Europe

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — As Ukrainian and Russian troops fight conventional battles on the front lines, Europe’s first major war of the internet age has also sparked a war of technology as both sides vie for the advantage with their drones and satellite communications.

While the two sides have kept pace with one another thus far, Ukraine’s minister in charge of technology told The Associated Press in an interview Friday that he was confident his country had the motivation and abilities to out-innovate Russia in the end.

21 Apr 2023; MEMO: Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the OPEC+ deal to cap oil production with the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, in a telephone call on Friday, the Kremlin said, reports Reuters.

The two expressed satisfaction with the level of cooperation between the two countries to bring stability to the global oil market, the Kremlin said in a readout of the call.

Putin and the Crown Prince, who is widely known as MbS, have also forged close business relations.

MOSCOW, April 21. /TASS/: The proportion of Russian citizens' confidence in President Vladimir Putin amounted to over 80%, according to the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center that published the results of a survey conducted between April 10 and 16 among 1,600 respondents aged over 18.

"When asked about trust in Putin, 80.1% of respondents answered positively (+0.4% over the week), the approval rate of the Russian president's work was up by 0.4% and stood at 77.5%," the pollster noted.

MOSCOW, April 21. /TASS/: The Kiev regime’s extremist statements and crimes confirm the need to continue the special military operation until all of its objectives have been achieved, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Friday.

BRUSSELS, April 21. /TASS/: All NATO member countries have agreed that Ukraine should join the alliance, but a meaningful discussion of the issue is possibly only after it wins in the armed conflict with Russia, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Friday.

He made the statement as he arrived at US Ramstein Air Base in Germany before a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group that will consider new supplies of weapons to Kiev.

BRUSSELS, April 21. /TASS/: The European Union has already provided training for 16,000 Ukrainian service members and sent various types of munitions, including missiles, worth 600 million euros, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell wrote on Twitter on Friday.

"At [the] Ukraine Defense Contact Group, I updated on EU military support. Over 16,000 Ukrainian soldiers already trained. Over €600 million of ammunition and missiles already delivered," said Borrell, who is attending a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group at Ramstein.

LONDON, April 21 (Reuters) - With virtually all the Kremlin's opponents already jailed or in exile, and liberal press outlets and human rights groups forced to shut down, it might have appeared that years of repression in Russia had achieved their objective.

But in the space of just three weeks, Russia's security services and courts have crossed several new thresholds in their campaign to destroy perceived enemies, spies and traitors.

BERLIN, April 21 (Reuters) - Rail workers went on strike across Germany on Friday, mostly bringing national operator Deutsche Bahn's services (DBN.UL) to a halt in the morning hours, as protests over pay in Europe's largest economy widened.

Germany has witnessed some of its most disruptive strikes in decades since last year, when the war in Ukraine sent energy and food prices soaring, leading to union pressure for wages to rise in line with living costs.

RAMSTEIN, Germany, April 21 (Reuters) - All NATO allies have agreed that Ukraine will eventually become a member of the alliance but the main focus now is to ensure the country prevails against Russia, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Friday.

Speaking ahead of a meeting of the Ukraine defence contact group at Ramstein air base in Germany, he also told reporters that, once the war in Ukraine ends, Kyiv must have "the deterrence to prevent new attacks".

April 20 (Reuters) - A Russian Sukhoi-34 supersonic warplane accidentally fired a weapon into the city of Belgorod near Ukraine late on Thursday, causing an explosion and injuring three people.

Video footage from the site showed piles of concrete on the street, several damaged cars and a building with broken windows. One shot showed what appeared to be car upside down on the roof of a store.