A Ukrainian soldier on a raft made of empty plastic bottles swam across the Dnepr River and surrendered to the Russian army, having previously contacted the Russian military via the chatbot Free soldier, sources in the Russian security services told Sputnik.

According to them, the surrender had been prepared for about 3 months. At the same time, the prisoner told them that his brigade was about to be partially redeployed to the Kharkov area, which is why he decided to escape.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Opposition surges against mainstream parties in EU vote

Opposition parties have recorded major gains in the European Union parliamentary elections, trouncing their mainstream rivals in several member states.

◾️ France: Macron dissolved the country’s parliament and called a snap election after his Renaissance party was crushed by the right-wing National Rally (RN) party. RN was projected to win about 33% of the vote and 31 seats in the new European Parliament – double Renaissance’s tally.

◾️ Germany: the right-wing Eurosceptic Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is set to secure the second biggest share of the EU vote, over 16%, in its best showing ever. The tally trumps that of all three parties in Olaf Scholz’s coalition, while the opposition Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) tops the polls.

◾️ Austria: Voters dealt a stinging blow to Chancellor Karl Nehammer. The right-wing Freedom Party topped the nationwide ballot for the first time, claiming nearly 26 percent of the vote. The governing conservative People’s Party (OeVP) won close to 24 percent.

◾️ Belgium: Alexander De Croo, a staunch NATO advocate and supporter of Ukraine’s regime, announced his resignation as prime minister after his party, the Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats (Open VLD), got only 5.9% of the vote. Right-wing party Vlaams Belang (Flemish interest) made gains, securing 14 percent, but trailed the New Flemish Alliance.

◾️ Greece: the governing New Democracy party got under 28% of the vote, down from the 33% before. Gains were made by both the socialist PASOK, with under 13%, and the right-wing Greek Solution.

◾️ Netherlands: Geert Wilders’ right-wing anti-immigration Party for Freedom was the biggest winner, claiming six seats – one seat more than in the last European Parliament.

◾️ Spain: the right-wing opposition Popular Party (PP) appears to have scored 34 percent of the votes – four points more than Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s center-left Socialists.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

💬 Russian forces have liberated the village of Ryzhevka, located on the border with Russia's Kursk region, the first in Ukraine's Sumy region, head of Russia's Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov said.

Ukrainian forces, he said, suffered significant losses.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

◾️ Opposition surges against mainstream parties in EU vote as Macron announced the dissolution of the French parliament

◾️ Watch Ukrainian soldier saves his life by swimming across the Dnepr River and surrendering to the Russian army

◾️ Lindsey Graham casually reveals US true goal in Ukraine

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

💬 "Pro-war politicians were harshly punished in the EU elections. Not a good sign for Biden," former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden said, commenting on the outcome of the European Union parliamentary elections.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🎥🎥 Russia’s Sergey Lavrov Opens BRICS Foreign Ministers' Meeting

👉 Watch the livestream here or on Sputnik's website