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The city of Miami, Florida, collected 167 guns from the community and its police department to donate to the Ukrainian forces, Miami Commissioner Ken Russell said during a news conference.

The city held a so-called "Guns 4 Ukraine" buyback program earlier this month to collect weapons to donate to Ukrainian forces.

"We now have 167 guns ready to go to European Ukraine," Russell said. "They'll be air-freighted there as soon as the logistics are worked out."

Russell said just under 70 guns were collected from the community in Miami and the Miami Police Department donated confiscated weapons it had in its surplus stock.

The city offered members of the community $50 for handguns, $100 for shotguns and $150 for high-powered rifles like AK-47 and AR-15 ones.

There are opportunities for Russia and Ukraine to launch negotiations, none of the Russian officials said that the talks are impossible, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Sputnik.

On Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan that there is currently no sense in the Russian-Ukrainian negotiations.

"Neither President [Vladimir Putin] nor minister [Lavrov] said that the door for the negotiations is closed," Peskov said. However, he added that the spring negotiations held in Belarus demonstrated the lack of Ukraine's interest for such talks.

The US Justice Department is asking Congress to use racketeering statutes to go after Russian businessmen who are allegedly using networks to evade US sanctions, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said during an Aspen Security Forum panel discussion.

"One of the things we're asking Congress for is the ability to use the racketeering statutes, the ability to treat these oligarchs and these sanctions evaders like the criminal enterprises they are," Monaco said on Wednesday.

Monaco said racketeering statutes are what the United States used for decades to dismantle the mafia.

"So we want to treat these networks used by [Russian] oligarchs and others to evade sanctions and to hide their corrupt wealth by going after the entire network," Monaco said.

The Racketeer Influence and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) is a federal law that allows the federal government to combat organized criminal enterprises in the United States.

France will spend 85 million euros (over $86 million) to create CAESAR howitzers instead of those that have already been handed over to Ukraine, the Agence France-Presse reported.

France had 76 self-propelled howitzers CAESAR before the start of he Russian military operation in Ukraine. Paris has already given 12 howitzers to Kiev, the deliveries of six more will take place soon.

The French company of Nexter, which produces CAESARs, said it needs more than 18 months to build a howitzer.

The United States expects to introduce a Russian oil price cap by December, US Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said during remarks at the Aspen Security Forum.

"We are following on what the Europeans have done in their sixth package, they introduced the idea of looking to do a price cap but they also said by December they plan to put in place their insurance ban, so our goal is to make sure... we're in a position where there's a price cap that can be joined on to that that is a global one that helps to drive down global energy prices and also allows Russian energy to flow into the marketplace," Adeyemo said on Wednesday.

Adeyemo added that the next round of US sanctions will target Russian oil and gas.

The South American trade organization Mercosur will not engage in dialogue with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and will not allow him to speak at the current summit in Paraguay, Raul Cano Ricciardi, the Paraguayan vice minister of economic relations and integration, said on Wednesday.

"Mercosur makes its decisions by consensus, and there has been no consensus regarding this speech [by Zelensky at the summit]. Ukraine has already been informed that there are no conditions for Mercosur's dialogue with Zelensky," Cano Ricciardi said at a press conference during the summit, which is taking place in the Paraguayan city of Luque from July 20-21.

Negotiations between the Ukrainian and Paraguayan presidents took place on July 6. According to the Paraguayan Foreign Ministry, Zelensky, among other things, was looking for an opportunity to speak to Mercosur leaders on the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.

Mercosur was founded in 1991 to promote a common space to generate commercial and investment opportunities through the integration of South American economies into the international market. The organization includes Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay as member states. Mercosur brings together 250 million people and over 75% of the continent's total GDP. Paraguay is currently presiding over the organization.

The European Union has allocated 500 million euros ($510 million) to support the armed forces of Ukraine, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Wednesday.

"EU Member States agreed to mobilise 5th tranche of military assistance of €500M to further support Ukraine‘s Armed Forces. EU remains focused & steadfast in its support for Ukraine, together w[ith] partners," Borrell said on Twitter.

On July 11, Nord Stream 1 was shut down for routine maintenance for 10 days.

Paraguay's Deputy Minister of Economic Relations and Integration Raul Cano confirmed that there was no agreement within Mercosur to give the floor to Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky during the trade bloc's summit.

The Czech Republic will continue to support Ukraine with all available means, Lipavsky stated, adding that Ukrainian refugees in his country are receiving care and attention.

According to him, "Ukrainian forces [are] now using long-range rockets, including HIMARS, to great effect."

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The United States has managed to send 12 HIMARS to Ukraine out of 20 committed by the US and its allies, Joint Chief of Staff General Mark Milley said on Wednesday.

On Monday, Zelenska met with Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

The official added that the cargo ship would depart for the next destination on Wednesday.

OTTAWA (Sputnik) – Siemens is ready to maintain further turbines for the Nord Stream 1 pipeline if such a request is made by the parties involved and the sanctions regime allows, the company told Sputnik.

"If politically requested and possible due to the sanctions regime, we will therefore maintain further turbines with the usual high-quality standards if we are asked to do so," Siemens said.

On July 12, the Globe and Mail said that Canada could service and repair five or six more turbines for the Nord Stream 1 pipeline within the next two years as long as the agreement on exclusion from anti-Russian sanctions is in force.