Europe

14 April 2022; MEMO: The European Parliament (EP) is monitoring the deterioration of the political, economic and social situation in Tunisia as a result of President Kais Saied taking all powers in his hands, a delegation said yesterday after it visited the north African state.

STOCKHOLM, April 13. /TASS/: Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson neither confirmed nor denied information that the leadership of her Social Democratic Party has already made a decision on the country's NATO membership and the goal is to apply this June.

MOSCOW, April 13. /TASS/: Russia disposed of all stockpile of chemical weapons; all allegations about a chemical weapon attack in Ukraine being prepared by Russia are a lie, Russian Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko told reporters Wednesday.

LONDON, April 13. /TASS/: President of the Russian oil producer Lukoil Vagit Alekperov, Board Chairman of Sistema Holding Vladimir Evtushenkov and ex-President of Russian Railways Vladimir Yakunin were added to the updated sanction list posted on the website of the UK government on Wednesday.

The updated version of the document now contains 206 more individuals from Russia, the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics.

"Through his directorship of Lukoil, Alekperov continues to obtain a benefit from and/or continues to support the Government of Russia," the document says.

ROME, April 13. /TASS/: The European Space Agency (ESA) has taken a decision to stop cooperation with Russia on its missions Luna-25, Luna-26 and Luna-27, ESA said in a statement on Wednesday, made available to TASS.

"ESA’s Director General has initiated a comprehensive review of all activities currently undertaken in cooperation with Russia and Ukraine," the statement says.

In particular, "ESA will discontinue cooperative activities with Russia on Luna-25, -26 and -27."

MOSCOW, April 13. /TASS/: The trilateral partnership between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States (AUKUS) is a ‘narrow pact’ incapable of serving as a platform for providing security in the Asia-Pacific region, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday.

"We are closely monitoring all of these processes," Peskov told journalists in response to a question about the previously extended invitation to Japan to join AUKUS.

PARIS, April 13 (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron launched a scathing attack on far-right rival Marine Le Pen on Wednesday, saying her true "authoritarian" intentions were showing after she banned a team of reporters and did not rule out a return to the death penalty.

Macron, a pro-European centrist, became president in 2017 after easily beating Le Pen when voters rallied behind him to keep the far-right out of power. This time, he is facing a much tougher challenge.

PARIS, April 13 (Reuters) - Far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen sought on Wednesday to play up her leadership credentials on the world stage, urging a break with France's recent diplomatic past to make what she called a country that "still counts."

A Le Pen victory in France's election run-off on April 24 would reverberate through Europe and across the Atlantic, installing a deep eurosceptic in the Elysee Palace who has long professed admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

SARAJEVO, April 13 (Reuters) - A Soviet-era reconnaissance drone that crashed in the Croatian capital of Zagreb last month without causing any harm to residents carried an aerial bomb that exploded after hitting the ground, a panel of experts said on Wednesday.

The investigators did not want to reveal the drone's intended target or who had sent it, but Hungary had said that the Tupolev TU-141 drone was detected by radar in Hungarian airspace after being detected over Ukraine, and had entered Hungary via Romanian air space. 

KYIV/LVIV, Ukraine, April 13 (Reuters) - More than 1,000 Ukrainian marines have surrendered in the port of Mariupol, Russia's defence ministry said on Wednesday, signalling that it had moved closer to capturing the ruined city, its main strategic target in eastern Ukraine.

If the Russians take the Azovstal industrial district, where the marines have been holed up, they would have full control of Mariupol, Ukraine's main Sea of Azov port, reinforcing a southern land corridor before an expected new offensive in the country's east.