❗️‘Great shame to have senators like that’: Kremlin spokesman fires back at neocon chickenhawk Lindsey Graham

💬 "It’s hard to imagine a greater shame for the country than having senators like that," Dmitry Peskov said in an interview.

Russia is facing a war on all fronts, and Moscow must maintain a clear-headed mindset, act in accordance with its interests, be firm, openly convey its concerns, added Peskov. The objectives of the special operation have not changed, and they must be accomplished, he insisted.

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Can Africa and Russia Shape a New Global Reality Together?

On the sidelines of the Moscow Export Day forum for export-oriented business, Sputnik Africa spoke with a group of visiting African business leaders and officials about the prospects for Africa's development and Russian-African cooperation.

"[Mandela] told us something very profound. He said that for several decades, Africa was going through a fight, a fight for independence. And there was, he said, nothing fabulous in that because the price paid by Africa to obtain that was very high. And he said phase one was to get out, but phase two was to reshape ourselves. He was talking not of South Africa, he was talking about the whole continent," recalled Mikhail Orlov, head of the Russian-Egyptian Business Council.

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❗️Russian MoD briefing on the progress of the special military operation in Ukraine:

▪️In the Kupyansk direction, Russian forces destroyed up to 30 Ukrainian troops, one armored vehicle, as well as several ammunition depots. The actions of two Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance groups were thwarted;

▪️In the Krasny Liman direction, Russian forces neutralized up to 65 Ukrainian personnel, an armored combat vehicle, as well as Msta-B and D-20 howitzers, and one Akatsiya self-propelled howitzer;

▪️In the Donetsk direction, Ukrainian losses amounted to more than 340 troops, three armored combat vehicles, a Polish Krab self-propelled howitzer, and several ammunition depots;

▪️In the South Donetsk and Zaporozhye directions, Russian forces destroyed over 100 Ukrainian troops, one infantry fighting vehicle, a Polish Krab self-propelled howitzer, one US-made AN/TPQ-37 counter-mortar radar, and one ammunition depot;

▪️In the Kherson direction, Russian troops neutralized up to 10 Ukrainian soldiers and one Gvozdika self-propelled howitzer. Command and observation posts as well as a temporary deployment point of foreign mercenaries were hit;

▪️Russian air defenses shot down three Storm Shadow cruise missiles, six HIMARS missiles, and four unmanned aerial vehicles in the LPR, DPR, Kharkov, and Zaporozhye regions.

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📹 Russian forces destroy Ukrainian firing point with anti-tank missile in Avdeevka direction

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🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia 'in talks' to join BRICS bank to enhance 'funding options'

Riyadh is in talks to join the Shanghai-based New Development Bank, also known as the “BRICS bank,” according to a statement by the NDB, cited by a US media report.

Adding the country as the ninth member of the bank would strengthen Riyadh’s ties with BRICS member states, the statement by the lender read.

It is hoped that as the world’s largest exporter of oil joins the bank, as it would serve to bolster its funding options, the report emphasized. The latter were singled out by Ashwani Muthoo, director general of the NDB’s independent evaluation office, as “the most important thing at the moment."

"We are struggling to mobilize resources,” he was cited as saying, adding that at its upcoming board meetings, the NDB board intended to look into alternative currencies, like China’s yuan (also referred to as renminbi), or South Africa's rand.

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📹 'America remains indispensable': Kamala Harris hails 'freedom at the barrel of a gun' ideal and how military helps 'advance freedom' in West Point speech

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‼️ Voting in the second round of the presidential election has concluded in Turkiye. Polling stations closed for voting at 17:00 local time (which coincides with Moscow time).

Why NATO has no right to complain about Russian nukes in Belarus

International relations and security analyst Mark Sleboda says “one of the first justifications Russia used for doing this is that the US has actually had tactical nuclear weapons in Europe for decades, hundreds of them, in fact, and they have recently even been upgraded to the B61-12 tactical nuclear warheads [in place] of older gravity bombs.”

💬 “Just in the last week, a Polish general and former deputy defense minister, Waldemar Skrzypczak, appeared on Polish TV and said there will be an uprising in Minsk. He spoke about a ‘pro-Ukrainian army’ by which I assume he means the Belarusian neo-Nazis fighting for the Kiev regime –basically the idea that they will come home and overthrow the Belarusian government, and that Poland should be prepared to support them. Obviously this is exactly one of the types of things that this placement is meant to secure Belarus from,” Sleboda said.

On top of that are the strategic considerations, both given NATO’s nuclear provocations – like staging nuclear-capable bomber drills near Russia’s borders over the Black and Baltic Seas in recent years, and longstanding efforts to create missile defenses in Eastern Europe to try to render Russia’s nuclear deterrent obsolete. The nuclear deployment in Belarus should counter these threats, from Moscow’s perspective, Sleboda believes.

Read more of Mark Sleboda's interview

🇹🇷 The head of Turkiye’s Supreme Electoral Council, Ahmet Yener, said the results of the second round of the presidential election may appear earlier than the results of the first round.

He noted that "As you know, 24 political parties, as well as our presidential candidates, took part in the May 14 elections. And because only presidential candidates participate in these elections, we think that the results will be earlier."

🇹🇷🗳 Vote counting at polling stations in Turkiye has begun

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🇷🇺😻 Meet Gosha, a small kitten who has become a cherished companion of the military, boosting the morale of soldiers in the midst of the special military operation

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Sputnik correspondent from opposition party Nation Alliance HQ

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‼️ Erdogan ahead with 57% of vote in presidential runoff after over 40% of ballot boxes counted, according to state media