Europe

FRANKFURT, June 20 (Xinhua) -- The influx of Ukrainians fleeing the Russia-Ukraine conflict could slightly ease the tightness observed in the euro area labor market., according to a monthly report published by the European Central Bank (ECB) on Monday.

Around 7 million people, mostly women and children, have left Ukraine, said the ECB in the report quoting the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), adding that a significant proportion of them is expected to reach the euro zone.

KIEV, June 20 (Xinhua) -- The head of the Ukrainian President's Office Andriy Yermak said that Kiev continues to consult with its partners on a security guarantee framework, local online media outlet LB.ua reported Monday.

"We continue permanent consultations... As of today, many countries from different continents have expressed their desire to be future guarantors," Yermak was quoted by the media outlet as saying.

SIMFEROPOL, June 20. /TASS/: Ukrainian forces have delivered three strikes at Chernomorneftegaz drilling rigs in the Black Sea, Crimean leader Sergey Aksyonov said on Rossiya-24 television on Monday.

"The first strike was delivered at 8:37 am Moscow time, and in all, there have been three strikes at three natural gas rigs," he said.

Earlier on Monday, Aksyonov reported several people wounded in a Ukrainian strike at the Black Sea rigs.

BRUSSELS, June 20. /TASS/: The Council of the European Union extended sanctions against Crimea and Sevastopol, originally introduced in June 2014 as part of the community's strategy to not recognize the peninsula joining Russia, for another 12 months, according to a statement published on Monday.

"The Council has today decided to renew the sanctions introduced by the EU in response to the illegal annexation of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol by the Russian Federation, until 23 June 2023," the statement said.

TBILISI, June 20. /TASS/: Georgia will start working on the implementation of the European Commission (EC) recommendations, which were given to the republic in order to obtain candidate status in the European Union, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili said at a government meeting on Monday.

BRUSSELS, June 20 (Reuters) - Around 70,000 Belgian workers marched through Brussels on Monday demanding government action to tackle sharply rising living costs, as one-day strikes at Brussels Airport and on local transport networks nationwide brought public travel to a near-halt.

Protesters carried flags and banners reading "More respect, higher wages" and "End excise duty", while some set off flares. Some demanded the government do more, others said employers needed to improve pay and working conditions.

PARIS, June 20 (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron's centrist camp scrambled on Monday to seek support from parliamentary rivals in order to salvage some of his reform agenda and avoid political paralysis, after voters punished them in a legislative election.

While Macron's "Ensemble" grouping secured the largest number of lawmakers in the 577-seat National Assembly, it fell well short of an absolute majority in a vote on Sunday that saw a leftwing alliance and the far-right perform very strongly.

There is no script in France for how things should unfold.

MOSCOW, June 20 (Reuters) - The Kremlin on Monday called Lithuania's decision to ban the transit of some goods to Russia's Kaliningrad region "unprecedented" and vowed to respond.

Lithuanian authorities banned the transit of goods which are sanctioned by the European Union across its territory, which includes the only rail route between mainland Russia and the Kaliningrad exclave on the Baltic Sea. Banned goods include coal, metals, construction materials and advanced technology.

June 20 (Reuters) - Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Monday that there was no point having any nuclear arms reduction talks with the United States and that Moscow should wait until the Americans begged for negotiations.

Russia and the United States, by far the world's biggest nuclear powers, have negotiated a series of major strategic nuclear arms reduction treaties since Ronald Reagan came to power in 1981.

PARIS, June 19 (Reuters) - France's far-right scored a historic success in legislative elections on Sunday increasing its number of lawmakers almost tenfold and cementing the party's rise from fringe status to the mainstream opposition.

Since taking the helm of the party in 2011, leader Marine Le Pen has sought to rid the National Front - now called the National Rally (RN) - of the anti-Semitic image it acquired under the nearly 40-year leadership of her father, ex-paratrooper Jean-Marie Le Pen.