Europe

LONDON, Sept 15 (Reuters) - Russia's lower house of parliament will consider summoning Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu to face questioning in a closed session, senior lawmaker Sergei Mironov was cited as saying by Kommersant newspaper on Thursday.

It is virtually unknown for the State Duma to summon a defence minister to account for himself. However, Russia's armed forces have been openly criticised by military commentators this week after losing control of large parts of Ukraine's Kharkiv region to a lightning advance by Ukrainian forces. 

VIENNA, Sept 15 (Reuters) - The U.N. nuclear watchdog's 35-nation Board of Governors on Thursday passed a resolution demanding that Russia end its occupation of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine.

The resolution is the second on Russia's invasion of Ukraine passed by the International Atomic Energy Agency's board, and their content is very similar, though the first in March preceded Russian forces taking control of Zaporizhzhia, Europe's biggest nuclear power plant. 

MOSCOW, Sept 15 (Reuters) - Russia's Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that if the United States decided to supply Kyiv with longer-range missiles, it would cross a "red line" and become "a party to the conflict".

In a briefing, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova added that Russia "reserves the right to defend its territory".

Washington has openly supplied Ukraine with advanced GMLRS rockets, fired from HIMARS launchers, that can hit targets up to 80 km (50 miles) away. 

IZIUM, Ukraine (AP) — Hand on heart, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy watched his country’s flag rise Wednesday above the recaptured city of Izium, making a rare foray outside the capital that highlights Moscow’s embarrassing retreat from a Ukrainian counteroffensive.

Russian forces left the war-scarred city last week as Kyiv’s soldiers pressed a stunning advance that has reclaimed large swaths of territory in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy are each courting major allies on Thursday, seeking to prop up their efforts in a war whose fortunes have tilted toward Ukraine in recent days.

In Uzbekistan’s ancient Samarkand, Putin was hoping to break through his international isolation and further cement his ties with Chinese President Xi Jinping in a geopolitical alliance increasingly seen as potent counterweight to the Western powers.

LONDON (AP) — Thousands of mourners waited for hours Thursday in a line that stretched for nearly 4 1/2 miles (7 kilometers) across London for the chance to spend a few minutes filing past Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin while she lays in state at Britain’s Parliament. King Charles III spent the day in private to reflect on his first week on the throne.

MOSCOW, September 14. /TASS/: The US-led West has not managed to eject Russia from the global economy, but they will obviously continue to push the country out of its usual markets, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said on Wednesday. He was speaking at a meeting on the draft federal budget for the next three years.

MOSCOW, September 14./TASS/: The main purpose of the sanitary shield created in Russia, is to protect the people from possible future biological threats, President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday as he met with the staff of the Russian sanitary watchdog that marks its 100th birthday.

"Among the priorities is the creation of the so-called sanitary shield of our country. Its main goal is to protect Russian citizens from biological threats possible in the future. The implementation of this project will make the diagnostics of infections quick and accessible," the president noted.

MOSCOW, September 14. /TASS/: Russia calls on Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to take measures to normalize the situation on the border and prevent provocations, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a commentary distributed on Wednesday.

YEREVAN, September 14. /TASS/: Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said that a mission of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) will arrive in Armenia on September 15.

"We expect that the CSTO mission will arrive in Armenia as early as tomorrow. Our request was duly discussed at the CSTO," the top diplomat said speaking during the government hour at the parliament on Wednesday.