Europe

VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday assured Lithuania of NATO protection and American support as he began a lightning visit to the three Baltic states that are increasingly on edge as Russia presses ahead with its invasion of Ukraine.

The former Soviet republics of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia are all NATO members and Blinken is aiming to reassure them of their security in the event Russia chooses to expand its military operations.

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — The International Judo Federation has removed the titles and jobs Vladimir Putin and a long-time Kremlin-supporting oligarch held at the organization.

“The International Judo Federation announces that Mr. Vladimir Putin and Mr. Arkady Rotenberg have been removed from all positions held in the International Judo Federation,” the Budapest-based governing body said in a statement late Sunday.

Putin’s honorary presidency of the IJF was suspended last week with the organization citing “the ongoing war conflict in Ukraine.”

NICE, France (AP) — While most of the world is shunning President Vladimir Putin over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, one of the few leaders keeping an open line of communication is French President Emmanuel Macron.

Macron’s diplomatic efforts to prevent the war failed, but he’s not giving up: the two men have spoken four times since Russian forces attacked Ukraine on Feb. 24, and 11 times over the past month.

07 March 2022; MEMO: A Swedish woman has been found guilty of war crimes for failing to prevent her 12-year-old son from becoming a child soldier in Syria, where he was killed in the civil war, Reuters reported on Friday.

The woman has denied the charges.

"The district court sentences Lina Ishaq to six years in prison for grave violation of international law and grave war crime," the Stockholm district court said.

LVIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia announced a yet another cease-fire and a handful of humanitarian corridors to allow civilians to flee Ukraine starting Monday, but previous such measures have fallen apart and Moscow’s armed forces continued to pummel some Ukrainian cities with rockets even after the announcement.

A day earlier, hundreds of thousands of civilians attempting to flee to safety were forced to shelter from what Ukrainian officials said was Russian shelling in cities in the center, north and south.

06 March 2022; MEMO: More than 1.5 million refugees have fled Ukraine into neighbouring countries since the war began on Feb. 24, the top UN refugee official said on Sunday, Anadolu Agency reported.

"More than 1.5 million refugees from Ukraine have crossed into neighbouring countries in 10 days — the fastest growing refugee crisis in Europe since World War II," Filippo Grandi, UN high commissioner for refugees, wrote on Twitter.

The number is rising steadily, up from 1.2 million as of Friday.

Lviv, Mar 7 (AP) Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian civilians attempting to flee to safety were forced to shelter from Russian shelling that pummeled cities in Ukraine's center, north and south, leaving corpses in the streets. As Ukraine officials described a catastrophic situation during failed evacuation efforts in Kyiv's suburbs, officials from both sides planned a third round of talks Monday.

Kyiv, Mar 7 (AP) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has an unusual new partner in his campaign to defend his country Global Citizen, the international nonprofit fighting extreme poverty.

Zelenskyy and Global Citizen on Sunday released the first of what they hope will be daily calls to action for the nonprofit's millions of members, as well as its governmental, corporate and philanthropic partners. The video messages will feature Zelenskyy speaking about Ukraine's battle against Russia paired with steps supporters can take to help, provided by Global Citizen.

MOSCOW, March 6. /TASS/: Humanitarian corridors in Mariupol and Volnovakha will open again on Sunday morning, Deputy Head of the People’s Militia of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) Eduard Basurin said.

"In the morning, the humanitarian corridors will open again both in Mariupol and Volnovakha. We still hope that those Ukrainian commanders who are in charge of defending populated localities will command their subordinates to unblock the exit from the populated localities so that civilians would be able to leave these populated localities," he told journalists.

MOSCOW, March 6. /TASS/: Russia’s COVID-19 case tally rose by 79,863 over the past day to 16,941,656, a new low since January 26, the anti-coronavirus crisis center reported on Sunday.

The number of new cases is below 80,000 for the first time since January 26. In relative terms, the number of cases increased by 0.47%.

As many as 8,242 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 in Russia over the past day, 11.3% fewer than in the previous day. The number of hospitalized patients declined in 57 regions, while in 26 other regions the figure increased.