War

A thousand two hundred and forty -seventh day. China secretly supplies Russia engines for drones under the guise of refrigerators

Medusa from February 24, 2022 lives on the Russian-Ukrainian war on the air. In our daily materials, we publish your letters because we are sure: we must continue to talk about the war. What feelings do you experience because of the ongoing war? How does it affect you personally right now? How has your attitude to what is happening, towards Russia, Ukraine, to the world changed over these three years of the war? Look for a feedback form at the end of this article. A review of the previous day can be read here .

World

The results of negotiations in Istanbul: "We did not wait for a breakthrough"

On July 23, the third round of direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine was held in Istanbul. They did not lead to the rapprochement of the positions of their participants. The heads of delegations - Rustem Umarov and Vladimir Medinsky - separately made statements.

Umarov said that Ukraine insists on an immediate ceasefire and offers a speedy meeting of the presidents of Vladimir Putin and Vladimir Zelensky. Medinsky, in turn, proposed a series of short truce for one or two days to search for the wounded and dead. To meet the presidents, he said, it is necessary to "work out the conditions."

Medinsky also stated that in the negotiations they discussed the fate of the children taken to Russia from Ukraine. He assured that the full list, which includes 339 children, was “completely worked out” by the Russian side. According to him, some of the children have already been returned to Ukraine, and the rest will be sent there as soon as their legal representatives are found. “And 50 people from the list turned out to be adults,” he said.

The office of the President of Ukraine was accused of Medinsky of manipulations. This morning, the head of the office Andrei Ermak wrote in his telegram that Russia provided “only partial information about the less than the fifth part of the children” from the list, and only six children were returned to Ukraine, of which five were members of the same family. Ermak also admitted that there were adults on the list, but, according to him, it was about people with disabilities, pupils of a boarding school in Oleshas of the Kherson region. “The achievement of the age of 18 does not cancel the fact of committing a war crime and does not deprive these persons the right to return home,” he emphasized.

In the morning, negotiations commented on the Kremlin. Press Secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov noted that "we did not wait for a breakthrough," but described the summons as "constructive, concrete and aimed specifically for subject work."

The representative of the Kremlin once again repeated what to talk about the meeting of the presidents, which Ukraine insists, is now early. “They are trying to put the cart a little ahead of the cart,” he said. Peskov noted that first you need to "do the subject work" and only then "provide the opportunity to the heads to record the developments that have been achieved."

Ukraine and Russia did not report the possible date of the next negotiations.

Russia

China secretly supplies Russia engines for drones under the guise of refrigerators

The Russian Military Plant "Dome", which is part of the Almaz-Antei concern, secretly purchases engines for drones from China through dummy companies. They are marked as “industrial refrigerator” to avoid Western sanctions, Reuters found out .

Deliveries, Reuters writes with reference to the domestic documents of the Dome, allowed to significantly increase the number of Harpy drum drones produced: the company from the Russian Ministry of Defense plans to produce more than six thousand Harpius in 2025 - this is three times more than in 2024.

According to Ukrainian military intelligence, Russia monthly uses about 500 such drones for attacks in the depths of Ukraine both on military and civilian facilities.

In September 2024, Reuters first wrote that the Dome produces Harpia using Chinese engines from Xiamen. A month later, the EU and the United States imposed sanctions against several Chinese companies participating in the supply chain - however, after this deliveries continued, already through new legal entities.

The China Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Beijing does not know anything about the export of parts for the Harpies and that the PRC authorities “control foreign sales of dual -use goods in accordance with their own legislation and international obligations.”

The plant "Dome" is located in Izhevsk. On July 1, he fell under the attack of Ukrainian drones, as a result, three people were killed, more than 40 were injured. Due to damage to the workshops, the plant temporarily suspended work.

Western countries have recently increased pressure on China, demanding from Beijing to stop the trade in products with Russia, which can be used for military purposes. On July 2, the head of the EU Foreign Policy Service Kai Kallas directly stated the Foreign Minister of China Van and that Moscow support by Chinese companies poses a threat to European security. As the Hong Kong edition of South China Morning Post, Van and answered her that for Beijing, Russia was not difficult to defeat in the war, since in this case the United States will be able to focus on the confrontation with China itself.

It is expected that the issues of military interaction between Beijing and Moscow will be discussed on July 25 during the visit of the head of the European Commission Ursula von der Layen to China, where she will meet with the President of China Xi Jinping and Prime Minister of the State Council of China Lee Qian.

War through the eyes of readers "Medusa"

How do we choose letters

Readers "Medusa" live in different countries and treat war differently. We publish your letters to see this event with your eyes. Our editors try to present all points of view, even if they do not coincide with the position of the editorial office. However, in accordance with the Medusa Code, we do not publish messages that contain the “language of hatred”, the murder of civilians is justified, and direct support for an aggressive war is expressed.

Ivan (Vinnitsa). [...] I remember the first year of the war, when the Ukrainians were really as one organism, it gave motivation to everyone, these queues in TCC ... I remember how I helped volunteers load water when I worked in the supermarket, I said to them: “Glory to Ukraine”, and they are one cry: “Glory to the heroes”.

It seems that the whole eternity has passed since that moment, and Ukraine has turned into the very black and white world that everyone was so afraid of. Now I wonder what went wrong? Why did everything change like that? Men left underground, only women, children and old people go on the streets mainly, and the armed gangs of TCCs drive and catch the remaining.

I know that maybe mobilization is needed, but not in the form as this is happening now. People literally die in the walls of the military registration and enlistment office with hematomas, I do not understand how world society can lower this on the brakes. I have a lot of acquaintances and friends who do not care how it will end. They just sit at home, afraid to go outside [...].

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