Europe

11 June 2023; MEMO: The European Union is considering over 1 billion euros ($1.07 billion) in aid for Tunisia to help develop its battered economy, rescue state finances and deal with a migration crisis, the EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Sunday, Reuters reports.

Speaking in Tunisia, von der Leyen said 900 million euros in macrofinancial assistance, plus an immediate 150 million euros in budget support could be ready "as soon as the necessary agreement is found", without elaborating.

MOSCOW, June 11. /TASS/: Today there is no even ‘fragile foundation’ for talks with the Kiev regime, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday.

MOSCOW, June 11. /TASS/: Kiev de facto has not supported proposals on the security and safety of the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) advanced by Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi, Alexey Likhachev, director general of Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom, said on Sunday.

MOSCOW, June 11. /TASS/: The Eurasian Economic Union’s (EAEU) member countries will continue to develop industrial cooperation; an agreement on that was a major outcome of the recent Sochi meeting of the EAEU intergovernmental council, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said on Sunday.

VIENNA, June 11. /TASS/: Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi plans to visit Kiev and the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) next week, the agency said on Sunday.

However, it did not provide a concrete date of the visit.

The IAEA chief said in late May that he could visit Moscow, but such a visit has not been announced by the agency.

Grossi will lead the next mission on the rotation of IAEA inspectors at the Zaporozhye NPP as the agency wants to expand its presence at the facility.

MOSCOW, June 11. /TASS/: Ninety-four Russian soldiers have been released from the Ukrainian captivity as a result of negotiations, the Russian defense ministry said on Sunday.

"On June 11, as a result of the negotiating process, 94 Russian servicemen, who were in mortal danger in the Ukrainian captivity, were released from the territory controlled by the Kiev regime," it said, adding that the released soldiers will be taken to the ministry’s hospitals for treatment and rehabilitation.

MOSCOW, June 11 (Reuters) - Russia's most powerful mercenary said on Sunday that his Wagner fighters would not sign any contract with Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, publicly refusing an attempt by the defence ministry to bring his fighting force under its sway.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner group, has repeatedly attacked President Vladimir Putin's top military brass for what he casts as treachery for failing to fight the war in Ukraine properly.

MOSCOW, June 11 (Reuters) - Russia on Sunday said it had destroyed at least seven German-made Leopard tanks and five U.S.-made Bradley vehicles over 48 hours while repelling Ukrainian attacks, though Russian bloggers reported Ukraine had briefly pierced part of the Russian line.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy acknowledged on Saturday that his military was engaged in "counter-offensive and defensive operations", a day after President Vladimir Putin said Russia had repelled the first attacks of the offensive.

PARIS (AP) — Children, parents and grandparents joined a few thousand well-wishers Sunday in a park in the French Alps town of Annecy to show solidarity and support for the victims of a playground stabbing attack that left four young children and two adults hospitalized with serious wounds,

The children represent ’’the poetry of life,″ Annecy Mayor Francois Astorg told the crowd, calling on Annecy residents to “come together to build, instead of to hate.”

PODGORICA, Montenegro (AP) — Montenegro was holding an early parliamentary election Sunday, a vote that could put an end to deep political divisions and years of instability that have hampered the small NATO-member country on its route to joining the European Union.

Some 542,000 voters are eligible to choose among 15 parties and coalitions fielding candidates, ranging from groups that are staunchly pro-Western to ones that are pro-Serbian and pro-Russian.