BUDAPEST -- Payment in rubles for Russian gas is not a violation of European Union sanctions, Hungarian government spokesperson Zoltan Kovacs said on Saturday.

"The EU so far has no common procurement of gas and oil for European countries. So as we speak, we still go by alongside those contracts we have with Russians regarding gas and oil, and according to those contracts, it is a technical issue, in what currency we have to pay," Kovacs said in an interview with CNN, which was posted on his Twitter page.

Kovacs said more than 80 percent of the Hungarian population and the country's economy are dependent on Russian gas, with no physical alternatives.

Kovacs made the remarks in response to a statement by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who said Friday that such a move was a violation of EU sanctions aimed against Russia.

Earlier this week, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said that his country would be willing to pay for Russian gas in rubles after Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree stipulating that "unfriendly countries" would be required to pay for gas in the Russian currency.

The EU was in discussions with Budapest about the currency issue, according to von der Leyen.

NATO is still trapped in a "diode mentality", namely seeing the world in only two extremes, either for them or against them. Concerning the Ukraine crisis, they not only take Russia as the enemy, but also take any nation that does not stand with them as one.

And they are still in the old, harmful habit of imposing their own values upon others. They want every nation in the world to follow their steps like they follow the US, which will only result in a unipolar or bipolar world, like the Cold War era. As a creation of the Cold War, NATO is full of mentality of the 1960s and shows no hint of walking out of it.

"We have seen that China is unwilling to condemn Russia's aggression, and Beijing has joined Moscow in questioning the right of nations to choose their own path," said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg after a meeting on April 7. He also called it "a serious challenge to us all".

Would anybody please tell Stoltenberg that by saying so he is questioning the very right of China to choose its own path? China is neither a member of NATO nor of the Western alliance in any sense of the word, and it has the right to say words and take actions according to its own national interests in international affairs.

So why force China to join the West in condemning Russia? Why should China follow the path of NATO and Western nations on the issue?

The words of Stoltenberg expose that he and his organization are still trapped in a "diode mentality", namely seeing the world in only two extremes, either for them or against them. Concerning the Ukraine crisis, they not only take Russia as the enemy, but also take any nation that does not stand with them as one.

And they are still in the old, harmful habit of imposing their own values upon others. They want every nation in the world to follow their steps like they follow the US, which will only result in a unipolar or bipolar world, like the Cold War era. As a creation of the Cold War, NATO is full of mentality of the 1960s and shows no hint of walking out of it.

It is under the guidance of that very mentality that NATO continued expanding eastward and turned Russia from an imaginary enemy into a real one. It is time they avoided repeating that mistake and turning more nations with different thinking into enemies.

By pointing his fingers at China, Stoltenberg is trying to shrug off the responsibilities of his organization instead of finding a solution to it. Unable or unwilling to extinguish the flames of war in Ukraine, he passed the buck to China to avoid letting the world see his failures, but everybody knows that it is NATO's expansion eastward that worsened the geopolitical sphere of Russia and Ukraine and led to the military conflict.

He that tied the knot is the best person to untie it. Time for Stoltenberg and the NATO to stop blaming China for their wrongs, and join China's call for the two sides to come back to the negotiation table.

So that peace can come back to Ukraine and the refugees could go back home early.

Follow the writer on Twitter: @zzxang86

The Russia-Ukraine conflict is still going on, with innumerable families suffering. However, on the other side of the Earth, some people are counting their bloody money.

They are the US arms dealers and those in the US military-industrial complex. These US parasites suck blood globally.

Wherever there is a conflict, there are their weapons.

They have sold nuclear submarine technology to Australia threatening regional peace;

They sell weapons to Taiwan to try and prevent China's reunification;

They sell weapons to the Middle East, making things even messier.

They even sell rifles to US people, who face the risk of being shot every day.

They make money, and the people of the world pay the price.

Ironically, it is the same US that calls for "peace and human rights".

Time to refute their lies so that the world knows the truth.

Though ban months away, agreement in bloc harder to reach on oil and gas

The European Union's 27 member states on Thursday approved a ban on Russian coal imports, but not starting till August, as part of the bloc's fifth round of sanctions over Russia's alleged "heinous crimes" in Ukraine.

The latest round of sanctions was agreed upon by the EU's Committee of Permanent Representatives, the French presidency of the Council of the European Union said in a tweet late on Thursday. France holds the presidency of the Council of the EU for the first six months of this year.

The sanctions were first proposed by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Tuesday following the alleged killing by Russian troops of civilians in villages and towns outside Kyiv. Russia has denied the accusation and said those scenes were staged by Ukrainian special services.

The commission had initially proposed a period of three months for ending the existing coal contracts with Russia, but that was extended to four months, mainly due to the pressure from Germany and some other member states that are the main importers of Russian coal.

Besides an embargo on Russian coal imports valued at 4 billion euros ($4.34 billion) a year, the new sanctions include the freezing of assets of several Russian banks as well as a ban on exports to Russia, including high-tech goods in trade worth up to 10 billion euros and the closure of EU ports to Russian-flagged ships.

"This very substantial package extends the sanctions against Russia to new areas and provides in particular, sanctions against oligarchs, Russian propaganda actors, members of the security and military apparatus and entities in the industrial and technological sector linked to Russian aggression against Ukraine," said the French presidency of the Council of the EU.

Coal accounts for a small share of the roughly 99 billion euros that the EU spent on Russian mineral fuels in 2021.

During a debate in the European Parliament, European Council President Charles Michel said sanctions on Russian oil and gas are likely to be needed eventually.

"We must close the loopholes. We must target any attempt to circumvent sanctions and we are ready to move quickly," he said.

The European Parliament in a resolution adopted on Thursday calls for additional punitive measures on Russia including "an immediate full embargo on Russian imports of oil, coal, nuclear fuel and gas".

Hungary has said that it would block any EU effort to extend sanctions to Russian oil and gas.

France has supported a ban on oil and gas but indicated that it should wait for an EU-wide consensus.

"We, the French, (are) ready for a ban on the import of not only coal, which is on the table today, but also of Russian oil. Russia's most important energy revenue comes from oil,"French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire told France Info on Thursday.

But he added that building an EU-wide consensus on that measure could take time, and that it would make little sense to implement an oil ban at the national level.

Germany, which heavily depends on Russia for its energy sources, has warned that a ban on oil and gas could spark an economic recession.

Meanwhile, von der Leyen and the EU's chief diplomat Josep Borrell arrived in Kyiv on Friday for talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Traveling by train from Brussels, von der Leyen told reporters the most important message she was bringing to Zelensky was that there "will be the EU path" for Ukraine.

"Usually it takes years before the EU council accepts application for membership but Ukraine did that in a week or two and I ask to move forward as soon as possible," she said.

Borrell announced during the visit that the bloc has returned its ambassador to Kyiv.

They were to meet with Zelensky before attending an event for Ukraine in Warsaw on Saturday.

Agencies contributed to the story.

The United Nations General Assembly on Thursday adopted a resolution to suspend the membership rights of Russia on the UN Human Rights Council.

The resolution was approved with two-thirds of the eligible members voting in favor in the US-led push, which garnered 93 votes in favor, 24 against and 58 abstentions.

China voted against the resolution.

The resolution will deprive a country of its legitimate membership in the Human Rights Council, said Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the UN.

"Such an important matter must be handled with the utmost delicacy, calmly, objectively and rationally, on the basis of facts and truth."

Zhang said the resolution "was not drafted in an open and transparent manner, nor did it follow the tradition of holding consultations within the whole membership to heed the broadest opinions".

"Under such circumstances, such a hasty move at the General Assembly, which forces countries to choose sides, will aggravate the division among member states and intensify the contradictions between the parties concerned. It is like adding fuel to the fire, which is not conducive to the de-escalation of conflicts, and even less so to advancing the peace talks," he said.

Zhang said approaching membership on the Human Rights Council in such a way "would set a new and dangerous precedent, further intensify the confrontations in the field of human rights, bring a greater impact on the UN governance system and produce serious consequences".

"Therefore, China will have to vote against this draft resolution,"Zhang said before the vote.

Zhang emphasized that dialogue and negotiation are the only way out of the Ukraine crisis. China always believes that the international community should remain rational and strengthen unity instead of setting up obstacles, let alone adding fuel to the fire by aggravating confrontations, he said.

"We regret to see that the conflict has caused civilian casualties and massive displacements and that the all-dimensional, indiscriminate and bottomless sanctions have brought serious, negative impact on the post-pandemic recovery, creating new and complex problems, reversing hard-won development gains, and making the realization of the 2030 Agenda even more difficult," said Zhang.

"Some individual countries, while talking loudly about peace, are obsessed with creating bloc confrontations, including provoking tensions in the Asia-Pacific region. This self-contradictory and inconsistent approach is very dangerous and worrying and should be resolutely rejected."

China firmly opposes the politicization or instrumentalization of human rights issues, he said. It opposes selective and confrontational approaches, double standards on human rights issues, and the exertion of pressure on other countries in the name of human rights, he said.

"China calls on all parties to work together in the same direction, so as to create opportunities for peace and prospects for negotiation. China will continue to hold an objective and impartial position and play its responsible and constructive role in this regard," said Zhang.

ROME -- World food commodity prices made a significant leap in March to reach their highest levels, as the conflict between Russia and Ukraine continues to push up energy costs and cause supply chain slowdowns.

The monthly food prices index, released Friday by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), rose 12.6 percent to reach 159.3 points in March, compared to a baseline of 100 points for the average in 2014-2016 (adjusted for inflation.)

This is by far the highest total in the history of the index, which was launched in its current form in 1990.

All of the five sub-categories in the index rose, with prices for grains and cereals - the largest component in the index - climbing a stunning 17.1 percent.

The FAO said the main factor behind this rise is that Russia and Ukraine are both major producers of wheat and coarse grains, and prices for these have soared due to the conflict.

Concerns over crop conditions in the United States were also a factor, FAO said. Rice prices, meanwhile, were mostly unchanged compared to February.

Meanwhile, prices for vegetable oils climbed 23.2 percent due to rising transportation costs and reduced exports, again due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

The other sub-indexes were all higher, but rose less dramatically. Dairy prices were 2.6 percent higher, meat prices climbed 4.8 percent, and sugar prices by 6.7 percent. The conflict and related issues were also factors behind these price rises, said the FAO.

The FAO's Food Price Index is based on worldwide prices for 23 food commodity categories, covering prices for 73 different products compared to a baseline year.

MOSCOW/KYIV -- The Russian Defense Ministry on Friday said it did not launch any "rocket attack" on a railway station in the city of Kramatorsk, which local authorities said had killed at least 39 people.

Allegations by the Ukrainian side that Russia carried out the attack are " provocation and absolutely untrue," the ministry said in a statement.

"On April 8, the Russian armed forces did not have any firing missions in the city of Kramatorsk," it said.

The Russian Defense Ministry's statement noted that the Tochka-U tactical missile system is not operational in "the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics" or in Russia but is actively used by the Ukrainian military.

At least 39 people, including four children, were killed Friday in the attack, which targeted a railway station in Kramatorsk town in Donetsk, spokesman for Ukraine's Security Service Artem Dekhtyarenko said earlier Friday.

Meanwhile, head of the Donetsk military-civilian administration Pavlo Kyrylenko said at least 87 people were injured in the attack.

MOSCOW - The Russian Foreign Ministry said Thursday that Moscow would retaliate against Washington's latest package of sanctions, adding that the response would not necessarily be symmetrical.

"We will announce retaliatory measures in the near future... the blame for the destruction of Russian-US relations lies entirely with Washington," it said in a statement, citing Alexander Darchiev, who heads the ministry's North American affairs department.

Darchiev added that Washington's actions have become a routine practice, and the recent decision to impose a fresh package of sanctions against Russian officials and the country's financial sector show that the United States had clearly ran out of restrictive measures.

"Not a single aggressive attack against Russia will go unanswered," he said, adding that this would only unite the Russian people, and end in "a humiliating defeat" for the enemy.

MOSCOW - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Thursday that the draft agreement submitted by Ukraine on Wednesday demonstrated a shift in Kyiv's negotiating positions.

"Yesterday, the Ukrainian side presented its draft agreement to the negotiating team. It showed a departure from key provisions which were presented at the meeting in Istanbul on March 29," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement citing Lavrov.

According to the minister, the previous document clearly stated that Ukraine's security guarantees would not apply to Crimea and Sevastopol, but this principle was absent in the revised draft.

Lavrov added that Moscow would nonetheless continue the negotiation process promoting its agreement, which includes the country's key demands.

China urged parties concerned about the Ukraine issue to create the necessary environment and conditions to promote peace talks rather than fan flames, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said when he had a phone call with French President's Diplomatic Counselor Emmanuel Bonne on Thursday.

Wang said one can't call for a ceasefire on one hand while using the other to continuously send advanced weapons, which leads to further escalation of conflicts. Claiming to support dialogue and negotiation yet imposing unilateral sanctions without limits should be avoided, Wang added.

Bonne said France attaches great importance to China's views on the current situation and would make concerted efforts with China to promote peace talks, achieve a ceasefire, and resolve the crisis.

France continues to show their commitment to creating and safeguarding peace by carrying out communication with parties concerned about the Ukraine issue over major affairs including Ukraine achieving neutrality and obtaining security guarantees, he added.

France upholds an independent foreign policy and will not fall into the logic of bloc politics, Bonne said.

In response, Wang said China supports France upholding the European Union's strategic autonomy and appreciates France's disapproving of bloc politics, saying that China also will not allow the resurgence of the Cold War mentality.

China also looks forward to an early ceasefire and the restoration of peace and has been making unremitting efforts to help this end in its own way, he added.

Noting that the root cause of the Ukraine issue lies in the imbalance of the European security, Wang said only by rebuilding a balanced, effective, and sustainable European security mechanism that lies in the principle of indivisible security, can Europe realize lasting stability and security.

The two sides expressed deep worries over the spillover effects of the Ukraine crisis. Wang said the international community should work together to prevent global food shortage and an eventual humanitarian crisis.

Bonne introduced France's initiative on tackling the global food security crisis and hoped France and China would strengthen their coordination in multilateral institutions, including the Group of 20 and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.

The United Nations General Assembly on Thursday adopted a resolution that allows the assembly to suspend the membership rights of the Russian Federation on the UN Human Rights Council.

The resolution was approved with two-thirds of the eligible members voting in favor in the US-led push, which garnered 93 votes in favor, 24 against and 58 abstentions.

China voted against the resolution.

The resolution will deprive a country's legitimate membership in the Human Rights Council, said Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the UN.

"Such an important matter must be handled with the utmost delicacy, calmly, objectively and rationally, on the basis of facts and truth."

Zhang said the resolution "was not drafted in an open and transparent manner, nor did it follow the tradition of holding consultations within the whole membership to heed the broadest opinions".

"Under such circumstances, such a hasty move at the General Assembly, which forces countries to choose sides, will aggravate the division among member states and intensify the contradictions between the parties concerned. It is like adding fuel to the fire, which is not conducive to the de-escalation of conflicts, and even less so to advancing the peace talks," he said.

Zhang said approaching membership on the Human Rights Council in such a way "would set a new and dangerous precedent, further intensify the confrontations in the field of human rights, bring a greater impact on the UN governance system and produce serious consequences".

"Therefore, China will have to vote against this draft resolution," Zhang said before the vote.

"On the Ukraine issue, China always believes that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries, including Ukraine, should be respected, that the purposes and principles of the UN Charter should be upheld, that the legitimate security concerns of all countries should be taken seriously, and that all efforts conducive to a peaceful settlement of the crisis should be supported," he said.

He reiterated that putting an early end to the fight is the urgent expectation of the international community. "It is also what China is striving for. China supports all initiatives and measures that will help ease the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine," he said.

China calls on all parties concerned to respect international humanitarian law and take concrete actions to ensure the safety of civilians and protect the basic rights and humanitarian needs of women, children and other vulnerable groups, Zhang said.

"The reports and images of civilian deaths in Bucha (in Ukraine) are disturbing. The relevant circumstances and specific causes of the incident must be verified and established. Any accusations should be based on facts. Before the full picture is clear, all sides should exercise restraint and avoid unfounded accusations," Zhang said.

Zhang emphasized that dialogue and negotiation are the only way out of the Ukraine crisis. China always believes that the international community should remain rational and strengthen unity instead of setting up obstacles, let alone "adding fuel to the fire" by aggravating confrontations, he said.

"We regret to see that the conflict has caused civilian casualties and massive displacements and that the all-dimensional, indiscriminate and bottomless sanctions have brought serious, negative impact on the post-pandemic recovery, creating new and complex problems, reversing hard-won development gains, and making the realization of the 2030 Agenda even more difficult," said Zhang.

He pointed out that life amid the COVID-19 pandemic has become even more difficult, and while developing countries are not parties to the conflict, they are forced to get involved in this geopolitical competition and great-power rivalry, which is unfair.

"Some individual countries, while talking loudly about peace, are obsessed with creating bloc confrontations, including provoking tensions in the Asia-Pacific region. This self-contradictory and inconsistent approach is very dangerous and worrying and should be resolutely rejected," said Zhang.

China firmly opposes the politicization or instrumentalization of human rights issues, he said. It opposes selective and confrontational approaches, double standards on human rights issues, and the exertion of pressure on other countries in the name of human rights, he said.

"China calls on all parties to work together in the same direction, so as to create opportunities for peace and prospects for negotiation. China will continue to hold an objective and impartial position and play its responsible and constructive role in this regard," said Zhang.

A senior Russian diplomat said the latest sanctions imposed by the United States on Russian banks are a direct attack on the citizens of Russia and also are damaging the global economy.

Anatoly Antonov, Russian ambassador to the US, said the Biden administration's nonstop sanctions show Washington's true aspirations. "An example is the restrictions against Sberbank and Alfa-Bank, where most Russians keep their savings. This is a direct attack on the Russian population, ordinary citizens," Tass news agency quoted him as saying.

By imposing new sanctions, Washington continues to damage the global economy, Antonov said, adding that the attempts of the US to make it difficult for Russia to service public debt are puzzling.

The US, as well as the United Kingdom, announced new sanctions against Russia on Wednesday. The White House also unveiled measures targeting Maria Vorontsova and Katerina Tikhonova, two adult daughters of Putin, plus the wife and daughter of Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and members of Russia's Security Council.

When declaring "full blocking" sanctions on Sberbank and Alfa-Bank, the White House said all new US investment in Russia was now prohibited.

The UK froze the overseas assets of Sberbank and Credit Bank of Moscow, and vowed to eliminate all Russian oil and gas imports by the end of the year.

The European Union is also poised to implement a fifth round of sanctions cutting off Russian coal imports－and European Council President Charles said that it must also "sooner or later" impose oil and gas sanctions.

Western powers have already pummeled Russia with debilitating economic sanctions, which forced Moscow on Wednesday to make foreign debt payments on dollar-denominated bonds in roubles, raising the prospect of a potential default.

Their actions followed an international outcry as Ukraine said its forces found hundreds of dead civilians around Kyiv, including the town of Bucha, after the pullout of Russian troops.

The Kremlin denies responsibility and has claimed Kyiv staged the civilian deaths－with Putin on Wednesday accusing Ukrainian authorities of "crude and cynical provocations" in Bucha.

Peace talks between the sides have so far gone nowhere, although Moscow says it is ready to continue.

The Russian withdrawal from areas around Kyiv and farther north is part of a shift toward Ukraine's southeast, in a bid to create a land bridge between Crimea and the Donbass region, military analysts believe.

Biden's National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said on Monday that Russia probably plans to deploy tens of thousands of soldiers in eastern Ukraine as it shifts its focus to the country's south and east.

The goal is likely to "surround and overwhelm" Ukrainian forces in the region, Sullivan said.

However, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said there was no sign Putin had dropped "his ambition to control the whole of Ukraine".

He added, "We are now in the critical phase of the war, which is that Russia is moving forces out of the north to reinforce them, to resupply them, to rearm them, and then to move them into the east, where we are expecting a major offensive."

Agencies contributed to the story.

Franklin Spinney, a former Pentagon military analyst, published in his blog an article titled "How the Narcotic of Defense Spending Undermines a Sensible Grand Strategy" which states that the Russia-Ukraine conflict "has the champagne corks quietly popping in the Pentagon, on K Street, in the defense industry, and throughout the halls of Congress".

The people celebrating because of the big gain that comes along with the wars and conflicts are not only the weapon makers, but also US politicians, who are big beneficiaries of current crises, whether in Ukraine or in the Middle East.

US politicians tend to be the decision makers for issues such as war versus peace.

There is evidence that it can be in their personal interest to continue these wars and conflicts rather than prevent them to ensure the continuation of their fiscal profits and gains.

Congressmen personally invest in defense contractors 

A report by Business Insider revealed that at least 19 members of Congress or their spouses hold stock in the companies making weapons that are heading to Ukraine.

The US and NATO have sent more than 17,000 anti-tank weapons to Ukraine, including Javelins, according to The New York Times.

Website Military.com said these members of Congress could make a profit on US arms shipments to Ukraine.

According to Business Insider, these US federal lawmakers or their spouses hold stock in Raytheon Technologies and Lockheed Martin. The holdings come as the US is preparing to send billions of dollars in defense aid to Ukraine. Both companies' stocks - especially that of Lockheed Martin - have risen since the Russian military operation in Ukraine began on Feb 24.

Business Insider reported that among those investing in the defense contractors is Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who bought between $1,001 and $15,000 in Lockheed Martin shares on Feb 22.

Two days after her purchase, Greene wrote in a Twitter thread: "War is big business to our leaders."

"Tragically, America's foreign policy strategy over the past 20 years has been more for corporate profit and not for America's security and our own national interest," she wrote.

Politicians involved in the military-industrial complex

US military-industrial complex (MIC) is a gigantic interest group formed after World War II by US defense contractors, the government, and the Capitol. Multispectral individuals and institutions of arms manufacturing companies, the Pentagon and Congress are intertwined in the MIC and promote militarization, arms sales, and political power.

The US had tried to incite wars around the world with the MIC and has successively launched wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. According to statistics released by the Security Policy Reform Institute, an American independent think tank, Lockheed Martin and the other four top defense contractors made total revenue of over $2 trillion from what Washington had invested in the war in Afghanistan.

According to Franklin Spinney, who served for nearly 30 years as an analyst at the US Department of Defense's Office of Program Analysis and Evaluation, the MIC is partly responsible for and actively benefiting from the Russian-Ukraine conflicts as the US ramps up defense spending.

Former Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, a 2020 presidential candidate, told Fox News in mid-February that warmongers on both sides of Washington had been drumming up tensions and if a Russia-Ukraine war broke out, the military-industrial complex would make significantly more money than when they had been in fighting al-Qaida or making weapons for al-Qaida.

Gabbard alleged that some in the Biden administration "actually want Russia to invade Ukraine" because "the military-industrial complex is the one that benefits from this," the New York Times reported on March 28.

Congressmen under the lobby from weapon manufacturers 

The profit pursuing MIC motivates the US politicians who formulate foreign policies to be in endless search for new enemies abroad, which is why the US violated its promise not to expand NATO.

Since the end of the Cold War, weapon manufacturers have been the most aggressive lobbyists for NATO expansion.

A lobbying operation named the Committee to Expand NATO emerged in the early 1990s and was headed by Bruce Jackson, vice president of Lockheed Martin.

"The way we have handled the end of the Cold War with NATO expansion conducted by a succession of US presidents; establishing the Committee to Expand NATO headed by a Lockheed vice president; encouraging the color revolutions, particularly in Georgia and Ukraine; and demonizing our adversaries, have combined to inflame tensions," Spinney said.

"Five presidents and their national security apparatchiks have played a key role by pushing NATO expansion," Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to US Secretary of State Collin Powell said. He added that this has led to the tragic outbreak of the current armed conflict in Ukraine which has brought great profit to arms manufacturers.

The New York Times covered Jackson's lobbying of the Clinton administration to encourage NATO leaders to vote on expanding the alliance to Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic in July 1997.

A study from Brown University showed that weapon makers have spent $2.5 billion on lobbying over the past two decades, employing an average of over 700 lobbyists per year over the past five years.

The Kremlin has effectively fallen into a trap laid by the US and NATO that is intended to bring down Putin's government, wrote Robert H. Wade, professor of Global Political Economy at the London School of Economics.

This opinion is echoed by Joe Lauria, editor-in-chief of Consortium News, who says that without the crisis in Ukraine, the US could not attempt to destroy Russia's economy, orchestrate worldwide condemnation, and lead an insurgency to bleed Russia, all as part of an attempt to bring down its government.

Lauria pointed out that the US and NATO's ulterior motives in the Ukraine crisis is to end the rule of Russian President Vladimir Putin and replace it with one friendly to and subordinate to the US.

The US has a long-standing strategy for regime change in Moscow, with Ukraine as the pivot, Wade said in an article published on March 30 on the official website of European Politics and Policy, a multidisciplinary academic blog run by the London School of Economics and Political Science.

"On one hand, send sufficient military and other equipment to Ukraine to sink the Russian military in a quagmire. On the other hand, impose severe, far-reaching sanctions on Russia so as to cause major disruption to the Russian elite and a major contraction of living conditions for the Russian middle-class. The combination should last long enough for Russians to rise up to overthrow Putin."

Wade added that the US' weapons-plus-sanctions strategy needed a cause, and Russia's special military operation in Ukraine was the required casus belli.

Wade wrote that in December 2021, the Kremlin presented treaty proposals, which included an implementation of the eight-year old Minsk peace accords (which include a commitment that Ukraine does not join NATO); dissolving extreme right Ukrainian militias; and engaging in serious negotiations about new security architecture in Europe. The US and NATO, however, consistently refused to negotiate.

Zbigniew Brzezinski, national security advisor of former US president Jimmy Carter, revealed a bigger picture, presuming that control of Eurasia is vital for US "primacy" or "hegemony" in the world system.

In his 1997 book The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geopolitical Imperatives he wrote: "Ukraine, a new and important space on the Eurasian chessboard, is a geopolitical pivot because its very existence as an independent country helps to transform Russia."

Brzezinski explained that without Ukraine being integrated into or closely allied to Russia, Russia was a "predominantly Asian imperial state". Whereas Ukraine being integrated into Russia gives Russia the opening to be (or resume being) "a Eurasian empire". So the long-held US aim has been to push Ukraine away from Russia, as a major step towards constraining Russian strategy, thereby sustaining US primacy.

BUDAPEST - Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Wednesday invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to a summit meeting in Budapest to make progress toward an immediate ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine.

"I suggested to President Putin that he should announce a ceasefire immediately," Orban told an international press conference following his landslide victory in the April 3 general elections, which secured him a fourth consecutive term as the country's leader.

Orban said that he spoke on the phone with Putin, who called him Wednesday morning to congratulate him on his election victory.

"I know (the ceasefire) is not going to happen by itself, so I invited Putin, the presidents of Ukraine and France, and the German chancellor to Budapest, the sooner the better," Orban said.

The aim of the summit would be an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine. "They should hold talks here in Budapest with one goal: not yet peace negotiations, which would take a longer time, but an agreement on an immediate ceasefire."

He also said that Hungary is so "obsessed" with peace because more than 200,000 ethnic Hungarians live in Ukraine's Transcarpathia region and Budapest has a "primary responsibility" for their lives.

Asked to respond to the proposal by certain EU member states that the sanctions on Russia's energy sector should be extended, Orban said, "Poland has a large seashore. If they so want, they can harbor tankers with huge amounts of oil and gas, and can make do without Russian imports." However, Hungary is a landlocked country, and it only has "pipelines, which are where they are, we cannot move them, so on this issue we disagree with our Polish friends."

Orban added that Hungary is ready to pay for Russian gas in rubles if necessary, unlike other European Union countries, which have rejected Moscow's request.

KYIV - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky instructed the government to formalize the cessation of Ukraine's trade with Russia, the presidential press service said in a statement Wednesday.

In fact, import and export operations between Ukraine and Russia have been completely terminated since the start of the conflict, the statement said.

According to Ukraine's Fiscal Service, Ukraine saw a 38.7 percent year-on-year growth in trade with Russia in 2021 with a value of $10.09 billion. Exports grew by 26.5 percent to 3.44 billion dollars, while imports increased by 45.9 percent to 6.65 billion dollars.

Russia and Ukraine have conducted an exchange of prisoners, with 86 captives from each side returning home, Russian Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova said on Tuesday.

Moskalkova didn't go into details on the freed prisoners, but said Russia was now seeking the return of seamen and truckers from inside Ukraine.

Talks for an exchange involving four employees of Russia's State Atomic Energy Corporation, also known as Rosatom, failed at the last minute, according to Moskalkova. They remain in Ukraine.

"The four Rosatom employees that I asked the Ukrainian side about have been found. They are alive. Their whereabouts are unknown. They were on the exchange list, but at the last moment they were excluded," she said.

Ukrainian media outlet Ukrinform quoted Ukraine's Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, Liudmyla Denisova, as saying that the female soldiers released from Russian captivity had been tortured and mistreated. Moscow hasn't yet responded to Kyiv's accusations.

The prisoner exchange happened as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky challenged the United Nations Security Council to "act immediately" or "dissolve yourself altogether" during a blistering address on Tuesday in which he showed harrowing footage of dead bodies. Zelensky called on the 15-member Security Council to expel Russia "so it cannot block decisions about its own aggression, its own war".

Dressed in his now trademark military green T-shirt, Zelensky, speaking via video from Kyiv, gave a chilling rendition of the "atrocities "he said were carried out by Russian troops against civilians in Bucha, a town outside the Ukrainian capital.

Claims rejected

Dmitry Medvedev, the former president and deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, said the Bucha situation is another example of Ukraine's fake propaganda.

"Numerous PR agencies and 'troll factories' sponsored by Western governments and their tame nonprofits and NGOs get a lot of money for cooking it all up," Medvedev said.

Vasily Nebenzya, Russia's permanent representative to the United Nations, stressed Russia's forces have never targeted civilian facilities in the military operation.

Nebenzya told the UN council that Moscow places "on your conscience the ungrounded accusations against the Russian military, which are not confirmed by any eyewitnesses".

He also denied allegations made by Zelensky of mass deportations.

China's Ambassador to the UN Zhang Jun on Tuesday said the reports and images of civilian deaths in Bucha are deeply disturbing.

"The relevant circumstances and specific causes of the incident should be verified and established. Any accusations should be based on facts. Before the full picture is clear, all sides should exercise restraint and avoid unfounded accusations," he said.

A high-stakes meeting of NATO foreign ministers was taking place in Brussels on Wednesday, as US officials warned that Russia's actions in Ukraine could be entering a protracted new phase.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said it was "an important moment" to coordinate with allies and partners "on a number of fronts".

A fuel depot in east-central Ukraine was destroyed on Wednesday in a Russian overnight airstrike, said Valentyn Reznichenko, the head of central Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk regional military administration.

Also on Wednesday, a car crashed into the gate of the Russian embassy in Bucharest, Romania. According to Russia's TASS news agency, the car subsequently caught fire and the driver died.