🎙 Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova’s comment regarding the disconnection of one of the Zaporozhskaya Nuclear Power Plant’s external power lines

💬 In the morning of April 4, Europe’s largest nuclear power facility, the Zaporozhskaya Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), lost one of its critical sources of electricity needed to cool the reactors, as well as for other important nuclear safety functions.

Importantly, this is not the first time this has happened. The Kiev regime remains the sole threat to the facility’s security, relentlessly attempting new provocations. As recently as March 12, the Armed Forces of Ukraine used UAVs to try and destroy the ZNPP diesel fuel depot, which is critical for its backup power supply. Kiev’s sponsors reacted with non-committal statements about the ZNPP facing “constant nuclear safety risks” amid a military conflict. At the same time, everyone clearly understands what this means at the UN, the IAEA, and in world capitals, including those that continue to supervise the Zelensky regime directly.

We warn Kiev and its Western handlers against any attempts to attack or destabilise the nuclear power plant. We urge the IAEA and its leaders to actively involve the experts present at the scene to publicly record all attacks by the Ukrainian side and clearly state from whence a threat is coming to the facility’s safe operation.

🤝 On April 5, Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Commonwealth of Independent States Sergey Lavrov met with Secretary-General of the Commonwealth of Independent States Sergey Lebedev.

They discussed topical aspects of cooperation within the organisation, including in the context of preparations for the upcoming meetings of its supreme statutory bodies. The Minister briefed the CIS Secretary General on the progress in implementing the Concept of Russia’s Chairmanship in the CIS this year and the Action Plan for its implementation.

☝️ Sergey Lavrov praised the level of interaction between the Russian Foreign Ministry and the CIS Executive Committee, noted Sergey Lebedev’s great personal contribution to the development of integration in the Eurasian space, strengthening neighbourly relations and the atmosphere of friendship and trust between the CIS countries.

📆 On April 6, 1654, exactly 370 years ago, Russia's Tsar Alexey Mikhailovich Romanov aka Alexey I, granted his royal charter to Hetman of the Zaporozhian Host Bogdan Khmelnitsky. The document secured Russia’s reunification with Left-Bank Ukraine (then – part of Little Russia aka Malorossiya).

In the late 16th and the first half of the 17th century, pressure on the Orthodox population increased from the Polish-Lithuanian gentry in the lands of Ancient Rus controlled by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

After the Union of Brest was adopted in 1596, a majority of Orthodox priests became completely subordinate to the Pope. Those who remained faithful to Orthodoxy became outcasts and were deprived of hierarchical leadership, since Metropolitan of Kiev Mikhail Rogoza also joined the Greek Catholics. The gentry pursued aggressive Polonisation and Latinisation policy, and those who had the courage to resist were deprived of titles and lands and suffered persecution.

All attempts by the Zaporozhian Cossacks to come to an agreement with the Polish king failed as the Polish nobility did not plan to tolerate a free Orthodox community in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

Under the threat of losing religious and national identity, a liberation movement of the Orthodox population of the Dnieper region began to form, with prerequisites created for supporters who sought to overthrow the gentry and reunify with Russia.

In 1648, the Cossacks stepped up their liberation struggle led by Hetman Bogdan Khmelnitsky, who repeatedly asked Tsar Alexey I for help, urging him to take the Hetmanate under “his royal hand.”

On January 8, 1654, Pereyaslav Rada officially declared the acceptance of the Zaporozhian Cossacks into the Russian state. On April 5, Tsar Alexey I signed the royal charter, where the Russian monarch’s title “Tsar of all Russia Great and Little” was used for the first time.

👉 Read more about the Pereyaslav Agreement

🎙 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks at the ambassadorial roundtable discussion to settle the situation around Ukraine (Moscow, April 4, 2024)

Key talking points:

• April 14 marks the 10th anniversary of the Nazis that came to power in Ukraine declaring an “anti-terrorist operation” against the people of Donbass. They designated them as terrorists who must be destroyed.

• Throughout these years, we knew and said publicly that the accusations of terrorism against Donbass were baseless. Now it was confirmed by the UN International Court of Justice in its decision dated January 31, 2024, regarding the claim filed by Kiev and its masters against the Russian Federation.

• The International Court of Justice has effectively confirmed that Kiev's aggressive actions against Donetsk and Lugansk were initially based on lies.

• Today, Ukraine, if we return to its arguments about terrorism as justification for its actions, has clearly become a terrorist state. Over the past 10 years it has been terrorising citizens in its own country and beyond.

• The Foreign Ministry has recently issued official demands to the Ukrainian authorities, urging them to promptly cease any support for terrorist activities, extradite those responsible, and provide compensation for damages incurred.

• Alongside the appeal made through the Foreign Ministry, the Russian Prosecutor-General’s Office has dispatched relevant documents to the US and several other Western countries, documents based on appeals from citizens and parliamentarians and detailing the actions we expect from them in connection with the newly discovered evidence exposing the support for the Ukrainian regime’s terrorist activities and preparations from its patrons.

• We all know that Kiev is not independent, but is following instructions from its bosses and handlers implementing their anti-Russia project.

• We honestly told the Westerners that they were pushing Ukraine towards a disaster. No one wanted to listen.

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#Opinion by Maria Zakharova

💬 Zelensky said that Kiev was hostage to the election process in the US.

So... were there no elections in the United States before 2024? Or is that the absent Ukrainian presidential elections have been moved to the US?

I get it. Zelensky wants to believe he’s one of a kind and everything revolves around him, but this is not the case. He is just a line in a long list of victims of US “elections,” or, to be precise, the American system. He is one of those who were 100 percent sure the United States was their ally.

South Vietnamese got it back in the 1960s.

There was a girl once upon a time, who was South Vietnam’s greatest beauty, Tran Le Xuan. She was popularly called Madame Nhu because she was married to Ngo Dinh Nhu, the younger brother and chief advisor of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem.

Ngo Dinh Nhu and Ngo Dinh Diem, the two South Vietnamese leaders, were supported by the Americans.

Even at the height of the Vietnam War, a bloody and ugly child of the French colonial system, Washington promised Ngo Dinh Nhu and Ngo Dinh Diem its full assistance. The Americans were working hard to ensure the tragic split into the South Vietnam and North Vietnam seeking to benefit from a war in the former French colonies.

Can’t Zelensky see parallels?

The US was so delicate with South Vietnamese leaders that US Vice President Lyndon Johnson visited Saigon in 1961. Later, he, then the US President, would send hundreds of thousands of Americans to die in Vietnam. During his visit, Johnson called Diem the “Churchill of Asia.” In much the same way, the US has promoted an ambitious drug addict crowning him “the leader of a Free Ukraine”.

So, what happened to the Washington allies, Ngo Dinh Nhu and Ngo Dinh Diem? They were killed. General Duong Van Minh, considered one of the most loyal military commanders, led a coup on November 1, 1963 in which South Vietnam’s top brass were arrested and shot on the putschists’ orders.

It was only by chance that Ngo Dinh Nhu’s wife, Tran Le Xuan, wasn’t killed, because she was abroad. It was then that Madame Nhu uttered the much-remembered phrase: "Those who have the United States as an ally need have no enemies". And that phrase turned out to be prophetic. In 1975, it turned out that the Americans knew of the impending coup. They could have warned their allies, saved the South Vietnamese president and his team, but just as the French did not prevent the genocide in Rwanda, the Americans "found it inexpedient" to stop the military putsch. Some sources claim that the degree of involvement of the Americans was even greater in that they inspired the coup and used the military to remove the president.

But let’s return to the American elections. Here are just a few quotations from comments, statements and interviews by the Russian Foreign Ministry leadership on this subject.

Sergey Lavrov: “This is not the first time that serious international issues that concern many members of the world community are being held hostage to US electoral cycles. However, this is a short-sighted approach.” (September 21, 2018)

Sergey Lavrov: “It is sad when these endless election cycles are starting to make virtually everything else a hostage to the domestic US political struggle. Elections take place every two years, and it is necessary to do something during them, so that the enemy will feel defeated.” (December 22, 2019)

Sergey Lavrov: “When the issue concerns a country that boasts the most powerful military and economy, and is the most influential country in the world, which holds political elections every two years, it very often occurs that the most important international issues become hostage to electoral motives of the existing US authorities, which want to ensure that their every move in the international arena scores big for their party candidates.” (December 30, 2015)

We warned them. It’s just that Mr Nhu refused to realise this or was simply unable to. Reread the first sentence of the post: now it started dawning on him.

🇷🇺 State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom:

The Zaporozhskaya Nuclear Power Plant has faced an unprecedented series of drone attacks posing a direct threat to the plant’s safety.

The Rosatom State Corporation urges the leadership of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the European Union countries to promptly address the escalating situation at the largest nuclear power plant in Europe.

On April 7, 2024, the Ukrainian Armed Forces initiated an unprecedented series of attacks on the Zaporozhskaya Nuclear Power Plant.

At 11.38 am, a drone struck the vicinity of the canteen, injuring three people.

Thirty minutes later, another drone targeted the cargo port area. Subsequently, a strike at the sixth power unit of the power plant impacted its dome.

No critical damage or casualties occurred; the radiation levels at the plant and its surroundings remain unchanged and do not surpass natural background levels.

Prior to this incident, the Ukrainian Armed Forces conducted an assault on the plant’s premises on April 5. Incursions by Ukrainian Armed Forces drones were detected in the vicinity of the cargo port and the nitrogen-oxygen station.

The Rosatom State Corporation strongly condemns the unprecedented assault on the nuclear power plant facilities and its infrastructure. It urges the leadership of the IAEA, specifically Director General Rafael Grossi, and the leaders of the EU nations to promptly address the immediate threat to the safety of the Zaporozhskaya NPP. Furthermore, it calls for a categorical condemnation of the escalation of tensions surrounding the plant.

🇷🇺Россия вносит вклад в достижение целей Международного десятилетия языков коренных народов (2022-2032). С 2016 г. реализуется Программа поддержки национальных литератур народов России.

📚В рамках этой программы изданы уникальные книги на 69 языках народов России. С текстами, их переводами, биографиями национальных писателей можно ознакомится на Портале национальных литератур rus4all.ru

🇷🇺Russia contributes to the goals of International Decade of Indigenous Languages (2022-2032). Since 2016 Russia has been implementing the Programme on Promoting Literature in Indigenous Languages.

📚As part of this Programme, unique books were published in 69 languages of the peoples of Russia. Translations and biographies of authors can be found on the portal rus4all.ru

🇷🇺🇨🇳 Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi held a working meeting in Beijing.

📸 Photo by Russian MFA Spox Maria Zakharova

#RussiaChina

🇷🇺🇨🇳 Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov holds talks with Foreign Minister of China Wang Yi.

📍 Beijing, April 9

#RussiaChina

🇷🇺🇨🇳 Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was received by Chinese President Xi Jinping during his visit to China.

📍 Beijing, April 9

#RussiaChina

🇷🇺🇨🇳 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s opening remarks during talks with Minister of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China Wang Yi (Beijing, April 9, 2024)

💬 We see that thanks to the efforts of our Leaders, #RussiaChina relations of comprehensive partnership and strategic interaction have reached, without any exaggeration, an unprecedented level. With President Vladimir Putin’s re-election, the continuity of the line for their comprehensive strengthening has received additional guarantees.

We noticed the high assessment that you personally gave to ties between Russia and China at a news conference in March of this year. We fully share this assessment.

Our strategic partnership is founded upon the principles of respectful, equitable, and trust-based dialogue, along with mutual support on issues related to the core interests of both countries.

As repeatedly stated by our Leaders, our cooperation has outmatched the military-political alliance of the Cold War era and is not aimed against any third country. The proximity and, in most cases, convergence of Russia and China’s foreign policy approaches to solving the key problems of the modern age are laying the foundation for enhancing strategic coordination on the global scale. Cooperation in international affairs enables us to address common tasks more efficiently both at home and abroad.

🤝 As you said, Mr Minister, we are currently focused on shaping a more just multipolar international order and on promoting inclusive and constructive cooperation formats, such as BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. Also, we are working to consolidate the nations of the Global South to ensure greater fairness and equality in global affairs.

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🎙 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks and answers to media questions during a joint news conference with PRC Foreign Minister Wang Yi following talks

📍 Beijing, April 9, 2024

💬 Yesterday and today, we held detailed and specific talks on a broad range of issues of interest to both sides.

• We focused on the schedule of top-level contacts, because the leaders’ diplomacy is, without any exaggeration, the central element of #RussiaChina comprehensive partnership and strategic interaction.

• We also discussed foreign ministry contacts. We have just signed in your presence yet another plan of consultations between our foreign ministries for 2024.

☝️ The issues we are addressing in the economy, trade, investment, and innovative technology are directly related to the effort to establish a fair multipolar world order free from diktat, hegemony, and neo-colonial and colonial practices, which are being used to the utmost extent by the United States and the rest of the collective West that has bowed without question to Washington’s will.

• China and Russia will continue to defend the need to rectify this situation in international economic relations and to be committed to democratising these relations and returning to the principles that were proclaimed a while ago and consist in the requirement to respect the market processes, fair competition, inviolability of property, presumption of innocence, and much more.

• We are focused on aligning our strategies on the global stage. This coordination relies on largely overlapping interests and approaches to key international challenges.

🇷🇺🇨🇳 The talks took place in an atmosphere of friendship, traditional for Russian-Chinese relations, and once again demonstrated the commonality of our countries' views on major global developments and our desire to strengthen bilateral ties in the interest of peace and stability in the region and on the entire planet.

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⚡️ Comment by Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on US statements regarding the space agenda

💬 On April 5, US Assistant Secretary of Defence for Space Policy John Plumb addressed the Defense Writers Group on the Russian-Chinese draft Treaty on the Prevention of the Placement of Weapons in Outer Space, the Threat or Use of Force against Outer Space Objects (PPWT). It will be recalled that Russia and China submitted the draft treaty to the Conference on Disarmament in February 2008. Mr Plumb dismissed this initiative as a mere “political ploy,” claiming that adherence to the deal would not be verifiable.

☝️ The US is an ardent opponent of the Russian initiatives on the prevention of an arms race in space (PARS). Its strong opposition to the above Russian-Chinese draft treaty has long been an integral part of US foreign policy. In this context, Mr Plumb’s statements are hardly surprising.

Generally, comments on PARS by US representatives, as well as Washington’s ongoing activities at the UN Security Council with regard to nuclear weapons in space, are elements of its long-standing policy to subvert multilateral efforts to maintain international peace and strengthen global security through upgrading the existing and developing new legally binding arms control instruments. Instead, the US has been promoting a set of norms of “responsible” behaviour within the framework of their concept of a “rules-based world order,” which is untenable both in technical and international legal terms.

🇷🇺 The Russian Federation is prepared for an equitable dialogue with all states, aimed at keeping outer space free of weapons of any type as one of the conditions for ensuring international peace and security. As is to be regretted, far from all countries are committed to a responsible discussion on this matter.

⚡️ Foreign Ministry Statement in connection with Ukraine’s attacks on Zaporozhskaya NPP

On April 7, Ukraine launched mass strikes at the Zaporozhskaya NPP (ZNPP).

Using UAVs, the Ukrainian forces launched a series of attacks on the ZNPP critical infrastructure facilities and its grounds. Power Generation Unit No. 6, the ZNPP training centre and the cafeteria, as well as the cargo port grounds, came under attack. Three ZNPP employees were wounded. ZNPP guards repelled the Ukrainian attack on Power Generation Unit No. 5.

❗️Having perpetrated these criminal actions, Ukraine, with the support of the US and its Western satellites, has, in fact, made it clear that it had embarked on a path of nuclear terror.

At the request of the IAEA Director General, Russia agreed to have IAEA Secretariat experts stationed at the plant. They have been present on the premises on a rotating basis since September 1, 2022. The only rationale for their presence at ZNPP was our expectation that the presence of IAEA Secretariat experts would stop Ukraine from attacking the plant, or the IAEA officials would, at least, publicly identify the Kiev regime as the source of attacks on the ZNPP.

☝️We expect the IAEA Director General to provide a public and exhaustively truthful response. <...>

The blame for the attacks on the ZNPP and their potential consequences also lies fully with the leadership of the countries that supply the Kiev regime with weapons and intelligence, provide it with funds, train Ukrainian soldiers and provide information support for Ukrainian crimes.

🇷🇺 Russia is doing everything necessary to ensure the safety of the ZNPP in accordance with national legislation and international legal obligations.

We will identify and prosecute those who are responsible for launching the attacks on the Russian nuclear facilities regardless of where these individuals may be located, even if, after we achieve the goals of the special military operation, they manage to flee the territory controlled by the Kiev regime.

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