Belgorod: Russia’s Shoigu vows ‘harsh response’ after incursion into Russia

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu has promised a “harsh response” to cross-border incursions from Ukraine.

His comments came after Moscow said it had defeated an attack in the Belgorod region.

However, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said there had been a “large number” of drone attacks overnight.

Ukraine denies involvement in the raid - and two Russian paramilitary groups opposed to Russian President Vladimir Putin say they were behind it.

Attackers entered Russian territory from Ukraine on Monday.

Reporting to defence ministry officials on the incursion, Mr Shoigu said “more than 70 Ukrainian nationalists” had been killed and the rest pushed back into Ukraine.

“We will continue to respond to such actions by Ukrainian militants promptly and extremely harshly,” he said.

The two Russian paramilitary groups - the Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK) and Liberty of Russia Legion (LSR) denied that they had sustained any casualties, and said a Russian motorised rifle company had been destroyed.

The casualty claims by the warring sides have not been independently verified.

Russia also says that Western military vehicles were used in the incursion.

It posted pictures of destroyed US vehicles apparently at the scene of the fighting but some Ukrainian military experts and bloggers have suggested they could have been staged.

The US said it was sceptical that reports of US-supplied weapons being used in the incursion were true and did not “encourage or enable strikes inside of Russia”.

But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the vehicles were evidence of growing Western military involvement in Ukraine.

“It is no secret for us that more and more equipment is being delivered to Ukraine’s armed forces. It is no secret that this equipment is being used against our own military,” he

95-year-old woman Tasered by police in Australia dies

Clare Nowland was critically injured after police responded to reports she was wandering around the home with a steak knife at about 04:00 last Wednesday.

New South Wales Police (NSW) said she died “surrounded by family and loved ones”.

The officer who Tasered Mrs Nowland has been charged with assault.

The 33-year-old senior constable will face court in early July on charges of recklessly causing grievous bodily harm, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and common assault.

He remains suspended from duty with pay while investigations continue.

Mrs Nowland lived in a care home in the town of Cooma about 114km (71 miles) south of Canberra, Australia’s capital city.

NSW Police said their thoughts and condolences “remain with those who were lucky enough to know, love, and be loved by Mrs Nowland during a life she led hallmarked by family, kindness and community.”

Last week, police said she was “armed” with a steak knife. On Friday, they confirmed that she required a walking frame to move and the officer discharged his Taser after she began approaching “at a slow pace”.

Mrs Nowland is believed to have suffered a fractured skull and a serious brain bleed after falling and hitting her head during the incident.

It has prompted calls for a state parliamentary inquiry and the release of police bodycam vision of the confrontation.

In a statement, Mrs Nowland’s family said she was a “well respected, much loved and a giving member of her local community” and the “loving and gentle-natured matriarch of the Nowland family.” said.

They have asked for privacy following her death.

“We are drawing the appropriate conclusions.”

Meanwhile attacks in the region appear to be continuing.

Mr Gladkov said overnight attacks by drones were mostly dealt with by air defences, but some damage was caused to cars, private houses and administrative buildings in and around Belgorod city, as well as in the border district of Borisovka.

No-one was injured in the attacks, he added.

A “small fire” began after a gas pipeline was damaged in Grayvoron district.

Low-level attacks in Russian border regions such as Belgorod and Bryansk have become frequent in recent weeks.

Mr Gladkov said that agricultural workers were going out into the fields wearing helmets and bulletproof vests because of the threat of attacks.

Villages in Belgorod near the border were evacuated on Monday after coming under fire.

Monday’s raid led Moscow to declare a counter-terrorism operation, giving the authorities special powers to clamp down on communications and people’s movements.

The measures were only lifted the following afternoon, and even then, one of the paramilitary groups was claiming it still controlled a small piece of Russian territory.

Modi in Australia: Albanese announces migration deal with India

Indiaand Australia have announced a migration deal as they aim to strengthen their economic cooperation.

The announcement came after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met his counterpart Anthony Albanese in Sydney on Wednesday.

The deal aims to “promote the twoway mobility of students, graduates, academic researchers and business people”.

They also discussed regional security amid rising tensions in the region.

India and Australia are part of the four-member Quad group, which also includes Japan and the US.

A scheduled meeting of the group in Sydney was cancelled last week after US President Joe Biden had to return to Washington for debt ceiling talks.

Mr Modi, however, continued his planned visit to Sydney after attending the G7 summit in Japan and travelling to Papua New Guinea.

This is Mr Modi’s first visit to Australia since 2014, and comes two months after Mr Albanese visited India in March.

Negotiations for the migration agreement had been going on for a couple of years. Australia already has a significant number of people who have migrated from India - census data shows that of more than a million people who moved to Australia since 2016, almost a quarter were from India.

According to a statement, the finalised migration agreement will also lead to the creation of a new scheme called MATES (Mobility Arrangement for Talented Early Professionals Scheme), which has been “specifically created for India”.

On Tuesday, the Indian prime minister said the two countries had also discussed increasing cooperation on mining and critical minerals and made progress in establishing an Australia-India Green Hydrogen Taskforce.

India and Australia are also working towards a comprehensive economic cooperation deal for which negotiations began more than a decade ago.

On Tuesday, thousands of people from the country’s Indian diaspora had turned up at one of Sydney’s biggest indoor stadiums, where Mr Modi was speaking at a rally.

“The last time I saw someone on this stage was Bruce Springsteen and he did not get the welcome that Prime Minister Modi has got,” Mr Albanese said at the event.