Europe

MOSCOW, Aug 16 (Reuters) - Russia's Defence Ministry said on Tuesday that Britain has requested permission for its RC-135 spy plane to fly over Russia, a move it termed "a deliberate provocation".

A U.K. Ministry of Defence source denied that Britain had asked permission to fly a spy plane over Russia.

The Russian Defence Ministry said that Russia's airforce had been tasked with preventing any violations of Russian airspace.

MOSCOW, Aug 16 (Reuters) - Russia has "no need" to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, its defence minister said on Tuesday, describing media speculation that Moscow might deploy nuclear or chemical weapons in the conflict as "absolute lies".

"From a military point of view, there is no need to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine to achieve the set goals. The main purpose of Russian nuclear weapons is to deter a nuclear attack," Sergei Shoigu said during a speech at an international security conference in Moscow.

MADRID, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) -- The European Union's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell admitted recently that the EU has applied double standards on the Ukraine crisis, as opposed to the situation in Gaza.

"We are very often criticized for double standards. But international politics is largely about applying double standards. We do not use the same criteria for all problems," Borrell, the bloc's high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, told the Spanish-language daily El Pais during a recent interview.

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the United States of trying to encourage extended hostilities in Ukraine as part of what he described Tuesday as Washington’s alleged efforts to maintain its global hegemony.

Addressing a security conference attended by military officials from Africa,, Asia and Latin America, Putin reaffirmed his long-held claim that he sent troops into Ukraine in response to Washington turning the country into an “anti-Russia” bulwark.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Explosions and fires ripped through an ammunition depot in Russia-annexed Crimea on Tuesday in the second suspected Ukrainian attack on the peninsula in just over a week, forcing the evacuation of more than 3,000 people.

Russia blamed the blasts in the village of Mayskoye on an “act of sabotage,” without naming the perpetrators.

Separately, the Russian business newspaper Kommersant quoted residents as saying plumes of black smoke also rose over an air base in Crimea’s Gvardeyskoye.

15 August 2022; MEMO: Four Israelis were arrested yesterday morning for scamming the French Treasury out of millions of Euros, using digital currencies in order to conceal their movements.

According to The Jerusalem Post, the four suspects, a couple from Haifa and two brothers from Petah, received funds after declaring to the tax authorities that they had been put on unpaid leave due to COVID-19.

MOSCOW, August 15. /TASS/: Foreigners demonstrate interest to Russian developments, such as COVID vaccines and medicines, and are trying to replicate them, head of Russia’s Federal Medical Biological Agency Veronika Skvortsova said on Monday.

PATRIOT PARK /Moscow Region/, August 15. /TASS/: The prototype of the first self-driving military truck Ural was presented at the Army-2022 Forum on Monday, TASS reports.

The vehicle was developed on the Ural-432067-73 chassis with the 4x4 wheel configuration. The self-driving truck can carry goods with the weight up to 5 tonnes. The vehicle can travel with the speed up to 80 km per hour and overcome various obstacles, including a 70-cm ford. The Ural track can be controlled remotely or in an autonomous mode

MOSCOW, August 15. /TASS/: IKEA closed the online sale in Russia for buyers and corporate clients, the Swedish retailer said on its website.

"We completed the online sale of IKEA goods for our buyers and corporate clients. The basket, the list of purchases and the personal account are not accessible on the website," the company said.

All orders made before the end of online sales will be processed, issued or delivered in August and September, the retailer said.

VIENNA, August 15./TASS/: Russia has never obstructed and does not intend to obstruct the restoration of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on Iran's nuclear program, Russia's Permanent Representative to International Organizations in Vienna Mikhail Ulyanov wrote on Twitter on Monday.

"Russia never was and will not be an obstacle on the way towards restoration of the JCPOA," the envoy tweeted.