Europe

MOSCOW, September 8. /TASS/: Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on Thursday said the West is using Ukraine to execute a corruption scheme where huge funds that are allocated for the supply of weapons to Kiev are then divided among Western companies.

"This is part of a global corruption scheme to allocate colossal funds from the budgets of Western so-called democracies and divide them among their companies," she said at a news conference.

VLADIVOSTOK, September 8. /TASS/: Aeroflot airline plans to create a hub in the Far East, Chief Executive Officer of the national flag carrier Sergey Aleksandrovsky told reporters on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF).

"Aeroflot Group plans to base aircraft in the Far East and form a program, which may be called a regional base or a hub, with both international and domestic flights planned," he said.

Vladivostok or Khabarovsk are under consideration for hosting a base airport, Aleksandrovsky added.

KYIV, Sept 8 (Reuters) - The European Union on Thursday condemned the detention of a senior diplomat to Belarus who attended the trial of opposition activists in the capital Minsk as "unacceptable and deplorable".

Evelina Schulz, chargée d’affaires of the EU delegation in Minsk, was detained by Belarusian police for more than two hours on Tuesday as she exited court after the public reading of verdicts in an otherwise closed-door trial, a spokesperson for the EU's diplomatic service said.

ATHENS, Sept 7 (Reuters) - Greece has sent letters to NATO and the United Nations, complaining over what it called "inflammatory" statements by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and asking them to condemn Ankara's behaviour, diplomatic sources said on Wednesday.

The two countries - North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies but historic foes - have been at odds for decades over a range of issues including where their continental shelves start and end, overflights in the Aegean Sea, and divided Cyprus.

RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany Sept 8 (Reuters) - Ukraine has struck over 400 Russian targets with U.S.-supplied HIMARS rocket systems, General Mark Milley, the Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Thursday.

GENEVA, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Severe, long-lasting heatwaves and more frequent wildfires could lead to even worse air quality, an additional "climate penalty" for hundreds of millions of people, World Meteorological Organization (WMO) warned on Wednesday.

According to WMO's annual Air Quality and Climate Bulletin released on Wednesday, an anticipated rise in the frequency, intensity and duration of heatwaves and an associated increase in wildfires this century are likely to worsen air quality, harming human health and ecosystems.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The head of Ukraine’s atomic energy operator accused Russia on Thursday of trying to “steal” Europe’s largest nuclear plant by cutting it off from the Ukrainian electricity grid and leaving it on the brink of a radiation disaster.

The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant has been without an outside source of electricity since Monday and receives power for its own safety systems from the only one of its six reactors that remains operational, Enerhoatom chief Petro Kotin told The Associated Press.

TIRANA, Albania (AP) — Albanian special forces police forced the door of the Iranian Embassy in Tirana on Thursday and officers surrounded the compound in which it stands, shortly after the last staff members left the building following the government’s order to expel them.

The officers, in full fighting gear, entered the building first and were followed by other officers carrying equipment and accompanied by a dog.

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — The European Central Bank made its largest-ever interest rate increase Thursday, following the U.S. Federal Reserve and other central banks in a global stampede of rapid rate hikes meant to snuff out the inflation that is squeezing consumers and pushing Europe toward recession.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken paid an unannounced visit to Kyiv on Thursday as the Biden administration announced major new military aid worth more than $2.8 billion for Ukraine and other European countries threatened by Russia.