❗️IAEA head says will visit Russia in near future, then return to Ukraine on issue of safety zone around Zaporozhye nuclear power plant

📹Footage of the combat work done by the Uragan MLRS during the special operation in Ukraine (Russian MoD video)

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💬Russian Foreign Ministry on the statement by the Estonian Foreign Ministry about the blast on the Crimean bridge: "Murder, sabotage, destruction: criminal logic has bound the NATO regimes."

Earlier, the Estonian Foreign Ministry said that the country "certainly welcomes this [the explosion] and congratulates the Ukrainian special forces that are probably behind this operation and considers it a positive thing that traffic has stopped," despite the fact that the bridge "is not physically destroyed."

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⚡Russian MoD: General of the Army Sergei Surovikin has been appointed commander of the Joint Group of Forces in the area of the special military operation

Russian MoD briefing:

▪️All attacks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Kupyansk direction were successfully repelled. More than 100 Ukrainian servicemen, two tanks, five infantry fighting vehicles, and four other vehicles were destroyed. More than 110 Ukrainian servicemen of the 14th Mechanized Brigade and the 19th Terodefense Battalion were destroyed;

▪️More than 30 Ukrainian servicemen, three infantry fighting vehicles, and five pickup trucks were destroyed in the Krasniy Liman direction;

▪️More than 100 Ukrainian servicemen and 12 units of military equipment were destroyed in the areas of the settlements of Seversk, Novoe, and Yampolovka in the DPR;

▪️An attempt by Ukrainian forces to counterattack was repelled in the South-Donetsk direction. More than 90 Ukrainian servicemen, two tanks, eight armored fighting vehicles, and six other vehicles were destroyed;

▪️More than 160 Ukrainian troops were destroyed in the Zaporozhye direction;

▪️More than 240 Ukrainian military personnel, 12 tanks, 14 armored combat vehicles, eight other vehicles, and four artillery pieces were destroyed, 54 artillery units were hit in firing positions, while manpower and military equipment in 174 areas, four ammunition depots, as well as a Ukrainian MiG-29 aircraft were destroyed;

▪️Russian air defense systems destroyed 12 UAVs, including one Bayraktar-TB2;

▪️21 shells of the US-made HIMARS MLRS were destroyed in the air, as well as one Tochka-U ballistic missile

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❗️Crimea's head Aksenov: Vehicles have resumed movement across the Crimean Bridge, it is now open to cars and buses with a full inspection procedure

🇰🇵 DPRK’s latest missile test constituted a “regular and planned self-defensive step for defending the country’s security and regional peace from the US’ direct military threats that have lasted for more than half a century,” a spokesperson from North Korea’s National Aviation Administration announced Saturday.

The tests do not “pose any threat [or] harm to the safety of not only civil aviation but also the neighboring countries and region,” the spokesperson added, dismissing a recent statement by the International Civil Aviation Organization condemning the missile launches.

The spokesperson dismissed the ICAO’s criticism as “a political provocation of the US and its vassal forces aimed to infringe upon” Pyongyang’s sovereignty.

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❗️Russian Foreign Ministry: US signals in the context of what is happening in Ukraine combine provocative belligerence and hints at the possibility of dialogue

“They’re firing at us civilians”: Pensioners in Rubezhnoye, LPR on the tactics of Ukrainian forces.

❗The attack on the Crimean Bridge takes the security crisis over Ukraine to a dangerous new level, with both sides likely to expand attacks against civilian infrastructure, political observers, journalists and academics have told Sputnik.

⚡During a protest in Kishinev there was an attempt to break into the Russian Embassy - Diplomatic mission in Moldova

▪️Moscow expects those responsible for the "hostile trick" against the Russian Embassy in Moldova to be found and punished, the diplomatic mission said;

▪️The Russian Embassy in Moldova reported that it sent a note of protest to Kishinev in connection with the hostile action at the diplomatic mission

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A video showing an attempt by protesters to storm the Russian Embassy in Moldova has emerged online

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❗️The actions of firefighters on the Crimean bridge made it possible to save the railway from more serious damage, only 9 of 59 carriages burned down – Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations

🇷🇺🇨🇳🇮🇳 Russia's trade with China and India is increasing due to a growing number of goods categories, despite Western sanctions against Russia, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

"Our trade with China for eight months increased by a third, the trade with India for six months grew by 120%," Lavrov told Russian weekly newspaper Argumenty i Fakty.

Sanctions are not an obstacle to the development of economic relations between the countries, the minister noted. "And it is quite natural. Many foreign companies are trying to fill in niches after Western businesses left the Russian market," Lavrov said.

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🇰🇵 North Korea reportedly fires unidentified ballistic missile towards Sea of Japan

❗️Railway traffic on the Crimean bridge has been restored - Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin

Protesters have gathered in Paris demanding the resignation of French President Emmanuel Macron, a Sputnik correspondent reports from the scene

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