MOSCOW (AFP) In a broadcast interview, President Vladimir Putin said Russia had no choice but to consider NATO’s nuclear capabilities, justifying Russia’s recent suspension of its participation in the New START Treaty.
Putin has claimed that Russia faces an existential crisis, as he has done several times during its invasion of Ukraine. In his view, NATO members were seeking a “strategic defeat” for the country. He said on Russian state television that the suspension of New START was due to the need to ensure Russia’s “security and strategic stability.”
Putin said, “If all the major NATO members declare their main goal is to inflict strategic defeat on the United States, how can they ignore their nuclear capabilities under these circumstances? .
NATO is involved in Ukraine conflict by providing weapons, Putin says
Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused NATO members of being complicit in the Ukrainian conflict by donating arms to Ukraine, and said the West is plotting to crush Russia. “They are sending tens of billions of dollars worth of weapons to Ukraine. This is really participation,” Putin said in an interview with Russia-1 broadcaster Sunday.
Algeria wants to reopen its embassy in Kiev
Moscow’s ally Algeria will reopen its embassy in Kiev, which has been closed since Russia invaded Ukraine more than a year ago, the foreign ministry said on Sunday.
“This decision was taken in the context of safeguarding the interests of the Algerian state,” the ministry said in a statement, adding that the embassy would reopen soon, but did not provide further details.
He added that the acting ambassador will lead the mission when it resumes.
Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune had announced the planned reopening during a television broadcast on Friday, acknowledging Algeria’s long-standing relations with Russia.
Russia, Iran sending top envoys to UN’s human rights council
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will help kick off the latest and longest-ever session of the UN’s top human rights body on Monday, with Iran’s foreign minister, a senior Russian envoy, and the top diplomats of France and Germany among scores of leaders set to take part.
The more than five-week session of the Human Rights Council opens as the world grapples with rights concerns including Russia’s war in Ukraine, repression of dissent in Russia and Belarus, new violence between Palestinians and Israelis, and efforts to solidify a peace deal in Ethiopia that ended two years of conflict between the national government and rebels in the Tigray region.
The council, made up of 47 member countries, takes up an extensive array of human rights issues – including discrimination, freedom of religion, the right to housing and the impact of economic sanctions targeting governments on regular people – as well as country “situations” like those in Afghanistan, Syria, Myanmar, Nicaragua and South Sudan. It usually meets three times a year.
Ukrainian military says Russian offensive near Yahidne failed
The Ukrainian military said on Sunday that Russia launched an unsuccessful attack near Jahidne in a day after a group of Russian Wagner mercenaries claimed to have captured a village in eastern Ukraine.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces Chief of Staff said in a morning update that Russia continues to focus its offensive efforts across the Bakhmut front line, where Yahidne is located.
Home to only about 5,000 of its 70,000 inhabitants, the months-long struggle for Bakhmut has seen some of the bloodiest attrition in the year-long Russian invasion.
Russian UN diplomat accuses West of ‘twisting arms’ in vote to isolate Moscow
On Sunday, Russia’s top diplomat at the United Nations said “cowboy” tactics and “arm twists” by some countries during last week’s vote at the United Nations General Assembly demanding Russia withdraw troops from Ukraine. blamed the Western countries.
(Brussels Independent with AFP,AP and Reuters)
