Europe

MOSCOW, March 6. /TASS/: Russia has demanded Western countries reiterate and observe their commitments under the conventions on diplomatic and consular relations, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Sunday.

"Naturally, we have demanded [Western] countries accredit our embassies, observe their commitments under the corresponding conventions on diplomatic and consular relations. Naturally, we demand they reiterate their commitments and, what is most important, strictly observe them," she said in an interview with the Rossiya-1 television channel.

LONDON, Mar 6 (NNN-XINHUA) – Several prominent U.S. cases, where Black people got harsher sentences, for unintentional voting errors than whites, who committed fraud, have shown that, there is a racial double standard in the country’s criminal justice system, The Guardian reported.

Bruce Bartman, white, was only sentenced to five years of probation, after he went to Pennsylvania’s voter registration website and signed up his mother and mother-in-law, both dead, to vote in the late summer of 2020, the report said.

VATICAN CITY, March 6 (Reuters) - Pope Francis on Sunday rejected Russia's use of the term "special military operation" for its invasion of Ukraine, saying the country was being battered by war and urging an immediate end to the fighting.

"In Ukraine, rivers of blood and tears are flowing. This is not just a military operation but a war which sows death, destruction and misery," the pope said in his weekly address to crowds gathered in St. Peter's Square.

CHISINAU, Moldova, March 6 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday reassured Moldova’s leaders that the United States would rally international opposition to Russian aggression "whenever and wherever" it occurs.

Speaking alongside Moldovan President Maia Sandu on a tour through eastern Europe in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Blinken also said that the United States supported Moldova's aspirations to join the European Union but that the process would be decided by the EU.

March 6 (Reuters) - An attempt to evacuate residents from the besieged southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol collapsed for a second day on Sunday, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said, blaming an insufficiently clear agreement between the two sides.

"Amid devastating scenes of human suffering in Mariupol, a second attempt today to start evacuating an estimated 200,000 people out of the city came to a halt," the ICRC said in a statement.

March 6 (Reuters) - Russian media cited an unnamed source on Sunday as saying that Ukraine was close to building a plutonium-based "dirty bomb" nuclear weapon, although the source cited no evidence.

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, with the aim to "demilitarise" and "denazify" its pro-Western neighbour and prevent Kyiv from joining NATO.

The West, dismissing that rationale as a pretext, has responded with harsh sanctions on Moscow and heavy military and other aid to Kyiv.

LONDON, March 5 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday that Western sanctions on Russia were akin to a declaration of war and warned that any attempt to impose a no-fly zone in Ukraine would lead to catastrophic consequences for the world.

Putin reiterated that his aims were to defend Russian- speaking communities through the "demilitarisation and de-Nazification" of the country so that Russia's former Soviet neighbour became neutral and no longer threatened Russia.

March 5 (Reuters) - Russia's foreign ministry called on European Union and NATO countries on Saturday to "stop pumping weapons" to Ukraine, the Russian RIA news agency said.

It said Moscow was particularly worried that portable anti-aerial Stinger missiles could end up in the hands of terrorists, posing a threat to airlines.

CORFU, Greece, March 6 (Reuters) - It took one electricity bill to crush Dimitris Diavatis' hopes that his Greek summer resort could bounce back to its pre-pandemic health this year, even with bookings pouring in.

The amount was more than double what he paid this time last year when the hotel was not even open. After two sluggish summers, the irony was not lost on him: "We won't make a profit in a good year," he said. "It'll be eaten up by inflation."

LONDON, March 6 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday accused Ukrainian radicals for an incident on March 3 at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, the Kremlin said.

French President Emmanuel Macron asked Putin by telephone about a fire at Europe's biggest nuclear power plant.

"Vladimir Putin informed [Macron] about the provocation by Ukrainian radicals in the area of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant," the Kremlin said. "The radiation levels are normal."

Putin also accused Ukraine of preventing civilians from leaving Mariupol.