Russia

MOSCOW, July 5. /TASS/: Ukraine is planning to conduct a terrorist attack on the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), with potential consequences affecting the entire globe, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Sputnik radio on Wednesday.

"[Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky is going to conduct a terror attack on the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant," the diplomat said.

MOSCOW, July 5. /TASS/: Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky is planning to blow up the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) in the run-up to NATO’s July summit and then pin the terrorist attack on Russia, thereby dragging the alliance into the conflict, Leonid Slutsky, leader of the LDPR party and chairman of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs, said on Wednesday.

MOSCOW, July 5. /TASS/: Ukraine’s counteroffensive is doomed to fail as the Russian military has the edge over its adversary in all respects, Jean-Bernard Pinatel, a retired French general and the owner of the company called LexisNexis Business Information Solutions, said in a video interview provided to TASS.

July 4 (Reuters) - Russia and Ukraine on Tuesday accused each other of plotting to stage an attack on the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station, long the subject of mutual recriminations and suspicions.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he told his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, about Russian "dangerous provocations" at the plant in southeastern Ukraine.

Russian troops seized the station, Europe's largest nuclear facility with six reactors, in the days following the Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

04 July 2023; MEMO: Russia, on Tuesday, restated a demand for its state agricultural bank to be reconnected to the global SWIFT payments system and said it would not accept a reported compromise proposal, Reuters reports.

With 13 days remaining until expiry of the deal that has allowed Ukraine to export grain from its Black Sea ports despite Russia's invasion, Moscow said there had been no progress on any of its key demands, including the banking issue.

MOSCOW, July 4. /TASS/: Russian air defense forces shot down two Ukrainian Su-25 ground attack planes, intercepted five rockets of the US-made HIMARS multiple launch rocket system and destroyed 14 enemy drones over the past day in the special military operation in Ukraine, Defense Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov reported on Tuesday.

MOSCOW, July 4. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin has welcomed Iran’s accession to membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), noting the importance of assisting Tehran in adapting to all of the alliance’s processes.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran will now participate in our organization in a full-fledged format. I would like to extend congratulations on this occasion to the president of Iran, Mr. Ebrahim Raisi, and sincere greetings to him," the Russian leader said at the SCO’s virtual online summit being hosted by India, the current one-year SCO chair.

MOSCOW, July 4. /TASS/: An armed attack in Chechnya on journalist Yelena Milashina and lawyer Alexander Nemov was a serious incident requiring vigorous response measures, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

MOSCOW, July 4 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin reassured Asian leaders of Russia's stability and unity on Tuesday in his first appearance at an international forum since the country was rocked by a brief armed mutiny last month.

"The Russian people are consolidated as never before," Putin told a virtual meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a group that also includes China and India.

MOSCOW, July 4 (Xinhua) -- Five Ukrainian drones were shot down over the New Moscow region in Russia on Tuesday morning with no casualties reported, causing disruptions at the Vnukovo airport for almost three hours.

According to RIA Novosti, the Russian Defense Ministry said that the drones were targeting objects in the Moscow region and the New Moscow region, and that four of them were destroyed by air defense and one by electronic warfare.