Russian budget receives 138.9 bln rubles in oil and gas revenues above expectations in June

Dhaka July 06 2022 : 

Inside Russia : Outside Russia : News Digest by the Embassy of Russian Federation in Bangladesh on July 06 2022.

INSIDE RUSSIA

Kremlin rejects reports about Chinese leader’s alleged refusal to visit Russia

MOSCOW, July 5. /TASS/. Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected on Tuesday previous reports that Chinese leader Xi Jinping allegedly refused President Vladimir Putin’s invitation to visit Russia.

“This is completely not true,” he said adding that all mutual presidential visits would be paid after the Chinese side started gradually lifting anti-COVID restrictions.

“The matter is that certain anti-COVID restrictions remain in force in China, it is absolutely normal and understandable,” Peskov noted. “There is a valid invitation for Putin to visit China and for Xi Jinping to visit Russia. All visits will be paid considering the ease of these restrictions.”

Japanese media reported earlier that Xi Jinping refused Putin’s invitation due to the pandemic. According to reports, an invitation to visit Russia was extended during the talks of both leaders on June 15.

Peskov Explains Why Putin Will Not Congratulate Biden and Americans on Independence Day This Year

July 4 marks Independence Day in the United States, a federal holiday that commemorates the adoption of the Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin will not congratulate US President Joe Biden and Americans on Independence Day this year, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.

Peskov explained that the reason is “the fact that this year was the culmination of an unfriendly policy towards our country on the part of the United States.”

“Therefore, of course, in these conditions it can hardly be considered appropriate to send such a congratulatory message,” Peskov said.

Since Russia recognized the independence of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics and launched a special military operation in February to help them defend themselves against Ukrainian attacks, the US and the West have imposed thousands of sanctions on Moscow. The restrictions range from the closure of airspace to sanctions targeting individuals, banks, businesses, and state-owned enterprises. The US has barred Russia from making debt payments, banned imports on Russian oil, gas, and gold, and introduced a ban on the export of dual-use and luxury goods to Russia, among others.

Russia, Mongolia to bolster friendship — Lavrov

ULAANBAATAR, July 5. /TASS/. Russia and Mongolia intend to boost friendly ties, progress is observed in many spheres related to the implementation of joint projects, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a meeting with Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh on Tuesday.

“I would like to convey greetings and best regards from President Putin. He confirms our adherence to the implementation of all the agreements we reached last December. All these agreements are based on our shared aspiration to strengthen our friendship and preserve the historical memory,” the Russian top diplomat noted.

He emphasized that Russia and Mongolia are united by a “shared history, a combat camaraderie forged and hardened in the fight against Nazism and militarism” and noted the goal of preserving the historical memory “in the hearts of Russian and Mongolian citizens.” “Today, we [with Mongolian Foreign Minister Batmunkh Battsetseg] discussed many directions of our strategic partnership, including trade, investments, ethics, transport, the protection of the environment, humanitarian and educational ties and future cooperation in the sphere of peaceful space exploration,” the Russian foreign minister explained. “There is progress in many directions concerning the implementation of joint projects. Trade is recovering well,” he added.

In his turn, the Mongolian leader stressed that Russia and Mongolia “have no disagreements” in the political sphere. “Nowadays, we should increase our interaction, <…> boost trade and economic cooperation,” the head of state noted. “I think that the historical truth should always remain. All these initiatives and achievements that have been previously attained should continue,” he added.

In Ulaanbaatar, Lavrov also met with Mongolian Prime Minister Luvsannamsrain Oyun-Erdene to whom he conveyed best regards from the Russian government and his Russian counterpart Mikhail Mishustin. “Progress is seen along the entire range of directions after many years when the advancement was very insignificant. And today we emphasized the important role of an intergovernmental commission on trade and economic cooperation in translating this progress to the language of practical results,” the Russian minister said.

Russia not going to withdraw from OSCE — Russian senator

MOSCOW, July 5. /TASS/. Russia was among the founders of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and is not going to withdraw from it, a Russian senator said on Tuesday.

“If anyone is dreaming to see us leaving the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, he or she is profoundly wrong. Russia was among the founding nations of the OSCE,” Vladimir Dzhabarov, first deputy chairman of the international committee of Russia’s Federation Council, or upper parliament house, told a news conference.

“We are not going to withdraw from the OSCE, unlike the Council of Europe, which had existed for a long time before we came,” he added.

An annual session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly is running in Birmingham from July 2 through 6. Earlier, Dzhabarov said that the British government had denied entry visas to the Russian delegation.

Russian diplomat casts doubt on dialogue with NATO when bloc’s tanks ‘under your nose’

MOSCOW, July 5. /TASS/. It’s hard for Moscow to believe in dialogue with NATO when tanks and other weapons are being deployed near Russia’s borders, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said in an interview with the Argumenty i Fakty newspaper published on Tuesday.

“They say that they can engage in dialogue with Russia at any time and they don’t seek confrontation, though NATO’s military planning is based on confrontation with Russia. When someone deploys tanks under your nose, saying that ‘it’s not against you, it’s stationed there for no reason at all,’ it is very hard to believe in any kind of dialogue,” the senior Russian diplomat pointed out.

Grushko emphasized that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization had jettisoned all cooperation mechanisms, making diplomatic communication impossible. “In particular, enormous efforts were made at the last meeting of the Russia-NATO Council on December 12, 2021 to make it happen at all. This is why we no longer have a diplomatic presence at NATO as the bloc’s hostile actions put an end to it,” he noted.

Moscow names area adjacent to UK Embassy in honor of Lugansk People’s Republic

MOSCOW, July 5. /TASS/. Moscow has named a stretch of land located outside the UK Embassy “Lugansk People’s Republic Square” thanks to a decree signed by Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin, sources from the press service of the mayor’s office and the city government told TASS on Tuesday.

“The unnamed territory located in the Arbat district along the Smolenskaya Embankment between Protochny Lane and the exit to Novy Arbat Street – near the UK Embassy – has been named ‘Lugansk People’s Republic Square’. A Moscow government decree on this was signed by Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin,” the press service said.

It specified that the initiative to memorialize the feat by the people of the LPR was put forward by a group of Moscow legislators. Besides, the city government received suggestions from Muscovites. The venue was chosen in an online vote, in which 109,603 people took part.

Earlier, the territory located outside the US Embassy in Moscow was named “Donetsk People’s Republic Square”.

Electronics industrial park to be built in Krasnodar for 1 bln rubles

KRASNODAR. July 5 (Interfax) – Krasnodar-based NIC Technologies LLC is investing 1 billion rubles in the construction of an industrial park in the city to manufacture radio electronics, the regional administration reported.

The region’s leadership and the company signed an agreement on the project at the Innoprom international exhibition on Monday.

“The investor will expand and develop the radio electronics component base, create an import substitution center for production of domestic video recorders, video surveillance cameras and components. I expect that the first industrial and technology park in the Kuban will become the flagship one in Russia,” Governor Veniamin Kondratyev was quoted as saying in the press release.

The launch of production is expected to create 2,000 jobs in Krasnodar.

It was reported earlier that NIC Technologies is prepared to completely cover the domestic market’s needs for video surveillance systems. The company’s executive director, Pavel Galitsky said at a meeting with the governor in March 2022 that NIC Technologies expects demand for its products to increase following the departure of a number of foreign companies from Russia.

NIC Technologies specializes in developing and manufacturing electronic equipment, the company’s website said. It makes digital surveillance cameras, video recorders and associated products for comprehensive video surveillance systems. The company has a complete production chain, including an engineering division and production lines, and its solutions are included in the Russian Industry and Trade Ministry’s registry of domestic radio electronic products, the Krasnodar administration said.

NIC Technologies, which was incorporated in Krasnodar in 2019, closed 2021 with a net profit of 3.5 million rubles on revenue of almost 380 million rubles, the SPARK-Interfax system showed. The company is 51% owned by electrical installation company Telekom Montazh Yug LLC (revenue of 3.2 billion rubles in 2021) and 49% by home electronics wholesaler PSB Global LLC, according to data as of July 4, 2022.

Russian budget receives 138.9 bln rubles in oil and gas revenues above expectations in June

MOSCOW. July 5 (Interfax) – The difference in oil and gas revenues actually received from the expected monthly amount and the estimate of the baseline monthly amount totaled 138.9 billion rubles in the black in June 2022, Russia’s Finance Ministry said on Tuesday.

The ministry attributes the surplus amount to the carrying over of advance payments for the previous month for the export customs duty on gas.

The expected amount of additional oil and gas revenues for the federal budget, as related to the actual oil price exceeding the baseline level, is forecast to be 259.1 billion rubles in July. Consequently, overall funds from additional oil and gas revenues total 398 billion rubles, when taking into account the surplus amount in June.

The Finance Ministry has reiterated that these funds will not be used to purchase foreign currency and gold, given that certain provisions of the federal budget rules related to using additional oil and gas revenues have been suspended for 2022.

OUTSIDE RUSSIA

Japan activates revanchist aspirations for Kurils — top security official

KHABAROVSK, July 5. /TASS/. Japan is ramping up its revanchist plans for the Kuril Islands, Secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolay Patrushev said.

“The border situation on the territory of the Far Eastern District is being shaped under the conditions of the US and its allies increasing their military presence in the Arctic and Asia-Pacific regions and activating Japan’s revanchist aspirations with regards to the Kuril Islands by means of creating new military blocs,” he said at a meeting on the issues of national security in the Far Eastern Federal District in Khabarovsk on Tuesday.

Since the middle of the last century, Moscow and Tokyo have been intermittently negotiating a peace agreement following World War II. The main obstacle to its conclusion is the question of the ownership of the southern part of the Kuril ridge. In 1945, the entire archipelago was incorporated into the Soviet Union, but the Japanese side disputes the ownership of Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan, and the group of now uninhabited islands, which in Japan is called Habomai. The Russian Foreign Ministry has repeatedly stressed that Russian sovereignty over them, which has the appropriate international legal form, is beyond question.

Nazi scandal Ukrainian envoy to leave Germany – media

Kiev reportedly plans to recall its outspoken ambassador to Germany, Andrey Melnik

Kiev’s strident ambassador to Berlin, Andrey Melnik, might be about to leave Germany to potentially take a new post within the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, German tabloid Bild reported on Monday, citing an unnamed Ukrainian official. Melnik has recently found himself at the center of yet another scandal after defending Nazi collaborator and Ukrainian national hero Stepan Bandera in an interview.

The ambassador “might soon leave Germany and go back to Kiev,” Bild said, citing “several sources” in the Ukrainian capital. A new ambassador to represent Kiev’s interests in Berlin is reportedly being sought, the outlet stated, adding that Ukraine might make the move before autumn.

Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry has reportedly already asked President Volodymyr Zelensky to consider the move. “Andrey Melnik is very much appreciated in Kiev for his work,” a Ukrainian government official told Bild. According to the media outlet, the ambassador might get the post of deputy foreign minister.

In Germany, Melnik is mostly known for his offensive rhetoric. He has repeatedly criticized Berlin for allegedly not doing enough to make Ukrainian refugees “feel welcome” and being reluctant to supply Kiev with the weapons it needs. In May, he personally insulted Chancellor Olaf Scholz, calling him an “offended liverwurst” over his refusal to visit Kiev at that time. In June, the diplomat said he regretted berating the chancellor.

Most recently, Melnik found himself at the center of a new controversy after he repeatedly defended Stepan Bandera – a controversial Ukrainian national hero who collaborated with the Nazis during WWII – in an interview with German podcaster Tilo Jung. In particular, the ambassador insisted Bandera was not implicated in the mass murder of Jews and Poles.

His words drew sharp criticism from both Poland and Israel, and prompted the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry to say that the ambassador’s words were his own and did not reflect Kiev’s position. On Monday, it became known that the part of the interview in which Melnik defended Bandera was blocked by video platform TikTok.

The clip featuring Melnik’s words about Bandera “violates community rules” of the video-sharing app, Jung wrote in a post on his show’s Twitter page. The podcaster called it “censorship of journalism.” According to German media, the clip has since been removed from TikTok.

The German government’s anti-Semitism commissioner, Felix Klein, also criticized Melnik’s words on Monday, calling them “problematic.” Such statements only sow discord among the nations that support Ukraine, the official said. He also called on Kiev to join the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), adding that the intergovernmental organization would be “an appropriate forum” for properly discussing issues raised by the ambassador “at an international level.”

UK mulls crackdown on social media

London wants websites to “proactively” tackle would-be disinformation from states such as Russia

London has proposed new legislation that would require social media to “proactively” tackle “disinformation” that allegedly pours into the UK from foreign states such as Russia and harms the nation, the government said on Tuesday. Platforms failing to do so will be subject to huge fines or could be blocked

The legislation, which is subject to parliamentary approval, would oblige social media platforms to hunt down what the government believes to be fake accounts that act in the interests of foreign states and seek to influence UK politics, including elections.

The new amendment will also compel social media, search engines and other websites to crack down on such accounts in order to minimize the number of people exposed to “state-sponsored disinformation.”

“We cannot allow foreign states or their puppets to use the internet to conduct hostile online warfare unimpeded,” said Nadine Dorries, the UK culture and digital secretary, pointing out that the Ukraine conflict has shown that Russia is ready to weaponize information.

According to the proposed law, social media will have to make creating fake accounts more difficult and will also need to fight bots used for misleading the public. Ofcom, the British media regulator, will have the authority to fine any internet resources that don’t comply up to 10% of their global turnover.

The amendment is set be included in the National Security Bill, which will be discussed by British MPs next week.

This latest move by the UK government would directly target, for instance, the Russian pranksters known as Vovan and Lexus, who had pulled a stunt on UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace and Home Secretary Priti Patel. As a result, their channel was banned by YouTube in late May.

On Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov criticized the West for harassment of Russian journalists, saying that Western countries have “buried the freedom of speech with their own hands.” In his view, Western governments intentionally create their own laws allowing them to decide what is “freedom of information” and what is “propaganda.”

NATO tearing apart Ukraine — Readovka.world

Ukraine divides itself into «areas of influence» for Western countries.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Shmyhal presented a map of «restoration of Ukraine» at a conference in Lugano, Switzerland. It marks the zones that Western countries will take control of for the sake of «recovery».

Surprisingly, the Ukrainians decided to hand over even the liberated cities under «Western restoration». Thus, the territory of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions according to the idea of Kiev will have to be restored by the Scandinavian countries together with the Czech Republic, and Kherson – by Sweden and the Netherlands.

But, for now, only the UK fully agreed to the project – London plans to take over the restoration of Kiev. It is obvious that Britain is doing it solely for the sake of increasing its influence in Ukraine, since for the last few months all Jonson ever does is trying to increase it.

In general, the plan looks rather unrealistic – as an example, cooperation between the US and Turkey is difficult to imagine sue to their serious disagreement over the Kurds and NATO. Not to mention the fact that the plan includes territories that will not return to Ukraine.

Former Austrian FM faces death threats over Russia ties

Retired diplomat Karin Kneissl reportedly left Austria after receiving death threats

Karin Kneissl has had to leave Austria due to fears for her life, she told the Washington Post on Tuesday. The former foreign minister said she continued receiving death threats even after resigning from the board of the Russian energy company Rosneft, amid the conflict in Ukraine.

The revelation came as part of a Post story which claimed that Russian influence “came to permeate” the Alpine nation. Kneissl told the outlet’s reporters via WhatsApp she was “not giving interviews” any more and that she had emigrated from Austria because of death threats.

After serving as Austria’s foreign minister between 2017 and 2019, Kneissl was nominated for the position at Rosneft in March 2021, becoming the first woman on the company’s board. She was also a contributor at RT, writing opinion pieces on Russia’s relations with the West, as well as other issues.

After the EU joined the US in imposing sanctions against Moscow over the conflict in Ukraine, however, Kneissl was forced to resign from the Rosneft board. The day before she did so, the European Parliament passed a resolution calling for personal sanctions against European politicians still holding ties to Russian businesses, with Kneissl and Germany’s former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder mentioned by name. Schroeder, who was also on the Rosneft board, then resigned as well.

The Post, owned by Amazon magnate Jeff Bezos, mainly focused on Kneissl’s 2018 wedding, which made international headlines after Russian President Vladimir Putin attended the event and danced with her in front of the cameras. The outlet also accused “the far-right Freedom Party” of Austria (FPO) of having “particularly warm ties to the Kremlin,” in part because it sent several members on an official trip to Crimea in 2017, three years after its reunification with Russia.

The FPO has always denied any ties to the government in Moscow. The right-wing populists turned national conservatives rose to political prominence under Joerg Haider, who died in a 2008 car crash. Led by Hans-Christian Strache, the FPO became the junior partner in the ruling coalition in 2017, but was turfed out in May 2019 after the “Ibiza affair.”

The biggest scandal in Austria’s modern political history came at the height of the “Russiagate” hysteria in the US and featured a secretly recorded video suggesting Strache and another FPO official Johann Gudenus had plotted corrupt deals with the daughter of a “Russian oligarch” at the Spanish resort. It made no difference that the Kremlin had nothing to do with any of it: the woman turned out to be an impostor, the entire set-up was orchestrated by a Viennese lawyer, and both Strache and Gudenus denied any wrongdoing.

SPECIAL MILITARY OPERATION IN UKRAINE

Russia’s defense chief prioritizes tasks in Ukraine special operation

MOSCOW, July 5. /TASS/. Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine will continue until all the tasks set by Russian President Vladimir Putin are accomplished in full, Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said at the ministry’s conference call on Tuesday.

The lives and health of the Russian military personnel and the safety of civilians are top priority tasks, the defense minister emphasized.

TASS offers highlights of the defense minister’s speech.

Prospects of the operation

The Russian troops are not going to halt their operations after completely liberating the territory of the Lugansk People’s Republic, the defense chief said.

“The special military operation will continue until the tasks set by the supreme commander-in-chief are accomplished in full,” he emphasized.

Priorities for Russia’s Defense Ministry

“The main priorities for us today are the lives and health of the military personnel and the safety of civilians,” Shoigu said.

The Russian defense chief did not specify the tasks and directions for the Russian troops to focus on. Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on July 5 that he had received proposals from generals on moving ahead with the advance and stressed that the units, which had participated in liberating the Lugansk People’s Republic, should get a rest while the Vostok and Zapad battlegroups should “keep implementing their tasks under the previously approved plans.”

West-supplied weapons for Kiev regime

“In its hope to stretch out the conflict in Ukraine, the collective West continues large-scale weapons supplies to the Kiev regime. More than 28,000 tonnes of military cargo have already been supplied to that country,” Shoigu pointed out.

The Russian defense chief emphasized that some of the West-supplied weapons were spreading across the Middle East region and also getting into the black market.”

Foreign mercenaries

“The number of foreign mercenaries and the staff of private military companies operating in the country [in Ukraine] has dwindled as a result of the successful advance by the Russian army and units of the [Donbass] people’s republics,” Shoigu said.

In particular, in the past ten days alone, 170 mercenaries have been killed and 99 others have refused to participate in combat operations and left Ukrainian territory, the defense chief said.

The Russian Defense Ministry reported in mid-June that 3,221 foreign mercenaries and military specialists remained on Ukrainian territory while their inflow into Ukraine “has not only stopped but is actually reversing the opposite way.”

Humanitarian aspect

The Russian troops continue providing all-embracing support to the population of liberated cities and “efforts to ensure peaceful life on the territories controlled by the Russian troops will continue,” Shoigu said.

Also, Moscow provides for the safety of shipping in the Black and Azov Seas, the Russian defense chief stressed.

“We have set up two humanitarian corridors for the shipping of civilian sea-going vessels. The mine danger in the waters of the port of Mariupol has been completely removed,” Shoigu said.

Russian army engineers combed over 3,700 hectares of liberated territories of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics for the presence of mines, uncovered and defused 46,379 explosives, the Russian defense chief said.

Number of mercenaries recently killed in Ukraine revealed

Over the past 10 days 170 foreign mercenaries have been killed in Ukraine, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said

Scores of foreign mercenaries have been killed in Ukraine over the past ten days, Russian Defense Minister, Sergey Shoigu said on Tuesday.

Speaking at a ministry meeting, Shoigu said that “as a result of the successful offensive” by both Russian and Donbass republics’ forces, “the number of foreign mercenaries and employees of private military companies operating in the country has decreased.”

“Over the past 10 days, 170 foreign mercenaries have been killed, 99 have refused to participate in combat and left the territory of Ukraine,” he said.

Earlier on Tuesday, Damien Magrou, a spokesman for the International Legion of Territorial Defense of Ukraine – a foreign military unit, created in late February by the Ukrainian government at the request of President Volodymyr Zelensky –  confirmed that a French fighter, named as Adrien D., had been killed in Kharkov region.

Speaking to BFM TV, Magrou said the fighter died of injuries in a field hospital on June 25, after spending some time in a coma.

According to RTL radio, Adrien D. was one of the first foreigners to join the Ukrainian side. He is the second French national to be killed there.

On June 1, his compatriot Wilfried Bleriot was killed, also in Kharkov region. His funeral took place on June 30 in France.

RTL reports that there are about fifty French nationals fighting for Kiev while in mid-June Magrou revealed that foreigners from 55 countries serve in the legion, with most of them coming from Poland, the US, the UK and Canada.

All members of the legion “are servicemen in the Ukrainian Armed Forces,” Magrou added, arguing that they should be considered as prisoners of war, protected by the Geneva Conventions, if captured.

“We hereby call on Russian authorities and Russian proxies to respect international humanitarian law and refrain from politically motivated criminal proceedings against lawful members of the Ukrainian Armed Forces,” Magrou said in a statement.

Russian military spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov said last month that the best thing the foreign mercenaries could expect was a “long term in prison.” He also claimed that attempts by Ukrainian officials to provide the foreign fighters with legal protection by adding them to the list of the Armed Forces or giving them Ukrainian passports would not save them from prosecution.

He also revealed that hundreds of foreign mercenaries in Ukraine had been killed by Russian long-range precision weapons “shortly after their arrival at the places where they were undergoing additional training and where the tactical units were coordinated.” However, most of them, according to the spokesman, were killed “due to a low level of training and a lack of real combat experience.”

Data from the Russian defense ministry shows that 6,956 foreign citizens from 64 countries arrived in Ukraine to become pro-Kiev combatants between February 24 and June 17. Some 1,956 of those have been killed, while 1,779 have left the country, the ministry said.

Russia warns West about fate of weapons sent to Ukraine

A large amount of arms have ended up in the Middle East and on the black market, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu has claimed

Some of the weapons sent by the West to Ukraine have failed to reach their intended destination and may fuel conflict further afield, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu warned on Tuesday

Speaking at a ministry meeting, Shoigu said “the collective West, in hopes of dragging out the conflict in Ukraine, continues large-scale arms supplies to the Kiev regime.”

“More than 28,000 tons of military cargo have already been delivered to the country,” the defense minister revealed.

However, according to the Russian military’s information, “some of the foreign weapons supplied by the West to Ukraine are spreading throughout the Middle East region, and also end up on the black market,” Shoigu said.

The minister’s remarks came soon after an RT Russian investigation revealed that deliveries of lethal aid from the US, UK, and other NATO countries to Ukraine led to the appearance of dark web marketplaces, where some of the weapons can be purchased.

The Ukrainian traders claim to offer not just small arms or body armor, but also sophisticated hardware such as Javelin and NLAW anti-tank systems, and Phoenix Ghost and Switchblade explosive drones. However, it cannot be completely ruled out that the sellers do not actually have the weapons in stock, as the RT investigators did not complete any purchases.

Late last month, the G7 countries pledged to provide support to Ukraine in all possible forms “for as long as it takes.” UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and French President Emmanuel Macron stressed that their countries would continue to supply weapons to Kiev in order to “strengthen their hand in both the war and any future negotiations.”

Last month, the head of Interpol, Jurgen Stock, warned that the conflict in Ukraine will result in numerous weapons appearing on the black market.

In April, a US official told CNN that the White House has “almost zero” ability to track the weapons it sends to Ukraine.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in May that he discussed the importance of tracking and safeguarding the US-supplied arms with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Defense Minister Aleksey Reznikov, who assured him that they are keeping an eye on them.

Moscow has warned against supplying Western weapons to Ukraine, arguing that it only prolongs the fighting, while increasing the risk of a direct military confrontation between Russia and NATO. Russia also made it clear that its forces would consider any foreign weaponry on Ukrainian territory to be legitimate targets.

Russia will reach its goals in Ukraine despite Western weapons – top security official

Increased arms shipments to Kiev will not stop Russia from achieving its aims, the National Security Council secretary said

The arms that the US and its allies continue to send to Ukraine will not have an impact on the outcome of Russia’s ongoing military operation, National Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev said at a meeting on Tuesday.

Russia’s “goals will be achieved despite the US and the West providing military assistance to Ukraine,” Patrushev, who formerly headed up the country’s domestic security service, the FSB, said at a national security meeting in the Russian Siberian city of Khabarovsk.

The official said that the operation was prompted by a whole range of threats that developments in Ukraine “posed not only to Russia’s security but to the whole world.” The Security Council secretary identified the spread of neo-Nazi ideology and the Ukrainian biological laboratories linked to the Pentagon as examples of such threats.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has previously stated that the operation was launched to “demilitarize” Ukraine and also to protect the people of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, the independence of which Russia recognized in February. Russia was left with no other options to end the years-long bloodshed in Donbass, the president said in March, less than a month after the start of the military action.

In late June, Putin said that Russia’s objectives in Ukraine had not changed. The final goal is “to liberate Donbass, to protect these people and to create conditions that would guarantee the safety of Russia itself. That’s it,” he said in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, during his first foreign trip since February.

On July 3, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu announced that Russian forces and the Donbass militias had seized control over the whole territory of the Lugansk People’s Republic.

Russia sent troops into Ukraine on February 24, citing Kiev’s failure to implement the Minsk agreements, designed to give the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk special status within the Ukrainian state. The protocols, brokered by Germany and France, were first signed in 2014. Former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has since admitted that Kiev’s main goal was to use the ceasefire to buy time and “create powerful armed forces.”

In February 2022, the Kremlin recognized the Donbass republics as independent states and demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join any Western military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked.

Ukrainian shelling kills ten-year-old girl

The child was torn apart by a shell that hit a residential district in Donetsk, the devastated family told journalists

A 10-year-old girl was sitting by a bank in front of her house in Donetsk when a shell fired by Ukrainian forces landed in the middle of the street, killing her. The child was torn apart by shrapnel, the grieving family told RT’s Ruptly video news agency.

“My granddaughter has been blown into three pieces,” the girl’s grandfather told journalists. “Look there, there is blood everywhere,” he said, pointing to the metallic gates leading to the yard of his house.

Pools of blood were still covering the street in the spot where the girl had been hit by the shell’s fragments.

“She did not make it home,” the girl’s grandfather added, pointing to the girl’s sneakers, which were lying on the ground near her home’s gate. The girl’s body has already been taken to a morgue. “She and a boy … they were just walking around,” the girl’s mother said. “She sought to run home…” she began, before bursting into tears.

The family’s neighbor told reporters she had heard a loud bang and rushed to the street only to find “one girl’s leg lying near a garden plot and another one here, at the gate.”

Ukrainian forces were shelling different parts of the capital of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) on Tuesday, the city’s mayor, Aleksey Kuzmin, said in a Telegram post. Several people received shrapnel wounds, Kuzmin said, as he confirmed the girl’s death as well. The child’s identity has not been made public.

According to the mayor, the Ukrainian soldiers had used 155mm caliber shells. This caliber is common in NATO artillery systems, while the Russian and Ukrainian artillery pieces usually have a caliber of 152mm. RT could not independently verify which artillery type was used by the Ukrainian forces.

Russia sent troops into Ukraine on February 24, citing Kiev’s failure to implement the Minsk agreements, which were designed to give the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk special status within the Ukrainian state. The protocols, brokered by Germany and France, were first signed in 2014. Former Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko has since admitted that Kiev’s main goal was to use the ceasefire to buy time and “create powerful armed forces.”

In February 2022, the Kremlin recognized the Donbass republics as independent states and demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join any Western military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked.

INSIGHTS

Fyodor Lukyanov: Why the West has failed to get the rest of the world on board to support its confrontation with Russia

The US-led bloc no longer offers the only viable model for development, which means its ability to impose its will is fading

By Fyodor Lukyanov, the editor-in-chief of Russia in Global Affairs, chairman of the Presidium of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, and research director of the Valdai International Discussion Club.

The recent festival of big Western politics – which began with a meeting of the European Council, continued with the G7 Summit, and ended with a major NATO gathering – provides plenty of food for thought about the fate of the world.

On the surface, what we have seen is impressive: The West is showing unprecedented unity in the face of the Russian campaign in Ukraine.

America has gathered almost all of its allies. Right now, from Australia to Norway, from Singapore to Portugal, and from Japan to Iceland, the agenda is the same – to prevent the success of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who represents a rejection of the so-called ‘rules-based order’.

The brutality and irreversibility of what is happening in Ukraine gives the situation the character of a moral choice. Almost all statements from Western leaders refer to a confrontation between “civilization and barbarism”. Accordingly, they believe, there should be no doubt about which side to take.

The Western community has now reached maximum capacity – its European flank (EU and NATO members plus Ukraine and Moldova), its Asian club (South Korea, Japan, and Singapore stopped wavering and took the ‘right’ side), the Oceania pairing, and of course, North America. The ‘free world’ has never been so vast.

This raises a serious question, however. Has the West reached its natural limit beyond which expansion is no longer possible? And if so, what does it mean?

In fact, the topic of the limits of Western influence stems from the notorious concept of the ‘end of history’, which is already so worn out that it is even inconvenient to bring it up. Nevertheless, it is appropriate in this context. Francis Fukuyama’s reflections (he was recently banned from entering Russia, as it happens) led him to conclude that with the collapse of the communist alternative, the only question that remained was how soon and how painlessly the Western economic and socio–political model – which had proved its virtues in the showdown with the USSR – would spread to the rest of the world. The author admitted that it would not be without snags, but in general, the direction was determined once and for all.

How things actually played out after the collapse of the USSR is well known, and despite the fact that numerous crises in developed countries have dimmed the view of the expected path of development, the system has been preserved – and no one has yet come close to the Western world in terms of well-being and comfort. And the Western media still has a near-monopoly on determining the picture of what is happening on a global scale. This means it has a huge head start. But the limit seems to have been reached.

Perhaps the main surprise resulting from the events of recent months is that the West has failed to engage so much of the world in a united front against Russia – the exceptions being those who are already part of the West and a few who passionately want to join the club.

This is unexpected, since few people approve of Russia’s actions in Ukraine. Moscow is dealing with problems that are seemingly irrelevant to anyone but itself, and the harsh methods and humanitarian consequences of the conflict do not elicit much sympathy from outside. In other words, objectively, the West has an excellent chance to win over most of the rest of the world by taking the line that its cause here is about opposition to barbarism.

But this is not happening. Why? There are perhaps three main reasons.

Firstly, the non-Western world knows perfectly well that wars on the planet have never stopped, including in the last 30 years, and statements from the EU states about the era of ‘harmony and prosperity’ that Putin interrupted are perceived as both selfishness and hypocrisy. Telling people in the Middle East, for example, that Russia has violated every conceivable moral standard is, to put it mildly, difficult in light of what the region has experienced since the Cold War ended.

Secondly, most in the former third world see the current events as the culmination of a long-standing conflict related to the assertive policies of the US and its allies regarding the territories directly adjacent to Russia. Their attitude is something like: ‘What did you expect would happen when you provoked the tiger?’

Finally, the reaction of the majority of the planet illustrates their irritation with the West as a whole. It is perceived as a hegemon with a colonial history which is always abusing its powers. The reason is not support for Russia’s actions, but opposition to the West’s attempts to impose its will on others, which often harms their own interests. Also, schadenfreude over America’s failed attempts to impose its will compensates for any doubts about the legitimacy of Moscow’s actions.

Western leaders are both surprised and alarmed by this situation. If the initial calls to join the boycott of Russia amounted to orders, now the demands have been replaced by exhortations and attempts to promise something in return. The selection of the G7 Summit guests – the presidents of India, Indonesia, Senegal, Argentina, and South Africa – is indicative.

The invited parties were warmly welcomed. Everyone was in a hurry to tap Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the shoulder and give him attention. But apart from general statements, nothing happened. And almost in parallel with the events in Europe, Modi participated in a virtual BRICS summit, and Argentina, it seems, together with Iran, has applied to join this emerging association.

The position of non-Western states is dictated not only by anti-colonial instincts, although they do exist. More importantly, in the new conditions, it is difficult for the West to offer the leading countries of the rest of the world anything that would force them to radically change their positions. There are now alternative sources of resources for development – ​​a number of members of the former third world today have money, skills, and to some extent, technology. The West is still ahead of them in many ways, but – and this is fundamentally important – it has now completely lost the desire to share its advantages.

Simply because it now fears competition from them – the experience of American support for the development of China is considered a mistake by the current elites.

Developing countries are of course interested in Western investment, but the nature of interaction is also changing. To put it mildly, the former third world is becoming more demanding and picky, and the West’s ability to impose its own conditions has weakened amid large-scale global changes.

The series of meetings in Europe was intended to show that the West is still the undisputed vanguard of the world, which has both the right and responsibility to lead others. For instance, NATO is once again attempting to become a global organization rather than regional.

The bloc’s most recent experience of this kind – in Afghanistan – ended in embarrassment. But now the approach is more natural – opposition to Russia.

As they see it, Russia is a threat to Western European security (as it was in the glory days of NATO), but it is also a dangerous pariah for all mankind, so opposing it will help expand the US-led club globally. Moreover, the specter of China looms – a systemic competitor to the West and, even better, an accomplice of ‘the Russians’.

How much the Western world itself is united for the full implementation of such a mission is a topic for another article. There are a lot of nuances here. However, even assuming that this is the case, there is no reason to think that NATO’s ambition will meet with understanding beyond its borders.

As a consequence, the broad refusal to recognize the right of the West to lead means there will no longer be a world order based on Western rules.

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