Europe

PRAGUE, Sept 3 (Reuters) - An estimated 70,000 people protested in Prague against the Czech government on Saturday, calling on the ruling coalition to do more to control soaring energy prices and voicing opposition to the European Union and NATO.

Organisers of the demonstration from a number of far-right and fringe political groups including the Communist party, said the central European nation should be neutral militarily and ensure direct contracts with gas suppliers, including Russia.

Police estimates put the number of protesters at around 70,000 by mid-afternoon.

KYIV, Sept 4 (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has told Europeans to expect a difficult winter as the Russian assault on his country leads to cuts in oil and gas exports by Moscow, as the continent's leaders worked on Sunday to ease the impact of high energy prices.

Zelenskiy spoke on Saturday night after Moscow shut down a main pipeline that supplies Russian gas to the continent.

"Russia is preparing a decisive energy blow on all Europeans for this winter," he said in his daily video address.

MOSCOW, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Moscow will take serious retaliatory measures if the EU formally introduces visa restrictions on Russian citizens, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Sunday.

Russia is closely monitoring the EU decision and the retaliation, symmetrical or not, will definitely meet Russia's interests, Peskov told a local TV program without disclosing what the retaliatory steps could be.

Foreign ministers of the EU member states agreed to suspend a visa facilitation agreement the bloc has with Russia, EU top diplomat Josep Borrell said on Wednesday.

PARIS, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- France must stick to an independent foreign policy and build more balanced partnerships for multilateralism, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday during an ambassadors' conference.

In recent years, there were many unpredictable incidents including the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine conflict, he told the diplomats, adding that France alone does not have the means to resolve these crises.

Its interest is therefore to "build more and more balanced, equal, bilateral and regional partnerships," he said.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian shelling hit the southern Ukraine port city of Mykolaiv during the night, damaging a medical treatment facility, the city’s mayor said Sunday.

Mykolaiv and its surrounding region have been hit daily for weeks in the conflict. On Saturday, a child was killed and five people were injured in rocket attacks in the region, governor Vitaliy Kim said. Mykolaiv city mayor Oleksandr Senkevych did not specify whether there were any injuries in the overnight attack, which he said also damaged some residences.

NICE, France (AP) — It was Bastille Day on the French Riviera.

A lawyer was strolling with her mother, friends and a colleague along the beachfront boulevard in Nice to celebrate France’s national day. Four young sisters from Poland had spent a day of sightseeing. Two Russian students were on a summer break. And a Texas family, on vacation with young children, was taking in some of Europe’s classic sights. The bright lights of the packed boardwalk glittered along the bay like a string of stars.

ENERGODAR, September 3. /TASS/: An assault force aboard over 15 speed boats is moving towards the city of Energodar from the Kiev-controlled territory, a Zaporozhye region official told TASS on Saturday.

VLADIMIR, September 3. /TASS/: The majority of thinking people the world over realize that it is Russia who is on the side of truth and is doing its best to thwart a global Nazi comeback, Foreign Intelligence Service Director Sergey Naryshkin said on Saturday.

"Most thinking people across the globe find it obvious that it is Russia who is on the side of truth, fighting aggression and doing its best to prevent a global Nazi comeback," he told An opening ceremony for the Victory Dictation 2022 international patriotic action in Vladimir.

MOSCOW, September 3. /TASS/: The nuclear arsenal is the best guarantee of preserving Russia, Deputy Head of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev wrote on his Telegram channel.

Commenting on what he described as colossal Soviet nuclear arsenal left in Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union, he said: "The entire strategic nuclear arsenal was then left in this country. And we have been preserving it at a very high level. And that is the best guarantee of preserving Russia’s might," Medvedev said with confidence.

Sept 3 (Reuters) - A magnitude 5.8 earthquake struck Greece on Saturday, the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) said.

The quake's epicentre was Crete and was 2 km (1.2 miles) below the earth's surface, the EMSC said.