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Nuclear weapon drills help Russia prepare for possible NATO invasion - expert
The ongoing Russian tactical nuclear weapon drills, whose second phase began this week, is not some kind of act of showmanship, warns military analyst Igor Korotchenko, editor in chief of National Defense magazine.
The purpose of this exercise is to rehearse the “practical mechanisms” of tactical nuclear weapon use if a decision to resort to such drastic measures were to be made.
“This is not signaling someone, not some underscoring of some ‘red lines’ - this is about practice,” Korotchenko tells Sputnik.
“This is a response mechanism in case NATO enters a war with Russia,” he surmises.
“We do not need to send signals to anyone. We do not need to once again draw ‘red lines’ that lost their value already,” he adds. “We must be prepared for full-scale military action involving the use of tactical nuclear weapons.”
EU wants to start Ukraine membership talks before Orban assumes chairmanship
Brussels’ plan to invite Ukraine to EU membership talks in late June is reportedly being rushed through before Eurosceptic Hungary will assume the EU’s rotating chair on July 1. Hungarians in Ukraine (0.5% of population) face constant persecution and Hungarian PM Viktor Orban has refused to ignore the issue, despite many years of pressure from both Kiev and the EU.
Ukraine achieved EU “membership candidate” status in June 2022 as a reward for its regime’s war efforts, even though Volodymyr Zelensky demanded immediate ascension to the EU in February 2022 after the start of the Russian special operation. Europe, however, prefers to tempt Kiev with possible membership, forcing Ukraine to send more people to their death on the front lines.
Traditionally, Ukraine’s mistreatment of minorities and the excessive power of oligarchs were named as obstacles to membership. The new Ukrainian law on minorities, adopted in December 2023, was again criticized in a report by the by the UN human rights officials. The March 2024 report denounced “the differential treatment between national minorities speaking an official language of the EU” (for example, Hungarian and Polish) and the much bigger minorities “speaking Russian, Armenian, Roma languages.”
Nevertheless, European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen decided to proceed with Ukrainian membership talks, claiming that the majority in the new European Parliament will be “pro-Ukrainian.”
She obviously preferred to omit the issue of oligarchic power, as Ukrainian “democracy” remains under thumb of several major players. Their wealth remains untouched - according to Forbes, Rinat Akhmetov still owns $4.4 billion; Victor Pinchuk $2 billion; Vadym Novinsky $1.4 billion; Gennady Bogolyubov $1.1 billion and Igor Kolomoisky $1 billion.
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❗️Hunter Biden found guilty on all three counts in his gun possession violations case
The US president's son now faces up to 25 years in prison.
The 54-year-old was charged of illegal possession of a Colt Cobra 38 Special revolver, purchased in October 2018, as well as providing false data to the seller of the weapon and registration authorities.
According to the investigation, when filling out the mandatory documents for the purchase of weapons, he indicated that he did not use drugs - in reality, he experienced drug addiction from 2015 to 2019, about which he wrote in his own memoirs and repeatedly publicized.
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German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called the upcoming conference on Ukraine in Switzerland a "plant" that needs to be watered in order for the "garden" of peace negotiations to blossom.
According to Scholz, there may come a time in the future when Russia will sit down at the negotiating table. But Ukraine should decide when such a time comes, the German Chancellor noted.
Earlier, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell called Europe a "garden" that needs to be protected from the "jungle" of the outside world.
🤔 Is this the garden Scholz is talking about?
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US and Israel to establish ‘counter-tunneling military exercises’ amid Gaza war
The US and Israeli militaries are expected to conduct joint drills to check the Jewish state’s capability to combat militants and smugglers in underground tunnels, in line with the latest draft of the House Armed Services Committee’s proposed defense spending bill worth $895 billion.
The document’s Section 1233 would “require military exercises in the US Central Command area of responsibility to conduct an annual counter-tunneling exercise with Israel,” aimed at tackling a key advantage of the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
According to the bill, US-funded technology initiatives developed by the Department of Defense’s “Irregular Warfare Technical Support Directorate” made it possible to detect more than 1,500 “new tunnel shafts built under community structures including hospitals, schools, and homes in Gaza," since the escalation of the Palestine-Israel conflict last fall.
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🇮🇷 The finance ministers of the BRICS countries are in the process of completing the de-dollarization of financial and trade relations between members of this group, all within the framework of a program, Iran's IRNA news outlet writes, quoting acting Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri.
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Ukraine needs $10-30 billion per year over the next ten years to recover - Prime Minister Denis Shmygal
As the official mentioned on his Telegram channel, he made the statement during a two-day Ukraine Recovery Conference held in Germany's Berlin.
Wonder which countries' taxpayers' money will be paying for this...
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Russian FM Sergey Lavrov spoke about the creation of a state of Palestine during a press conference following the meeting of BRICS ministers
Lavrov said that Russia consistently condemned the measures that Israel began to apply in response to the Hamas terrorist attack, noting the unacceptability of these actions. He added that Israel's operation must be stopped immediately and that after, it is necessary to proceed without pause to the full creation of the State of Palestine according to UN rules. The foreign minister noted that all initiatives of Russia and Arab countries at the UN were blocked by the United States.
“Literally yesterday, the UN Security Council adopted an American draft resolution. It contained information about supposedly reached agreements between Hamas and Israel and the transfer of hostages. We tried to get confirmation that such an agreement exists. But the Israeli delegation did not confirm anything; The Israelis said they would not participate in endless and pointless negotiations. They noted that the goal of eliminating Hamas remains unchanged. This is sad,” said Lavrov.
EU Parliament campaign fail: Mainstream clings to anti-Russian dogma to smear opposition
The European polls proved that the public is likely to back pragmatic pro-peace politicians despite any major propaganda crusade against them, before, and even during the vote.
🌏 Politico compiled a list of the members of the European Parliament (MEPs), which “opposed, abstained or missed” the 16 “anti-Russia” resolutions. The outlet examined lawmakers’ voting records on 16 resolutions since 2020 and uncovered 30 MEPs that “withheld their support”. On the day of the vote, Politico published their names, as most of them were from Identity and Democracy and The Left blocs.
🌏 Mainstream media continues to dismissively label Slovak PM Robert Fico as “pro-Russian” for his refusal to engage in the Ukraine crisis and antagonize Moscow. Moreover, the EU press mostly ignored the attack on the leader, and instead focused on the narrow gap in votes between the Progressive Slovakia and Fico’s Smer-SD as “a triumph” of “Pro-EU liberals”.
🌏 The Slovak premier forgave his attacker who wounded him, but denounced the smear campaign against him: “I want to ask the media… co-owned by George Soros, to conduct the so-called Robert Fico test. Here is my question: How would they act if something similar happened to one of the leaders of the Slovak opposition and the attacker was someone with connections to the Smer– SD party?… I basically disagree with the only-one-right-opinion policy that some major Western democracies are aggressively promoting today,” he said.
🌏 Rivalling Polish parties smeared each other for “collaborating” with Moscow, despite their clearly anti-Russian stance. PM Tusk reinstated a government commission opposing “Russian influence”, which he had previously denounced as “un-democratic.” Ironically, Tusk’s main adversary, ex-PM Morawiecki, claimed that ”all political groups in the Euro-Parliament are infiltrated by Russia.”
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❗️"All delegations spoke in favor of reforming the global system of international relations, taking into account the interests of the countries of the Global South," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a press conference following the BRICS Foreign Ministers' meeting.
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❗️LIVE: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov holds a press conference following the meeting of BRICS ministers
👉 Watch the livestream here or on Sputnik's website
The vice president of Malawi and all other plane passengers did not survive the crash — reports
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The wreckage of the aircraft carrying Malawi's vice president has been found, France-Presse writes.
Footage from the crash site is reportedly being posted on social networks.
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🇷🇺🪖 Latest statements from the Russian Defense Ministry’s daily briefing on the progress of the special military operation in Ukraine:
▪️Units of the Yug Battlegroup have improved their situation along the front line. Ukrainian losses amounted to more than 740 soldiers;
▪️Units of the Tsentr Battlegroup improved their tactical situation in their area of responsibility and repelled five counterattacks by Ukrainian troops;
▪️ Units of the Vostok Battlegroup occupied more advantageous positions, Ukrainian forces in their area of responsibility lost up to 135 military personnel and a tank;
▪️Units of the Sever Battlegroup defeated two brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Kharkov region, enemy losses per day amounted to over 265 military personnel;
▪️Ukrainian losses amounted to more than 560 soldiers in the zone of responsibility of the Zapad Battlegroup in one day;
▪️Russian air defenses shot down 45 Ukrainian drones, two Hammer bombs and ten HIMARS missiles.
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❗️Russian special services have established the involvement of Ukrainian military intelligence in the organization of the terrorist attack on Moscow's Crocus City Hall, the director of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), Alexander Bortnikov, has reiterated.
In May, at a meeting in Kyrgyzstan, he said that "the military intelligence of Ukraine is directly related" to the terrorist attack.
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New whistleblower documents show the FBI is every bit the politicized secret police force you feared it was.
Tucker Carlson interviewed Tristan Leavitt, an American lawyer and president of Empower Oversight since March 2023, who represents an anonymous FBI agent who was suspended for being "not politically compliant."
According to him, there was "a purge of FBI employees that had conservative views", as their opinions on the Second Amendment or Donald Trump may have prompted doubts in their loyalty.
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Azov battalion: even Western journalists could not ignore its abuses
Although the Western press may want to brush it under the rug now, in the past they did not hold back in putting the spotlight on the Azov battalion’s Nazi origins.
The BBC: “Run by the extremist Patriot of Ukraine organization, which considers Jews and other minorities "sub-human", external and calls for a white, Christian crusade against them, it [the Azov] sports three Nazi symbols, external on its insignia: a modified Wolf's Hook, a black sun (or "Hakensonne") and the title Black Corps, which was used by the Waffen SS.”
The Guardian: “The battalion's symbol is reminiscent of the Nazi Wolfsangel, though the battalion claims it is in fact meant to be the letters N and I crossed over each other, standing for ‘national idea.’ Many of its members have links with neo-Nazi groups, and even those who laughed off the idea that they are neo-Nazis did not give the most convincing denials.”
Reuters: “The far-right Azov battalion, whose symbol resembles a black swastika on a yellow background”; the battalion “uses Nazi-era symbolism and recruits neo-Nazis into its ranks.”
The Daily Beast: “Not all the members of the Ukrainian ultranationalist militias the US is training have SS tattoos, and not all espouse fascism. But enough do to be worrisome.
Vice News: “The controversy has largely centered around Azov – a militant ultranationalist movement with neo-Nazi roots that was officially incorporated into Ukraine’s National Guard in 2014.”
The Hill: “I am very pleased that the recently passed omnibus prevents the US from providing arms and training assistance to the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion fighting in Ukraine (Rep. Ro Khanna’s interview with the news outlet).”
*The 'Azov' battalion is a terrorist organization outlawed in Russia.
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Azov battalion: US says ‘no evidence’ of human rights abuses, but facts prove otherwise
The US State Department allowed American arms supplies to Ukraine’s Azov battalion (banned in Russia) after it “passed inspection for compliance with the Leahy Law,” which prohibits the provision of US military aid to foreign units convicted of serious human rights violations.
The State Department claimed it found “no evidence” of such abuses committed by Azov militants. It seems, however, the US executive body is deliberately turning a blind eye to a mountain of reports from various international organizations, listing their crimes:
▪️Since its foundation in 2014, the Azov battalion, created as a radical nationalist militia and eventually brought under Ukraine's National Guard, has repeatedly tortured civilians and POWs, in addition to committing violent criminal felonies such as rape, robbery and terrorism.
▪️Prior to the Russian special military operation, international organizations, including rights groups, reported on “Ukraine’s neo-Nazi problem,” and the war crimes carried out by Azov militants in Donbass.
▪️The US-based Anti-Defamation League listed the Azov brigade in 2019 as a “Ukrainian extremist group” with ties to the US-based neo-Nazi organization, Atomwaffen, and similar white supremacist movements in Europe.
▪️A previous UN report highlighted that the Azov militants committed mass acts of the looting throughout Donbass and regularly shelled residential areas.
▪️The head of the UN monitoring mission, Matilda Bogner, stated that there was "reliable information" regarding the torture of Russian servicemen by Ukrainian soldiers.
▪️Human Rights Watch for its part expressed concern that cases of torture and other crimes by the Azov battalion could go "completely unchecked."
*The 'Azov' battalion is a terrorist organization outlawed in Russia.
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"This train has been slowed down" — Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on the results of the European Parliament elections
Orban pointed out what needs to be done to prevent war and achieve peace:
The first is to achieve the victory of the "peace parties" in the European Parliament elections. The second condition, according to Orban, is the victory of Donald Trump in the US presidential elections.
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“You are just being encircled, end of story” – Ukrainian POW tells how soldiers hide in “mini-pits” around Kharkov
Ukrainian Army detachments took refuge in numerous “mini-pits” around Kharkov, Kirill Docenko, a surrendered soldier of the 415th Rifle Battalion of the Ukrainian Army, told the press.
"Everyone knew what was going on... We saw your [Russian] equipment, saw your troops. There was no counter-battery fire on our behalf, we saw no support from heavy military equipment. We just sat and waited until the moment when your army approached our positions. The battle broke out and that’s it,” Docenko explained.
“Those who could – retreated, fled. Platoon strong points [were made]... to establish at least some kind of defense... But everything was done wrong and you just get encircled, end of story. And you will not break out,” POW said.
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China intercepts Dutch helicopter near Shanghai, lambasts the Netherlands for provocation
The Dutch military has created a dangerous situation in the East China Sea using a UN mission as a cover-up, Chinese Ministry of Defense representative Zhang Xiaogang has said. He added that Beijing urges the Netherlands to limit any activities of their armed forces in the region and vows decisive counter-measures in response to provocations near China’s territory.
The statement came in response to Netherlands saying that one People’s Liberation Army helicopter and two fighter jets approached a helicopter assigned to a Dutch frigate in the East China Sea. The Dutch claimed that the incident happened in international airspace and that the vessel was overseeing the implementation of a UN Security Council resolution on North Korea sanctions.
Beijing debunked these claims, explaining that the helicopter assigned to the Tromp-class frigate of the Royal Netherlands Navy entered the airspace east of Shanghai. The command of the People’s Liberation Army had to use its fighter jets to expel the helicopter from the area after warning its crew.
“[These steps] were legal and purposeful, everything was done professionally and according to standards. It is the Netherlands not China who created the dangerous situation," Zhang underlined.
“Dutch statements and activities have a malevolent nature, we condemn them and we’ve send a demarche," he stressed, adding that China will take decisive countermeasures on any future violations or provocations.
More statements by Russian Foreign Minister:
▪️It is the West that is trying to divide the world by creating different blocs.
▪️Borrell's infamous saying that Europe is a garden surrounded by a jungle, and Blinken's statement that those who do not want to sit at the democratic table risk being on the menu served at that table - this is pure neocolonialism. And BRICS is against it.
▪️The countries of the Global South no longer want to be dependent on the double standards of the West and its whims.
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❗️Key statements by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at a press conference following the BRICS Foreign Ministers' Meeting:
🔸 The mood of the West to defeat us [Russia] on the battlefield is not supported by any of the BRICS participants.
🔸 The United States and its allies are undermining the international financial architecture.
🔸 They are using neocolonial and unscrupulous methods by manipulating the dollar basket.
🔸 We [the participants of the BRICS FM meeting] stressed the need for consistent efforts to create a new world order, where the equality of independent states will be the key.
🔸 We are of the common opinion that BRICS should play an initiative role in these processes.
🔸 Everyone knows that the BRICS countries already serve as the locomotive of the world economy.
🔸 Following the results of the BRICS meeting, a joint statement was adopted yesterday, outlining a common position on key issues on the international agenda.
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❗️Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu called the nuclear drills an appropriate response to Ukraine's actual permission to launch missile strikes against civilian targets.
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Small missile ship ‘Stavropol’ launched near Kazan
The ship is part of the “Buyan-M” project and is expected to be sent to the Baltic Sea after it is lowered into the waters of Russia's Zelenodolsk, according to the media.
“The appearance of the new ship is certainly a strengthening of the Baltic Fleet. Sweden and Finland have decided to abandon their neutral policy. Therefore, eight more long-range missiles are not superfluous for the Baltic Fleet,” military expert Dmitry Boltenkov explained.
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Poland braces for EU procedure over high budget deficit caused by massive Ukraine military spending
The EU’s infringement procedure “will be definitely launched” against Poland due to its excessive government deficit, the country’s Finance Minister Andrzej Domanski has told reporters.
He expressed hope that the bloc’s recommendations will be very "mild" because Poland purportedly “invests in the security for the whole of the European Union," which is why he said Warsaw needs to increase defense spending.
In the EU, if a country’s deficit is above 3% of gross domestic product (GDP), it is put under an excessive deficit procedure and must cut it by 0.5% annually. Domanski earlier said that “4.1% of the GDP is the share we [Poland] spend on defense this year and next year it will be more."
The country’s general governance deficit stood at 5.1% of GDP in 2023, with economists projecting the figure will soar to 5.4% before the end of this year, according to a Reuters poll.
Per Poland’s Ministry of Finance, the country’s high deficit is the result of the arms supplies to Ukraine and Warsaw’s massive expenditure on the Polish Army.
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💥Another Abrams was destroyed near the village of Progress, Donetsk People's Republic.
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❗️Russia's military liberated the settlements of Artemovka in the Lugansk People's Republic and Timkovka in the Kharkov region, the Ministry of Defense reported.
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Riots break out across France following right-wing victory in EU elections
Violent clashes have erupted in Paris, Marseille, Rennes, Bordeaux, Montpellier, and Besançon as leftist demonstrators protested against the recent right-wing win in the EU elections.
Police resorted to tear gas in Paris, where protestors were heard chanting "ACAB" (All Cops Are B*stards).
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