International relations

During the night, Ukrainian forces targeted Melitopol twice with long-range multi-barreled rocket launchers, said Vladimir Rogov, a member of the main council of the state administration of the Zaporozhye region.

The Commerce Department said the targeted companies had supplied items to Russian “entities of concern” before the February 24 invasion

On the first day of its presidency of the Council of the European Union, the Czech Republic announced that it was reducing the staff of the Russian embassy in Prague to the number of Czech officials in Moscow.

The news was announced by the country's foreign minister Jakub Kulhanek at a press conference after a government meeting, quoted by Bulgarian media "SEGA".

An unstable world could get even more dangerous if NATO does not remain strong and united, the head of the alliance said on June 30 at the end of a summit where Western leaders labeled Russia "a direct threat" to the security of their nations.

Just to recall, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Syria announced on Wednesday that the country has decided to recognize the independence of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DNR) and Lugansk People's Republic (LNR).

"Russia is open to dialogue on ensuring strategic stability, preserving non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and improving the situation in the field of arms control," the Russian president told participants in the 10th St. Petersburg International Legal Forum.
He assessed that the actions of the Kiev regime in Donbas can only be described as a crime against humanity.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that Moscow is not concerned about the possible accession of Helsinki and Stockholm to the alliance while warning of a mirror response to the deployment of NATO bases in Finland and Sweden.

The United States announced late Wednesday that it had transferred a billion in economic aid to Ukraine as part of a total of billion promised to Kyiv in May, BTA reported.

During a meeting in Madrid, Turkish and US Presidents Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Joe Biden agreed to "continue close consultations" between Washington and Ankara, the White House reported.

The two leaders discussed the candidacies of Sweden and Finland for NATO membership, the war in Ukraine, and the situation in the Aegean Sea and Syria.

The United States vowed to reinforce Europe's defences in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, as NATO declared Moscow the West's greatest threat - prompting Vladimir Putin to lash out at the alliance's "imperial ambitions".