Europe

LJUBLJANA, Slovenia (AP) — Voters in Slovenia on Sunday cast ballots to elect a new president of the European Union nation, with three main contenders leading the race but no clear winner in sight.

Though the presidency is largely ceremonial in Slovenia, Sunday’s vote is still seen as a test for its liberal government amid a soaring crisis fueled by the war in Ukraine.

STAVANGER, Norway (AP) — Norwegian oil and gas workers normally don’t see anything more threatening than North Sea waves crashing against the steel legs of their offshore platforms. But lately they have noticed a more troubling sight: unidentified drones buzzing in the skies overhead.

With Norway replacing Russia as Europe’s main source of natural gas, military experts suspect the unmanned aircraft are Moscow’s doings. They list espionage, sabotage and intimidation as possible motives for the drone flights.

LONDON (AP) — Former British Treasury chief Rishi Sunak was frontrunner Sunday in the Conservative Party’s race to replace Liz Truss as prime minister, as he garnered the public support of over 100 Tory lawmakers to forge ahead of his two main rivals — ousted former Prime Minister Boris Johnson and ex-Cabinet minister Penny Mordaunt.

CHUBYNSKE, Ukraine (AP) — In the last, brief conversations Viktoria Skliar had with her detained boyfriend, the Ukrainian prisoner of war was making tentative plans for life after his release in an upcoming exchange with Russia.

The next time Skliar saw Oleksii Kisilishin, he was dead — one of several bodies in a photo of people local authorities said were killed when blasts ripped through a prison in a part of Ukraine’s Donetsk region controlled by Moscow-backed separatists.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia’s military leadership has withdrawn its officers in the Russian-annexed city of Kherson across the Dnieper River in anticipation of an advance of Ukrainian troops, the Institute for the Study of War think tank said Sunday.

To delay the Ukrainian counteroffensive as the Russians complete their retreat, Moscow has left newly mobilized, inexperienced forces on the other side of the wide river, it added.

MOSCOW, October 22. /TASS/: The number of people wounded in the shelling by the Ukrainian armed forces on the town of Shebekino, Belgorod Region, has risen to 12, while two civilians were killed, Vladimir Ikonnikov, health minister of the Belgorod Region, wrote on hos Telegram channel on Saturday.

"Today, as a result of the shelling of the town of Shebekino, 14 people were affected. Sadly, two of them had died before ambulances arrived. They are a man and a 14-year-old child," he wrote.

He added that five people were hospitalized, four of them are in critical condition.

MOSCOW, October 22. /TASS/: Russian forces thwarted Ukraine military’s attempt to breach the defense line between the cities of Nikolayev and Krivoi Rog eliminating over 130 Ukrainian troops, Defense Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov reported on Saturday.

"The enemy tried to breach the Nikolayev and Krivoi Rog line with the use of two tactic battalions moved in the direction of Pyatikhatki, Sukhanovo, Sablukovka, Bezvodnoye, Bruskinskoye and Pravdino communities in the Kherson Region. All attempted attack were repelled," he said.

MOSCOW, October 22. /TASS/: Deputy Chairman of Russia’s Security Council Dmitry Medvedev warned against the revision of the status of the permanent UN Security State member states including their right to impose veto.

"The status of the [Permanent UN] Security Council member states, which are the founders of the UN, should never be subjected to revision and it includes their right of imposing a veto," Medvedev said adding that the UN Security Council’s membership could be expanded.

MOSCOW, October 22. /TASS/: The decisions of the EU summit have confirmed the confrontational nature of the European Union’s policy, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Saturday.

"The decisions adopted at the EU Council meeting have again confirmed the confrontational nature of the European Union’s policy," Zakharova said in response to a media question from the media, published on the Russian Foreign Ministry website.

MOSCOW, October 22. /TASS/: The crew of a Su-30SM multirole fighter aircraft belonging to the Russian Aerospace Forces, which was protecting bomber and fighter aircraft and helicopters, spotted and took out an aircraft of the Ukrainian armed forces, the Russian Defense Ministry wrote on its Telegram channel on Saturday.