Russian invasion

Negotiations
Kremlin does not want to see European troops despite Trump's promise

Moscow has a "negative attitude" to European soldiers acting as peacekeeping forces in Ukraine and as a security guarantee after the war, says Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. The Kremlin particularly dislikes the fact that several of the countries are members of NATO, writes Politico.

The statement goes against Donald Trump's claim that Russia would accept such an arrangement. Trump claimed that he had explicitly asked Vladimir Putin about this, adding that the Russian president had no objections.

But the new statement from the Kremlin casts doubt on whether European security guarantees are even possible, writes the political site.  

Russian espionage 

Russian drones spy on top-secret German weapons route

Russia or a close ally is flying surveillance drones over top-secret routes that the United States and other Western countries use to transport military equipment through eastern Germany towards Ukraine. This is stated by several sources for the New York Times and the German Wirtschaftswoche, which have examined the matter together.

– It is espionage, straight up, says Seth Jones, who has researched Russian sabotage attempts for the think tank CSIS.

Russia is probably trying to understand which companies manufacture and supply Ukraine's weapons and how they find their way into Poland. In addition to giving the Russian army an early warning of which weapons are on their way to the front, there is great concern that Russia could use the information to carry out sabotage.

At least some of the drones are believed to be Iranian-made. The German intelligence service also reportedly suspects that some of the drones have taken off from ships in the Baltic Sea.

Kremlin dismisses news as “yet another fake article”

The Kremlin has not yet had time to read the New York Times article. This is according to spokesman Dmitry Peskov after the newspaper reported that Russian surveillance drones are flying over Thuringia, Germany, to spy on the West’s top-secret arms deliveries to Ukraine.

But Peskov adds that it is “hard to believe,” arguing that the Germans could hardly have kept quiet about such a thing.

– So of course this is increasingly looking like yet another fake news article, says Peskov.

According to NYT’s sources, there is great concern in Europe that the Russian findings could eventually be used for sabotage.