Geopolitical situation
Defence ministers and other senior defence officials from 12 Northern European countries gathered in Poland yesterday ahead of the NATO summer summit in Vilnius. They discussed the strengthening of deterrence and defence on NATO's eastern flank, as well as support for Ukraine, at the military cyber-security facilities in Legionowo, near Warsaw. This is the first time Finland has participated in the Nordic format as a NATO member.
After the meeting, Polish Defence Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said that the "very good" talks focused on coordinating the way the 12 countries provide security. He underlined the good cooperation with the UK and Sweden, saying that both countries share a similar approach to the threats coming from Russia, which is at war in Ukraine.
"We are looking for common solutions to ensure security", Blaszczak said.
We know how sceptical decision-makers in Lithuania have long been towards Poland. We are also very well aware of the cold attitude of Polish politicians towards the common defence of Poland and Lithuania against the aggressor terrorist Russia. However, Poland's security interests are a bridge that we feel Lithuania and its Baltic neighbours should use. Since we have no other close neighbours and allies, we need to act sensibly, without neglecting, but also by restraining rather childish emotions and unreasonable ambitions.
The Russian Ministry of Foreign Blackmail said on Monday that the 'rhetoric' of the Group of Seven's nuclear policy has the sole purpose of exerting psychological, military and political pressure on Moscow and Beijing. Lavrov's deputy Ryabkov was hysterical over the G-7 communiqué, in which the nuclear disarmament group urged Russia and China to disclose their nuclear arsenals in a manner similar to the United States, Britain and France.
Lavrov's deputy and the ministry's spokesman on arms control were nervous, saying that the statement reflected the group's anti-Russian and anti-Chinese tone. "One gets the impression that Western rhetoric on the issue of the size of nuclear arsenals has the sole purpose of exerting psychological and military-political pressure on Russia and China," Ryabkov said in comments posted on the ministry's website. "It is obvious that behind this there is a pathological desire to belittle our countries."
No, what is behind this is the desire to demilitarise a terrorist state which is running around the world with a nuclear bomb and blackmailing everyone.
And fewer and fewer countries want to be friends with terrorists. Armenia, which has said that it intends to leave the Collective Security Group set up by Russia, yesterday struck the Kremlin on the ear. Moreover, Armenia is ready to recognise the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave as part of Azerbaijan if Baku guarantees the security of ethnic Armenians, Prime Minister Nikola Pashinian said.
It should be recalled that Nagorno-Karabakh has been a source of conflict between the two Caucasus neighbours since 1991 until the collapse of the Soviet Union, and has been a source of conflict between ethnic Armenians and Azerbaijanis of Turkic descent for more than a century. Recognising Nagorno-Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan would probably put an end to the smouldering of the focal point of discord, and there would be no point in begging Putin to deploy his so-called peacekeepers in Armenia.
"Armenia remains committed to the peace agenda in the region. And we hope that in the near future we will agree on the text of a peace agreement and be able to sign it", the Armenian PM said.
The more peace in the world and the less pretext for bloodshed, the better for all of us.
Significant developments
An armed group crossed from Ukraine into Russia's Belgorod region and several people were injured in the clashes, Russian authorities said. The local governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said Russian forces were looking for "saboteurs" who he said had attacked the border district of Greivoron.
P. Gladkov said that eight people had been injured, including two people hospitalised after shelling the village and three people hit by shrapnel in the town of Greivoron. Fighting also damaged three houses and a local administrative building, and the situation remained "very tense", he said. The governor said a "counter-terrorism operation" had been launched in the region, giving the authorities special powers, including identity checks and monitoring communications.
Kyiv claims that the Russian Legion of Freedom and the Russian Volunteer Corps are responsible for the raid. Late on Monday evening, they announced that they had "completely liberated" the border town of Kozinka from Führer Putin's regime. They said that the advance troops had reached the town of Greivoron, further east. On Putin's trembling lips, Peskov said that every effort was being made to eliminate the subversive group and claimed that its aim was to divert attention from the eastern Ukrainian town of Bakhmut. The Ukrainian army is being blamed for the alleged act of sabotage by terrorist Russian officials as if in agreement, although Ukraine denies responsibility for sabotage attacks on Russian territory.
Frankly, it is the raid on Russian territory by a sabotage group that makes us smile and, at the same time, admire. A few armoured personnel carriers and two tanks under the cover of two attack helicopters caused a real panic in the Russian information channels, forced the deployment of forces and resources to bring the situation under control, and guaranteed a sleepless night for Führer Putin. However, the most important message here is very clear: the Diaspora and terrorists cannot feel safe anywhere, neither in the occupied territories of Ukraine nor in the places where the occupying troops are concentrated on the border.
A member of the Belarusian opposition movement on Monday called on the European Union to maintain sanctions on Belarus' state-owned fertiliser producer, warning that lifting them would generate USD 1.5 billion in revenue for Alexander Lukashenko's regime, which is supporting Russia's war in Ukraine. Pavel Latushka, former Belarusian Minister of Culture, now living in exile in Poland, said he feared that the EU might be inclined to lift sanctions on Belaruskali, one of the world's biggest exporters of potash fertiliser.
Mr Latushka heads the opposition group "National Anti-Crisis Board", which is also documenting Mr Lukashenko's alleged involvement in a scheme to deport Ukrainian orphans to camps in Belarus. The group is trying to draw international attention to its findings in order to stop the alleged deportations and bring Lukashenko to justice.
Briefly
The NATO Parliamentary Assembly recognises Russia's crimes against Ukraine as genocide.
A Russian Mi-8 helicopter crashed in the Belgorod region due to careless smoking during a flight.
Sources in the Russian special services say that "73 Russian military personnel and 15 Russian border guards were killed in battles in the Greivoron district of Belgorod region. Several officers were captured".
Kyiv is open to dialogue with African countries offering assistance to end hostilities in Ukraine, but any peace initiative should not be linked to freezing the conflict, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said.
A Ukrainian intelligence unit of 7 soldiers captured 22 marauders from the Wagner "Storm" group.
Lithuania
As Vilnius was shaken by the Ramstein concert in Vingis Park and Lithuania by Tapinas' "transparency" campaign, the mayor of Jonava shook Tapinas, Vilnius and the government that had decided to resign.
When the Minister of Finance, unable to justify her expenses, decided to do the honourable thing and return taxpayers' money, Sinkevičius bravely took on the leader of the transparency drive like a titan.
Accusing the transparency manager of lying, the Mayor of Jonava declared that he had not bought two televisions and showed off his spine, which had gone missing somewhere in the Gediminas 11 building.
This whole story reminds us of the old Driske proverb: 'naked b**iu before the axe'. So, instead of watching mindless TV, we picked up our axes and went to chop wood.
They say that the winter is likely to be very cold.
Pictured here are soldiers of a diversionary group in Belgorod.
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