Russia

MOSCOW, May 19 (Xinhua) -- Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov and U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley held a phone call on Thursday to discuss issues of mutual interest, including the situation in Ukraine.

The conversation was initiated by the American side, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a brief statement, without providing details.

MOSCOW, May 19. /TASS/: Russia is restoring oil exports, it is impossible to talk about a crisis in the industry, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Thursday.

MOSCOW, May 19. /TASS/: The village of Solokhi in the Belgorod Region came under fire from Ukrainian territory several times over the past few days, with damage caused to 59 houses, Regional Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Thursday.

"Over the past few days, our border village of Solokhi has been shelled several times from Ukrainian territory. Yesterday, the shells damaged 19 homes, including 14 for the second time. Overall, recovery works will have to be carried out in 59 houses," the governor wrote on his Telegram channel.

MOSCOW, May 19. /TASS/:  Russia’s new Angara carrier rocket will no longer launch mock-up spacecraft and will instead orbit satellites, Head of Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin told reporters after his speech at the New Horizons educational marathon on Thursday.

"We will no longer launch mass-dimensional mock-ups. As soon as satellites are ready, there will be launches," the Roscosmos chief said.

Angara rockets are now at the spaceport and will be launched as the operational need arises, Rogozin said.

MOSCOW, 19 May. /TASS/: Russia will give a positive response as soon as Ukraine expresses willingness to return to the negotiating table, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko told reporters on Thursday.

"The negotiation process was not interrupted by us. It was put on pause by our Ukrainian partners. As soon as they express their willingness to return to the negotiating table, we will respond positively," he said.

"The main thing is to have something to discuss," Rudenko stressed.

MOSCOW, May 18. /TASS/: The Western countries have undermined strategic stability in Europe and the Middle East and jeopardized the architecture of security in the Asia-Pacific Region, as well as destabilized the world situation in general, the secretary of Russia’s Security Council, Nikolay Patrushev, said in a message of greeting to foreign ambassadors who are meeting with the Security Council’s staff on Wednesday.

MOSCOW, May 18. /TASS/: Moscow will resort to articles 5 and 6 of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on their Destruction to investigate Washington’s research into biological weapons in Ukraine, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a news briefing on Wednesday.

MOSCOW, May 18. /TASS/: Russia’s COVID-19 case tally rose by 4,732 over the past day to 18,273,690, the anti-coronavirus crisis center reported on Wednesday.

In relative terms, the growth rate reached 0.03%.

As many as 2,395 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 in Russia over the past day, down 13.6% from a day earlier. The number of hospitalized patients decreased in 50 regions, while in 29 regions the figure increased. The situation remained unchanged in six regions. A day earlier, 2,772 people were rushed to hospitals.

MOSCOW, May 18. /TASS/: Work is in progress on the designer documentation for the light fighter jet Checkmate. Its serial production will begin in 2027, Rostec corporation’s CEO Sergey Chemezov said at a meeting with President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday.

"We have plans for starting serial production in 2027," he said.

So far, a prototype has been created and designer documentation is being developed.

May 18 (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Wednesday Ukraine was showing no willingness to continue peace talks, but officials in Kyiv blamed Russia for the lack of progress Russia.

The last known face-to-face peace negotiations were on March 29. Officials said contacts had continued remotely but both sides said on Tuesday that the talks had stagnated.

"Negotiations are not progressing and we note the complete unwillingness of Ukrainian negotiators to continue this process", Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday.