Europe

MOSCOW, January 2. /TASS/: Russia is closely watching the situation in the wake of an explosion on Roosevelt Island in New York City, Russian Consul General in New York Alexander Zakharov said in a comment for Rossiya-24 television.

"So far, there has been no [information] about any injuries, moreover among Russians, from among students of a university located on that island. We will watch the situation closely," he said.

Calls were received for reports of "a building shaking and explosion" at 5:54 a.m. local time (10:54 a.m. GMT) on Tuesday.

MOSCOW, January 3. /TASS/: Russian air defense forces shot down two Ukrainian Tochka-U missiles and seven Olkha MLRS projectiles over the borderline Belgorod Region, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported.

ROME, Jan 2 (Reuters) - Italian prosecutors on Tuesday placed a lawmaker from Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's party under investigation after a bystander was injured by a shot fired from his gun at a New Year's celebration.

Emanuele Pozzolo, who is a member of Meloni's Brothers of Italy party, said the small revolver from which the bullet came belonged to him but has denied discharging the weapon himself.

PARIS, Jan 2 (Reuters) - A team of forensic experts from planemaker Airbus (AIR.PA) and French state agency BAE will arrive in Japan on Wednesday to help authorities investigate the deadly accident involving a A350 plane at Tokyo's Haneda airport, they said on Tuesday.

"4 @BEA_Aero investigators will be on site tomorrow joined by 5 @Airbus technical advisors," the BEA agency said in a post on social media platform X.

Jan 1 (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russian forces are suffering heavy losses and the notion that Moscow is winning the nearly two-year-old war is only a "feeling" not based on reality.

"Thousands, thousands of killed Russian soldiers, nobody even took them away," he told The Economist magazine in an interview published on Monday, referring to fighting around the besieged eastern town of Avdiivka which he visited last week.

KYIV, Jan 2 (Reuters) - Russia pounded Ukraine's two biggest cities on Tuesday in a new wave of heavy air strikes that killed at least five civilians and prompted calls for the West to quickly provide more military assistance.

Ukraine's Interior Ministry said 135 people had been injured in the latest missile and drone attacks, including 61 in and around Kharkiv, Ukraine's second city in the northeast and 17 in and around the capital, Kyiv.

HELSINKI (AP) — Finland and Sweden recorded their coldest temperatures of the winter Tuesday when thermometers plummeted as low as minus 40 degrees Celsius (minus 40 Fahrenheit) as a cold spell grips the Nordic region.

Cold and snow disrupted transportation throughout the region, including in Norway where a major highway in the south was closed due to the weather and ferry lines suspended operations. Swedish train operators said the cold snap caused substantial problems for rail traffic in the Arctic north.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s two largest cities came under attack from Russian hypersonic ballistic missiles on Tuesday morning, killing at least four people and injuring almost 100, officials said, as the war approached its two-year milestone and the Kremlin’s forces stepped up their winter bombardment of urban areas.

MOSCOW, December 31. /TASS/: The number of casualties during the shelling of Belgorod by the Ukrainian armed forces totaled 131 people of whom 24 people died including 4 children, the Russian Health Ministry reported.

"As a result of the shelling of Belgorod from Ukraine, 131 people were wounded, including 18 children. Of these, 24 people died, including four children," the statement says.

DONETSK, January 1 /TASS/: At least four people were killed and 13 injured when the armed forces of Ukraine shelled downtown Donetsk on New Year’s Eve, the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) Denis Pushilin said on Monday.

"As of 02:00 a.m. [Moscow time, 11:00 p.m. GMT Sunday], tentatively, 13 people were reported to have been injured and four killed," Pushilin wrote on Telegram.