FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
Just a few days before the expiration of the ultimatum that President Trump gave to Putin, tensions are at their highest point and the violation of one of the greatest taboos is once again being violated: that of nuclear weapons.
Before leaving Mar-a-Lago for the weekend, on Friday evening, Trump stated in an interview with Newsmax that he had ordered the deployment of two nuclear submarines "closer and closer to Russia" in response to aggressive statements by former Russian President Medvedev: "You have to be careful, this is the ultimate threat."
Shortly before this, Russian President Vladimir Putin, during a visit to Karelia together with Belarusian President Lukashenko, had announced that "by the end of the year" new medium-range "Oreshnik" missiles, capable of being equipped with nuclear warheads and inaccessible to defense systems to date, would be deployed in Belarus - a warning to "willing" European states that support and supply Kiev with weapons.
But while the rhetoric is heating up, diplomatic efforts are not being put on hold: in the coming days, Trump will send his envoy for negotiations, Witkoff, to Moscow. “Putin is a tough guy,” Trump says in the interview, “but I’m surprised. We had some very positive talks where we could have found a way out of this situation, and then all of a sudden the bombing starts.”
On Friday, when the ultimatum expires, Trump could announce “new sanctions” if Russia does not radically change its approach and move towards ending the war. However, he considers this threat to be of little effect: “Putin is good at sanctions, he knows how to avoid them, he is a tough guy.”
Kiev, meanwhile, is responding with what it can. On Friday night, it launched one of the most massive drone strikes ever, hitting Russian refineries in Ryazan and Novokuybeshiv, a fuel depot, a military electronics factory and the Primorsko-Akhtarsk air base, from where the Shahed drones take off every night. The Russian Defense Ministry claims to have shot down 112 drones and announced that on Saturday it had destroyed a bridge in Kherson in an airstrike, isolating an entire neighborhood. In Druzhkivka, in the Donbas, Russian drones hit a recruitment center, as well as homes and shops. Explosions were also reported in Mykolaiv and Chernihiv.
But Kiev is also facing a new scandal: on the orders of NABU and SAPO (the anti-corruption bureau and prosecutor's office), the first four arrests were made yesterday in a wide-ranging investigation into politicians and officials who illegally enriched themselves through tenders for drones and electronic warfare systems. Just two days after the victory of the so-called "cardboard protest" - which forced Parliament to approve the decree by which President Volodymyr Zelensky reworded the "anti-mafia" law that he himself had proposed and signed a few days earlier - NABU and SAPO hit back hard.
At the center of the investigations are military supplies at inflated prices in a key defense sector: unmanned aerial vehicles and systems for neutralizing enemy drones.
Among those under investigation is MP Oleksiy Kuznetsov from the ruling Servant of the People party (President Zelensky's party), as well as the mayors of Mukachevo and Rubizhne, Serhiy Gaidai and Andriy Yurchenko, both appointed by the president. The names of those arrested have not yet been made official, but it is believed that Kuznetsov and Gaidai are among them. The investigation was triggered by a series of reports by a collective of Ukrainian investigative journalists, who revealed that the misuse of funds has significantly reduced the quality of protective equipment, putting national security at risk./ La Repubblica
Lini një Përgjigje