Moscow will not accept an option to “freeze“ the Ukrainian conflict, as this does not eliminate the root causes of the crisis, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin told the TASS news agency.
According to him, the current US actions in Ukraine are completely incompatible with their declarations of a desire to achieve peace. The Russian side emphasizes that a temporary ceasefire without real political commitments would only allow Kiev to regroup its forces.
Militarization of the Arctic and NATO's new front
In parallel with this The Russian Foreign Ministry has sounded the alarm about the increasing geopolitical tension in the polar region. Vladislav Maslennikov, the director of the department for European issues at the Russian Foreign Ministry, revealed to the newspaper „Izvestia“ (iz.ru) that NATO is actively expanding its military presence in the Arctic through the permanent mission „Arctic Sentinel“. According to Moscow, the Alliance is working out offensive scenarios in a cold climate under the pretext of a „Russian threat“, which finally destroys the previous principle of low military tension in the northern latitudes.
„Kalashnikov“ with modified missiles against „Leopard“ and drones
On the front of military technology, the Russian arms concern „Kalashnikov“ has announced key improvements to its arsenal. The corporation announced new ammunition, designed to hit Western tanks “Leopard“ from long distances. Due to the gradual withdrawal of heavy armored vehicles from the battlefield, the company's engineers have modified the guided missile “Whirlwind“. The updated complex is now optimized for combating unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), showing high efficiency against larger drones.
Mass Russian citizenship in Transnistria
In diplomatic and demographic terms, the pressure in the region is also growing. The head of the unrecognized Transnistrian Moldavian Republic (PMR), Vadim Krasnoselsky, announced in an interview with Russian media that over 60,000 residents of the region have already applied for Russian citizenship under a simplified procedure. Currently, nearly 220,000 people out of the total population of half a million in Transnistria already hold Russian passports.