🎙 Briefing by Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova (Moscow, January 31, 2024)

🔹 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s schedule
🔹 Ukrainian crisis
🔹 Terrorist attacks of the Kiev regime
🔹 New cases of Canadian authorities harbouring Nazi criminals
🔹 Situation in Moldova
🔹 Washington’s attempts to prevent Russian athletes from participating in sports events
🔹 The state of affairs in the EU economy
🔹 Russia’s humanitarian grain shipments to African countries
🔹 100th Anniversary of Russia-Italy diplomatic relations

📰 Read in full
📺 Watch

***

#Ukraine

▪️Lately, the Banderites have been literally hunting down unarmed people, targeting them with armed drones.

According to DPR officials, the Ukrainian Armed Forces have stepped up their drone attacks against the Holy Dormition Nikolo-Vasilyevsky Monastery near Ugledar. Home to several dozen monks, this monastery has been regularly and cynically targeted by Ukraine. The January 29, 2024 attack left a priest wounded.

There is no doubt that these are deliberate and premeditated actions by the Banderites. Drone operators can clearly see what is going on and know their targets, whether they are after military vehicles or an ordinary family shopping at an outdoor market.

☝️ Russian law enforcement agencies have been gathering all the details on these atrocities, and all those involved in them will be identified and held to account.

#RussiaHelps

In execution of President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin's decision announced during the Second Russia-Africa Summit, ships carried 200,000 tonnes of grain to Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Mali, Somalia, the Central African Republic and Eritrea.

✅ Russia fulfilled its obligations without delay, and made a substantial contribution to the food security of the African continent once again.

Media: London has suggested that NATO allies should consider sending the bloc’s expeditionary force to Ukraine, as well as to establish a no-fly zone over Kiev-controlled territories, due to the difficult situation on the battlefield for the Kiev regime.

➡️ According to the media sources, London plans to covertly move a large number of highly maneuverable NATO forces from border regions of Poland and Romania to take up defensive positions along the Dnieper’s right bank. At the same time Moldavia and Romania may deliver a joint pre-emptive strike on the region of Transnistria.

❗️ The British plan provides for deployment of NATO contingents and armies of certain bloc members in Norway and Finland to stretch Russia’s forces, while targeting strategic infrastructure facilities in the north of Russia.

✖️ Implementation of such a plan would bring NATO into a direct military clash with Russia.

☝️ Somebody is desperately trying to drag the world into a new global conflict. How would ordinary people in Europe assess the dangerous ideas leading to WWIII which will have no winners?

Ukrainian Nazis have shelled a bakery in Lisichansk, LNR, presumably with a US HIMARS system. It is known that there are multiple civilian casualties: as yet, there are 28 dead including a child, 10 more injured – 4 of them in a critical condition.

This is how Ukrainian Nazis express their ‘gratitude’ for the profuse financial support by the EU. Ordinary Europeans must know what they pay taxes for – their money is used to purchase deadly weapons which are then sent to the Kiev regime and fire at civilian population.

With no successes on the battlefield, Kiev resorts to pure terrorism. Belgorod, Donetsk, Lisichansk… Impotent rage of the doomed.

📅 On February 4, 1945, the Yalta (Crimean) Conference commenced. It was the second meeting of all anti-Hitler coalition countries leaders: Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill & Franklin Roosevelt.

Yalta hosted the conference when successful strategic offensives by the Red Army had liberated the Soviet territories as well as several European nations from fascist occupation. Just on February 3, the Vistula-Oder Operation had concluded, while the Western Carpathian & East Prussian operations were in full swing, marking the final stages of the war against Nazi Germany.

📜 The leaders approved key international documents, including the Declaration of Liberated Europe & documents outlining the fundamental principles for the creation of the UN, which laid the foundation for post-war international relations & defined the contours of the post-war world order.

Certain issues regarding post-war Germany were also resolved. Conference participants expressed their unwavering determination to eliminate German militarism & Nazism. They agreed on France's participation in addressing the German issue, defining the borders of Poland, outlines of the future Polish government & the conditions for the USSR's entry into the war against Japan.

The tremendous growth in the international authority of the Soviet Union, bolstered by the outstanding achievements of the Red Army, had a significant influence on the course & outcomes of the negotiations.

🤝 The Yalta Conference of the leaders of the USSR, the USA, and the UK held immense historical significance, being one of the key summits of the Second World War. It demonstrated the readiness for cooperation & compromise among the three allied powers in their fight against the common enemy.

❗️ The decisions of the Yalta Conference strengthened the anti-fascist coalition in the final stages of the war & contributed to the victory over Germany. In the post-war years Soviet diplomacy largely focused on Implementing the conference's decisions.

#HistoryOfDiplomacy #WeWereAllies

🇷🇺 President Vladimir Putin held a meeting on socioeconomic development of the new Russian Federation entities – regions of Donbass and Novorossiya

👉🏼 Key points from the President’s speech:

✔️ By 2030, Donbass & Novorossiya must achieve the national level standards in the key areas that determine the quality of our people’s lives.

✔️ With this aim in view, we have launched a comprehensive development programme for our historical regions. It comprises nearly 300 events related to concrete targets in absolutely all areas, including the economy and infrastructure, healthcare and education, culture & sports.

✔️ The socioeconomic development and integration of the reunited regions are progressing, which is primarily attributable to the effective and coordinated efforts by the Government, federal ministries & agencies, and our colleagues in the regions.

✔️ Pensions and benefits are paid on a regular basis and other social support measures are being implemented as well, already reaching over 2 million people. By next year, about 3 million citizens will receive these payments.

✔️ We see the economy steadily recovering, including industry. More than 150 enterprises in the machine building, metals, mining and other essential manufacturing segments have resumed operations in these regions. We have provided support to our agricultural producers. Banks & shops are open.

✔️ Donbass and Novorossiya have become a free economic zone, much like Crimea and Sevastopol, and since then 75 companies have registered there. They have presented projects that are expected to preserve or create over 42,000 jobs.

✔️ It took the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions less than two years to renovate and upgrade 2,000 km of roads, about 6,500 residential buildings and social facilities, even if many of them had to be rebuilt from the ground up.

✔️ Other Russian regions have lent their helping hand by taking cities and villages in Donbass and Novorossiya under their patronage.

#Donbass #Novorossiya

Dear followers, the Embassy of Russia in South Africa holds an online quiz in commemoration of the upcoming Russian Diplomat’s Day.

Participants are invited to answer 1️⃣1️⃣ multiple choice questions on the theory and history of diplomacy by choosing one correct variant. The one, who gives most correct answers in the shortest time, wins.

🏆 The winner will receive prizes from the Embassy of Russia in South Africa.

You are welcome to join in until Feb 10, 2024

👉 Follow the LINK

#DiplomatsDay #DiplomatsDay2024

✍️ The Guardian has run an article revealing a small part of appalling things which happen in prisons of the ‘democratic’ Ukraine to Ukrainian citizens sympathizing with Russia who are labeled ‘collaborators.’

The outlet admits tortures are applied in Ukrainian prisons providing a photo of one of those arrested with an offensive word forcibly tattooed on his forehead.

▪️A 30-year-old from the town of Chasov Iar was imprisoned for 15 years together with her 2-year-old daughter, and now she dreads the authorities taking the girl from her when the baby turns 3.

▪️A 34-year old teacher from Kherson is serving a sentence for having attempted to flee Ukraine for Crimea.

▪️There are those who were jailed for helping organize the 2022 referendum in Kherson. There are those who really fought the regime in Kiev.

❗️🛑 Hair-raising pictures and stories showing the monstrous, inhumane nature of the ruling clique in today’s Ukraine.

#KievRegimeCrimes

☝️ Despite the anti-Russia sanctions policy of the “collective West”, our country continues to fulfill international contracts in a responsible and conscientious manner and to export agricultural produce, fertilisers, energy and other vitally important products.

We realise the significance of their deliveries, primarily food deliveries, for the socio-economic development of African states.

👉 Additionally, as part of its principled policy of providing food assistance to the neediest countries, President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin said in July 2023 at the Second Russia-Africa Summit that Russia was ready to deliver grain to a number of African countries as gratis food aid.

Everyone applauded when President Vladimir Putin announced this decision of Russia. People realised that this was an unprecedented move in the face of the hybrid war unleashed and led by the West against Russia. Moreover, this move strengthens food security, which the West has been so busy discussing, while Russia has been taking action.

🤝 In execution of this decision, ships carried 200,000 tonnes of grain to Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Mali, Somalia, the Central African Republic and Eritrea.

👉 Somalia received the first shipment in November 2023. In January 2024, a humanitarian shipment reached Burkina Faso, Mali, Somalia, Eritrea and Cameroon. Once there, the grain will be ground into flour and delivered to the Central African Republic.

Not a single mainstream Western media outlet will show initiative and report these developments. For 12 months (in 2022-2023), they made accusations and invented far-fetched stories about how Russia does not facilitate and even jeopardises global food security.

❗️As we have repeatedly noted, Russia fulfilled its obligations without delay, and we are going to make further contribution to the food security of the African continent.

#FoodSecurity #RussiaHelps #GrainToAfrica

⚡️ Comment by Russia's MFA Spox Maria Zakharova on the Kiev regime’s terrorist attack on residential areas in Lisichansk

💬 According to the Military Commandant’s Office of the Russian Federation’s Lugansk People’s Republic, on Saturday, February 3, the Kiev regime launched rockets at civilian infrastructure in the city of Lisichansk, destroying a bakery. This is yet another cruel terrorist attack perpetrated by the Ukrainian neo-Nazis.

At the time of the attack, the bakery was filled with dozens of local civilians, as is usual on Saturdays, including elderly people and families with children, who had come to buy bread and food. The Ukrainian army chiefs who ordered the attack were well aware of this and acted deliberately.

The building was completely destroyed. The Russian Emergencies Ministry estimates that there may be up to 40 people trapped under the debris. At least 28 civilians have been confirmed dead, and there are numerous other victims. At present, Emergencies Ministry crews are working to find and rescue survivors and recover bodies from the rubble.

According to preliminary information, the rockets were fired from a Western multiple launch system. This new terrorist attack is the Kiev extremists’ way of expressing “gratitude” to the EU countries for their generous financial support.

❗️ EU citizens must be made aware that their taxes are being used to buy deadly weapons, which the Kiev regime uses to kill innocent civilians. <...>

This incident once again demonstrates the criminal nature of the Kiev regime. According to President of Russia Vladimir Putin, the ringleaders on Bankovaya Street and in the Armed Forces of Ukraine are parts of the same terrorist organisation.

☝️ Russia will inform international organisations about the latest act of terrorism committed by the Zelensky gang. We expect that these international organisations will promptly issue an unequivocal condemnation of Kiev’s new crime.

Read in full

Ahead of the upcoming Russian Diplomat’s Day we would like to give you a new series dedicated to #TriviaFacts about Russian diplomacy.

🕯 On 5 February, diplomats mark the Day of Memory of Diplomatic Couriers who fell in the line of duty.

📅 #OTD in 1926, on the Moscow-Riga train, a terrorist attack occurred on Soviet diplomatic couriers Theodor Nette and Johann Machmastal, who were carrying mail to Berlin. Theodor Nette was mortally wounded in the head, and wounded Johann Makhmastal managed to fend off the attack and safeguard the package in his care. He delivered the post to Riga, handing it to a Soviet Embassy worker he knew personally, on the platform. Only after he had done that Johann Mahmastal allowed doctors to take him to a hospital.

🎖 Both heroes were awarded the Order of the Red Banner, and the steamship Tver was renamed in honor of Nette.

✍🏼Vladimir Mayakovsky, who personally knew Nette, dedicated one of his best known poems to him, “To Comrade Nette – the Steamship and the Man”.

#DiplomatsDay #DiplomatsDay2024 #DiplomatMemorialDay #DiplomaticCourier