Europe

BONN, Germany (AP) — The temperature outside Klaus Mueller’s office almost resembles spring, exactly the kind of mild weather that helped Germany get through the winter without Russian natural gas.

But Germany’s chief utility regulator is not ready to sound the all clear on an energy crisis spawned by the war in Ukraine, even with natural gas reserves abundant and prices well down from their peak.

22 Feb 2023; MEMO: Israel prevented a member of the European parliament from entering the occupied Palestinian territories on Monday, and then deported her to Spain.

Ana Miranda MEP landed at Ben Gurion Airport late on Monday. The international airport also serves the occupied Palestinian territories. She was with a delegation of MEPs who are involved in relations with Palestine.

MOSCOW, February 22. /TASS/: The Russian State Duma Committee on International Affairs on Wednesday recommended to the lower house the adoption of a bill suspending Russia's participation in the Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (START, New START).

MOSCOW, February 22. /TASS/: A meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and South Ossetian President Alan Gagloyev in Moscow on Wednesday has been postponed after the latter tested positive for the novel coronavirus, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

"It has been decided to move Wednesday’s scheduled meeting between Vladimir Putin and President of South Ossetia Gagloyev to a later date," Peskov said. "Unfortunately, Gagloyev’s test for COVID-19 returned a positive result."

WARSAW, February 22. /TASS/: US President Joe Biden considers Russia’s decision to suspend its participation in the New START Treaty ‘a big mistake.’

Biden’s words were relayed by the White House’s press pool Wednesday.

MOSCOW, February 22. /TASS/: US President Joe Biden dared to make a ‘brave’ visit to Kiev only after obtaining guarantees of security from Russia, Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said during a briefing Wednesday.

"Biden did not dare to visit Kiev without warning Russia and without asking the Russian side to ensure his safety," she noted.

The spokeswoman noted that "the US leader’s visit was staged with drama, but, in reality, resembled a failed stage of in a provincial theater."

Feb 22 (Reuters) - Russia's flagship frigate equipped with new generation hypersonic cruise missiles has arrived in the South African port of Richards Bay for exercises that will include China, Russia's RIA state news agency reported on Wednesday.

South Africa was due to launch the joint exercises on Friday. It calls the drills routine but they have fuelled domestic criticism and fears they could endanger relations with Western partners.

MOSCOW, Feb 22 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that China's Xi Jinping would visit Russia, saying relations had reached "new frontiers" amid U.S. concerns that Beijing could provide material support to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Chinese weapons supplies to Russia would threaten a potential escalation of the Ukraine war into a confrontation between Russia and China on the one side and Ukraine and the U.S.-led NATO military alliance on the other.

LONDON, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin took a bitter public feud with the top army brass to a new level on Wednesday, publishing a grisly image of dozens of his fighters he said had been killed after being deprived of ammunition.

Prigozhin, founder of the Wagner private military company which is fighting on Moscow's behalf in Ukraine, has this week repeatedly accused the Russian defence ministry of deliberately starving his fighters of munitions in what he has called a treasonous attempt to destroy Wagner.

WARSAW, Feb 22 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden said on Wednesday "we will defend every inch of NATO" to reassure allies on Europe's eastern flank facing Russia after Moscow suspended a landmark nuclear arms control treaty, which he called a "big mistake".

Biden spoke during talks with eastern European NATO allies in the Polish capital Warsaw two days after a surprise visit to Kyiv, just ahead of the first anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.