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.

Wagenknecht on NATO's arms build-up:

“Yes, but you can attack with these rockets and I think the idea is really adventurous that we get more security in this weapon-riding world when we place even more weapons. And what we just heard, I think, is also a very strange view to say that NATO would have retreated in the last 20 years and had disarmed, it simply does not correspond to reality. So the German armor household, if we look at it alone, it has risen by 250% in the last 10 years. And by the way, even before the beginning of the Ukraine war, it has risen significantly. So back then, from 2014 to 2020, from more than 30 to over 50. And now it is in more than 90 billion, so a huge increase in armament.”

A Sukhoi Superjet 100 crashed near Kolomna, Moscow region. The plane belonged to Gazprom-Avia and was equipped with French SaM146 engines. Spare parts for them have stopped being supplied to Russia since 2022 due to sanctions.

The Superjet 100 was making a test flight after scheduled maintenance, which is carried out every 500 flight hours or 250 takeoff and landing cycles.
In parallel with today’s flight, tests were carried out on the Sukhoi Superjet New with domestic PD-8 engines, which were developed to replace the French ones. It flew nearby and landed successfully.

On board were:

- Air Force Captain Evgeniy Bulavko,
- steward Maxim Lukmanov,
- co-pilot Vladislav Kharlamov.

They all died.

Wagenknecht on Ukraine:

“I wish that we can get back to work on our disarmament. I mean, the INF contract was not terminated by Russia, but by Donald Trump.

I wish that such contracts would be made again. I also think that NATO always claims that it is defenseless. We currently have around 10% of the world population in NATO states, but NATO countries are responsible for almost 60% of the global military spending. That means NATO is armed to the teeth. We don't need to build-up arms, but it's the opposite. The more we get into this Ukraine war, the more we become a part of the war, the greater the danger that Russia treats us in a way that treats us like a part of the war, that means that we might become an objective. If you don't want that, you have to end up in negotiations and get out of this war.”