Russia will be represented at the G20 summit in New Delhi by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, President Vladimir Putin said.
He said this to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a telephone conversation.
As reported by Al Jazeera, Putin and Modi discussed bilateral relations.
The two leaders also touched on the planned expansion of the BRICS group of emerging economies, which, among others, consists of India, Russia, China, Brazil and the Republic of South Africa, as well as the summit of the G20 member states, which consists of the world's major economies.
New Delhi will host the summit.
(MINE)
Pope Francis came under fire on Monday for telling Russian youth to remember that they are heirs to past tsars such as Peter the Great, whom President Vladimir Putin cited as an example to justify the invasion of Ukraine.
Ukraine said the comments, which Francis made in a video address to Catholic youth gathered in St. Petersburg on Friday, were "deeply regrettable," Reuters reports.
Francis read his prepared speech in Spanish, but eventually switched to impromptu Italian and said: “Don't forget (your) heritage. You are the heirs of the great Russia - the great Russia of saints, kings, the great Russia of Peter the Great, Catherine II, the great Russian empire, cultural, so much culture, so much humanity. You are the heirs of the great mother Russia. Go ahead."
The Vatican released the text of the address on Saturday, but did not include the final, improvised passage. Religious sites published a video of the Pope commenting.
"It is with such imperialist propaganda, "spiritual ties" and the "need" to save "great mother Russia" that the Kremlin justifies the killing of thousands of Ukrainians and the destruction of Ukrainian towns and villages," said spokesman Oleg Nikolenko. for the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, according to Facebook.
"It is deeply regrettable that such notions of great power, which essentially contribute to Russia's chronic aggressiveness, are uttered by the pope, knowingly or unknowingly," said Nikolenko.
An editorial on the Italian website Il Sismografo, which specializes in Catholic issues, called the pope's words "strange" at a delicate moment in history.
It states that Catherine, known as Catherine the Great and who ruled from 1729 to 1796, annexed Crimea in 1783. It is also noted that Catherine protected the Jesuits in Russian-controlled lands after Pope Clement XIV suppressed the order worldwide in 1773. Pope Francis is a Jesuit.
Last year, Putin paid tribute to Tsar Peter the Great, the other Russian leader mentioned by the pope, drawing a parallel between what he portrayed as their dual historic quests to reclaim Russian lands.
Putin has repeatedly tried to justify Russia's actions in Ukraine, where his forces devastated cities, killed thousands and put millions of people on the run, by espousing a view of history that claims Ukraine has no real national identity or tradition of statehood.
"This is really disgusting," former Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves said on Ks, formerly known as Twitter, of the pope's remarks.
Nekta, a website that reports on Belarus from Poland, said on Ks: "By the way, the Catholics of Poland, Lithuania and Belarus have raised uprisings against this 'enlightened empire' three times."
Francis called Russia's actions in Ukraine brutal, cruel and ferocious and said the invasion violated the country's right to self-determination. He has spoken of "martyr's Ukraine" at almost every public appearance since the February 2022 invasion.
But he also made a number of glaring mistakes when he spoke.
Last year, he upset Kiev by calling Russian ultranationalist Daria Dugina, who was killed in a car bomb near Moscow, an innocent victim of war.
The comment prompted Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba to summon the Vatican's ambassador to Kiev in protest, saying the pope's words were "dishonest" and "broke the heart of Ukraine."
Russia sent two fighter jets this evening to prevent two US drones from violating its border over the Black Sea, the Russian Defense Ministry said, according to Reuters.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said today that at a meeting with government and military officials, he discussed the protection of energy infrastructure, preparations for winter and the transition to new types of aircraft.
Zelensky, who is now known as X, wrote on Twitter that the maximum attention of the meeting was devoted to "offensive actions and securing the front with weapons."
"Implementation of the plan for the protection of critical and energy infrastructure. Preparation for the winter. Development of a program for the transition to new types of aircraft", are the topics of the conversation mentioned by the Ukrainian president.
He added that at the next meeting of the Council for National Security and Defense, the inspection of military medical commissions will be discussed.
(BETA)
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan will visit Russia soon to discuss the failed United Nations deal that allowed Black Sea exports of Ukrainian grain, a spokesman for Turkey's ruling AK Party said Monday.
The agreement brokered by the UN and Turkey lasted a year, but ended last month after Moscow resigned. Ankara is trying to convince Russia to return to the agreement, according to which Odesa seaports delivered tens of millions of tons of grain, reports Reuters.
Since the grain export deal collapsed, Russian forces have targeted Ukrainian ports with salvos of missiles and kamikaze drones.
Omer Çelik, a spokesman for the AK Party, said Erdogan would visit the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi "soon", but did not specify whether he would meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"After this visit there may be developments and new phases regarding the" grain deal, he told reporters.
The Kremlin said on Friday that there was an understanding that the two leaders would meet in person soon.
Bloomberg cited two anonymous sources in the report that Erdogan is expected to meet Putin in Russia next week, possibly on September 8, before traveling to the G20 meeting in India.
Ukraine said its troops had liberated the town of Robotin in the country's southeast and were trying to advance further south in their counteroffensive against Russian forces.
"Robotin has been freed," Deputy Defense Minister Hana Maliar said, as quoted by the Ukrainian military.
The army, Reuters reports, announced last week that its forces raised the national flag in Robotino.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a televised interview that he shared on his Telegram channel on Sunday that next Sunday he will ask the parliament to increase the penalties for corruption during the war.
Earlier, Ukrainian authorities raided more than 200 military centers to root out a system of corruption that allows conscripts to flee the army amid a counteroffensive by Ukrainian forces against Russia.
According to the investigation, in exchange for bribes, "officials helped citizens to receive disability benefits or to be recognized as temporarily unfit for military service. This allowed them to postpone or avoid military service," the prosecution stated, Hina agency reported.
In early August, Zelensky fired all regional officials responsible for army recruitment, specifically citing a system that allowed recruits to be smuggled "across the border".
The fight against corruption, an endemic evil in Ukraine, which was already one of the poorest countries in Europe before the Russian invasion, is one of the conditions set by the European Union for Ukraine's candidate status.
(BETA)
Two people were killed in a Russian missile attack on the central Ukrainian region of Poltava, Governor Dmytro Lunyin said today.
"As a result of the enemy attack, two people died, two were transferred to the hospital with minor injuries, and the whereabouts of two more people are currently unknown," Luninj wrote in the Telegram messaging application.
Luninj, reports Reuters, said that the attack was on an industrial facility. He did not provide further details. The Ukrainian army announced that Russia launched two missiles at Ukraine during the night, two of which were shot down.
Air defenses shot down an enemy drone near Moscow in the early hours, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
He said that according to preliminary information, there were no casualties or damage on the ground.
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