Ursula von der Leyen
“I am following the situation in Georgia with great concern and condemn the violence on the streets of Tbilisi. The European Union has also clearly expressed its concerns regarding the law on foreign influence. The Georgian people want a European future for their country.”
10 hours ago
Oleksandr Kozachenko
“If we compare it with the beginning (of the Russian invasion), when we fired up to 100 shells a day, then now, when we fire 30 shells it's a luxury. Sometimes the number of shells fired daily is in single digits.”
11 hours ago
Abdallah al-Dardari
“The United Nations Development Programme's initial estimates for the reconstruction of … the Gaza Strip surpasses $30bn and could reach up to $40bn. The scale of the destruction is huge and unprecedented … this is a mission that the global community has not dealt with since World War II.”
11 hours ago
Ursula von der Leyen
“I am following the situation in Georgia with great concern and condemn the violence on the streets of Tbilisi. The European Union has also clearly expressed its concerns regarding the law on foreign influence. The Georgian people want a European future for their country.”
10 hours ago
Oleksandr Kozachenko
“If we compare it with the beginning (of the Russian invasion), when we fired up to 100 shells a day, then now, when we fire 30 shells it's a luxury. Sometimes the number of shells fired daily is in single digits.”
11 hours ago
Abdallah al-Dardari
“The United Nations Development Programme's initial estimates for the reconstruction of … the Gaza Strip surpasses $30bn and could reach up to $40bn. The scale of the destruction is huge and unprecedented … this is a mission that the global community has not dealt with since World War II.”
11 hours ago
“Iran's massive aerial attack on Israel was a spectacular and embarrassing failure. We've seen reporting that the Iranians meant to fail, and this spectacular and embarrassing failure was all by design. All of this is categorically false.”
“Our commitment is ironclad to defending Israel and to helping Israel defend itself. As the president has said many times, we don't seek a wider war in the region. We don't seek a war with Iran.”
“We are monitoring a large Serbian military deployment along the border with Kosovo. That includes an unprecedented staging of advanced Serbian artillery, tanks, mechanised infantry units. We believe that this is a very destabilising development. We are calling on Serbia to withdraw those forces from the border.”
“We've never shied away from calling it like we see it when it comes to [China's] behaviour, intimidation and coercion of not only their neighbours but countries around the world. This is a difficult, complex bilateral relationship, the most consequential one in the world. The president understands that. But that doesn't mean there isn't still a need to continue to improve our lines of communication.”
“We have gotten some initial feedback from the Ukrainians, and they're using them [cluster bombs] quite effectively. They are using them appropriately, they are using them effectively.”
“This transit [of Taiwan president Tsai Ing-wen] is consistent with our longstanding unofficial relationship with Taiwan and it is consistent with the United States's 'One China' policy, which remains unchanged. There is no reason - none - for the Chinese to overreact here. The People's Republic of China should not use this transit as a pretext to step up any activity around the Taiwan strait.”
“The mercenary group [Wagner] had made incremental gains in and around Bakhmut over the last few days but those advances had taken many months to achieve and came at a devastating cost that is not sustainable. It is possible that they may end up being successful in Bakhmut but it will prove of no real worth to them because it is of no real strategic value.”
“We assessed whether they posed any kinetic threat to people on the ground; they did not. We assessed whether they were sending any communication signals; we detected none. We looked to see whether they were manoeuvering or had any propulsion capabilities; we saw no signs of that. And we made sure to determine whether or not they were manned; they were not.”
“Even if both Bakhmut and Soledar fall to the Russians, it's not going to have a strategic impact on the war itself and it certainly isn't going to stop the Ukrainians or slow them down.”
“This particular PDA [Presidential Drawdown Authority] package, and the Bradley Fighting Vehicles, are very significant in terms of being able to do what we call 'combined arms maneuver' warfare.”
“We can confirm that North Korea has completed an initial arms delivery to Wagner, which paid for that equipment. Last month, North Korea delivered infantry rockets and missiles into Russia for use by Wagner.”
“A price cap will help limit Mr Putin's ability to profiteer off the oil market so that he can continue to fund a war machine that continues to kill innocent Ukrainians.”
“The United States is not going to be intimidated by China's threats or bellicose rhetoric. We will continue to support Taiwan, defend a free and open Indo-Pacific and seek to maintain communication with Beijing. United States will not engage in sabre-rattling. China might engage in economic coercion toward Taiwan. The impact on American-Chinese relations will depend on Beijing's actions in the coming days and weeks.”
“The objective is to send a strong signal to President Vladimir Putin and frankly, to the world, that NATO matters to the United States and it matters to our allies. We know that he also bristles at NATO, about NATO. He's made no secret of that. We are making it clear that we're going to be prepared to defend our NATO allies if it comes to that. Hopefully it won't come to that.”
“We have made clear our concerns about the military capabilities China continues to pursue, capabilities that only increase tensions in the region and beyond. That is one reason why we hold China as our number one pacing challenge.”
“They can inspect all they want. They can look at them [US helicopters]. They can walk around. They can't fly. They can't operate them... But the threat environment remains high. We're obviously concerned about the potential for Taliban retribution going forward and we certainly, we saw it ourselves, are mindful of the threat that ISIS-K continues to pose inside Afghanistan.”
“We can confirm that the explosion at the Abbey Gate was the result of a complex attack that resulted in a number of US & civilian casualties. We can also confirm at least one other explosion at or near the Baron Hotel, a short distance from Abbey Gate. We will continue to update.”
“We're absolutely still aiming towards the end of the month. The president's direction has been to complete this withdrawal, this evacuation and withdrawal, by the 31st of August. That is the direction that we are operating under and therefore, that is driving a lot of our plans.”
“These are their military forces, these are their provincial capitals, their people to defend and it's really going to come down to the leadership that they're willing to exude here at this particular moment.”