Europe

MOSCOW, April 16. /TASS/: Oksana Marchenko, the wife of Ukrainian politician Viktor Medvedchuk detained in Ukraine, has asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to help in the exchange of her husband, she said in video footage released on Saturday.

MOSCOW, April 16. /TASS/: The irretrievable losses of the Ukrainian army, National Guard and among the foreign mercenaries are 23,367 people, Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Igor Konashenkov said on Saturday.

According to the major general, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s recent statements to the Western media that Ukraine has about 2,500-3,000 service members killed in the operation are a lie.

BRUSSELS, April 16 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Fourteen people charged as accomplices to militants who carried out deadly bomb and gun attacks in Paris in 2015 will go on trial in Belgium from Tuesday (Apr 19).

Proceedings will take place under high security in NATO’s former headquarters and are expected to last until May 20, with a verdict likely to take several more weeks.

They are happening in parallel with a trial in Paris of 20 suspects charged in France, which opened in September and is expected to run until the end of June.

PARIS, April 16 (Reuters) - Climate change activists forced the closure of a main square in central Paris on Saturday to protest against the environmental programmes put forward by France's remaining presidential candidates.

The Extinction Rebellion (XR) had said on its website that it planned to block a major Parisian location to disrupt the electoral cycle and its "business as usual" attitude.

April 16 (Reuters) - The head of the Russian navy, Admiral Nikolai Yevmenov, has met with crew members from the sunken missile cruiser Moskva and said they would continue to serve in the navy, the defence ministry said on Saturday.

Russia said on Thursday the Moskva sank after an ammunition explosion. Ukraine said it hit the vessel, the flagship of Russia's Black Sea fleet, with a missile.

FUENTES DE ANDALUCIA, Spain, April 16 (Reuters) - A peaceful white-walled village in southern Spain has changed its name to Ukraine in solidarity with those caught up in the conflict more than 4,000 km (2,500 miles) away.

On a sign at a roundabout at the village's entrance, Ukraine has replaced Fuentes de Andalucia and the country's blue and yellow flag has been painted alongside.

Streets have been renamed City of Kyiv, Odesa and Mariupol in the village of more than 7,100 inhabitants east of Seville.

MARSEILLE, France, April 16 (Reuters) - President Emmanuel Macron promised on Saturday to make France the "first great nation" to stop using oil, coal and gas as energy sources, in a pitch to young and green voters he fears could abstain in next week's election runoff.

In a rally in the Mediterranean city of Marseille, which voted massively for left-wing firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon in the first round of voting, Macron sought to widen what opinion polls show as a small lead over his far-right rival Marine Le Pen.

PARIS, April 16 (Reuters) - Thousands of anti-far right protesters marched across France on Saturday as opponents of presidential candidate Marine Le Pen seek to form a united front to prevent her from winning an election runoff against incumbent Emmanuel Macron on April 24.

Macron, a pro-European Union centrist, won the presidency in 2017 after easily beating Le Pen when voters rallied behind him in the runoff to keep her far-right party out of power.

This year, the first round of voting last Sunday set up the same battle, but Macron is facing a much tougher challenge.

MOSCOW, April 15 (Xinhua) -- Russia expelled 18 European Union (EU) diplomats on Friday in a retaliatory move, the country's foreign ministry said in a statement.

The ministry had summoned head of the EU Delegation to Russia Markus Ederer in a protest over the EU's decision to declare 19 Russian diplomats "personae non gratae" earlier this month, the statement said.

MOSCOW, April 16 (Xinhua) -- The Russian Foreign Ministry announced on Saturday that 13 top officials of Britain, including Prime Minister Boris Johnson, have been barred from entering Russia.

"This step was taken as a response to London's unbridled information and political campaign aimed at isolating Russia internationally, creating conditions for containing our country and strangling the domestic economy," the ministry said in a statement.