Europe

RUKLA, Lithuania, Oct 8 (Reuters) - NATO must do more to protect itself against Russia and President Vladimir Putin, German Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht said on Saturday, because we "cannot know how far Putin's delusions of grandeur can go".

"One thing is certain: the current situation means we need to do more together," Lambrecht said while visiting German troops deployed in Lithuania.

LONDON, Oct 8 (Reuters) - Britain's opposition Labour Party has retained a huge opinion poll lead over Prime Minister Liz Truss's Conservative Party, which has failed to stage a recovery after its annual conference this week, a poll showed on Saturday.

The YouGov poll, carried out on Thursday and Friday for The Times newspaper and based on a survey of 1,737 British adults, showed support for Labour at 52%, down two points from a poll by the same organisation in late September, while the Conservatives were up just one point at 22%.

MOSCOW/HOUSTON, Oct 7 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Friday that establishes a new operator for the Exxon Mobil Corp-led (XOM.N) Sakhalin-1 oil and gas project in Russia's Far East.

Putin's move affecting Exxon's largest investment in Russia mimics a strategy he used to seize control of other energy properties in the country.

The decree gives the Russian government authority to decide whether foreign shareholders can retain stakes in the project.

MOSCOW, Oct 8 (Reuters) - Russia's Defence Ministry on Saturday named Air Force General Sergei Surovikin as the overall commander of Russian forces fighting in Ukraine, Moscow's third senior military appointment in the space of a week.

The change follows the reported sacking earlier this week of the commanders of two of Russia's five military regions, as its forces have suffered a series of dramatic reverses in northeastern and southern Ukraine in recent weeks.

The ministry did not say who, if anyone, Surovikin was replacing.

BERLIN, Oct 8 (Reuters) - Cables vital for the rail network were intentionally cut in two places causing a near three-hour halt to all rail traffic in northern Germany on Saturday morning, in what authorities called an act of sabotage without identifying who might be responsible.

The federal police are investigating the incident, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said, adding the motive for it was unclear.

OSLO/PARIS/WASHINGTON, Oct 7 (Reuters) - A U.S. Navy reconnaissance aircraft flew near the site of the ruptured Nord Stream 2 pipeline in the Baltic Sea hours after the first damage emerged, according to tracking reviewed by Reuters, a flight Washington said was routine.

Russia's Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines burst on Sept. 26, draining gas into the Baltic Sea off the coast of Denmark and Sweden. Seismologists registered explosions in the area, and police in several countries have launched investigations.

LONDON (AP) — The death toll from a gas station explosion that shattered a small village in northwest Ireland rose to nine on Saturday, as emergency workers combed through piles of rubble for people who are still missing.

Irish police said they did not expect to find any more survivors from Friday’s explosion in Creeslough, County Donegal. Eight people have been hospitalized after the blast destroyed the Applegreen service station in the community of about 400 people near Ireland’s rugged Atlantic coast.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A day after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize with fellow human rights campaigners from Belarus and Russia, the head of the Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties praised the work of her fellow laureates but cautioned against lumping the three together in a Cold War-like narrative.

“We don’t see — and we shouldn’t see — this prize … as a Soviet narrative about brotherhood nations,” said Oleksandra Matviychuk at a press conference on Saturday in Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital. “This is a story about fighting against a common enemy.”

BERLIN (AP) — Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the biggest in Europe, has lost its last remaining external power source as a result of renewed shelling and is now relying on emergency diesel generators, the U.N. nuclear watchdog said Saturday.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said the plant’s link to a 750-kilovolt line was cut at around 1 a.m. Saturday. It cited official information from Ukraine as well as reports from IAEA experts at the site, which is held by Russian forces.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — An explosion Saturday caused the partial collapse of a bridge linking the Crimean Peninsula with Russia, damaging an important supply artery for the Kremlin’s faltering war effort in southern Ukraine. Russian authorities said a truck bomb caused the blast, which killed three people.