Heading towards World War III?

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he had told Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Sunday that Ukrainians would never accept Canada's decision to return a gas turbine intended for a Russian pipeline because it would encourage more sanctions violations.

www.reuters.com/world/europe/zelenskiy-says-raised-ukraine-stance-russia-gas-turbine-with-trudeau-2022-07-17

In what it called a “historic step,” the European Commission agreed on Tuesday to a €500 million ($512 million) plan that would allow EU members to jointly procure weapons to address the urgent need to replenish a defense products deficit stemming from the Ukraine conflict.

The proposal is supposed to incentivize at least three EU members to buy weapons jointly, the body said in a statement. It also seeks to avoid competition among the bloc’s members for the same products and facilitate cost savings. The measure is expected to be financed by EU funds for the next two years.

“Today we are taking a historic step forward in European defense integration. As war rages on at Europe’s borders, we are responding to the call of EU Heads of State by presenting today a new instrument to support … the joint acquisition of weapons,” said Thierry Breton, the EU Commissioner for the Internal Market.

According to him, the move will not only help replenish the stocks that were depleted due to supplies sent to Ukraine, but will also provide an incentive for member states to buy together. The proposal also aims to boost the capabilities of the European defense industrial complex by ramping up its manufacturing capacities.

The announcement comes a day after the EU agreed to allocate an additional 500 million euros in military aid to Ukraine. With the approval of the fifth assistance package, the bloc’s aid to Kiev reached €2.5 billion ($2.5bn).

www.rt.com/news/559253-eu-weapons-ukraine-plan

Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu has inspected troops taking part in Russia’s military offensive in Ukraine. He ordered them to take measures to stop the Ukrainian military’s strikes on civilians, the ministry revealed on Wednesday.

Shoigu visited a command post of the ‘West’ grouping where he got a progress report on the military campaign from Lieutenant General Andrey Sychevoy.

“After hearing the report..., Sergei Shoigu gave instructions for a further increase of operational responsiveness related to destroying enemy unmanned aerial vehicles over areas at the Russian border, as well as to step up the prevention of attacks launched by nationalists on residential areas of the liberated settlements due to the delivery of new counter-battery warfare means,” the statement read.

www.rt.com/russia/559291-ukraine-russia-strikes-civilians

Damascus has cut diplomatic ties with Kiev, the Syrian foreign ministry announced on Wednesday.

This comes in response to a similar step by Ukraine last month that followed Syria’s recognition of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics.

“The Syrian Arab Republic has decided to sever diplomatic relations with Ukraine in line with the principle of reciprocity and in response to the Ukrainian government's decision to do so,” the ministry announced on its website.

Kiev said it was cutting diplomatic relations with Syria in late June in response to the decision by Damascus to follow Russia’s example and recognize the People’s Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk as independent states.

“There will be no relations between Ukraine and Syria” Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said back then, threatening Damascus with sanctions.

Kiev closed its embassy in Syria in 2016, accusing the country’s president, Bashar Assad of crimes against his own people, and in 2018 it ordered Syrian diplomats out of Ukraine.

Damascus is a close ally of Moscow. In 2015, Russia sent an expeditionary force to Syria at the request of Damascus, to help it defeat IS and other terrorist groups.

www.rt.com/news/559299-syria-ukraine-diplomatic-ties

Vladimir Putin visited Iran for his second foreign trip since the war broke out in Ukraine. The Russian president is expected to discuss the Syrian war, western sanctions and arms trade with the leaders of Iran and Turkey.

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