Europe

GENEVA, Oct 10 (Reuters) - The International Committee of the Red Cross and at least one other aid group paused their field work in Ukraine for security reasons on Monday after Russia fired missiles at cities across Ukraine.

Russia hit sites across the country, striking the capital Kyiv with an intensity not seen since Russian forces sought to capture the capital early in the more than seven-month war.

Moscow says the strikes were against energy, command and communication targets in retaliation for what it describes as terrorist attacks. 

Oct 10 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin may meet Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan this week to discuss a Turkish proposal to host talks between Russia and the West on Ukraine, the Kremlin said on Monday.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Russia had not received any signals about the prospect of negotiations with the West in Turkey, but did not rule out that Putin could discuss this with Erdogan.

Both Putin and Erdogan are expected to visit Kazakhstan this week.

BERLIN, Oct 10 (Reuters) - Germany will deliver the first of four IRIS-T SLM air defence systems to Ukraine within days, German Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht said on Monday.

"The renewed missile fire on Kyiv and the many other cities show how important it is to supply Ukraine with air defence systems quickly," Lambrecht said in a statement.

"Russia's attacks with missiles and drones terrorize the civilian population in particular. That is why we are now providing support especially with air defence weapons."

KYIV, Oct 10 (Reuters) - President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russia timed its strikes on Ukraine on Monday to inflict the greatest possible losses among people and had also targeted the country's energy infrastructure.

"They want panic and chaos, they want to destroy our energy system," Zelenskiy said in a video post that showed him outside his presidential office.

"The second target is people. Such a time and such targets were specially chosen to cause as much damage as possible."

LONDON, Oct 10 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that Ukraine had carried out "terrorist acts" against Russia and pledged to react forcefully if they continued.

In televised remarks, Putin said Moscow had launched long-range missile attacks against Ukraine's energy, military and communications infrastructure on Monday in retaliation for an attack on a vital bridge linking Russia to the annexed Crimean peninsula over the weekend.

LONDON, Oct 10 (Reuters) - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Monday he had ordered troops to deploy with Russian forces near Ukraine in response to what he said was a clear threat to Belarus from Kyiv and its backers in the West.

The remarks from Lukashenko, who has held power in Belarus since 1994, indicate a potential further escalation of the war in Ukraine, possibly with a combined Russian-Belarus joint force in the north of Ukraine.

MOSCOW, Oct. 9 (Xinhua) -- The explosion on the Crimean Bridge was no doubt a terrorist act aimed at destroying Russia's critical civilian infrastructure, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Sunday.

"Ukraine's special services were the initiators, performers and masterminds," Putin said when meeting with Chairman of the Russian Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin.

Confirming Putin's statement, Bastrykin said that citizens of Russia and foreign countries were also involved in the incident.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Campaigners calling for the decriminalization of assisted suicide in the Netherlands took the Dutch government to court Monday, arguing that its ban on helping a person end their life breaches human rights norms.

The case at The Hague District Court is the latest legal battle in a long-running debate around end-of-life issues in the country that in 2002 became the first in the world to pass a law that decriminalized euthanasia.

PARIS (AP) — A former Liberian rebel is going on trial Monday in Paris on charges of crimes against humanity, torture and acts of barbarism during the West African country’s civil war in the 1990s.

Kunti Kamara, 47, is notably accused of “complicity in massive and systematic torture and inhumane acts” against the civilian population committed in Liberia’s Lofa county in 1993-1994, as one of the leaders of the Ulimo armed group. He was then less than 20 years old.

He was arrested near Paris in 2018 and faces life imprisonment.

GENEVA (AP) — A third cruise ship was hired by World Cup organizers in Qatar on Monday to operate as a soccer fan hotel docked in Doha Port to add much-needed rooms for the tournament.

Geneva-based MSC Cruises announced the agreement only six weeks before the World Cup is scheduled to start on Nov. 20. The 1,075-cabin MSC Opera will be available from Nov. 19 to Dec. 19.

Prices for the Opera were listed Monday on MSC’s website starting from 470 Swiss francs ($470) per person per night during the group stage, with a minimum two-night stay.