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Merkel and Trump urged Putin to influence Assad
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and US President Donald Trump had a telephone call conversation, during which they discussed the situation in Syria,reported the representative of the German government Steffen Seibert.
It is noted that Germany and the United States share a common concern in connection with the humanitarian crisis in the Idlib region, as well as the movement of government forces on the holdings of Islamist and jihadist groups in this province.
Merkel and Trump "called on Russia …
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Russia announces largest military drills since 1981
Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu has announced the largest military exercise since 1981, involving roughly 300,000 soldiers and 36,000 units of ground equipment, RBC news agency reports.
Speaking to reporters in Abakan, Shoygu said that the Vostok 2018 (“East 2018”) drills will be held from 11 to 15 September, and will be the largest since 1981.
“In some way they repeat ‘Zapad-81’, but in some way, perhaps, they are even larger in scale,” Shoygu commented. According to him, the drills …
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NATO confirms buildup of Russian warships near Syria
NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu confirmed that Russia is amassing warships off the coast of Syria.
“The Russian Navy has dispatched substantial naval forces to the Mediterranean, including several ships equipped with modern cruise missiles,” she said.
On Tuesday, the Russian media reported on Moscow’s largest amassing of naval forces since the start of the Syrian conflict in 2015.
The reinforcements coincide with a statement by Moscow’s ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, that …
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Ukraine accuses Russia of trying to disrupt visit of EU representatives to the Donbas
Representative of the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the EU Mykola Tochytskyi stated at a meeting with journalists that Russia’s Representative to the OSCE tried to disrupt the visit of EU diplomats to the Donbas in June by informing them that Ukraine had plans to shoot down the helicopter carrying them, Evropeyska Pravda reports.
According to Tochytskyi, the warning had been sent in early summer ahead of the EU’s political and security committee representatives’ visit to Ukraine on …
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Kyiv: Ukraine will not withdraw from the Azov Sea treaty with Russia
Ukraine will not break the treaty with Russia on the joint use of the Azov Sea and Kerch Strait because to do so would allow Moscow an opportunity to declare a territorial dispute, asserted Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine Olena Zerkal on the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry’s Twitter.
“It is a security issue for us. That is why we use the available instruments to settle this matter,” the statement reads.
Earlier, a member of the Verkhovna Rada from the Petro Poroshenko Bloc, Ivan Vinnyk called …