MOSCOW(AFP)-Russian President Vladimir Putin told the Security Council on Friday that additional “anti-terrorism” measures to protect law enforcement-controlled facilities needed to be discussed.
Putin said on Thursday that Russia had suffered a “terrorist attack” in southern Bryansk province, which borders Ukraine, and vowed to quell sabotage groups that were shooting at civilians.
Ukraine meets energy needs despite Russian airstrikes, PM says
Prime Minister Denis Shmichal said on Friday that Ukraine is generating as much electricity as it needs, despite Russian airstrikes spilling into the power grid.
Shmyhal told a press conference that no immediate changes were planned within the government and that reforms would continue.
He also said that Kiev, which has applied to join the NATO military alliance, wants a “concrete decision” from its NATO allies.
Putin is changing laws to ensure national defense orders are properly implemented
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday signed an order allowing the state to suspend directors and shareholders of companies that fail to comply with national defense contracts under martial law.
This decree allows the Ministry of Industry to appoint a new external manager to take over the operations of such enterprises.
Putin said in October that Moscow would take partial control and introduce martial law in four regions of Ukraine that it claimed were its own territory.
A year after the war with Ukraine began, he decided not to apply martial law across Russia, instead effectively putting the economy on a war base and operating armaments factories in three shifts to meet the military’s needs. Operated 24 hours a day.
Kremlin promises ‘measures’ to prevent cross-border raids in Ukraine
The Kremlin said on Friday it would take steps to prevent cross-border raids after Moscow accused “Ukrainian nationalists” of killing two civilians in southern Russia the day before. “We are taking measures to prevent similar events in the future,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Russian President Vladimir Putin will chair his Security Council later on Friday, Peskov added.
On Thursday, Moscow claimed that “Ukrainian nationalists” had invaded Russia’s southern Bryansk region and killed two civilians, but Kiev dismissed the allegations as a “premeditated provocation”.
Wagner boss says Ukrainian Bahmut ‘virtually surrounded’
The leader of Russian militia Wagner said on Friday that his fighters had “virtually besieged” the eastern Ukraine city of Bakhmut, which Russia has been trying to occupy for months.
Yevgeny Prigozhin urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to leave Bakhmut, saying that “the forces of the Wagner paramilitary group have practically surrounded Bakhmut and there is only one road left.”
Russia’s Lavrov says Moscow will not let West blow up gas pipelines again
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday that Russia “will not let the West blow up gas pipelines again” and said that Moscow would no longer rely on the West as an energy partner.
Moscow has suggested that Western countries were responsible for the blasts that damaged the Nord Stream pipelines in September, an assertion they have dismissed, and has called for an international investigation.
EU’s Borrell sees ‘small improvement’ in US talking with Russia
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Friday he saw a “small improvement” in diplomacy with Moscow after a G20 meeting that saw rare US-Russia talks.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken met briefly Thursday with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at the meeting in New Delhi, with the top US diplomat pressing Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.
Borrell noted that Lavrov remained in the room when Western nations criticised Russia, unlike at the last G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in Bali last year, when he stormed out.
(London Post with AP,AFP and Reuters )
