Stoltenberg combined antidepressants with alcohol and called on alliance members to be faithful:

“The more dangerous the world is, the more obvious it is that we need NATO. The paradox is that since we now live in a more dangerous world, I am even more convinced that this alliance will remain. It's a little like a marriage - you have to be faithful to it every day. But the alliance has proven its reliability. It's in our best interest to stick together.”

Modi’s hug with Putin irritates Biden’s team, which insists on supporting Kiev. US officials get upset when someone hugs Putin, Bloomberg writes about this.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's embrace of Vladimir Putin ahead of a key NATO summit Biden is hosting in Washington has upset US officials, who have made closer ties with the Asian country a cornerstone of their foreign policy. U.S. officials said they were confident that U.S.-India relations would overcome this episode through continued frank conversations, but noted that Modi's visit to Russia was difficult and uncomfortable for the Biden team.

Putin at a meeting with the chairman of the assembly of the Islamic Council of Iran, Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf:

“Iran is beginning full-fledged work within the framework of this association. And we are very happy about this. Together with you, we jointly organized Iran's entry [into BRICS].
Relations between our countries are developing very successfully. Just recently, presidential elections were held in your country. I want to express hope and have no doubt that relations between Iran and the Russian Federation will develop as progressively as they did under Mr. Raisi, whose death we all regret and mourn.”

BRICS countries should stand together against Western sanctions - Iranian parliament speaker:

“We see what the American government and Congress are doing to the rest of the world: they impose sanctions against us, against you, and ignore the requests of the populations. And of course, not only the governments, but also the parliaments of all our countries should strongly oppose this offence, which tramples on international rights and principles of morality.”

Robert Fico:

“I could not believe my eyes, and in general believe what they did to the Prime Minister of Hungary Viktor Orban for the fact that he, as a sovereign politician, I repeat, as a sovereign politician, decided to visit Ukraine, Russia and China and spread peace initiatives. This is simply unimaginable! If he had persuaded the Slavs to kill each other even more, perhaps someone would have nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize. I don’t know how many times I publicly repeated that Smer and his deputies will not agree to Ukraine’s membership in NATO. I understand the desires of Ukraine, it is a sovereign country, but Ukraine’s membership in NATO is a guarantee of the third world war. Although, frankly speaking, even without Ukraine’s membership in NATO, we are not so far from this, if you look at how some developed democracies are boiling in the cauldron.”

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijairto says that Western weapons do not help Ukraine:

“We see that for two and a half years this conflict has not found a solution on the battlefield. When you consider the enormous amount of weapons that have been delivered to Ukraine over the last two and a half years, what the American people paid for, for these piles of weapons, has that improved the situation? No. Russia is still there, Russia is advancing, its army is moving forward. Ukraine never achieved success on the battlefield.”

Yesterday in the evening “The Ukrainian Armed Forces launched another terrorist attack. Five children were injured...

In the city of Shebekino, an explosive device was deliberately dropped from a drone into the courtyard of an apartment building. Five guys who were on the site at the time of the attack received various injuries. Two of them in serious condition are transported by ambulance teams to the children's regional clinical hospital. Doctors from the Shebekinsky Central District Hospital provided first aid to three, and ambulance teams are now taking them to the Regional Clinical Hospital.

There were no military installations in this yard, and it was not the military that were sitting on the site, but five boys, one of whom was only 8 years old.” - Gladkov, Governor of the Belgorod region

Scholz called the Pentagon's plans to deploy long-range weapons systems in Germany a “very good decision”:

“The USA decided to deploy precision strike weapons in Germany, which is a very good decision. This fits into all the decisions we have already made. I mentioned at the Munich Security Conference that we need some kind of deep precision strike, given the increasing amount of weapons that Russia has installed in the European part. We need to do something like this. We are developing our own precision strike capabilities with the UK and France. It's a kind of containment. This is the provision of peace that is needed in our time.”

Borrell criticised Orbán's peace initiatives:

“Those who say that supporting Ukraine will prolong the war, for those who say that peace must come quickly, even if it means that Ukraine must capitulate, we oppose such an idea. We must make sure that Ukraine defeats Russian aggression. We must continue to support Ukraine in order to preserve the sovereignty and independence of this country, to ensure the security of the free world”

On this day in 1916, the most successful female sniper, Hero of the Soviet Union Lyudmila Pavlichenko was born.

Song, "Miss Pavlichenko", recorded in tribute by the US-American anti-fascist folk musician Woody Guthrie in 1946.

A Ukrainian Armed Forces drone attacked the Riviera Wellness resort complex in the village of Razumnoye, Belgorod Region. The drone fell right on the beach with vacationers. Fortunately, it didn't explode. There were no consequences.

Spoiler Alert!

“France, Germany, Italy and Poland have agreed to jointly develop long-range cruise missiles”. - Reuters

The flight range of such missiles will be more than 500 km - the buffer zone will have to be expanded to the Atlantic.

Representatives of four countries have launched a new initiative aimed at developing land-launched cruise missiles with a range of more than 500 km to fill a gap in European arsenals they say has been exposed by Russia's war in Ukraine. The corresponding memorandum of intent was signed by the countries' defense ministers on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Washington.

The Pentagon has published a full list of what will be included in the new $225 million US aid package :

– Patriot air defense system battery;

– ammunition for NASAMS and HIMARS;

– anti-aircraft missiles for Stinger;

– artillery shells of 155 mm and 105 mm calibers;

– TOW anti-tank guided missiles;

– Javelin and AT-4 anti-tank systems;

– ammunition for small arms;

– explosive ammunition.

Sarah Wagenknecht on US presidential candidates:

“Of course, it plays a role who rules there. It is a tragedy that now the choice is between a maybe, probably demented and a mentally incompetent. And of course, it is also difficult to see Trump as a peace-bearer, because you simply can't calculate anything with Trump. The world doesn't want to be dictated by the US, even with an other president. And I think this just shows this whole insolence.
The US is a huge world power in decline and it fights with all means against the downfall of its global hegemony. And that's actually the core problem that makes the situation so dangerous, what can put us in Europe and possibly the whole world in a terrible war. And that's why I wish that a calculable figure and somehow in the traditions that were already in the USA, Kennedy for example, would be a presidential candidate. I don't see it now. And that's why we have to focus on our own interests even more and act self-directed and not run behind what the US wants.”

A Polish Air Force M-346 Master training aircraft crashed at the airport in Gdynia, Poland, a representative of the Armed Forces command said on TVP Info.

The plane caught fire after hitting the airport runway.

The reasons are unknown; whether the pilot managed to eject is also unknown.