Europe

MOSCOW, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday that the United States had assembled a coalition of European countries to solve "the Russian question" in the same way that Adolf Hitler had sought a "final solution" to eradicate Europe's Jews.

Lavrov, who caused an international furore last year with remarks about Hitler, said Washington was using the same tactic as Napoleon and the Nazis in trying to subjugate Europe in order to destroy Russia.

MOSCOW, Jan 18 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that Russia's powerful military-industrial complex was ramping up production and was one of the main reasons why his country would prevail in Ukraine.

Speaking to workers at a factory in St Petersburg that makes air defence systems, Putin said overall military equipment output was rising even as demand for it was growing because of what he calls Russia's "special military operation" in Ukraine.

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia will achieve its objectives in Ukraine despite a “hybrid war” waged by the West against Moscow, the top Russian diplomat said Wednesday.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the goals of Moscow’s “special military operation” in Ukraine are “determined by Russia’s core legitimate interests” and will be fulfilled.

“There must be no military infrastructure in Ukraine that poses a direct threat to our country,” Lavrov said, adding that Moscow also intends to make sure the rights of ethnic Russians in Ukraine were protected.

DNIPRO, Ukraine (AP) — Before the Russian missile struck the apartment building next door, Anna Kotova had moved closer to the window to take a congratulatory 19th birthday call from her sister.

Kotova’s boyfriend staggered into the kitchen after the explosion and found her covered in blood. The blast at the neighboring building blew out windows and doors in her apartment, and a shard of glass had pierced one of the young woman’s eyes. Another just barely missed a major artery on her neck.

PARIS (AP) — A French nun who was believed to be the world’s oldest person has died a few weeks before her 119th birthday, the spokesperson for her nursing home in southern France said Wednesday.

Lucile Randon, known as Sister André, was born in the town of Ales, southern France, on Feb. 11, 1904. She was also one of the world’s oldest survivors of COVID-19.

Spokesman David Tavella said she died at 2 a.m. on Tuesday at the Sainte-Catherine-Laboure nursing home in the town of Toulon.

ZURICH (AP) — U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen met on Wednesday with her Chinese counterpart and pledged an effort to manage differences and “prevent competition from becoming anything ever near conflict” as the two nations try to thaw relations.

Yellen’s first face-to-face meeting with Vice Premier Liu He in Zurich is the highest-ranking contact between the two countries since their presidents agreed last November during their first in-person meeting to look for areas of potential cooperation.

DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — The world is in a “sorry state” because of myriad interlinked challenges including climate change and Russia’s war in Ukraine that are “piling up like cars in a chain reaction crash,” the U.N. chief said at the World Economic Forum’s meeting Wednesday.

BROVARY, Ukraine (AP) — A helicopter carrying Ukraine’s interior minister and other government officials crashed Wednesday in a residential area near the capital of Kyiv, killing him and about a dozen other people, including a child on the ground, authorities said.

17 Jan 2023; MEMO: Saudi Foreign Minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, said the Kingdom was trying to find a path to dialogue with Iran as the best way to resolve differences, Reuters reports.

He said a decision by Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states to focus on their economies and development was a "strong signal to Iran and others in the region that there is a pathway beyond traditional arguments and disputes towards joint prosperity".

MOSCOW, January 17. /TASS/: Russian ombudswoman Tatiana Moskalkova told TASS on Tuesday that she did not discuss prisoner-exchange issues with her Ukrainian counterpart, Dmitry Luninets in Ankara.