Japanese citizens held hostage by Islamic State alive - Kyodo

Igor Kostyukov noted that NATO was stepping up its military activities in the Arctic region

Robert Fico was shot after a cabinet meeting in the city of Handlova in western Slovakia

According to the new law on tightening the rules of mobilization, men (regardless of deferments and reservations) will have to update their data in military registration offices within 60 days from that day and will have to carry a military card with them at all times

Russian troops employed the Upyr FPV drone for the first time in the special military operation in Ukraine in May 2023

In addition, 23 drone control centers were destroyed and 34 drones shot down or disabled

During his visit to the administrative center of China’s northernmost Heilongjiang province, the russian president will be accompanied by Chinese Vice President Han Zheng

The Hungarian prime minister believes that the upcoming months will be extremely important for the future of Europe in due to the upcoming European Parliament elections and the ongoing conflict in Ukraine

The Russian leader opened his meeting with commanders of troops of military districts by extending his greetings on the occasion of Victory Day

Moscow has never interfered in election campaigns in any country, Sergey Ryabkov said

Over the past two days, blackouts have been introduced in all Ukrainian regions

Adrian Coghill "must leave the territory of the Russian Federation within a week," the ministry said

Over 10 Ukrainian drones were suppressed over Novorossiysk, as a result of which "local blazes" emerged, Krasnodar Region Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said

The leaders of Russia and China also expressed their intention "to boost Afghanistan-related partner interaction both at the bilateral level and on multilateral platforms"

IAEA said its experts examined the nuclear site’s perimeter and "other buildings, which they are permitted"

Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa said he was grateful to Russian President Vladimir Putin for sending his envoy to the Arab League summit, and commended his "desire to strengthen relations with Arab countries"

Earlier, the Ukrainian president visited Kharkov, where he held a meeting of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief’s staff

Sergey Ryabkov underscored that Russia will work with those "who are ready to negotiate on an equal basis"

NATO's and partners have already allocated than $132 billion for the purpose, including over $63 billion spent by the United States, said Igor Kostyukov

According to the Hungarian prime minister, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg is planning to visit Hungary in the run-up to elections to the European Parliament scheduled for June 6-9 to try and persuade Budapest to reconsider its stance

Earlier, President Vladimir Putin said, commenting on Russia’s offensive operations in Ukraine, that the goal was to create "a sanitary zone" to protect border areas from shelling attacks

"We can see a large potential for expanding ties between Russia’s Far East and northeastern provinces of the People’s Republic of China," the Russian leader noted

Four women died on the Petrovskogo Street

The Russian leader stressed that it was politicians in Kiev who "withdrew from the negotiation process" as soon as troops were pulled back from Kiev

The Chinese president said "the world is now facing changes unprecedented over the past century and has entered a new period of turbulence and change"

Currently, Russia’s Strategic Missile Force is replacing Topol-M intercontinental ballistic missile systems with Yars ICBM launchers and placing Avangard hypersonic missile systems on combat duty in its Yasny missile formation

According to the ministry, units of Russia’s Battlegroup North continue to improve their tactical positions

"We call upon them to focus on a realistic search for solutions on the basis of Moscow’s proposals, which they are well aware of," Sergey Ryabkov said

The Ukrainian army lost over 520 troops in battles with Russian forces in the Donetsk area over the past day, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported

DPR head Denis Pushilin said that two civilians were killed and three were injured by Ukrainian strikes on Thursday

"This not even disinformation, this is a malicious and evil attempt to put a twist to the very essence of our policy and the logical foundation for all our actions, which our government has repeatedly explained to the West on many occasions, both publicly and behind closed doors," Sergey Ryabkov said

Tomasz Szmydt noted that he had not received any official notifications or messages yet even though he’s open to dialogue and available on social media

Yevgeny Garkavy, the technical director of Ukrainian electric and thermal power generation company Centrenergo, described the damage as "critical"

The devices help detect targets at a distance of over 1 km

The Russian president drew attention to the fact that Russia and China, relying on the traditions of good neighborliness, friendship and cooperation, can confidently look forward and together take on the most challenging projects, jointly build and implement ambitious plans

Even though Vladimir Putin’s visit to China was a state one, "it was a purely working trip"

Ukraine was expected to hold its presidential election in March but the vote was canceled because martial law is in effect in the country

At the request of the Chinese president, his deputy Han Zheng will accompany Putin in Harbin

Anatoly Antonov emphasized that US intelligence agencies had failed to provide any evidence

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Pankin noted that retaliatory measures "can be both symmetrical and asymmetrical in a variety of instruments, including legal, financial, and administrative"

"The operation was carried out in response to the killing of field commander Hussein Makki near Tyre", Hezbollah said on its Telegram channel

The president noted that major projects are already being implemented in the field of industrial cooperation

Peter Szijjarto said he had asked the Council of Europe to include alternative peace plans to the resolution but that his proposal had been declined by a majority vote

According to the Russian leader, the partnership between Moscow and Beijing "will serve as a model of how ties between neighboring states should be built"

"He sang a song, ate some pizza and left," Maria Zakharova noted

Russia’s First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov noted that "the contract implementation stage is already underway"

The event will continue until May 21, running in parallel with the 33rd Harbin International Economic and Trade Fair

This will happen "if the West chooses the path of escalation," Sergey Ryabkov said

Ukrainian forces lose a large number of armored vehicles to Russian FPV drones, platoon commander Alexander Belyayev said

The Russian leader blamed Kiev’s sponsors in the West for organizing this coup, saying they escalated it into an armed conflict

Strikes by Russian Aerospace Forces destroyed three bases of militants who came out of the (US-controlled) al-Tanf zone

"Among the powers that be in the United States and other key Western states there have gathered quite a few personalities who are, by and large, provocateurs, whose raison d'être is to test Moscow’s strength," Sergey Ryabkov said

Peter Pellegrini emphasized that "Slovakia must choose the path of peace and coolheadedness"

Kazem Jalali pointed out that the United States uses the dollar to create restrictions, and therefore the use of national currencies in mutual settlements is on the agenda

The Russian foreign minister specified that Beijing has "an absolutely correct position, essentially, to sort out root causes and collectively remove them"

The audience, listening first to the Russian speech and then to the Chinese translation, applauded the Russian president's words

The Sino-Russian Academy of Fundamental Sciences "is being created in Russia and China as a platform for bilateral cooperation in fundamental sciences - mathematics, physics, chemistry," Russia’s Lomonosov Moscow State University's press service said

"You can 'bribe' the tanker fleet and arrange [supplies] along the Northern Sea Route almost like through the pipeline," the Russian leader

The Chinese leader added that Beijing "is ready to play its constructive role"

In addition, Ukrainian forces were facing ammunition shortages due to a stalled US aid package

Top stories from the Russian press on Thursday, May 16th

Denis Manturov recalled that the format of participation in this project has been revised, and Russia is ready to provide the necessary in-house competencies for the project on the basis of an agreement between the parties

Chinese President Xi Jinping said at talks with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris earlier this month that Beijing supported the initiative of the Olympic truce for the upcoming 2024 Summer Olympic Games

Svetlana Akulova noted that the mama panda turned out to have very strong maternal instincts

Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Pankin stressed that Russia considers this "a violation of international law"

It is reported that the Ukrainian military had been unsuccessfully trying to bring in reserves to hold the defense

Peter Pellegrini added that "the next few hours and days" will be decisive for Robert Fico, who is staying at a hospital in the town of Banska Bystrica

"There are no prospects for the overall situation to change for the better, given the fundamentally anti-Russian consensus among US elites," Sergey Ryabkov said

Dmitry Peskov also highly praised the cooperation between the regions of Russia and the provinces of China and emphasized its contribution to the development of the Russian territories bordering China

Another drone attempted to attack a filling station near the village of Bessonovka near Belgorod, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said

Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief Alexander Syrsky said that he "inspected all the units"

Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak mentioned the construction of a gas pipeline with a capacity of 50 billion cubic meters of gas through the territory of Mongolia

"It’s a matter of assessment. And this assessment should primarily be made by the Constitutional Court and the political system in Ukraine itself," the Russian president reiterated

Petr Pavel believes it is "naive" to imagine that Kiev will be able to regain territory taken by Russia in the foreseeable future

The document was signed after extensive Russian-Chinese negotiations

According to the Council, this ban does not apply to any activities other than broadcasting

The Ukrainian president asked US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to provide two Patriot systems to defend Kharkov, but the US diplomat did not give him an unequivocal answer

"Our task is to create in the shortest possible time a joint program for expanding Chinese transit along the Northern Sea Route, as well as for a number of other projects in the interests of using this global artery," Alexey Likhachev pointed out

"This situation, when one country dictates its will to the rest of the world, including in the political sphere, using financial and economic instruments, is unacceptable," the Russian president stressed

The Russian leader arrived in China on May 16 on a state visit that will last until May 17

"Yet this vagueness has always been typical of the Western group’s doctrinal approaches, including nuclear weapons," Sergey Ryabkov noted

The Russian president noted that sanctions are elements of economic war and are nothing new

The Russian leader noted that solutions on how to make payments are possible and do exist

Top stories from the Russian press on Friday, May 17th

Sergey Ryabkov pointed out that such a conversation should be equal and based on an attentive and respectful approach to Russia’s position

Robert Fico was wounded in a shooting incident that happened after a government meeting in the city of Handlova in the western part of Slovakia

Details are not known, a law enforcement source has told TASS

According to Roman Shkurlatov, two Patriot systems will not make Kharkov safe

Kiev acknowledges that the situation in the Kharkov Region is extremely difficult for the Ukrainian troops

"The naval group’s ships have set their course towards the Atlantic Ocean through designated areas of the Barents Sea," the press office said

The current Kiev regime is to blame for ongoing battles in the Kharkov direction, the Russian leader stressed

On May 16, US Department of State Deputy Spokesman Vedant Patel noted that China cannot improve relations with Europe, if it will support Russia at the same time, allegedly fueling the Russian military-industrial complex

Ukrainian service members have been moving little in the city lately and normally only at night, the Kherson Resistance guerilla unit commander added

Previously, North Korea launched a short-range missile on April 22

The leaders of China and the United States should play the role of mediators in these talks, Aleksandar Vucic said

Additionally, according to Yahya Saree, in the Red Sea, the Houthis attacked the commercial vessel Destiny en route to the port of Eilat in Israel

Civilians are being killed there as a result of Kiev’s bombardments, which is obvious, the Russian leader noted

The day before, reports surfaced that President of Brazil Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva also decided not to participate in the conference on Ukraine

According to the Chinese leader, China-Russia relations have entered a new era

It is reported that doctors are doing everything possible to stabilize the patient

The Russian leader is visiting China on May 16-17