Europe

Reuters, April 17 (Reuters) - Five people were killed in shelling of the city centre of Kharkiv on Sunday, and 13 were injured, the Ukrainian Suspilne public broadcaster reported citing local health authorities.

"Rescuers are operating in the sites (affected by shelling)," the report said.

April 17 (Reuters) - Ukraine has asked G7 nations for $50 billion in financial support and is also considering issuing 0% coupon bonds to help it cover a war-linked budget deficit over the next six months, the president's economic adviser Oleh Ustenko said on Sunday.

Speaking on national television, Ustenko said these options were being actively discussed.

LONDON (AP) — Senior British royals including Prince William and his wife Kate have attended an Easter Sunday church service at Windsor Castle.

Queen Elizabeth II, who has been experiencing mobility problems, did not attend the service at St. George’s Chapel on the castle grounds, a fixture in the royals’ calendar.

William and Kate, also known as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, were accompanied by two of their three children: Prince George, 8, and 6-year-old Princess Charlotte.

LONDON (AP) — The leader of the Anglican church strongly criticized the British government’s plan to put some asylum-seekers on one-way flights to Rwanda, saying “sub-contracting out our responsibilities” to refugees cannot stand up to God’s scrutiny.

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby made the unusually direct political intervention in his Easter Sunday sermon, saying there are “serious ethical questions about sending asylum-seekers overseas.”

HELSINKI (AP) — Unrest broke out in southern Sweden late Saturday despite police moving a rally by an anti-Islam far-right group, which was planning to burn a Quran among other things, to a new location as a preventive measure.

Scuffles and unrest were reported in the southern town of Landskrona after a demonstration scheduled there by the Danish right-wing party Stram Kurs party was moved to the nearby city of Malmo, some 45 kilometers (27 miles) south.

VATICAN CITY (AP) — On what is supposed to be Christianity’s most joyful day, Pope Francis made an anguished Easter Sunday plea for peace in the “senseless” war in Ukraine and in other armed conflicts raging in the world, and cited the “troubling” risk of nuclear warfare.

“May there be peace for war-torn Ukraine, so sorely tried by the violence and destruction of this cruel and senseless war into which it was dragged,” Francis said, speaking from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Square.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian forces pummeled a hulking steel plant that held the last pocket of resistance Sunday in Mariupol, a southern Ukraine city that has suffered under siege for six weeks and whose capture would aid Moscow’s plans for a full-scale offensive in the country’s east.

ATHENS, April 15. /TASS/: Greece is not going to send any more military equipment to Ukraine, Greek government spokesman Ioannis Oikonomou confirmed at a briefing on Friday. The official did not specify whether Athens had previously sent Stinger man-portable air defense systems to Kiev.

MOSCOW, April 16. /TASS/: Helicopters of the Russian Guards have destroyed a group of Ukrainian nationalists and military equipment on the enemy territory, the press service of the Russian Guards told TASS.

"A few days ago, an air group of the Russian Guards performed a secret approach to the combat area and conducted an airstrike targeting nationalist units it had detected. As a result, an armed group of the adversary and three pieces of military equipment were destroyed," a spokesperson said.

The press service said that its helicopters carry out combat tasks every day.

MOSCOW, April 16. /TASS/: Russia’s COVID-19 case tally rose by 11,095 over the past day to 18,064,454, which amounted to 0.06% in terms of the growth rate, the anti-coronavirus crisis center reported on Saturday.

As many as 2,923 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 in Russia over the past day, up 1.95% on the previous day. The number of hospitalized patients decreased in 39 regions, while in 44 other regions the figure hiked. A day earlier, 2,867 people were rushed to hospitals.