Europe

Nov 6 (Reuters) - Russia is suffering heavy losses in continuing "fierce" attacks in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region and is preparing new assaults on Ukrainian energy infrastructure, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday.

"Very fierce Russian attacks on Donetsk region are continuing. The enemy is suffering serious losses there," Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.

Zelenskiy said he believed Russia was "concentrating forces and means for a possible repetition of mass attacks on our infrastructure, energy in the first instance".

LONDON, Nov 7 (Reuters) - Russia's defence ministry took the rare step on Monday of denying allegations that a naval infantry unit had suffered disastrous losses of men and equipment in a futile offensive in eastern Ukraine.

The ministry was responding to what Russian military bloggers said was an open letter from members of the 155th marine brigade of Russia's Pacific Fleet, complaining they had been thrown into an "incomprehensible" assault on Ukrainian forces southwest of Donetsk.

KYIV, Nov 7 (Reuters) - Ukraine has received its first delivery of NASAMS air defence systems which will "significantly strengthen" its armed forces, Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov said on Monday.

White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said last month the United States was accelerating the shipment of the sophisticated NASAMS systems to Ukraine after a devastating missile barrage from Russia.

ROME (AP) — The Italian government’s new sports minister has signed a letter to UEFA supporting the country’s bid to host the 2032 European Championship.

“Sustainable, long-term development of Italian sports venues represents one of the government’s priorities,” Andrea Abodi, the minister and the former president of Serie B, said in a statement released by the Italian soccer federation on Monday. “Italy’s candidacy for Euro 2032 represents a fundamental factor in accelerating that process.”

BERLIN (AP) — BioNTech, which teamed with Pfizer to develop a powerful COVID-19 vaccine, reported that its earnings in the third quarter were close to half what they were a year earlier, but the German pharmaceutical company still raised its expectations for vaccine revenue after rolling out updated shots targeting omicron strains.

MOSCHUN, Ukraine (AP) — Standing amid the wreckage of his home, Vadym Zherdetsky shows photos on his phone of how it once looked: handsome rooms, a hand-carved wooden bed and a chest of drawers he intended to leave to his grandchildren.

When Russia invaded Ukraine in February, two missiles struck the house in the tiny village of Moschun on the outskirts of Kyiv, the capital, ripping off the roof and nearly killing four family members. The town was recaptured from Russian forces in April, but Zherdetsky’s house, like many others in the Kyiv region, remains in ruins.

(AP) --- Yevgeny Prigozhin, an entrepreneur known as “Putin’s chef” because of his catering contracts with the Kremlin, on Monday admitted he had interfered in U.S. elections and said he would continue to do so — for the first time confirming the accusations he has been rejecting for years.

“We have interfered, are interfering and will continue to interfere. Carefully, precisely, surgically and in our own way,” Prigozhin said in remarks posted by his spokespeople on social media.

BRUSSELS, November 6. /TASS/: The events in Kosovo and escalation of tensions with Serbia ‘put years of hard work’ on the normalization of relations between Belgrade and Pristina at risk, while the withdrawal of all Kosovo Serbs from local institutions ‘is not a solution to the current disputes’, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell said in a statement issued on Saturday.

DONETSK, November 6. /TASS/: The number of foreigners in the ranks of the Ukrainian armed forces is such that they not only command, but also personally work in firing positions, Lieutenant Colonel of the People's Militia and the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) lawmaker Andrey Bayevsky told TASS.

MOSCOW, November 6. /TASS/: The investigators have initiated a case of negligence following a fire in the Polygon nightclub in Russia’s Kostroma that killed 13 people, the press service of the Investigation Committee said in a statement on Sunday.

"Based on the results of a procedural inspection on the fact of negligence that caused the death of two and more people out of negligence, a criminal case has been initiated on the signs of a crime under Part 3 of Article 293 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation," the statement reads.