Heading towards World War III?

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has lashed out at the EU, accusing the bloc of deliberately withholding €8 billion ($8.18 billion) in aid promised to his country amid the conflict with Russia.

“Every day and in different ways, I remind some EU leaders that Ukrainian pensioners, our displaced persons, our teachers and other people, who depend on payments from the budget shouldn’t be hostages of their indecision or bureaucracy,” Zelensky said in a video address on Telegram on Thursday.

The EU has suspended the allocation of €8 billion, and this “artificial delay in macro-financial aid for our country is either a crime or a mistake,” he insisted.

The president did not name the nations responsible for withholding the money, but expressed hope that it’s only a mistake “and it will be corrected.”

Earlier this week, the deputy head of Zelensky’s office, Igor Zhovkva, said that Ukraine has so far received just €1 billion from Brussels, while “some EU countries, including Germany” are blocking the transfer of another 8 billion.

www.rt.com/russia/560269-zelensky-ukraine-europe-help

China is halting co-operation with the US in several key areas including climate change, military talks and efforts to combat international crime.

The new measures follow a trip to Taiwan by a US congressional delegation led by senior Democrat Nancy Pelosi.

China, which also announced it was sanctioning Ms Pelosi and her family, views the visit as a challenge to its claims of sovereignty over Taiwan.

The self-ruled island sees itself as distinct from the mainland.

The measures were announced by China's foreign ministry on Friday. It said dialogue between US and Chinese defence officials would be cancelled, while co-operation on returning illegal immigrants, climate change, and investigating international crime would be suspended.

www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-62438262

Amnesty International said on Friday that it stands by a report in which it accused Kiev of endangering civilians by placing its military assets in schools and residential areas. The investigation drew the ire of the Ukrainian government and President Vladimir Zelensky.

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Earlier, Zelensky accused the NGO of shifting “the responsibility from the aggressor to the victim,” referring to Russia and Ukraine, respectively. The president stated that any report equating the actions of “the victim and the aggressor” in “some way” cannot “be tolerated.”

The report, which was released on Thursday, accused Kiev of “a clear violation of international humanitarian law” as it documented that Ukraine was placing its military close to civilian infrastructure, thus putting civilian lives at risk. In particular, the NGO said it found evidence of current or prior military activity in 22 out of the 29 schools it visited in Ukraine between April and July.

www.rt.com/russia/560333-amnesty-stand-by-report-ukraine

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) said on Friday that it had launched more than 100 rockets at Israel, warning that a wider offensive would follow. The assault was launched in response to an Israeli military operation that killed one of the PIJ’s most senior commanders and continued to rock Gaza overnight.

Israeli jets struck an apartment building in Gaza earlier on Friday, eliminating PIJ commander Taysir al-Jabari. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) also targeted an additional 10-20 PIJ operatives with missiles and artillery, in a dramatic offensive it named ‘Operation Breaking Dawn’.

www.rt.com/news/560334-israel-rocket-attacks-gaza

Russia has introduced a range of measures to shield its financial and energy sectors from the actions of so-called “unfriendly” countries and organizations.

President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Friday that prohibits entities from those nations from carrying out transactions with their shares in Russian enterprises that are considered ‘strategic.’ The ban will remain in force until the end of the year and may be extended further.

Another ban applies to shares in Russian banks, the list of which will be prepared within the next ten days.

The decree also prohibited transactions related to foreign participation in the Sakhalin-1 oil and gas project in Russia’s Far East.

On Wednesday, US oil and gas corporation ExxonMobil said it was “engaged in transitioning” its 30% stake in the Russian oil development project “to another party.”

Russia’s list of “unfriendly” countries stretches to 49 nations, including the US, the UK, all of the EU, Australia, Canada, Switzerland, Japan, Taiwan and others.

www.rt.com/business/560306-russia-shields-economy

Allegations about Russia threatening to use nuclear weapons against Kiev are “untenable and baseless,” the deputy head of Moscow’s delegation to the UN Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) review conference, Andrey Belousov, said on Friday in New York.

“This is impossible since Russian doctrinal guidelines strictly limit emergency situations in which the use of nuclear weapons is hypothetically possible, namely in response to aggression involving weapons of mass destruction, or in response to aggression involving conventional weapons, where the very existence of the state is threatened,” Belousov explained.

“None of these hypothetical scenarios is relevant to the situation in Ukraine,” he stated.

The Russian diplomat also rejected insinuations about Moscow placing its nuclear deterrent on “high alert,” explaining that the current state of “increased vigilance,” with extra personnel on duty at strategic command posts, is “completely different” from an actual “state of high alert of strategic nuclear forces.”

Belousov argued that any warnings about a “serious risk of nuclear war” ever voiced by Russian officials in the context of the Ukraine crisis were directed at NATO, as a way to deter Western countries from direct aggression, as they “dangerously balance on the edge of a direct armed confrontation with Russia.”

www.rt.com/russia/560338-russia-nuclear-doctrine-ukraine