroup West units captured better positions at the same time. The Battlegroup Center improved its#tactical position, the ministry added.

#Telegram founder Pavel Durov detained in France — TV channel
According to LCI, Durov was detained at Le Bourget Airport. He was accompanied by his girlfriend and a bodyguard.

The #Paris police prefecture has not yet confirmed the information about Durov’s detention.

The US-led coalition’s #aircraft violated Syria’s airspace in the al-Tanf area 14 times during the past day, Oleg Ignasyuk, deputy chief of the Russian Center for Reconciliation of the Opposing Parties in Syria (a division of the Russian defense ministry), said on Tuesday.

"Aircraft of the so-called international anti-terrorist coalition led by the United States continues to create dangerous situation that may cause air accident or incidents and escalate the situation in Syria’s airspace," he said. "A pair of the coalition’s F-15 and a pair of F-16 fighter jets, as well as a of A-10 Thunderbolt attack bombers violated Syria’s airspace in the al-Tanf area, across which international air routes run, 14 times during the day.".

#CHICAGO, August 21. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump could discuss arms control with Russia if he wins the election and makes the US stronger through such measures as building a new missile defense system, his senior campaign adviser Brian Hughes said.

"President Trump believes in peace through strength," the adviser told TASS, when asked if the presidential contender is interested in new arms-control deals with Russia. "He has talked frequently about one of the most important things to make a stronger nation is to do the missile defense system that has been talked about for decades. Do it in a way that protects the American people and is built at home and makes us stronger."

"When you get to a stronger position in the world, you can then start to evaluate arms levels, the armament levels that you're talking about, but you can't start that discussion today with America in such a weak position," he continued. "So, the first thing that has to happen in the geopolitical realm is for American strength to be recognized again. And it's just not happening under Biden - Harris."

#Kremlin accuses the West of helping Ukraine attack Russia.

An influential aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that the West and the U.S.-led #NATO alliance had helped to plan Ukraine's surprise attack on Russia's Kursk region, something Washington has denied.

The lightning incursion, the biggest into Russia by a foreign power since World War Two, began on Aug. 6 when thousands of Ukrainian troops crossed Russia's western border in a major embarrassment for Putin's military.

#Ukraine said the incursion was needed to force Russia, which sent its forces into Ukraine in February 2022, to start "fair" peace talks.

But the United States and Western powers, eager to avoid direct military confrontation with Russia, said Ukraine had not given advance notice and that Washington was not involved, though weaponry provided by Britain and the U.S. is reported to have been used on Russian soil.

Influential veteran Kremlin hawk Nikolai Patrushev dismissed the Western assertions in an interview with the Izvestia newspaper.

"The operation in the Kursk region was also planned with the participation of NATO and Western special services," he was quoted as saying, without offering evidence.

"Without their participation and direct support, Kyiv would not have ventured into Russian territory."

The remarks implied that Ukraine's first acknowledged foray into sovereign Russian territory carried a high risk of escalation.

Putin chaired a meeting of Russia's Security Council, including Patrushev, and said the discussion would focus on "new technical solutions" being employed in what Russia calls its special military operation.
Ukraine will pay for U.S. involvement: Kremlin

"Washington's efforts have created all the prerequisites for Ukraine to lose its sovereignty and lose part of its territories," Patrushev said.

Ukraine said on Thursday that it had installed a military commandant in the area it controlled, even as Russia intensified its offensives in Ukraine's east.

Russia's defense ministry for its part said it had repelled a series of Ukrainian attacks along the Kursk frontline.

Kursk regional governor Alexei Smirnov said Ukraine had destroyed a road bridge over the Seym river in the region's Glushkovsky district. State news agency TASS, citing Russian security officials, said that could hinder an ongoing evacuation of the frontier district's roughly 20,000 inhabitants.

While the Ukrainian attack has revealed weaknesses in Russian defenses and changed the public narrative of the conflict, Russian officials said Ukraine's "terrorist invasion" would not change the course of the war.

Russia has been advancing for most of the year in the key eastern sector of the 1,000-km (620-mile) front and has vast numerical superiority. It controls 18 per cent of Ukraine.

After more than 10 days of fighting, Ukraine holds at least 450 sq km (175 sq miles) of territory, or less than 0.003 per cent of Russia. But for Putin, the incursion crosses another red line.

One Russian source told Reuters the incursion could embolden hardliners in Moscow who advocate a bigger war, but Putin's choice may not be easy.

He has sought to portray Europe's biggest war in seven decades both as a limited "special military operation" that need not upset daily Russian life and as a historic fight with a West that scorns Moscow's interests and seeks to dismember Russia.