Europe

MOSCOW, May 20. /TASS/: The decisions adopted at the G7 summit in Hiroshima pursue the goal of dual containment of Russia and China, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at the 31st Assembly of the Council for Foreign and Defense Policy on Saturday.

"Could you take a look at those decisions which are being debated and adopted at the G7 summit in Hiroshima and which are aimed at dual containment of Russia and the People’s Republic of China?" he said.

MOSCOW, May 20. /TASS/: Li Hui, China’s special envoy for Eurasian affairs, may visit Moscow next week, a source with knowledge of the matter told TASS on Saturday.

"Li Hui’s visit to Moscow is expected next week," he said.

Earlier, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin announced that the Chinese special envoy would visit Russia, Germany, Poland, Ukraine and France to take part in the talks seeking to resolve the Ukraine crisis.

May 19 (Reuters) - Germany's interior ministry published draft legislation aimed at making it easier for people to apply for citizenship, as Berlin seeks to boost migration and open up the job market in Europe's biggest economy.

The draft proposes a multiple citizenship option and cuts the required residency years before naturalization down to five or three years from the previous eight.

MOSCOW, May 19 (Reuters) - Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Friday that the city of Bakhmut was unlikely to fall to his mercenary forces in the next two days as fighting raged around Ukrainian soldiers holed up in a makeshift "fortress" in the south of the city.

The Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, known in Russia by its Soviet-era name of Artyomovsk, is in ruins after months of intense fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces who call it the "meat grinder".

AMSTERDAM, May 20 (Reuters) - The member states of the International Criminal Court on Saturday said they are "deeply concerned" by Russia's decision to place a court prosecutor and several judges on a wanted list.

The ICC's British prosecutor, Karim Khan, has been added to the Russian Interior Ministry's wanted list, state-owned news agency TASS reported on Friday, citing the ministry's database.

BELGRADE, May 20 (Xinhua) -- The newly elected president of Montenegro Jakov Milatovic took the oath of office on Saturday at the country's parliament in Podgorica.

Milatovic said that he will serve as the president of all citizens, emphasizing economic development and ties with the neighboring countries, as well as the country's path to full membership in the European Union (EU).

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — An F-18 fighter jet crashed at an airbase in the Spanish city of Zaragoza but the pilot ejected successfully, the Spanish defense ministry said Saturday.

The aircraft landed within the perimeter of the base, the defense ministry said on Twitter.

The base, which lies about 10 miles (16 kilometers) outside the city, belongs to the Spanish Air and Space Force.

Videos posted on social media showed a plane in flames falling towards the ground.

The pilot was already in hospital and his life was not in danger, the air force said.

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — For the first time in more than a decade, Greeks will go to the polls Sunday to elect a leader no longer confined to steering the country’s economy from a back seat.

Conservative Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is seeking a second term after a draconian regime of spending controls ordered by international bailout lenders ended last summer.

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Tens of thousands of people rallied in Serbia’s capital on Friday for a third time in a month in protest at the government’s handling of a crisis after two mass shootings in the Balkan country earlier this month, even as officials rejected the criticism and ignored their demands.

In a show of defiance, the nationalist right-wing party of autocratic Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic organized a counter-protest in a town north of Belgrade attended by thousands of his supporters.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The head of the Russian private army Wagner claimed Saturday that his forces have taken control of the city of Bakhmut after the longest and most grinding battle of the Russia-Ukraine war, but Ukrainian defense officials denied it.

In a video posted on Telegram, Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin said the city came under complete Russian control at about midday Saturday. He spoke flanked by about half a dozen fighters, with ruined buildings in the background and explosions heard in the distance.