Europe

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greek authorities said Wednesday that a coast guard vessel fired warning shots at a Turkish fishing boat during a confrontation in Greek waters near the eastern Aegean Sea island of Chios.

The shipping ministry said the Turkish vessel refused to leave Greek waters and had attempted to ram a Greek patrol boat before the shots were fired.

No one was injured in the incident that occurred amid renewed tension between Greece and Turkey over a long-standing dispute over sea boundaries.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Lawyers for Gambia on Wednesday urged the United Nations’ top court to throw out Myanmar’s legal bid to end a case accusing the Southeast Asian nation of genocide against the country’s Rohingya minority.

“This court must reject Myanmar’s meritless preliminary objections and proceed to adjudicate the merits of this dispute,” Gambia’s Attorney General and Justice Minister Dawda Jallow told judges at the International Court of Justice.

LONDON (AP) — Britain promised to hit Russia with “powerful” sanctions over its military confrontation with Ukraine. But the slim sheaf of measures announced by Prime Minister Boris Johnson has disappointed allies and critics alike.

The U.K. has slapped asset freezes and travel bans on three wealthy Russians and sanctioned five Russian banks in response to President Vladimir Putin’s decision to recognize two breakaway regions of eastern Ukraine and to authorize sending in what he called “peacekeeping” troops.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — One by one, embassies and international offices in Kyiv closed. Flight after flight was canceled when insurance companies balked at covering planes arriving in Ukraine. Hundreds of millions of dollars in investment dried up within weeks.

With Russian troops encircling much of the country, Ukrainian businesses large and small no longer plan for the future — they can barely foresee what will happen week to week.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia began evacuating its embassy in Kyiv, and Ukraine urged its citizens to leave Russia on Wednesday as the region braced for further confrontation after President Vladimir Putin received authorization to use military force outside his country and the West responded with sanctions.

MOSCOW, February 22. /TASS/: The Federation Council at a special session on Tuesday unanimously ratified the agreements on friendship, cooperation, and mutual assistance with the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics, which were submitted by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who on Monday stated they should be recognized as independent.

The senators met the results of the vote with applause.

MOSCOW, February 22. /TASS/: Russia’s COVID-19 case tally rose by 135,172, over the past day to 15,657,928, the anti-coronavirus crisis center reported on Tuesday.

In absolute terms, the growth rate was the lowest since February 1. In relative terms, it reached 0.87%.

As many as 17,294 patients with COVID-19 were hospitalized in Russia in the past day, up 95.7% from a day earlier. Meanwhile, in 76 regions the number of those hospitalized has increased, while in 9 regions the number has decreased, according to the crisis center.

MOSCOW, February 22. /TASS/: Suggestions that there would have been no sanctions and condemnation from the West against Russia if it had not recognized the sovereignty of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics (DPR and LPR) are an illusion, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoma Maria Zakharova said on Tuesday on Solovyov Live YouTube channel.

MOSCOW, February 22. /TASS/: Russia hopes that the UN Secretariat, before making any statements regarding Russia’s decision to recognize the independence of the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics, will rely on the organization’s basic principles, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on the Rossiya-24 round-the-clock television news channel on Tuesday.

"It is my strong wish to see the UN Secretariat’s leadership, in making some statements, adhere to the basic principles the organization rests upon in accordance with the decisions made by the member-states.

MOSCOW, February 22. /TASS/: The severance of diplomatic relations with Ukraine will only further complicate relations between the two countries and peoples and is extremely unwelcome, Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.

Earlier, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said that he had received a request from the foreign ministry to sanction the severance of diplomatic relations with Russia and promised to consider it.