Europe

LONDON (AP) — Britain will provide an extra 1.3 billion pounds ($1.6 billion) in military support to Ukraine to help the country defend against Russian forces, officials said Sunday.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, U.S. President Joe Biden and leaders from other Group of Seven countries are expected to hold online talks with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy later Sunday to discuss the further support.

The meeting is partly meant to display unity among Western allies on Victory in Europe Day, which marks Nazi Germany’s surrender in 1945.

LONDON (AP) — The U.K., U.S. and Irish governments have urged rival parties in Northern Ireland to come together to resurrect its power-sharing government after Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein scored a historic victory to become the biggest party in Northern Ireland’s Assembly.

Sinn Fein, which seeks union with Ireland, won 27 seats in the 90-seat legislature, beating the Democratic Unionist Party, which secured 25 seats. It’s the first time in Northern Ireland’s history that an Irish nationalist party has topped the voting.

UZHHOROD, Ukraine (AP) — Jill Biden made an unannounced visit to western Ukraine on Sunday, holding a surprise Mother’s Day meeting with first lady Olena Zelenska to show U.S. support for the embattled nation as Russia presses its punishing war in the eastern regions.

Biden traveled under the cloak of secrecy, becoming the latest high-profile American to enter Ukraine during its 10-week-old conflict with Russia.

ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine (AP) — Russian forces kept up their barrage of southern Ukraine, hitting the major Black Sea port of Odesa with cruise missiles and bombarding the steelworks up the coast in Mariupol, where Ukrainian fighters remained trapped underground after the last civilians were brought out to safety.

Moscow was aiming to complete its conquest of Mariupol in time for Victory Day celebrations on Monday. But it was facing stiff resistance elsewhere.

MOSCOW, May 7. /TASS/: Foreign companies that have decided to leave Russia may face issues returning to the country as they will be promptly replaced by domestic and Asian firms, Russian State Duma (the lower house of parliament) Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin told reporters on Saturday.

"If they decide to dance to Washington’s tune and leave Russia, it’s their choice. But there is no guarantee that they will be able to return. They will be promptly replaced by Russian and Asian companies," he noted.

MOSCOW, May 7. /TASS/: Russia’s Federal Agency for Tourism has denied reports about the mass cancellation of hotel reservations in Crimea for the May festive period, the peninsula remains in the top resorts among Russians for early May, and reservations in Crimea remains at last year’ level, the agency told TASS on Saturday.

BERLIN, May 7. /TASS/: A potential terrorist attack on Russian journalists was thwarted in the German capital of Berlin, the Russian embassy in Germany said in a statement on Saturday.

MOSCOW, May 7. /TASS/: The United States has in fact admitted that it is involved in coordinating Ukraine’s combat operations and thereby is participating in military actions against Russia, Russian State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said on Saturday.

"The US is taking part in the military operations in Ukraine," he wrote on his Telegram channel. "Today, Washington is basically coordinating and engineering military operations, thus directly participating in the military actions against our country."

MOSCOW, May 7. /TASS/: Russia’s Armed Forces have used Iskander missiles to take out the weapons channeled by the United States and the European Union to the Ukrainian Armed Forces and eliminate troops of Ukraine’s 58th Mechanized Infantry Brigade in the Kharkov Region, Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Major-General Igor Konashenkov said on Saturday.

BERLIN, May 4 (Reuters) - Chancellor Olaf Scholz urged Ukraine on Wednesday to help unblock an embarrassing diplomatic impasse, after the German president was stopped from visiting Kyiv amid disquiet over his past support of rapprochement with Russia.

Ukraine's ambassador to Germany has called Scholz an "offended liver sausage" for refusing to visit the country before President Frank-Walter Steinmeier is welcomed there.