China has informed other governments that it will not participate in the Swiss conference on Ukraine because it does not meet China's terms due to the absence of Russia, Reuters reports, citing sources

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

💥 A Russian Battlegroup Dnepr 122 mm D-30 howitzer crew destroyed a Ukrainian observation post set up in an abandoned house on the right bank of the Dnepr River near Kherson

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️ Russian air defenses destroyed five anti-ship missiles and 29 drones over the Krasnodar region overnight, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

A Ukrainian UAV was also destroyed over each of Russia's Voronezh, Belgorod, and Tambov regions.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has been transferred home to Bratislava from the hospital where he had been treated since mid-May following an assassination attempt, according to a statement issued by the medical institution.

“Let me inform you that Mr. Prime Minister is already on home treatment,” the hospital in the city of Banska Bystrica, where the politician was brought on May 15 with gunshot wounds, said in a statement.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

◾️ Biden allows Ukraine to strike Russia near Kharkov with US-supplied weapons

◾️ Does Biden escalate towards WWIII to win elections?

◾️ Trump found guilty of falsifying business records. What’s next?

◾️ Why Israel’s profits from Gaza war won’t last?

◾️ Robert Kennedy Jr.: Russian electronic weapons put US to shame

◾️ Watch Russian howitzer destroy a Ukrainian observation post near Kherson

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

‘Insane,’ US billionaire David Sachs wrote, commenting on President Joe Biden's decision to allow Ukraine to launch strikes on Russian territory.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️ The plan for a conference on Ukraine in Switzerland diverges from China's requirements and the world's expectations, so it is difficult for China to participate in such a meeting, the country's Foreign Ministry said.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️ With the participation of NATO advisers, sabotage is being prepared and Western weapons are being used to harm Russian civilians, Russia’s Defense Minister Andrei Belousov said

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

⚡️ Ukrainian forces in May lost more than 35,000 servicemen and over 2,700 weapons, according to data given by Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov.

Among the destroyed Ukrainian equipment are 290 tanks and armored combat vehicles, including four Abrams and seven Leopards.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

⚡️ The Russian Armed Forces repelled a massive attack with 10 ATACMS missiles on the Crimean Bridge the day before yesterday, Defense Minister Andrei Belousov said.

All the missiles were shot down, as a result of which hundreds of lives were saved, the minister emphasized.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️ More key statements from Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov's speech at the CSTO Council of Defense Ministers meeting in Almaty, Kazakhstan:

◾️ All attempts to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia are futile;

◾️ Russian forces liberated 28 settlements in May;

◾️ The Russian Army has taken control of 880 square kilometers of territory in 2024;

◾️ Ukrainian forces have retreated by 8-9 kilometers in important areas in the Kharkov region;

◾️ Western countries are prolonging the conflict by supplying Ukraine with weapons, transferring intelligence, and training the country’s forces;

◾️ Based on the experience of the special military operation, Russian troops are optimizing their combat work, developing optics, and sharpening their operational and combat training skills;

◾️ The goals of the special military operation will be achieved, and during the operation Russia is acting in proportion to the threats to its security.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🗣 The UK has never limited the possibility of attacks on Russian territory using Storm Shadow missiles, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️LIVE: Lavrov Chairs Russian MFA's Business Council Meeting on Bolstering Cooperation With BRICS

👉 Watch the livestream here or on Sputnik's website

📌 Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️ Germany and the rest of the West are in agreement that Ukraine can use Western weapons to repel attacks in the Kharkov region, the German government said

📌 Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🗣 The peace conference in Switzerland must be recognized by Russia and Ukraine, otherwise it will be difficult to play a significant role in restoring peace, China's Foreign Ministry said.

📌 Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️ With the mediation of the UAE, 75 Russian servicemen who were in mortal danger in captivity have been returned from Ukraine-controlled territory, and 75 Ukrainian prisoners of war have been handed over in their place, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

📌 Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️ Attempts to strike Russian territory with US weapons are already being carried out, which speaks eloquently about US involvement in the conflict, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

📌 Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Russia holds on to world’s No.4 biggest economy spot based on purchasing power parity

The Russian Federation has consistently maintained its position as the world's fourth-largest economy in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP) since 2021, according to updated data from the World Bank and calculations by Sputnik.

Back in 2021, Russia accounted for 3.8% of the global GDP, surpassing Japan (3.7%) and Germany (3.4%). Russia's PPP GDP in 2021 reached 5.7 trillion dollars, while Japan and Germany had indicators of 5.6 trillion and 5.2 trillion dollars, respectively.

By the end of 2022, the World Bank announced that Russia had officially become the fifth-largest economy in the world, surpassing Germany. However, it is important to note that these calculations were originally based on 2017 data, and have since been updated to incorporate data from 2021.

Russian President Vladimir Putin had previously established the goal of positioning Russia as the fourth-largest economy in the world in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP). In line with this objective, the Cabinet of Ministers was tasked with developing and implementing measures to achieve this goal by March 31,2025.

📌 Subscribe to @SputnikInt