🪖 Ukraine's Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov says he has submitted his resignation to the Ukrainian parliament

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🇨🇳 Chinese premier Li Qiang will take part in G20 Summit in India, Chinese Foreign Ministry says

Earlier, several Western media outlets reported that Chinese President Xi Jinping is unlikely to attend the summit.

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🪖 Ukraine's Defense Minister Reznikov: Legacy mired in corruption

Oleksii Reznikov has been Ukraine's defense minister since November 2021, during which time both the ministry and Reznikov repeatedly faced anger over a series of corruption scandals.

In January, Ukrainian media released a report claiming that the food the ministry buys for servicemen is twice or three times more expensive than in Kiev's ordinary food shops. At the time, Reznikov dismissed these stories as a smear campaign and said that the data from the published invoices has "an error in converting pieces into kilograms".

Another scandal took place in the autumn of 2022, when Ukrainian defense ministry bought 180,000 winter jackets from a Turkish firm at a cost of $86 million. However, it soon transpired that these jackets were for summer, and their full cost amounted to only $29 million.

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🇷🇺🇹🇷 The Putin and Erdogan meeting in Sochi is scheduled to start at 13:00 (+03 GMT), a source in the Turkish presidential administration told Sputnik.

Erdogan is already on his way, his plane left about half an hour ago, Turkish media reported.

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🇵🇱🪖 Poland reportedly starts extraditing men of connoscription age to Ukraine

A total of 80,000 Ukrainian men of connoscription age have entered Poland from Ukraine since the start of the Russia’s military op in February 24, 2022, according to the Polish authorities.

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🇷🇺 Russia seeks to build constructive relations with foreign partners that are interested in this, and is open to a broad dialogue on all pressing issues, President Vladimir Putin said in a message to the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) participants, published on Monday by the Kremlin.

💬 "Russia intends to continue to actively participate in efforts to build a system of interstate relations in the Asia-Pacific region based on equality, mutual benefit and respect for each other's legitimate interests," Putin said.

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⚡️ Putin at the meeting with Erdogan: We hope that Turkiye gas hub negotiations will be finalized and the situation in the energy sector will become more stable

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❗️More statements from Putin-Erdogan talks in Sochi:

▪️ Everything goes according to the plan at the Akkuyu nuclear plant, the first unit to be launched next year

▪️The issues related to Ukrainian crisis will be not ignored at the meeting

▪️Putin tells Erdogan Russia is open to the negotiations on the Black Sea grain deal

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❗️Putin-Erdogan Meeting in Enlarged Format Starts in Sochi

The livestream is now over! Follow the link to the Sputnik's website for more details

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🇷🇺🇹🇷 Putin: Hopefully Russia and Turkiye will agree on gas hub soon

💬 "I hope that in the near future we will complete negotiations on the creation of a gas hub in Turkey in order to make the energy situation in the region more stable and balanced. And I think this will be beneficial," Putin said.

Regarding the energy cooperation, Putin said that "agreements have been reached" between main supplies and consumers on both sides.

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🇷🇺🇹🇷 Key points of Putin and Erdogan’s meeting:

🇷🇺 Putin said:

▪️Russia expects that negotiations on the creation of a gas hub in Turkiye will be completed in the near future

▪️Putin noted the confident movement and agreements between Russia and Turkiye in the energy sector

▪️Putin said he would discuss the situation in Ukraine with Erdogan at the Sochi negotiations

▪️The first unit of the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant in Turkiye will be launched next year, there are prospects for the development of cooperation

🇹🇷 Erdogan said:

▪️ The heads of the Central Banks of Turkiye and Russia will hold talks to discuss steps for settlements in national currencies

▪️Turkiye and Russia can reach an agreement on the construction of a second nuclear power plant in the country

▪️Turkiye and Russia will continue to develop relations in the field of natural gas supplies to the country

▪️Turkiye expects that Russia will be able to send additional amphibious aircraft to extinguish forest fires in the country

▪️Turkiye is satisfied with how the volume of foreign trade with Russia is moving towards the goal of $100 billion

▪️Erdogan expressed hope that an important announcement will be made following the talks with Putin, which will be "a step towards African countries"

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

▪️Russian troops repelled three attacks in the Donetsk direction, eliminating up to 285 Ukrainian servicemen

▪️Russian drones struck a Ukrainian shipbuilding factory where unmanned boats were assembled

▪️Russian forces shot down a Ukrainian Mi-8 helicopter near the village of Brusovka in the DPR

▪️Four Ukrainian attacks were repelled in the LPR

▪️Russian troops improved their tactical position in the Zaporozhye region and repelled a Ukrainian attack

▪️The Russian Army hit two Ukrainian missile and artillery weapons depots in the Zaporozhye region

▪️Ukrainian losses in the Kherson direction amounted to 35 servicemen, with one ammunition depot destroyed

▪️Ukrainian losses on the Zaporozhye direction amounted to 115 servicemen, with two M777 artillery systems, two M109 Paladin self-propelled howitzers, and two M119 howitzers destroyed

▪️Russian air defenses brought down 24 Ukrainian drones

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