Vladimir Putin has announced Russia will start deploying tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus next month – Moscow’s first move of such bombs outside Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union.
The Russian president said the weapons would be deployed after special storage facilities are ready in just under a month’s time.
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It comes after he last month announced he wanted to deploy tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus, in an apparent warning to Nato over its support for Ukraine.
“Everything is going according to plan,” Mr Putin told his ally and Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko.
“Preparation of the relevant facilities ends on July 7-8, and we will immediately begin activities related to the deployment of appropriate types of weapons on your territory,” he said, according to a Kremlin transcript of his remarks.
Earlier, Ukraine‘s domestic security service said it had intercepted a telephone call proving a Russian “sabotage group” blew up the Kakhovka hydroelectric station and dam in southern Ukraine. The destruction of the facility on Tuesday unleashed mass flooding, forcing thousands of residents to flee and wreaking environmental havoc.
Ukraine says it intercepted call proving Russia blew up Kakhovka dam
Ukraine‘s domestic security service said on Friday it had intercepted a telephone call proving a Russian “sabotage group” blew up the Kakhovka hydroelectric station and dam in southern Ukraine.
The destruction of the facility on Tuesday unleashed mass flooding, forcing thousands of residents to flee and wreaking environmental havoc.
Russia and its proxy officials in Ukraine have blamed Kyiv for destroying the dam but have offered varying explanations.
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) posted a one-and-a-half minute audio clip on its Telegram channel of the alleged conversation, which featured two men who appeared to be discussing the fallout from the disaster in Russian.
“They (the Ukrainians) didn’t strike it. That was our sabotage group,” said one of the men, who the SBU described as a Russian soldier. “They wanted to, like, scare (people) with that dam.”
“It didn’t go according to plan, and (they did) more than what they planned for.”
The SBU did not offer further details of the conversation or its participants. It said it had opened a criminal investigation into war crimes and “ecocide”.
“The invaders wanted to blackmail Ukraine by blowing up the dam and staged a man-made disaster in the south of our country,” the SBU said in a statement.
Maryam Zakir-Hussain9 June 2023 09:27
Russia has received hundreds of Iranian drones to attack Ukraine, White House says
The White House claimed yesterday that Russia has received hundreds of drones from Iran to attack Ukraine.
Citing newly declassified information, the White House said the drones or Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles [UAVs], were built in Iran, shipped across the Caspian Sea and then used by Russian forces against Ukraine.
“Russia has been using Iranian UAVs in recent weeks to strike Kyiv and terrorise the Ukrainian population, and the Russia-Iran military partnership appears to be deepening,” White House spokesman John Kirby said in a statement.
“We are also concerned that Russia is working with Iran to produce Iranian UAVs from inside Russia.”
Mr Kirby also said that the US had information that Russia was receiving materials from Iran required to build a drone manufacturing plant that could be fully operational early next year.
“We are releasing satellite imagery of the planned location of this UAV manufacturing plant in Russia’s Alabuga Special Economic Zone.”
Maroosha Muzaffar10 June 2023 03:54
Russia claims it blew up advanced Ukrainian tank, but video shows its helicopter attacked a tractor
A grainy black-and-white gunsight video Russia released this week to bolster a claim its military blew up some of Ukraine’s most fearsome tanks actually documented the destruction of a tractor, according to a visual analysis by The Associated Press.
The Russian Embassy in Washington announced Monday on Twitter its forces had “annihilated” eight German-made Leopard tanks, among the most advanced and powerful weapons NATO countries have provided to Ukraine. The Russian Ministry of Defense then posted a video Tuesday on the social media network Telegram with text saying it showed “footage of the destruction of foreign armoured vehicles, including Leopard tanks.”
Russia claims it blew up advanced Ukrainian tank, but video shows its helicopter attacked a tractor
A visual analysis by The Associated Press shows a grainy black-and-white video Russia released as proof it blew up some of Ukraine’s most fearsome tanks actually documents the destruction of a tractor
Source : Independent
