Russia

MOSCOW, Nov 24 (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Friday that NATO's desire to have a military analogue of the Schengen Zone in Europe to allow the alliance's armed forces to move around freely to counter Russia had ratcheted up tensions and was a cause for concern.

The chief of NATO's logistics command JSEC, Lieutenant-General Alexander Sollfrank, told Reuters in an interview published on Thursday that he would like to see such a zone.

MOSCOW, November 22. /TASS/: Moscow offers up a new gameplan for the Middle East; the US and Germany revisit military assistance to Ukraine; and North Korea's neighbors are perturbed by its latest rocket launch. These stories topped Wednesday’s newspaper headlines across Russia.

MOSCOW, November 22. /TASS/: The Federation Council approved the law on the federal budget for 2024 and the planning period 2025-2026 at a plenary meeting on Wednesday,

The decision was made unanimously, 154 senators voted to approve the law.

MOSCOW, Nov 22 (Reuters) - The Kremlin declined on Wednesday to comment on a suggestion by White House spokesman John Kirby that Iran may be considering providing Russia with ballistic missiles for use in Ukraine.

"We are developing relations with Iran, including in the field of military-technical cooperation, but we do not comment on this information," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in a regular news briefing.

Kirby said the United States would monitor the situation between Iran and Russia, and take appropriate action as needed.

Nov 22 (Reuters) - Russia has deployed a new Yars intercontinental ballistic missile at the Kozelsk base in the Kaluga region, southwest of Moscow, the RIA news agency cited the defence ministry as saying on Wednesday.

Russia has described the Yars missile, developed in the 2000s and capable of carrying multiple thermonuclear warheads, as one of its newer weapons capable of piercing the missile shield used by the United States and its allies.

MOSCOW, Nov. 22 (Xinhua) -- Russia welcomed the agreement reached between Israel and Hamas on a four-day humanitarian pause, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday.

"In Moscow, we welcome the achievement of an agreement between Israel and Hamas on a four-day humanitarian pause. Russia has been calling for this since the beginning of the conflict escalation," she stated.

"We note the special efforts of Qatar aimed at the practical implementation of the international community's call for de-escalation," she said.

BELGOROD, November 20./TASS/: More than 10,000 residents of the Belgorod Region’s areas bordering on Ukraine have been evacuated to safety since February 24, 2022, the region’s deputy governor Andrey Milekhin said.

About 270 people have been wounded and 60 local residents have been killed, Milekhin told a meeting of the parliamentary commission probing Kiev’s crimes against children.

MOSCOW, November 20. /TASS/: Russian forces struck Ukrainian troops and military hardware in 123 areas over the past day in the special military operation in Ukraine, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported on Monday.

"Operational/tactical and army aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles, missile troops and artillery of the Russian groupings of forces inflicted damage on the Ukrainian army’s manpower and military equipment in 123 areas," the ministry said in a statement.

MOSCOW, November 20. /TASS/: After the Maidan [coup] Ukraine has lost its state independence and turned into an "impoverished, destitute land," Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a commentary marking the tenth anniversary of the start of the Ukrainian Euromaidan protests.

MOSCOW, November 20. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin will take part in an extraordinary online BRICS summit on the escalation of the situation in the Middle East, the Kremlin press service said on Monday.

"On November 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin will take part in an extraordinary BRICS summit (in the videoconference format) to discuss the Palestinian-Israeli conflict," it said.