What follows is NewsGuard's summary and translation of top news stories from Russia's state TV Channel One. NewsGuard presents these stories in the order that they appear on the program.
EU approves new sanctions package against Russia
This will be the seventh sanctions package. The measures will come into force after publication in the Official Journal of the EU. Brussels promised that all the details will become known. But there are already some leaks in the press.
According to European sources, the new package includes a partial ban on the purchase of Russian gold in the form of scrap and semi-finished products. The list of dual-use goods and technologies that cannot be supplied to our country is also expanding.
European entrepreneurs really dislike all of this, of course. The newspaper Le Figaro quoted the opinion of a well-known French financier, Phillippe Villin, who is convinced that Russia is a vital supplier for Europe.
Politicians are spinning a sanctions flywheel against Moscow, which is already having catastrophic consequences for the EU.
Villin said: "The European Commission makes choices without any debate. And they chose to implement unprecedented sanctions against crucial supplies. Sanctions, which are already having catastrophic consequences for us...."
Russian military destroys 9 nationalist command posts
Included was the SBU (Ukraine security service) headquarters in Kramatorsk.
The Russian Defense Ministry reported on the latest data regarding the special operation to protect Donbas. Fighters shot down a Ukrainian Su-25 aircraft, an Mi-8 helicopter, and five drones. They also eliminated more than 900 radicals near Odessa and in Nikolaev.
Igor Konashenkov, the official representative of the defense department, said: "According to updated data, more than 320 nationalists were killed as a result of a high-precision strike on July 17 at the point of temporary deployment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the city of Nikolaev.
"Against the background of significant losses in the east of Ukraine, residents of the western regions, who were mobilized into the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, refuse to go to Donbas. Thus, the military personnel of the 100th territorial defense brigade in the city of Lutsk, Volyn region, in full strength refused to participate in hostilities. The brigade was disarmed by the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the instigators were arrested, and a decision was made to reorganize this formation."
More orphans from Donbas have found home, loving parents
The children were taken in by families from the Kaluga region (in Russia). They were personally brought to the region by Commissioner for Children's Rights Maria Lvova-Belova.
In total, according to her, 108 children were taken out of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's republics and in the near future they will be transferred to Moscow, Voronezh and Tula regions, as well as to the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug.
Lvova-Belova said: "The Children are from large families, these are 5, 6, 7. We even have one family with nine children. We cannot separate them, we must place them all together. This is a very big thing because 25 children in Kaluga are being reunited, brothers and sisters have not seen each other for a long time. Some haven't seen each other for 4 or 5 years."
Allied forces fight on front lines, clear mines from liberated territories
The dominance of militants who continue to torture and kill civilians is like a natural disaster for Donbas and Ukraine. All week there were reports of radicals shelling residential areas. Today (July 24) there were new attacks on Donetsk.
A man was killed, a woman and a teenager were injured. A kindergarten and apartment buildings were damaged. The shells also hit several cars. The nationalists also fired on Makiivka and Yasinovataya. Our guys are doing everything to drain the blood of this deadly machine and immobilize it.
Allied forces are destroying militants and their equipment on all fronts. The vaunted NATO weapons are legitimate targets, and the scale of what has been hit is impressive. Just today, allied forces hit a warehouse housing Harpoon missiles, HIMARS [High Mobility Artillery Rocket System], American howitzers, and a ship full of radicals.
But in the liberated areas, the tasks are completely different. There is a lot of work to be done by our de-miners.
Investigation establishes cause of death in Mariupol Drama Theater
Risking their lives, our guys are knocking out militants from the strategically important cities of Seversk and Soledar. The nationalists are on the run, and not only from the battlefield. This week, there were mass resignations in the top leadership of the SBU (Ukrainian security service) and the prosecutor's office.
(Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelensky has declared a witch hunt. Traitors are now being searched for everywhere. The city of Nikolaev was completely closed for "purges," hundreds of radicals arrived in the city to carry out "punitive raids" among civilians. And the Ukrainian media is unlikely to report on this.
Local and Western journalists are stubbornly spreading more and more fakes, presenting them as facts. This happened with the attack on the Drama Theater in Mariupol. But the investigation showed that Russia had nothing to do with it. There was no air strike, all of this was another cynical provocation of Kyiv.
Alexei Kutsurubenko, the head of the investigative department of the Donetsk People's Republic Prosecutor General's Office said: "We found the remains of 14 bodies [in the theater]. We did not find othеr remains."
Ivan Konavolov, Channel One correspondent said: "The investigation did not mention anything about the deaths of thousands. But most importantly, the investigation confirmed that the explosion occurred inside the theater. It was the detonation of ammunition planted by the militants of the nationalist formation of Azov. No traces of the destruction of the building were detected from the outside.
"Western and Ukrainian media are already trying to forget this story. It's a lot easier for them to disseminate fakes, as CNN has done with its story, 'Russia bombardments around the clock on parts of Donetsk'....We've already lost count of the amount of lies told in the Western media."
Agreement paves way for Russian and Ukrainian grain
This week, the attention of the world was on Tehran, where (Russian President) Vladimir Putin met with the leaders of Iran and Turkey.
During one of these meetings, a key statement was made by the Russian leader. The president named the condition under which Russia is ready to facilitate the export of grain from Ukraine. It's simple: The West must remove all restrictions on the supply of Russian grain to world markets.
The export potential of Russia is 30 million tons of grain. And this year there will be even more, 50 million tons. The Russian leader reiterated that we do not refuse to cooperate, we do not create obstacles, we are for compromises.
Putin said: "We will facilitate the export of Ukrainian grain, but we proceed from the fact that all restrictions related to the possible export of Russian grain will be lifted. We agreed on this initially with international organizations. They took the trouble to pack it all up. No one has objected so far, including our American partners."
And just three days later, after the long and difficult negotiations, there was a breakthrough. Two documents were signed in the Dolmabahce Palace, which will soon form a single package. The first memorandum removes all difficulties with the export of Russian products and fertilizers. The second one solves the issue with the export of Ukrainian grain. The coordination center has already been created, the work has begun.
Brussels intends to assume right to regulate consumption of natural gas
The most important topic at the talks in Iran is energy. For many years, the West has pursued a reckless policy in this area, causing millions of people to now suffer. But for some reason we have to fend off unfounded accusations.
"Gazprom has always fulfilled, is fulfilling and will continue to fulfill all its obligations," Putin said while talking to reporters after talks in Iran. "The exception is Hungary, where they still thought about their citizens. The rest are creating conditions for a force majeure with supplies, halt the construction of gas pipelines and want to introduce marginal oil prices and suffer from this all themselves too."
Europe, U.S. fully feeling effects of global energy crisis
Now the whole of Europe has been forced into debt. The consequences of the global energy crisis have been fully felt by the British, the French and the Germans. Prices for gas and electricity this week have reached new historical records. There has been a wave of resignations in the ruling circles.
In the hottest week of the summer, when temperatures reached above 40 degrees Celsius in Europe, people died from heat stroke and citizens were forbidden to use air conditioners. For many, it was not even possible to break this ban, because they can't afford to buy air conditioners.
Millions of people are below poverty line
Teachers have second jobs to feed their families. The picture in America is even sadder.
(The segment quotes a Newsweek article, "Putin Capitalizes on Western Uncertainties to Pursue War Goals in Ukraine," saying:) "Western sanctions on Russia were intended to cripple the economy, isolate its most-powerful oligarchs and bring unbearable levels of domestic unrest to Moscow.
"Instead, it is the West that is reeling. Political uncertainty is appearing in Europe, most recently evidenced by the resignation of Prime Minister Boris Johnson in the U.K., one of the staunchest European supporters of Ukraine, and in discord in the Italian government.
"These problems raise questions about the strength and durability of public support for the Ukraine side in its war with Russia, a country that remains the main supplier of crude oil, natural gas and solid fossil fuels."
Now, Brussels is imposing a regime of austerity onto EU officials.
(The channel quotes an article from Politico, "Europe's war economy gets real," saying:) "The measures are being rushed through using emergency protocols, which mean no country will be able to veto the plan and the European Parliament will have no say.
"By July 26, when EU energy ministers are expected to rubber-stamp the new rules, Europeans could wake up to find themselves forbidden from indiscriminately blasting the air conditioning or, as temperatures drop in the coming months, turning up the heating too high."
Political scientist comments on causes of crisis of Western political elites
Fish are known to rot from the head. Western political elites are shrinking. Leaders are not what they used to be. This is a challenge to world security and an explanation for the ferocious hybrid war that America and Europe unleashed against our country.
Famous political scientist Dmitry Suslov commented on the causes of the most severe crisis of political personnel, and the degradation of their views and strategies.
Said Suslov: "The world today is ruled either by political clowns, or poorly educated, but at the same time extremely arrogant politicians, or elderly gerontocrats, unable to overcome the inertia of the establishment, the deep state and patterns of the past.
"Clear evidence of the low quality of the current West elites lies in their inability to solve the basic socio-economic and political problems of their countries, and the surprising ease with which they create situations that are fraught with a direct military clash of the great powers, which in past eras led to world wars.
"The latest example is [U.S. House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi's demand that Russia—a nuclear superpower, a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council and a country necessary to have dialogue with on international security and economic matters—be officially recognized as a sponsoring of international terrorism. Sooner or later the United States will have to conduct a dialogue with Russia on Ukraine, European security issues, and problems of the Middle East."
Russian foreign minister talks about staging as method of Western policy
Losing on the battlefield, the Ukrainian regime and its Western patrons are staging bloody dramatizations in order to demonize Russia before the world community. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov wrote about this in an article for (Russian newspaper) Izvestia. The provocations in Bucha, Mariupol and Kramatorsk have a distinct signature. And it all started long before the special operation.
The foreign minister recalled incidents including the alleged chemical attack in the Syrian parliament and the poisoning of the (former Russian spy Sergei and his daughter Yulia) Skripal (in the U.K. in 2018). And this is a real media war. Everyone quickly forgets about fakes, but the consequences for the countries that are appointed to blame are quite material, and sometimes catastrophic.
Lavrov said: "If you look at today's events through a historical prism, then the entire Ukrainian crisis appears as a big game....Any talk about good relations, about the readiness of the West to take into account the rights and interests of Russians...turned out to be nothing more than a staging."
