Belgium

BRUSSELS, March 4 (Reuters) - NATO allies rejected Ukraine's demand for no-fly zones on Friday, saying they were increasing support but that stepping in directly would lead to a broader, even more brutal European war so far limited to Russia's assault on its neighbour.

Ukraine, a former Soviet republic, wants to join the European Union and Western military alliance NATO, whose members are bound in its founding treaty to defend each other from invasion.

"We are not part of this conflict," NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told a news conference.

BRUSSELS, March 2. /TASS/. The European Union has disconnected from the SWIFT interbank payment system seven Russian banks, including VTB, Rossiya, Otkritie, Novikombank, Promsvyazbank, Sovcombank and VEB.RF. Relevant regulations were posted in the EU Official Journal on Wednesday.

"It shall be prohibited as of 12 March 2022 to provide specialized financial messaging services, which are used to exchange financial data," to Russian banks listed in the annex to the decision.

Brussels is ready to add new banks to this list if necessary, the European Commission said.

BRUSSELS, March 2 (Reuters) - Early on Saturday morning, some 48 hours after Russian military forces had pushed into his country, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy put in a call from Kyiv to Brussels with a plea for military assistance.

BRUSSELS, March 1 (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged the EU on Tuesday to "prove that you are with us" in Ukraine's war with Russia, a day after Kyiv officially asked to join the bloc. 

European Union lawmakers, many wearing #standwithUkraine T-shirts bearing the Ukrainian flag, others with blue-and-yellow scarves or ribbons, gave Zelenskiy a standing ovation as he addressed the European Parliament via video link.

BERLIN, February 27. /TASS/. The European Union member states will close their airspace for Russian planes, the ARD television reported on Saturday citing own sources.

The channel did not specify when the ban will be imposed. The following countries have already closed their airspace for Russian aircraft: the United Kingdom, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Latvia, Lilthuania and Estonia.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States and European nations agreed Saturday to impose the most potentially crippling financial penalties yet on Russia over its unrelenting invasion of Ukraine, going after the central bank reserves that underpin the Russian economy and severing some Russian banks from a vital global financial network.

BRUSSELS, Feb 25 (Reuters) - NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Friday the alliance was deploying parts of its combat-ready response force and would continue to send weapons to Ukraine, including air defences, while saying that Russia was trying to topple the Ukrainian government.

"We see rhetoric, the messages, which is strongly indicating that the aim is to remove the democratically elected government in Kyiv," he told a news conference following a virtual meeting of NATO leaders.

BRUSSELS (AP) — With a military intervention in Ukraine off the table, countries around the world looked to heap more financial punishment on Moscow, including the European Union’s approval of an asset freeze on Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

The EU’s unanimous decision, part of a broader sanctions package, indicated that Western powers are moving toward unprecedented measures to try to force Putin to stop the brutal invasion of Russia’s neighbor and from unleashing a major war in Europe.

BRUSSELS (AP) — U.S. President Joe Biden and his NATO counterparts agreed Friday to reassure member countries on the alliance’s eastern flank by sending parts of the organization’s response force to help protect them following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

With Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appealing for help, NATO members ranging from Russia’s neighbor Estonia in the north down to Bulgaria on the Black Sea coast triggered urgent consultations about their security. Only Hungary refrained.

BRUSSELS, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Allies of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) agreed to further beef up its forces on its eastern flank near Ukraine but it has no intention of sending troops into Ukraine, NATO's Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday.

NATO did not have combat troops inside Ukraine and it "had no intention of deploying NATO troops to Ukraine," Stoltenberg told the press after an extraordinary meeting of the North Atlantic Council.