Europe

MOSCOW, June 18. /TASS/: Ukraine’s statements about "killing Russians" will have repercussions from Russia, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview with the "Moscow. Kremlin. Putin" TV program, published by journalist Pavel Zarubin on his Telegram channel.

"This is what our enemies say, and we must fight them. You can't threaten Russians with murder," Peskov said in response to statements on the subject by Ukrainian Presidential adviser Mikhail Podolyak and other Ukrainian officials.

PARIS, June 18 (Reuters) - The European Union is speeding up arms deliveries to Ukraine in support of the country's counter offensive against Russian forces, EU industry chief Thierry Breton said on Sunday in an interview with the French daily Le Parisien.

"We are going to step up our efforts to deliver arms and ammunition-- this is a war of high intensity in which they play a crucial role," Breton said, citing a pledge to supply a million high-calibre weapons over the next 12 months.

"We are preparing for the war to last several more months, or even longer," he added.

BERLIN, June 18 (Reuters) - Germany said on Sunday a request by Mali's military junta for the United Nations peacekeeping force to leave the country "without delay" is politically motivated and Berlin still aims for an orderly withdrawal of its troops by May 2024.

Mali's interim military authorities made the request on Friday, citing a "crisis of confidence" between Malian authorities and the decade-long U.N. mission known as MINUSMA, which has struggled to protect civilians and its own troops.

ZURICH, June 18 (Reuters) - Voters in Switzerland on Sunday approved the introduction of a global minimum tax on businesses and a climate law that aims to cut fossil fuel use and reach zero emissions by 2050, public broadcaster SRF reported.

The results showed almost 80% of those who voted in Sunday's national referendum backed raising the country's business tax to the 15% global minimum rate from the current average minimum of 11%, an unusually strong endorsement.

June 18 (Reuters) - The death toll from flooding following the destruction of the Kakhovka dam has risen to 16 in Ukraine, Kyiv officials said, while Russian officials said 29 people have died in territories that Moscow controls.

The breaching of the Kakhovka Dam on June 6 unleashed floodwaters across a large swath of land in southern Ukraine and in Russia-occupied parts of Ukraine, destroying farmland and cutting off supplies to civilians.

June 18 (Reuters) - Evidence suggests this month's destruction of the huge Kakhovka dam in a Russian-controlled area of Ukraine resulted from an inside explosion set off by Russia, the New York Times said.

Citing engineers and explosive experts, the newspaper said on Friday that its investigation found evidence suggesting an explosive charge in a passageway running through the dam's concrete base detonated, destroying the structure on June 6.

"The evidence clearly suggests the dam was crippled by an explosion set off by the side that controls it: Russia," the Times said.

June 18 (Reuters) - Russia reported fierce fighting on Sunday on three sections of the front line in Ukraine, a day after hosting an African peace mission that failed to spark enthusiasm from either Moscow or Kyiv.

A Russian-installed official said Ukraine had recaptured Piatykhatky, a village in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, and were entrenching themselves there while coming under fire from Russian artillery.

"The enemy's 'wave-like' offensives yielded results, despite enormous losses," the official, Vladimir Rogov, said on the Telegram messaging app.

ST. PETERSBURG, June 18 (Xinhua) -- An African delegation visited Russia on Saturday, pushing for a peaceful settlement of the Ukraine crisis so as to stop its negative impact on African countries.

During a meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg, South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa, also member of the delegation, said that the Ukraine crisis has caused a price hike in energy and fuel, fertilizers and food in African nations and the rest of the world.

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — For nearly three years, a harsh crackdown on dissent in Belarus by its authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko has filled the country’s penal colonies with thousands of political prisoners, with new arrests reported daily.

At the same time, a government campaign has gotten rid of many independent lawyers, making it increasingly difficult for the detainees to mount any kind of legal defense.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia and Ukraine are suffering high numbers of military casualties as Ukraine fights to dislodge the Kremlin’s forces from occupied areas in the early stages of its counteroffensive, British officials said Sunday.

Russian losses are probably at their highest level since the peak of the battle for Bakhmut in March, U.K. military officials said in their regular assessment.