EU agrees on draft security guarantees for Ukraine with no EU troops on the ground

The European Union has agreed on a draft agreement to provide security guarantees to Kiev no later than July, Die Welt reports.

According to the newspaper, the organization assures Ukraine of immediate consultations in case of further attacks, excluding the direct participation of EU soldiers in the fight against Russia.

The EU agreed to the security draft mainly under pressure from the Ukrainian government, writes Die Welt, adding that these commitments do not have the same legal force as bilateral agreements on security guarantees.

Moreover, only seven EU member states have provided such guarantees: Germany, Denmark, France, Italy, Finland, the Netherlands and Latvia, the newspaper said, citing internal EU data.

Russia, commenting on the negotiations on "security guarantees" for Ukraine, stated that without the participation of Russia, the solution of such issues will be unilateral.

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Chasov Yar will of course be liberated, the head of the DPR, Denis Pushilin, told Sputnik

Pushilin stressed that he was optimistic about the advance of the Russian Armed Forces in the direction of Chasov Yar:

"Our fighters are already planning actions within the city."

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❗️Russia has liberated five villages in the Kharkov region

Units from the Sever Battlegroup have freed the settlements of Borisovka, Ogurtsovo, Pletenevka, Pylnaya and Strelechya in the Kharkov region, Russia's Ministry of Defense said.

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❗️Units from the Tsentr Battlegroup have liberated the settlement of Keramik in the Donetsk Public Republic, Russia's Ministry of Defense said.

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Poland launches new fortifications on the Belarus border

Poland started to erect new anti-migration structures on the border with Belarus, Prime Minister Donald Tusk told local media during his visit to the area.

Tusk urged the EU to team up with Poland to fund the developments, dubbing them an investment in European security on the eastern borders.

In 2021, thousands of migrants heading to the EU countries crowded on the Polish-Belarusian border. Warsaw blamed Minsk for the migration crisis, but Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko debunked these accusations, saying that Poland escalates the refugee crisis by expelling migrants from its territory.

Poland has already built a barrier wall on the Belarus border worth $400 million. The construction is 186 kilometers long and five meters high.

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Russian law enforcement agencies are investigating the facts regarding allegations of war crimes by the Ukrainian Armed Forces and mass civilian graves with signs of torture that have been revealed in Donbass, head of the Donetsk People's Republic Denis Pushilin told Sputnik.

Evidence of war crimes by Ukrainian troops and mass graves came from Mariupol, Volnovakha and Avdeyevka.

The head of the DPR also said that the alleged war crimes of the Kiev regime, including in Avdeyevka, will be investigated, and added that the real criminals are not yet within reach, but they will be punished.

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❗️Ukrainian losses amounted to 300 soldiers in the zone of responsibility of the Zapad Battlegroup.

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

▪️Units from the Yug Battlegroyp improved the situation along the front line and repulsed four attacks by Ukrainian troops;

▪️The Russian Armed Forces repelled 10 attacks by Ukrainian troops near Ocheretino, Semenovka, Solovyevo, Netaylovo and Berdychi in the Donetsk People's Republic;

▪️Ukrainian losses amounted to 390 soldiers in a day in the zone of action of Russia's Battleroup Tsentr;

▪️Ukrainian losses amounted to 170 soldiers in one day in the area of operations of units from the Sever Battlegroup, 34 soldiers were taken prisoner;

▪️Units from the Sever Battlegroup destroyed two firing installations of the Buk air defense system of the Ukrainian Armed Forces;

▪️Air defense systems shot down 46 Ukrainian drones, an ATACMS missile, and eight Hammer guided bombs.

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❗️Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree "On the structure of federal executive bodies"

According to the decree, the country's prime minister will now have ten deputies, including one first deputy prime minister.

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All Russian cities must be liberated, including Kharkov, Odessa and Dnepropetrovsk, and historical justice must be restored, the head of the Donetsk People's Republic, Denis Pushilin, told Sputnik.

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Ukrainian troops are retreating in the Kharkov region under pressure from the Russian Armed Forces, this is a good trend, the head of administration Vitaliy Ganchev told Sputnik.

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🖼 Russia's Sever Battlegroup liberated five settlements - Borisovka, Ogurtsovo, Pletenevka, Pylnaya and Strelechya - in the Kharkov region.

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Video from the site of a Ukrainian strike on a restaurant in Donetsk

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In the Avdeyevka area, Russian forces destroyed about six Abrams tanks. There is no information yet about new deliveries of Abrams tanks to Ukraine, but they, like other Western equipment, are being destroyed by the Russian military, the head of the Donetsk People's Republic, Denis Pushilin, told Sputnik.

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Donetsk restaurant might have been shelled by US-made HIMARS missiles — Investigation Committee

According to the preliminary investigation of the Russian Investigation Committee, Ukrainian forces could have used HIMARS to attack the restaurant in the Kirovsky district of Donetsk.

One of the American HIMARS missiles reportedly hit the restaurant directly, the second – in a nearby unfinished building, the head of the Donetsk People's Republic Denis Pushilin wrote on his social media.

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