Moscow views eliminating nationalist battalions in Ukraine as a top priority task, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday, reports TASS news agency.
“The main task is to liberate [Ukraine] from these nationalist battalions after all. The operation continues and the tasks that have been set are well known. They must and will be accomplished. There must be no doubts about that,” the Russian presidential spokesman said.
As Peskov pointed out, “peaceful life is returning where nationalist battalions do not take civilians hostage and where these nationalist battalions do not open fire on social facilities and houses.”
“However, in those places where nationalist battalions are engaged in what I spoke about, there is fierce struggle and all of them must be eliminated there,” the Kremlin press secretary said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a televised address on February 24 that in response to a request by the heads of the Donbass republics he had made a decision to carry out a special military operation in Ukraine in order to protect people “who have been suffering from abuse and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years.” The Russian leader stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories, noting that the operation was aimed at the denazification and demilitarization of Ukraine.
The Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (the DPR and the LPR) launched an operation to liberate their territories under Kiev’s control.
Russia unhappy at Israeli Foreign Minister’s statement
Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid’s statements regarding the suspension of Russia’s membership of the UN Human Rights Council are regrettable, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a news release on Friday.
“We have taken note of Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid’s aggressive statement, made on April 7 in the context of his country’s support for the UN General Assembly’s resolution on the suspension of Russia’s membership of the UN Human Rights Council,” the Foreign Ministry said. “The Israeli Foreign Minister’s statements evoke regret and rejection.”
“There was a poorly camouflaged attempt to take advantage of the situation in Ukraine to distract the international community’s attention from one of the oldest unsettled conflicts – the Palestinian-Israeli one,” the Foreign Ministry said.
Several buyers ready to pay in roubles for Russian gas
Several buyers of Russian gas have already agreed to convert payments into rubles, the country is waiting for a decision from other importers, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak wrote in his article for the Energy Policy magazine.
“Several buyers have already agreed with the transfer of gas payments into rubles, we are waiting for decisions from other importers,” the Deputy Prime Minister wrote, adding that the conditions for buyers remain as comfortable as possible.
The Deputy Prime Minister stressed that payments for gas are transferred into rubles because Russia wants to secure a 100% guarantee of payment.
“I would like to emphasize that the transfer of payments for gas into the national currency on the Russian side is logical and caused by objective reasons – the desire to receive payment for the delivered goods with a 100% guarantee. Such confidence in Russia is given by the payment pattern we proposed, in contrast to the one that has been in force until recently,” Novak noted.
He recalled that the EU plans to compensate the refusal of Russian energy sources by diversifying gas supplies, accelerating the transition to renewable types of gas, replacing gas in heating systems with other types of fuel and generating electricity from other sources.
“All these measures, according to the European Commission, will reduce the demand for Russian gas by two-thirds (67%) by the end of this year. They also plan to achieve energy independence by increasing the share of renewable energy sources. However, in March they noted the decline in wind generation,” Novak stressed.
Instead of Russia, American LNG producers claim to be the leading gas suppliers to Europe, who intend to take a significant share of the European market, he said.
“But there are a number of important nuances. The lack of the necessary infrastructure for receiving LNG will not allow increasing supplies quickly,” the Deputy Prime Minister concluded.
