Russia

The Arleigh Burke-class destroyer will join 31 other ships to participate in the maritime portion of Exercise Sea Breeze 2021 starting next week, the US Navy 6th Fleet said on Saturday. Ross' participation in this year's drills is "a tangible demonstration of US support for Ukraine" and part of the enduring commitment made by Washington and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to enhance maritime security in the Black Sea,

"We regret it," TASS News Agency quoted Peskov as saying on Friday when asked to provide a reaction to most of the EU leaders rejecting a proposal by France and Germany to hold a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. "As you know, President Putin generally remains interested in establishing working relations between Moscow and Brussels," the spokesman added.

The idea was floated following US President Joe Biden's meeting with Putin in Geneva, with French President Emmanuel Macron saying a summit with the latter would be "a dialogue to defend our interests", reports Xinhua news agency. The 27 EU leaders need to unanimously agree on restarting talks with Russia for such a meeting to take place.

The Russian Foreign Ministry has summoned UK Ambassador Deborah Bronnert and "strongly" protested against the violation by a British warship of Moscow's "territorial waters" in the Black Sea. If such provocations happen again, "all responsibility for their possible consequences will rest entirely on the British side", the Ministry warned.

"The recent NATO summit demonstrated unprecedented anti-Russian sentiment and confirmed the alliance's desire to occupy the role of the world's police," Patrushev said at the ninth Moscow Conference on International Security on Thursday. He pointed to the bloc's increased military spending that went up by 4 per cent in 2020 despite a global economic decline.

The British destroyer HMS Defender crossed Russia's border in the northwestern part of the Black Sea at 11.52 a.m. on Wednesday after going 3 km beyond the sea border in the area of Cape Fiolent, Xinhua news agency quoted the ministry. The vessel ignored warnings on the possible use of weapons from the Russian side, causing a Russian border patrol ship to fire warning shots, it added.

"We are preparing another package of sanctions to apply in this case as well," Sullivan said on Sunday in an interview with CNN when asked if the administration will further pressure Moscow over Navalny, Xinhua reported. "It will come as soon as we have developed the packages to ensure that we are getting the right targets. And when we do that, we will impose further sanctions with respect to chemical weapons," he added.

Addressing a news conference on Wednesday, he said that while Russia remains the EU's largest neighbour and an important global actor, the "deliberate policy choices and aggressive actions of the Russian government over the last years have created a negative spiral" in relations, Xinhua news agency. A further downturn of the relations, which are already "at the lowest level," is "the most likely outlook for the time being", he added.

"As for the general assessment, I believe there was no hostility at all," Putin said during his solo press briefing, adding that the meeting, the first of its kind since Biden took office in January, was "open" and with "no pressure of the parties on each other." Putin said that the two sides "differ in many respects" but "showed willingness to understand each other and seek ways to bring the positions closer."

"We have a bilateral relationship that has deteriorated to its lowest point in recent years," Putin told NBC News in an interview on Friday which will be aired on June 14. But he said that Biden is a career politician and there is hope that there will not be any impulse-based movements, TASS News Agency reported.