Europe

March 21 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said after talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Tuesday that Chinese proposals could be used as the basis of a peace settlement in Ukraine, but that the West and Kyiv were not yet ready.

In a joint statement issued at the end of Xi's state visit to Moscow, the two men cautioned against any steps that might push the Ukraine conflict into an "uncontrollable phase", adding pointedly that there could be no winners in a nuclear war.

March 20 (Reuters) - Russia's defence ministry said a Russian Su-35 fighter jet was scrambled over the Baltic Sea on Monday after two U.S. strategic bombers flew in the direction of the Russian border, but that it returned to base after they moved away.

The development followed the March 14 crash of a U.S. drone into the Black Sea after it was intercepted by Russian jets in what was the first known direct military encounter between Russia and the United States since Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian and Ukrainian officials on Tuesday gave conflicting accounts of what appeared to be a brazen attack on Russian cruise missiles being transported by train in the occupied Ukrainian Crimean Peninsula.

A Ukrainian military spokesperson indicated that Kyiv was behind the explosion late Monday that reportedly destroyed multiple Kalibr cruise missiles near the town of Dzhankoi in northern Crimea, while stopping short of directly claiming responsibility.

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Spain’s leftist coalition government faces a no-confidence vote brought by the nation’s far-right Vox party as lawmakers on Tuesday debated the motion, which has little chance of succeeding.

The vote will be held in the 348-member lower chamber on Wednesday. No other party said that it would support the attempt by Vox’s 52 lawmakers to topple the Socialist-led government of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.

PARIS (AP) — Paris police said Tuesday that 234 people were arrested overnight in the capital mostly for setting fire to garbage in the streets, after France’s parliament adopted a divisive bill raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 pushed that was through by President Emmanuel Macron.

Mostly small, scattered protests were held in cities around France, some degenerating late Monday into violent incidents. In Paris, small groups took to the streets to set fire to piles of trash that have formed due to a strike by garbage collectors in the capital that is in its 16th day.

AVDIIVKA, Ukraine (AP) — Pale and grimy from living in a dank, dark basement for nearly a year, the teenager and his weeping mother emerged to the sound of pounding artillery and headed to a waiting armored police van that would whisk them to safety.

Russian forces were not far from their battered front-line town of Avdiivka in eastern Ukraine, where shells fall daily, ripping through buildings, smashing cars and leaving craters.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida arrived in Kyiv for a surprise visit Tuesday, hours after Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in neighboring Russia on a three-day trip. Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine will be in the spotlight at both meetings.

Footage shown on Japanese national broadcaster NHK showed Kishida walking on the platform of Kyiv Central Station, escorted by a few people who appeared to be Ukrainian officials. The Ukrainian capital has not felt the brunt of the war, which has become bogged down eastern Ukraine.

21 Mar 2023; MEMO: Britain, on Monday, said far-right Danish politician, Rasmus Paludan, will be denied entry to the UK to carry out a provocative act of burning a copy of the Muslim holy book, Anadolu News Agency reports.

Responding to a question by Wakefield Labour MP, Simon Lightwood, Home Office Minister for Security, Tom Tugendhat, said Paludan had been added to a "warnings index" and would not be allowed into the country to carry out a Quran burning.

21 Mar 2023; MEMO: The EU Executive will give €1 billion ($1.1 billion) to help with reconstruction efforts in Turkiye after last month's devastating earthquakes, the head of the European Commission said on Monday, Reuters reports.

The 6 February earthquakes were the worst natural disaster to strike modern-day Turkiye with more than 56,000 people killed in Turkiye and neighbouring Syria.

21 Mar 2023; MEMO: The European Union expressed deep regret on Monday over remarks made by Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich during a Jewish community event in France. Echoing the words of former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, far-right extremist Smotrich claimed that there is "no such thing as Palestinians" and they are a "fictitious nation invented only to battle against the Zionist movement."