The Kremlin when again cautioned Ukraine’s allies versus enabling Kiev to strike Russian area utilizing Western weapons, with President Vladimir Putin’s representative guaranteeing “repercussions” if such strikes were to happen.
“It will eventually be really harmful to the interests of those nations that have actually picked the course of intensifying stress,” representative Dmitry Peskov stated on Thursday.
The concern of whether to let Kiev utilize Western weapons to strike military targets in Russia has actually loomed bigger as battling magnifies along specific areas of the Ukraine-Russia border. Kiev is specifically having a hard time to stop Russia’s offensive in the north-eastern Kharkiv area.
Foreign ministers from the 32 nations of the NATO defence alliance were satisfying in Prague on Thursday to go over the problem, to name a few.
Western weapons have actually up until now been intended mainly at Russian positions in the locations of Ukraine inhabited by Moscow’s forces.
In Vienna, Russian diplomat Konstantin Gavrilov cautioned the West versus crossing “red lines,” stating Moscow deserves to utilize nuclear weapons in reaction to hostility – even when it comes to an attack with standard weapons.
He spoke at an occasion arranged by the Company for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
(Bloomberg) — Iran increased its stockpile of near bomb-grade uranium, a relocation that might flame stress throughout the larger Middle East as Tehran prepares to hold governmental elections next month.
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It’s the very first nuclear-safeguards evaluation considering that Iran’s president and foreign minister passed away in a helicopter crash simply days after leading authorities from the United Nations’ atomic guard dog took a trip to the nation to protect higher cooperation in their tracking efforts.
International Atomic Energy Company inspectors validated on Monday that Iran’s stockpile of extremely enriched uranium increased 17% over the last 3 months, according to a nine-page, limited report flowed amongst diplomats and seen by Bloomberg. That’s enough uranium to sustain numerous warheads, needs to Iran make a political choice to pursue weapons.
“Additional public declarations made in Iran throughout this reporting duration concerning its technical abilities to produce nuclear weapons and possible modifications to Iran’s nuclear teaching just increase issues about the accuracy and efficiency of Iran’s safeguards statements,” IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi stated in the report.
Current tit-for-tat rocket strikes in between Israel and Iran have actually included seriousness to the IAEA’s years-long search to reveal the scope of Tehran’s nuclear aspirations. While the IAEA performs daily evaluations of stated atomic centers, suspicions remain over whether Iranian engineers might be hiding work utilized for military functions. Tehran has actually obstructed the firm’s examination into uranium spotted at undeclared places.
While Iran insists it isn’t wanting to produce nuclear weapons, global skepticism triggered a worked out compromise in 2015 that limited the nation’s atomic activities in exchange for sanctions relief. Current declarations by existing and previous Iranian authorities that the nation might review its nuclear teaching — and possibly develop a weapon — triggered Grossi to restore efforts at diplomacy through his see previously this month.
Learn More: Iran’s Nuclear Saber Rattling Raises More Alarm at UN Guard Dog
The United States released a final notice to Iran at the IAEA’s last conference: work together or deal with censure, which might cause a recommendation to the UN Security Council and the renewal of sanctions versus the Islamic Republic. Some European nations currently wished to call up the pressure in March. The IAEA’s board assembles once again on June 3 in the Austrian capital.
Iran’s stockpile of uranium enriched to 60% levels of pureness — a level identical from weapons-grade fuel — increased to 142 kgs (313 pounds) from 121.5 kgs March, the IAEA inspectors concluded. Stocks of 20%-enriched fuel grew to 751 kgs from 712.2 kgs.
IAEA inspectors reported that Iran continues to stonewall a probe into uranium particles spotted at undeclared places.
“There has actually been no development in the previous year,” Grossi informed diplomats. Iran notified IAEA agents going to Tehran on Might 20 that due to the president and foreign minister’s deaths, “it was no longer suitable” to hold substantive conversations, and the mission for an option would require to await an undetermined time, checked out a 2nd eight-page report flowed Monday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin got here Thursday in Belarus for a two-day see as part of a number of foreign trips to start his 5th term in workplace, highlighting close ties with a surrounding ally that has actually contributed in Russia’s war effort in Ukraine.
Putin took a trip to China previously this month, and is anticipated in Uzbekistan on Sunday. Previously on Thursday, the Russian president hosted Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa in the Kremlin.
In Belarus, Putin is to hold talks with his Belarusian equivalent Alexander Lukashenko. Lukashenko welcomed him on the tarmac, and after that the 2 took a seat for a “brief discussion” at the airport, the Kremlin reported. Lukashenko guaranteed to talk about “security problems at the leading edge, and tomorrow we will talk about financial problems together with our coworkers from the federal governments.”
The Belarusian leader on Thursday designated a brand-new chief of the nation’s military basic personnel in a relocation that experts state is focused on revealing the Kremlin the utmost commitment of its next-door neighbor and ally.
Russia utilized Belarus, which depends upon Russian loans and inexpensive energy, as a staging ground in the war in Ukraine, releasing a few of its soldiers there from Belarusian area. In 2023, Russia likewise moved a few of its tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus.
Maj. Gen. Pavel Muraveyka, who was designated as chief of Belarus’ General Personnel and as very first deputy defense minister, is understood for openly threatening surrounding NATO members Poland and Lithuania.
In October 2023, he stated that Belarus might take the so-called Suwalki Space — a sparsely inhabited stretch of land running about 100 kilometers (60 miles) along the Polish-Lithuanian border. It connects Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia with the remainder of the NATO alliance and separates Belarus from Kaliningrad, a greatly militarized Russian exclave on the Baltic Sea that has no land connection to Russia.
Military experts in the West have long saw the Suwalki Space as a possible flashpoint in any conflict in between Russia and NATO. They fret that Russia may attempt to take the space and cut off the 3 Baltic states from Poland and other NATO countries.
“Muraveiko’s visit is an open difficulty to the West and a desire to reveal Putin Minsk’s total commitment and desire to keep a tactical collaboration with Russia,” independent Belarusian expert Valery Karbalevich informed The Associated Press.
“The release of Russian nuclear weapons in Belarus does not leave Lukashenko a tactical option, turns him into a captive of the Kremlin and securely binds Minsk to Moscow’s policies,” Karbalevich stated.
Both Russia and Belarus started military drills including tactical nuclear weapons previously this month. Moscow stated its drills, revealed openly for the very first time on Might 6, were an action to declarations by Western authorities indicating potentially much deeper participation in the war in Ukraine. Belarus released its maneuvers including rockets and warplanes efficient in bring tactical nuclear weapons on Might 7; Russia’s workouts started today.
Moscow has actually stressed that the tactical nuclear weapons released to Belarus stay under Russian military control.
Unlike nuclear-tipped global ballistic rockets that can ruin whole cities, tactical nuclear weapons meant for usage versus soldiers on the battleground are less effective. Such weapons consist of aerial bombs, warheads for short-range rockets and weapons munitions.
The release of tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus, which has a 1,084-kilometer (673-mile) border with Ukraine, would permit Russian airplane and rockets to reach possible targets there more quickly and rapidly if Moscow chooses to utilize them. It likewise extends Russia’s ability to target a number of NATO allies in Eastern and Central Europe.
A video of rockets being transferred to Moscow ahead of a yearly military parade has actually been incorrectly shared in posts that declared it revealed nuclear weapons carried on the orders of Russian President Vladimir Putin after he alerted the West versus sending out soldiers to assist Ukraine. The video remained in reality shot before Putin provided the alerting about the “genuine” threat of nuclear war in February 2024.
“Vladimir Putin bought an across the country transfer of nuclear weapons!” check out the streamlined Chinese caption of a video on X that was shared on February 29, 2024.
It reveals military automobiles driving down a highway during the night. They seem carrying rockets, and are attached with a Russian flag and the flag of the armed force’s Strategic Rocket Forces (archived link).
The clip was shared after Putin alerted of a “genuine” threat of nuclear war if the West were to send out soldiers to eliminate in Ukraine, which has actually been at war given that Russia attacked in February 2022.
“The effects for possible interventionists will be a lot more awful,” he stated in a yearly address to the country from Moscow.
Screenshot on the incorrect X post, caught on May 21, 2024
The video was shared in comparable posts on TikTok and Chinese video-sharing platform Bilibili.
The video, nevertheless, distributed before Putin’s nuclear caution.
Military parade
A reverse image search and keyword searches on Google discovered the video was published on Telegram by the Russian defence ministry on February 27 (archived link).
According to the Telegram post, the video reveals Yars rockets released in the Ivanovo area showing up in Alabino near Moscow ahead of a military parade on Red Square.
The yearly Success Day parade on Might 9 celebrates the Soviet Union’s defeat of Nazi Germany in The Second World War and has actually ended up being Russia’s essential public vacation.
In a bold speech at the parade, Putin repeated that his nuclear forces were “constantly” on alert.
Less than a fortnight later on, Moscow revealed that tactical nuclear weapons drills would begin near to Ukraine, in what it stated was an action to Western “hazards”.
Below is a screenshot contrast of the video shared in the incorrect posts (left) and in the Russian defence ministry’s Telegram post (right):
Screenshot contrast of the video shared in the incorrect posts (left) and in the Russian defence ministry’s Telegram post (right)
The exact same video was shared by Russian tv channel Vmeste-RF, while the images drawn from the clips were likewise released by the state-run news company RIA (archived links here and here).
According to Russia’s state-run TASS news company, workers and military devices from the Teikovo rocket development in the Ivanovo area have actually taken part in military parades on Red Square given that 2008 (archived link).
The Russian defence ministry has actually likewise formerly released video revealing the transport of military devices to the Success Day parade (archived link).
Beijing — Russian President Vladimir Putin thanked Chinese leader Xi Jinping for his efforts to resolve the war in Ukraine at a Beijing summit on Thursday, where the two leaders reaffirmed a “no-limits” partnership that has grown as both countries face rising tension with the West.
Putin’s two-day state visit to one of his strongest allies came as his country’s forces press an offensive in northeast Ukraine’s Kharkiv region – the most significant border incursion since the full-scale invasion began in February 2022.
The largely symbolic visit stressed the growing partnership between two countries that both face challenges in their relationships with the U.S. and Europe.
“Both sides want to show that despite what is happening globally, despite the pressure that both sides are facing from the U.S., both sides are not about to turn their backs on each other anytime soon,” said Hoo Tiang Boon, a professor who studies Chinese foreign policy at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University.
Talk of peace in Ukraine, but no proposals
While both leaders said they were seeking an end to the war in Ukraine, they offered no new specifics in their public remarks Thursday afternoon. China has significant influence as a key supporter of Russia, both before and since its invasion. The country claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed Moscow’s contentions that Russia was provoked into attacking Ukraine by the West, and continues to supply Russia with key components that Moscow needs for its productions of weapons.
China proposed a broadly worded peace plan in 2023, but it was rejected by both Ukraine and the West for failing to call for Russia to leave occupied parts of Ukraine.
“China hopes for the early return of Europe to peace and stability and will continue to play a constructive role toward this,” Xi said, speaking alongside Putin.
Breaking down the latest in Ukraine’s war against Russia
02:44
Putin said he would inform the Chinese leader in detail about “the situation in Ukraine,” and said “we appreciate the initiative of our Chinese colleagues and friends to regulate the situation.”
The two-year-old war has entered a critical stage with Russia’s new offensive in Ukraine. Kyiv’s depleted military is still waiting for new supplies of anti-aircraft missiles and artillery shells from the United States after months of delay.
On the eve of the visit, Putin said in an interview with Chinese media that the Kremlin was prepared to negotiate over the conflict in Ukraine, “but such negotiations must take into account the interests of all countries involved in the conflict, including ours.”
Putin said the Chinese proposal rejected by Ukraine last year could “lay the groundwork for a political and diplomatic process that would take into account Russia’s security concerns and contribute to achieving a long-term and sustainable peace.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said any negotiations must include a restoration of Ukraine’s territorial integrity, the withdrawal of Russian troops, the release of all prisoners, a tribunal for those responsible for the aggression and security guarantees for Ukraine.
Ukraine’s Zelenskyy warns of risks to U.S. if Putin not stopped
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The Ukrainian leader warned recently in an interview with CBS News that if the U.S. and NATO fail to help his military stop Putin’s advance, Russia could bring his war directly “to Europe, and to the United States” as NATO’s biggest member.
China and Russia’s growing “no-limits” relationship
Before their remarks, the two leaders signed a joint statement on deepening the comprehensive strategic partnership between their nations on their 75th anniversary of diplomatic ties. Xi said China and Russia would continue to uphold a position of non-alliance and non-confrontation.
The two autocratic countries — which two years ago suggested they were working together to offer a new “democratic world order” — also said in their joint statement Thursday that they would continue to consider the negative impact of the U.S. and NATO’s strategy in the Asia-Pacific.
China has been increasingly assertive in its claims to a number of contested territories in the region recently, with tension between Beijing and the U.S. focused sharply on the future of the democratically governed island of Taiwan, just of China’s east coast. Xi has vowed to assert Chinese control over the island, which the U.S. is bound by law to help defend, and he has never ruled out using force.
Japan’s increased military presence on their small island of Ishigaki frustrates locals
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Thursday’s meeting was yet another affirmation of the friendly “no limits” relationship the two leaders formalized in 2022, just before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Since then, Russia has become increasingly economically dependent on China as Western sanctions cut Moscow’s access to much of the international trading system. China’s increased trade with Russia, totaling $240 billion last year, has helped the country mitigate some of the worst blowback from sanctions.
Moscow has diverted the bulk of its energy exports to China and relies on Chinese companies for imports of high-tech components for its military industries — to circumvent Western sanctions.
“I and President Putin agree, we should actively look for convergence points of the interests of both countries, to develop each’s advantages, and deepen integration of interests, realizing each others’ achievements,” Xi said.
Russia-China military ties have also strengthened over the last few years. They’ve held a series of joint war games, including naval drills and patrols by long-range bombers over the Sea of Japan and the East China Sea.
How the U.S. Navy is preparing for possible Chinese aggression toward Taiwan
02:17
China remains a major market for Russian military hardware, while Beijing is also massively expanding its domestic defense industries, including building aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines.
Putin has previously said Russia has been sharing highly sensitive military technologies with China that helped significantly bolster its defense capability. In October 2019, he mentioned that Russia was helping China to develop an early warning system to spot ballistic missile launches – a system involving ground-based radar and satellites that only Russia and the U.S. possessed.
Gov. Spencer Cox talks to journalists at the Capitol in Salt Lake City on the last night of the legislative session, Friday, March 1, 2024. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox on Tuesday joined several other Western governors calling on Congress to expand the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, or RECA, which would widen eligibility for people poisoned by radiation from Cold War era nuclear weapons testing and manufacturing, known as downwinders.
Cox’s support comes as lawmakers in Washington, D.C., are considering two RECA bills.
One would extend the deadline for compensation, which is set to expire this June, sponsored by Sen. Mike Lee in the Senate and Rep. Celeste Maloy in the House, both Republicans from Utah.
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The other, sponsored by Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley, would increase compensation, expand eligibility for certain uranium workers, and widen the current definition of an “affected area” to include all of Utah, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico and Guam.
It would also include parts of Hawley’s district near St. Louis, where creek water was contaminated by radiation during nuclear weapons development.
As of Tuesday evening, Congress has 14 days to pass an expansion or extension before compensation expires on June 10.
Cox told Utah News Dispatch in a statement that he wants to see the program expanded.
“We support efforts to expand compensation for those affected by the nuclear testing that occurred throughout the West,” Cox said in the statement. “It’s the right thing to do.”
The statement comes on the heels of a similar push from Western governors urging members of Congress to support Hawley’s bill. On May 1, Republican Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon, chair of the Western Governors Association, and Democratic New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, vice chair of the organization, sent letters to several lawmakers asking them to schedule a vote.
“The bill acknowledges that nuclear weapons production and testing has had much broader effects than currently recognized by statute, and Western Governors encourage you to expeditiously schedule the legislation for consideration by the full House,” reads a letter sent to House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a New York Democrat.
RECA was enacted in 1990 — to be eligible for compensation under the act, Utahns had to prove they contracted certain types of cancer and lived in Beaver, Garfield, Iron, Kane, Millard, Piute, San Juan, Sevier, Washington or Wayne counties for two consecutive years from 1951 to 1958, or during the summer of 1962.
People who worked in uranium mines, mills or transporting ore in Utah from 1942 to 1971 were also eligible.
Downwinders could receive $50,000, with uranium workers getting $100,000.
Lee and Maloy’s bill would extend the same program that’s been in place since 1990. But activists have long claimed the program was too narrow, pointing to ample evidence that all of Utah and other states in the West were downwind from nuclear weapons testing.
RECA also excludes people who had kidney cancer, certain kinds of leukemia, autoimmune disorders or other diseases that are linked to radiation. And Utahns who worked but didn’t reside in eligible counties or lived just across an eligible county line cannot receive compensation.
Hawley’s bill, which passed the Senate in March after a bipartisan 69-30 vote, would increase some payouts up to $150,000 while covering people who worked in uranium mines and mills up until 1990, extending the current timeframe by nearly 20 years. Uranium core drillers and remediation workers would also be eligible.
Hawley has said he hopes the expansion will be added to a bill expanding child tax credits.
The post Cox joins Western governors calling on Congress to expand compensation for downwinders appeared first on Utah News Dispatch.
(Reuters) – If Western countries supply Ukraine with F-16 fighters, the aircraft will not alter the situation on the battlefield, Russian news agencies quoted President Vladimir Putin as telling military pilots on Wednesday.
But the fighters, he was quoted as saying, can carry nuclear weapons and Moscow would have to take account of that in its military planning.
“If they supply F-16s, and they are talking about this and are apparently training pilots, this will not change the situation on the battlefield,” Tass quoted Putin as telling pilots at a gathering northwest of Moscow.
“And we will destroy the aircraft just as we destroy today tanks, armoured vehicles and other equipment, including multiple rocket launchers.”
Putin noted that the fighters had the capability to carry nuclear weapons “and we also must consider that in the way we organise matters”.
The F-16s, he said, would be legitimate targets, wherever they might be.
“Of course, if they will be used from airfields in third countries, they become for us legitimate targets, wherever they might be located,” he was quoted as saying.
Putin’s remarks followed comments earlier in the day by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba that the aircraft should arrive in Ukraine in the coming months.
Ukraine, now more than two years into a full-fledged war against Russia, has sought F-16s for many months.
Belgium, Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands are among countries which have pledged to donate F-16s. A coalition of countries has promised to help train Ukrainian pilots in their use.
(Reporting by Ron Popeski; Editing by Sandra Maler)