Europe

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — On her first Shabbat away from the fighting in Ukraine, Rabbi Julia Gris twice led services to welcome the Jewish holy day.

A week earlier, Ukraine’s only woman rabbi had been fleeing the war that scattered her Odesa congregation from Moldova to Romania and Israel. Some stayed behind, braving the Russian shelling.

She first led an online service for those congregants scattered abroad. Then, she officiated one in person for a small group in Poland, taken in by a Christian couple near Warsaw.

MARIUPOL, Ukraine (AP) — A Russian airstrike on a military training base in western Ukraine killed at least nine people and wounded 57, a local official said Sunday. The assault brought the war closer to the border with Poland after a senior Russian diplomat warned that Moscow considered foreign shipments of military equipment to Ukraine “legitimate targets.”

MOSCOW, March 12. /TASS/: Russia’s COVID-19 case tally rose by 48,154 over the past day to 17,290,197, the anti-coronavirus crisis center reported on Saturday.

The number of new cases is the lowest since January 20. In relative terms, the number of cases increased by 0.47%.

As many as 6,775 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 in Russia over the past day, 10.45% fewer than in the previous day. The number of hospitalized patients declined in 54 regions, while in 29 other regions the figure increased. The situation remained unchanged in two regions.

MOSCOW, March 12. /TASS/: Moscow and Washington are not negotiating or consulting on the Ukrainian issue, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said in an interview with Channel One.

"There is no consultative negotiation process with the United States on Ukraine," he said.

March 12 (Reuters) - The U.S. seizure of Iranian tankers in recent months has not stopped sanctions-hit Tehran from increasing oil exports, Iran's oil minister was quoted as saying on Saturday.

“The United States has on several occasions in the past months violated Iranian oil tankers to prevent export of shipments," Javad Owji said in an interview carried by Iranian media.

"When the enemy realised it could not stop our exports and contracts, they went after our ships," Owji said.

LISBON, March 12 (Reuters) - A rabbi responsible for the certification that allowed Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich and others to obtain Portuguese citizenship is not allowed to leave the country and must present himself to authorities when required, Lusa news agency said on Saturday.

Officers of the Judicial Police, the national criminal investigation agency, detained rabbi Daniel Litvak on Thursday as part of an ongoing public prosecutors inquiry into how Chelsea soccer club owner Abramovich was granted citizenship. 

LVIV, Ukraine, March 12 (Reuters) - Fighting raged near Kyiv on Saturday and heavy shelling in other areas threatened new attempts to evacuate trapped civilians as France said Russian President Vladimir Putin showed no readiness to end the war in Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Moscow was sending in new troops after Ukrainian forces put 31 of Russia's battalion tactical groups out of action in what he called Russia's largest army losses in decades. It was not possible to verify his statements.

LVIV, Ukraine/JERUSALEM, March 12 (Reuters) - Ukraine voiced hope on Saturday for positive results from Israel's bid to broker peace with Russia, denying a media report that suggested Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett had tried to nudge Kyiv into caving to Moscow's demands.

Bennett, acting at Ukraine's behest, held a three-hour Kremlin meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin last Saturday. He has since spoken twice with Putin by phone and four times with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, officials say.

MOSCOW, March 12 (Xinhua) -- Russia will publish individual sanctions against the West in the near future, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Saturday.

"The lists are ready," Ryabkov said on Russian broadcaster Channel One, adding that the sanctions will be made public soon.

According to Ryabkov, Moscow sees no indication that the United States was ready to continue dialogue on Ukraine.

The diplomat also warned Washington against transferring weapons to Ukraine, adding that these weapons will become legitimate targets for the Russian forces.

ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) — Croatian officials criticized NATO on Saturday for what they said was its slow reaction to a military drone that apparently flew all the way from the Ukrainian war zone over several NATO member states, before crashing in an urban zone of the Croatian capital.

The Russian-made unmanned aircraft crossed Romania and Hungary before entering Croatia and slamming late Thursday into a field near a student dormitory. Some 40 parked cars were damaged but no one was injured after a loud blast.