In addition to the existing forces, NATO intends to create a 30,000 strong rapid response force in Europe in case of a Russian attack, writes the German news outlet Welt am Sonntag (WamS).  

Representatives of 23 EU governments have signed a declaration on their intentions to participate in a “permanent structured security and defense collaboration”. The final decision is scheduled to be made in December.

There are plans for the rapid response forces to have several hundreds of military …

RIA Novosti correspondent in Lithuania Irina Vysokovich said that the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) tried to recruit her. This supposedly took place on June 1 in Kherson, where she had gone to cover the trial of Kirill Vyshinsky, head of RIA Novosti Ukraine, RIA Novosti reports.

According to Vysokovich, unknown persons in civilian clothes approached her at the entrance to the court hall, after which one of the women started accusing her of working for the First Baltic TV channel, which is …

Israel and Russia have not reached agreement on the withdrawal of Iranian forces from the Syrian southwestern border with Israel, reports the newspaper Times of Israel with reference to Israeli officials.

Senior Israeli official also told Kaan TV Channel that Israel is negotiating this issue both with the Russians and the US and wants to achieve the removal of Iranian forces from all of Syria, not just the south.

Earlier, the Israeli media, in particular Channel 10, reported that Israel …

During the visit to the border checkpoint in Divin, in the Kobryn district, the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko offered Russia to determine the current status of border guards on the border of the two countries, BelTA news agency reports.  According to Lukashenko, Belarusian border guards “should not act like Russians” because “they themselves do not understand what they want and what they are doing at the Belarusian-Russian border”.

 “They should decide. Once they do it — it is not …

Up to 40% of the strawberry crop in Poland may remain unharvested due to the lack of workers from the Eastern border, namely from Ukraine, said President of the National Association of Fruit and Vegetable Producers, Andrzej Gajowniczek, the Polish radio reports. 

According to Gajowniczek, it is not only the crop of strawberries that may remain unharvested—cherries and raspberries are also under threat, due to changes in the legal and administrative procedures. 

“The workers from Ukraine have …

Supporters of the Russian President Vladimir Putin, who receive money from Moscow, are operating actively in the European Parliament, Ukrinform reports, with reference to a statement by the Lithuanian MEP and chairman of the EU Informal Group “Friends of European Ukraine”, Petras Auštrevičius.

“We have a lot of people with impartial views, and we have information about the situation in Ukraine—we are Ukraine's strong supporters,” Auštrevičius stated. “We do our best in this respect. At the …

Damascus stated that the US must withdraw from Syria.  “Presence of the US in Syria is illegal. The Americans must leave the military base that they established in the town of al-Tanf,” stated the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Syria, Walid Muallem, at a press conference in Damascus, Mehr News Agency reports.

"Do not believe the statements about the security agreement in southern Syria until the United States withdraws its troops from the al-Tanf," the minister said.

Muallem thanked Iran for …

The newspaper Kommersant reported that Russia will appoint a new representative in charge of the so-called to the Donetsk Luhansk People’s Republics, to replace Vladislav Surkov.

According to the newspaper, government reshuffle in the Kremlin will affect advisers and assistants to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Surkov is Putin’s aide in matters related to the Commonwealth of Independent States, South Ossetia, Abkhazia and Ukraine.

Mikhail Babich, whose appointment as Russia’s ambassador …