Europe

COPENHAGEN/OSLO, July 11 (Reuters) - A volcanic eruption in Iceland close to the capital Reykjavik is slowing and gas pollution is easing, experts said, but residents should still keep clear of the volcano which has been spewing out toxic gas.

The eruption has decreased considerably, the Icelandic Met Office, Vedur, said on Tuesday, adding people should keep out of the restricted eruption site.

VILNIUS, July 11 (Reuters) - NATO leaders agreed on Tuesday that Ukraine's future lies within the alliance but they stopped short of handing Kyiv the invitation or timetable for accession it sought, a stance that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had earlier criticised as "absurd".

The leaders met at a summit in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius as a Ukrainian counteroffensive against the Russian invasion forces occupying parts of the country was proceeding more slowly than Kyiv had hoped.

VILNIUS, July 11 (Reuters) - France will join Britain in supplying Ukraine with long-range cruise missiles, which can travel 250 km (155 miles), a move that allows Ukrainian forces to hit Russian troops and supplies deep behind front lines, French officials said on Tuesday.

Emmanuel Macron said he had decided to boost military aid to Ukraine to help its counteroffensive as the French President arrived at a summit of the 31-member NATO alliance in Lithuania.

KYIV, July 11 (Reuters) - Russia launched attacks on Ukraine's capital Kyiv, the Black Sea port of Odesa and the southern region of Kherson on Tuesday before the start of a NATO summit in Lithuania where security threats from Moscow were on the agenda.

July 11 (Reuters) - As rebellious Wagner forces drove north toward Moscow on June 24, a contingent of military vehicles diverted east on a highway in the direction of a fortified Russian army base that holds nuclear weapons, according to videos posted online and interviews with local residents.

VILNIUS, July 10 (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Monday agreed to forward to parliament Sweden's bid to join the NATO military alliance, appearing to end months of drama over an issue that had strained the bloc as war has raged in Ukraine.

Sweden and Finland applied for NATO membership last year, abandoning their policies of military non-alignment that had lasted through the decades of the Cold War in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

July 11 (Reuters) - A Russian military official who had commanded a submarine in the Black Sea and appeared on a Ukrainian blacklist of alleged war criminals has been shot dead by an unknown assassin while on his morning run.

Russia's top investigative body said Stanislav Rzhitsky, 42, was gunned down early on Monday in the southern city of Krasnodar.

Rzhitsky's address and personal details appeared on the Ukrainian website Myrotvorets (Peacemaker), a vast unofficial database of people considered to be enemies of Ukraine.

BRUSSELS (AP) — Protesters and legislators converged on the European Union parliament Tuesday as the bloc prepared a cliffhanger vote on protecting its threatened nature and shielding it from disruptive environmental change, in a test of the EU’s global climate credentials.

REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) — Authorities in Iceland on Tuesday warned tourists and other spectators to stay away from a newly erupting volcano that is spewing lava and noxious gases from a fissure in the country’s southwest.

The eruption began Monday afternoon after thousands of earthquakes in the area, meteorological authorities said. This one comes 11 months after its last eruption officially ended. The eruption is in an uninhabited valley near the Litli-Hrútur mountain, some 30 kilometers (19 miles) southwest of the capital, Reykjavik.

VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday hailed an agreement for Sweden to join NATO as more work remained to determine a path forward for Ukraine’s future with the alliance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy criticized as “absurd” the absence of a timetable for his country’s entry.

Biden described the summit as a “historic moment” and said the United States agreed with a proposal, yet to be released publicly, to outline a path for Ukraine’s eventual membership.