🇷🇺🇨🇳 Russian FM Sergey Lavrov holds a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Beijing.

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National Security Minister warns Netanyahu will lose premiership if he ends Gaza war without Rafah offensive

“If the prime minister decides to end the war without a large-scale offensive in Rafah to defeat Hamas, he will not have a mandate to continue serving as prime minister,” Ben Gvir wrote on X.

The timing of the statement coincides with the start of Egyptian-led cease-fire and hostage release talks. Some observers have expressed cautious optimism that negotiations may finally bear fruit.

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📹 The Russian Grad MLRS, along with its ammunition, destroyed a Ukrainian Vampire MLRS that had been shelling populated areas in Russia's Belgorod region for several days, the Russian Defense Ministry reported.

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Zaporozhye nuclear power plant: Why are Ukrainian forces gunning for it?

Moscow has urged the international community to respond to Ukraine’s recent drone attack on the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant, which the Russian Foreign Ministry denounced as “an act of nuclear terrorism on the part of the Kiev regime.”

Here are some facts about this facility you need to know:

▪️The construction of the plant, located near the city of Energodar, on the southern shore of the Kakhovka Reservoir on the Dnepr River, was completed in 1995.

▪️The station has six light water nuclear reactors, each generating about 950MW, and a total output of around 5,700MW.

▪️The facility is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe and the ninth largest in the world.

▪️The plant has enough energy for roughly 10 million people.

▪️The facility earlier was a major source of nuclear power for Ukraine, producing one-fifth of the country’s electricity and nearly half of its nuclear energy.

▪️Russia took control of the facility shortly after the beginning of its ongoing special military operation, which was followed by President Putin issuing a decree on the transfer of the plant to Russian ownership.

▪️The plant is of great strategic importance to Russia, given that the station is located just 200 km (124 miles) from Crimea, which was reunified with the Russia in 2014.

▪️After Russia had taken control of the plant, it has come under regular shelling and drone attacks by Ukrainian forces, which the IAEA warns are violating nuclear security.

▪️The Russian Defense Ministry cautioned that such attacks could lead to a nuclear catastrophe, contaminating most of Ukraine, as well as Russia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Romania and other countries with nuclear radiation.

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⚡️The investigation has already obtained significant data on the circumstances of the terrorists' preparations for the attack in the Crocus City Hall, which may indicate their connection with the Ukrainian special services, the Russian Investigative Committee has said.

On Friday, the agency published data from the defendants' cell phones, in which the Investigative Committee noted a possible connection between the terrorist attack and Russia's special military operation.

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❗️In the Donetsk area, Russian forces occupied more advantageous positions. Ukrainian losses amounted to 460 soldiers, the Russian Defense Ministry reported.

🇷🇺🪖 More statements from the Russian MoD's daily briefing on the progress of the special military op in Ukraine:     

▪️In the Avdeyevka area, the Russian Army improved the position along the front line and repelled five attacks by Ukrainian troops;

▪️ In the South Donetsk area, the Russian Army improved the situation along the front line. Ukrainian losses mounted to 80 soldiers, a tank, an M109 Paladin self-propelled gun and an FN-70 howitzer;

▪️In the Kherson area, Ukrainian losses amounted to 50 military personnel, three tanks, M109 Paladin self-propelled guns, two M119 howitzers and a D-30 howitzer;

▪️In the Kupyansk area, Russian forces destroyed up to 25 Ukrainian military units and 10 units of equipment, including American equipment;

▪️Russian air defense shot down 291 Ukrainian drones and three Hammer aircraft guided bombs.

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❗️The Russian State Commission gave the go-ahead for the first launch of the Angara rocket from the Vostochny cosmodrome on April 9, Roscosmos announced.

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Ukrainian troops abandoned their positions and retreated north-west of the village of Verbovoye in the Zaporozhye region under pressure from the Russian Army, Vladimir Rogov, head of the regional civic movement "We Are Together with Russia," told Sputnik.

Now the forest zone is being cleared, one enemy stronghold has been captured, and positions along the front line have been improved.

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Switzerland is planning to hold a summit on Ukraine in mid-June that will be attended by 80 to 100 countries, Bloomberg quoted sources as saying.

"The Swiss city of Lucerne would likely host the summit if it were to go ahead," the article read, citing sources.

Russia has repeatedly stressed the lack of intention to participate in this event.

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🇮🇷🇸🇾 Iranian FM Hossein Amir-Abdollahian met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian capital of Damascus.

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Ukrainian shelling of Zaporozhye nuclear plant creates risk of catastrophic fallout - British physicist

The radioactive fallout from a disaster at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant would "make Europe pretty much uninhabitable," said Dr. Chris Busby, a veteran chemical physicist with decades of experience studying the health effects of internal ionizing radiation.

According to the scientist, the Ukrainian forces shelling the plant probably "don't have the faintest idea" of what they're doing.

Zaporozhye is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, with six reactors capable of generating up to six gigawatts of electricity - enough to power more than 1.8 million average European homes.

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Why Crimea still remains Russia’s key strategic Black Sea base 80 years on?

Russia marks the 80th anniversary of the Red Army’s offensive to liberate the Crimea from Nazi invaders during WWII this Monday. The Crimean offensive ended with total defeat of the 200,000-strong 17th German Army.

The Crimean operation “had strategic value and was a considerable success for the Red Army,” Alexander Hill, a professor of military history at the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada, tells Sputnik.

“It was a very successful operation… The Red Army managed to recapture Sevastopol and conclude the whole operation in little over a month, whereas it took Germany and the axis powers more than six months to do the same thing... By this point, of course, the Red Army was very good at breaking through defensive positions, concentrating assets like artillery, and very good at the initial exploitation phase,” Hill explains.

The professor points to “similarities” between the objectives of the Crimean offensive and the goals of Russia’s ongoing special military operation.

“Obviously, the special operation is in part about protecting Crimea, which is important today for Russia, as it was for the Soviet Union during the Great Patriotic War. It's obviously a key naval base” good for patrolling the sea, and a major warm water port, Hill notes.

“It allows for the domination of the Black Sea region,” the professor of military history concludes.

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