Kremlin Speaks Against Arms Race With West
The Kremlin says Russia does not want to enter a costly new arms race with the West, saying it would hurt the country’s economy.
"We are against any arms race because it naturally weakens our economic capabilities,” presidential aide Yury Ushakov told reporters on June 17. “And in principle we are against it."
Ushakov was briefing reporters on an economic conference later this week in St Petersburg.
Based on reporting by Reuters and AFP
French, German, Ukrainian, Russian FMs To Meet In Paris Next Week
Paris says the foreign ministers of France, Germany, Ukraine, and Russia are set to hold talks on June 23 over the crisis in eastern Ukraine.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on June 17 that the ministers would in particular discuss the implementation of a cease-fire agreement signed in Minsk in February.
During a telephone call on June 17, Russia's Foreign Ministry said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his German counterpart, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, "stressed the importance of an immediate cessation of hostilities in east Ukraine and especially the shelling of villages and civilian infrastructure."
The call comes a day after Kyiv reported the death of two servicemen as a fresh round of European-mediated talks with pro-Moscow rebels failed to break the deadlock over the future status of its separatist-controlled eastern regions.
Fighting between Ukrainian government forces and rebels has killed more than 6,400 people in eastern Ukraine since April 2014.