Europe

MOSCOW, April 16 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday postponed the Victory Day parade celebrating the 75th anniversary of the World War II victory amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The risks associated with the epidemic, the peak of which is not passed, are still extremely high. And this does not give me the right to begin preparations for the parade and other public events," Putin said at an online meeting with the country's Security Council.

BRUSSELS/COPENHAGEN, April 16 (Xinhua) -- World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Europe Hans Kluge on Thursday described the continent as being in the "eye of the storm" as some European countries start to reopen over signs of a slowing in the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

MOSCOW (AP) — An International Space Station crew has landed safely in Kazakhstan after more than 200 days in space.

The Soyuz capsule carrying NASA astronauts Andrew Morgan, Jessica Meir and Russian space agency Roscosmos’ Oleg Skripochka touched down on Friday near the town of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, at 11:16 a.m. (0516 GMT).

The crew returned to Earth exactly 50 years after the Apollo 13 astronauts splashed down in the Pacific after an oxygen tank explosion aborted the moon-landing mission.

MOSCOW, April 16. /TASS/: The Executive Committee of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) is set to discuss via a videoconference next week recent developments regarding the ongoing global spread of the novel coronavirus and its impact on football in Europe, the UEFA press service said in a statement on Thursday.

"The UEFA Executive Committee will meet via videoconference next Thursday 23 April for an update meeting to discuss the latest developments regarding the impact caused by the coronavirus outbreak on European football," the statement reads.

MURMANSK, April 16. /TASS/: The teams of the Northern Fleet’s S-300 anti-aircraft missile regiment held a live-fire exercise at the Ashuluk practice range in the Astrakhan Region, the Fleet’s press office reported on Thursday.

"During the tactical drills at the Ashuluk training range in the Astrakhan Region, the anti-aircraft gunners practiced a whole set of measures, from detecting air targets to employing weapons against them," the press office said in a statement.

GORLOVKA, April 16. /TASS/: After Thursday’s exchange of persons taken prisoner during the conflict in the east of Ukraine the Donetsk People’s Republic will continue to search for some 100 detainees remaining in Ukraine, the Donetsk People's Republic's ombudswoman, Darya Morozova, has told the media.

"At the moment the Donetsk People's Republic is looking for some 100 persons in Ukraine. This is a competence of the humanitarian subgroup. At the next meeting we will be able to present accurate lists," she said.

MURMANSK, April 16. /TASS/: The pilots of the Northern Fleet’s shipborne fighter aviation regiment delivered a bombing strike against a notional enemy’s positions at the Lumbovsky firing range in the east of the Murmansk Region, the Fleet’s press office reported on Thursday.

The crews of the deck-based Su-33 fighters "delivered bombing strikes against the notional enemy positions and conducted air reconnaissance," the press office said in a statement.

MOSCOW, April 16. /TASS/: The residents of a small Syrian village in the countryside of Qamishli intercepted a US military convoy that had attempted to pass through the village, forcing it to retreat, the Syrian news agency SANA reports.

The incident occurred in Abu Qasaib. Local villagers stopped a convoy of five military vehicles and forced the US military personnel to return to the base.

MOSCOW, April 16. /TASS/: The coronavirus cases statistics in Russia indicates that the country is approaching a peak in the disease, renowned Russian pediatrician Leonid Roshal, who co-chairs the All-Russia People's Front central headquarters, said on Thursday.

"As for the forecast, I’m not a fortuneteller, and I’m not a specialist in infectious diseases either. I’m just a doctor and I see those figures coming. I think we are bracing for a peak. Yes, there will be more people who may have a positive test," Roshal said during an online conference hosted by TASS.

MOSCOW, April 16. /TASS/: The Kremlin believes that the issues that had emerged due to the introduction of the pass system in Moscow, will not repeat themselves and that Moscow officials will learn essential lessons.

"Certain failures do happen, [but] we are certain that the Moscow government will learn some lessons from yesterday’s issues and will make sure that they never recur again," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists Thursday, adding that "in this regard, the situation has normalized."