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Ukrainian President invites Pope Francis to visit Donbas
During his visit to the Vatican, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky invited Pope Francis to visit Donbas, as reported by the press service of the Ukrainian President.
Zelensky said that the pontiff is very much expected in Ukraine, where he has extremely great support and trust.
"I invited him to Ukraine. I am sure that he will visit Ukraine - not only the capital. I said that in order to fully understand what is happening in the east, we have to visit the east of Ukraine," Zelensky said …
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Ukraine to build two military bases in Donbas compliant with NATO standards
The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense will build two military bases in the Donbas. Both military facilities will meet all NATO standards, stated the Ukrainian Defense Minister Andriy Zagorodnyuk.
According to Zagorodnyuk, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense has planned the construction of two military bases, fully in compliance with the standards of the North Atlantic Alliance. One will be built in Mariupol, the second - in Sievierodonetsk. At the same time, the construction terms and the timelines …
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Poland to stop importing Russian coal
Polish state-owned companies intend to stop buying coal from Russia, said Polish Minister of State Assets Jacek Sasin in a broadcast of radio RMF FM.
In addition to Russia, the state-owned company will stop importing coal from South America, Columbia, Mozambique and the US.
According to information cited by the Polish newspaper Dziennik Gazeta Prawna, in 2018 Poland purchased 20 million tons of coal from abroad, of which 13.5 million was from Russia. The primary importer of Russian coal is …
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Lukashenko: Belarus to repay Russia $1 billion per year on old loans
Belarus will pay Russia $1 billion per year for previous loans and will not ask for “any money at all”, and proposes “honest, transparent and sincere” bilateral cooperation, said Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, as cited by BelTA.
The US pays Russia “1.5% for keeping their foreign currency there” but Belarus pays 4-6%, Lukashenko explained: “This just couldn’t make us happier – paying Russia $1 billion per year. They’ve invested their money successfully.”
The president remarked that …
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Russia sends out military patrols without Turkey again in Syria
For the second time this week, Turkish soldiers have not joined their Russian colleagues in the joint patrolling of Syria, said Major General Yury Borenkov, director of the Russian Reconciliation Center for Syria, as cited by Russia’s Defense Ministry website.
According to Borenkov, because Turkey did not show up, Russian troops patrolled Syria’s Al-Hasakah region independently. The Russian military police has also continued to patrol the Aleppo province. Borenkov noted that the patrols took …
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Russian vice governor becomes ‘prime minister’ of DPR
Vladimir Pashkov, former vice governor of Russia’s Irkutsk region, has become the so-called “prime minister” of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR).
Pashkov has been appointed acting Prime Minister. The separatist media has not yet published any official statements about a cabinet reshuffle in the DPR, but the change has been reported on the website of the terrorists’ ringleader, Denis Pushilin.
Pashkov is known to be a Russian citizen. In 2005, he was vice mayor of the city of Bratsk in …
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Russia accuses Israel of nearly shooting down passenger plane during air attack on Syria
The Russian Defense Ministry accused its Israeli counterparts of creating a dangerous situation in which a passenger plane came under fire when it was about to land at Damascus airport.
“This was an airplane on the route from Tehran to Damascus. There were 172 passengers on board at the time of the attack, “ Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said.
According to the general, on the night of Thursday, February 6, four Israeli F-16 fighter jets unexpectedly struck the suburbs of …
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Ukrainian rocket manufacturer purchases aluminum from Russia
In a recent press release, the Yuzhny Machine-Building Plant (Yuzhmash) has confirmed the media reports that the company has bought aluminum from a supplier in Russia.
Yuzhmash also said that the journalists’ speculation about the purpose of the purchase was correct, namely that the aluminum in question will be used to make the basic structure of the first stage of an Antares launch vehicle.
“We report furthermore that the number of Yuzhmash’s suppliers is in the hundreds. They represent …
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Kremlin reports ‘tragic death of Russian soldiers’ in Syria
The Russian Foreign Ministry has released a statement reporting the “tragic death of Russian and Turkish soldiers” in Syria’s Idlib province.
“Between December 2019 and January 2020, terrorists from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham who had captured the de-escalation zone initiated their aggressive forays into and attacks against the positions of the Syrian government forces in the neighboring cities, especially Aleppo. In December 2019, we documented more than 1,400 militant attacks using tanks, machine …
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Number of Belarusian supporters of union with Russia down by a third
The number of Belarusian citizens who support the idea of a union state with Russia has declined by 20 percentage points in the last year, Kommersant reports, citing the results of a sociological study by Andrey Vardomatsky’s Belarusian Analytical Workshop.
While at the start of 2019, more than 60% of Belarusians advocated a union with Russia, by December this figure had dropped to nearly 40%.
At the same time, sociologists have been observing a growth in the number of supporters of Belarus …