Europe

ROSTOV-ON-DON, February 18. /TASS/: The Rostov Region introduced the regime of state of emergency due to a large number of refugees from Donbass, regional Governor Vasily Golubev said on Saturday.

"Given the trend for increasing numbers of arriving people we consider it appropriate to introduce the regime of an emergency situation from 10:00 of February 19," he said at a meeting with Russia’s Acting Emergency Situations Minister Alexander Chupriyan.

"That’s the right decision. We support it," Chupriyan said.

MOSCOW, February 19. /TASS/: Russia’s COVID-19 recoveries grew by 191,098 over the past day to 12,217,942, the anti-coronavirus crisis center told reporters on Saturday.

The share of recovered patients hit 80.4% of the total case tally, according to the crisis center.

Russia’s coronavirus cases rose by 179,147 to 15,199,720 in the past 24 hours. The relative case growth rate was 1.19%.

Russia’s coronavirus death toll rose by 798 to 344,755 in the past 24 hours. One day earlier, 784 deaths were reported.

MOSCOW, Feb 19 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The leader of the east Ukraine breakaway region of Donetsk on Saturday said he had introduced general mobilisation, with fears mounting of war in the ex-Soviet country.

  The announcement came after observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe reported a significant rise in attacks on the frontline in eastern Ukraine, controlled by pro-Russian rebels.

KYIV, Feb 19 (Reuters) - A group of lawmakers and foreign media visiting the conflict zone in eastern Ukraine came under fire and had to be evacuated to a shelter, the spokeswoman for President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's party said on Saturday.

She did not provide further details.

KYIV, Feb 19 (Reuters) - President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Saturday said Ukraine would not respond to provocations in the eastern Donbass region and would strive to establish peace through diplomacy.

Zelenskiy flew to Germany to attend a security conference as his country is bracing for a possible military attack from Russia, which has massed more than 100,000 troops near Ukraine's borders. Russia denies plans to attack.

"We do not respond to provocations and strive to establish peace exclusively through diplomacy," Zelenskiy wrote on his Instagram.

FRANKFURT, Feb 19 (Reuters) - Germany's Lufthansa group (LHAG.DE) is suspending flights to and from the Ukrainian cities of Kyiv and Odessa, a spokesperson said on Saturday amid growing fears of a possible Russian invasion.

The company, which owns Germany's flagship carrier as well as Eurowings, Swiss, Brussels and Austrian Airlines, will conduct some last flights to those cities over the weekend before suspending flights from Monday until the end of the month, the spokesperson said.

BERLIN, Feb 19 (Reuters) - There are "important indications" that a Russian attack on Ukraine can be avoided through diplomacy given the Kremlin's apparent interest in negotiations on its security demands, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Saturday.

With the United States warning of an imminent invasion, Scholz told the Munich Security Conference any attack would be a "serious mistake" with high "political, economic and geostrategic costs".

MOSCOW, Feb 19 (Reuters) - The head of a Russia-dominated military alliance that is sometimes called Moscow's answer to NATO has said his organisation could send peacekeepers to territory in eastern Ukraine controlled by Russia-backed rebels if needed.

DONETSK, Ukraine/MOSCOW, Feb 19 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin launched exercises by Russia's strategic nuclear missile forces on Saturday and Washington said Russian troops massed near Ukraine's border were moving forward and "poised to strike".

With Western nations fearing what could be one of the worst conflicts since the Cold War, U.S. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said Russian forces were beginning to "uncoil and move closer" to the border with its former Soviet neighbour.

MOSCOW, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) -- Under the leadership of President Vladimir Putin, Russia's strategic deterrence forces conducted large-scale drills on Saturday as the Ukrainian crisis has flared up.

Putin watched the exercise from the situation center at the Kremlin together with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, the Kremlin said in a statement.

Russia's Aerospace Forces, the Southern Military District, the Strategic Missile Forces, the Northern and Black Sea Fleets were involved in the drills, according to the statement.