Europe

BERLIN (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday that his country is preparing a counteroffensive designed to liberate areas occupied by Russia, not to attack Russian territory.

Speaking during a news conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin, Zelenskyy said Ukraine’s goal is to free the territories within its internationally recognized borders.

London/New Delhi, May 13 (PTI) India is planning a repatriation campaign for artefacts dating back to the colonial era, including the controversial Kohinoor diamond and other idols and sculptures in museums across the UK, according to a British media report on Saturday.

“The Daily Telegraph” newspaper claims the issue is among the priorities of the Narendra Modi-led government, with it likely to spill over into diplomatic and trade talks between the two countries.

13 May 2023; AA: The Ukrainian armed forces attacked the city of Luhansk with UK-supplied cruise missiles Storm Shadow Friday, injuring a Russian lawmaker, according to Russian media.


Two Storm Shadow and one US ADM-160B MALD missiles were fired at residential buildings in the city of Luhansk, an administrative center of the Luhansk region, state news agency TASS claimed.

Russian lawmaker Viktor Vodolatsky was injured in one of the attacks, it added.

13 May 2023; AA: Germany will provide Ukraine with a new €2.7 billion ($2.97 billion) military aid package, local media reported on Saturday.

The biggest military aid package to date will include 30 Leopard 1 battle tanks, 20 Marder infantry fighting vehicles, 15 Gepard anti-aircraft tanks, and around 100 armored vehicles, according to the weekly Der Spiegel.

14 May 2023; AA: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday sought support for his peace proposal as he held talks with Pope Francis in Rome and met Italian leaders in his first visit to Italy since the start of the war.

In an interview on Italian state TV RAI wrapping up his visit, Zelenskyy said he had been honored to meet the pope, who has repeatedly offered to play a role in possible negotiations to stop the war started by Russia’s offensive in Ukraine a year ago.

MOSCOW, May 13. /TASS/: A helicopter has caught on fire and crashed in the Bryansk Region, a source in the emergency services told TASS.

"A helicopter has crashed in the city of Klintsy, according to preliminary data due to an inflamed engine," the source said.

"The wreckage of the helicopter has been found by now. As a result of the crash a fire started that was knocked out swiftly," the source in the taskforce told TASS.

According to a source in the emergency services, two people died as a result of a crash of Mi-8 helicopter in the city of Klintsy.

MOSCOW, May 13. /TASS/: Russian assault teams have liberated one quarter in the northwestern part of the city of Artyomovsk (called Bakhmut in Ukraine), Defense Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov reported on Saturday.

"The assault teams have liberated one quarter in the northwestern part of the city of Artyomovsk," he said.

STOCKHOLM, May 13. /TASS/: The European Union’s military spending has increased by 30% since 2014, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell said, opening the EU-Indo-Pacific Ministerial Forum on Saturday.

He noted that, since 2014, the EU’s military spending has grown by 30% while this trend is even more pronounced in the Asia-Pacific region where the military spending has increased by 40% versus 2013.

ST. PETERSBURG, May 13. /TASS/: Over 80 Union State programs to the tune of 56.7 bln rubles (over $734 mln) have been implemented within the framework of the Union State Treaty, Dmitry Mezentsev, State Secretary of the Union State, said at the St. Petersburg International Legal Forum on Saturday.

May 13 (Reuters) - The head of Russia's federal crime agency on Saturday suggested that key sectors of the economy should be returned to state ownership to support Moscow's war in Ukraine.

Moscow has already seized assets or acquired them at a heavy discount from some Western firms that have quit Russia or scaled back their activities since the invasion.