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Ukrainian forces continue to relentlessly strike deep into Russian territory, and no longer just with drones. President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed responsibility for a raid carried out during the night between Tuesday and Wednesday on a military production plant a thousand kilometers from the border with the use of domestically made Flamingo missiles. “Ukrainian FP-5 Flamingo missiles hit a military plant in Cheboksary that supplies the occupying army with components for drones and missiles,” the Ukrainian leader said. Cheboksary is the main city of the central Russian region of Chuvashia, about 600 kilometers east of Moscow.
Russian authorities confirmed that the city was targeted in a missile attack, but gave no indication of the target. Ukraine also hit an oil refinery in Russia’s Samara region, as well as a Russian oil tanker in the Black Sea, the Ukrainian General Staff said. Moscow has meanwhile reacted to the announcement of the twenty-first EU sanctions package, presented on Tuesday by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, promising “effective and decisive measures” in response.
«Russia – declared the spokeswoman of the Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova – firmly condemns any illegitimate unilateral coercive measure. More and more countries share and support this approach.” Among the new restrictive measures of the European Union, which to come into force will have to obtain the unanimous support of the 27 member states, include the freezing of the mechanism for adjusting the price cap of Russian crude oil, which in the absence of interventions would have gone from 44 to 70 dollars, and new restrictions on the resale of methane tankers to Russia. Vladimir Putin also lashed out against the European sanctions, in particular the “absurd” ones introduced in his opinion at the beginning of May against some summer camps which, according to the EU, implement programs of “pro-Russian indoctrination” of Ukrainian children. In this way, the Russian president said, Western politicians “are making a fool of themselves.”
“The supporters of the Kiev regime, the ruling European elites – insisted the head of the Kremlin – are inventing things that no one would have ever thought of before: they are imposing sanctions against the organizations where our children spend the summer and grow up. It is madness, pure madness”. Despite the continuous controversies with the Europeans, however, there is a timid sign of the start of the negotiation initiative announced by France, Germany and Great Britain. The ambassadors of the three countries will be received at the Russian Foreign Ministry on their request “We will meet with them, we will listen to them – said the head of Russian diplomacy, Serghei Lavrov – It is simply interesting to see how these people will expose something that could inspire constructive ideas”.
Russian authorities, meanwhile, have not yet released the name of the person killed in a car explosion on Tuesday in Balashikha, Moscow region. However, according to unconfirmed information spread by some Telegram channels, it could be a senior officer: either Colonel Damir Davydov, of the Main Missile and Artillery Directorate of the Russian Defense Ministry, or General Aleksandr Maksimtsev, deputy commander of the Aerospace Forces. Russian investigators instead arrested a boy and a girl, both minors, on charges of trying to blow up another car in a parking lot in the south-west of Moscow on Tuesday. The vehicle belongs to “an employee of a research and production company,” the Investigative Committee said, without adding details.