Europe

MOSCOW, February 9. /TASS/: The European Parliament’s decision to set up a "tribunal" on Ukraine is part of a big political game and anti-Russian propaganda, Russian Permanent Representative to the Vienna-based international organizations Mikhail Ulyanov said in an interview with the Rossiya-24 TV channel.

"The European Parliament always makes some kind of bizarre decisions that hardly have anything to do with realpolitik. <…> This is just a part of a larger political game, a propaganda attack on Russia," he said.

THE HAGUE, February 9. /TASS/: The Dutch Foreign Ministry has summoned Russia’s ambassador Alexander Shulgin in connection with the emergence of new data concerning the investigation of the MH17 disaster over Ukraine in July 2014, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on Thursday, according to the Netherlands Broadcasting Corporation.

MOSCOW, February 9. /TASS/: Russia did not begin hostilities in Ukraine, but it is trying to stop them, as hostilities have been going on since 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin said during a meeting with aviation industry representatives Thursday.

"I would like to say it one more time: we did not start any hostilities, we are trying to end them. These hostilities were started by Ukrainian nationalists and those who supported them in 2014, when the coup took place; that is how it all began, the events in Crimea and in Donbass followed after that," the head of state said.

KYIV, Feb 9 (Reuters) - A senior aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy edited his own social media post on Thursday to say the question of fighter jets for Ukraine may be resolved, after earlier writing that it had already been resolved.

Andriy Yermak, chief of the presidential staff, had issued the initial post as Zelenskiy held talks in Brussels at which he raised Kyiv's request for more weapons to fight Russian forces.

Feb 9 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin waved a sarcastic farewell on Thursday to foreign businesses which have left Russia over the conflict in Ukraine, saying their departure would benefit Russian companies.

Speaking to senior officials at a meeting broadcast on state television, Putin said those companies had suffered major losses as a result of exiting a large and lucrative market.

"Today many of them (Western brands), under pressure from their governments, are leaving our market. All the best to them," he said, briefly waving his hand in a farewell gesture.

OSLO, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Norway's sovereign wealth fund has sold its stakes in three Adani Group companies worth just over $200 million since the start of the year, the world's largest stock investor said on Thursday.

The $1.35 trillion fund at the end of 2022 held stakes in Adani Total Gas (ADAG.NS), Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone (APSE.NS) and Adani Green Energy (ADNA.NS).

"Since year-end, we have further reduced in Adani companies. We have no exposure left," Christopher Wright, the fund's head of ESG risk monitoring, told a news conference.

MOSCOW, Feb 9 (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Thursday the world should know the truth about who sabotaged the Nord Stream gas pipelines and that those responsible should be punished after an investigative journalist said U.S. divers blew them up at the behest of the White House.

A sharp drop in pressure on both pipelines was registered on Sept. 26 and seismologists detected explosions, triggering a wave of speculation about sabotage to one of Russia's most important energy corridors.

MOSCOW, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Russia's Wagner mercenary group has stopped recruiting prisoners to fight in Ukraine, Wagner's founder Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Thursday.

"The recruitment of prisoners by the Wagner private military company has completely stopped," Prigozhin said in a response to a request for comment from a Russian media outlet published on social media.

"We are fulfilling all our obligations to those who work for us now," he said.

BRUSSELS/ROME, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Thursday said the invitation of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to Paris, where he met French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, was "inappropriate".

MOSCOW, Feb. 9 (Xinhua) -- Russia successfully launched the Progress MS-22 cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday, Russia's state space corporation Roscosmos said.

The Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket blasted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 9:15 a.m. Moscow time (0615 GMT), Roscosmos said in a press release.

The spacecraft separated from the third stage of the rocket, and its antennas and solar panels opened normally. The ship is scheduled to dock to the ISS on Saturday.