"Given the scale of this event, a number of international participants here, I can say that Russia is no way isolated."

Sputnik's correspondent reports on the opening of the ATOMEXPO-2024 international forum in Russia's Sirius Federal Territory

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Ukrainian media report explosions in Kiev amid an air raid alert.

Explosions in the capital of Ukraine are confirmed by Mayor Vitaly Klitschko who calls on residents to take shelter.

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NATO's goal is not Yugoslavia, but NATO's eastward expansion, Darko Mladic, the son and assistant of Bosnian Serb commander General Ratko Mladic, told Sputnik.

"Russia has been the main target of this expansion all these years, and we were [just] at the beginning of this process. It seems to me that the [process] that began in Yugoslavia in 1991 is coming to an end in Ukraine," he noted.

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📹💥 Russian Aerospace Forces aviation crews hit camouflaged enemy equipment and engineering structures near Kupyansk.

The strikes were carried out by unguided S-8 aircraft missiles.

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Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on the Moscow Crocus City Hall terrorist attack:

▪️Putin will hold a meeting on Monday to discuss measures to take after the attack.

▪️The Kremlin will not comment on the progress of the investigation.

▪️Special services are working on the attack independently, there is no question of any help from other countries.

▪️There is no contact with Western countries in connection with the investigation.

▪️The Kremlin is currently not participating in the discussion on the possibility of lifting the moratorium on the death penalty in Russia.

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A minute of silence for the victims of the Crocus City Hall terrorist attack was held at Russia's ATOMEXPO Forum.

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Russian troops broke through Ukrainian defenses northwest of the village of Verbovoye in the Zaporozhye area, Vladimir Rogov, head of the regional public movement "We Are Together with Russia," told Sputnik.

"We advanced two kilometers and took five enemy strongholds," he said.

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Rubble is being cleared at the site of the terrorist attack at the Crocus City Hall. A video by Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry

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Hungary is ready to continue providing a platform for cooperation between Russia and Western countries in the field of nuclear energy, Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Economic Relations Peter Szijjarto has said.

"I am overseeing the construction of a new nuclear power plant in Hungary, in which Rosatom plays a major role. But when I look around, I see - who is working there? Germans, Americans, French, Swiss, Swedes and even Austrian subcontractors. This means that in the field of nuclear energy at the corporate level, those people who make decisions have not yet lost their common sense. I hope that this will remain the case," he said at a plenary session at the ATOMEXPO Forum.

"We are pleased to provide a platform for Russians, Americans, Germans, French, and Swiss to cooperate in the field of nuclear energy. We are ready to continue this work," Szijjarto added.

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❗️The Russian Army has destroyed over 17,000 Ukrainian drones since the beginning of the special operation in Ukraine.

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

▪️ In the South Donetsk area, Ukrainian losses amounted to 110 soldiers;

▪️Near Avdeyevka, the Russian Army improved the situation along the front line and repelled ten attacks by Ukrainian troops. Ukrainian losses amounted to 120 soldiers;

▪️Russian air defense systems destroyed 103 drones in one day, as well as shooting down 31 HIMARS, Vampire and Uragan MLRS missiles;

▪️In the Donetsk area, Ukrainian losses amounted to 175 soldiers. Russian forces destroyed two Ukrainian electronic warfare stations;

▪️In the Kupyansk area, the Russian Army repelled an attack by Ukrainian troops, up to 20 militants, as well as a self-propelled artillery installation "Gvozdika", were destroyed.

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US and Japan look to revamp military alliance amid growing push to encircle China

American President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida are scheduled to meet in April on a plan to bring about the biggest potential change in Washington’s East Asia command structure in six decades, according to a Financial Times report.

The anticipated upgrades to their pact include establishing a joint command headquarters in Japan under a four-star US general, who might be given authority over Japanese troops, along with his Japanese counterpart in rank.

Kishida has reportedly pushed for such a unified command due to concerns that the US and Japanese militaries would struggle to rapidly coordinate decision-making in the event of a war. The US Indo-Pacific command is based in Hawaii, 19 hours behind Tokyo and 6,200 km away.

Japan presently hosts 54,000 US troops, hundreds of aircraft, and US’ only forward-deployed carrier strike group, enabling the latter to project substantial military power in the region.

In recent years, Japan has departed from post-war pacifism to militarise itself rapidly, including doubling its defense expenditure to 2% of GDP and procuring counterstrike missiles capable of hitting targets 600 miles away.

Although China is Japan’s top trading partner, Kishida has grown increasingly bellicose towards the superpower rival of its American ally. Japan’s most recent defense white paper, released in July 2023, described China as Tokyo’s “greatest strategic challenge."

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Russia has sent a demarche to the United States regarding Washington's change of its continental shelf's external borders - the Russian Foreign Ministry reported.

Earlier, Moscow warned about Washington's unilateral push to hastily expand its continental shelf rights in the Arctic in defiance of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The United States has neither signed nor ratified the convention.

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The Russian Foreign Ministry announced the non-recognition of the external borders of the US continental shelf, established unilaterally in 2023, and a demarche has been sent to Washington.

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