🇷🇺🇺🇸 'Crazy initiative': Antonov slams US Senators' 'absurd' claims about nuclear strike on Ukraine

💬 "Speculations about Russia's possible use of tactical nuclear weapons are absurd. The provocative and short-sighted rhetoric of US lawmakers only contributes to the escalation of tensions and increases the risk of the situation sliding to an even more dangerous line," Russian Ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov said in a statement shared among media.

The ambassador suggested that these speculations serve to prepare the world community for a false-flag provocation at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant by sliding a "dirty bomb" there and blaming it on Russia.

Earlier Thursday, US Senator Lindsey Graham said the lawmakers were introducing a resolution to consider the use of a nuclear weapon by Russia in Ukraine as an attack on the NATO alliance.

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🚔 ICC judge Aitala appears on wanted list of Russia's Interior Ministry

Rosario Salvatore Aitala, a judge of the International Criminal Court who issued a warrant for the "arrest" of Vladimir Putin, has appeared in the database of wanted people of the Russian Interior Ministry, the database showed.

A picture of Aitala with the caption "wanted" appeared at a stand near the Sviblovo District Department of the Internal Ministry in Moscow.

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🇷🇺 First trial of Poseidon nuclear-capable underwater drones planned for summer 2023

First trials of the drones from the Belgorod nuclear-powered submarine are scheduled for the summer of 2023, a source in the defense industry has told Sputnik.

Adm. Nikolai Evmenov, the commander-in-chief of the Russian navy, told Sputnik on Thursday that the Belgorod submarine designed to carry Poseidons will enter into service of the Russian Navy in 2023.

The operation of the Poseidon's reactor units will be tested first during the trials, the source said, adding that the units have already undergone bench tests, and the safety and readiness for their operation has been confirmed.

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❗️Five people detained attempting to export a kilogram of radioactive caesium-137 to stage a provocation against Russia, FSB says

The cesium-137 was meant to be used in staged WMD provocations against Russia in the special military operation, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) said. All the suspects have been detained and statements are being taken.

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📹 FSB releases footage of suspects who tried to smuggle cesium-137 out of Russia being arrested

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🇯🇵 Japan piqued as Biden claims credit for Tokyo's ramped up defense costs

After Joe Biden claimed credit for convincing Tokyo to make that move when appearing at an event in California, Japan was prompted to “make its position known” to the US. Hirokazu Matsuno, Chief Cabinet Secretary, said the words of POTUS “could be misleading”.

The government of Japanese PM Fumio Kishida has approved a spate of policy documents which envisage doubling the nation's defense expenditures within the next five years. And Joe Biden recently made no bones about taking credit for that.

💬 “You know, Japan hasn’t increased its military budget for a long, long time. But guess what? I met with the chairman — the president — the vice — excuse me, the leader of Japan for, I guess, on three different occasions, including in Hiroshima. And… I convinced him, and he convinced himself, that he had to do something different,” Biden said at a campaign reception in California on June 20.

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🥊❌ Elon Musk's mom Maye “cancels” his son vs. Mark Zuckerberg fight with a tweet

Elon eloquently replied to the news with just a laughing face emoji.

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❗️ EU Council adopts 11th package of sanctions against Russia:

▪️The bloc has expanded restrictions against Russian media, banning the broadcasting of five more channels;

▪️The transit of Russian oil through the northern branch of the Druzhba pipeline is banned, but the oil imports from Kazakhstan via this branch will continue;

▪️87 entities was added to the list of organizations directly supporting Russia’s military, industrial complex;

▪️The list of goods and technologies banned for transit through Russia's territory to third countries was expanded;

▪️A mechanism to ban the export of a number of goods and technologies to third parties to prevent their re-export to Russia was introduced;

▪️EU bans ships suspected of violating the ban on the import of crude oil and petroleum products from Russia by sea into the union ports;

▪️The bloc has imposed sanctions against four organizations from Iran for allegedly supplying UAVs to Russia.

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🇷🇺🇦🇺 Russian Embassy in Australia says turned to Supreme Court over termination of lease

Last week, Australian PM Anthony Albanese said that the Australian government would introduce legislation to the parliament in the morning to terminate Russia's lease agreement for a new embassy in the country's capital Canberra next to the parliament building over security concerns.

On June 16, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister summoned Australian Ambassador in Russia, G. Meehan, and expressed a strong protest in connection with the decision of the Australian government to terminate the lease agreement for the land plot where the new complex of the Russian embassy in Canberra is being built.

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📹 Russian assault squad obliterates Ukrainian stronghold

The squad’s drone operators uncovered a chain of strongholds belonging to Ukrainian militants, as Russian forces advanced toward Krasny Liman.

Having swiftly advanced to the specified area, the T72-B3 tank crew requested the coordinates of the Ukrainian troops' fortifications and accurately destroyed them by unleashing 125-mm cannon fire from a closed firing position, preventing Ukrainian troops from abandoning cover while employing solid firepower to mow down infantry who took flight.

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⚡️ The US Coast Guard has confirmed the death of passengers in the Titan sub and notified their family members.

Sputnik explains what happened to the ill-fated Titanic submersible.

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🇬🇧🇺🇸 US and UK prioritize flare-up of situation in Central Asia, Russian security chief says

The West is putting unprecedented pressure on the states of Central Asia, intending to create a conflict zone in Eurasia with rival nations, Nikolai Patrushev said. He added that Russia regularly shares such information with the countries.

Patrushev described the Pentagon-led biological programs in the region as “particularly concerning”, adding that they could be aimed at creating “race-targeted” viruses.

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In this brand-new episode of our New Rules podcast, we are joined by Scott Ritter, a former United Nations weapons inspector and retired US Marine Corps intelligence officer. He delves into the Ukrainian counteroffensive, what this means for NATO, and what sort of lessons that can be learned from the Ukrainian conflict as far as the future of warfare goes.

You definitely don't want to miss this!

🔊 Tune in to Radio Sputnik at 6am EST|3am PST|12p CET|10am GMT via the website or app!

📻 Also in the United States at 105.5FM, 104.7FM, 102.9FM, 1390AM, 1140AM

🇻🇳🇺🇸 US warship to visit Vietnamese port as South China Sea tensions brew

An American warship, USS Ronald Reagan, is scheduled to call at the Vietnamese port of Danang on June 25, according to the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier will be visiting Vietnam from June 25 to 30, and the supercarrier's arrival is timed to mark the 10th anniversary of the comprehensive partnership between the two nations, said Pham Thu Hang, spokesperson for the ministry, at a press briefing.

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❗️Latest statements by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov:

▪️Russia is developing constructive relations with African countries that are not directed against third countries;

▪️The Russian Federation will work on all legal aspects to protect its rights in the lawsuit of "Naftogaz" to recover $5 billion for Crimean assets;

▪️ Referring to Obama's words, who said that in Crimea in 2014 there was "a certain sympathy for the ideas that Russia represented," Peskov said: "We see that from time to time such rational judgments still make their way through";

▪️The appearance of weapons supplied to Kiev near Israel's borders and their possible use against Tel Aviv is a very relevant threat;

▪️The more weapons are supplied to Ukraine without proper accountability, the greater the threat to global security.

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🎥 The Russian Ministry of Defense has released footage of a drone strike on a Ukrainian Armed Forces stronghold in the Zaporozhye direction. As a result of the strike by a quadcopter-type unmanned aerial vehicle, the Ukrainian stronghold with fighters and weapons was destroyed.

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🇳🇴 Norway hikes key rate to 15-year high in bid to fight inflation

The country’s Central Bank has raised its key policy rate by 50 basis points to 3.75% in a bid to curb inflation, setting its sights on yet another hike in August.

This baffled analysts, who, prior to the announcement, were split on whether the key policy rate would be hiked by 50 basis points or 25 basis points, but the majority nevertheless bet on a smaller hike.

This move raises the policy rate to its highest level since the outbreak of the global financial crisis of 2008. With that in mind, the Central Bank itself predicted the policy rate would rise further to 4.25% during the autumn.

Inflation is currently well above the central bank’s initial target of 2%, reaching 6.7% in May 2023.

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Ukrainian military commissars grab and assault men in the city of Ternopol amid a new round of mobilization, a video on social media appears to to show. The connoscripts are heard expressing their shock and outrage over this coercive treatment.

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🇷🇺🇺🇸 Moscow doesn’t want the New START treaty to go up in smoke because of the US, Deputy FM Ryabkov says:

▪️A likelihood exists that US will take some steps to exit the treaty;

▪️Potential future arms control talks may be defined along the lines of matching unilateral constraints;

▪️Russia probably won’t publish information on the number of nukes moved to Belarus;

▪️Moscow won’t need to notify the US about any tests of the Poseidon underwater drone.

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