The Investigative Committee of Russia has announced that it will investigate the drone attack that resulted in casualties in the Russian Republic of Tatarstan.

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'Iran will give decisive and regrettable response' to Israeli attack 'at the right time and place'

"This action showed that Israel does not adhere to any of the principles, rules and international laws. This attack also demonstrates the aggressive nature of Israel, since representative offices, embassies and consulates are considered the territory of this country and this attack is a kind of encroachment on the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran," Ibrahim Azizi, deputy chairman of the Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, told Sputnik.

"Iran will give a decisive and regrettable response at the right time and in the right place. The Commission on National Security and Foreign Policy of the Islamic Council of the Iranian Parliament intends to investigate the issue and send a delegation to Damascus," he added.

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"After repeated defeats and failures against the faith and will of the Resistance Front fighters, the Zionist regime has put blind assassinations on its agenda in the struggle to save itself," said Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, commenting on the Israeli attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus.

"Having failed to destroy the will of the resistance front, the Zionist regime (Israel) has put blind assassinations back on its agenda to save itself. It must know that it will never achieve its goals and that this cowardly crime will not go unanswered," Raisi said, according to state media.

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The Iranian National Security Council, with the participation of President Ebrahim Raisi, discussed the Israeli attack on the consulate in Damascus.

Tehran called the attack on the diplomatic compound a war crime. During the meeting of the Security Council, "appropriate decisions were made" (which were not reported).

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The Israeli attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus and the death of General Zahedi is one of the main topics in the world media:

The Washington Post:

Israel has carried out strikes in Syria against Iran and its allies for years and throughout its six-month military campaign against Hamas in Gaza. But Monday’s attack stood out both because of its location — in a diplomatic compound, traditionally exempted from hostilities — and because of the seniority of the apparent target.

Reuters:

Israel has long targeted Iran's military installations in Syria and those of its proxies, but Monday's attack was the first time it apparently hit the vast embassy compound itself.

The Jerusalem Post:

Removing Zahedi could be seen as a blow to the management of the Lebanese terror groups’ rocket attacks on Israel.

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Belarus is preparing for war, but does not want to fight, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said in a statement quoted by the Belta news agency.

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❗️The Ukrainian Armed Forces have lost more than 80,000 troops, 14,000 weapons, including over 1,200 tanks, since January, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has said.

Since the beginning of the year, 403 square kilometers of territory have come under the control of the Russian military, the minister added.

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Key statements by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu:

▪️Russian forces took control of five settlements in March;

▪️The Ukrainian Armed Forces are trying to gain a foothold on certain lines after the failure of Kiev's counteroffensive, but they have not achieved their goals in any of the directions;

▪️The Russian Armed Forces carried out 192 missile and drone strikes on energy and military facilities in Ukraine in March in response to terrorist attacks by Kiev.

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This year, Russia's Black Sea Fleet will receive three ships of the Karakurt project, which are carriers of high-precision weapons, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said.

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❗️Russia's Federal Security Service received some information from the United States about the probability of a terrorist attack, but it was too general, said Sergey Naryshkin, director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service.

The information provided by the US did not allow Moscow to identify everyone who could have participated in the terrorist attack in the Crocus City Hall, he added.

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❗️The Israeli strike on an Iranian consulate in Syria is a terrorist attack, said Sergey Naryshkin, director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service.

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Why is NATO holding drills in Moldova?

The Joint Combined Exchange Training-2024 (JCET-2024) military exercises kicked off on April 1, with two battalions of special forces from the United States and Romania taking part in the drills, Moldova’s MoD has reported.

“Soldiers from Moldova’s national army will be getting their training together with their colleagues from Romania and the US in the framework of the JCET-2024 exercise,” the statement from the ministry said. “The drills will take place in the training centers of the Moldovan Army from April 1 to April 19 this year.”

“Moldova is a territory that now finds itself in a kind of grey zone between the West and Ukraine,” Vladimir Bruter, an expert at the International Institute of Humanitarian and Political Studies, told Sputnik.

“And the West is not going to leave Moldova in this zone… The aim of this exercise next to the conflict zone [in Ukraine] is to integrate Moldova into Western formats… In the opinion of the West, there should be no Russian assets in Europe, no positions Russia can defend.”

Both the US and Romania are NATO members, with a big US contingent on Romania’s territory. Bruter thinks that NATO set itself the aim of depriving Moldova of its neutral status, as the country’s Constitution says it can’t join military blocs. Since the end of 2020, when the current pro-Western President of Moldova Maia Sandu came to power, Moldova set itself on an anti-Russian course, openly supporting the regime in Kiev.

“Right now they [the West] are interested in strategic objects. For example, in a railroad, which [runs through] Moldova and is used for transporting military materials to Ukraine,” Bruter said.

In Bruter’s opinion, the West will support Sandu’s candidacy at the next election at the end of 2024: “The West will not allow her to lose this election. The West 'wins' elections for her.”

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Key statements by the director of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), Sergey Naryshkin, from his latest speech:

▪️A meeting of the boards of Russia's SVR and the State Security Committee of the Republic of Belarus (KGB) was held in Moscow. Interaction between the departments is developing progressively and is of a confidential nature;

▪️Western intelligence services use any tools to create a quarrel between the Russian Federation and Belarus;

▪️The very existence of a union state causes the gnashing of teeth in the West. The union state has to face constant challenges;

▪️The West is using extra-systemic opposition, a propaganda campaign and cyber attacks against the union state.

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Why Russia’s first-ever ‘attack of combat robots’ stands out so much?

The recent deployment of Russian tracked ground assault drones during an attack on Ukrainian positions in Donetsk People’s Republic became the first-ever use of a group of ground assault drones in a combat situation, says Boris Rozhin, a military expert with independent Russian military affairs think tank the Center for Military-Political Journalism.

“Russia became the first country to deploy a group of (ground) assault drones in real combat. While this type of drones does not currently have an official name, it became the first assault drone to be used in a conflict,” Rozhin told Sputnik.

He also predicted that this particular weapon type is going to see further improvement in the immediate future and, just like FPV drones, is going to become an increasingly common sight on the battlefield.

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Who were the aid workers killed in the Israeli airstrike in Gaza?

The World Central Kitchen - a US-based non-profit organization - has confirmed the death of seven team members in an Israeli airstrike near Deir al-Balah city. The aid workers were delivering food from its latest shipment to Gaza. They were citizens of Australia, Poland, the United Kingdom, a dual citizen of the US and Canada, and a Palestinian.

"Despite coordinating movements with the IDF [Israeli Defense Forces], the convoy was hit as it was leaving the Deir al-Balah warehouse, where the team had unloaded more than 100 tons of humanitarian food aid brought to Gaza on the maritime route," the World Central Kitchen said in a statement.

“This is not only an attack against WCK, this is an attack on humanitarian organizations showing up in the most dire of situations where food is being used as a weapon of war. This is unforgivable,” said World Central Kitchen CEO Erin Gore.

After the work of the UNRWA was blocked in Gaza, the World Central Kitchen charity has become the only organization capable of delivering food and other humanitarian aid to Gazans.

Meanwhile, the IDF expressed "deepest condolences to the entire World Central Kitchen family" over the death of the aid workers. IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari said the Israeli army has started carrying out "an in-depth examination at the highest levels to understand the circumstances of this tragic incident.”

Poland, for its part, has launched an investigation into the killing of its citizen in Gaza. The prime minister of Australia also demanded that those responsible for the death of its citizen be brought to justice.

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WATCH: Vladimir Putin holds an extended meeting of the Ministry of Internal Affairs' board

Watch the livestream here or follow the link to Sputnik's website

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❗️We have paid a very high price, and the analysis of the situation by the supervisory authorities should be extremely objective, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on the terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall

"We will certainly get to the masters behind the terrorist attack in Crocus, there are no reliable agents in the criminal environment, they do everything for money."

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Putin: Sabotage groups in Russia's new regions are trying to use criminal channels

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We must not allow the recent tragic events in Crocus City Hall to provoke an increase in xenophobia and Islamophobia, Putin told the board of the Ministry of Internal Affairs

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