Europe

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of trying to humiliate the United Nations by raining missiles on Kyiv during a visit to the city by the U.N. chief, an attack that shattered weeks of relative calm in the capital and upset a tentative return to normal.

28 April 2022; MEMO: Russia, on Thursday, urged Israel to cease its strikes on Syria, saying the attacks are "categorically unacceptable and inadmissible", Anadolu News Agency reports.

Speaking at a press briefing in Moscow, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, strongly condemned the Israeli actions, stressing that they violate international law.

28 April 2022; MEMO: A French lawyer has expressed deep concern over the recent assault of two veiled young Muslim women by police officers at the Pont de Clichy in the north-western part of the capital, Paris, Anadolu News Agency reports.

Video footage showing police officers involved in the incident on 14 April went viral, triggering tensions.

VIENNA, April 28. /TASS/: OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Foreign Minister of Poland Zbigniew Rau and OSCE Secretary General Helga Maria Schmid on Thursday announced that the OSCE would take immediate steps to implement the closure of the Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine, the OSCE said in a statement.

The decision followed the lack of consensus at the OSCE Permanent Council on 31 March 2022 to extend the mission’s mandate.

MOSCOW, April 28. /TASS/: Russia’s COVID-19 case tally rose by 7,681 over the past day to 18,167,281, the anti-coronavirus crisis center reported on Thursday.

In relative terms, the growth rate reached 0.04%.

As many as 2,596 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 in Russia over the past day, down 13% from a day earlier. The number of hospitalized patients decreased in 47 regions, while in 28 regions the figure increased. The situation remained unchanged in ten regions. A day earlier, 2,986 people were rushed to hospitals.

MOSCOW, April 28. /TASS/: Russian air pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, who on Wednesday was exchanged for convicted US citizen Trevor Reed, has told the daily Izvestia that he and other convicts suffered from human rights abuse in the United States’ Danbury prison.

"Up to 8-10 convicts are kept in each cell. The Danbury prison was built in 1939. Each cell was meant to accommodate 33-34 convicts. Now there are 80-100 of them. Moreover, no sanitary norms are observed. They accuse us of violations of human rights and rights of convicts. There we had iron beds. No pillows were allowed."

ST. PETERSBURG, April 28. /TASS/: The number of countries confirming participation in the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) 2022 reached 69 and applications continue coming, Governor of St. Petersburg Alexander Beglov said during the annual report to the legislative assembly.

"I would like to inform: 69 countries confirmed participation in the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in this June. Applications continue coming as well. The economic forum will take place," Beglov said.

MOSCOW, April 28. /TASS/: Western countries are openly calling on Ukraine to attack Russian territory using the weapons they supply to Kiev, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing on Thursday.

"We have already commented the other day on statements by British Deputy Defense Minister [James] Heappey about okaying Ukraine's strikes on Russian military targets," she said, "In other words, the West is openly calling on Kiev to attack Russia, even with weapons received from NATO countries."

VIENNA, April 28 (Reuters) - Radiation levels in a part of Chornobyl's exclusion zone where Ukraine has said Russian troops dug trenches in the highly contaminated soil are elevated but still well within the safe range, the U.N. nuclear watchdog's chief said on Thursday.

International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi travelled to Chornobyl this week with IAEA staff to bring equipment and check radiation levels at the site which includes radioactive waste facilities near the now-defunct power plant that in 1986 suffered the world's worst nuclear disaster.

AMSTERDAM, April 28 (Reuters) - The Dutch government is likely to send a forensic team from the national military police to Ukraine to help investigate possible war crimes, Dutch press agency ANP reported on Thursday.

The team would leave for Ukraine at short notice to help the International Criminal Court (ICC) gather evidence at sites where war crimes may have been committed, ANP cited sources close to the matter.

The government will make a final decision on the mission on Friday, the sources said.

The Dutch foreign ministry declined to comment on the report.