Europe

DONETSK, April 15. /TASS/: The Prosecutor General's Office of the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) has opened a criminal case for espionage against several employees of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission, who passed state secrets to Ukraine, the press service of the DPR Prosecutor General's Office told TASS on Friday.

ATHENS, April 15. /TASS/: Greece is not going to send any more military equipment to Ukraine, Greek government spokesman Ioannis Oikonomou confirmed at a briefing on Friday. The official did not specify whether Athens had previously sent Stinger man-portable air defense systems to Kiev.

MOSCOW, April 15. /TASS/: Several buyers of Russian gas have already agreed to convert payments into rubles, the country is waiting for a decision from other importers, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak wrote in his article for the Energy Policy magazine.

"Several buyers have already agreed with the transfer of gas payments into rubles, we are waiting for decisions from other importers," the Deputy Prime Minister wrote, adding that the conditions for buyers remain as comfortable as possible.

MOSCOW, April 15. /TASS/: Russia is seeking to maintain relations with the European Union, which is one of its largest commercial and economic partners, but might drastically revise these relations, Konstantin Kosachev, Deputy Speaker of the Federation Council (the upper house of Russia’s parliament), said on Friday.

BELGRADE, April 15 (Reuters) - North Macedonia's Foreign Ministry on Friday ordered six Russian diplomats to leave the country over violations of diplomatic norms, the second such expulsion in less than a month, a statement said.

A diplomatic note has been handed over to Sergey Bazdnikin, Russia's ambassador to Skopje and the diplomats have five days to leave the country, it said.

"The six Russian diplomats in question were engaging in activities contrary to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations," said the statement posted on ministry's website.

SOFIA, April 15 (Reuters) - The war in Ukraine is likely to hit Bulgaria's economic growth, speed up inflation and could pose credit risks, the International Monetary Fund said on Friday.

The IMF, which concluded a staff visit to Sofia, sees Bulgaria's growth tentatively near 3% this year, down from an earlier estimate of 4.4%, while inflation was likely to reach double digits in 2022, it said in a statement.

KYIV, April 15 (Reuters) - Around 1.25 million tonnes of grains and oilseeds are still on commercial vessels blocked in Ukrainian seaports due to Russia's invasion and part of the cargo may deteriorate in the near future, Ukraine's farm minister was quoted as saying on Friday.

Ukraine used to export almost all its grain and oilseeds via seaports and now is forced to find new routes as its ports are blocked.

April 15 (Reuters) - Ukraine's defence ministry spokesman Oleksandr Motuzyanyk said on Friday that for, the first time since the start of its invasion, Russia used long-range bombers to attack the besieged port city of Mariupol.

Motuzyanyk said Russia was concentrating its efforts on seizing the cities of Rubizhne, Popasna and Mariupol.

PARIS, April 15 (Xinhua) -- The West bears some responsibility for the ongoing escalation of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, two former French politicians have said in two separate articles, during which they expressed their concerns over sanctions against Russia.

In an article published in Le Figaro, Maurice Gourdault-Montagne, a senior former diplomatic adviser to former French President Jacques Chirac, said that since the end of the Soviet Union, the hubris of the West has resulted in the loss of sight of the fact that security must be "arranged."

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet, a guided-missile cruiser that became a potent target of Ukrainian defiance in the opening days of the war, sank Thursday after it was heavily damaged in the latest setback for Moscow’s invasion.

Ukrainian officials said their forces hit the vessel with missiles, while Russia acknowledged a fire aboard the Moskva but no attack. U.S. and other Western officials could not confirm what caused the blaze.