🚀🧑‍🚀Virtual Yuri Gagarin greets guests at Smolensk Region stand at St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF)

On April 12, 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man to leave the confines of Earth and enter space.

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NATO launches 'largest' drills in Baltic Sea amid efforts to militarize area

NATO's Baltic Operations 2024 (BALTOPS) exercises have begun in the Baltic Sea, the Lithuanian Armed Forces' press service announced.

About 9,000 military personnel, more than 50 ships and more than 80 aircraft from 20 alliance countries will take part in the maneuvers. The US Navy's Sixth Fleet is in charge of organizing the exercises.

"In terms of scale, this will be the largest exercise ever conducted in the Baltic Sea," the Lithuanian Armed Forces said.

Sweden will also participate in the exercises for the first time since it joined NATO.

Russia has repeatedly said that NATO's actions could lead to a deterioration of regional security. Moscow's diplomatic and military posture in the region has demonstrated conclusively that Russia has no comparable megalomaniacal NATO-style plans to turn the Baltic Sea into its 'lake'.

Today, Russian military activities in the region are almost exclusively aimed at blocking NATO's efforts to strangle its assets by militarizing the strategic area.

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❗️Total losses of Ukrainian troops over the last day was 1,590 soldiers, according to the report of the Russian Ministry of Defense.

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

▪️Units of the Tsentr Battlegroup defeated four enemy brigades in one day, repelled five attacks. Ukrainian losses amounted to 360 military personnel;

▪️Units of the Vostok Battlegroup occupied more advantageous positions within 24 hours and destroyed up to 125 soldiers;

▪️Units of the Sever Battlegroup have improved the situation along the front line. Ukrainian losses amounted to 290 soldiers;

▪️Units of the Yug Battlegroup have improved the situation along the front line over the last 24 hours. Ukrainian losses amounted to 230 soldiers;

▪️In one day, Russian air defenses shot down 55 Ukrainian drones, ten HIMARS and Alder missiles, two Hammer bombs, and two Patriot air defense missiles.

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🇧🇾Belarus will become a full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)

"Following the results of the Astana Summit in July, the number of member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization will reach double digits after Belarus joins as a full participant," the organization's Secretary General Zhang Ming said, stressing that this expansion will be a "historic breakthrough".

The SCO is an international organization established in 2001. It includes India, Iran, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan.

In July 2023, at the SCO summit in New Delhi, Iran became a full member of the organization. In the same place, Belarus signed a memorandum of obligations to obtain the status of a member state.

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❗️LIVE: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov holds joint press conference with Burkina Faso's Foreign Minister Karamoko Traore

👉 Watch the livestream here or on Sputnik's website

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🇷🇺🇧🇫 Russia intends to supply Burkina Faso with additional military products to strengthen the country's defense capability, Russian FM Sergey Lavrov has said.

On Tuesday, Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-Bek Yevkurov visited the African country, and the number of Russian instructors there will grow, Lavrov added.

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The first deaths occurred after the mining of the Tisa coast by the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

The first dead appeared among the Ukrainians who tried to avoid the total mobilization. They tried to illegally swim across the Tisa River and leave the country, but the coast was mined by the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

The Western Regional Department of the State Border Service of Ukraine reported that at least 45 people died trying to cross Ukraine's border with EU countries. They were called victims of adventurism and cowardice.

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Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on the main idea of SPIEF 2024: the Russian Federation stands for business cooperation based on equality and offers it to interested parties.

#SPIEF2024

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Journalists from unfriendly countries will also take part in Putin’s meeting with the heads of international news agencies as part of the forum.

#SPIEF2024

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Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on US Treasury statements about possible sanctions against China: Beijing does not like this and the Russian Federation is in solidarity and considers such a tone inappropriate

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Switzerland is moving away from its neutrality by not inviting Russian representatives to the conference on Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

The Kremlin agrees with the arguments of the Swiss party, which called on the authorities of their country to invite Russia the day before, but consider this issue an internal matter for Switzerland, the presidential press secretary noted.

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What consequences may arise from the installation of US air defenses on a Baltic Sea island?

The permanent deployment of the US Typhon missile system with Tomahawk cruise missiles on the Danish island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea is a “likely” scenario, Mikael Valtersson, a former officer of Swedish Armed Forces/Air Defense, former defense politician and chief of staff with Sweden Democrats, told Sputnik.

“The main consequence of this [possible] development” could be “a continued increase in military tension in the Baltic Sea,” Valtersson said, warning that “it will also increase NATO's ability to close the Baltic Sea to Russian shipping.”

This would, in turn, “probably mainly have an impact on Russian ability to deliver goods by sea” to the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, according to Valtersson.

“Another impact is that Tomahawk missiles with a range of 1,500 km will be permanently based near Russian territory and have longer reach. This could, of course, be achieved with a permanent deployment of [the Arleigh Burke class of guided] missile destroyers (DDGs) but they would be very vulnerable to attacks from Russian anti-ship missiles,” the expert says.

He also commented on Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics’ recent remarks about NATO members’ plans to close the Baltic Sea to Russia “as an ultimate answer to alleged Russian hybrid warfare.”

“This would of course be a breach of international law and could be seen as a de facto declaration of war. That kind of statements and ideas [….] are unfortunately new and dangerous steps towards large-scale open conflict in Europe,” Valtersson concludes.

Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy Admiral Vladimir Kasatonov earlier said that the US deploying its Typhon missile system on the Bornholm island in the Baltic Sea would pose a threat to Russia’s Baltic and Northern fleets.

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