RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Russia coming together, national pride overflowing, says Putin

Russia is coming together as a country at this important moment in history, and national pride is on the rise, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday.

"Yes, Russia is going through difficult times now; things have never been easy, but, still, today we are seeing a moment of our common consolidation, with our national pride being sharpened, when we are striving at all costs to strengthen the foundations of our spirituality, to create the conditions in the economy, manufacturing, and education of our young people in order to ensure the unconditional future of our country," he said at an awards ceremony.

The recipients of the state awards contribute greatly to this work, Putin noted, expressing his gratitude to them.

The head of state pointed out the remarks made by former head of Tatarstan, current head of the region’s state council Mintimer Shaymiyev, awarded with the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called about "the direction the country has been going in recent years."

"We have become much more self-sufficient. Without self-sufficiency, there can be no sovereignty, and self-sufficiency is being achieved in all areas: in art, in science, in industry and, of course, in the military," Putin said.

** US struggles to explain images of its destroyed hardware inside Russia

President Joe Biden’s administration has suggested that contrary to the footage shared by the Russian military and many other images posted on social media showing US-made military vehicles destroyed in the Belgorod Region, the equipment used by Ukrainian militants in their latest attack on Russian soil wasn’t likely supplied by Washington or its Western allies.

“We’ve seen some of the reports circulating on social media and elsewhere making claims that US-supplied weapons were used in these attacks,” US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters on Tuesday in Washington. “I will say that we’re skeptical at this time of the veracity of these reports.”

Miller suggested that footage of the destroyed vehicles might be fake. 

“We’ve seen a lot of reports on social media and fuzzy pictures on social media and a lot of kind of armchair intelligence analysts making claims,” he said. “We’re skeptical that they’re accurate.”

The images appear to clearly show the disabled US-made equipment, including Humvees and at least one MaxxPro MRAP armored fighting vehicle. Nevertheless, when questioned on why US officials haven’t made a definitive assessment, Miller stood by his claim.

“We don’t have perfect clarity on the information,” he told reporters. “We’re looking at the same pictures you see, the same fuzzy images, and at this time, we are skeptical of their veracity.”

Monday’s attack by a Ukrainian saboteur group targeted the Belgorod district of Grayvoron, where at least one resident was killed and several others injured. The Russian Defense Ministry on Tuesday published an aerial footage purporting to show its destruction of the Ukrainian militant group, which left US-made armor on fire.

Another higher quality video showed multiple damaged and destroyed US-made vehicles scattered around in the aftermath of the attack. The Kiev regime has resorted to launching “terrorist actions” against civilian targets after its forces suffered defeat in Artyomovsk (known as Bakhmut in Ukraine), the ministry said.

US officials denied any responsibility for attacks in Russian territory. “We do not encourage or enable strikes inside Russia, and we’ve made that clear, but as we’ve also said, it’s up to Ukraine to decide how to conduct this war,” Miller said on Monday.

The Pentagon’s press secretary, Air Force Brigadier General Pat Ryder, said the US government hadn’t approved any transfers of equipment to paramilitary organizations outside the Ukrainian armed forces. He added that US officials “regularly communicate to Ukraine” that Washington’s security assistance must be used only inside the country to defend its sovereignty.

Like Miller, Ryder tried to cast doubt on the footage of US-made armored vehicles. “When you see imagery like that – you know, again, something we’ll look into –I don’t know if it’s true or not in terms of the veracity of that imagery.”

** Drone bombs Belgorod street – governor

A civilian vehicle was damaged in yet another suspected Ukrainian drone attack on the Russian city of Belgorod on Tuesday evening, according to the governor of the border region which suffered a deadly militant raid the day before.

“In Belgorod, an explosive device was dropped from a UAV onto the roadway… Bomb experts and emergency services are working at the scene,”Gladkov wrote on Telegram shortly after midnight.

There were no casualties in the attack, according to preliminary information, but at least one civilian car was damaged in the explosion, the official added, sharing a photo of the aftermath. Other footage posted by several Telegram news channels also showed what appeared to be debris of an improvised explosive device.

Some 30 minutes later, Gladkov wrote that the air defenses engaged and shot down a drone above the city. It was unclear if he was talking about the same device that dropped the bomb, but earlier on Tuesday he announced that several more drones had been intercepted in the area.

The incident follows a deadly cross-border raid by Ukrainian militants, which had forced the governor to briefly impose “anti-terrorism operation” regulations in the region.

A group of Ukrainian raiders crossed the border into the Grayvoron district, west of Belgorod city, on Monday, killing at least one villager and injuring several others in their attack. The Russian military described them as a “sabotage-reconnaissance group” and estimated their strength at around 50-200 men, using US-made armored cars. 

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine says Russia prevents Black Sea grain deal port operating

Ukraine accused Russia on Tuesday of effectively cutting the Ukrainian port of Pivdennyi out of a deal allowing safe Black Sea grain exports as Russia complained that it had been unable to export ammonia via a pipeline to Pivdennyi under the pact.

The Black Sea deal - brokered last July by the United Nations and Turkey and extended last week for two months - covers the wartime export of food and fertiliser from the Ukrainian ports of Odesa, Chornomorsk and Pivdennyi.

The U.N. expressed concern on Monday that Pivdennyi had not received any ships since May 2 under the deal.

Ukrainian Deputy Renovation Minister Yuriy Vaskov accused Russia of a "gross violation" of the agreement. All ships are inspected by a joint team of Russian, Ukrainian, Turkish and U.N. inspectors, but Vaskov said the Russian inspectors had refused to inspect ships bound for Pivdennyi since April 29.

"They (Russia) have now found an effective way to significantly reduce (Ukrainian) grain exports by excluding the port of Pivdennyi, which handles large tonnage vessels, from the initiative," Vaskov said in written comments on Tuesday.

Pivdennyi is the largest port included in the deal in terms of throughput. Restoration ministry data show it is storing about 1.5 million tonnes of food items for future export to 10 countries, with 26 ships due to come for them.

U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters on Tuesday that Russia's actions were "a clear violation of their commitments" under the grain deal, calling on Moscow to "stop holding global food supplies hostage."

The Russian embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Miller's remarks.

AMMONIA

The Black Sea grain deal was agreed to help tackle a global food crisis aggravated by Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The pact also covers ammonia, which Russia transported to Pivdennyi via pipeline for export before the war.

Russia had threatened not to renew the Black Sea deal unless a list of demandsrelated to its own food and fertiliser exports was met. Restarting the ammonia pipeline is one of those demands, which the United Nations has been trying to broker.

Russia used to pump up to 2.5 million tonnes of ammonia annually for export via the pipeline from Togliati. Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia on Tuesday said that amount of ammonia could "produce 7 million tonnes of fertilisers."

"This amount of fertiliser would allow to produce enough food to supply to 200 million people. These deliveries should have started at the same time as those of Ukrainian food. However this never happened," he told the U.N. Security Council.

"The deficit of ammonia on the world markets stands at 70% due to the shortfall in volumes," Nebenzia said.

A Ukrainian government source told Reuters on Friday Kyiv would consider allowing Russian ammonia to transit its territory for export if the Black Sea grain deal was expanded to include more Ukrainian ports and a wider range of commodities.

Uralchem, Russia's biggest potash and ammonium nitrate producer, expects the opening of an ammonia export terminal near the Black Sea to make the pipeline across Ukraine much less important, the company's CEO said.

While Russian exports of food and fertiliser are not subject to Western sanctions, Moscow says restrictions on payments, logistics and insurance have amounted to a barrier to shipments.

Ukraine accused Moscow of slowing ship inspections under the Black Sea deal, which Russia denies.

"It is not working as it should. Russia continues to slow it down as much as possible," Vaskov said.

According to U.N. data, more than 30 million tonnes of food products have been exported so far under the Black Sea deal.

Tass/RT/Reuters