Europe

KYIV, April 8 (Reuters) - European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said the deaths of civilians in the Ukrainian town of Bucha showed the "cruel face" of Russian President Vladimir Putin's army, pledging to support Kyiv in its defence of the "border of Europe".

During a visit to Bucha, where forensic investigators started to exhume bodies from a mass grave, von der Leyen looked visibly moved by what she saw in a town where Ukrainian officials say hundreds of civilians were killed by Russian forces. 

BUCHA, Ukraine, April 8 (Reuters) - Forensic investigators began exhuming a mass grave in Bucha on Friday, wrapping in black plastic and laying out the bodies of civilians who officials say were killed while Russian troops occupied the town just northwest of Kyiv.

Ruslan Kravchenko, from the prosecutor's office in Bucha, said they had exhumed 20 bodies, 18 of whom had firearms and shrapnel wounds. He said two women had been identified, one of whom had worked at a supermarket in the town centre.

KYIV, April 8 (Reuters) - Ukraine said at least 50 people were killed on Friday and many more wounded in a rocket strike at a railway station packed with civilians fleeing the threat of a major Russian offensive in the country's east.

As regional authorities scrambled to evacuate the vulnerable, European Union leaders visited Kyiv to offer President Volodymyr Zelenskiy support and assure him there would be a path to EU membership for Ukraine.

FRANKFURT, April 7 (Xinhua) -- The Russia-Ukraine conflict added to the uncertainties amid which the European Central Bank (ECB) chose to adopt a prudent stance in formulating its agenda for rate hikes, according to minutes released by the central bank on Thursday.

Commodity prices have surged and energy prices in the euro area have hit record highs since the eruption of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. "The resulting energy price rise had contributed to a substantial reappraisal by markets of the euro area inflation outlook," the ECB said.

LONDON, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Several countries are now abandoning their goal of reducing the coronavirus's spread as much as possible, but evidence shows this was the best route to be taken, New Scientist has reported.

It has been two years since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. One of the biggest shifts has been the abandonment of the "zero-COVID" strategy by countries like New Zealand and Vietnam, which are opening up and allowing the virus to spread.

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union has imposed sanctions on two adult daughters of Russian President Vladimir Putin as part of a new package of measures targeting Russia’s economy, businessmen and oligarchs in retaliation for the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine, according to two EU officials.

LONDON (AP) — A major British airport warned passengers on Friday to expect the delays plaguing travel to continue for months, as the U.K. aviation regulator told the country’s air industry to shape up after weeks of canceled flights and long airport queues.

The head of Manchester Airport in northwest England said passengers could face waits of up to 90 minutes to get through security “over the next few months.”

UEDEM, Germany (AP) — As Russia’s military buildup near Ukraine accelerated early this year, military planners at NATO began preparing to dispatch scores of fighter jets and surveillance aircraft into the skies near Russia and Ukraine. It was a warning to Moscow not to make the mistake of targeting any member country.

Even in the weeks preceding the war, politicians and analysts were divided over whether President Vladimir Putin would really order Russian troops to invade. From a military point of view, though, the forces arrayed around Ukraine appeared designed to do just that.

08 April 2022; MEMO: The Spanish parliament yesterday condemned the government's shift in position over the Western Sahara, saying it has abandoned its "historic" neutral position on the conflict.

The Spanish parliament said the government's actions would "practically support the path proposed by Morocco, by abandoning the basis for a political solution acceptable to both sides" of the conflict.

CHERNIHIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian leaders predicted more gruesome discoveries would be made in reclaimed cities and towns as Russian soldiers retreat to focus on eastern Ukraine, where officials said a Russian rocket attack on a packed train station used to evacuate civilians killed over 30 people Friday.