Europe

MOSCOW, December 6. /TASS/: Russian military medics have begun to provide aid to the local population of Stepanakert, the Russian Defense Ministry informed on Sunday.

"During the day, Russian military medics have provided aid to about 40 local residents," the ministry informed, adding that general practitioners, surgeons and other medical specialists are working on site.

MOSCOW, December 1. /TASS/: There are currently about 1.7 mln people with the HIV infection in Eastern Europe and Central Asia with 85% of them located in Russia, Special Advisor to the Joint United Nations Program on AIDS (UNAIDS) for Eastern Europe and Central Asia Michel Kazatchkine said in an interview with TASS.

MOSCOW, December 6. /TASS/: Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated that the call of the US Embassy in Berlin to declare a moratorium on the construction of Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline is an act of political aggression.

"No matter when or where it is, no matter what agreements legitimize it, a Russian pipeline has caused the same reaction of the US for decades - political aggression and unlawful resistance," she wrote on Saturday on Facebook.

KIEV, December 6. /TASS/: Former Ukrainian President and head of the Ukrainian delegation to the Contact Group for settlement in Donbass Leonid Kravchuk threatened Russia with new sanctions over the situation in the region. In an interview with Ukraine-24 TV channel on Saturday night, he admitted that a year after the Normandy Four summit in Paris, no significant progress has been reached during the negotiations in Minsk, so Kiev will be forced to change tactics.

MOSCOW, December 6. /TASS/: Russia’s Foreign Ministry has slammed the US Department of State’s demand for Russians living in the Kuril Islands to name Japan as their place of birth, stressing that Washington encourages revanchism and revisionist mood.

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s Queen Elizabeth and her husband Prince Philip may “let it be known” once they have received a vaccine against COVID-19, The Times newspaper reported, citing unnamed royal aides.

The 94-year-old monarch and her 99-year-old spouse are likely to be among the first to be offered a jab, with the government prioritising elderly people as it begins the rollout of the Pfizer vaccine that was approved on Dec. 2.

LONDON (Reuters) - The head of Britain’s medicines regulator, asked whether the COVID-19 vaccine rollout risked being disrupted if Britain and the European Union fail to reach a trade deal before the end of the Brexit transition period, said “we are ready”.

“We’ve practised, we are ready, we are fully prepared for any possible outcome,” said June Raine, head of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), on BBC television.

WARSAW (Reuters) - Nobody other than the prime minister should communicate Poland’s position on its European Union budget veto, the president’s chief of staff said in an interview published on Sunday, amid conflicting signals from members of government on the issue.

Poland and Hungary are blocking the EU’s 1.8 trillion euro 2021-2027 budget and recovery fund over a proposal to link funds to respect for the rule of law, a dispute which threatens the stability of Poland’s ruling coalition.

BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Romanians began voting on Sunday in a national ballot key to restoring credibility among investors, with the incumbent, reform-oriented centrists of Prime Minister Ludovic Orban holding a narrow lead over opposition Social Democrats.

In power for a year in spite of his opponents’ hold over parliament, Orban, 57, has said he would tone down a 40% pension hike ordered by the leftist PSD, which economists said would propel the deficit into double digits and push Romania’s credit rating to junk.

LONDON/DUBLIN (Reuters) - British and European Union negotiators will meet in Brussels on Sunday in a last-ditch attempt to strike a post-Brexit trade deal before a transition agreement ends on Dec. 31.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen spoke on Saturday and instructed their teams to resume talks after they were paused on Friday.