Europe

KIEV, June 19. /TASS/: Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada, or national parliament, has approved the country’s withdrawal from a range of agreements within the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Ukrainian government’s representative to the national legislature, Taras Melnichuk, said on Sunday.

GENEVA, June 19 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The World Health Organization says it has removed the distinction between endemic and non-endemic countries in its data on monkeypox to better unify the response to the virus.

Until the past few months, monkeypox had generally been confined to Western and Central Africa but is now present in several continents.

“We are removing the distinction between endemic and non-endemic countries, reporting on countries together where possible, to reflect the unified response that is needed,” the WHO said in its outbreak situation update.

BUDAPEST, June 19 (Reuters) - Russia has promised to continue gas shipments to Hungary and that Gazprom will fulfil its contractual obligations to the country, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said in an interview on public service radio on Sunday.

In Russia's response to Western sanctions imposed on Moscow since its invasion of Ukraine, state energy giant Gazprom has cut supplies to Denmark's Orsted (ORSTED.CO) and to Shell Energy (SHEL.L) for its contract to supply gas to Germany.

LONDON, June 19 (Reuters) - Britain must have a military capable of fighting in Europe and defeating Russia, the new head of the British army was quoted as telling troops by local media.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, a vocal supporter of Ukraine since Russia's invasion in February, has ruled out sending British troops to help Kyiv, but warned this weekend that London would have to show support for "the long haul". 

June 19 (Reuters) - Russia said on Sunday that its offensive against Sievierodonetsk in eastern Ukraine was proceeding successfully after it took control of a district in the outskirts of the city.

"The offensive in the Sievierodonetsk direction is developing successfully," Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in a video statement. He said the settlement of Metyolkine, on the eastern outskirts of the city, had been taken.

"The armed forces of the Russian Federation continue to strike military targets on the territory of Ukraine," he said.

VILNIUS, June 18 (Reuters) - Lithuanian authorities said a ban on the transit through their territory to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad of goods that are subject to EU sanctions was to take effect from Saturday.

News of the ban came on Friday, through a video posted by the region's governor Anton Alikhanov. 

The EU sanctions list notably includes coal, metals, construction materials and advanced technology, and Alikhanov said the ban would cover around 50% of the items that Kaliningrad imports.

ROME, June 19 (Reuters) - Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio on Sunday accused his own 5-Star Movement party of undermining government efforts to support Ukraine and weakening Rome's standing within the European Union.

His outburst could signal an imminent schism in the group he once led, with 5-Star officials due to meet later on Sunday to consider Di Maio's position following other recent broadsides.

ATHENS, June 19 (Xinhua) -- Greece's Coast Guard rescued 108 migrants after a sailing boat sank off Delos island in the Aegean Sea on Sunday, Greek authorities announced.

Four people were missing based on statements of the survivors, according to an e-mailed press release of the Coast Guard.

Twenty-one minors were among the rescued. All have been transferred to the nearby Mykonos island. Their nationalities have still not been identified.

A rescue operation continues as winds up to 7 on the Beaufort scale are blowing in the area, according to the press release.

ATHENS, June 19 (Xinhua) -- Citizens in Greece and Turkey share pessimism for economy and skepticism over the Ukraine crisis and the role the U.S. and NATO play in security in Europe, according to the results of a joint public opinion survey released on Sunday.

According to the survey, 80.4 percent of Turkish people and 57.4 percent of Greeks believe that things are not going well in their country in general, and 68.2 percent and 60.7 percent respectively expect the financial situation in Turkey and Greece to worsen over the next 12 months.

WATERLOO, Belgium, June 19 (Xinhua) -- About 2,000 re-enactors, more than 100 horses as well as over 20 canons participated in the re-enactment of the Battle of Waterloo in Waterloo, Belgium, on Saturday, to mark the 207th anniversary of the war.

Around 180,000 men from across Europe took part in the battle, and thousands of Britons and allied troops died in the defeat of the forces led by Napoleon Bonaparte.