❗️Belarus starts sudden readiness check of military units, missile troops, artillery, air force and air defense systems, the republic's Defense Ministry reported

Earlier, Russia and Belarus began joint training of the armed forces for the combat use of non-strategic nuclear weapons. The exercise of non-strategic nuclear forces is aimed at ensuring the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Union State of Russia and Belarus, the ministry added.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Russia's Kazan hosts BRICS+ Cities Forum

At least 200 mayors from 21 countries will attend the International Forum of BRICS+ Cities, which is opening in Kazan, the capital of the Russian Republic of Tatarstan.

At the opening ceremony, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will address the participants via video link.

The three-day forum will be attended by city leaders from countries including China, India, South Africa, Brazil, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, Egypt, Turkiye, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Argentina, Chile, Morocco, Indonesia and Mexico.

The agenda includes a discussion on the creation of a new international organization, the Association of Cities and Municipalities of the BRICS+ countries.

Participants will hold its founding assembly, elect a leader, determine the location of the headquarters, and outline a work plan. The meeting will also feature a discussion on inter-municipal and international cooperation, moderated by Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of RT and Rossiya Segodnya, Sputnik's parent media group.

The forum was organized by the Kazan City Hall under the auspices of the Russian Foreign Ministry and its Diplomatic Academy, as well as the Russian Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Ukraine conflict started because of NATO expansion — Trump

"For 20 years, I heard that if Ukraine goes into NATO, it's a real problem for Russia... It's always been understood that that was a no-no," ex-president said.

While talking about the Ukraine conflict, he also said that Biden's rhetoric provoked Russia: "Biden was saying all of the wrong things. And one of the wrong things he was saying 'no, Ukraine will go into NATO.'"

"That was very provocative. And now it's even more provocative. I hear routinely they're now talking about Ukraine entering NATO. And now I hear France wants to go in and fight. Well, I wish them a lot of luck," Donald Trump sarcastically concluded.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️Twelve dead, over 100 hospitalized due to cholera outbreak in Kherson

The outbreak was recorded in Kherson among the Ukrainian military and civilian population. The Ukrainian authorities appointed by Kiev are trying to hide information about the epidemic, the pro-Russian underground in Kherson told Sputnik.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) possible only after US stops arms supplies to Kiev and blocks Ukraine's NATO accession, Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev said

The United States is quite seriously proposing to Russia to negotiate a new treaty while continuing to supply arms to Kiev, the official said, calling the US authorities "cynical".

"This is possible only after [the US] refuses to supply weapons to the Bandera regime and blocks its admission to NATO," Medvedev wrote on Telegram.

Earlier, the US National Security Council (NSC) told Sputnik that the US is open to nuclear arms control talks with Russia without linking the issue to the Ukraine conflict.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️LIVE: Lavrov sums up results of CSTO’s ministerial meeting

Watch the livestream here or on Sputnik's website

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Strategic deterrence? USAF B-1B bomber does 'routine missions' in Guam

A United States Air Force (USAF) B-1B bomber has arrived in Guam to support routine missions, the US Pacific Command wrote on X.

The island of Guam in the western Pacific Ocean is an unincorporated organized territory of the United States. These developments come after Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov expressed concern that Washington's decision to deploy intermediate-range missiles in the Asia-Pacific region "within the framework of the concept of dual deterrence is irreversible".

The statement came after a US Army Pacific spokesman told Sputnik that the Biden administration was on track to deploy an intermediate-range missile system in the Asia-Pacific region by the end of this year.

Earlier, the US Pacific Air Forces announced that USAF B-52 bombers based in North Dakota landed in Guam in late January on an alleged mission to support "strategic deterrence" in the Indo-Pacific region.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️NATO will send military mission to Ukraine, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said, noting that Budapest will not participate in it.

"We have achieved the minimum goal, I have agreed with the NATO Secretary General, Hungary will get off the train. NATO will have a military mission in Ukraine, but Hungary will not take part in it."

At the same time, "the driver [of the war train] could not be convinced," and now only Trump will be able to "stop the train" if he returns to the White House, Orban believes.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Satellite images show massive destruction of Rafah after Israeli invasion

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️Main statements from Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's press conference on CSTO Ministerial Council results:

💬 The procedure of Armenia's withdrawal from the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) was not discussed at the meeting of the foreign ministers, there were no statements on Yerevan's withdrawal.

💬 The CSTO considers it important to help the Afghan authorities in the fight against terrorism.

💬 Threats to Eurasian security come from different directions, the CSTO agrees on the need to create a security architecture in Eurasia.

💬 There are still politicians in the West who will understand that after each failed settlement of the conflict, Ukraine has lost territories.

💬 Statements about the necessity of inviting Russia to the settlement summit create misunderstandings about why Moscow was not invited to the meeting in Switzerland.

💬 NATO will hinder the processes of formation of the Eurasian security structure.

💬 The UN Security Council meeting on cooperation between the UN and the CSTO will be held in New York on July 19.

➖ Lavrov said that he had stopped following Ukraine's statements on the topic of the next "peace" conference.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

China imposed sanctions against American company Lockheed Martin over sale of weapons to Taiwan, the Chinese Foreign Ministry announced.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

The Slovak Ministry of Defense did not find a document that allows for the transfer of 13 MiG-29 and air defense fighters to Ukraine by former department leadership.

Recently, the current Minister of Defense of Slovakia called the actions of his predecessors treason and promised to submit an application to law enforcement agencies.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Is the US secretly upgrading its nukes in Europe?

Washington is in the process of upgrading its nuclear arsenal deployed in five European countries by replacing older nuclear warheads with new generation-related ones, Alistair Burnett, head of media for the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), told Sputnik.

"One can see it by the way the US Air Force aircraft designed for this type of transport are being tracked live on air. They [the Biden administration] don't talk about it publicly, but the upgrade of this [nuclear] arsenal is underway,” he says.

The statement comes after ICAN spokeswoman Alicia Sanders-Zakre earlier called to withdraw the US nuclear arsenal from Europe as soon as possible.

The practice of non-nuclear NATO members agreeing to deploy US nuclear weapons on their territory is dangerous and increases the risk of escalation, Sanders-Zakre said in an interview with Sputnik.

According to ICAN estimates, the US currently has about 150 nukes stationed at American air bases in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Turkiye.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Russian Investigative Committee (IC) has evidence of Hitler regime's intent to exterminate all Soviet people, head of the Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin said.

"We are not talking about individual settlements and regions: the Nazis aimed at the complete extermination of the population."

"The facts we are now learning about can only be called monstrous," the head of the Investigative Committee stressed.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️Russia is ready only for comprehensive dialogue with US, which will include issues of Washington's participation in Ukrainian conflict, said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

But he called the dialogue between Russia and the United States extremely urgent:

"Problems are accumulating, including in connection with global security," Peskov stressed.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Other statements by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov from briefing:

💬 Speaking a day earlier about Russia's readiness to go all the way, Putin had in mind the special operation and achieving its goals.

💬 Putin's visits to North Korea and Vietnam were productive.

💬 The Russian-Vietnamese negotiations were substantive and concrete, and further work will be carried out at the expert level.

💬 Russia knows that there are forces in Moldova that are interested in developing relations not only with Europe, but also with Russia.

💬 The enlargement of the EU may negatively affect the prospects of the Union's existence.

💬 The US ban on the use of Kaspersky software is an example of unfair and unjust competition.

💬 The dogs that Kim Jong-un gave to Putin as a present have yet to be given nicknames, as they are not yet in Russia.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

📹Russia's Dnepr Battlegroup drones destroyed Ukraine's American-made M-777 howitzer and Giatsint artillery gun on right bank of Dnepr River.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt