Europe

Feb 20 (Reuters) - Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of Russia's mercenary group Wagner, accused unspecified officials of deliberately denying his fighters sufficient ammunition as part of an ongoing rivalry between himself and parts of the Russian elite.

A onetime catering entrepreneur who once shunned the public spotlight, Prigozhin has assumed an ever more public role in Russian politics since the start of the war in Ukraine a year ago, with his Wagner Group spearheading Russia's months-long battle for the town of Bakhmut in Ukraine's Donetsk region.

KIEV, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday arrived in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev, one day after thousands rallied in Washington to protest U.S. war-mongering foreign policy and its role in various conflicts across the globe.

Media reports said Biden will announce a 500-million U.S. dollar military aid to Ukraine, a move that is widely believed to further escalate regional conflict.

Domestically, Biden is currently faced with mounting pressures due to thorny issues, including a hazmat train derailment.

BERLIN (AP) — Russian pranksters posing as Ukraine’s ex-President Petro Poroshenko managed to contact Angela Merkel by phone to discuss developments in Ukraine and Belarus, although the former German chancellor appeared wary during the call.

Merkel’s office said Monday that the former German leader received a call Jan. 12 from someone claiming to be Poroshenko. The conversation was assisted by a German-Ukrainian interpreter from the German Foreign Ministry’s language service.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — President Joe Biden made an unannounced visit to Ukraine on Monday to meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a striking gesture of solidarity that comes days before the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of the country.

19 Feb 2023; MEMO: The EU should quickly increase and accelerate its military support to Ukraine, the bloc's foreign policy chief said on Sunday, Anadolu reports.

"All the European leaders here said yesterday that Russia cannot win this war, that Ukraine has to prevail," Josep Borrell told the Munich Security Conference.

MOSCOW, February 19. /TASS/: In his upcoming State of the Nation Address to the Federal Assembly, Russian President Vladimir Putin will pay attention to topics related to the special military operation, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview with Rossiya 1 TV channel.

"Our lives are now centered around the subject of the special military operation. The military operation affects our entire lives one way or another, as well as life on the continent. So, we should anticipate the president to pay particular attention to it," Peskov said.

MOSCOW, February 19. /TASS/: The investigation of the terror attack on the Crimean Bridge has proved that it was organized by Ukrainian special services, chief of Russia’s Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin said in an interview with TASS.

"The investigation has proved that Ukrainian special services were behind the organization of the terror attack on the Crimean bridge," he said.

DONETSK, February 19. /TASS/:  Ukrainian troops launched a massive attack on the Donetsk city center on Sunday afternoon, hitting residential apartment buildings and civilian infrastructure facilities. According to preliminary reports, there are wounded.

"There are wounded, according to preliminary data. We are clarifying the information," the administration of Donetsk's central Voroshilovsky district told TASS.

MOSCOW, February 19. /TASS/: Kiev is plotting a provocation ahead of the United Nations General Assembly session to accused Russia of the violation of the Convention on Nuclear Safety, the Russian defense ministry said on Sunday.

"Ahead of the beginning of the 11th emergency special session of the United Nations General Assembly, the Kiev regime continues plotting a large-scale provocation to accuse Russia of an alleged ‘blatant violation’ of the Convention on Nuclear Safety in the course of the special military operation," it said.

MOSCOW, Feb 19 (Reuters) - Ramzan Kadyrov, the ally of President Vladimir Putin who leads Chechnya, said on Sunday that he one day planned to set up his own private military company in the style of Yevgeny Prigozhin's Wagner Group of mercenaries.

The rise of Wagner and other mercenary forces outside the traditional Russian military command structures has raised concerns among Western diplomats that such groups could one day pose a threat to stability in Russia.