Europe

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — Serbia on Monday placed its security troops on the border with Kosovo on “the full state of combat readiness,” ignoring NATO’s calls for calming down of tensions between the two wartime Balkan foes.

Serbia’s Interior Minister Bratislav Gasic said he “ordered the full combat readiness” of police and other security units and that they be placed under the command of the army chief of staff according to “their operational plan.”

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s governing coalition is arguing over whether remaining COVID-19 restrictions should be dropped after one of the country’s top virologists was quoted as saying that the pandemic is over.

Germany has scrapped the bulk of restrictions imposed at the height of the pandemic but, unlike other European countries, still requires mask-wearing on long-distance trains and buses. Masks are also mandatory in doctors’ practices, while masks and negative tests are still required to enter hospitals and nursing homes.

MITROVICA, Kosovo (AP) — Serbs on Tuesday erected more roadblocks in northern Kosovo and defied international demands to remove those placed earlier, a day after Serbia put its troops near the border on a high level of combat readiness.

The new barriers, made of heavily loaded trucks, were put up overnight in Mitrovica, a northern Kosovo town divided between Kosovo Serbs and ethnic Albanians, who represent the majority in Kosovo as a whole.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia’s foreign minister on Tuesday warned anew Ukraine that it must demilitarize, threatening further military action and falsely accusing Kyiv and the West of fueling the war that started with Moscow’s invasion.

Sergey Lavrov said Ukraine must remove any military threat to Russia — otherwise “the Russian army (will) solve the issue.” His comments also reflected persistent unfounded claims by the Kremlin that Ukraine and its Western allies were responsible for the 10-month war, which has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions.

26 Dec 2022; MEMO: Greece plans to extend its territorial waters to 12 nautical miles to the south and west of the island of Crete in March, local media reported on Sunday.

MOSCOW, December 26. /TASS/: The state-of-the-art Chukavin sniper rifle is already being supplied to Russian troops in the special military operation zone in Ukraine and the Kalashnikov arms manufacturer is studying the input by the military of its combat use, Kalashnikov Group President Alan Lushnikov said on Monday.

ST. PETERSBURG, December 26. /TASS/: Leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) gathered on Monday at the invitation of Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg for a traditional pre-New Year informal summit.

The meeting is being held at the Presidential Library on Senate Square. It is attended by leaders of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

The summit will last two days.

MOSCOW, December 26. /TASS/: The average level of Russians' trust in Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2022 is 78%, Valery Fyodorov, Director General of the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center, said on Monday, citing data obtained in the course of daily telephone polls among 1,600 adult Russians living in 80 regions of the Russian Federation.

"The average level of trust in Vladimir Putin this year was 78%," he said during a roundtable discussion at the Social Research Expert Institute (EISI).

MINSK, December 26. /TASS/: Next year will be the happiest and most successful year, where everything will work out, according to a forecast from Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

MOSCOW, December 26. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin has established the office of his first deputy in the Military Industrial Commission he chairs. The Deputy Head of Russia’s Security Council Dmitry Medvedev has been appointed to the post.

According to a presidential decree published on Monday, Emergencies Minister Alexander Kurenkov joined the commission instead of Igor Artemyev (who previously headed the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service, FAS).