Russian troops struck a Ukrainian drone warehouse in Kharkov, Sergei Lebedev, the coordinator of the Nikolayev underground, told Sputnik.

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Switzerland's initiative to convene talks on Ukraine makes no sense - top Belarusian diplomat

Switzerland's initiative to convene talks on Ukraine makes no sense without the participation of Russia and Belarus, and it will not be possible to achieve results at such a meeting, Belarusian Foreign Minister Sergei Aleinik said in an interview with Sputnik.

"I would like to point out the futility of these initiatives, which sounded just recently from Switzerland, to convene a peace summit, a peace conference on Ukraine without Russia's participation. This initiative has no prospects, no real diplomatic sense, because it is simply not designed to reach a concrete agreement," he said.

Minsk has not received an invitation to this meeting, Aleinik added.

"We assume that any peaceful settlement of this conflict and any, let's say, discussion of European and Eurasian security issues without the participation of both Russia and Belarus is absolutely futile," he said.

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US does not miss opportunity to blame Russia: now for Boeing troubles

"Boeing has more parts trouble, but this time it doesn’t stem from manufacturing snafus or the 737 jet. The blame goes to Russia sanctions still rippling through the jet maker’s supply chain," the Wall Street Journal reported.

In fact, the manufacturer of the temperature control part for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner shut down its Russian operations and moved production west. At the time, Boeing was building so few jets that the RTX supplier was able to meet demand. But now the jet maker is trying to increase production of wide-body jets, and the new RTX production lines in the US and UK are not producing enough, according to the newspaper.

The company is also struggling because Boeing has severed ties with a major Russian titanium supplier with whom it had formed a joint venture to develop key parts for aircraft.

Aircraft manufacturing has been among the industries hardest hit by sanctions imposed on Russia, a major player in the global aviation supply chain, the WSJ noted.

The West launched a comprehensive sanctions campaign against Russia after it launched its special military operation in Ukraine in February 2022. But these measures haven't stopped Russia's economic growth. President Putin has repeatedly stressed that Western sanctions against Russia have failed.

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🇮🇷 The naval forces of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps have for the first time carried out a long-distance navigation mission, their ocean liner Shahid Mahdavi has crossed the equatorial line and entered the southern hemisphere, Tasnim News Agency reported.

The Shahid Mahdavi is a 36,000-ton, 240-meter-long, 27-meter-wide commercial cargo conversion equipped with advanced weapons systems and the latest Iranian-made radar and defense electronics. It is also the first Iranian ship to be equipped with long-range ballistic missiles.

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NATO's Steadfast Defender exercises indicate that the alliance is preparing for a "potential conflict" with Russia, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

She also called NATO's accusations against Russia in hybrid attacks on the alliance disinformation that inflates the level of anti-Russian hysteria.

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Hamas is 'determined' to reach agreement with Israel during talks in Cairo - report

Intensive talks were held between the Hamas and Israeli delegations with the help of mediators, during which the obstacles related to the number and categories of Palestinian prisoners to be released in the first phase were overcome, the Saudi newspaper Asharq reported, citing sources.

Hamas received assurances from the US through Egyptian and Qatari mediators that the "stable calm" established in the agreement would constitute a permanent cease-fire, the report says.

Meanwhile, Hamas negotiators have already arrived in Cairo for talks, Egyptian television reported.

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Last preparations for Orthodox Easter celebrations in the special op zone

Military bakers of the Central Military District prepared Easter cakes for soldiers on the front line.

“On holidays we really put our hearts and souls into baking. Today on Easter we prepared Easter cakes. This is a joy for us, because in this way we can provide support to our comrades,” said the head of the mobile bakery.

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How would Russia benefit from the Swiss "peace conference"? Deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council explains

"The benefits for Russia are threefold," Dmitry Medvedev said.

Firstly, the conference will be further evidence of the "collapse of the so-called Zelensky peace plan," Medvedev pointed out, adding that if Zelensky personally flies to Switzerland, he will once again show his "worthlessness."

Secondly, the Swiss conference will be "visible proof" of the inability of the Western elites, who act on the "direct orders" of the United States, to bring the military conflict to an end, he explained.

Thirdly, the conference will allow Russian forces to continue to liberate the ancestral Russian lands from neo-Nazis "without hindrance" and without looking back at someone's useless peace initiatives, Medvedev concluded.

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❗️The Holy Fire descended in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem.

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❗️Russian aviation and air defense sysytems shot down 15 ATASMS tactical missiles manufactured by the United States in a week, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

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❗️Russia's Yug Battlegroup defeated 14 brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in a week. Ukrainian losses amounted to over 2,325 soldiers.

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

▪️Units of the Vostok Battlegroup destroyed a Ukrainian field ammunition depot and eliminated up to 745 soldiers in a week;

▪️Tsentr Battlegroup improved its situation along the front line and liberated the settlements of Novobakhmutovka, Semyonovka, and Berdychy in the Donetsk People's Republic. During the week, Ukrainian forces lost more than 2,405 troops, an Abrams tank, and four Bradley infantry fighting vehicles;

▪️Units of the Zapad Battlegroup repelled 23 counterattacks from the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Kharkov region, the LPR and the DPR. Ukrainian losses amounted to up to 975 soldiers;

▪️In a week, Russian troops destroyed two HIMARS MLRS, two S-300PT air defense systems with radar stations, IRIS-T air defense systems, a fuel depot, and a train with Western equipment;

▪️Over the course of a week, 14 Ukrainian soldiers surrendered.

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I see you: Russian forces receive advanced drone detectors in special op zone

A first batch of sophisticated multi-purpose devices for detecting drones has been delivered to the Russian special military operation zone, the press service of the Chechen Republic-based Tallamho Design Bureau told reporters.

The Malik drone detector, which was earlier tested in a simulated combat mission, can use sounds emanating from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to spot them at a range of up to 330 meters.

Thanks to unique technology developed by Tallamho engineers, Malik can detect even the quietest sounds from any type of drone.

The device is also capable of tracking down rangefinders, anti-tank guided missile lasers and sniper scopes.

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Zelensky was put on Russia's wanted list under an article of the Criminal Code by the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

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Data from 6,000 online meetings between German Defense Ministry employees held through the WebEx platform were publicly available for several months, according to Die Zeit newspaper.

It was possible to find the schedule of conferences, data on their duration, topics of the meetings, as well as the name of the organizer online, but not a record of the talks themselves, the newspaper reports.

In addition, Die Zeit journalists managed to add themselves to the personal rooms of many Bundeswehr employees, including the inspector of the German Air Force Ingo Gerhartz. The rooms were not protected by passwords, the publication claims.

As a result, the Bundeswehr reportedly decided to temporarily stop using the platform and disabled all its accounts on Friday.

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Russian forces destroyed a US-made Abrams tank with a high-precision Krasnopol shell, the Russian Defense Ministry confirms.

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