Spokesman said that Washington would likely keep supporting Ukraine, and the financial burden increasingly be placed on its “European subordinates”…reports Asian Lite News
Moscow will wait for concrete actions, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, while commenting on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s proposal of possible talks with Russia.
Russian representatives should be present at a second peace conference on Ukraine, which is scheduled to be held in November, said Zelensky on Monday.
“What exactly is behind these words? What specific plans are we discussing? What actions are being proposed in this regard?” Peskov asked, noting that it was too early to judge and necessary to wait for specific actions, Xinhua news agency reported.
Meanwhile, the Spokesman said that Washington would likely keep supporting Ukraine, and the financial burden increasingly be placed on its “European subordinates”.
Western aid to Kiev would “not contribute to the resolution of the Ukrainian conflict, but on the contrary, will prolong it,” said Peskov, adding that it would not affect the outcome of Russia’s special military operation in any way.
Washington’s move has prompted criticism in Germany, even among members of Scholz’s Social Democrats…reports Asian Lite News
The United States’s decision to station long-range missiles in Germany could lead to a Cold War-style “direct confrontation”, Russia has warned, as Chancellor Olaf Scholz hailed the move.
The White House announced the decision on Wednesday during a NATO summit in Washington, arguing the stationing of long-range weapons, including Tomahawk cruise missiles, in Europe acts as a deterrent.
“We are taking steady steps towards the Cold War,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told a Russian state TV reporter on Thursday. “All the attributes of the Cold War with the direct confrontation are returning.”
Washington’s move has prompted criticism in Germany, even among members of Scholz’s Social Democrats.
Defending the decision, Scholz told reporters at a NATO summit in Washington it is “something of deterrence and it’s securing peace, and it is a necessary and important decision at the right time.”
The US on Wednesday said the “episodic deployments” of long-range missiles to Germany will begin in 2026. The White House said it would eventually look to permanently station them in Germany, and the missiles would “have significantly longer range” than current US systems in Europe.
“Exercising these advanced capabilities will demonstrate the United States’ commitment to NATO and its contributions to European integrated deterrence,” it said in a joint statement with the German government.
Russia’s ambassador to Germany warned the German government of a further deterioration in relations between Moscow and Berlin if the deployment goes ahead.
“It is to be hoped that the German political elites will reconsider whether such a destructive and dangerous step, which contributes neither to the security of the Federal Republic of Germany nor the European continent as a whole, is advisable,” Sergei Nechayev said.
“Not to mention the irreparable damage to German-Russian relations.”
German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius told broadcaster Deutschlandfunk that the deployment decision addressed a “very serious gap” in the country’s capabilities.
The German army does not have long-range missiles that launch from the ground, only cruise missiles that can be fired by aircraft.
The announcement led to an outcry in Germany, where the deployment of US missiles brings back painful memories of the Cold War.
Ralf Stegner, a member of parliament for Scholz’s Social Democrats, told the Funke media group that the missile decision could signal the start of a new “arms race”.
“This will not make the world safer. On the contrary, we are entering a spiral in which the world is becoming increasingly dangerous,” warned Stegner.
Sahra Wagenknecht, a prominent far-left figure in Germany, told the Spiegel weekly that US missile deployment “increases the danger that Germany itself will become a theatre of war”.
The 1980s deployment of US Pershing II ballistic missiles in West Germany at the height of the Cold War prompted widespread demonstrations, with hundreds of thousands coming out in pacifist protest.
US missiles continued to be stationed through the reunification of Germany and into the 1990s.
But following the end of the Cold War, the US significantly reduced the number of missiles stationed in Europe as the threat from Moscow receded.
NATO countries – spearheaded by the US – are rushing to bolster their defences on the continent in the wake of Russia’s 2022 invasion of neighbouring Ukraine.
Later on Wednesday, Belgorod regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said one person was killed and seven more wounded in Ukrainian shelling of the Russian border town of Shebekino…reports Asian Lite News
Russia said on Wednesday that its military was still working to create a “buffer zone” in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region but this would take time.
President Vladimir Putin said in May that Russia was creating a buffer to protect its border regions, especially Belgorod which lies adjacent to Kharkiv, from Ukrainian attacks.
“Of course, the realization of this task is time-consuming, it takes time. Work in this direction is under way,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters when asked how long it would take for Russia to guarantee the security of Belgorod.
Later on Wednesday, Belgorod regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said one person was killed and seven more wounded in Ukrainian shelling of the Russian border town of Shebekino.
According to Gladkov, three multi-story residential buildings, several commercial facilities, an industrial enterprise and 20 vehicles were damaged in the incident.
Shebekino and the wider Belgorod region have come under frequent attack by Ukrainian shells and drones in the course of the war which is now well into its third year.
Meanwhile, Norway Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store said on Wednesday that the country will start the process of donating six F-16 fighters to Ukraine this year, aiming to boost Kyiv’s ability to defend itself against attacks from the air during its ongoing conflict against Russia.
The Norwegian government had decided last year to donate the F-16s to Ukraine as part of a multinational collaboration, led by Denmark, the Netherlands and the USA.
Store had announced the decision on Ukraine’s Independence Day in Kyiv last year. Norway’s Defence Ministry said on Wednesday that it has contributed to the training of Ukrainian fighter pilots at Denmark’s Skrydstrup air base since autumn 2023.
“Norway has and Norway will support the training in the future as well,” said Prime Minister Store.
Norway phased out F-16 fighters in 2021 in connection with the phasing in of the new F-35 combat aircraft. As many as 32 F-16s have been sold to Romania.
“We must continue to support Ukraine’s defence against the Russian war of aggression. Ukraine is fighting a battle both for its own freedom and for our shared values, democracy and international law. Ukraine is at the forefront of Euro-Atlantic security,” stated Espen Barth Eide, Norway’s Foreign Minister.
The need for weapons for the fighters will increase in line with the number of F-16s in the Ukrainian Air Force, believes Norway’s Defence Minister Bjorn Arild Gram.
“Armament and other support for the aircraft will be handled within the framework of the multinational cooperation. Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, Great Britain and Norway are involved in this collaboration,” he mentioned.
Unlike other NATO leaders, who have imposed sanctions on Putin’s government, Erdogan has tried to maintain good relations with both Russia and Ukraine throughout the conflict…reports Asian Lite News
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan told Russia’s Vladimir Putin on Wednesday that Ankara could help end the Ukraine-Russia war, but Putin’s spokesman said Erdogan could not play the role of an intermediary in the 28-month-old conflict.
Erdogan, speaking to Putin on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Kazakhstan, said he believed a fair peace suiting both sides was possible, the Turkish presidency said.
But Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, ruled out any role as a go-between for the Turkish leader.
“No, it’s not possible,” said Peskov, when asked by a Russian television interviewer whether Erdogan could assume such a role, according to the Russian Tass news agency. The news agency’s account did not explain why the Kremlin was opposed to Erdogan’s participation.
The Turkish presidency said the two leaders also discussed the war in Gaza and ways to end the conflict in Syria.
Turkiye is a member of NATO, the US-led Western military alliance.
Unlike other NATO leaders, who have imposed sanctions on Putin’s government, Erdogan has tried to maintain good relations with both Russia and Ukraine throughout the conflict.
Turkiye played a key role in putting in place a deal to ensure grain could be shipped safely from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports. The accord remained in effect for a year.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with visiting Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to discuss initiatives designed to bring peace to Ukraine and preparations for the second peace summit, Zelensky’s press service reported.
They also discussed security issues and cooperation in the infrastructure and energy sectors, cross-border collaboration, and bilateral trade on Tuesday, reports Xinhua news agency.
The issues concerning the Hungarian national minority in Ukraine were another topic of the talks. Zelensky thanked Hungary for supporting Ukrainians and providing humanitarian aid to the country.
For his part, Orban pledged that Budapest would support Ukraine during the Hungarian presidency of the European Union (EU). Orban also suggested that Ukraine and Hungary may sign a bilateral agreement that will regulate their relations.
Orban arrived in Kyiv earlier in the day for his first visit to Ukraine in 12 years. On July 1, Hungary took over the Council of the EU rotating presidency for six months.
Peskov said that NATO is directly involved in the Ukraine conflict, adding that the alliance is increasing the degree of escalation…reports Asian Lite News
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is in direct confrontation with Russia over the conflict in Ukraine, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has said.
Earlier on Monday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg called for lifting the restrictions on Ukraine using weapons supplied by NATO members to attack Russian territories, according to media reports.
Commenting on Stoltenberg’s statements, Peskov noted that “this cannot be his personal opinion”, given his position as NATO chief, Xinhua news agency reported.
Peskov said that NATO is directly involved in the Ukraine conflict, adding that the alliance is increasing the degree of escalation.
Russia repeatedly warned the West about allowing Ukraine to use supplied weapons to strike Russian territory over the past month, with some Western leaders having talked up the possibility.
The Russian military earlier launched military drills involving tactical nuclear weapons as a “response to provocative statements and threats of individual Western officials against the Russian Federation,” according to the defence ministry.
Russia’s ex-President Medvedev threatens Poland
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has threatened Poland with the prospect of “radioactive ash” in response to remarks on the use of nuclear weapons from Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski over the weekend.
Sikorski had earlier told British newspaper The Guardian how the US would purportedly react to a Russian use of nuclear weapons against Ukraine.
“The Americans have told the Russians that if you explode a nuke, even if it doesn’t kill anybody, we will hit all your targets (positions) in Ukraine with conventional weapons, we’ll destroy all of them,” Sikorski told the paper.
Medvedev responded on the social network X by saying that the US had said nothing of the sort since “they are more cautious”.
“Americans hitting our targets means starting a world war, and a foreign minister, even of a country like Poland should understand that,” the deputy head of the Russian Security Council wrote on Sunday.
Polish President Andrzej Duda had asked for tactical nuclear weapons from the US to be stationed in Poland, Medvedev said. “Warsaw won’t be left out, and will surely get its share of radioactive ash. Is it what you really want?” Medvedev added.
Duda had said in April that Poland, one of Ukraine’s strongest supporters, was prepared to accept NATO nuclear weapons as a counterweight to the deployment of Russian tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.
Medvedev, during his time as president from 2008 to 2012, had been considered a key figure in liberal Russian policy. However since the all-out Russian invasion of Ukraine, he has become one of the biggest hardliners and routinely defends the war with inflammatory posts on social networks.
Sikorski’s comments are likely to relate to events of late 2022. US media have repeatedly reported that the leadership in Washington had the impression at the time that Moscow could be preparing to use a tactical nuclear weapon in Ukraine.
At that time, the Kremlin had reportedly been made to understand that the US would not respond with nuclear weapons, but with other powerful means.
Law enforcement has apprehended all four assailants, with suspicions of assistance from five others, as per investigators….reports Asian Lite News
Russian President Vladimir Putin puts up a tough exterior, but he’s deeply disturbed by recent events in the nation, including the deadly terrorist attack on Crocus City Hall, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov disclosed to VGTRK, TASS reported.
“The head of state takes these tragedies to heart. And believe me, just because you don’t see tears on his face does not mean that he is not hurt. And I doubt if anyone, including you and me, knows about his inner turmoil,” the Russian presidential spokesman said.
On the fateful evening of March 22, terrorists struck the music venue in Krasnogorsk, Moscow Region, just beyond the city’s borders. The latest figures report 144 fatalities.
Law enforcement has apprehended all four assailants, with suspicions of assistance from five others, as per investigators. The Russian Investigative Committee asserted that the attackers have ties to Ukrainian nationalists.
Furthermore, the Russian Emergencies Ministry’s department in the Moscow Region has updated the count of those injured in the terrorist onslaught on Crocus City Hall to 551.
“At the time of 6:00 a.m. Moscow time on March 30, 2024, the toll from the terrorist attack stood at 695 casualties, with 144 fatalities, including five children,” the ministry disclosed in an official statement.
Health officials informed TASS that the majority of those injured in the attack have been receiving outpatient care.
Last Sunday, Russia declared its first nationwide mourning since 2018.
A solemn minute of silence was observed in memory of the victims of the Crocus City Hall attack before the commencement of a charity concert near the makeshift memorial erected at the scene of the attack.
Candles, arranged to resemble cranes, adorned the stage; many attendees held candles in their hands. During the minute of silence, footage depicting cranes soaring into the sky was projected onto the facade of Crocus City Hall, followed by images of those who lost their lives in the tragedy.
The minute of silence commenced at 19:52 Moscow time, approximately the time when the tragic events unfolded on March 22. Following the poignant tribute, a musical ensemble led by director Valery Gergiyev took the stage. Several survivors also joined the performance, sharing their harrowing experiences of surviving the attack.
Throughout the day, people continued to bring flowers in honour of the victims. Security measures were heightened, with the crowd being divided into multiple streams, and metal detectors were installed to ensure safety, TASS reported. (ANI)
Alexei Navalny’s lawyers have not been able to see him since December 6, reports Asian Lite News
The Kremlin has said that it has “no information” about jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who reportedly has been missing from prison since December 6, Al Jazeera reported.
Navalny’s lawyers have not been able to see him since December 6.
The prison authorities moved him from the penal colony, where he was serving his sentence for multiple charges, including extremism, but have not said where he was transferred to.
Prison officials told a court on Friday (local time) that Navalny had left the IK-6 facility in the town of Melekhovo in the Vladimir region, about 230 km (140 miles) east of Moscow, Al Jazeera reported, citing Vyacheslav Gimadi, the head of the legal department at Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation.
On being asked if the Kremlin had any information about Navalny, spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said: “No. I repeat again: we do not have the capacity, or right, or desire to track the fates of those prisoners who are serving sentences by order of a court.”
Navalny, who rose to prominence by lampooning President Vladimir Putin’s “elite” and alleging “extensive corruption” was sentenced in August to an additional 19 years in prison on top of the 11 and a half years he was already serving, Al Jazeera reported.
Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov
“We don’t know [where he is] for the 10th day,” Navalny’s lawyer posted on X.
The allies of the Putin critic had been preparing for his expected transfer to a “special regime” high-security facility, the harshest grade in Russia’s prison system, before he was moved.
“Where he was taken is not known,” Navalny’s spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh, posted on X, saying he was moved on December 11. “Let me remind you that the lawyers have not seen Alexei since December 6.”
Earlier, Navalny’s team had alleged that the jailed Russian leader suffered a serious health incident.
Meanwhile, another Navalny ally, Maria Pevchikh, has urged the United Nations Human Rights Committee to help them locate the jailed leader.
“What is happening with Alexei is, in fact, an enforced disappearance and a flagrant violation of his fundamental rights. Answers must be given,” she said on Thursday.
Several rights groups have also weighed in on Moscow’s criticism. Amnesty International acknowledged “the possibility that he may be in transit to another prison colony.”
“As if attempted poisoning, imprisonment and inhumane conditions of detention were not enough, Alexei Navalny may now have been subjected to an enforced disappearance,” it added.
The dissident was taken from Russia to Germany in 2020 after he was poisoned with Novichok, a Soviet-era nerve agent. Navalny had to be airlifted from the Siberian city of Omsk and arrived comatose at a hospital in Berlin, CNN reported.
Navalny was immediately incarcerated upon his return to Russia in January 2021 on charges of violating the terms of his probation related to a fraud case brought against him in 2013, which he also dismissed as politically motivated.
He has also campaigned from prison against Russia’s war against Ukraine and has even attempted to mobilise public opposition to the war.
According to CNN, Navalny posed one of the most serious threats to Putin’s legitimacy during his rule, which has spanned more than two decades.
When Navalny was sentenced to 19 years in a maximum-security penal colony in August, he said, “the number of years does not matter.” (ANI)
Moscow : Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Heads of State Council via a video conference at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia on Tuesday, July 04, 2023.(Photo:IANS/Kremlin)
While many diplomats, spies and officials have said they expect Putin to stay in power for life, there has yet to be any confirmation of his plans to run in the 2024 presidential vote…reports Asian Lite News
The Kremlin said on Tuesday that Russia had not abandoned a moratorium on nuclear testing, and dismissed a suggestion by one commentator that it should detonate a thermonuclear bomb.
Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he did not know where New York Times reporters had got the idea that Russia may be preparing to test an experimental nuclear-powered cruise missile, or may have recently tested one.
Margarita Simonyan, hawkish editor-in-chief of the state-owned broadcaster RT, suggested in an interview extract posted online by the foreign-based digital broadcast network RTVI that Russia should detonate a nuclear bomb at high altitude over Siberia as a warning to the West.
Putin may run in Russia’s 2024 election
Russian President Vladimir Putin may soon indicate he will take part in a 2024 presidential election, Kommersant newspaper reported on Tuesday, paving the way for the Kremlin chief to stay in power until 2030.
As part of a conference in November, officials suspect that Putin may announce he will take part in the election in March next year, Kommersant reported, citing unidentified sources close to the presidential administration.
The newspaper, one of Russia’s most respected, said there were, however, other scenarios for what Putin might do at the conference and the final decision rested with him. The Kremlin did not immediately comment.
Putin, who was handed the presidency by Boris Yeltsin on the last day of 1999, has been leader for longer than any other Russian ruler since Josef Stalin, beating even Leonid Brezhnev’s 18-year tenure.
Putin turns 71 on October 7.
While many diplomats, spies and officials have said they expect Putin to stay in power for life, there has yet to be any confirmation of his plans to run in the 2024 presidential vote.
Putin said last month he would make an announcement on his plans only after parliament called the presidential election — due by law to be done in December.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said last month that if Putin decided to run, then no one would be able to compete with him.
While Putin may face no competition for votes, the former KGB spy faces the most serious set of challenges any Kremlin chief has faced since Mikhail Gorbachev grappled with the crumbling Soviet Union nearly four decades ago.
The war in Ukraine has triggered the biggest confrontation with the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis and the biggest external shock to the Russian economy in decades. Putin faced a failed mutiny by Russia’s most powerful mercenary, Yevgeny Prigozhin, in June.
Prigozhin was killed in a plane crash two months later.
The West casts Putin as a war criminal and a dictator who has led Russia into an imperial-style conflict that has weakened the country and forged Ukrainian statehood while uniting the West and handing NATO a post-Soviet mission of opposing Russia.
Putin, though, presents the war as part of a much bigger struggle with the United States, which the Kremlin elite says aims to cleave Russia apart, grab its natural resources and then turn to settling scores with China.
The former Soviet spies who wield power in Moscow have repeatedly warned of the risk of a Russia-NATO conflict as the West’s post-Cold War dominance wanes, Russia lays to rest the humiliations of the Soviet collapse and China rises to superpower status.
The West says it does not want a NATO-Russia conflict but simply to help Ukraine defeat Russian forces. The Kremlin says the West will never achieve Russia’s defeat in Ukraine.
The UK has been reluctant to be seen to be at loggerheads with Ukraine over the issue…reports Asian Lite News
Britain is likely to keep Russian state assets immobilised for some time after the war in Ukraine ends, and certainly until Moscow has agreed to pay compensation for the damage it has inflicted, British officials have confirmed.
The Council of Europe summit last week established a digital register of damage for Ukraine as the first step towards an international compensation mechanism for victims of Russian aggression.
Last Friday, the foreign secretary, James Cleverly, insisted that Russia’s sovereign assets would remain immobilised until Russia agreed to pay for the damage it had caused in Ukraine. But the consequences of the evolving British position on postwar negotiations with Russia, including the retention of Russian central bank assets as leverage for compensation, are only gradually emerging. It is thought that about $300bn (£243bn) in Russian central bank reserves were in G7 states at the time of the freezing, but the mapping of the assets is not complete.
Officials say work is continuing day and night, including with the EU, over the feasibility of confiscating Russian state assets, but no solution has yet been found. Tory backbench MPs, the Labour party and the Ukrainian government are pressing for Russian state assets held in the UK – valued at £26bn last year – to be seized outright and then handed directly to Ukraine for reconstruction.
But an alternative, less legally risky strategy is gaining ground whereby the west holds on to the assets until Russia agrees to pay compensation. The same objective of Russia’s funding of Ukraine’s reconstruction would be achieved, but without taking the risk of breaching international law by simply seizing Russian assets.
The Commons has already passed a motion requiring the government to come up with a plan on the use of Russian state assets, but for months it has been refusing to commit to the effective expropriation of the Russian central bank assets stored in the UK, fearing the move would set a precedent that would paralyse the international financial system, and lead to countermeasures against the UK.
The UK has been reluctant to be seen to be at loggerheads with Ukraine over the issue.
But at last week’s Council of Europe summit in Reykjavik, a total of 44 countries and the EU indicated their intention to back a new register of damages with its offices in The Hague. A satellite office in Ukraine will be established.
The Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, underlined that “Russia must be held accountable, including for damage suffered by Ukraine and its people. We are therefore proud that the seat of the register of damage will be in The Hague, the legal capital of the world.” The register will be established for an initial period of three years and will serve as a record of evidence and claims information on damage, loss or injury caused by the Russian aggression against Ukraine and its people. It paves the way towards a future international comprehensive compensation mechanism for the victims of the Russian aggression, something the UN has already endorsed.
The foreign affairs select committee was told on Tuesday that seizing as opposed to freezing Russian state assets would be in breach of international law. Antonios Tzanakopoulos, professor of public international law at St Anne’s College, University of Oxford, said the sovereign assets of the Russian Federation were generally protected by sovereign immunity as an embodiment of the state, but a freezing of those assets, a temporary violation of the rule of immunity, could be justified as a countermeasure in response to Russia’s violation of international law.
But he added the essence of a countermeasure was that it was intended to induce the state to comply with the law, and as a result the measure must be temporary and reversible. On this basis a disposal or seizure of the assets as a punitive measure was explicitly not allowed in international law, he said.
Moscow has urged all international powers to halt all weapon shipments to Ukraine, claiming that this will simply prolong the conflict….reports Asian Lite News
Britain will have to bear full responsibility for its decision to supply depleted uranium shells to Ukraine, said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
Peskov said on Wednesday that when such weaponry was previously used by NATO in Yugoslavia, it resulted in devastating consequences, including a rise in oncological and other diseases.
Those who use this ammunition must understand that they will “cause irreparable harm to themselves and their citizens” and ultimately bear full responsibility for their actions, he added.
: UK armed forces minister, James Heappey.
The spokesman made the remarks a day after British Minister of State for the Armed Forces, James Heappey, confirmed that Britain had already sent “thousands of shells for Challenger 2 tanks, including depleted uranium munitions” to Kiev.
Last week, Andrey Kelin, Russia’s envoy to Britain, in an interview with RT claimed that DU munitions will be a “terrible thing… for the agriculture and for the people” of Ukraine. He added that the radioactive residue could contaminate Ukraine’s water and soil “for at least six generations.”
According to a 2007 government assessment, Heappey claims that depleted uranium poses relatively “low” health and environmental concerns.
However, uranium munitions produce “chemically toxic and radioactive DU particulate” when they strike hard targets, according to Doug Weir, an expert with the Conflict and Environment Observatory. He added that the dust poses “an inhalational risk to people.”
Moscow has urged all international powers to halt all weapon shipments to Ukraine, claiming that this will simply prolong the conflict.
