Washington Post: Egypt wanted to supply Russia with weapons, the United States intervened
02:00 | Egypt nearly delivered missiles to Russia, writes the Washington Post based on five documents leaked through the Discord messaging service. However, a US diplomatic offensive would have put an end to that arms delivery, says the American newspaper. Egypt put the plans on hold last month and instead decided to produce artillery ammunition for Ukraine.
Last week, The Washington Post revealed that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi hatched a secret plan in February to supply Russia with 40,000 missiles. That revelation was made after reviewing documents leaked via social media containing classified and sensitive defense information about the war in Ukraine. Al-Sisi wanted to keep the plans secret to “avoid problems with the West”.
According to new documents obtained by the American newspaper, the Egyptian president decided at the beginning of last month not to supply arms to Moscow. The United States is Egypt’s most generous Western ally, according to the Washington Post, providing the country more than $1 billion (€920 million) in military aid each year.
The fact that the United States has managed to change Egypt’s ideas is, according to the newspaper, a “diplomatic victory” for the administration of President Joe Biden. In exchange for producing munitions for Ukraine, Egypt will receive “advanced US military items,” according to the newspaper, without going into further details.
This was the state of affairs on Tuesday 18 April
The UK condemned the sentence of Russian opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Murza, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison for opposing the war in Ukraine.
The US Ambassador to RussiaLynne Tracy said she paid her first visit to jailed Wall Street reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was arrested in Russia two weeks ago on spying charges.
Two Russian fighter planes and a spy plane flying close to NATO airspace were intercepted by British and German air forces. Eurofighter Typhoons from the RAF and the German Air Force’s 71 Richtofen Wing were deployed to intercept the jets as they flew over the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Finland.
The United States has Brazil’s approach of the war in Ukraine and accused President Lula of parroting Russian and Chinese propaganda after he said on a trip to China that the United States should “stop encouraging war and start talking about peace”.
The Pentagon expect results within 45 days of an investigation into how the US military handles classified information.
Russia it said it had repelled an attempted “illegal” Ukrainian infiltration into Russian territory in the southern border region of Bryansk 11 days after reporting a similar incident.
The Kremlin he said the prospects for a renewal of the Black Sea Grains Initiative, under which Russia allows Ukraine to ship agricultural products from its Black Sea ports via Turkey, were “not so rosy”. Russia has repeatedly complained that Western economic sanctions prevent the country from exporting agricultural products and that they must be lifted to agree to an extension.
Slovakia it will temporarily halt imports of grains and other select products from Ukraine to protect its farmers, joining Poland and Hungary, a government spokesman said on Monday. Ukraine and Poland have meanwhile started talks to reach an agreement on imports.
Slovakia has it all 13 MiG-29 fighters which he had pledged to transfer to Ukraine, the Slovak Defense Ministry said.
Nearly 500 children were killed in Ukraine after Russia’s invasion, according to a report by the Ukrainian attorney general. As of Monday, 470 children have been killed and 948 injured, he said, adding that the department believes the number of injured children is higher.
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