Dmitry Peskov

The deployment of NATO military facilities near Russia's borders is a reason for "special attention," a Kremlin spokesman said on June 18. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Joe Biden have begun to hold talks in an expanded format.

The presidents of Russia and United States of America, Vladimir Putin and Joseph Biden, will hold their first bilateral meeting today at Villa La Grange in Geneva. The agenda of the Russian-American summit includes issues related to cooperation between the two countries.

The United States and western European members of the U.N. Security Council called on May 26 for the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to investigate Belarus' diversion of a European flight and arrest of a dissident on board.

Their call came hours after a defiant President Alexander Lukashenko on May 26 defended the action, lashing out at critics at home and abroad.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to discuss with his Ukrainian counterpart Vladimir Zelensky Crimea in the context of border cooperation between the two countries' regions, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

"Russian President has ordered the government to provide aid and medical and psychological assistance to injured, wounded children, to provide the necessary assistance to the families of the victims," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, adding that the Russian guard had been given special instructions to pass a new decree on the types of weapons that can be used in civilian traffic.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has not yet been able to speak to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to discuss the escalating conflict in eastern Ukraine despite lodging a request to do so, Zelenskiy's spokeswoman said on Monday.

Russia announced the start of mass military drills, ratcheting up tensions with neighboring Ukraine amid Western concerns about the risk of renewed fighting.

More than 4,000 training exercises will be held in military districts across Russia in April, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Tuesday, in comments posted on the ministry's website.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will be getting his first vaccination against COVID-19 on Tuesday, but out of sight of the cameras, his spokesman said, prompting questions about whether the gesture will boost comparatively low immunization rates in Russia.

The Kremlin said on Friday that Moscow always hoped for the best but prepared for the worst when it was asked about the possibility of a new Cold War between the United States and Russia.