Nothing to discuss with NATO, says Russia

RUSSIA: Russia has no contact with the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) as Moscow and the alliance have nothing to discuss now, Russia’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs said.

“There is nothing to discuss with Nato,” the TASS news agency quoted Alexander Grushko as saying on Wednesday.

However, Russia wants to maintain diplomatic relations with Western countries despite a series of expulsions of its diplomats, Grushko said.

Several European countries including France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Italy have expelled large numbers of Russian diplomats in recent days.

The moves coincide with outrage across Europe over reports of the discovery of mass graves and of civilian killings in the Ukrainian town of Bucha following the retreat of Russian forces conducting what Moscow calls its “special operation” in Ukraine.

Meanwhile,Turkish fisherman Sahin Afsut fears the worst: hitting a mine and “disappearing underwater in the blink of an eye”. Like many fishermen in Rumelifeneri, a village set on the rocks of the Bosphorus in northern Istanbul, Afsut and his team remain in port since the discovery of a drifting mine last month in the Black Sea. Turkish authorities fear an accident and believe the mines became unmoored from the Ukrainian coast during storms.

The Russian Defence Ministry last week said 420 mines — 370 mines of them in the Black Sea — were placed by Ukraine to protect its coast but around 10 had broken off.

– THE BANGKOK POST