As fighting continues for control of Bakhmout in the east of the country and the affair of the American drone intercepted over the Black Sea poisons relations between Moscow and Washington which blame each other, Vladimir Putin will meet today with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Russian-Syrian cooperation on the menu of Assad-Putin meeting
Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold talks in the Kremlin on Wednesday with Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, the Russian presidency announced in a statement on Tuesday. “Topical issues concerning the development of Russian-Syrian cooperation in the political, economic, trade and humanitarian spheres will be discussed, as well as the prospects for a coordinated settlement of the situation in Syria and around the country,” the Kremlin said. . The Syrian President’s last public visit to Moscow dates back to September 2021, when he spoke with Vladimir Putin.
Washington accuses Moscow of having caused the fall of an American drone in the Black Sea
A Russian Su-27 fighter plane struck an American Reaper drone on Tuesday March 14 over the Black Sea, an area closely monitored by NATO since the start of the war in Ukraine, announced the American army. .
“Our MQ-9 drone was performing routine operations in international airspace when it was intercepted and rammed by a Russian aircraft, resulting in the crash and loss of the MQ-9,” said General James Hecker, commander of the American air forces in Europe, confirming information revealed earlier by AFP on an incident involving a Reaper in the Black Sea. He said that before one of the Russian Su-27 fighters collided with the propeller-damaging drone, they had dumped fuel and flown over the aircraft several times.
It is the first time since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukrainian territory on February 24, 2022 that a NATO country, support of Ukraine, has acknowledged losing equipment operated by itself in this highly flammable region. . Washington denounced an act “reckless”, “unprofessional” and “dangerous”, and summoned the Russian ambassador, Anatoly Antonov. The latter asked US officials to stop carrying out “hostile” flights near the Russian borders.
Export of Ukrainian cereals: the international agreement “continues”, says the UN
The United Nations estimated on Tuesday that the international agreement on the export of cereals from Ukraine, which since last summer has made it possible to alleviate a world food crisis, should continue as it is beyond March 18, even if Russia has halved the duration. “The cereals agreement continues for the moment,” said Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for Secretary General Antonio Guterres, during his press briefing at the UN headquarters in New York.
After consultations in Geneva on Monday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Verchinin assured “not to oppose a further extension of the Black Sea Initiative after the expiration of its second term on March 18, but only for 60 days”.
Lithuania calls Russian Wagner Group a terrorist organization
Lithuania’s parliament on Tuesday passed a resolution saying “Wagner is a terrorist organization” and called on other countries to do the same. The resolution states that the latter has “committed systematic and serious crimes of aggression amounting to terrorism, such as murder and torture of the Ukrainian civilian population, bombardment of residential buildings and other civilian objects”.
The Wagner group is present in Bakhmout, a city which troops from Moscow have been trying to take since the summer at the cost of heavy losses and where the Ukrainians are trying to “buy time” to prepare for a counter-offensive which should not, according to them, soon.