California Hospital Concealed Evidence Linking ‘Catastrophic Surge’ in Stillbirths to COVID Vaccine, Lawsuit Alleges
By Brenda Baletti, Ph.D. | The Defender | August 4, 2025
A California hospital concealed data linking a “catastrophic surge” in stillbirths among women who received COVID-19 vaccines, according to a lawsuit filed last week in the Superior Court of California, Fresno County.
Michelle Spencer, a nurse at Community Medical Centers’ (CMC) Community Regional Medical Center, said the hospital “deliberately and selectively” concealed from staff, patients and regulators a spike in unborn baby deaths that began in spring 2021, and retaliated against her when she publicized the information.
The lawsuit also says the hospital concealed medical data related to the fetal deaths that showed a link to COVID-19 vaccination of pregnant mothers.
The data include hospital-wide medical records documenting the number of stillbirths and the vaccination histories of those babies’ mothers. One managing nurse at the hospital told a staff member that nearly all of the stillbirths occurred among vaccinated mothers.
According to the complaint, Spencer “witnessed firsthand the exponential increase in unborn baby deaths directly correlating with pregnant women who received a Covid vaccine and then would deliver a dead baby a close number of days or weeks following their injection.”
Spencer’s attorney, Greg Glaser, said:
“The essence of this case is that the truth shall set you free. The hospital possessed vaccinated versus unvaccinated comparison data. The numbers proved the vaccines were causing miscarriages and more in the vaccinated group.
“We know hospital management analyzed the data because they said so, and we see they concealed it from regulators because that file [requested by regulators] is empty.”
Children’s Health Defense is funding the lawsuit, which accuses the hospital of fraud, retaliation and unethical business practices.
Graphic email describes spike in ‘demise patients,’ or stillbirths
Spencer, who has been employed with the hospital since 2017, works in the antepartum, postpartum and labor and delivery units, all located on the hospital’s third floor. Before the COVID-19 vaccination rollouts, the hospital averaged one fetal death per month, she said in the lawsuit.
However, beginning in spring 2021, the number of stillbirths skyrocketed to about 20 per month, and remains at that level today, Spencer said. The number is an estimate because Spencer can’t access the hospital’s full medical records.
In September 2022, Julie Christopherson, a nurse manager specializing in perinatal care and bereavement, sent an email to the nursing and technical staff at the hospital describing the ongoing spike in stillborn babies, which she called “demise patients.”
“Well, it seems as though the increase of demise patients that we are seeing is going to continue,” Christopherson wrote. “There were 22 demises in August, which ties the record number of demises in July 2021, and so far in September there have been 7 and it’s only the 8th day of the month.”
She said the nurses hadn’t seen all of the deaths because the statistics included other units within the hospital, “but there have still been so many in our department.”
Christopherson said:
“It’s a lot of work for you as the bedside RN’s and it’s also a lot of work for me. Demises have taken a lot of my time away from the other groups of patients that I serve, so I hope this trend doesn’t continue indefinitely.
“I know of a few more that are scheduled to deliver in the week ahead, so unfortunately the process is going to be very familiar with all of you.”
According to the email, many parents requested autopsies of their babies. It also provided graphic details of the mishandling of a dead fetus, and reminded the staff of proper procedures for handling the babies’ remains and other associated biological material.
Hospital ‘aggressively’ promoted vaccines despite signs of risk, lawsuit alleges
The lawsuit alleges the spike in baby deaths began in spring 2021, as the hospital “was aggressively promoting Covid-19 vaccines to pregnant women, including requiring OBGYNs with hospital privileges (and their staff) to administer vaccines without knowing or disclosing risks or benefits.”
According to the lawsuit, Christopherson “expressed bias against unvaccinated children and their parents” and helped the hospital conceal data linking vaccines to the record-high number of stillbirths.
Nearly all of the deceased babies were born to mothers who received the COVID-19 vaccine, while the number of fetal deaths in mothers who didn’t get the vaccine remained at the pre-vaccine rollout level, averaging one per month, according to the lawsuit.
The hospital management ignored “multiple safety signals” for COVID-19 vaccine injuries among mothers and babies, according to the complaint, which states:
“Not only did the increase in unborn baby deaths occur, but mothers suddenly … began having more frequent and more significant health problems (i.e., vascular, clotting, hemorrhaging) that did not occur prior to Spring 2021 based on Plaintiff’s direct observations and conversations with colleagues. ….
“ … At the same time … the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) on the fourth floor also experienced such dramatic spikes in injuries that the patient population nearly doubled. … From direct observation and conversations with colleagues after March 2021, Plaintiff learned of increasing numbers of babies being born at CMC with conditions such as missing fingers and toes, heart murmurs, and jaundice.”
The hospital benefited financially from promoting the vaccines, the lawsuit says, while pushing the cost of that policy on patients and healthcare professionals by refusing to investigate the COVID-19 shot as the possible cause of its increasing injury and death rates.
Hospital retaliated by withholding her bonus, Spencer said
Spencer kept a copy of Christopherson’s email, which she shared with multiple independent news sources. She also appealed to clinical supervisors to investigate whether the vaccines were linked to fetal deaths.
In response, Spencer “was gaslit by management who continued to make unsubstantiated excuses such as ‘pesticides’ as a more likely cause of the record high dead babies at CMC,” according to the lawsuit.
Spencer said she followed the standards of ethical whistleblowing and did not violate hospital rules. However, when the hospital learned she had shared the email with the media, it opened what Spencer called a “biased investigation” into her, in an attempt to silence her and other concerned colleagues.
Spencer said the hospital wasted its resources investigating her, instead of investigating the cause of the stillbirths.
She appealed to the California Department of Public Health to investigate the deaths. However, the hospital used its influence to prevent any investigation, provided false medical information to the agency regarding the number of fetal deaths, and stated COVID-19 vaccines played no role in the stillbirths, according to the lawsuit.
In December 2022, the hospital declined to pay Spencer a $5,000 retention bonus, claiming she was no longer in good standing because she was under investigation.
This sent a message to staff that “whistleblowers will be punished,” she said.
By intentionally concealing the vaccine-correlated data regarding baby deaths, the hospital prevented her from fulfilling her responsibility as a nurse to properly inform her patients of their health risks, Spencer said.
She continues working at the hospital and informs patients of the risks associated with vaccines, including the Hep B vaccine. However, she has been reprimanded for those actions.
Spencer is asking the court to compel the hospital to have a qualified third party investigate the deaths. She also seeks lost wages and punitive damages.
Spencer said she hopes her lawsuit will “expose the evil that’s going on in the hospital system,” and will “wake up parents and educate nurses.”
Glaser said:
“The hospital chose financial gain over people’s lives, and the hospital retaliated against Ms. Spencer as the nurse who blew the whistle on all of this. Our goal with the case is to give the evidence to a jury to set the truth free. Only then can we really begin to heal. And God knows we need it.”
Related articles in The Defender
- Study of 1.3 Million Women Links COVID Vaccines to Pregnancy Risk
- Study Finds 37 Safety Signals for COVID Vaccines During Pregnancy, CDC Still Urges Women to Get the Shots
- COVID Shots During Pregnancy Linked With Rise in Fetal Deaths, Leaked Emails Suggest
- Hep B Vaccines Come With High Risk, Little Benefit — Why Does CDC Recommend Them for Every Newborn?
This article was originally published by The Defender — Children’s Health Defense’s News & Views Website under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Please consider subscribing to The Defender or donating to Children’s Health Defense.
Whistleblower exposes real 2016 US election meddling
By Kit Klarenberg | Al Mayadeen | August 5, 2025
On July 30th, the ODNI declassified damning evidence from a US intelligence community whistleblower. They attest to being aggressively – but unsuccessfully – pressured by superiors into signing off on the infamous 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment, which expressed “high confidence” Russia interfered in the previous year’s Presidential election to ensure Donald Trump’s victory. Their testimony indicates senior US spy agency officials not only well-knew the ICA’s findings were bogus, but consciously ignored and suppressed far more compelling evidence of widespread, non-Russian meddling in the vote.
The whistleblower is a US intelligence veteran who from 2015 to 2020 served as Deputy National Intelligence Officer, at the ODNI-overseen National Intelligence Council. They specialised in “cyber issues”, including “cyber-enabled information operations”. Prior to the 2016 vote, they led the production of an ICA on “cyber threats” to US elections, at the order of Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, for which they were “commended”. They were then tasked by the outgoing Obama administration to assist in the 2017 ICA’s production.
That assessment purported to expose “Russian activities and intentions” in the Presidential election. The whistleblower’s role was to investigate alleged attempts by Moscow “to access US election-related infrastructure”, as “reporting suggested many Russia-attributed IP addresses were making connection attempts that the [US intelligence community] could not explain the purpose of.” However, an official – name redacted – subsequently “directed us to abandon any further study of the subject,” on the basis it was “something else.”
For the whistleblower, the “abrupt dismissal of the study effort” raised significant concerns about the true nature and source of the “Russia-attributed cyber activity.” They suspected their superiors were attempting to conceal how state or non-state actors closer to home may have been engaged in “Domain Name Service (DNS) record manipulation”, to falsely ascribe cyber meddling efforts to Moscow. Their anxieties only multiplied when superiors rebuffed their attempts to include references to “other nations’ efforts to influence the 2016 Presidential election” in the 2017 ICA.
The whistleblower’s “professional judgment… was multiple nations were seeking to shape the views of the US electorate,” and therefore influence their voting preferences. This assessment was based not only on relentless negative media coverage of Trump in allied countries, including Britain and other “NATO partners”, but the “interception of electronic communications from members of [Trump’s] incoming Presidential administration.” The source of this interception is redacted. So too is the identity of an official who repeatedly demanded the whistleblower conceal this from the National Security Council.
‘Tradecraft Standards’
The ICA’s release on January 6th 2017, 11 days prior to Trump’s inauguration, ignited a media frenzy over the President-elect’s potential ties to Russia, and the Kremlin’s purported role in installing him in the White House. The New York Times dubbed the document a “damning and surprisingly detailed account” of Moscow’s “efforts to undermine the American electoral system.” The Washington Post boldly described it as “a remarkably blunt assessment”, and “extraordinary postmortem of a Russian assault on a pillar of American democracy.”
In reality, the ICA offered zero evidence to support its bombastic headline conclusions. It was claimed “full supporting information on key elements of [Russia’s] influence campaign” was “highly classified”. Bizarrely, much of the Assessment’s content focused instead on the output of Russian media – both for domestic and international audiences – with no relevance whatsoever to the 2016 election. This included RT America coverage of topics including police brutality, fracking, and “alleged Wall Street greed.”
The whistleblower records how when they learned the ICA was so heavily dependent on a “simplistic treatment” of “English language Russian media articles”, they expressed “substantial concern” over the “legitimacy” of the Assessment’s “analytic tradecraft”. They moreover “could not concur in good conscience based on information available,” and their “professional analytic judgement,” of a “decisive Russian preference” for Trump’s victory, as concluded by the ICA. The whistleblower thus refused to sign off on its findings.
This was not well-received by a senior US intelligence official, name redacted. Leading up to the ICA’s release, they sought to harass and suborn the whistleblower into endorsing the Assessment. After multiple failed attempts to bully the whistleblower to “abandon” their “tradecraft standards” and simply “trust” there was “reporting you are not allowed to see,” which “if you saw it, you would agree,” the official strongly implied the whistleblower’s subsequent promotion was contingent on their agreement.
When this approach didn’t work, the “visibly frustrated” official fulminated, “I need you to agree with these judgments, so that DIA [Defense Intelligence Agency] will go along with them.” This prompted discussion between the pair about the DIA’s “supposed trust” in the whistleblower, and “the necessity” of them proving their “bona fides” as an intelligence community officer “by doing what it took to bring DIA on board as an additional [intelligence] Agency signing on to the 2017 ICA.”
Refusing to compromise on “standards, tradecraft, and ethics”, the whistleblower defied his superior’s direct order “to misrepresent my views to DIA.” While unexplored in the declassified file, the official’s desperation for the DIA to endorse the ICA is understandable. In September 2020, it was revealed the entire US intelligence community had no “confidence” in the Assessment. In fact, then-CIA director John Brennan personally wrote the report’s incendiary conclusions, before selecting a coterie of his close Agency confidantes to sign off.
Many US intelligence analysts conversely assessed Russia favoured Hillary Clinton’s victory, and viewed Trump as a potentially dangerous “wild card”. As such, creating the false impression of US intelligence community unanimity over Brennan’s concocted conclusion was of paramount importance to the CIA chief. In the end, only the Agency, FBI, and NSA publicly endorsed the ICA’s findings. Even then, the NSA – which closely monitors communications of Russian officials, and could therefore detect any high-level discussions about the 2016 election in Moscow – merely expressed “moderate confidence”.
‘Something Else’
The whistleblower’s testimony indicates they were surprised the FBI expressed “high confidence” in the 2017 ICA. They were aware “as recently as September 2016,” the Bureau had “pushed back” against suggestions “of Russian intent to influence” the Presidential election, believing “such a judgement would be misleading.” The whistleblower notes the FBI “altered its positions… without any new data other than the election’s unexpected result [emphasis added] and public speculation Russia had ‘hacked’ the vote – a scenario [the US intelligence community] judged simply did not occur.”
They were furthermore shocked to learn years later disgraced former MI6 spy Christopher Steele’s ‘Trump-Russia’ dossier was a core component of the “highly classified” material, upon which the ICA’s dynamite conclusions heavily relied. It was their understanding the ODNI viewed the dossier at the time “as non-credible sensationalism”, the Office’s chief, James Clapper, considered it “untrustworthy”, and Steele’s ludicrous claims “had never been taken seriously” by US intelligence more widely.
The whistleblower’s grave, myriad anxieties about the Assessment’s construction led them to approach a variety of US government oversight agencies, including the Intelligence Community Inspector General, with what they knew. Despite receiving acknowledgement they “had witnessed malfeasance”, the whistleblower was stonewalled, and their evidence never appears to have reached any relevant authority, let alone been acted upon. Given the explosive nature of the whistleblower’s insider testimony, ominous questions abound over why they encountered such resistance – and where the non-Russian interference they identified truly emanated from.
The whistleblower’s account of being tasked to investigate alleged Russian hacking of “election-related infrastructure” the US intelligence community found inexplicable, only to be told to leave it alone as it was “something else”, is particularly striking. There are several explanations for this activity, all of which point to concerted attempts to falsely concoct the narrative of Russian election interference for malign purposes. For example, in September 2016, Hillary Clinton-connected lawyer Michael Sussmann approached the FBI, claiming to possess explosive evidence of Trump’s collusion with Moscow.
The material comprised DNS logs, supposedly indicating the Trump Organization used a secret server belonging to Russia’s Alfa Bank for back-channel communications with the Kremlin. This was fed to the media, and excitedly reported by certain liberal outlets prior to the election. However, The Intercept rubbished the trove, given the DNS records supplied couldn’t “prove anything at all, and certainly not ‘communication’ between Trump and Alfa,” meaning “no one… can show that a single message was exchanged between Trump and Alfa.”
An alternative may be the Department of Homeland Security was responsible for targeting election infrastructure. In December 2016, The Wall Street Journal reported an attempted hack into the state of Georgia’s voter registration database traced back to a DHS IP address. The incursion came at a time the Department was lobbying for election systems to be regarded as “critical infrastructure”, therefore making their protection part of the agency’s formal purview.
On January 6th 2017, the same day the ICA dropped, DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson jubilantly announced he had designated “election infrastructure” part of the agency’s already vast domestic spying remit. He acknowledged “many state and local election officials… are opposed to this designation.” It was certainly a good day to bury bad news – and assist the CIA and Clinton campaign in furthering nonsense conspiracy theories about Russian attempts to “hack” the 2016 Presidential election, therefore hopefully invalidating its “unexpected result”.
HHS Cancels mRNA Vaccine Development – ‘poses more risk than benefit’ says RFK Jr
By Jefferey Jaxen | August 5, 2025
A stunning announcement from HHS Secretary RFK Jr. has set the media ablaze.
“After reviewing the science and consulting top experts at NIH and FDA, HHS has determined that mRNA technology poses more risk than benefits than these respiratory viruses.”
The official HHS press release states:
“BARDA is terminating 22 mRNA vaccine development investments because the data show these vaccines fail to protect effectively against upper respiratory infections like COVID and flu. We’re shifting that funding toward safer, broader vaccine platforms that remain effective even as viruses mutate.”
The announcement wipes out nearly $500 million worth of Covid mRNA vaccine development projects, “we’re moving beyond the limitations of mRNA and investing in better solutions” stated Kennedy in the HHS press release.
Kennedy’s announcement comes after months of outside pressure to wind down the Covid mRNA vaccine platform in the U.S.
In May 2025, RFK Jr. removed COVID-19 vaccines from the list of routine immunizations for healthy pregnant women and children.
HHS and America now have pressing work at hand to undue the damage of the rushed and forced mRNA vaccine platform.
World-leading cancer researcher Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong recently stated in an interview: “This non-infectious pandemic of cancer is sadly upon us” referring to how both the virus and the vaccine can awaken sleeping cancer cells in the body. A topic mainstream science is just now, after years of alternative researchers and journalists banging the drum, beginning to admit and study. The new study in the journal Nature chronicles how it is actually the immune system’s response to the lab created gain-of-function bioweapon (and the mRNA shot as we have pointed out) that down-regulates and allows for accelerated cancer progression.
Kennedy has signaled over the last month that he is now taking aim at the broken vaccine injury compensation in the United States.
America, and other countries that align with our mission, must now develop a Manhattan Project-level effort to reverse the many harms brought about by the lab-constructed virus and the shot we were falsely told would save us from it.
Democracy being trampled in Moldova – Kremlin
RT | August 5, 2025
Tuesday’s sentencing of Moldovan regional leader Evgenia Gutsul is a politically motivated decision and an example of democracy being trampled in Moldova, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.
Gutsul, elected head of EU-candidate Moldova’s Gagauzia region, was sentenced by a Chisinau court to seven years in prison on charges of illegally financing the banned Euroskeptic SOR party. She has denied the allegations and called the case an attempt to eliminate opposition to Moldova’s pro-Western government.
“This is truly an example of a politically motivated decision, this is an example of attempts to exert blatant and, in fact, illegal pressure on political opponents during the election campaign,” Peskov told reporters.
He accused the Moldovan authorities of suppressing dissent, stating that “the opposition is being squeezed in every possible way in Moldova. In fact, people are being deprived of the opportunity to vote for those they prefer.”
“The rules and norms of democracy are being trampled in every possible way now in this country,” Peskov added.
Gutsul was elected head of Gagauzia, the autonomous and predominantly Russian and Turkic-speaking region in southern Moldova, after winning the 2023 election as a SOR candidate. She campaigned on promises of closer ties with Russia and opposed Moldovan President Maia Sandu’s push for integration with the EU and NATO.
In March, she was detained over allegations of campaign financing violations and falsifying documents. Gutsul has maintained her innocence and appealed to both Russia and Türkiye to apply pressure on the Moldovan government to defend Gagauzia’s rights.
Moscow has repeatedly condemned the case against Gutsul. In July, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called the prosecution an example of “European anti-values in action” and accused Brussels of turning Moldova into a “liberal dictatorship.”
The EU had previously sanctioned Gutsul for “promoting separatism,” maintaining “close ties with Russia,” and allegedly threatening Moldova’s sovereignty.
Her prosecution has triggered street protests in the capital, Chisinau, with supporters describing the trial as a politically driven attempt to neutralize the opposition and accusing President Sandu of authoritarianism.
US House Speaker claims West Bank “rightful property of Jewish People”
MEMO | August 5, 2025
US House Speaker Mike Johnson visited on Monday the illegal settlement of Ariel, built in the occupied West Bank, marking the first visit of its kind by a US official in this position.
During the visit, Johnson said “Judea and Samaria” was the “rightful property of the Jewish people”, using the Israeli term for the occupied West Bank, Israel’s Channel 7 reported.
According to the channel, the high-level US delegation led by Johnson made the visit with the aim of “strengthening strategic relations between the two countries and deepening knowledge of the Judea and Samaria region”.
During the visit, Johnson, along with 15 other members of Congress, participated in a tree-planting event in the settlement.
The Hebrew channel claimed that the visit affirms US “support for Israel’s right to sovereignty over its lands.”
Ariel Mayor Yair Chetboun described the visit as “historic” and embodies the shared values, deep friendship, and strong partnership between the United States and Israel.
In response, the Palestinian foreign ministry condemned Johnson’s visit and described it as a “blatant violation of international law and international legitimacy resolutions, and an encouragement of settlement crimes and the confiscation of Palestinian lands”.
The ministry considered Johnson’s statements “provocative” and a “clear contradiction of the declared U.S. position on settlements and settler attacks.”
The ministry stressed that “all settlements are invalid and illegal and undermine the chances of implementing the two-state solution and achieving peace.”
Under international law, all territories occupied by Israel in 1967 including the West Bank and Syria’s Golan Heights and all settlements built there are considered illegal.
Foreign investors help Israeli economy ‘soar’ despite multiple wars, growing isolation
The Cradle | August 5, 2025
Israel’s financial markets have been soaring despite almost two years of war on several fronts, data released on 5 August revealed.
The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange’s benchmark index jumped 21.3 percent in the first half of this year, marking an outperformance of nearly all other international markets. This has been driven mainly by investors outside of Israel.
Stocks belonging to insurance and financial services firms, particularly, have done significantly well, rising by 68 percent.
Israel’s shekel also remains among the leading global currencies.
According to the Startup Nation Central NGO, January through June marked the strongest six months for Israeli tech funding.
The NGO estimates that over $9 billion in capital has been raised – a 54 percent increase since the second half of last year.
In the first seven months of 2025, Israeli shares received $8.5 billion in foreign investment.
The success has been accompanied by deepening internal disputes in Israel after nearly two years of war on several fronts – including Gaza, Lebanon, Iran, and Yemen.
Israel’s terror attack in Lebanon last year – involving the rigging and detonation of pager devices – attracted investors, who viewed the indiscriminate attack as ingenious.
“Markets are soaring, but some of that leans on investor FOMO, and that won’t be enough to sustain a positive trend over time,” an investment officer at Israeli asset management firm Sigma Clarity Investment House told Bloomberg.
Joseph Wolf, chief executive officer of EFG Wealth Management in Israel, said, “If we get more peaceful relationships with our neighbors, I think you’re going to see a very quick formation of investment funds and vehicles looking toward the Gulf.”
Despite the numbers, Israel’s credit rating outlook was still negative as of May 2025. The year before, Israel’s rating had been downgraded multiple times.
Israel has faced growing isolation and condemnation over its genocidal actions in the Gaza Strip – including the starvation of the Palestinian population. More states are gearing up to recognize Palestinian statehood, and Israeli soldiers involved in war crimes are being pursued by courts around the world.
Nonetheless, the Israeli economy has survived and is apparently thriving.
Early last month, the UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine, Francesca Albanese, presented a report naming dozens of companies involved in supporting the surveillance, repression, and killing of Palestinians.
She noted that “for some, genocide is profitable,” revealing how investment in Israel’s defense sector and occupied West Bank settlement expansion have kept the Israeli economy afloat.
“Far too many corporate entities have profited from Israel’s economy of illegal occupation, apartheid and now, genocide,” Albanese said, calling on the international community to “hold the private sector accountable.”
“There is a prima facie responsibility on every state and corporate entity to completely abstain from or end their relationships with this economy of occupation,” she added, naming companies which have “profited from the violence, the killing, the maiming, the destruction in Gaza and other parts of the occupied Palestinian territory.”
Among them were Lockheed Martin, Caterpillar, Hyundai, Microsoft, Palantir, and others.
Albanese pointed out a 200 percent jump in the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and the accumulation of hundreds of billions in market gains. “One people enriched, one people erased,” she said.
As a result, the UN rapporteur was targeted by US sanctions less than a week later.
Capabilities Russia Unlocks by Quitting Medium-Range Missile Moratorium
Sputnik – 05.08.2025
Russia’s termination of its unilateral moratorium on the deployment of ground-launched ballistic missiles in the 500-5,500 km range is the logical outcome of hostile NATO policies, and unties Moscow’s hands for a more proactive approach to strategic defense, says Igor Korotchenko, one of Russia’s top military analysts.
What Brought on Russia’s Decision?
NATO’s European allies’ preparations for a potential conventional war with Russia by 2030, including:
- a massive rearmament campaign and plans to create massive, wartime-sized standing armies
- the development of new weapons, including an Anglo-German missile with a 2,500 km+ range
- deployment of new US fifth-gen fighters in the region
What It Means
In these circumstances, and no longer facing INF-style medium and intermediate-range missile restrictions, Russia will:
- ramp up production of ballistic missiles, including the conventionally armed Oreshnik (serial production already underway)
- deploy the missiles, which are difficult if not impossible to intercept due to their multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle (MIRV) payload, as it sees fit and based on security considerations
- potentially deploy a nuclear-armed variant of the Oreshnik, with up to six warheads with a 150 kt per warhead capacity to “deter” NATO and “minimize threats and risks of a military attack on Russia by NATO,” not only in Europe, but Asia as well, if needed
“The INF Treaty is dead,” Korotchenko says. There is now “nothing” to stop Russia from realizing its strategic security objectives.
Moscow lists countries whose citizens took part in Ukrainian incursion into Russia
RT | August 5, 2025
Foreign nationals from over ten countries took part in Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk Region, according to the head of the Investigative Committee of Russia, Aleksandr Bastrykin.
Bastrykin told the media on the eve of the anniversary of the incursion that investigators identified individuals from Brazil, Colombia, Denmark, Georgia, Norway, Paraguay, Peru, Sweden, the UK, and other nations as having fought alongside Ukrainian troops in the Western-supported raid.
Russian forces fully repelled the incursion in April, claiming that the attackers suffered around 76,000 casualties during the fighting, in which Ukrainian troops employed Western-supplied heavy weaponry.
Bastrykin said 331 civilians were killed and another 553 injured due to Ukraine’s actions in Kursk Region. The Investigative Committee has opened over 600 criminal cases related to the incursion, with around a third already referred for trial.
Moscow maintains that the incursion was an example of Kiev’s use of terrorist tactics, citing claims by captured soldiers that they were encouraged to use violence against civilians. Ukrainian officials have acknowledged that part of the goal was to apply pressure on the Russian public.
He detailed a range of alleged abuses, from a case in which unarmed civilians were beaten to death, to occurrences in which US-made HIMARS multiple launch rocket systems were fired at civilian targets which Kiev allegedly knew held no military value.
Since the escalation of the conflict with Russia in 2022, Kiev has called on foreign nationals with military experience to join its armed forces, passing legislation to accommodate them. Moscow does not recognize the fighters as lawful combatants, classifying them instead as mercenaries subject to prosecution.
In May, Bastrykin reported that the Russian authorities charged 902 people with acting as mercenaries under Ukraine’s command; 97 individuals from 26 different countries have been convicted.
Civilian Executions by Retreating Ukrainian Forces Not Uncommon – Russian Official
Sputnik – 05.08.2025
LUGANSK – Reports of Ukrainian forces executing civilians during army retreats are not uncommon, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s ambassador-at-large on the crimes committed by Kiev, Rodion Miroshnik, told Sputnik on Tuesday while commenting on an executed civilian’s body discovered near the city of Krasnoarmeysk.
“Unfortunately, such incidents [executions of civilians by the Ukrainian armed forces] are not uncommon. We have plenty of documented evidence from Avdeyevka, Chasov Yar, Dzerzhinsk, and Selidovo. When Ukraine classifies people who do not want to evacuate deep into Ukrainian territory as ‘waiters’, strangers, ‘separatists’ and carries out purges of the civilian population,” Miroshnik said.
Most of these cases are similar to each other and have a number of characteristic features, the official said, adding that victims are typically found with restrained limbs and visible close-range gunshot wounds on their bodies. These discoveries follow Ukrainian troops’ retreat from populated areas, he added.
“The terrible discovery near Krasnoarmeysk only confirms the system that exists or is generated by the Ukrainian political regime. They [Ukrainian authorities] seem to sort their own civilians into categories, evacuating supporters of the regime while targeting those choosing to remain on their own land. This is a policy generated by [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelenskyy, his entourage and the political regime that is today a military dictatorship on the territory of Ukraine,” Miroshnik said.
The official emphasized that international awareness is critical regarding Ukraine’s treatment of civilians, as reports indicate severe division between handling of Zelenskyy’s supporters and dissenters, with the latter facing lethal violence.
