Europe

18 Feb 2022; AA: Swiss President Ignazio Cassis, who holds the rotating Swiss presidency this year, tested positive for COVID-19 on the day coronavirus restrictions were lifted in Switzerland, the government has confirmed.

Cassis, also foreign minister, tested positive following a PCR test on Wednesday afternoon, the government announced in a statement on Thursday.

MUNICH (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris was expected to use a highly anticipated speech at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday to warn Russia that it will face huge financial costs if it further invades Ukraine, while underscoring that an invasion will only draw European allies closer to the United States.

Her address at the annual conference comes one day after President Joe Biden said he’s “convinced” that Russian President Vladimir Putin has made the decision to invade.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — U.S. President Joe Biden says he is now “convinced” Russian President Vladimir Putin has decided to invade Ukraine and assault the capital, an ominous assessment that emerged as the country’s war-torn east saw more attacks that the West said could be designed to establish a pretext for an attack.

After weeks of saying the U.S. was not sure if Putin had made the final decision, Biden said Friday that his judgment had changed, citing American intelligence.

MOSCOW, February 18. /TASS/: The United States and other NATO countries are yet unwilling to perceive Russia’s key security demands adequately, Russian President Vladimir Putin said after talks with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko on Friday.

MOSCOW, February 18. /TASS/: Russia is double checking reports that mercenaries are being sent from Kosovo, Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina to Donbass, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with RT television, which was published on the ministry’s website on Friday.

"There’s information that mercenaries are being recruited in Kosovo, Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina to knock Russia out of balance and send them to places including Donbass," he said. "We are now double checking that."

LUGANSK, February 18. /TASS/: The Armed Forces of Ukraine shelled the territory of the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) using grenade launchers and machine guns three times in an hour, the LPR mission to the Joint Center to Control and Coordination (JCCC) said on Friday.

MOSCOW, February 18. /TASS/: Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said he never discussed any "attack" on Ukraine with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

He made the comments during the talks between the two leaders in the Kremlin.

"The military-political specter has been put in the lead through the efforts of our Western partners," he said.

Lukashenko said the West is unlikely to succeed.

DONETSK, February 18. /TASS/: The car that exploded near a government building in downtown Donetsk belongs to Denis Sinenkov, the chief of a department at the militia of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, the Donetsk News Agency reported on Friday.

"That was Sinenkov’s car," the report cited a source as saying. The car’s owner wasn’t injured, according to the news service.

KUBEKHAZA, Hungary/RABE, Serbia, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Portraying Hungary as a border fortress against illegal migration into Europe is a central theme of Prime Minister Viktor Orban's close-fought campaign for re-election on April 3, but Hungary's borders still appear increasingly porous.

France was overwhelmed by migrants, said Orban in a recent speech, while Italy's border was "as leaky as a pasta strainer" - rhetoric seen as a voter-winner in his ruling Fidesz party's rural and conservative strongholds.

MOSCOW, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine said on Friday they planned to evacuate around 700,000 people to Russia from the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR).

Most DPR residents are Russian speakers and many have already been granted Russian citizenship.

Ukraine says the people who run the DPR are not separatists but Russian proxies, something the Kremlin denies.