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China’s Xi stands with Putin at Russia’s Victory Day parade
Vladimir Putin has led Russia’s Victory Day commemorations with a parade in Red Square and heightened security after days of Ukrainian strikes targeting the capital.
China’s Xi Jinping joined Putin as he told thousands of soldiers and more than 20 international leaders that Russia remembered the lessons of World War Two.
Putin used his speech to tie the war to today’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and said all of Russia was behind what he called the “special military operation” – now well into its fourth year.
For the first time, a column of trucks carrying various combat drones took part in the Victory Day parade, apparently because of their widescale use in Ukraine.
A unilateral, three-day ceasefire was announced by Russia to coincide with the lavish 80th anniversary event, which Ukraine rejected as a “theatrical show”.
Kyiv has labelled the truce as a farce, accusing Russia of launching thousands of attacks since it came into force at midnight on Wednesday. Russia says it has observed the ceasefire and accuses Ukraine of hundreds of violations.
In the hours before the ceasefire, Ukrainian drone strikes prompted airport closures and disruption for thousands of air passengers in Russia.
Heavy security and restrictions were in place in the centre of Moscow on Friday as Russia marked the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany.
Putin insisted that Russia “was and will be an indestructible barrier against Nazism, Russophobia, antisemitism”. The Russian leader has repeatedly and falsely referred to Ukraine’s leadership as Nazis.
“Truth and justice are on our side,” he said, insisting that “the “entire country, society and people support the participants” of the Ukraine war.
Russia said 27 world leaders were attending the event.
China’s Xi Jinping had pride of place, sitting alongside Vladimir Putin on the platform in Red Square, and sporting an orange and black St George ribbon, which Russia sees as a symbol of military glory but which has been banned by several neighbouring countries.
Among the soldiers joining the parade were more than 100 Chinese troops as well as contingents from North Korea, Vietnam and Mongolia. Thousands of North Koreans have fought in Ukraine and Putin later made a point of personally greeting some of the soldiers on Red Square.
Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro were among the assembled guests, along with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Robert Fico, Slovakia’s prime minister who is the only European Union leader to travel to Moscow.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas had earlier made clear that leaders of EU member states and countries aspiring to join the union should not take part in the event because of Russia’s war in Ukraine. Serbia is an EU candidate country and Vucic said he expected he would face consequences because of his decision to go.
For Putin, the attendance of China’s Xi on Victory Day is seen as a significant achievement, and he praised the “courageous people of China” as he paid tribute to Russia’s allies in World War Two.
Putin and Xi held two rounds of talks before the parade as well as an informal chat on the war in Ukraine, Chinese reports said.
Joining the parade was a wide variety of Russian military hardware, including Yars missile systems, tanks and armoured personnel carriers. Six Su-25 military jets then flew over Red Square to complete the parade.
Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky had earlier warned that he could not guarantee the safety of anyone attending the event and has urged heads of state not to travel to Moscow.
Mykhailo Samus, a Ukrainian military analyst and director of the New Geopolitics Research Network, told the BBC he believed that Ukraine would forego attacking the parade, largely because of the presence of foreign leaders.
But should Ukraine choose to do so, it would constitute a legitimate military target, Samus said.
During his evening address on Thursday, Zelensky said that Ukraine was “ready for a full ceasefire starting right now”.
“But it must be real,” he said in a video on X. “No missile or drone strikes, no hundreds of assaults on the front.”
He called on Russia to support the ceasefire and “prove their willingness to end the war”.
Ukraine has accused Russia of violating its own truce thousands of times since it was supposed to come into effect on Wednesday night.
On the second day of the truce, Ukraine said there had been nearly 200 clashes along the front line, eighteen Russian air strikes and almost four thousand instances of shelling by Russian troops.
In Prymorske, a village in the Zaporizhzhia region, a woman was reportedly killed after a Russian drone struck her car.
Russia’s defence ministry has said that all groups of Russian forces in Ukraine “completely ceased combat operations and remained on the previously occupied lines and positions”. However, they were reacting in a “mirror-like manner” to violations by Ukrainian forces.
Zelensky has repeatedly dismissed Putin’s proposal as a “game” and called for a longer truce of at least 30 days, something that is supported by Ukraine’s allies in Europe and the US.
He said he had spoken with US President Donald Trump to reiterate his readiness for a “long and lasting peace” and talks “in any format”. He said he had told Trump that a 30-day ceasefire was a “real indicator” of moving towards peace.
Writing on Truth Social on Thursday, the US president reiterated the call for an unconditional ceasefire and warned of further sanctions for any party failing to sign up to it.
(BBC)
Spain snuffed out France’s dream of a third World Cup triumph, taming their galaxy of forwards to win 2-0 and progress to a final against England or Argentina.
Didier Deschamps’ men were hot favourites for the trophy after a string of breathtaking displays in the United States but they met their match against the slick European champions at the semifinal stage on Tuesday.
Mikel Oyarzabal opened the scoring for the 2010 winners with an emphatic penalty in the first half in Arlington, Texas, and Pedro Porro doubled their lead in the second half.
Shell-shocked France could not find a way back into the match despite their wealth of attacking riches.
The game at the Dallas Stadium caught fire midway through the first half when Salvadoran referee Ivan Barton pointed to the penalty spot after a reckless challenge by France left-back Lucas Digne on Spain winger Lamine Yamal.
Oyarzabal hammered the ball past France goalkeeper Mike Maignan for his fifth goal of the World Cup to leave France trailing for the first time in the tournament.
Minutes later they suffered another blow when centre-back William Saliba had to leave the pitch after a recurrence of his lower back injury, replaced by Crystal Palace defender Maxence Lacroix.
Spain went agonisingly close to extending their lead after some dazzling one-touch football but Dayot Upamecano’s challenge denied Fabian Ruiz.
France finished the half without a single shot on target, and just two attempts overall.
Deschamps threw on Desire Doue for Bradley Barcola in the 57th minute in a bid to supercharge his attack but a minute later they were 2-0 down after a stunning team goal for Luis de la Fuente’s men.
Defender Porro delivered a sharp pass to the feet of Dani Olmo on the edge of the box and collected the return ball before coolly slotting past Maignan.
(Aljazeera)
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S. N. B. M. Patdmasiri appointed Director General of the Department of Government Factories
The Cabinet of Ministers approved the resolution furnished by the Minister of Housing, Construction and Water Supply to
appoint S. N. B. M. Patdmasiri who is a Special Grade officer in Sri Lanka Engineering Service and currently serving at the Department as the Additional Director General to the post of Director General of the Department of Government Factories with immediate effect.
Oil prices have surged to their highest level in a month as renewed hostilities between the United States and Iran continued for a third consecutive day, dampening hopes for a return to normality in the Strait of Hormuz.
Brent crude, the primary international benchmark, rose 2.8 percent on Tuesday, extending a 9.6 percent gain from the previous day.
Brent futures for September delivery stood at $85.67 a barrel as of 07:00 GMT, the highest since June 15.
After easing to pre-conflict levels following Washington and Tehran’s signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for peace last month, Brent has risen 18 percent from its price before the start of the US-Israel war on Iran in late February.
The US Central Command on Monday announced strikes on Iran for a third day, saying its forces targeted Tehran’s ability to attack “innocent civilians and commercial shipping” in the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it hit two oil supertankers in the strait and launched missile and drone strikes against US military assets in Kuwait and Bahrain in retaliation for the attacks.
Adding to the market volatility, President Donald Trump said on Monday the US would reimpose its blockade of Iranian ports and begin charging vessels transit fees as the “guardian” of the critical waterway.
“Crude oil is fast losing its strategic petroleum reserve buffer, and a violent repricing up cannot be discounted until the market sees toned-down rhetoric from both parties,” June Goh, a senior oil market analyst at Sparta Commodities in Singapore, told Al Jazeera, referring to the US government’s emergency oil stockpile, which the Trump administration has drawn on to mitigate supply constraints.
After ticking up in recent weeks amid hopes for a permanent peace deal between Washington and Tehran, traffic in the Strait of Hormuz has plummeted amid the renewed threat of violence against commercial shipping.
A total of 57 transits were recorded from Friday through Sunday, a more than 50 percent drop compared with the previous week, according to ship-tracking platform MarineTraffic.
Roughly 130 vessels transited the strait daily before the US and Israel launched their initial strikes on Iran in late February.
“Traffic through Hormuz is grinding to a halt, back to – or even below – our immediate pre-MoU pace,” Rory Johnston, founder of oil market research firm Commodity Context, told Al Jazeera.
“The oil market has proven extremely patient through this crisis, in large part thanks to an ample stock cushion upon which we were able to draw to blunt the sharpness of the supply shock,” Johnston said.
“Unfortunately, much of that cushion has now been depleted, leaving us much more vulnerable to a rerun of March and April.”
[Aljazeera]
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