Europe

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.

BRUSSELS, Feb 18 (Reuters) - A senior European Union official said on Friday that a U.S.-Iranian deal to revive Iran's 2015 nuclear agreement was close but success depended on the political will of those involved.

"I expect an agreement in the coming week, the coming two weeks or so," the EU official said. "I think we have now on the table text that are very, very close to what is going to be the final agreement," the official said.

LONDON, Feb 18 (Reuters) - An Atlantic storm battered Britain and Ireland on Friday with record winds of up to 122 miles per hour, killing at least one person, knocking out power for tens of thousands and shredding the roof of London's O2 arena.

Storm Eunice, which brewed in the central Atlantic and was spun up from the Azores towards Europe by the jet stream, posed a danger to life, Britain's Meteorological Office said.

ATHENS/ROME, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Eight passengers were missing after a blaze engulfed a ferry sailing from Greece to Italy early on Friday and fire fighters were still battling to rescue people trapped on the ship, authorities said.

A total of 240 passengers and 51 crew were onboard the Italian-flagged Euroferry Olympia when the fire broke out, and rescue vessels had taken most of them to the island of Corfu where ambulances were waiting.

The Greek fire brigade said two men trapped in the ship's garage had been rescued. Fire fighters were trying to reach another three.

LONDON, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Russia is ready to invade Ukraine but the Kremlin could use an unconventional attack on its former Soviet neighbour which might require the West to make a swift judgement call on the imposition of Russian sanctions, a senior Western official said.

Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine said on Friday they planned to evacuate their breakaway region's residents to Russia, a stunning turn in a conflict the West believes Moscow could use to justify an invasion of Ukraine.

MOSCOW, Feb 18 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin on Friday ordered the Russian government to house and feed people leaving two self-proclaimed east Ukrainian breakaway republics once they arrived in southern Russia.

Russian-backed separatists announced the sudden surprise evacuation of their regions earlier on Friday, a shock turn in a conflict the West believes Moscow plans to use to justify an all-out invasion of its neighbour.