Putin provokes: “Russian citizenship for all Ukrainians” – Europe

Russian troops do not allow themselves any breaks in bombing Ukraine, from Donbass in Kharkiv to the Black Sea, but from Moscow Vladimir Putin also launched a political challenge in Kiev: All Ukrainians, not just those living in occupied areas, will have easier access to Russian citizenship.

Volodymyr Zelensky instead it aims to reverse the fate of the conflict on the ground. His plan includes a counter-offensive in a grand style, with a million soldiers equipped with modern Western weapons, to free the south of the country occupied by the invaders.

Late in the evening White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said that the Iranian government is preparing to supply Russia with drones, including some armed. Our information indicates that Iran is preparing to train Russian forces to use these remotely piloted aircraft, with the first training sessions scheduled for July, “Sullivan said.

Putin wants to win the war with missiles and cannons, but his not hidden goal is to destroy Ukraine as a state entity, in the belief that there is only a people of Russian ethnicity and socio-cultural matrix. Pursuing this obsession, the Tsar decided that “all Ukrainian citizens will have the right to apply for citizenship of the Russian Federation under the simplified procedure”. So it will no longer be necessary to have lived in Russia for five years, have a source of income or have a language exam.

So far, the measure had been adopted in the separatist areas of Donbass and, since last May, in the occupied regions of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, where troops have already started distributing Russian passports.

For Kiev, of course, Putin’s initiative amounts to yet another “violation of integrity and sovereignty“of the country, but at this stage the Ukrainian authorities are working to bring about a change in the conflict, stopping the advance of the enemy.

The program is ambitious (for some Western analysts too ambitious), because it provides for the setting up of a maxi-contingent, equipped with weapons supplied by NATO countries, to recapture the coastal areas of the Black Sea, explained Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov. in an interview with the Times. “We have about 700,000 in the armed forces, plus the national guard, the police and the border guard, and we will reach one million,” added the minister. Zelensky has given specific orders to elaborate a strategy, because the “liberation of these regions is vital for the country”.

Ukraine, Zelensky: ‘We will punish those responsible for the attacks in Donetsk’

–

Erdogan’s phone call with Putin, then with Zelensky on the grain corridors
Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyp Erdogan had a telephone conversation. This was announced by the Turkish presidency, as reported by Tass, adding that the two leaders discussed the Ukrainian crisis and the corridors for grain. “The time has come to act to implement the plan for the creation of corridors for the export of Ukrainian grain,” Erdogan told Putin. The two leaders, the Turkish presidency reported, “discussed the situation in Syria, the situation in Ukraine in the light of Russian military operations, the creation of safe corridors for the export of grain from the Black Sea”. Tass reports it.

Erdogan also had a telephone conversation with the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky on the creation of safe corridors for grain exports in the Black Sea. This was reported by the Anadolu agency, quoting the Communications Directorate of the Turkish Presidency. Stating that the greatest wish is for peace to come to Ukraine, Erdogan stated that Turkey continues to work on the plan prepared by the United Nations for the delivery of Ukrainian cereal products to the world market and stressed that the Ukraine-Russia solution will take place in each case through diplomacy.

Meanwhile the first eight foreign ships arrived in the ports of Ukraine to export agricultural products, while the Ukrainian Navy is committed to ensuring safe transportation. This was announced in the evening on Facebook by the press service of the Navy, reports Ukrinform. “At the request of the Ministry of Infrastructure, naval units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces guarantee the transport of agricultural products by civilian ships through the Bystre entrance of the Danube-Black Sea canal”, the Navy specified. The use of the canal became possible with the liberation of Snake Island from the Russian occupiers.