🇷🇺🇹🇷 Turkiye unbowed despite ‘incredible pressure’ from west over ties with Russia, Erdogan spox says

Ankara’s refusal to bend to demands by the West to severe ties with Russia has led to “incredible pressure” being placed on Ankara, Erdogan spokesman Ibrahim Kalin has said.

💬 “Have other countries not put pressure on us? Of course they have…For a year-and-half, Western countries are putting incredible pressure on us, demanding that we slap sanctions [on Russia], asking why we cooperate with Russia, etc. But we didn’t listen to anyone, and held a ceremony on the delivery of the first fuel to the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant,” Kalin said in an interview with local media.

Highlighting Turkiye’s transformation into an “independent, self-sufficient” power on the world stage, Kalin stressed that Ankara will continue to “try to develop our relations of mutual interest with everyone.”

💬 “We have had two main problems [with the US, ed.] since the Obama era – the [US] support given to the YPG/PYD,and the FETO issue,” the presidential spokesman said, referring to Washington’s support for Kurdish militants which Ankara classifies as “terrorists,” and America’s refusal to extradite Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish cleric whom Turkish officials blame for the July 2016 coup attempt against Erdogan.

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❗️Emergency services are working at the scene of the UAV attack in Moscow's Leninsky Avenue

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🇸🇦🌍 Building BRICS of new world order: Saudi push to join BRICS bank will benefit kingdom, world

💬 “This decision has a political motive, but the economic aspect is of course the most important one,” Lebanese economist Jassem Ajaka told Sputnik Arabic, commenting on the talks between Riyadh and the New Development Bank.

The economist expressed cautious optimism about the rise of a new world economic order, saying the kingdom can play a positive role, but that the realignment will be “a rather long process.”

💬 “Riyadh’s benefit from joining is clear, given the potential for increased trade, and Saudi exports especially. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is one of the largest suppliers of oil in the world, and the BRICS countries produce many different goods. Therefore, such cooperation can be considered to be mutually beneficial,” Ajaka said.

Saudi membership in the NDB would result in the expansion of the internal market of BRICS countries, meaning new opportunities for economic growth in these countries, according to Ajaka.

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🇨🇳🚀 China launched the Shenzhou 16 manned spacecraft from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Gansu Province in northwestern China, a Sputnik correspondent reported.

After the launch of Shenzhou 16, the number of people simultaneously in Earth's orbit has reached 17, breaking the previous record of 14 people, set in 2021.

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What is the CFE Treaty and why has Russia renounced it?

The past five years have seen an acceleration in the breakdown of the post-Cold War order, with a number of security agreements revoked, and NATO continuing its push toward Russia’s borders. The Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty is the latest agreement on the chopping block.

What is it? And why has Russia decided to abrogate it?

Sputnik explains

⚡️ Kiev regime plotted to carry out terrorist attack in Moscow using UAVs, Russia’s MoD says

▪️Eight aircraft-type UAVs were used in the attack, all of them were destroyed;

▪️Five drones were shot down by the Pantsir-S surface-to-air missile system;

▪️Three more UAVs were disabled using electronic warfare, going off course and straying from the intended targets.

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💰 Ukraine's public debt up $4.4bln in April, exceeds $124bln

💬 "As of April 30, public and publicly guaranteed debt amounted to 4,544.9 billion hryvnias or $124.3 billion. Over the last reporting month, public debt increased by 3.7%, plus $4.4 billion. At the end of 2022, the ratio of public debt to GDP amounted to 78.4%," Danil Getmantsev, the head of the Ukrainian Parliament's finance committee, said.

The first tranche under the Extended Fund Facility from the International Monetary Fund amounting to $2.7 billion and the third tranche of macro-financial assistance from the EU this year worth 1.5 billion euros ($1.61 billion) are among the main contributors to the debt increase, the lawmaker noted.

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📹 The situation outside one of the residential buildings on Profsoyuznaya Street, struck by a Ukrainian drone, remains calm as emergency services continue their work, a Sputnik correspondent reports.

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❗️The drones used in the Ukrainian terrorist attack on Moscow were previously unknown types of UAVs, and were built using a closed-coupled canard design, Alexey Rogozin, head of the Transport Technology Development Center said.

According to the design of these drones, the horizontal tail unit is located in front of the wing. This may be due to the desire to increase the carrying capacity, the expert said.

Ukraine has probably launched production of these types of UAVs, and their range can be up to thousands of kilometers with a wing span of up to 4 meters, Rogozin said.

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📹 A resident of a building struck by a Ukrainian UAV shared a video showing the wreckage of one of the drones

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📹 Russian kamikaze drones make short work of Ukrainian militants in the direction of Avdeevka

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🇩🇰 Denmark aims for NATO spending target with huge Ukraine aid package

The Nordic country plans to step up its military assistance to Ukraine by 17.9 billion kroner (nearly $2.6 billion) in 2023 and 2024, PM Mette Frederiksen has announced.

Frederiksen, recently named among possible contenders to become NATO's new boss as current Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg is due to step down in September, said Copenhagen planned to replenish it with another 7.5 billion kroner ($1.1 billion) this year, and 10.4 billion ($1.5 billion) next year, with the money being earmarked for military aid.

Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen stressed the necessity of "massive military support for Ukraine for a number of years to come, regardless of how the developments on the battlefield are." With the new contribution to the Ukraine Fund, Denmark will meet NATO's spending target of 2% of GDP, Acting Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen announced.

According to him, this will allow Denmark to meet the objective by 2023 and 2024, as opposed to its initial plans of reaching the target by 2030. Conversely, last year, Denmark spent only 1.38% of its GDP on its military budget.

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🇺🇸 🇺🇬 US President Joe Biden condemned Uganda's new Anti-Homosexuality Act and warned about possible sanctions against the country

🗣 "We are considering additional steps, including the application of sanctions and restriction of entry into the United States against anyone involved in serious human rights abuses or corruption," Biden said in a statement

Prior to that, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni signed the 2023 Anti-Homosexuality Bill into law.

The law is aimed at protecting the culture, religious and family values of the Ugandan people "from acts that are likely to promote sexual promiscuity in this country," per the legislators

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🇸🇾 US preparing terrorist attacks on Syria's crowded places, gov't institutions

US special services coordinate attacks primarily in the southern provinces of As-Suwayda and Daraa, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service warned. US-controlled militants also target a strategically important highway between the cities of Palmyra and Deir ez-Zur.

The intelligence service also said that direct control of such operations is conducted from the US At Tanf military base located on the territory controlled by the Syrian opposition, where "dozens of Daesh* militants being trained."

*Daesh (also known as ISIS/ISIL/IS) is a terrorist group banned in Russia

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⚡️ Ukrainian terror drone attack on Moscow is Kiev’s response to Russia’s successful strike on a decision-making center in Ukraine on Sunday, Kremlin Spokesman Peskov says:

▪️The Ministry of Defense and the regional authorities adequately responded to the Ukrainian terrorist attack;

▪️Vladimir Putin received direct information about the attack straight from the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Emergency Situations, and the authorities of Moscow and the Moscow Region.

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🇧🇮 A very warm welcome for the Russian delegation in Burundi.

Sergey Lavrov greeted by drummers and dancers.

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📹 Russian UR-77 Meteorit mine clearing vehicle in action during special op

According to the commander of the engineer-sapper company, the unit's range of fire can reach 500 meters. The UR-77 has two 96-metre-long charges, each containing more than a tonne of plastic explosives.

As well as minefields, the Meteorite can also hit enemy strongholds. Airborne Troops engineers have repeatedly used the unit to perform non-combat tasks, and experience has shown that the UR-77 is equally effective against enemy fortifications.

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Kremlin spokesman Peskov on upcoming BRICS summit:

▪️Russia will participate in the BRICS summit at a fitting level and hopes that fellow BRICS members will not side with the International Criminal Court's illegal decisions concerning the President of the Russian Federation;

▪️As regards Venezuela's wish to join BRICS: many countries have expressed such a desire and this is a topic for discussion within the bloc.

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❗️Key points made by Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu:

▪️Ukrainian drone terror attack on Moscow targeted civilian infrastructure;

▪️The Russian Armed Forces react as harshly as possible to terrorist attacks by Ukraine against civilians in Russia using NATO weapons;

▪️The West’s military support for Ukraine only prolongs the hostilities, but cannot affect the outcome of the special military operation;

▪️The Russian Army tracks the supplies of Western equipment and weapons to Ukraine and destroys them upon detection;

▪️Ukraine lost more than 16,000 servicemen in May as a result of the military operation;

▪️More than 16 Ukrainian aircraft, 466 UAVs, over 400 tanks, and more than 230 guns and mortars were destroyed in May;

▪️Russian forces destroyed another Patriot missile defense system in Kiev;

▪️Russian air defense systems intercepted 29 Storm Shadow missiles.

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