Europe

PARIS (AP) — French nationalist leader Marine Le Pen has softened her rhetoric and her image to broaden her appeal in next week’s presidential election — but is under threat from a provocative rival who has broken her monopoly as the watchdog of the country’s identity that they claim is under threat.

For more than a decade, Le Pen has been known for her fierce anti-immigration stance, seeing herself as standing guard at the parapets of French civilization. Now she is honing in on consumers’ buying power, the top concern for voters.

LONDON (AP) — The war in Ukraine is the conflict where spies came in from the cold and took center stage.

Since Russia invaded its neighbor in late February, intelligence agencies in the U.S. and Britain have been remarkably willing to go public with their secret intelligence assessments of what is happening on the battlefield — and inside the Kremlin.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Residents of Ukraine’s besieged southeastern coast awaited possible evacuation Sunday as the country’s president said Russia’s obsession with capturing a key port city had left its forces weakened and created opportunities for his military.

Two loud explosions were heard in Odesa on the Black Sea, and black smoke was seen rising above the city, which is where Ukraine’s navy is headquartered. It is west of Mariupol, a smaller port that has been under attack for almost the entire war and rescuers are desperate to reach.

Kyiv, Apr 2 (AP) Ukrainian troops moved cautiously to retake territory north of the country's capital on Saturday, using cables to pull the bodies of civilians off the streets in one town out of fear that Russian forces might have booby-trapped them before leaving.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned in his nightly video address hours earlier that departing Russian troops were creating a catastrophic" situation for civilians by leaving mines around homes, abandoned equipment and even the bodies of those killed."

MOSCOW, April 1. /TASS/: Firefighters have extinguished a blaze engulfing half of the fuel tanks at a petroleum terminal in the Russian city of Belgorod. The concentration of harmful substances does not exceed the highest permissible level. No casualties have resulted from the accident, but residents living on three streets adjacent to the facility were evacuated. TASS has put together the main facts about the Belgorod fuel depot fire.

MOSCOW, April 1. /TASS/: Russia would be exposed to groundless risks, if it continued to sell gas to unfriendly countries for dollars and euros, because both currencies have lost credibility, Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko said on Friday.

MOSCOW, April 1. /TASS/: Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov lashed out at those even weighing the possibility of nationalizing the subsidiaries of Gazprom and Rosneft in Germany, branding it unacceptable, at a briefing with reporters on Friday, when responding to a question from TASS.

On Thursday, the Handelsblatt newspaper wrote, citing sources in the German government, that the country’s Economy Ministry was considering nationalizing the subsidiaries of Gazprom and Rosneft in Germany. According to sources, this refers to Gazprom Germania and Rosneft Deutschland.

MOSCOW, April 2. /TASS/: Shell’s inability to buy Russian gas is a side effect of London’s anti-Russian policies, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has told TASS.

"London wants to be the leader of everything anti-Russian, it even wants to be ahead of Washington [in this matter]. Well, here are the side effects," Peskov said, commenting on the fact that, in contrast with other EU countries, the United Kingdom imposed sanctions on Gazprombank and is now unable to pay for Russian gas, even in rubles.

April 2 (Reuters) - Russia's talks with Ukraine have not been easy, but the main thing is that they are continuing, RIA news agency quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying on Saturday.

He also said Russia would like to continue talks with Ukraine in neighbouring Belarus but Kyiv opposed the idea. Russia and Ukraine held several rounds of talks in Belarus last month before their delegation met in Istanbul last week.

RIA said Peskov had been speaking in an interview with Belarus television which is due to be shown later on Saturday.

April 2 (Reuters) - The venue for a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskiy would most likely be Turkey, Interfax Ukraine cited a Ukrainian negotiator as saying on Saturday.

It said David Arakhamia told Ukrainian television that a time and a place for a meeting were not known.

Both sides have described the negotiations in recent days as difficult. The talks are a combination of face-to-face sessions in Turkey and virtual meetings.