Europe

LONDON, Sept 24 (Reuters) - The Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament, may debate bills incorporating Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine into Russia on Sept. 29, the state-run TASS news agency said on Saturday, citing an unnamed source.

Moscow launched referendums on joining Russia in the four occupied regions of Ukraine on Friday, drawing condemnation from Kyiv and Western nations, who dismissed the votes as a sham and pledged not to recognise their results. 

Pro-Moscow authorities have made clear they consider the votes to be a foregone conclusion.

BERLIN (AP) — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is traveling to the Middle East on Saturday for a two-day, three-country visit aimed at striking new energy deals and forging fresh alliances amid the economic and geopolitical turmoil resulting from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The German government has scrambled to wean Europe’s biggest economy off Russian oil, coal and gas since coming to office last December.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian forces launched new strikes on Ukrainian cities Saturday as Kremlin-orchestrated votes continued in occupied regions of Ukraine to pave the way for their annexation by Moscow.

Zaporizhzhia Gov. Oleksandr Starukh said the Russians targeted infrastructure facilities in the Dnieper River city, and one of the missiles hit an apartment building, killing one person and injuring seven others.

The Russian forces also struck other areas in Ukraine, damaging residential buildings and civilian infrastructure.

MOSCOW, September 23. /TASS/: Russia will regard Ukraine’s attempts to retake Donbass and other territories as attacks on its lands, if the referendums held there produce positive results, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the media on Friday.

"It goes without saying," he said, when asked if in case of a positive outcome of the referendums all of Kiev’s attempts to retake these territories would be regarded as attacks on Russia.

MOSCOW, September 23. /TASS/: Toyota closes its car assembly plant in St. Petersburg, the press service of Russia’s Industry and Trade Ministry reported. The company will fulfill all obligations to employees and provide compensation payments, they noted.

TASS-DOSSIER: On September 23-27, 2022, the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics as well as the liberated territories of the Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions will hold referendums on uniting with Russia.

MOSCOW, September 23. /TASS/: Moscow wants to believe that relations with Washington have not degenerated to the point of escalating into a full-fledged nuclear conflict, Russian envoy to the US Anatoly Antonov said on Friday in a video address to participants of the Diplomatic Academy’s international scientific conference devoted to the 60th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

"I would like to believe that despite all the difficulties, we have not approached the dangerous threshold of falling into the abyss of a nuclear conflict with the Americans," he said.

MOSCOW, Sept 23 (Reuters) - Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Friday that Moscow was not threatening anybody with nuclear weapons, and that open confrontation with the United States and NATO was not in Russia's interests, state news agencies reported.

"We are not threatening anyone with nuclear weapons," the Interfax agency quoted Ryabkov as saying at a conference on Friday. "The criteria for their use are outlined in Russia's military doctrine."

BRUSSELS, Sept 23 (Reuters) - European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen has warned Italy of consequences should it veer away from democratic principles, issuing a barely veiled threat ahead of Sunday's election that a rightist bloc led by Giorgia Meloni is expected to win.

The comments highlighted concern in some European capitals over the forthcoming election and suggested that relations between Brussels and Rome could get turbulent if Meloni and her partners secure victory.

PARIS, Sept 23 (Reuters) - Diplomatic efforts by French President Emmanuel Macron in response to the war in Ukraine were a failure and "deeply harmful" for Kyiv, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the former NATO secretary-general, said in an interview published on Friday.

"It was not a success", Rasmussen, a former Danish prime minister who was one of the world's most-senior diplomats until he left the transatlantic defence alliance in 2014, told French magazine Le Point.