Assassination attempt on Zelensky thwarted; Vladimir Putin praises his government; NATO calls Russia’s nuclear weapons deployment irresponsible and more

2024-05-12 10:02:23

The war between Russia and Ukraine comes to your day 804 since its beginning on February 24, 2022, when the Russian president Vladimir Putin ordered a “special military operation” to free the pro-Russian population from the Donbas region of Ukraine.

Hoy Tuesday, May 7, 2024, Ukraine says it has thwarted a Russian plot to assassinate Volodymyr Zelensky.

On another topic the UN High Commissioner for Human RightsVolker Türk, showed this Tuesday his worry for him growing number of journalists charged, convicted and imprisoned in Russia for his independent reporting work and called for an end to these “attacks on freedom of expression.”

This repression would have intensified since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 in a Russian attempt to “control the narrative” both in relation to internal issues of the country as well as the conduct of hostilities on Ukrainian territoryaccording to the high commissioner.

As a result of this intensification, the number of journalists imprisoned in Russia has reached an all-time high, with at least thirty serving sentences of between five and a half and 22 years in prison accused of charges such as terrorism, extremism, dissemination of false information or treason. , among others.

NATO considers it irresponsible for Russia to announce maneuvers with tactical nuclear weapons

The I’LL TAKE considered this Monday “dangerous and irresponsible” what Russia has announced that it plans to carry out military exercises involving tactical nuclear weapons “shortly”.

“Russia’s nuclear rhetoric is dangerous and irresponsible. The NATO remains vigilant“, the allied spokesperson, Farah Dakhlallah, told EFE.

He made it clear that NATO’s collective deterrence and defense posture “will continue to ensure the protection of every inch of allied territory.”

The spokesperson stressed that Ukraine has the right to self-defensewhich is enshrined in the United Nations Charter, and indicated that the allies “will continue to support Ukraine.”

“Russia has started this illegal war and must end it,” he concluded.

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin ordered the Armed Forces to “shortly” carry out maneuvers with tactical nuclear weapons.

These exercises, in which the aviation and the Navy will participate, could occur on Ukrainian territorysince the Southern Military District includes the four occupied Ukrainian regions (Donetsk, Lugansk, Jerson and Zaporiyia).

He Kremlin explained that the maneuvers are a response to threatening statementsamong others, of the French president, Emmanuel Macronwho once again insisted in “The Economist” that he does not rule out sending NATO troops to Ukrainian territory.

“They talked about the willingness and even intention to send military contingents to Ukraine, that is, to put NATO soldiers against the Russian military. That is a new spiral of escalation of tension. “It is unprecedented and requires special attention and special measures.”

Dmitri Peskov, Russian presidential spokesman, at a press conference

Volodymyr Zelensky at the NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania (LUDOVIC MARIN / AFP)

Vladimir Putin praises the work of the Government amid sanctions and on the eve of his inauguration

The president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, praise It is the work of the Government in the midst of unprecedented sanctions against the country due to the war in Ukraineduring a meeting that preceded his inauguration for a fifth term and the subsequent dismissal of the Executive.

“The endless sanctions we faced had one objective and you know it well: to destroy Russia from within. And not only politically, but, above all, economically,” the Russian leader told the members of the Executive, headed by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin.

Putin called Western sanctions an “economic aggression” against the country and assured that “Russia’s opponents achieved nothing”.

“They wanted to create problems in labor groups, cause massive unemployment in the country, force entire companies and industries to close, (…) but the result was exactly the opposite,” he said.

The Russian leader added that generally, Government work results outgoing were satisfactory.

“What was done is a good basis for the future,” he told the ministers and recalled that all the actions of the Executive in that “historical time” have a high value.

Mishustin, for his part, thanked the Russian leader for his trust and assured that sanctions and other challenges, such as the coronavirus pandemic, contributed to the mobilization of his Executive.

Putin will assume his fifth term as head of Russia during a ceremony in the St. Andrew’s Hall of the Kremlin.

After the ceremony, the entire Government will lay down its powers pending the confirmation of the ministers and the Chief Executive in office for a new mandate or their replacement by new officials.

According to all forecasts, the majority of the ministers, as well as the head of the Executive, will retain their positions in the new Russian Government, whose composition will be known in the week after Putin’s inauguration..

Vladimir Putin is re-elected for the fifth time in Russia (NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA / AFP)

Ukraine says it has thwarted a Russian plot to assassinate Volodymyr Zelensky

He Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) said this Tuesday having foiled a plan by the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) for murder to the Ukrainian president, Volodímir Zelenskialready the heads of Ukrainian military intelligence (GUR), Kirilo Budánovand from the SBU itself, Vasil Maliuk.

“The network, whose activities were supervised by the FSB from Moscow, included two colonels of the State Administration Security (of Ukraine) who passed secret information to the Russian Federation,” the SBU explained in a statement.

The State Administration Security is the body responsible for providing security to Ukrainian leaders. Both Colonels have been arrested in the operation, as reported by the Ukrainian Prosecutor’s Office, for crimes of high treason and terrorism.

One of the two detainees received from the FSB two FPV drones and ammunition with which third parties were to carry out attacks against selected Ukrainian leadersaccording to the Prosecutor’s Office.

According to the SBU, this colonel personally brought the drones to kyiv, as well as ammunition for the Soviet RPG-7 rocket launcher y minas antipersona MON-90, also of Soviet manufacture. The detainee had received this material in another region of Ukraine, according to the SBU, which has released alleged conversations held with his liaison in the FSB.

“The enemy was actively developing plans to eliminate President Volodymyr Zelensky,” the statement read.

One of the network’s tasks was, according to the SBU, recruit “executors” among the military in charge of protecting the president that they could “take him hostage and then kill him.” In addition to the aforementioned drones, the Russian FSB planned to use missiles in the attacks.

“The enemy was also planning to eliminate” the head of the SBU, Vasil Maliuk, the head of the GUR, Kirilo Budanov, and other high-ranking Ukrainian officials, adds the statement from the Ukrainian secret service, which states that the liquidation of Budanov It was scheduled for “before Easter” (Ukraine celebrated Orthodox Easter last Sunday).

According to Maliuk, “the terrorist attack” should have been “a gift to (Russian President Vladimir) Putin before his inauguration,” which took place in Moscow.

Volodymyr Zelensky, president of Ukraine (EFE)

2024-05-12 10:02:23