Europe

LUGANSK, October 27. /TASS/: The armed forces of Ukraine have officially admitted violating the Minsk Agreements on Ukrainian reconciliation by using a Turkish-made Bayraktar drone in the east of the country, a diplomat of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) has said.

MOSCOW, March 3. /TASS/: A solution to the situation around Ukraine will certainly be found and the West will get over its hysteria, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with Russian and foreign media outlets on Thursday.

He emphasized that Moscow was confident it was doing the right thing in Ukraine, pointed out that the current developments weren’t a Hollywood action movie "where there is an absolute evil and an absolute good," and stressed that thoughts of a nuclear war "are circling in the heads" of Western politicians but not Russian ones.

MOSCOW, March 3. /TASS/: None of the mercenaries the West is sending to Ukraine to fight for the nationalist regime will enjoy the right of combatants under international humanitarian law, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said.

"I wish to make an official statement that none of the mercenaries the West is sending to Ukraine to fight for the nationalist regime in Kiev can be considered as combatants in accordance with international humanitarian law or enjoy the status of prisoners of war," Konashenkov stressed.

BELOVEZHSKAYA PUSHCHA /Belarus/, March 3./TASS/: The Ukrainian delegation has arrived by helicopters to the venue of talks with Russia in Belovezhskaya Pushcha, TASS reports from the site.

Earlier on Thursday, the head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinsky, said the talks would be held in the Brest Region of Belarus, as planned. They were expected to kick off at 15:00 Moscow time.

PARIS, March 3 (Reuters) - The mainstream Conservative challenger in France's presidential election said on Thursday she would push for a hefty increase in defence spending, and laid into the pro-Russia views previously expressed by rivals further right along the political spectrum.

Valerie Pecresse said she would seek to raise defence spending to well above 2% of gross domestic product if she won April's election, to an annual 65 billion euros ($72 billion) by 2030 from a planned 50 billion euros in 2025.

PARIS, March 3 (Reuters) - Ukraine still controls two key nuclear power plants in the south of the country, including Zaporizhzhia, Europe's largest, but Russian forces are closing in, the acting head of Ukraine's state-run nuclear company Energoatom said on Thursday.

Petro Kotin, speaking in an interview with Reuters, called Russia's capture last week of the defunct Chernobyl nuclear power plant "nuclear terrorism".

VIENNA, March 3 (Reuters) - The stock of enriched uranium amassed by Iran in breach of its 2015 nuclear deal is growing to the point that its most highly-enriched material is most of the way to a common bomb yardstick, a report by the U.N. nuclear watchdog showed on Thursday.

The amount in the quarterly International Atomic Energy Agency report to member states seen by Reuters comes as negotiators at talks on salvaging the 2015 deal say they are in the final stretch. Western powers have warned time is running out before Iran's nuclear progress makes the talks pointless.

PARIS, March 2 (Reuters) - France and Germany have seized two superyachts owned by Russian oligarchs, French authorities and Forbes magazine said, hitting Russia's super-rich under sanctions imposed on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.

At least five other superyachts owned by Russian billionaires are anchored or cruising in the Maldives, an Indian Ocean island nation, ship tracking data showed. 

BORODYANKA, Ukraine, March 3 (Reuters) - Ukraine said it would call for humanitarian corridors for its besieged citizens at peace talks with Russia on Thursday, as war entered its second week with Ukrainian cities surrounded and under bombardment.

Hundreds of Russian soldiers and Ukrainian civilians have been killed since President Vladimir Putin sent his troops over the border on Feb. 24. Russia itself has been plunged into isolation never before experienced by an economy of such size. 

VIENNA, March 2 (Xinhua) -- China's Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Vienna Wang Qun on Wednesday expressed concerns for the safety of nuclear facilities in Ukraine.

China supports the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in performing its duties in accordance with its mandate, Wang said at a meeting convened by the IAEA Board of Governors to discuss the situation in Ukraine.