Europe

MOSCOW, October 7. /TASS/: Russia is in contact with Israel, Palestine, and Arab countries and calls on all parties involved in the conflict to cease fire, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov told TASS.

"This is a relapse of a 75-year-old conflict. Moscow is in contact with all parties, including the Arab states. We call for an immediate ceasefire and peace," he said.

MOSCOW, October 7. /TASS/: Three Ukrainian Tochka-U operational-tactical missiles were destroyed by Russian air defense systems over the Belgorod region, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported on Saturday.

"At around 10:00 a.m. today, an attempt by the Kiev regime to carry out a terrorist attack on Russian Federation targets using three Tochka-U operational-tactical missiles was thwarted. Air defense systems on duty destroyed all three Ukrainian missiles over the Belgorod region," the ministry said.

NOVO-OGAREVO, October 7. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin, along with the leaders of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, started Russian gas supplies to these two countries.

Putin previously emphasized that Russian gas has never been supplied to Central Asia before. Now, "blue fuel" from Russia will be sent to Uzbekistan via Kazakhstan, with a share of it also going to Kazakhstan. According to the Russian President, this is a mutually beneficial project that aims to improve the region's energy security.

Oct 7 (Reuters) - Ramzan Kadyrov, head of Russia's Chechnya region and close ally of President Vladimir Putin, proposed on Saturday that a presidential election due next March should either be postponed due to the war in Ukraine or limited to one candidate - Putin.

The Kremlin leader, who turned 71 on Saturday, has said he will not announce if he will run before parliament calls the election, which by law it is due to do in December.

MOSCOW, Oct 7 (Reuters) - Russia expresses its most serious concern at the sharp aggravation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said on Saturday.

"We call on the Palestinian and Israeli sides to implement an immediate ceasefire, renounce violence, exercise the necessary restraint and establish, with the assistance of the international community, a negotiation process aimed at establishing a comprehensive, lasting and long-awaited peace in the Middle East," she said in a statement.

COPENHAGEN, Oct. 7 (Xinhua) -- North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) countries were sternly reprimanded on Saturday for "supplying cluster munitions or failing to condemn their supply and use."

"Circumstances under which the use of cluster munitions is acceptable simply don't exist," said Charlotte Slente, secretary-general of the Danish Refugee Council (DRC), an NGO refugee relief organization clearing mines in eight countries.

MOSCOW, October 6. /TASS/: The Ukrainian Armed Forces are totally dependent on the US, and further arms shipments are extremely necessary, says Ukrainian General Staff Colonel Gennady Kovalenko.

On Thursday, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky connected Washington's reduction in support to Kiev to the growing "political storm" in the US and urged EU nations to act independently in these circumstances. However, EU High Representative Josep Borrell has already said that the EU will not be able to compensate for the aid suspended by the US.

MOSCOW, October 6. /TASS/: Relations between Tashkent and Moscow are actively developing and there is progress in all spheres of cooperation, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev said at a meeting with Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin.

"Our bilateral ties have reached such a level of comprehensive strategic partnership and alliance. Over recent years, we have achieved a lot, thanks to the political will of [Russian President] Vladimir Vladimirovich [Putin] and my own. There is progress in our cooperation across the board," he said.

MINSK, October 6. /TASS/: Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has said that escalation on the part of the United States is pushing Russia to use extreme measures.

MOSCOW, October 6. /TASS/: The possible revocation of ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) does not mean that Russia plans to conduct nuclear tests, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov has told the media.

"This is not tantamount to a declaration of the intention to conduct nuclear tests," he said, commenting on State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin's statement that the lower house of parliament intended to discuss the revocation of ratification at its next session.