Europe

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — When the bombs started falling on Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, last month, Tatyana Zhuravliova had a horrible deja vu: the 83-year-old Ukrainian Jew felt the same panic she suffered as a little girl when the Nazis were flying air attacks on her hometown of Odesa.

“My whole body was shaking, and those fears crept up again through my entire body — fears which I didn’t even know were still hidden inside me,” Zhuravliova said.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — With its aspirations for a quick victory dashed by a stiff Ukrainian resistance, Russia has increasingly focused on grinding down Ukraine’s military in the east in the hope of forcing Kyiv into surrendering part of the country’s territory to possibly end the war.

LVIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused the West of cowardice Sunday while another top official said Russia was trying to split the nation in two, like North and South Korea.

Zelenskyy made an exasperated plea for fighter jets and tanks to help defend his country from Russia’s invading troops. Russia now says its main focus is on taking control of the eastern Donbas region, an apparent pullback from its earlier, more expansive goals, but one which is raising fears of a divided Ukraine.

LUGANSK, March 27. /TASS/: A referendum on becoming part of Russia may be held in the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) in the near future, LPR head Leonid Pasechnik told reporters on Sunday.

"I think that in the near future a referendum will be held on the territory of the republic where people will exercise their constitutional right and express their opinion on joining Russia. For some reason, I am sure that this is exactly how it will be," Pasechnik assured.

MOSCOW, March 27. /TASS/: Russia’s COVID-19 case tally rose by 23,280 over the past day to 17,762,742, a new low since January 13, the anti-coronavirus crisis center reported on Sunday.

In absolute terms, it reached 0.13%.

As many as 2,203 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 in Russia over the past day, 48.5% fewer than in the previous day. The number of hospitalized patients declined in 79 regions.

MOSCOW, March 27. /TASS/: Head of the State Duma Committee on CIS Affairs Leonid Kalashnikov believes that now it is not the right time to hold the LPR’s referendum on becoming part of Russia.

"I think it is not the right moment for this now. There is no need to be concerned about such issues for the time being, when the fate is decided at the front," he told TASS on Sunday.

MOSCOW, March 27: Another round of offline talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations will be held on March 29-30, Russian presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, who leads the Russian delegation to the talks, said on Sunday.

"Another round of talks with Ukraine in the videoconference format was held today. As a result, a decision was made to meet offline on March 29-30," he wrote on his Telegram channel.

March 27 (Reuters) - Ukraine has asked the International Committee of the Red Cross not to open a planned office in Russia's Rostov-on-Don, saying it would legitimise Moscow's "humanitarian corridors" and the abduction and forced deportation of Ukranians.

The head of the ICRC said on Thursday after his talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that agreement between the Russian and Ukrainian armies was needed before civilians could be evacuated properly from war-torn Ukraine. 

PARIS, March 27 (Reuters) - Protesters jeered and swarmed around far-right French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, streaming into a hotel in the overseas territory of Guadeloupe where she was recording a television program, BFM TV reported on Sunday.

Protestors chanted “out Le Pen” and “racist Le Pen,” as they surrounded the candidate on Saturday while she was escorted out of the room and through the hotel.

Her campaign intends to file a complaint, her spokesman Julien Odoul told Franceinfo.

VATICAN CITY, March 27 (Reuters) - The threat of a global conflict spawned by Russia's invasion of Ukraine should convince everyone that the time has come for humanity to abolish war before it abolishes humanity, Pope Francis said on Sunday.

"More than a month has passed since the invasion of Ukraine, since the start of this cruel and senseless war, which, like every war, is a defeat for everyone, for all of us," he said to thousands of people in St. Peter's Square for his Sunday blessing.