At least 37 African refugees were killed in Melilla on June 24 when security forces opened fire on them. Along with Spanish forces, Moroccan forces also participated in this operation.

Russia also objected to the West’s doublespeak on Ukraine, saying that platforms such as G20 were being used to push an anti-Russia agenda instead of trying to find ways to tackle the rising economic hardships the world is facing

The West’s “sanctions from hell” have given a big stimulus to India-Russia bilateral trade, giving it a dynamism that one never suspected would be recaptured in the post-Soviet era

Spain is seeking NATO protection for Melilla, where the massacre occurred, and Ceuta, its other colonial enclave on the North African coast. The NATO Summit has declared irregular migration from Africa to be a threat to the “state security” of its members

The summit exposed that the existing sanctions against Russia have gone beyond most Western policy makers’ pain threshold. The European leaders are discovering now that there is a price to be paid for further sanctions

The Russian forces are now almost in total control over the Luhansk region. However, peace is a long way off — several months away, perhaps

Russia has been warning that the West’s military supplies to Ukraine will only prolong the war in the country, and may cause grave consequences. Russia has repeatedly accused NATO of fighting a proxy war against it at the cost of the Ukrainian people  

Turkey announced last month that its forces will resume operations inside northern Syria to create “safe zone” as a buffer against possible terrorist strikes by Kurdish forces

The two nations defended their earlier veto against the UN Security Council resolution to impose further sanctions on North Korea and argued that the US has played a major role in stoking tensions in the peninsula

Turkey had carried out a similar invasion of northern Syria in October 2019 claiming to create a “safe zone” 30 km inside the Syrian border. The invasion had killed nearly 700 civilians and displaced over 300,000

The US and its allies have imposed unilateral sanctions on Russia following its attack on Ukraine in February. They have also accused Russia of preventing the export of food grains and fertilizers from Ukraine

Russia’s top priority has been to establish a land corridor to Crimea and put in place economic underpinnings for the region’s development. That aim stands fulfilled