Vladimir Putin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko attended a meeting of the Supreme Council of the State of the Union in St. Petersburg, Russia.
During the meeting, the two men will seek to approve the integration between the two nations for the next 3 years, according to the Kremlin.
The Belarus-Russia state has been made up of a series of treaties that deepen economic and defense cooperation since the 1990s.
Some experts have warned that Vladimir Putin is increasingly bragging about his neighbor Russia.
Family and friends of jailed British-Russian dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza have urged Lord Cameron to act after he disappeared from a prison colony in Siberia (see previous post)..
Bill Browder, Kara-Murza’s friend and head of the Global Campaign for Magnitsky Justice, said: “As a British citizen, our Foreign Secretary, David Cameron, deserves to use any and all tools to secure Vladimir’s release. The government will have to act decisively before he is released. He dies in prison, which will probably happen if he is not released. “
MPs also called on the government to act, House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Alicia Kearns said.
Kearns said: “(Russian President Vladimir) messing with Vladimir Kara-Murza is a sign of weakness and shows how much Putin fears those who constitute freedom of thought and will challenge his kleptocracy.
“Kara-Murza is a political prisoner and British citizen; my thoughts go out to his incredible wife, family and friends.
“This is yet another example of Putin’s Russia’s disregard for the rule of law and the use of arbitrary detention to deter dissent. The UK will need to appoint a committed National Hostage Officer to better protect and preserve British citizens wrongfully detained abroad. “
The wife of Russian-British dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza has said he has been taken from the Siberian penal colony where he had been imprisoned since September and his whereabouts are now unknown.
Writing about X, Evgenia Kara-Murza said that her husband was put in solitary confinement during the four months he spent in the IK-6 agreement in Omsk.
In the past, convicted criminals disappeared for long periods of time while being transferred via exercises or criminal vehicles between emissions from the Russian penal system.
That’s what happened in December to opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who lost contact with his family and lawyers for about three weeks while being transferred to a penal colony in the Arctic.
Kara-Murza, who suffers from nervous disorders after surviving two poison attacks, was sentenced last April to 25 years in prison for treason and spreading “false information” about Russia’s war in Ukraine.
He denied the charges and said he was facing a discovery trial.
The Russian-installed mayor of Donetsk has reported at least three civilians have been killed in a rocket strike.
Alexei Kulemzin said that Ukraine was the attack on the eastern Ukrainian city, which is lately under Russian occupation.
Unverified footage on social media showed a car on fire and what appeared to be two bodies lying on a street.
Sky News cannot immediately verify Mr Kulemzin’s claim.
Ukrainian soldiers from an air defense unit stand next to a Turkish-made Browning gun near kyiv. . .
A senior European Union official denied that member states were discussing monetary coercion to force Hungary to settle for investments for Ukraine.
An earlier report by the Financial Times said the EU was making plans to sabotage Hungary’s economy if it blocked a new aid package for Ukraine at a summit this week.
“The document referred to in the Financial Times article is an information note drafted by the Council’s secretariat on its own and describing the current scenario of the Hungarian economy,” he said.
“This is a factual paper which does not reflect the status of the ongoing negotiations. The note does not outline any specific plan relating to the [long-term EU budget] and Ukraine Facility, nor does it outline any plan relating to Hungary,” it said.
The official added that budget negotiations are “ongoing” and “have always been looking for a compromise” appropriate for all member states.
A prominent war expert says the US is on the verge of lessening its support for, or even withdrawing from, NATO – with potentially catastrophic consequences for Europe.
Phillips P OBrien, professor of strategic studies at the University of St Andrews, wrote in an analysis piece that the potential return of Donald Trump to the White House could see the US “neuter” the Western military alliance.
It’s something that would begin a “spiral of events” in Europe, he says.
European countries have largely outsourced much of their military functions and strategic and security thinking to states through NATO.
If the United States leaves the military alliance, Ukraine’s victory will depend on European countries, he said. Obrien.
He argues that Europe is sufficient to do so if it has the political will, pointing to a recent report by the Estonian Ministry of Defense that suggests that committing 0. 25% of annual GDP to Ukraine would provide “more than sufficient resources. “
“Excluding the United States, this figure would be higher, but it would be financially unbearable,” Mr. O’Brien said.
However, he warned of “chaos” if European states showed sufficient unity and determination.
“The nightmare situation would be for states close to Russia to double their aid to Ukraine, while the more western ones would impose a deal on Putin’s terms. At that point, Europe itself could fracture,” he said.
This may lead to states such as Poland and the Baltics coming to Ukraine’s aid, which “could leave NATO’s Eastern Front vulnerable and cause a crisis within the EU and ‘European NATO’.
Potentially, it is possible that even Poland or Ukraine will establish their own nuclear programs.
“The U. S. has the largest nuclear arsenal in the world, but without the U. S. , the French and British, with their much smaller arsenals, would be Europe’s only nuclear deterrent,” O’Brien said.
“But if Central and Eastern Europe felt abandoned by those powers, it’s not hard to believe in a Polish or even Ukrainian nuclear program. “
Peter Szijjarto arrived in Ukraine for talks with senior officials.
This comes days before an EU summit where member states are expected to agree on a monetary aid package for Ukraine.
Hungary had said in the past that it would block any additional monetary aid to Ukraine, but this morning hinted that it was willing to reach a compromise after the EU drew up plans to hit Budapest’s economy.
Szijarto will travel to Uzhhorod, western Ukraine, with his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba, and the president’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak.
“A frank and constructive dialogue is expected to improve relations between states,” the Ukrainian president’s office said on its official channel on the Telegram messaging app alongside a photo of Mr Szijjarto, Mr Kuleba and Mr Yermak.
Anonymous Indian government sources have advised India to distance itself from Russia, according to the Reuters news agency.
Russia is India’s largest arms supplier, but the war in Ukraine has limited Moscow’s ability to procure ammunition.
The sources said India would act carefully in order to avoid pushing Russia closer to China.
Meanwhile, Indian thinktank Observer Research Foundation’s Russia expert, Nandan Unnikrishnan, said India was unlikely to sign “any major military deal” with Russia because it would cross a red line with the US.
The Institute for the Study of War, a U. S. -based think tank, said it had observed recent reports that Russia was not capable of producing missiles and artillery ammunition at the pre-war level for its own forces, making its ability to export weapons unlikely. . a pre-war degrees.
Moscow claimed its forces had taken the village of Tabaivka in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region.
Ukraine has denied this.
Volodymyr Fityo, head of communications for Ukraine’s ground forces, said on national television: “This corresponds to reality. Fighting is taking up positions near this town. “
We’ll tell you about it as we have it.