Russian invasion

Negotiations
Russia: We are waiting for a response from Ukraine on talks

Russia is still waiting for a response from Ukraine on the proposal to hold the next round of peace talks in Istanbul on June 2, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, Reuters reports.

Ukraine has said it wants to see Russia's "peace memorandum", which it promised to send after the last meeting, before the next round of talks. Peskov calls the demand "non-constructive".

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday urged both Russia and Ukraine not to "close the door" to dialogue.

Russian reactions
Putin has paid Iran four tons of gold for drones

Russia has paid Iran almost four tons of gold bars in exchange for Shahed-136 drones, reports independent Russian Agentstvo according to the Moscow Times.

The information comes from the Washington-based research group C4ADS. They have seen a handwritten contract between the factory in Iran and the Alabuga special economic zone in Russian Tatarstan, where the drones are assembled.

The contract concerns the delivery of almost 1.8 tons of gold. Another contract dated April 5 of the same year lists just over two tons of gold, but the details of that delivery are unknown.

According to C4ADS, the gold was a way to round transactions in US dollars, which the US Treasury Department could have put a stop to due to sanctions. 

Russia: Serbia is trying to stab us in the back

Russia claims to have evidence that Serbian defense companies are supplying the Ukrainian army with ammunition, reports AFP.

Serbia, which has one of Europe's most Kremlin-friendly governments, has officially remained neutral throughout the war.

However, in a new report titled “Serbian Defense Industry Tries to Backstab Russia,” the Russian intelligence agency SVR claims that both government-owned defense giants and private companies are secretly exporting weapons to Ukraine.

The SVR accuses the companies of using false documents and intermediaries to hide the exports, writing:

“In Russia-friendly Serbia, the country’s largest defense companies are engaged in a conveyor belt of death.”

Serbia denies arming either side, but according to the Financial Times, billions of dollars worth of Serbian ammunition have ended up in Ukraine via third parties.