Europe

MOSCOW, October 3. /TASS/: Moscow is closely monitoring the situation around Kiev's bid to join NATO, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday, recalling that Ukraine's aspiration to join the alliance was one of the reasons for the special military operation.

"We are monitoring this decision very closely. And we remember that it was Ukraine's NATO orientation and confirmation of Ukraine's future membership in NATO that was one of the reasons for the special military operation," he pointed out.

MOSCOW, October 3. /TASS/: The State Duma unanimously passed draft constitutional laws on accepting the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR, LPR), as well as the Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions, into Russia in the first reading and in their entirety on Monday.

ROME, Oct 3 (NNN-GNA) — As the world marks the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste, around 1.6 billion tonnes of the primary product equivalent is wasted, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations estimates.

Of this number, 1.3 billion tonnes, representing 81 percent is edible, the FAO said in its Food Wastage Footprint and Impact on Natural Resources report.

VIENNA, Oct 3 (Reuters) - The head of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine has been released, U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi said on Monday after a detention that Ukraine blamed on Russia and called an act of terror.

Ukraine said a Russian patrol detained Ihor Murashov on Friday as he travelled from Europe's largest nuclear power plant to the town of Enerhodar, where many of the plant's staff live. Ukrainian staff continue to operate the plant in conditions the International Atomic Energy Agency says put safety at risk.

Oct 2 (Reuters) - President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday that Ukraine's forces have liberated the small settlements of Arkhanhelske and Myrolyubivka in the Kherson region.

Zelenskiy mentioned the two settlements when thanking in his nightly address specific units of Ukrainian forces for distinguishing themselves on the frontline.

Reuters was not able to immediately verify the reports.

Earlier in his address Zelenskiy said, without providing detail, that the success of Ukraine's forces is not limited to Lyman in the Donetsk region. 

MOSCOW, Oct 3 (Reuters) - The Kremlin on Monday said it favoured a "balanced approach" to the issue of nuclear weapons, not based on emotion, after a key ally of President Vladimir Putin called over the weekend for Russia to use a "low-yield nuclear weapon" in Ukraine.

Asked about the comments by Ramzan Kadyrov, leader of the Chechnya region, who also criticised Russia's military leadership over battlefield setbacks, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he had the right to voice his opinion, but that Russia's military approach should not be driven by emotions.

Oct 3 (Reuters) - The military commissar of Russia's Khabarovsk region was removed from his post after half of the newly mobilised personnel were sent home as they did not meet the draft criteria, the region's governor said early on Monday.

Russia's first mobilisation since World War Two, declared by President Vladimir Putin on Sept. 21, has led to widespread discontent among officials and citizens over the way the draft has been handled, including complaints about enlistment officers sending call-up papers to clearly ineligible men. 

LONDON, Oct 3 (Reuters) - The withdrawal of Russian forces from a strategically important town in eastern Ukraine has prompted two powerful allies of President Vladimir Putin to do something rare in modern Russia: publicly ridicule the war machine's top brass.

Russia's loss of the bastion of Lyman, which puts western parts of Luhansk region under threat, touched a nerve for Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of the southern Russian republic of Chechnya.

BERLIN, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- Tighter financing conditions as a result of higher U.S. interest rates "is more an issue for emerging economies," an expert at the German Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel) has said.

"The associated depreciation of the euro vis-a-vis the U.S. dollar has an additional inflationary effect in the short term, which is not welcome at the current juncture," Klaus-Jurgen Gern, an expert on business cycles and growth at the IfW Kiel, told Xinhua in a recent written interview.

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Sweden has sent a vessel capable of “advanced diving missions” to the Baltic Sea area where ruptured undersea pipelines had leaked natural gas for days, the Swedish navy said Monday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday accused the West of sabotaging Russia-built natural gas pipelines under the Baltic Sea to Germany, a charge vehemently denied by the United States and its allies, who noted that Russia has been blackmailing Europe with reduced gas supplies for months.