The World Blog by humble servant.

Russia doesn’t believe the Ukraine peace proposal, that the Italian government reportedly shared with Kiev and Western allies, to be a viable solution to the ongoing crisis, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with RT Arabic. The peace plan does not appear to be the potential breakthrough that some Italian officials claim it to be, Lavrov said. Italian Foreign Minister “Luigi Di Maio has been active in the media promoting the Italian four-point initiative. But we only read about it,” The foreign minister said, referring to the fact that Italy apparently wouldn’t officially share its idea with Russia. If judged by what the media said about the proposal, it makes Moscow “pity the lack of comprehension by its author of what is going on and their lack of knowledge of the subject and the history of the issue,” Russia’s top diplomat said. The most glaring part is that the Italian proposal reportedly envisions the future of Crimea and Donbass as autonomous parts of Ukraine...

ussian troops have taken over the town of Liman in the northern Donetsk region, the government in Kiev admitted on Thursday evening. Ukrainian forces have reportedly withdrawn west-southwest towards Slavyansk. “We have lost the town of Liman,” Alexey Arestovich, adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said in a livestream on Thursday. Though Arestovich cited “unconfirmed reports,” Russian military correspondent Alexander Kots posted a video of Russian troops in the city shortly thereafter, captioned “Liman is ours.” Ukrainian troops “fled” west and southwest, Kots added, while covering their retreat with artillery fire. The storming of Liman lasted less than a week, with Russian forces entering the city on May 23. There were unconfirmed reports that as many as 500 Ukrainian troops had surrendered. By Wednesday, three quarters of Liman were allegedly under Russian control, with the remaining Ukrainian troops said to be fortifying the industrial zone on the southwestern e...

CNN apologized on Thursday to China’s Global Times newspaper for a broadcast on Wednesday in which US Representative Michael McCaul accused a Chinese delegation of remaining seated during a standing ovation for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at a World Economic Forum meeting. The seated delegation were Vietnamese, according to Chinese reports. McCaul, a Republican from Texas, told CNN on Wednesday that he had been sitting in front of a “Chinese delegation” during Zelensky’s speech at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, on Monday. McCaul said that as leaders in attendance stood and clapped for the Ukrainian president, this delegation remained seated in silence, before walking out of the auditorium. CNN displayed video footage of the diplomats in their seats, and McCaul told the network that the scene “sent a clear message they do not support Ukraine.” However, Beijing denied that its diplomats were even in the room at the time, and Foreign Minist...

Ukraine has “a wonderful lever of pressure” on Hungary via the Druzhba – which translates to ‘Friendship’ – oil pipeline, Ukrainian energy minister adviser Lana Zerkal claimed on Thursday. Speaking during an online discussion at the Kiev Security Forum, Zerkal criticized the policy of the Hungarian government, which is blocking a sixth round of EU sanctions, one which would ban Russian oil. The Western countries have been imposing harsh restrictions since late February, when Moscow launched its military attack on Ukraine. In Zerkal’s opinion, Hungary is using the Russian military offensive as an instrument to achieve its own goals and thinks that now it “can demand anything” from the EU. “Ukraine has a wonderful lever of pressure in its hands – it’s the Druzhba oil pipeline,” Zerkal said, adding that “something could happen” with Hungary’s separate line of Druzhba. “And, in my opinion, it would be very appropriate if something happened to it. But, again, it is in the hands of the ...

Kiev has reportedly admitted its forces in Donbass are greatly outnumbered by the Russian troops. Moscow’s forces have seven soldiers in Eastern Ukraine against each Ukrainian one, a Ukraine-based ABC correspondent, Tom Soufi Burridge, said on Twitter on Wednesday, citing Sergey Nikiforov, a spokesman for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Moscow has never officially revealed the total number of troops involved in what it calls a military operation in Ukraine. Before the conflict began, however, the Western media and officials made some estimates about the number of military personnel Russia had amassed on Ukraine’s borders. A week before the conflict broke out in late February, the US said that Russia had between 169,000 and 190,000 troops in the region. In mid-February, Estonian intelligence put that number at around 150,000. The figures revealed by Nikiforov put earlier statements made by Zelensky into question. Last week, the Ukrainian president said that Kiev had “700,000 p...

President Vladimir Putin told the Eurasian Economic Forum on Thursday that Russia has maintained its position as the world’s leading wheat exporter. “We have become absolutely competitive at the global level, in the world markets,” the Russian president said during the forum’s plenary session, which was held in video format. He noted that until recently, the country was buying wheat, and now it is the largest exporter. Putin acknowledged that “countries like the United States or China produce more, but they also consume more,” while Russia has become “number one in the foreign market.”

Western nations that are trying to punish others with economic sanctions are overestimating their strength, Russian President Vladimir Putin said during the Eurasian Economic Forum on Thursday. “More and more countries in the world want and will pursue independent policy,” he said at the international event. “No ‘world policeman’ can halt this natural global process. No one is that strong.” “They face challenges inside their nations, and I hope they realize that this policy has absolutely no prospects,” the Russian leader said, referring to the US and its Western allies. Russia became the world’s most sanctioned nation after the West retaliated against it for attacking Ukraine in February. The restrictions were touted by officials as a way to inflict a cost on Russia and destabilize its economy to coerce Moscow into a retreat. However, many nations refused to join the sanctions drive, including NATO member Turkey. Global markets, which were already under pressure due to the Covid-...

President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia is not going to leave the global economic arena despite Western attempts to squeeze it out. It is simply impossible, he stressed. According to Putin, who was addressing the Eurasian Economic Forum via video link, the countries that are seeking to harm Russia with the sanctions are hurting themselves. “Russia is getting stronger in some ways because of the sanctions,” he said. The president noted that today, more and more countries in the world want to and will pursue an independent economic policy. The priority today is the development of national technologies in key areas, and Russia has taken the necessary steps, Putin said. “Russia starts acquiring new competences, focusing on breakthrough technologies,” he explained, adding that the government will not only implement import substitution but will also develop domestic industries. Regarding the mass withdrawal of foreign companies from Russia, the president said other compa...

The European Union has frozen roughly €23 billion ($24.5 billion) worth of assets of the Russian Central Bank, Reuters reported, citing EU Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders, who revealed the figure at a news conference on Wednesday. The amount is much smaller than expected out of the reported $300 billion frozen by the US and its allies as part of Ukraine-related sanctions against Russia. According to Reynders, some €10 billion ($10.68 billion) worth of physical assets linked to Russian businessmen and officials, their yachts and villas, for instance, were also arrested. The official did not mention whether all 27 EU member-states had reported the seizure of Russian assets and their amount. This is the first time the EU has revealed the amount it froze in connection with the conflict in Ukraine. Previously, Moscow confirmed that a total of about $300 billion of the central bank’s assets had been seized globally, which is roughly half the Bank of Russia’s overall reserves. Of ...

srael will not permit Germany to sell Spike anti-tank missiles to Ukraine, according to a report by US outlet Axios on Wednesday. The missile is produced in Germany under an Israeli license, and Tel Aviv has to approve its export. The Pentagon asked the top Israeli Defense Ministry official for approval during his visit to Washington earlier this month, but was denied. Israel is concerned that Russian soldiers could be killed by Israeli-made weapons, which would then lead to Moscow harming Tel Aviv’s security interests in Syria, an anonymous senior Israeli official told Axios. The issue came up two weeks ago, when the director general of the Israeli Ministry of Defense, Amir Eshel, visited the US. The Pentagon’s undersecretary for policy, Colin Kahl, had asked permission for Germany to export Spikes to Ukraine, according to the officials who spoke with Axios. Eshel said no, telling Kahl that Israel will only supply Kiev with non-lethal military equipment. ‘Go f**k yourselves’, Zele...

High-profile Ukrainian presidential adviser Alexey Arestovich has resorted to obscene language to criticize those in the West urging Kiev to cede part of the country’s territory to Russia for the sake of peace. “Go f**k yourselves with such proposals, you dumb f**ks, to trade Ukrainian territory a little bit! Are you f**king crazy? Our children are dying, soldiers are stopping shells with their own bodies, and they are telling us how to sacrifice our territories. This will never happen,” he insisted in an interview on Wednesday. Arestovich criticized the logic of “bleating” voices encouraging Ukraine “to curb its appetite” and to give Russia the territories it supposedly wants, as this would allow Kiev to “establish a comprehensive peace and to return to business as usual.” Another adviser of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Mikhail Podoliak, took to Telegram on Wednesday to address the “pro-Russian lobbyists in Europe.” “We do not sell our citizens, territories or sovereign...