Europe

BERLIN, May 13 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Germany is bracing for energy sanctions imposed by Russia, Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, Robert Habeck, said, during his speech in the country’s lower house of parliament, Bundestag, yesterday.

“We have prepared ourselves for the situation,” Habeck said, noting that, energy markets offered sufficient alternatives and could compensate for the loss of gas from Russia.

LJUBLJANA, May 13 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Six people died in an explosion in a chemical factory in southern Slovenia, national TV channel, TV Slovenia reported yesterday.

It said, the accident, which occurred in Kocevje, about 63 km south-east of the capital Ljubljana, is the biggest industrial accident in the country, since Slovenia’s independence in 1991.

The accident was likely caused by a human error, as two chemicals were mixed together causing the explosion, followed by a large fire, local media reported.

LONDON, May 13 (Reuters) - Britain said on Friday it had imposed its latest round of sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, targeting Russian President Vladimir Putin's financial network, including his ex-wife and cousins.

"We are exposing and targeting the shady network propping up Putin's luxury lifestyle and tightening the vice on his inner circle," foreign minister Liz Truss said in a statement.

"We will keep going with sanctions on all those aiding and abetting Putin's aggression until Ukraine prevails."

WEISSENHAUS, Germany, May 13 (Reuters) - Foreign ministers from the G7 group of rich nations backed giving more aid and weapons to Kyiv as they met on Friday in what Germany called a "powerful sign of unity" to deepen Russia's global isolation.

The European Union's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell announced a further 500 million euros worth of military support to Ukraine and said he was confident that an EU embargo on Russian oil could be agreed in the coming days.

KYIV, May 13 (Reuters) - A Ukrainian court held a preliminary hearing on Friday in the first war crimes trial arising from Russia's Feb. 24 invasion, after charging a captured Russian soldier with the murder of a 62-year-old civilian.

The case is of huge symbolic importance for Ukraine. The Kyiv government has accused Russia of atrocities and brutality against civilians during the invasion and said it has identified more than 10,000 possible war crimes.

May 13 (Reuters) - A former commander of pro-Russian forces in eastern Ukraine accused Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu on Friday of "criminal negligence" over Moscow's stuttering military campaign in Ukraine.

"I directly accuse Sergei Shoigu of, at minimum, criminal negligence," Igor Girkin said in a video interview posted on his Telegram channel. "I have no grounds to accuse him of treason, but I would suspect it."

DERGACHI, Ukraine, May 13 (Reuters) - Ukrainian forces destroyed a pontoon bridge and parts of a Russian armoured column as it tried to cross a river in the Donbas region, video released by Ukraine's military showed on Friday, and a Russian naval ship was set afire in the Black Sea.

Ukraine has driven Russian troops back from the second-largest city of Kharkiv in the fastest advance since Kremlin forces pulled away from Kyiv and the northeast over a month ago.

VIENNA (AP) — The European Union’s main representative at the nuclear talks with Iran says he was briefly detained with colleagues at Frankfurt Airport, in breach of diplomatic rules.

Enrique Mora of Spain, who has long led the EU delegation at the talks in Vienna, said the incident happened Friday morning as he was trying to make a connecting flight from Tehran to Brussels.

TAVRIISKE, Ukraine (AP) — There’s dancing in the garden, and ball games. A soft wind blows, cooling the spring sunshine. But there is an ominous accompaniment to the music and laughter: the unmistakable dull thud of not-so-distant artillery fire.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The Kremlin warned it may take retaliatory “military-technical” steps after Finland’s leaders said they favor joining NATO, and Sweden could do the same within days, in a historic realignment triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Meanwhile, the first war-crimes trial of a Russian soldier since the start of the conflict was set to open Friday in Kyiv. A 21-year-old captured member of a tank unit is accused of shooting to death a civilian in the war’s first week.