Europe

MOSCOW, March 6. /TASS/: Argentina is justifiably fighting to regain sovereignty over the Malvinas (Falklands) Islands, which are still considered a British overseas territory, Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of the Russian Security Council and chairman of the United Russia Party, said.

He recalled that Argentina had withdrawn from its agreement with the United Kingdom governing administrative and economic activities on the Malvinas.

BUDAPEST, March 6. /TASS/: Hungary believes the settlement of the armed conflict in Ukraine requires direct talks between Russia and the US, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said in the country’s parliament on Monday.

"We would welcome direct talks between the US and Russia" on Ukraine, the minister said. He brought up the brief conversation between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken during a meeting of foreign ministers of the Group of 20 countries in India on March 2.

MOSCOW, March 6. /TASS/: Russia is deeply concerned about escalating tensions in Nagorno-Karabakh and is calling on the sides to exercise restraint, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement on Monday.

"We express serious concern about the escalating tensions in the zone of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. There have been repeated ceasefire violations in recent days. An armed incident that took place on March 5 resulted in the loss of life on both the Armenian and Azerbaijani sides," the diplomat said.

TBILISI, March 6 (Reuters) - Fistfights broke out among Georgian lawmakers on Monday as a parliamentary committee debated a bill on "foreign agents" which critics say is modelled on draconian legislation in neighbouring Russia.

Video from inside the parliament building in the capital Tbilisi showed a brief but violent brawl between lawmakers after the chairman of the chamber's legal affairs committee appeared to strike the leader of the United National Movement opposition party, which opposes the bill.

March 6 (Reuters) - Russian mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin said his representative had been denied access to the headquarters of Russia's military command in Ukraine on Monday, in a further deepening of his rift with the defence establishment.

Prigozhin said the incident came the day after he urgently requested ammunition supplies from the commander of what Russia calls its "special military operation" (SMO).

LONDON (AP) — The British government said Monday it will introduce legislation to ban anyone who arrives in the U.K. in small boats across the English Channel from ever settling in the country.

The government said a bill — expected to be announced Tuesday — will bar asylum claims by anyone who reaches Britain by unauthorized means, and will compel the government to detain and then deport them “to their home country or a safe third country.”

BERLIN (AP) — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz says there would be “consequences” if China sent weapons to Russia for Moscow’s war in Ukraine, but he’s fairly optimistic that Beijing will refrain from doing so.

Scholz’s comments came in an interview with CNN that aired Sunday, two days after he met U.S. President Joe Biden in Washington.

KRYVYI RIH, Ukraine (AP) — The pops of welding torches and the piercing whine of angle grinders fill the spacious production floor at a steel plant in Kryvyi Rih, the city in central Ukraine that is President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ’s hometown.

Instead of doing their usual jobs producing and repairing mining equipment, some workers are busy building metal bunkers for front-line troops. Ukrainian mining and metals company Metinvest launched the project, and the plant workers say they are happy contributing to the resistance to Russia’s invasion.

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — The center-right Reform Party of Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, one of Europe’s most outspoken supporters of Ukraine, overwhelmingly won the Baltic country’s general election, while a far-right populist challenger lost seats in a vote that focused on national security and the economy.

Preliminary returns from a completed ballot count showed the Reform Party, the senior partner in the outgoing three-party coalition government, received 31.2% of the vote — the biggest share in Sunday’s election.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian military leaders are determined to hold onto Bakhmut, Kyiv officials said Monday, even as Russian forces continued to encroach on the devastated eastern Ukrainian city that they have sought to capture for six months at the cost of thousands of lives.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office said he chaired a meeting with military officials during which the country’s top brass advocated strengthening Ukrainian positions there.