Europe

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine on Saturday morning launched another missile attack on Sevastopol on the occupied Crimean Peninsula, a Russian-installed official said, a day after an attack on the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet that left a serviceman missing and the main building smoldering.

MOSCOW, September 22. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkmen counterpart Serdar Berdimuhamedov intend to foster relations between the two countries, the Kremlin press service noted following a phone conversation between the two leaders.

"The mutual intention for the further comprehensive development of Russian-Turkmen ties in the spirit of the expanded strategic partnership was confirmed," the Kremlin noted.

MOSCOW, September 22. /TASS/: The Kiev regime launched a missile attack on Sevastopol in the afternoon, damaging the historic headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet, with the Russian Air Defense Troops downing five missiles, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

"This afternoon, the Kiev regime launched a missile attack on the city of Sevastopol. In the course of repulsing the missile attack, the Air Defense Troops shot down five missiles. As a result of the attack, the historic headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet was damaged," the statement said.

MOSCOW, September 22. /TASS/: Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki plans to pay a working visit to Moscow in the near future, so the parties are discussing dates, Palestinian Ambassador to Moscow Abdel Hafiz Nofal told TASS.

"The visit will take place indeed. We have agreed with the Russian Foreign Ministry that he should come to Moscow at the end of this month, but this will be further discussed after [Russian Foreign Minister Sergey] Lavrov comes back from New York," the diplomat said in response to a corresponding question.

BRUSSELS, September 22. /TASS/: The European Union provided Ukraine with a new tranche of 1.5 bln euro as part of the macro-financial assistance program for the current year, according to President of the European Commission (EC) Ursula von der Leyen.

"Today we have given Ukraine another 1.5 bln euro," she said

Thus, according to von der Leyen, the EU has given 13.5 bln euro this year alone to help Ukraine keep hospitals, schools, and other services running

MOSCOW, September 22. /TASS/: Russia monitored the US’ meeting with Central Asian countries on the sidelines of the 78th session of the UN General Assembly, but Moscow’s main focus remains to continue its own dialogue with the states of the region, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

EASTERN UKRAINE, Sept 22 (Reuters) - Ukrainian soldiers are vowing to take back the shattered city of Bakhmut but face a long, hard slog after encountering fierce Russian resistance while retaking two villages last week on strategic high ground nearby.

Bakhmut, captured by Russian forces in May, is Moscow's only big prize in more than a year of the war's bloodiest fighting, described by both sides as a meat grinder. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said this week that Kyiv would retake the city following the capture last week of Andriivka and Klishchiivka to the south.

KYIV, Sept 22 (Reuters) - The first big ship carrying grain from a Ukrainian Black Sea port has set sail since Moscow quit a deal in July to allow exports, a Ukrainian deputy prime minister said on Friday, part of Kyiv's campaign to break Russia's de facto blockade.

The Aroyat "left the port Chornomorsk after loading 17,600 (metric tons of) Ukrainian wheat for Egypt," Oleksandr Kubrakov said on the X social media app, formerly Twitter.

He posted a photo of the ship at sea.

OSLO, Sept 22 (Reuters) - A pair of F-35A Lockheed Martin (LMT.N) fighter jets have landed on a motorway for the first time, footage from the Norwegian military showed, a step that enables them to reduce vulnerable time on the ground in times of war.

The two Royal Norwegian Air Force aircraft landed in Tervo, central Finland, on Thursday afternoon as part of a military exercise.

Immediately after landing, refuelling was carried out with the engines running, a so-called "hotpit refuelling", the Norwegian military said, before the planes took off again.

LONDON (AP) — British competition regulators gave preliminary approval Friday to Microsoft’s restructured $69 billion deal to buy video game maker Activision Blizzard, easing a final global hurdle that paves the way for one of the largest tech transactions in history to go through.

The Competition and Markets Authority said the revamped proposal “substantially addresses previous concerns” about stifling competition in the fast-growing cloud gaming market, which frees players from buying expensive consoles and gaming computers by streaming to tablets, phones and other devices.