RUSSIA is developing and will continue to develop, despite all the current difficulties, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday.
‘The country is developing, despite the difficult times, and will develop in the future,’ he stressed.
According to Peskov, several countries are interested in occupying the vacant Russian markets.
He said that ‘a huge number of sanctions are being used against Russia by the collective West, and from the point of view of international law, these are illegal sanctions.’
‘But the world is bigger than the collective West.
Many other countries are more interested in taking the vacant space for their own business,’ Peskov said.
He added that Russia will not have any void in trade and economic cooperation, other countries will fill it.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Agriculture Ministry has confirmed the outlook on grain exports from the country in 2022-2023 agriculture year (from July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2023) to the amount of over 50m tonnes, First Deputy Minister Oksana Lut said at a forum.
‘The president has set the task of exporting over 50 million tonnes. We believe technically we can do it,’ she said.
According to Lut, this year’s heavy yield will enable Russia to provide grain both domestically and to other states.
Separately, the Chinese authorities have put the spotlight on the comprehensive strategic partnership with Russia as an integral part of strengthening the country’s diplomacy in its new era, Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu said on Thursday.
‘The multilateral, multi-level, voluminous structure of China’s diplomacy is becoming more and more perfect,’ he stressed at a news conference during the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC)
‘We are cultivating a comprehensive strategic partnership with Russia in the new era,’ he said.
Over the past ten years, the number of countries with whom China maintained diplomatic relations has increased from 172 to 181.
‘As for partnership relations with other countries and regions, we are now working with 113 countries instead of 41,’ the diplomat specified.
Ma Zhaoxu mentioned the US among the states with which China interacts on the international stage.
Beijing intends to build relations with Washington on the basis of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit, the deputy foreign minister said.
He also pointed out that China’s partnership with the EU was aimed at maintaining peace, fostering growth, promoting reforms and affirming civilisational values.
- The flow of NATO weapons to Ukraine and military support for Kiev bring the alliance closer to a dangerous line of a direct military clash with Russia, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a news briefing on Thursday.
‘The NATO countries seem to be racing each other in supplying weapons and ammunition to the Kiev regime, providing intelligence, training personnel and issuing instructions on how to conduct combat operations, thus coming ever closer to a dangerous line of a direct armed clash with Russia,’ Zakharova said.
Zakharova drew attention to the fact that Western military support for Ukraine, according to the latest data, had already reached $42.3 billion, of which $28.3 billion was provided by the United States.
‘You (NATO countries) are not just accomplices to the crimes being committed by the Kiev regime, you are precisely those whom you regularly mention in your declarations and statements.
‘You are sponsors of terrorist activities that are taking place under the auspices of the Kiev regime and with the direct participation of NATO – both as a US-led alliance and as its individual members,’ Zakharova said.
Commenting on the situation in Ukraine, the relocation of civilians from the Kherson Region is under control, and no provocation has disrupted the process, Deputy Governor Kirill Stremousov said on Thursday.
‘There have been no provocations, everything is under control,’ the official told Channel One television, answering the relevant question.
Stremousov described the process as properly organised and its progress as solid.
He said martial law, introduced in the region the day before, should contribute to ensuring the safety of the people there.
‘We have been evacuating civilians, but perhaps it will turn out to be unnecessary,’ he added.
On Tuesday, the region’s acting governor, Vladimir Saldo, had said civilians living on the right bank of the Dnieper River would be relocated to the left bank amid the danger of flooding in the event that the Kiev regime’s forces attack the Kakhovka hydropower plant.
The official also said that Ukraine had been amassing a huge force near Nikolayev and Krivoy Rog.
He explained that another reason behind the relocation was the need to build large-scale defensive fortifications.
According to Saldo, there are plans to temporarily resettle 50,000 to 60,000 people. A ferry service opened from the port of Kherson to Golaya Pristan and Alyoshki across the river on Wednesday.
Russian troops fully restored the forward edge of the Kherson defences after the Ukrainian army’s failed attempt to break through the defense line, Defence Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov reported on Thursday.
‘In the area of the settlement of Sukhanovo in the Kherson Region, the enemy managed to wedge into the defense of Russian troops.
‘The Russian military command committed a tank reserve to action and carried out ambush operations, inflicting heavy damage on the enemy, as a result of which Ukrainian army units fled the battlefield chaotically,’ the spokesman said.
The Ukrainian military also attempted to break through the Russian troops’ defences in the area of the settlements of Novaya Kamenka and Chervony Yar, engaging up to three battalions, including a tank unit, at the front’s narrow section. The situation at the forward edge of the defence line was fully restored, the general added.
Russian forces thwarted the Ukrainian army’s attempts to cross the Zherebets River in the Krasny Liman area, pushing the enemy back to its initial positions, Konashenkov reported.
‘In the Krasny Liman direction, Russian troops thwarted by concentrated fire the Ukrainian army’s attempts to cross the Zherebets River in the areas of the communities of Nadiya, Stelmakhovka and Makeyevka in the Lugansk People’s Republic and Yampolovka in the Donetsk People’s Republic,’ the spokesman said.
Russian artillery and army aviation aircraft pushed the enemy back to its initial positions, the general said.
‘Over 40 Ukrainian troops, two combat armoured vehicles and three pickup trucks were destroyed,’ Konashenkov reported.
