❗️Ukrainian troops lost up to 300 troops in the Donetsk area over the last day.

🇷🇺🪖 Other statements from the Russian Defense Ministry’s briefing on the progress of the special military operation in Ukraine:

▪️In the Kharkov region, the Russian Army destroyed up to 40 soldiers, as well as MLRS Vampire and Mars systems;

▪️In the South Donetsk area, Ukrainian losses amounted to 140 soldiers;

▪️Near Avdeyevka, Ukrainian losses amounted to 360 military personnel, two tanks, and five armored vehicles;

▪️In the Kupyansk area, Ukrainian losses amounted to 140 soldiers and a M777 artillery system;

▪️Russian air defenses shot down 172 Ukrainian drones, 14 cruise missiles and 33 other missiles.

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NATO’s bombing of Yugoslavia: A ‘culmination of negligence' that opened Pandora’s box - expert

Twenty-five years ago, NATO kicked off its 78-day bombing campaign against Yugoslavia. According to various sources, up to 2,500 people were killed and over 6,000 more injured during the bombing, which was not approved by the UN.

In an interview with Sputnik, Dr. Stevan Gajic, a Balkans expert and research associate at the Belgrade-based Institute of European Studies, says that the beginning of NATO’s “illegal attack” against Yugoslavia on March 24, 1999, was “a precedent that opened Pandora's box.”

“It was a culmination of negligence of the international law that started since the end of the Cold War. Absolutely, [the] 1999 [NATO campaign] was a precedent. We can even say that the international law was in a way abolished at that moment and, of course, after that chaos was introduced into the system of international relations,” Gacic points out.

The expert also didn’t rule out launching a “real investigation against NATO crimes” in Yugoslavia, which he says can only happen after the serious geopolitical changes following the collapse of NATO in one way or the other. He was echoed by Dr. Srdjan Sljukic, a professor of sociology at the University of Novi Sad, Serbia, who tells Sputnik that “NATO aggression against Yugoslavia” reflected “two sorts of crimes,” such as “breaking the international law” and “bombing civilian objects and killing many civilians.”

Sljukic also warns that “as long as the key Western countries are ruled by the current liberal elites, NATO countries will not be put on fair trial because of their crimes in Yugoslavia and all over the world.”

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The recruitment of assassins for the terrorist attack in Moscow's Crocus City Hall was organized through the Embassy of Ukraine in Tajikistan, according to a military expert, ex-special services officer, retired Colonel Bakhtiyer Rakhmonov.

A few weeks before the terrorist attack, information appeared on the website of the Ukrainian diplomatic mission about inviting foreigners to join the so-called "International Legion," he noted. The message was later removed.

"The ambassador of the Ukrainian embassy in Dushanbe is the ex-head of the foreign intelligence service, and the consulate itself was looking for perpetrators a few weeks before the terrorist attack, publishing an order to hire assassins openly on the page of the Embassy of Ukraine in Tajikistan," he said, adding that it provided all the contacts - a potential terrorist could only write or call.

Rakhmonov constantly monitors such messages on the website of the Ukrainian embassy. Since 2014, Ukrainian diplomats have posted similar announcements several times, only to have them removed.

"The work on recruiting foreigners was led by Ambassador Extraordinary of Ukraine Valery Evdokimov, former head of the foreign intelligence service under Zelensky," the expert said.

Evdokimov was the head of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine from September 2019 to June 2020.

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'U-Turn over Atlantic': How Russian PM Primakov showed Moscow won't be US satellite

On March 24, 1999, Yevgeny Primakov’s plane was en route to the US where the then-Russian prime minister was due to discuss an IMF loan to the tune of $5 billion for his country. But after then-US Vice President Al Gore told Primakov about NATO starting to bomb Yugoslavia, he decided to turn his plane around and go back to Moscow.

Despite Gore’s desperate attempts to persuade Primakov to backtrack on his decision and come to Washington, the Russian prime minister was undeterred.

"If I had accepted Gore's terms, I would have been a real traitor," Primakov later said.

Dr. Samuel Hoff, a professor of history and political science at Delaware State University, points to the significant expansion of NATO after the March 1999 incident.

“It is a fact that in 1999, NATO had 16 countries. And as we sit here in 2024, there are 32 members,” Hoff notes in an interview with Sputnik.

Peter Kuznick, a professor of history at the American University, tells Sputnik that Primakov’s U-turn over the Atlantic added significantly to tarnishing the already “strained” US-Russian relations at the time.

Referring to current “terrible” ties between Moscow and Washington, “the lack of trust” and a bilateral “polarization,” the professor says that one is “beginning to see signs of that certainly with Primakov's mission in 1999.”

“So it certainly can be seen as an important turning point in terms of the deterioration of potential friendship between the US and Russia and creating a much more positive kind of multipolar world,” he concludes.

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Ukrainian's profiteering from pain

Kiev's “Ofenziva" bar has added a “Crocus City” set meal to it's menu. On the bar's website, the meal was illustrated with a photo of the burning building in Moscow region where nearly 150 people were murdered.

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Those detained on suspicion of the terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall were brought to the building of the central office of the Russia's Investigative Committee.

In the near future, investigators will take measures to select a preventive measure in the form of detention in relation to the four suspects.

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Latest information from Russia's Investigative Committee on the terrorist attack in Crocus City Hall:

▪️Four sets of combat ammunition, more than 500 rounds of ammunition and 28 magazines, and two AKs with which the attackers were armed were confiscated from the scene;

▪️Investigations are being carried out into four suspects;

▪️In the near future, the Investigative Committee will move to select preventive measures in the form of detention against four suspects;

▪️Currently, the bodies of 137 people have been found at the site of the terrorist attack in Crocus City Hall, three of whom are children;

▪️To date, 62 bodies have been identified;

▪️Work has begun on issuing personal belongings, documents and cars to people who were in the concert complex on the day of the terrorist attack.

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180 people were injured as a result of the terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall, according to the latest data:

▪️142 were hospitalized
▪️32 of them were since discharged
▪️while 38 were provided with outpatient care

according to Moscow region's Ministry of Health.

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Vladimir Putin lit a candle in a church in remembrance of those killed as a result of the terrorist attack in Crocus City Hall.

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Terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall. Up to the minute data:

▪️ The number of deaths, according to various sources, is 137 (information from the Russian Investigative Committee) or 143 (data from Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of Sputnik's parent media group Rossiya Segodnya).

▪️More than 60 dead have already been identified. Experts say that in some cases molecular genetic testing will be required, which will take two weeks;

▪️It’s a day of mourning in Russia: flags have been lowered all over the country and spontaneous memorials have appeared on the streets. At the Crocus City Hall itself there are queues of people wishing to honor the memory of the victims with a sea of flowers;

▪️Vladimir Putin lit a candle in a church in remembrance of those killed as a result of the terrorist attack;

▪️Those detained on suspicion of the terrorist attack were brought to the building of the central office of the Investigative Committee; in the near future they should be given a preventive measure;

▪️More than 400 cubic meters of collapsed structures were dismantled by Ministry of Emergency Situations rescuers at the site of the terrorist attack;

▪️Work to clear the rubble will continue at night; there is enough strength and resources, the Ministry of Emergency Situations said;

▪️ The Prosecutor General’s Office did not find any violations in the organization of security for Crocus; there was no need for armed security, a source told Sputnik.

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In Belgrade on the 25th anniversary of the start of the bombing of Yugoslavia, a protest is taking place in which participants demand an end to cooperation with the North Atlantic Alliance. During the march they chant “NATO are fascists.”

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LIVE NOW: A projection of “The Cranes Are Flying” is being shown on the Crocus City Hall building in memory of the victims of the terrorist attack

On March 24, the day of national mourning, at 19:55 Moscow time, the projection “The Cranes Are Flying” will appear on the Crocus City Hall building. An endless wedge of cranes rises from the base of the building and flies into the sky. This is how Moscow will honor the memory of those who died during the terrorist attack at the concert complex on March 22.

People's Artist of the USSR Muslim Magomayev, after whom the concert hall was named, is known for performing the song “Cranes” - a ballad about soldiers who become birds after death. The composition is minor, but the main motive in it is hope, the immortality that people gain after death.

Today, everyone can help all those who died in Crocus City Hall gain immortality. To do this, you should fold a paper crane, draw a bird, or create your own version and share it on social networks. For example, put a picture of a crane on your avatar on social networks.

The attack on the Crocus City Hall in the Moscow region was the largest terrorist attack in Russian history since the Beslan school siege in 2004.

Watch the live stream here

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A large number of people came to the Crocus City Hall building to honor the memory of the victims of the terrorist attack.

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‘We will not be divided’: MMA fighter Jeff Monson’s powerful monologue after Crocus City Hall terrorist attack

“We must use this terrible tragedy to unite us even stronger. Let our enemies watch in dismay as they cannot divide us.”

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