Europe

MINSK, June 4 (NNN-XINHUA) — About 200 charging stations run by Belarusian oil company Belorusneft will be modified to adapt to Chinese electric vehicles by the end of 2023, a senior manager of the company said.

They account for about 30 percent of all existing charging stations of Belorusneft in the country, said Deputy General Director for Construction, General Matters and Ideological Work of Belorusneft Andrey Kotik.

Kotik noted that there is a trend in Belarus for an increase in auto supplies from China, a global leader in electric vehicle technologies.

ROME, June 4 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The Italian Coast Guard has apprehended two vessels from non-governmental organisations operating in the Mediterranean Sea, after they were found to be in breach of a new law preventing ships deployed to rescue migrants from carrying out multiple operations in a row.

A 20-day detention was imposed on the German rescue ships Sea-Eye 4 and Mare*Go on Friday evening, said the organisations Sea-Eye and Sea-Watch that operate the vessels.

KYIV, June 4 (Reuters) - The Ukrainian military on Sunday renewed its plea for operational silence around a long-awaited counteroffensive against Russian forces, the latest in a stream of messages by Kyiv as it prepares for the assault.

Anticipation has mounted around what is expected to be a broad attack by Ukrainian forces to retake Russian-occupied territory in the east and south.

But Ukrainian officials have repeatedly discouraged public speculation over the operation, saying it could help the enemy.

VLADIVOSTOK, June 4 (Xinhua) -- Russia will continue to provide notifications of intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) launches under the relevant 1988 agreement to avoid dangerous escalations, an official said on Saturday.

"We have certainly taken note of the U.S. intention, at least in words, to continue fulfilling the 1988 agreement on notifications of ICBM and SLBM launches," Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday that Russia’s war, now in its 16th month, has killed at least 500 Ukrainian children.

Zelenskyy provided the number hours after rescue workers found the body of a 2-year-old girl who died in one of the latest Russian strikes.

The president said in a statement that “Russian weapons and hatred, which continue to take and destroy the lives of Ukrainian children every day,” killed the hundreds who had perished since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine started on Feb. 24, 2022.

MOSCOW (AP) — Imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny voiced hope for a better future in Russia as his supporters held pickets and demonstrations to mark his 47th birthday on Sunday.

Navalny is serving a nine-year sentence for fraud and contempt of court, charges he says were trumped up to punish him for his work to expose official corruption and organizing anti-Kremlin protests.

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s largest opposition party is leading a march Sunday meant to mobilize voters against the right-wing government, which it accuses of eroding democracy and following Hungary and Turkey down the path to autocracy.

Donald Tusk, the country’s former prime minister, has called on Poles to march with him for the sake of the nation’s future. His party and security officials predicted that tens of thousands of people will join the demonstration.

OUTSIDE BAKHMUT, Ukraine (AP) — Watching imagery from a drone camera overhead, Ukrainian battalion commander Oleg Shiryaev warned his men in nearby trenches that Russian forces were advancing across a field toward a patch of trees outside the city of Bakhmut.

The leader of the 228th Battalion of the 127th Kharkiv Territorial Defense Brigade then ordered a mortar team to get ready. A target was locked. A mortar tube popped out a loud orange blast, and an explosion cut a new crater in an already pockmarked hillside.

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — The major oil-producing countries led by Saudi Arabia and Russia are wrestling with whether to make another cut in supply to the global economy as the OPEC+ alliance struggles to prop up sagging oil prices that have been a boon to U.S. drivers and helped ease inflation worldwide.

BELGRADE, June 3. /TASS/: Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said that during a brief conversation with his Ukrainian counterpart Vladimir Zelensky at the Chisinau summit of the European Political Community on Thursday they did not discuss the topic of anti-Russian sanctions, Belgrade is still not going to use them.

Vucic said in an interview with TV Prva on Friday that he sees no problem in meeting with the Ukrainian president, but noted that they did not discuss sanctions against Russia.