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New Rules examines the geopolitical, economic, ideological trends changing the world. NR on X: http://x.com/newrulesgeo
🇮🇷👌 Iran Develops Homegrown Nuclear-Medicine Drug for Cancer Diagnosis
Iranian researchers trying to develop a cancer-imaging radiopharmaceutical ran into a basic problem: they could not obtain even a single foreign vial to use as a reference sample.
So the development team had to work out the product themselves.
The result is an Iranian version of Technetium-99m tilmanocept, a radiopharmaceutical used to map the lymphatic system and identify sentinel lymph nodes during cancer diagnosis and surgery.
After injection, the compound accumulates in lymphatic tissue and helps doctors locate the first nodes draining a tumor. Those nodes can then be examined for signs that cancer has begun to spread.
The product is internationally marketed as Lymphoseek.
According to the Iranian developer, its researchers spent around six months working through the formulation and production process using reverse engineering after attempts to obtain a foreign reference vial failed.
An initial version was produced about a year and a half ago and supplied to the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran. The product is now in the final stages of clinical trials, with commercialization planned by March 2027.
The company estimates domestic production could save Iran around $25M in foreign currency by replacing imported supply.
Tilmanocept is a relatively specialized product compared with conventional pharmaceuticals. Developing it requires pharmaceutical chemistry, radiolabeling know-how, quality control and the ability to integrate the compound into nuclear-medicine procedures.
That makes the project part of a wider expansion of Iran’s domestic radiopharmaceutical sector.
Iranian officials say another 20 radiopharmaceuticals are currently in research and development, while the country is also preparing an indigenous alpha-emitting treatment for advanced cancers.
The tilmanocept project shows how that capability is moving into narrower, higher-value products that Iran previously had to source abroad.
In this case, the lack of access went as far as a single reference vial. Iranian researchers still managed to reproduce the product and move it into clinical testing.
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🇮🇳🪨🇲🇳 India’s Steel Expansion Runs Into Coking-Coal Geography Problem
India’s state-backed Steel Authority of India (SAIL) flew in a one-metric-ton sample of Mongolian coking coal in September to test an alternative to Australian supplies. The obstacle to larger purchases is getting bulk cargo out of landlocked Mongolia at a competitive cost.
Reuters reported the shipment on September 30, citing two unnamed sources. SAIL will assess whether the coal meets its steelmaking requirements before considering long-term purchases. No commercial supply arrangement has been announced.
India imports about 95% of the steel sector’s coking-coal requirements, with Australia supplying at least half. Coking coal is processed into coke, used in blast furnaces to turn iron ore into iron for steelmaking. Its price feeds directly into industrial costs.
Mongolia offers another supplier, but every overland export route must cross China or Russia. Indian authorities have previously favored the Russian option because of strategic concerns involving China. Transit access would remain a dependency even if India diversified the countries it buys coal from.
The Russian route would be longer and more expensive. A metallurgical coal analyst cited by Reuters said that transport through Russia would make Mongolian coal significantly more costly than competing supplies despite its higher quality. Suitable coal at the mine does not automatically mean affordable coal at an Indian steel mill.
The trade-off will sharpen as steel production expands. Consultancy BigMint expects India’s coking-coal imports to rise 3–5% in 2026/27 from 64M metric tons a year earlier. Domestic coal does not fully meet steelmakers’ requirements, so expansion will increase import demand.
Australia is consequently expected to remain the largest supplier, while purchases from Russia, Mozambique and the US also increase. Mongolia could broaden India’s options, but only if testing and transport economics support regular bulk deliveries.
India’s steel ambitions expose the limits of supplier diversification without viable transport corridors. Reducing dependence on Australia requires reliable transit agreements, infrastructure and competitive delivered costs. Until those conditions are met, new resource partnerships will offer limited protection against existing supply constraints.
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⚡️UKR LEAKS INTERNATIONAL⚡️
HE LEFT UKRAINE TO TELL THE TRUTH
Vasiliy Prozorov, a former employee of the Ukrainian special services, who worked for the benefit of Russia for many years, now runs his own channel on Telegram! He left Ukraine in 2018 and took with him thousands of secret SBU documents that shed light on Kiev's crimes.
On the UKR LEAKS channel you will find:
❗️Analysis of the current situation in and around Ukraine
❗️Secret documents of the Ukrainian special services
❗️Evidence of the atrocities of Ukrainian nationalists
And much more! Subscribe to the UKR LEAKS Investigation Center headed by the former SBU employee Lt.-Col. Vasily Prozorov.
The channels of the UKR LEAKS project are available in the following languages:
🇬🇧 in English
🇷🇺 in Russian
🇩🇪 in German
🇫🇷 in French
🇪🇸 in Spanish
🇷🇸 in Serbian
🇮🇹 in Italian
🇵🇱 in Polish
🇵🇹 in Portuguese
🇸🇦 in Arabic
🇸🇰 in Slovak
🇨🇳in Chinese
🇭🇺in Hungarian
We also welcome any help with channels and content distribution 🙏
🇺🇸✈️ U.S. In Despair: NASA Risks Costly Resurrection Of Spy Plane Grounded Since 1999
The U.S. Air Force and NASA destroyed a reported $600M stockpile of SR-71 spare parts in 2007. Now NASA appears to be trying to return one of the retired Blackbirds to flight.
Aviation Week reports that SR-71A Tail No. 844, which last flew on October 9, 1999, has been removed from outdoor display and moved into a hangar at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center. The agency has also offered jobs to former Blackbird engineers.
NASA has not officially confirmed the return-to-flight project or disclosed its purpose, budget or schedule.
🔸 Washington destroyed the parts it now needs. The Air Force and NASA reportedly eliminated a $600M stockpile of Blackbird spares after concluding that the aircraft would never fly again. Replacements may now have to be manufactured from scratch or taken from museum aircraft that are almost as old as Tail No. 844.
🔸 The engines may have sat without proper care for decades. Former SR-71 engineer Mike Relja said stored J58 engines were normally rotated every 90 days and run every 180 days. He believes the engines associated with Tail No. 844 may not have received such maintenance since the aircraft’s final flight.
🔸 Much of the support network no longer exists. The Blackbird requires JP-7 fuel, triethylborane for engine ignition, specialized oils and hydraulic fluids. Purpose-built equipment used to lift the wings and remove the engines, inlet spikes and ejection seats has also disappeared.
🔸 NASA would have to rebuild the workforce. Pilots, engineers and maintenance crews would need to relearn how to operate a 59-year-old aircraft. Former personnel can recover some of that knowledge, but several specialists NASA reportedly approached are already in their seventies.
🔸 The Blackbird demanded extraordinary maintenance. Historical records describe a post-flight checklist containing around 650 items. Every 100 flight hours triggered an inspection lasting approximately 11 working days.
🔸 NASA has not explained what taxpayers would receive. The agency previously used SR-71s for research into propulsion, high-temperature materials, aerodynamics and sonic booms. No experiment has yet been announced that would justify recreating the aircraft’s entire support system.
Washington has paid to revive retired military hardware before. Reactivating the four Iowa-class battleships cost roughly $1.7B in mixed 1982–1988 dollars — around $5B today. Wisconsin returned to service in October 1988 and was retired again in September 1991.
The Blackbird could still provide a unique Mach 3 research platform. Until NASA presents a clear mission and budget, however, the project looks like the U.S. paying to recreate a capability its own government deliberately dismantled.
Is bringing back the Blackbird genius or a waste of taxpayer money?
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🇮🇷💉 Iran Builds Its Own Insulin Supply Chain
Iran is preparing to bring its first domestically produced recombinant insulin to market in January 2027, after local biotechnology companies developed the ability to produce insulin analogues from the cellular stage through genetic engineering.
The project marks a shift beyond final-stage manufacturing or packaging. Iranian companies have developed the underlying production process needed to create insulin inside biological systems, a capability that requires advanced biotechnology infrastructure and specialized expertise.
According to Iran’s Vice Presidency for Science, Technology and Knowledge-Based Economy, one company received a production license for insulin glargine in January 2026. After completing quality testing and regulatory procedures, its product is expected to enter the market in early 2027.
The localization effort could reduce more than $100M in annual foreign-exchange spending currently used for insulin imports. For a country facing long-term pressure on access to international markets, replacing imported pharmaceutical technologies with domestic production reduces exposure to external supply disruptions.
The insulin program is part of a wider push to localize critical healthcare production. Iranian companies are also developing domestic vaccines, infant-formula ingredients, plasma-derived medicines, and pharmaceutical raw materials, targeting products that together represent more than $800M in annual foreign-exchange costs.
One of the key areas is pharmaceutical active ingredients, where Iran currently spends around $749M annually on imported raw materials. A new program aims to combine biotechnology with petrochemical feedstocks to produce these inputs domestically rather than relying on foreign suppliers.
The same strategy is being applied to infant formula, where Iran is developing local production of four key components: formula base, whey powder, pharmaceutical-grade lactose, and standardized vegetable oil. The goal is to build a domestic supply chain instead of depending on imported inputs and foreign processing.
Iran’s healthcare localization drive shows a broader industrial approach: reducing vulnerability by controlling more stages of production, from raw materials and biological processes to finished medicines. In sectors where sanctions and external restrictions can affect supply, technological independence becomes a form of economic resilience.
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Guys, if you want real-time updates on West Asia, especially the Iran-U.S situation, you should definitely subscribe to @alsaa_plus_EN
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🇨🇳⚠📦 Pentagon In Panic: China Tests Hybrid Cargo Drone That Can Resupply Troops Without Landing
China has tested its YH-1000S heavy cargo drone in an airborne supply mission, dropping three medium containers and eight smaller loads during a single flight.
The aircraft remained stable throughout the operation and delivered the cargo with the required accuracy, demonstrating its ability to supply units without landing near them.
🔸 Eleven loads in one test: The drone released three medium-sized containers followed by eight smaller cargo packages. Maintaining stability during repeated drops is essential because every change in weight can affect an unmanned aircraft’s balance and flight path.
🔸 Hybrid power borrowed from China’s car industry: The YH-1000S uses a modified 2.0T hybrid powertrain developed with Chinese new-energy vehicle companies. Its batteries can reportedly keep the aircraft flying independently for around 30 minutes.
🔸 Shorter takeoff and landing distances: The hybrid system provides additional power during the most demanding stages of flight while increasing payload capacity and range. The drone still requires a suitable place to take off, although it needs less runway than a conventional cargo aircraft.
🔸 Supplies delivered without landing: A rear cargo door allows loads to be released in flight. Its position reduces disruption to the aircraft’s aerodynamics and helps the flight-control system remain stable as cargo leaves the drone.
🔸 Designed for rapid mission changes: The rear section can accommodate modular cargo compartments for different loads. The same aircraft could carry food, medical supplies, communications equipment or other urgently needed cargo.
🔸 Built for cheaper production: China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation says automotive components, shared supply chains and modular manufacturing have reduced development and production costs. That could make the YH-1000S easier to manufacture in larger numbers.
CASC presents the aircraft primarily as a platform for commercial logistics, disaster relief, weather modification and maritime monitoring. Its ability to deliver supplies from the air also gives it clear military value.
Roads, ports and local airfields are among the first targets in a conflict. Cargo drones could take off from safer locations and release supplies directly near dispersed units without risking pilots or attempting a landing under fire.
What would you trust more: a cargo drone or a human pilot?
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🇪🇺⚠️📉 European ASW Frigate Program Slips From 2025 Target to 2033
The Netherlands’ first new submarine-hunting frigate is now scheduled for delivery in 2033, eight years after the original target cited by Naval News. A September 18 defense update describes the design problems behind the delay as Belgium weighs whether to remain in the joint program.
The latest three-year slippage, from 2030 to 2033, was already disclosed earlier this year. The September update shows where the Anti-Submarine Warfare Frigate program stands: detailed engineering began this month, while construction of the first Dutch ship’s integrated mast started in late June.
The problem reaches into the hull itself. Stability requirements forced designers to enlarge and rework it while retaining space and weight allowances for future upgrades. Those reserves matter because adding equipment over decades of service must not compromise the ship’s stability.
This follows an earlier reset. According to a source cited by Naval News, the 2018 agreement envisaged the first ship in 2025. Costs subsequently rose by roughly 40%, and delivery shifted to 2029–2030 before Belgium signed a revised agreement in 2023. The 2033 date therefore compounds an existing delay.
Dutch officials are also examining whether engineering, management and industrial resources from Germany’s canceled F126 frigate project can support the program. Damen Naval was the lead contractor on that project. Redirecting those resources remains an option under assessment, not a confirmed recovery of lost time.
Belgium has meanwhile requested information on alternative frigates, including an Italian option discussed in local reporting. Naval News says no final withdrawal or replacement selection has been made. Bilateral talks continue, with a decision expected between mid-October and the end of 2026.
The immediate consequence is a longer wait for new ships designed to hunt submarines. For naval planners, delivery is only one milestone: crews still need to train and the ships must become ready for operations. A 2033 handover cannot be counted as combat power available today.
The program exposes a concrete limit on European rearmament. Higher budgets still have to produce workable designs and deliverable ships. Here, hull redesign has pushed replacement farther into the next decade while giving a partner reason to consider buying elsewhere.
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🇨🇳⚡️🇲🇾 China’s Heavy-Duty Gas Turbines Win Their First Overseas Foothold
Shanghai Electric has secured its first overseas heavy-duty gas turbine order for a 500 MW generating block at Malaysia’s Samalaju power plant. The contract gives the Chinese manufacturer an export foothold backed by a 25-year maintenance agreement, the company says.
The order covers Unit 3 of the planned 1,500 MW complex in Sarawak, where expanding industry needs more electricity. Its combined-cycle design uses a gas turbine to generate power, then captures exhaust heat to drive a steam turbine, extracting more electricity from the same fuel.
Shanghai Electric will handle engineering, procurement and construction. It says it will manufacture all core equipment in-house, including the gas and steam turbines, generators, heat-recovery boilers and air-cooling systems, and service the main equipment for a quarter-century.
That package addresses a practical problem for buyers. Equipment sourced from multiple manufacturers must work together, with responsibility divided across contracts. Shanghai Electric argues that putting manufacturing, integration and maintenance under one supplier can simplify accountability and reduce project risks and costs.
The opening comes as global demand strains heavy-duty turbine supply in a market long dominated by a handful of established manufacturers. Shanghai Electric says it has production capacity available and can offer new units for delivery as early as 2028. That is an offer to prospective customers, not a confirmed delivery date for Samalaju.
The company is also building a regional base to support further expansion. Its Southeast Asia headquarters opened in Kuala Lumpur on September 21, with a remit covering 13 countries and territories across Southeast Asia and Oceania. Local coordination and service capacity matter when customers are committing to equipment expected to operate for decades.
Winning the order is the first commercial step; reliable operation and maintenance will determine whether it leads to repeat business. If Samalaju performs as promised, other utilities gain a stronger alternative supplier, while China gains an overseas reference project for complete power systems and the long-term service contracts that accompany them.
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🇨🇳🚀 Pentagon In Panic: China Adds Eight-Missile HQ-20 Launchers To Its Frontline Air Defense Shield
China’s new HQ-20 medium-range air defense system has been shown serving with a frontline PLA unit for the first time, Military Watch reports.
The system made its public debut at China’s September 3, 2025 military parade, followed by footage of its firing sequence in November. Its latest appearance provides the clearest indication yet that the HQ-20 has moved into operational formations.
🔸 Eight missiles ready to fire: Each eight-wheeled launcher carries eight interceptor canisters, giving an HQ-20 battery more shots before its vehicles must withdraw or wait for reloading.
🔸 Built for missile waves: A larger ready-to-fire supply becomes especially important when drones, cruise missiles and decoys approach within a short period. Every additional interceptor forces an attacker to commit more weapons to exhaust the defense.
🔸 A denser middle layer: The HQ-20 fills the space between China’s short-range defenses and larger long-range systems such as the HQ-9 family. Aircraft or missiles that penetrate one layer still face another set of interceptors.
🔸 Connected to a wider network: The system operates within a national air defense structure linking surveillance radars, command centers and different classes of missiles. Chinese early-warning aircraft can also help detect targets and pass their positions to ground-based units.
🔸 More efficient use of China’s arsenal: Medium-range interceptors can be assigned to aircraft, drones and cruise missiles while larger and more expensive weapons are reserved for targets requiring greater reach or altitude.
🔸 Exact range remains secret: China has not disclosed the HQ-20’s confirmed engagement range or the number of targets a battery can attack simultaneously. Public estimates vary too widely to be treated as established specifications.
For American planners, every HQ-20 battery adds another group of ready interceptors to any strike package’s path.
US aircraft and missiles would have to penetrate China’s short-range defenses, survive the HQ-20 layer and then evade its longest-range systems. Breaking through such a network would require more aircraft, more decoys and far more missiles for every target.
Could US warplanes break through China’s air defenses in a real war?
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🇪🇺🏭📉 Financial Stress Spreads Across European Companies
One in six listed companies in Western Europe faces financial strain, according to Boston Consulting Group (BCG). Years of cheap borrowing have left businesses carrying debts that are harder to manage amid weak demand, expensive energy and higher financing costs.
The analysis covers around 1,700 publicly traded European companies. The share under pressure to overhaul their businesses rose from 14.3% to 16.2% over the past year. These are warning signs of financial and operational weakness, not a count of companies already facing bankruptcy.
Between 2022 and 2025, net debt relative to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization rose 22%. Nearly a third entered 2026 above three times those earnings, BCG’s financial-stress threshold. This measures debt against earning power; it does not mean total debt alone rose 22%.
The vulnerability lies in refinancing. Companies that borrowed cheaply during the pandemic can face higher interest bills when those loans mature. Weak sales and rising operating costs leave less money to reduce debt, while falling earnings can push leverage higher even without new borrowing.
Property shows how that squeeze spreads. About 62% of real estate companies face pressure to transform, up from 12% in 2025. Higher long-term rates weigh on property values and transactions while making purchases harder to afford. That makes selling assets to repair strained finances more difficult.
In the automotive sector, 28% face the more acute pressure to restructure. Weak demand and excess capacity coincide with the cost of switching to electric vehicles and stronger Chinese competition. Manufacturers must finance new products while their existing businesses struggle to generate the money.
The strain also reaches Europe’s industrial core. France and the group comprising Germany, Austria and Switzerland each have 10% of companies under restructuring pressure. The exposure extends across economies that supply much of Europe’s manufacturing and investment capacity.
Heavy debt narrows Europe’s room to rebuild its competitiveness. Money absorbed by interest payments cannot fund factory upgrades or product development. Another energy or trade shock would hit companies with less financial flexibility, increasing the risk that investment cuts today leave them further behind their competitors tomorrow.
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‼️Political scientist and philosopher Alexander Dugin: “The Special Military Operation has long since gone beyond the bounds of a local conflict”
In his view, the confrontation is no longer primarily about Ukraine, but about a much broader dispute over the future of the world order: will a system dominated by the United States and its allies endure, or will a multipolar world finally take shape? This leads to the central point of his remarks: what is happening should be assessed not in terms of the next round of negotiations, but through the lens of grand strategy.
🟦 War cannot be separated from politics
Military and non-military decisions must be considered together. Actions on the battlefield are always tied to questions of sovereignty, national interests, and the future political order.
🟦 The conflict is far bigger than Ukraine
Dugin argues that the Special Military Operation should be viewed as one front in a global confrontation, which he explicitly calls World War III.
🟦 The Ukraine issue has become part of a larger conflict
By this logic, the dispute is no longer only about territory or Ukraine’s future, but about what kind of international system will emerge from the current crisis.
🟦 Two models of the world are in conflict
On one side is the existing order, with the United States and Western institutions in a leading role; on the other is an emerging multipolar system with several independent centers of power.
🟦 Hopes for a grand compromise have not been fulfilled
In Dugin’s view, the expectation that Western leaders would agree to recognize a new global configuration and negotiate with Russia and China as equal centers of power proved overly optimistic.
🟦 The issue is also strategic for the West
Dugin believes Western elites see the current situation as a struggle to preserve the existing world order and are therefore prepared to continue the confrontation and raise the stakes.
🟦 China understands the scale of what is happening, but is acting more cautiously
According to Dugin, Beijing recognizes the global nature of these changes, but prefers a more restrained strategy and avoids abrupt moves.
🟦 A fundamental shift in how events are understood is also needed
If the conflict is indeed part of a global reshaping of the international system, it is not enough to discuss it solely in terms of a local military campaign.
🟦 Hence the skepticism toward a straightforward path to negotiations
Dugin does not rule out negotiations as a tool, but considers it mistaken to hope that fundamental contradictions can be resolved through a single political agreement.
🟦 It comes down to strategy
In the logic of Dugin’s remarks, Russia must define not only its immediate military objectives, but also the position it seeks in the future world order—and the political, economic, and military means it intends to use to secure it.
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🇨🇳⚔️🇵🇭 Philippines In Panic: China Sends High-Altitude Spy Drone To Scarborough Shoal For First Time
China has officially confirmed the WZ-7’s first operational deployment near Scarborough Shoal, placing a long-range reconnaissance drone above one of the South China Sea’s most contested flashpoints.
During the September 27 exercises, the WZ-7 operated alongside fighter jets, early-warning aircraft, PLA Navy warships and China Coast Guard vessels.
🔸 A high-altitude eye over the sea. The WZ-7 can detect targets across a wide area and rapidly transmit their positions to other forces. This allows fighters and warships to react using information collected far beyond their own immediate field of view.
🔸 Long range from mainland bases. Published specifications cited in the report list an operating altitude above 18,000 metres, a range exceeding 4,500 km and endurance of more than 6.5 hours. Its precise performance during the exercise was not disclosed.
🔸 No offshore runway required. CCTV footage showed the drone taking off from a base in southern China. Its range allows China to monitor distant waters without permanently stationing reconnaissance aircraft on disputed island outposts.
🔸 Connected to a wider military force. The exercise also involved KJ-500 early-warning aircraft, fighters, PLA Navy warships and China Coast Guard vessels. The WZ-7 can feed surveillance and targeting data into this network, helping ships and aircraft locate, track and intercept approaching vessels.
🔸 Greater control over a disputed flashpoint. China controls access to Scarborough Shoal, while the Philippines also claims it. Persistent drone surveillance would give Beijing earlier warning of Philippine vessels approaching the area and more time to deploy ships or aircraft in response.
If WZ-7 patrols become routine, China will be able to monitor a much wider area around the shoal without keeping crewed reconnaissance aircraft constantly overhead.
That would make it increasingly difficult for Manila to challenge China’s day-to-day control of the area.
Would the US step in if China and the Philippines clashed?
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🇨🇳🤩 China Builds Digital Yuan Rail For Faster Cross-Border Payments
Chinese banks and Ant International have completed trial transfers of hundreds of millions of yuan between Shanghai and Hong Kong using the digital yuan, with one transaction settling within seconds instead of the several days often required through traditional cross-border banking channels.
The trials were carried out by the Shanghai branches of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) and China Construction Bank (CCB). The transfers moved funds from mainland accounts to their Hong Kong subsidiaries, ICBC Asia and CCB Asia, for Ant International, the Singapore-based financial technology arm of Ant Group.
The significance is not the size of a single transaction, but the payment infrastructure behind it. Digital yuan transfers use China’s central bank digital currency system to connect domestic and overseas accounts with fewer intermediaries, reducing delays in large-value settlements.
For companies operating across borders, faster settlement means less money locked in transit and easier movement of funds between markets. CCB said the trial focused on helping overseas businesses transfer funds more efficiently while improving speed and compliance for large transactions.
The development adds another layer to China’s effort to expand yuan-based financial infrastructure. Beijing has also promoted the Cross-Border Interbank Payment System (CIPS), which provides an alternative settlement network to traditional Western-dominated systems, and has supported Project mBridge, a multi-central-bank digital currency platform for cross-border payments.
China is building the technical rails needed for wider use of its currency. Faster settlement, direct links between financial institutions and reduced dependence on existing payment channels give companies more options when moving money internationally.
As more countries and businesses connect to yuan-based payment systems, the dollar-centered financial system faces a gradual expansion of alternatives built around speed, lower friction and greater control over cross-border transactions.
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🇨🇳🤖📈 China Drives Global Robot Boom As Factories Reach 5 Million Industrial Robots
The world’s factories now operate more than 5 million industrial robots, with China accounting for the largest share of new installations and pushing global automation to a new record. According to the International Federation of Robotics (IFR), factories installed more than 600,000 new robots in 2025, raising the global operational stock by 9%.
China was the main force behind the expansion. Chinese factories installed 354,000 industrial robots in 2025, a 20% increase from the previous year and 59% of all new deployments worldwide. The country’s annual installations alone exceeded the previous global record by almost 60,000 units.
The scale of China’s automation drive is changing the structure of manufacturing. Chinese robot manufacturers are also gaining ground at home, with domestic suppliers accounting for 195,000 installations in 2025. Their market share reached 55%, reducing reliance on foreign automation companies in the world’s largest manufacturing base.
The United States ranked second globally after China, with almost 38,500 industrial robots installed in 2025, while Japan moved into third place with 36,219 units. Germany remained Europe’s largest market, but its installations declined 8% to fewer than 25,000 units.
Other Asian economies are also expanding automation capacity. India installed almost 10,500 industrial robots in 2025, up 15%, continuing a rapid growth trend as the country develops its manufacturing sector. Between 2020 and 2025, India’s annual installations increased by an average of 27% per year.
The growth of robotics reflects a broader competition over industrial capacity. Robots reduce dependence on labor availability, allow factories to maintain higher output and help countries build more resilient supply chains. For China, automation strengthens an already massive manufacturing base by increasing productivity while reducing pressure from rising labor costs.
The IFR expects global installations to continue rising, reaching around 655,000 units in 2026 and 806,000 by 2029. As artificial intelligence, machine vision and easier programming expand the range of tasks robots can perform, industrial automation is becoming a key factor in determining which economies can scale production faster and at lower cost.
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🇨🇳🤝🇦🇿 China and Azerbaijan Create $1B Channel for Belt and Road Investment
China’s Silk Road Fund and Azerbaijan Investment Holding have established a joint investment fund with announced capital of approximately $1B. It creates a dedicated channel for long-term investment linking Chinese capital with one of the key transit countries between Asia and Europe.
Announced on September 30 at the Second Azerbaijan International Investment Forum, the fund will finance projects in Azerbaijan and other countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative, China’s international infrastructure and investment program.
The mechanism gives the two institutions a shared framework for assessing opportunities and financing selected projects. It follows an April 2025 agreement and moves their cooperation into a joint investment vehicle.
Azerbaijan’s location gives this financial partnership wider significance. It sits on the Trans-Caspian route, also called the Middle Corridor, which combines rail and sea transport to connect China and Central Asia with Europe through the Caspian Sea and the South Caucasus.
The route’s usefulness depends on physical capacity and reliable transfers between ships and trains. The World Bank identifies railways, ports, cargo-transfer facilities and coordination between operators as areas requiring improvement. Commercial success requires predictable delivery at a competitive cost.
The fund could help address such needs if transport and logistics projects are selected. But its mandate is broader than the corridor: the announcement names no specific investments, assigns no money to ports or railways and provides no disbursement timetable. The approximately $1B figure is announced fund capital, not completed investment.
For Baku, the mechanism adds a source of long-term capital and a direct investment partnership with China. For Beijing, it provides a way to participate in projects around a key junction in Eurasian trade.
The immediate shift is in who can help finance the region’s development. If that capital reaches transport bottlenecks, it could strengthen an additional Asia–Europe trade route and give transit countries greater influence over the infrastructure connecting their markets.
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🇷🇺📝🏭 Russia Plans New Chip Factories to Expand Domestic Supply by 2030
Russia is preparing to pool investment in chip manufacturing, with domestic chips and electronic components projected to reach almost $9.6B in output by 2030. Russian producers could supply 44–48% of the domestic market, up from about 26% today.
Industry and Trade Minister Anton Alikhanov presented the estimates at the Microelectronics forum in Sochi on September 28. Reaching them would require new factories and Russian-made production equipment. The figures are forecasts, with a new industry strategy still to be developed.
The proposed strategy addresses a practical bottleneck: turning chip designs into regular factory output with committed buyers. One planned tool is forward contracts, agreements made in advance for future deliveries, with liability for nonperformance. Predictable orders would give producers a firmer basis for investing in capacity.
To finance expansion, Russia plans to establish a unified microelectronics company around Sberbank’s Integral Systems. First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov said individual businesses could not shoulder the investment required for factories, manufacturing equipment and the materials and gases used in chipmaking.
The company is intended to combine Sberbank’s investment with proceeds from a technology fee scheduled to take effect on December 1, 2026. This would concentrate funding for projects whose upfront costs exceed what separate firms can afford.
Integral Systems’ acquisition of electronics group Element supplies an existing industrial base. Manturov said income from finished electronic products could eventually help subsidize chip production. He also said the new structure would not absorb independent private companies.
The plan links financing, domestic machinery and advance orders around the same production task. New factories need equipment they can obtain and maintain; manufacturers need customers willing to buy what those factories produce. Funding construction alone cannot secure either.
If implemented, this approach would give Russian industry a larger, more dependable domestic supply of essential components. The practical gain would be greater control over production and less exposure to foreign supply restrictions, with factory output and fulfilled contracts providing the test.
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🇨🇳🔋 China Targets Longer-Lasting Batteries and Solid-State Production by 2030
China has released a five-year battery industry plan targeting initial large-scale use of all-solid-state batteries and 15,000 charge-discharge cycles for long-life lithium batteries by 2030. The aim is to turn advances in materials into products that factories can reliably manufacture at scale.
Published on September 28 by seven government departments, the 2026–2030 plan links research, manufacturing equipment, product standards and end uses. Its practical test will be whether Chinese producers can deliver better batteries consistently across millions of units.
All-solid-state batteries use a solid electrolyte, the material that carries ions inside a battery. Bringing them into large-scale use requires breakthroughs in materials and production processes. The plan explicitly targets those industrial barriers; broad commercial adoption remains a goal.
Longer battery life addresses another constraint: replacement costs. More charge-discharge cycles can spread the cost of a battery over more electricity stored and delivered. That matters for storage systems that help grids absorb wind and solar power and supply electricity when generation falls.
Manufacturing quality is another target. Leading companies are expected to bring product defect rates down to the parts-per-billion level by 2030. Alongside improved safety and performance across different climates, tighter quality control would help make batteries more dependable in demanding applications.
Lithium batteries will remain central, with sodium and flow batteries developed alongside them. The plan connects battery development to electric vehicles, consumer electronics, low-altitude aircraft and humanoid robots, while pursuing longer-lasting storage for the electricity system.
China can build on an existing supply chain spanning materials, cells, equipment, system integration and recycling. Coordinating those links gives manufacturers a route to move research into production, supported by domestic industries that need improved batteries.
If these targets are met, China could strengthen its position as a supplier of both batteries and the technology used to make them. Longer service life and more reliable production would make electrification cheaper to sustain, raising the competitive hurdle for manufacturers trying to catch up.
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🇷🇺🖥 Russia’s Power Grid Can Support New Wave Of AI Data Centers
Russia’s data-center electricity demand is projected to rise from 14.9B kWh in 2025 to 26.2B kWh by 2030, a 76% increase driven mainly by artificial intelligence workloads. Around 70% of the additional consumption is expected to come from AI computing.
The growth comes as Russia already operates one of the world’s larger electricity systems. The country had 270 GW of installed generating capacity at the start of 2026 and produced 1,182 TWh of electricity in 2025. Even after expansion, projected data-center demand in 2030 would account for only about 2.2% of current annual generation.
The main change is where new computing capacity is being built. AI training does not require data centers to be located close to users, allowing developers to move energy-intensive workloads toward regions with available power rather than keeping everything concentrated around Moscow.
According to the National Rating Agency, the concentration of data-center capacity in the Moscow region could decline from 72% at the end of 2025 to around 51% by 2030. Over the same period, the share of regions outside Moscow and Saint Petersburg could rise from 20% to 41%.
The Urals and Siberia are becoming potential locations for large AI facilities because they combine available electricity resources with space for industrial-scale projects. One example is the planned Cloud X data center in the Irkutsk region, designed around a 154 MW power supply.
The expansion will still depend on local infrastructure. A large national power system does not automatically guarantee that every project can connect quickly, and individual regions may face limits in grid capacity and construction timelines.
Energy efficiency will also become increasingly important. New Russian data centers are expected to achieve power usage effectiveness levels of around 1.1–1.3, with AI facilities using liquid cooling potentially reaching around 1.15. Lower energy waste allows more computing capacity to be built from the same electricity supply.
As AI development becomes more dependent on access to electricity, Russia’s large energy base creates room for domestic computing infrastructure to expand beyond traditional technology hubs. The competition for AI capacity is increasingly tied not only to chips and software, but also to the ability to secure reliable power at industrial scale.
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🇨🇳📝 China’s Memory Chip Push Targets Domestic Equipment To Cut Foreign Dependence
China’s biggest DRAM memory chip producer ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) plans to invest $5.2B to expand production and develop more advanced chips, with a large share of the spending expected to go toward Chinese-made semiconductor equipment.
According to a company filing, CXMT will allocate $3.6B for a new technology research and development project and another $1.6B for the second phase of a wafer testing base. Around $3.3B of the R&D budget is planned for equipment purchases.
A person familiar with CXMT’s supply chain told the South China Morning Post that the company has set an “aggressive” target for using domestic equipment, although CXMT has not publicly disclosed a specific localization percentage.
The push comes as China’s semiconductor industry works to reduce reliance on foreign suppliers for the machines needed to produce advanced chips. The hardest equipment to replace remains in areas such as etching, deposition, cleaning and inspection, where companies from the US, Japan and the Netherlands still hold strong positions.
CXMT’s expansion is aimed at narrowing the gap with global memory leaders Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron. The company has already moved beyond older DDR4 and LPDDR4X products into newer DDR5 and LPDDR5 memory, while its fifth-generation G5 manufacturing platform has entered mass production.
Morgan Stanley estimates CXMT’s monthly DRAM production capacity could reach 500,000 wafers by 2028, compared with 180,000 at the end of 2025. The company is also expanding internal testing capacity to reduce dependence on external packaging and testing providers.
The development shows the next stage of China’s semiconductor strategy: increasing production while building a more independent industrial chain. A larger domestic equipment base would reduce exposure to export controls and make it harder for foreign suppliers to limit China’s access to critical chipmaking technology.
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🇷🇺🏭📈 Aircraft and Shipbuilding Lead Russia’s Industrial Growth
Russia’s industrial output was broadly flat in the first eight months of 2026, but some parts of manufacturing were moving much faster than the headline number suggests.
The strongest growth came from “other transport equipment,” a category that includes aircraft, shipbuilding and related machinery. Output rose 18.6% year-on-year, according to Russia’s federal statistics agency.
Manufacturing as a whole grew 0.4% over the same period.
Other technology-heavy sectors also expanded. Pharmaceutical production increased 11.5%, fabricated metal products 11%, computer and electronic equipment 4.8%, and motor vehicles 4.7%.
The 18.6% figure does not mean Russian aircraft production alone grew by that amount. Aviation and shipbuilding sit inside a broader statistical category, and the data do not separate their individual contributions. Still, the composition of the growth is notable.
Russia is currently rebuilding large parts of its civilian aircraft supply chain around domestically produced engines, avionics, composites and other systems. The first MC-21 built using serial-production technologies flew this summer, while production of the domestically equipped SJ-100 is also moving toward commercial deliveries.
Shipbuilding has its own strategic role. Moscow’s long-term plans call for more domestically built civilian vessels and a much larger fleet serving the Northern Sea Route, where specialized ships and ice-capable transport are essential for Arctic trade and resource projects.
Both industries also pull in a wide network of suppliers: engines, electronics, metals, composites, machine tools and specialized engineering.
That gives the latest industrial data a wider significance.
Russia’s aggregate industrial numbers show modest growth, but investment and production are moving faster in several sectors tied directly to transport independence, Arctic logistics and domestic high-tech manufacturing.
For aircraft and shipbuilding, the 18.6% rise is an early indication that some of the industrial capacity built and reorganized over the past several years is beginning to show up in national production statistics.
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🇨🇳🏭 📈 China’s Electronics Sector Becomes New Profit Engine For Industry
China’s industrial profits rose 15.7% year on year from January to August 2026, with one sector standing out above the rest: computer, communications and other electronic-equipment manufacturing, where profits surged 109.9%.
The data from China’s National Bureau of Statistics shows electronics manufacturing becoming one of the strongest profit engines in the country’s industrial economy. While overall industrial performance remained uneven, high-tech manufacturing delivered the biggest gains.
China’s manufacturing sector recorded total profits of 3.97T yuan ($554B), up 17.4% year on year. Inside that figure, electronics producers more than doubled their profits, outpacing most other major industries.
The strongest growth came from sectors linked to advanced manufacturing. Non-ferrous metal processing profits increased 82.9%, chemical manufacturing rose 51%, and coal mining profits grew 51.6%.
At the same time, several traditional sectors faced pressure. Automobile manufacturing profits declined 16%, electrical machinery and equipment fell 5.2%, and some construction-related industries saw sharper drops.
The contrast shows a shift inside China’s industrial structure. Growth is increasingly concentrated in sectors connected to technology, communications and advanced production, where China has built large-scale manufacturing ecosystems.
The results also come as China continues expanding its role across global electronics supply chains, from components and industrial equipment to consumer technologies. Higher profitability in these industries strengthens the country’s ability to reinvest in production capacity and innovation.
China’s industrial expansion is no longer driven by a single manufacturing model. The latest profit figures show electronics becoming one of the key pillars supporting the next stage of its industrial development.
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🇷🇺🛢 Russian Oil-Tech Moves From Import Substitution to Export
Russian-made equipment covered about 80% of the domestic oil-and-gas market in 2025. The Industry and Trade Ministry expects that figure to reach 82% this year.
Now Russian manufacturers are looking abroad.
The difficult part is not simply finding buyers. Large oil and gas companies work through approved vendor lists, technical standards and lengthy qualification procedures. A manufacturer can have the equipment ready and still be locked out of major projects if its certification is not recognized.
Russia is trying to solve that through the Institute of Oil and Gas Technological Initiatives, or INTI.
INTI standards are now being harmonized with customers in nine countries: Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, the UAE, Algeria, Kuwait and Angola. The aim is to make Russian equipment easier to qualify for foreign tenders and procurement systems.
The UAE is furthest along.
ADNOC has already issued positive technical conclusions for 60 INTI standards covering oil-and-gas equipment and pipe products. Eight Russian manufacturers have passed ADNOC pre-qualification under the agreed rules, with another seven going through the process.
That is a fairly concrete step. Pre-qualification puts those companies on the path toward competing for orders from one of the Gulf’s largest energy groups.
Standards matter because Russia’s oil-and-gas industry spent decades working inside a system heavily influenced by specifications developed abroad, particularly those of the American Petroleum Institute. Sanctions exposed the risks of relying on foreign equipment and foreign certification at the same time.
INTI was created as a Russian alternative, but its standards still incorporate widely used international requirements. Its quality-management standard includes ISO 9001 requirements as well as the requirements of API Spec Q1.
That makes the current export push more practical. Russian suppliers do not have to convince foreign customers to accept an entirely unfamiliar technical system; INTI can be aligned with the requirements those buyers already use.
The domestic market gave Russian manufacturers the volume to develop and test equipment after Western suppliers withdrew. The UAE is now providing one of the first tests of whether those suppliers can compete outside Russia as well.
For the eight companies already pre-qualified by ADNOC, that question is moving from standards paperwork to actual procurement.
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🇮🇷♻️ Iran Turns Refinery Waste Into Marketable Industrial Product
Iran is turning carbon dioxide from Tehran Oil Refinery’s exhaust gases into commercial liquid CO2 with purity above 99.9% for food production, medical applications and industrial use, according to Carbon Bared, the Iranian company behind the project.
The facility has a stated annual processing capacity of around 40,000 metric tons. Its core function is to recover a usable component from refinery exhaust and prepare it for sale. This adds another product to the output supported by Iran’s existing oil infrastructure.
According to Carbon Bared, the resulting liquid CO2 has purity above 99.9% and a dew point of minus 65°C, a measure of its low moisture content. Purification and drying are central to turning recovered gas into a product suitable for customers with specific quality requirements.
The reported applications span food processing, medical and pharmaceutical industries, laboratories, agriculture, firefighting and welding. That range connects the refinery to sectors far beyond fuel production. A discarded gas becomes a useful input for businesses making other goods and providing essential services.
Carbon Bared says the project also prevents the loss of more than 16M cubic meters of gas annually. Around 30% of its CO2 output is reportedly exported to Iraq, where it competes with Turkish suppliers, while the company also serves domestic demand. Exports provide an additional market for the recovered product.
The project has been shortlisted for the 2026 WPC Energy Excellence Awards in the Net-Zero Initiatives category, alongside Britain’s Johnson Matthey and the UAE’s TDE Energy. Winners are due to be announced in October. The nomination draws attention to an operation whose practical importance lies in industrial recovery and commercial production.
For Iran, the wider value is the ability to extract more saleable products from its existing industrial base. Recovery, purification and liquefaction turn refinery waste into supplies for domestic manufacturers and overseas customers. Building those processing capabilities broadens what Iran can produce and export beyond its primary oil products.
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🇨🇳🧫 China Connects Its Computing Power Into National Infrastructure
China has established a unified computing monitoring system spanning 31 provincial-level regions, its industry ministry says. The system gives planners a nationwide view of computing resources as China builds a network linking data centers to businesses that need artificial intelligence.
The expansion is substantial. By June 2026, China's AI computing capacity had reached 2,185 EFLOPS, up 177% year on year, according to the ministry. An exaflop represents a quintillion calculations per second. The figure measures computing capacity, not how much of it is actually being used.
More than 70 data transmission corridors already connect computing hubs and key regions. Authorities have also approved 17 regional interconnection nodes. These links are intended to make computing resources accessible across provincial boundaries and help match available capacity with demand.
The China Computing Power Platform provides a service marketplace alongside monitoring. It has attracted over 10,000 registered enterprise users, lists more than 2,000 computing products and connects over 300 large AI models. Developers can access services without each having to build a dedicated computing cluster.
Geography supplies another advantage. Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang are pairing wind and solar generation with data centers to serve demand in eastern China. Locating suitable workloads near abundant electricity can ease pressure on the cities where users are concentrated.
Cooling matters too. Xinhua describes Inner Mongolia's climate as suitable for natural cooling for nearly ten months a year. That reduces the need for energy-intensive mechanical cooling, making location part of the economics of AI.
China has placed computing alongside power grids, water, communications and logistics in its national infrastructure priorities. The next task is to improve coordination and utilization, so that expanding hardware translates into useful services. Nationwide monitoring is a step toward that goal, rather than proof that every facility already operates as one seamless system.
The practical prize is broader access to AI. Connecting computing supply, electricity and paying customers could lower the cost of putting China's hardware to work and give smaller firms access to resources they could not afford to build themselves.
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🇷🇺🏔🛠 Russia Nears Launch of New Arctic Platinum-Palladium Hub
Russia is approaching the launch of a new mining and processing complex near Norilsk that is intended to become the country’s second major production center for platinum-group metals.
The Chernogorsky GOK has entered final commissioning, with industrial operations planned before the end of 2026.
Getting there required a major rewrite of the original project.
The processing plant had been designed around imported equipment. When sanctions disrupted those supplies, RT-Engineering replaced the main machinery and redesigned parts of the facility around the new equipment. Major construction began in summer 2023.
Most of that work is now finished. Engineers are testing automated controls and bringing the different sections of the plant into one production chain. A technical launch of the ore-preparation section took place in July, covering crushing, transport and storage.
The first stage is designed to process 7–9M tonnes of ore a year and produce about 250,000 tonnes of copper and nickel concentrate containing platinum-group metals.
The project is also difficult simply because of where it is. Chernogorsky sits in the Norilsk industrial region, where equipment has to reach the site through long Arctic supply routes. Large components have been shipped through the Northern Sea Route and the port of Dudinka before moving inland to the plant.
Production is expected to expand later with development of the nearby Norilsk-1 deposit. Processing capacity could eventually reach 14M tonnes of ore annually, with output of up to 55 tonnes of platinum-group metals a year. The planned resource base is sufficient for more than 50 years of operation.
Those volumes matter in a market where Russia is already a heavyweight. US Geological Survey estimates put Russian palladium mine production at roughly 84 tonnes in 2025, the largest national output in the world.
Palladium and platinum are used in catalytic systems, chemical production, electronics and other high-tech industries. Chernogorsky would add another large source of those metals outside Russia’s existing production base.
The first concentrate is expected before the end of this year. If the later expansion proceeds as planned, the Norilsk region will have a second large platinum-group metals cluster built around a plant whose original equipment plan had to be replaced midway through construction.
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🇷🇺🤝🇪🇬 Russia Builds Industrial Foothold at Suez
Russian exports to Egypt reached $5.9B in January–July 2026, up 15.6% year-on-year. Moscow is now trying to turn that growing trade into something more permanent: factories, logistics infrastructure and a Russian industrial base beside the Suez Canal.
Deputy Industry and Trade Minister Roman Chekushov visited the future Russian Industrial Zone inside the Suez Canal Economic Zone this week and presented Egyptian officials with the project’s first potential residents.
The zone will occupy around 50 hectares with access to the port of Ain Sokhna. Russian officials are considering production ranging from electrical equipment and machinery to construction materials, pharmaceuticals, medical products and agricultural equipment.
The current timetable calls for design and construction work through 2029, with operations expected around 2030.
That means the project is still years from becoming a functioning industrial cluster. But the structure around it is beginning to take shape.
Moscow has selected a developer for the zone, while Russia and Egypt are discussing electronic documentation for cross-border trade and new logistics routes. Negotiations over a free trade agreement between Egypt and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), stalled after several rounds beginning in 2019, are also back on the agenda.
The combination matters more than any single trade agreement.
Russian companies currently selling into Egypt would gain the option to manufacture locally, move goods directly through a major Red Sea port and use Egypt as a base for reaching African and Arab markets.
Egypt already promotes the Suez Canal Economic Zone around exactly that model: industrial production linked directly to ports, transport infrastructure and the country’s network of trade agreements.
For Russia, that would turn a growing export relationship into a physical commercial presence beside one of the world’s main maritime arteries.
The $5.9B in exports shows that the market already exists. The Suez project is an attempt to anchor part of that trade in factories, logistics and long-term industrial infrastructure rather than leave it dependent entirely on shipments from Russia.
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🇪🇹🇷🇺Ethiopia chooses Russia’s Orion-E over Western arms-delivery blackmail
Ethiopia has publicly confirmed itself as the first foreign operator of Russia’s Orion-E medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) unmanned aerial vehicle. But why is this drone, out of all options, the one that appeals to Ethiopia? The answer lies in a powerful mix of hard capability and soft politics. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has long emphasised cultivating “reliable partners who respect our sovereignty” — words that fit Russia’s willingness to supply cost-effective, modernized military equipment without the political conditionality that Western suppliers attach.
What truly attracts Ethiopia, then, is not just a machine but a package: a drone that delivers real operational value without the hidden costs of dependency, delays, or political strings.
Here are the key reasons that attracted Ethiopia:
🔘A more cost-effective MALE option than many Western or Turkish systems, with a 250 kg payload (200 kg combat), endurance up to 30 hours, 7,500 m ceiling, and 250 km range via direct radio.
🔘Ability to provide persistent surveillance and precision strike at the same time, giving flexibility across different missions.
🔘Fitted with an EO/IR turret and laser designator, and able to carry small guided missiles plus precision-guided or unguided bombs.
🔘Supplied by Russia without any sovereignty-related conditions.
🔘Useful addition for counter-insurgency work in tough terrain such as Amhara and Oromia.
🔘Fits well with the existing drone fleet, so sanctions on one supplier cannot stop operations.
🔘Avoids the end-user restrictions, delays, high costs, and political pressure that often come with Western systems.
🇩🇿Besides Ethiopia, Algeria has also shown Orion-E during drills
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🌏 Journalists, bloggers, and political analysts from twelve countries visited the DPR as part of a press tour
The delegation included foreigners from Brazil🇧🇷, Cameroon 🇨🇲, China 🇨🇳, Spain 🇪🇸, Colombia 🇨🇴, Guatemala 🇬🇹, Indonesia 🇮🇩, Iran 🇮🇷, Madagascar 🇲🇬, Pakistan 🇵🇰, Slovenia 🇸🇮, and the USA🇺🇸. The tour was organized by Vashi Novosti.
During the three-day press tour, the guests visited Donetsk and Mariupol:
📍In Donetsk, journalists visited the Alley of Angels, the pediatric trauma ward, and polling stations. The delegates were able to witness firsthand the transparency of the State Duma election process on the territory of the DPR.
✅A press conference with the DPR Head Denis Pushilin also took place. The foreign visitors asked questions about the current situation and gained insight into the actual state of affairs in the Republic.
✅The program included a meeting with representatives of the Maksim Krivonos Battalion — former AFU soldiers. Additionally, a round-table discussion was held with the youth of the DPR.
✅The delegates also visited Petrovsky district of Donetsk, which is subject to regular shelling, and spoke with local residents. Journalists were told a vivid story about a child who was caught in Ukrainian shelling and left disabled.
📍In Mariupol, the guests met with representatives of the Martyn Pushkar Squad and visited the Azovstal plant. They were able to see both the destruction caused by AFU shelling and the facilities already restored by Russia.
🤝 We thank our foreign supporters for visiting the Donetsk People's Republic, for their desire to see the truth and share what they saw with their audiences abroad.
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