Europe

MOSCOW, February 4. /TASS/: The timeframe for a meeting of Foreign Ministers of Russia, Syria and Turkey has not been negotiated yet, but consultations on this issue continue, says Mikhail Bogdanov, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister and Special Presidential Representative for the Middle East and Africa.

"We are working on the issue of holding a ministerial meeting; we held consultations with delegations from Syria and Iran, and in contact with our Turkish partners through the embassies. This work continues. But there is no timeframe yet," the official told TASS.

MOSCOW, February 4. /TASS/: Participants in the EU-Ukraine summit, held in Kiev on February 3, will be frustrated, as the goals of Russia’s special military operation will be achieved, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement on Saturday.

MOSCOW, February 4. /TASS/: Kiev’s decision to attack Crimea, if ever taken, might escalate the conflict and trigger Moscow to use of any kind of weapons, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev wrote on his Twitter page on Saturday.

"International law respects the will of the people," he tweeted in English, adding that Crimea is a Russian region.

BUDAPEST, Feb 4 (NNN-XINHUA) — Budapest Airport said that it has recovered 75 percent of its pre-pandemic passenger traffic, handling 12.2 million passengers in 2022.

This was a 164 percent increase from 2021, the airport said.

The past year has been “extremely challenging, yet very successful,” the airport in the Hungarian capital said, with the addition of new destinations to its schedule.

Last year, the airport processed 194,000 tons of air cargo, up from 183,362 tons in 2021, which set “unprecedented records.”

LISBON, Feb 4 (Reuters) - Portugal will send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, Prime Minister Antonio Costa said on Saturday, without specifying how many will be shipped.

Costa added that Portugal is in talks with Germany to obtain parts needed for the repair of a number of inoperable Leopard tanks in Portugal's inventory of the weapon.

KYIV, Feb 4 (Reuters) - A serious accident at a high-voltage substation has caused widespread power outages in and around Ukraine's southern port city of Odesa, Ukraine's Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Saturday.

"The situation is difficult, the scale of the accident is significant, it is impossible to quickly restore power supply, in particular to critical infrastructure," Shmyhal wrote on Telegram.

Feb 4 (Reuters) - Ukraine and Russia traded almost 200 prisoners of war in a swap announced separately by both sides on Saturday, with the bodies of two British volunteers also being sent back to Ukraine.

The Ukrainian president's chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said 116 Ukrainians had been returned, while Russian news agencies cited Moscow's defence ministry saying 63 Russian POWs had been freed.

"We managed to return 116 of our people, defenders of Mariupol, partisans from Kherson, snipers from the Bakhmut (front) and other heroes of ours," Yermak wrote on Telegram.

Feb 4 (Reuters) - Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said the supply of more advanced U.S. weaponry to Ukraine will only trigger more retaliatory strikes from Russia, up to the extent of Russia's nuclear doctrine.

"All of Ukraine that remains under Kyiv's rule will burn," journalist Nadana Fridrikhson quoted him as saying in a written interview with her.

KIEV, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- Ukraine and the European Union agreed to deepen their relations and cooperation at the 24th Ukraine-EU summit held in Kiev on Friday, according to a joint statement issued following the event.

The statement by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, European Council President Charles Michel and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was published by the Ukrainian presidential press service.

BRUSSELS, Feb. 4 (Xinhua) -- The European Union (EU), together with the Group of Seven (G7), adopted on Saturday further price caps for seaborne Russian petroleum products, according to a European Commission (EC) press release.

The price cap for "premium-to-crude" petroleum products, such as diesel, kerosene and gasoline, is set at 100 U.S. dollars per barrel, while the cap for "discount-to-crude" petroleum products, such as fuel oil and naphtha, is set at 45 U.S. dollars per barrel, the EC has said.