Europe

BRUSSELS (AP) — NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took center stage at Thursday’s European Union summit, underscoring the importance the 27 EU leaders attach to protecting their eastern flank from Russian aggression and beefing up Ukraine’s defense capabilities.

28 June 2023; MEMO: Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Wednesday condemned the burning of the Muslim holy book Quran in Sweden on the first day of Muslims' major festival of Eid al-Adha, Anadolu Agency reports.

"I condemn the vile action in #Sweden against our Holy Book, Quran, on the first day of the Eid-al-Adha!," Fidan wrote on Twitter.

"It is unacceptable to allow these islamophobe anti-Muslim actions under the pretext of freedom of expression," he added.

MOSCOW, June 28. /TASS/: The West’s plot to weaken Russia by supporting Ukraine in the conflict is doomed to failure, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

TASS, June 28: Polish President Andrzej Duda has arrived on an unannounced visit to Kiev on Wednesday, the Polish leader’s website reported.

"A visit to Kiev and talks with [Ukrainian] President Vladimir Zelensky are due to Constitution Day in Ukraine, as well as consultations on the current actions on the front," the statement said. It also pointed out that the talks "will also tackle preparations for the NATO summit in Vilnius," as well as "threats of a Russian attack on the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant."

MOSCOW, June 28. /TASS/: Russia is calling on responsible countries not to participate in the so-called global peace summit proposed by Kiev due to the provocative nature of this initiative, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing on Wednesday.

"We are urging responsible countries who truly strive for peace, and what’s more, express desire and readiness to play a constructive role in seeking a political and diplomatic solution to the conflict, not to participate in this enterprise. It is provocative," the diplomat said.

MOSCOW, June 28. /TASS/: Russia’s State Duma (lower house of parliament) has passed a bill in the first reading imposing a windfall tax on large companies. The document was proposed by the Russian government.

The bill suggests imposing a windfall tax on entities whose average profit for 2021 and 2022 exceeded 1 bln rubles ($11.5 mln), defining that the tax base for this tariff is calculated as the increase of the arithmetic mean value of profit for 2021 and profit for 2022 over the arithmetic mean value of profit for 2018 and profit for 2019, while the tax rate is set at 10%

MOSCOW, June 28. /TASS/: Russia can’t give up the goals of its special military operation in Ukraine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

June 28 (Reuters) - White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan has been in touch with Moscow to discuss the respective Russian and U.S. embassies, and the two sides are in talks on the subject, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday.

The two countries' embassies have been severely and reciprocally scaled down in recent years as relations have worsened, notably since Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, and especially after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year, in what it calls a "special military operation".

MOSCOW, June 28 (Reuters) - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said he persuaded Russian President Vladimir Putin not to "wipe out" mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, in response to what the Kremlin cast as a mutiny that pushed Russia towards civil war.

Putin initially vowed to crush the mutiny, comparing it to the wartime turmoil that ushered in the revolution of 1917 and then a civil war, but hours later a deal was clinched to allow Prigozhin and some of his fighters to go to Belarus.

MOSCOW, June 28 (Reuters) - As one of the world's most brutal mercenary forces marched on Moscow, some among Russia's elite trembled in fear that the world's biggest nuclear power was teetering on the brink of what President Vladimir Putin said could have been a civil war.

With Putin facing the biggest public challenge of his 23 years as paramount leader, some private jets sped out of Moscow, according to flight tracking data and one source with knowledge of the matter.