Supplies of agricultural products from Russia to China are growing against the background of the general development of trade and economic cooperation between the two countries; more than 90% of mutual settlements between Russia and China are carried out in national currencies, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

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❗️The Russian Ministry of Defense has announced the liberation of Novomikhailovka, DPR.

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Sharing is caring? Why NATO’s 'Nuclear Sharing' strategy is dangerous

Poland’s president has announced that Warsaw is ready to host nukes from fellow NATO countries under the alliance’s nuclear sharing program to “reinforce” the bloc’s eastern flank.

▫️ Nuclear “sharing” allows NATO’s non-nuclear members to take part in planning for the use of nukes in the event of war, but all nukes in the program remain under the control of the US military in peacetime.

▫️ The US first deployed nukes in Europe in the 1950s, and created the Nuclear Planning Group in late 1966 to iron out sharing arrangements between bloc members amid the incorporation of nukes into NATO’s military strategy.

▫️ American nukes are stationed in Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Turkiye. Sharing currently applies only to tactical B61 nukes, which have a blast yield of between 0.3 and 340 kilotons (for comparison, the US atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima had an explosive yield of about 15 kilotons).

▫️ Critics of NATO’s nuclear sharing doctrine point to its violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which prohibits the transfer of nuclear weapons.

▫️ The destabilizing nature of NATO’s nuclear sharing provisions was shown last year, when, in response to alliance provocations, Russia and Belarus announced their own nuclear sharing arrangement. When it was announced, NATO slammed the move as “dangerous and irresponsible.” President Vladimir Putin pointed out that what Moscow and Minsk had done was no different from what NATO has been doing for decades.

▫️ What differentiates NATO and Russia’s nuclear sharing arrangements are the divergent nuclear doctrines behind them. While Russia’s strategy prohibits nuke use unless the country faces a massive WMD or conventional attack, America’s doctrine allows it to use nukes preemptively, even against non-nuclear adversaries. Hence, NATO escalates the risk of global nuclear conflict

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❗️The Russian Battlegroup Tsentr successfully repelled nine Ukrainian counterattacks, causing the enemy to lose 365 militants and one Marder infantry fighting vehicle.

🇷🇺🪖 More statements from the daily briefing of the Russian Defense Ministry on the progress of the special military operation in Ukraine:

🔺Russian troops successfully targeted a Ukrainian air defense position and a storage facility for unmanned boats.

🔺Russian air defense systems have shot down 240 Ukrainian drones.

🔺The Russian Battlegroup Zapad successfully repelled four counterattacks by Ukrainian militants from the Azov unit (which is recognized as a terrorist organization and is banned in the Russian Federation) in the Russian Donetsk People's Republic.

🔺Ukraine has lost up to 95 militants and a 155 mm FH-70 British-made howitzer as a result of the successful combat operations conducted by the Russian Battlegroup Vostok.

🔺Russian Battlegroup Dnepr launched attacks on three Ukrainian brigades, causing the enemy to suffer losses of 45 militants.

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Former US senior anti-terrorism policy adviser charged with child sex offenses in UK

Rahamim Shy, who worked under President Barack Obama, stands accused of arranging the commission of a child sex offense and two charges of possessing indecent images of children. He appeared at Luton Crown Court via video-link from Bedford prison on Friday for a brief preliminary hearing.

Shy held a senior position at the US Treasury Department from 2008 to 2014, advising officials on combating the funding of terrorism and helping coordinate strategy against al-Qaeda* and the Taliban*

*A terrorist organization banned in Russia and many other countries.

**An Afghan militant group under UN sanctions for terrorist activities

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🇷🇺 Russian troops conducted exercises in Kamchatka, the Russian Far East, to mask terrain and military installations by using an aerosol curtain

The radiation, chemical, and biological protection units applied approximately two thousand liters of smoke mixture over an area of more than three square kilometers using seven special TDA-3 vehicles equipped with thermal smoke generators.

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Zelensky expressed his shock at the way the allies responded to Iran's attack on Israel. He said that he had a question in this regard: "What is wrong with us Ukrainians?".

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Zelensky did not consider the priorities of Western countries.

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The IDF continues to prepare for the operation in Rafah and is planning to evacuate civilians from the city for two to three weeks, after which the operation in Rafah will begin, which will last at least six weeks, the WSJ reports.

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