Europe

MOSCOW, February 20. /TASS/: The number of people who have recovered after coronavirus in Russia increased over the day by 147,296 against 191,098 the day before. In total, 12,365,238 patients recovered, the federal operational headquarters for combating coronavirus told reporters on Sunday.

The share of discharged patients, according to the headquarters, increased to 80.45% of the total number of cases.

MOSCOW, February 20. /TASS/: The United States and NATO must give a concrete and substantive response to Russia’s proposals on security guarantees, Russian President Vladimir Putin said during a telephone conversation with his French counterpart. Emmanuel Macron, on Sunday.

Putin "once again stressed the necessity for the United States and NATO to take Russia’s demands on ensuring security guarantees seriously and to respond to them in a concrete and substantive manner," the Kremlin said after their phone call.

MOSCOW, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian will hold a phone call on Monday, the TASS news agency quoted the Russian foreign ministry as saying on Sunday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and French President Emmanuel Macron discussed the need to step up the search for diplomatic solutions to the escalating crisis in eastern Ukraine in a phone call on earlier Sunday.

MOSCOW, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Repeated Western predictions of a Russian invasion of Ukraine are provocative and may have adverse consequences, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday.

U.S. President Joe Biden said on Friday he was convinced Russian President Vladimir Putin had made a decision to invade Ukraine, and though there was still room for diplomacy, he expected Russia to move on the country in the coming days. Russia has repeatedly denied preparing to invade Ukraine. 

Putin takes no notice of such Western statements, Peskov told Rossiya 1 state TV.

MOSCOW, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin and French President Emmanuel Macron discussed the need to step up the search for diplomatic solutions to the escalating crisis in eastern Ukraine in a phone call on Sunday, the Kremlin said in a statement.

"In view of the urgency of the situation, the Presidents acknowledged the need to intensify the search for solutions through diplomatic means via the foreign ministries and political advisers to the leaders of the Normandy format," the Kremlin said in a statement.

MOSCOW/KYIV/DONETSK, Ukraine, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Russia will extend military drills in Belarus that were due to end on Sunday, the Belarusian defence ministry announced, in a step U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said made him more worried about an imminent Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The defence ministry said the decision was taken because of military activity near the borders of Russia and Belarus as well as the situation in eastern Ukraine's Donbass region.

MUNICH, Germany, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Saturday warned against guessing or assuming Russia's decisions on Ukraine, after the United States warned of an imminent invasion.

"We do not know yet if an attack has been decided on," said the minister on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.

"My urgent appeal to all is that we look closely at the facts on the ground," Baerbock said, warning against the risk of "targeted disinformation."

ZAGREB, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) -- Croatia's Minister of Construction Darko Horvat was arrested on Saturday for suspected abuse of power when he was minister of economy in 2018.

Following the arrest, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic held an impromptu news conference and called on the Office of the State Attorney General (DORH) to explain the case in greater detail.

"I expect the DORH to inform the public why it is so urgent to arrest the minister," Plenkovic said, urging the DORH to provide supporting evidence for its unusual move.

LONDON, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) -- There have been more than 1 millon excess deaths in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic, The Guardian said in a recent report.

The deaths are mainly attributable to COVID-19, as well as conditions that may have resulted from delayed medical care and overwhelmed health systems, the report quoted figures from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as saying.

VALLETTA, Malta (AP) — Voters in Malta will elect a new Parliament in a few weeks in balloting that will also decide the island nation’s next government.

During a political event on Sunday, Maltese Prime Minister Robert Abela announced that the election will be held on March 26 in the European Union nation. He said he will advise the Maltese president to dissolve Parliament to clear the way for the election.