Airstrike northeast of Damascus

1 Israel — Syria

Israel carried air-strikes at the north-east of Damascus — the «Al Hadath» TV reported. The airstrikes were aimed at targets near the city of al-Kuteif, in the Qalamun highlands. According to the eyewitnesses — at least 5 strong explosions took place. There were victims. The IDF press office declined to comment on questions about the air strikes near Damascus.

2 Donbass

Ukraine moves heavy weapons and equipment to Donbass — the head of the LPR, Leonid Pasechnik, stated. According to him, there has been a constant active movement of the Ukrainian troops lately, which both the LPR and the international observers can see. Heavy military equipment is being moved, fuel and ammo are being prepared. The transfer of more than 100 pieces of heavy artillery was spotted by the observers from the OSCE special monitoring mission. Leonid Pasechnik added that the weapons that Ukraine receives from the Western countries will appear in the conflict zone in Donbass in 1 or 2 days.

3 Russia

The Russian Foreign Ministry has stated the date of the next negotiations between the heads of the foreign affairs agencies of Russia and the USA. The ministry’s spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, stated that Sergey Lavrov will have a telephone conversation with Anthony Blinken on 1st of February. A personal meeting isn’t being planned yet. They might talk about the security guarantees that Moscow is seeking from the USA and their NATO allies. Last week the USA gave their responses to the Russian proposals on this matter. The USA ignored the issues that are important for Russia.

4 Spain

The head of the Spanish Ministry of Defense, Margarita Robles, commented on the dispatch of warships to the Black Sea. She stated that the situation around Ukraine has been «over-dramatized» since it is just a usual participation of naval forces in the NATO operations — the RIA NEWS reported. She added that the issue of sending NATO forces to the territory of Ukraine was never ever considered. There is an article in the NATO charter that states the following: when an attack occurs on one NATO country — the rest of the NATO must answer. Ukraine isn’t a part of the NATO.

5 Afghanistan

The Taliban refuted the claims in the UN report that the Taliban members killed more than 100 former Afghan officials, security servicemen, and people that worked for the former authorities — the Interior Ministry of the Afghan interim government told to the RIA NEWS. Earlier it was reported that after the pulling of the foreign troops from the country and the announcement of an amnesty, the Taliban killed dozens of former Afghan officials, members of the security forces, and people who worked with the international military forces.

6 Russia

«On 16th of February we plan to hold a debate on the interaction between the UN and the CSTO. It is planned to discuss the ways to increase such cooperation, while taking into account the significant role of the association in the establishment of the security in the Eurasian space, which was demonstrated by its effective measures to help normalize the situation in Kazakhstan» — the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated. «It seems important to consider the significant potential of the CSTO in countering terrorist and drug threats, coming from Afghanistan. As well as the prospects for joining of the organization in the peacekeeping activities of the UN» — the Russian ministry added. As the central event, Russia plans to hold a debate on 7th of February on the topic of «Humanitarian Aspects of the UN Security Council Sanctions». Constantine Reztsov, specially for the ANNA NEWS