◾️ Scott Ritter: Putin ‘continues to hold the door open for a resolution’ of conflicts with NATO, but champions BRICS multipolarity

◾️ The US is open to talks with Russia on the New Start Treaty – Biden aide Pranay Vaddi to Sputnik

◾️ ‘AIPAC babysitters’: US House rep. reveals what makes lawmakers vote in the interests of Israel

◾️ Why is Stoltenberg abandoning plans for a €100 billion fund for Ukraine?

◾️ Was Denmark's PM Frederiksen injured during an attack on her in Copenhagen?

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🗣 The agreement of some Western countries to allow Ukraine to use their weapons on targets in Russia indicates a desire to escalate the conflict, and Slovakia will not be drawn into such military ventures, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said.

He added that he voted in the European Parliament elections, which are taking place in the republic.

“It is necessary to elect members of the European Parliament who will support peace initiatives and not the continuation of war,” Fico said.

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🗣 Russia will respond to US statements on increasing its nuclear arsenal in accordance with its nuclear doctrine, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Sputnik.

Questions about why the US needs to increase nuclear capabilities should be asked of the White House by their public, she added.

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💬 The US is once again using the topic of Russia for its internal matters, which shows their internal inferiority, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Sputnik

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🎥🎥 Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Speaks at SPIEF Session on 'Polycentricity'

👉 Watch the livestream here or on Sputnik's website

#SPIEF2024

Will Israeli minister Gantz quit the Netanyahu war cabinet?

Israel’s War Cabinet Minister Benny Gantz intends to honor the ultimatum he presented to the Netanyahu government three weeks ago and leave the coalition, media reports say.

The former army general is expected to announce the withdrawal of his National Unity party in a press statement on Saturday.

There are reportedly no negotiations by coalition parties to coax Gantz into rethinking his move. The US government tried to persuade the centrist minister to postpone his exit, the Kan public broadcaster reported, amid efforts to secure a Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal with Hamas.

Benny Gantz joined the emergency government several days after the October 7 attack by Hamas. On May 18, Gantz presented Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with an ultimatum, warning that his party would exit the government unless a Gaza post-war strategy was approved by June 8. The plan in question involved the demilitarization of the Gaza Strip and the creation of a multinational civilian administration.

However, Netanyahu's more hardline political allies such as National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, in turn, warned that if the PM gives in to Gantz, they would pull out of the coalition.

While Gantz’s pullout will not collapse the coalition, it is likely to further aggravate the political crisis in Israel as it awaits Hamas’ official response to its most recent offer for a truce and hostage release deal.

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❗️Russian air defense systems successfully intercepted and brought down a Ukrainian Mi-8 helicopter.

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

◻️ Ukraine suffered heavy casualties, with over 400 militants lost and two Ukrainian field ammunition depots destroyed in the area under the responsibility of the Russian Battlegroup Yug,

◻️ The Russian Battlegroup Vostok's actions led to the loss of up to 135 Ukrainian militants.

◻️ The tactical position of the Russian Battlegroup Tsentr was strengthened, successfully repelling five Ukrainian counterattacks and resulting in the elimination of 340 enemy militants.

◻️ The Russian Battlegroup Zapad secured more strategic positions, effectively repelling three Ukrainian counterattacks.

◻️ The Russian Black Sea Fleet successfully neutralized five Ukrainian unmanned boats.

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❗️"Israeli military forces have freed four hostages in the Gaza Strip, including a Russian citizen. They are in good health and have been transported to the hospital," stated the IDF.

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21,300 attendees from 139 countries participated in the 2024 St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), as reported by the organizing committee. It added that the forum aided in the signing of over 980 agreements, exceeding a total value of $72 billion.

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✈️ Mirage 2000 jets for Ukraine: Long-term threat or chimera that will vanish once deployed?

President Macron has promised to transfer an unknown number of Mirage 2000-5 warplanes to Ukraine and train Ukrainian pilots to use them before the year is out.

◻️ Introduced with the French Air Force in the 1980s, the Dassault-built Mirage 2000 was France’s answer to the fourth generation of jet fighter aircraft design.

◻️ Just over 600 Mirage 2000s of a dozen-and-a-half variants have been built, with France procuring about half, and dozens sold to the UAE, Taiwan, India, Greece, Egypt, Brazil, Qatar and Peru.

◻️ The jets have a 1,550 km range and a top speed up to Mach 2.2 at high altitudes.

◻️ Armament includes 30 mm DEFA 554 cannons, and nine hard points for 6,300 kg of munitions. Compatible missiles include Exocet anti-ship missiles, SCALP EG cruise missiles, and the Popeye series of Israeli missiles. Air-to-air weapons include MICA-IR rockets with a range of about 80 km.

◻️ The Mirage 2000-5 is a modification of the base jet with more advanced RDY-type radar with a detection range of 70-80 km, and the ATLIS II targeting pod.

◻️ The jets require airfields with landing strips of at least 700 meters, and compared to their Russian counterparts, are more picky when it comes to rough landing conditions. This will limit deployability, and make airfields hosting them in regions like Kirovograd, Vinnitsa and Khmelnitsky a regular target for Russian strikes.

◻️ Russian early warning and jamming equipment has long been designed specifically to target airborne threats from NATO aircraft. The Mirage 2000 is no exception.

◻️ The same goes for air defenses, with an array of long-range Russian systems including the S-200, S-300, S-400 and S-500 series of missile systems, which have a range of between 200 and 600 km, meant to make short work of NATO jets beyond the range of almost any air-launched weapon in the bloc’s arsenal.

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The US has begun withdrawing its military contingent from Niger, according to media reports.

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📹Check out highlights from the St Petersburg International Economic Forum 2024, covered by Sputnik: key moments and topics discussed by participants at the prominent economic forum.

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Gantz cancels planned announcement of resignation following news of hostages' rescue

A member of the war cabinet was poised to exit the government after the Prime Minister failed to present a 'day after' plan for Gaza by the deadline he had set; it remains uncertain whether the press conference will be rescheduled.

War cabinet member Benny Gantz scrapped a scheduled news conference on Saturday evening, where he was expected to declare the departure of his National Unity party from the government.

The decision was made in response to the unexpected announcement by the military on Saturday afternoon that special forces had successfully rescued four hostages abducted by insurgents. The hostages, taken from a cultural event months ago, were found in good health and are currently undergoing further evaluation and reunification with their families.

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🇮🇱 Israeli authorities have released footage of the special forces' evacuation of the liberated hostages, one of whom was a Russian citizen. Netanyahu visited them to express his solidarity.

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Turkiye’s first foray into tank-building: fast facts about Ankara’s new Altay MBT

Turkiye’s Defense Industry Agency recently announced the start of mass production of the new Altay main battle tank.

◻️ Designed between 2008 and 2016 by Turkish defense and automotive giant BMC Otomotiv with help from other Turkish companies, and with major assistance from South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem, Hyundai WIA, Samyang Comtech and Poongsan Corporation, the Altay is Turkiye’s K2 Black Panther-derived vision of a fourth-generation MBT.

◻️ The Altay is a behemoth of a tank, weighing in at 65 tons, comparable to the US M1 Abrams. The MBT is 7.3 meters long, 3.9 m wide and stands 2.6 m tall.

◻️ It’s equipped with South Korean-designed composite armor and Aselsan AKKOR active protection.

◻️ The MKE 120 mm laser-guided smoothbore gun is the tank’s main armament. The gun does not have an autoloader. Secondary weapons include a 7.62 mm coaxial machinegun and a machinegun-armed remote controlled weapons station with automatic target tracking.

◻️ The Altay is powered by a Hyundai 12-cylinder water-cooled 1,500 horsepower diesel engine. A homegrown engine by BMC is in the works. Turkiye flirted with the purchase of Ukrainian tank engines produced by the Kharkov Malyshev Plant, but scrapped the idea in late 2021.

◻️ The Turkish tank has a stated on road/off road performance of 70 and 45 km/h, respectively, and an operational range of 450 km before refueling.

◻️ Turkiye expects to build the first batch of 250 Altays in 2025. The tanks have an estimated unit cost of $13.75 million. The total long-term cost of the program is expected to reach up to $40 billion.

◻️ Before building the Altay, Turkiye spent decades relying on American M48 and M60 tanks, and West German Leopard 1 and Leopard 2 MBTs. The latter proved highly vulnerable to portable anti-tank missiles used by militants in southern Turkiye. Turkish Defense Industry Agency chief Haluk Gorgun says the Altay’s design has taken into account conditions of modern combat environments.

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