The Kremlin today ruled that Western arms deliveries to Ukraine were “useless” while the French president, German chancellor and Italian prime minister were in Kyiv.
“We would like to hope that the leaders of these three countries (…) will not only focus on supporting Ukraine and plans to continue to flood it with weapons.
“It’s completely useless and it will prolong the suffering of the people and cause more damage to the country,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peshkov told a news conference.
He said: “On the contrary, we hope they will urge (Ukrainian) President Volodymyr Zelensky to take a realistic approach to the situation.”
The Kremlin spokesman also said that the recent cuts in Russian gas supplies to Europe were not pre-planned, but were due to problems with the maintenance of the turbines caused by the sanctions.
Russian gas supplies to Europe fell further today, raising concerns about replenishing gas storage for the winter and leading to a diplomatic row as Russian supplier Gazprom blamed Western sanctions for obstructing maintenance work.
For his part, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev mocked in English the visit of the three European leaders, describing them “.[Îναν] specialist in frogs, that [που είναι ειδικός] in the sausages and he in the pasta “.
As he said, the visit of Emanuel Macron, Olaf Solz and Mario Draghi has “zero usefulness” and he hinted that they will get drunk with “horika”, Ukrainian vodka.
“They promise to rejoin the EU, old bullets, then they will be beaten with horika, they will return home by train like 100 years ago,” Medvedev, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, wrote on Twitter.
Dmitry Medvedev, who served as president from 2008 to 2012 and as prime minister from 2012 to 2020, is currently vice president of Russia’s powerful Security Council.
Russia’s chief negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said today that Moscow was ready to resume peace talks with Ukraine but had not responded to proposals made in Kyiv in previous rounds of talks.
Following intermittent talks between Russia and Ukraine in March, including a meeting of delegations in Istanbul, negotiations between Russia and Ukraine have since collapsed. The two sides accuse each other of not negotiating in good faith.
In another development, Russia’s ambassador to the European Union said, according to Ria Novosti, that the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which carries gas from Russia to Europe under the Baltic Sea, could be shut down due to problems with repairing its turbines in Canada.
Gazprom said Tuesday it had cut its pipeline gas supply to Germany to 100 million cubic meters (mcm) a day from 167 mcm, citing a delayed return of equipment sent for repairs.
Moscow imposes sanctions on 121 Australians
The Russian Foreign Ministry announced today that it would impose sanctions on another 121 Australian citizens – including journalists, businessmen and defense officials – citing the existence of a “Russophobic agenda” in the country, as it describes it.
Among those to be sanctioned are journalists from the Australian networks ABC News and Sky News and the Sydney Morning Herald, he said.
Russia on Tuesday announced a similar move against dozens of British journalists in retaliation, according to Moscow, for Western sanctions and “spreading false information about Russia”.
Source: Capital
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