Europe

MOSCOW, October 16. /TASS/: Russia’s latest heavy attack drone Okhotnik (Hunter) will fire weapons for the first time during trials at a military aerodrome in southern Russia in 2020, a source in the domestic defense industry told TASS on Wednesday.

"The Okhotnik’s trials in Akhtubinsk will be continued in 2020. As part of a new stage, all of the drone’s onboard air-launched weapons will begin to be tested for combat employment at the testing range of the 929th State Flight Test Center [of the Defense Ministry]," the source said.

SOCHI, October 16. /TASS/: The problem of deadly school attacks has escalated in some countries, Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) Director Alexander Bortnikov said at an international meeting of intelligence, security and law enforcement chiefs in Sochi.

"The issue of ‘school terrorism’ has escalated recently in some countries," he pointed out.

SEVASTOPOL, October 16. /TASS/: The Black Sea Fleet’s patrol ship Vasily Bykov is passing through the Bosporus and Dardanelles Straits in its long-distance deployment to the Mediterranean Sea, the Fleet’s press office reported on Wednesday.

A source in the Crimean defense circles told TASS on Tuesday that the patrol ship Vasily Bykov was on its way to join the Russian Navy’s Mediterranean Squadron.

MOSCOW, October 16. /TASS/: Syrian servicemen have occupied two former US bases in Manbij (85 km away from Aleppo), that had been established two years ago to patrol Syria’s northern areas. Newspaper Al Watan reported on Wednesday that the issue concerns bases in Dadat and Umm Miyal.

The army units reinforced their positions along the line of contact with the Turkish army and the armed opposition groups along the Sajur River west of Manbij, according to the newspaper. The newspaper reported that militants’ attacks have fully stopped by now.

SOCHI, October 16. /TASS/: The US-led Western coalition in northern Syria kept prodding the Kurds to create quasi-state entities and towards conflict with Arab tribes, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a conference of intelligence and security chiefs, together with the top brass of law enforcement agencies.

SOCHI, October 16. /TASS/: The Islamic State terrorist organization (outlawed in Russia), which has been crushed in Syria and Iraq, continues running its branches abroad and plans to set up divisions in a number of regions, Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) Director Alexander Bortnikov said on Wednesday.

"Now major terrorist forces in Syria and Iraq have been defeated and their plans on creating a caliphate have been ruined," Bortnikov told a Sochi meeting of the heads of intelligence agencies, security services and law enforcement agencies from 79 countries.

MOSCOW, October 16. /TASS/: The Kremlin is unsure whether Kiev’s demand to disband the self-proclaimed Lugansk and Donetsk republics means Ukraine is refusing to fulfill the Minsk deal, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday.

Peskov commented on Kiev’s statement that disbanding "quasi-state structures" of the self-proclaimed Lugansk and Donetsk People’s Republics should be one of conditions for implementing the Minsk deal.

MOSCOW, October 16. /TASS/: Moscow hopes that the scale of Turkey’s operation in Syria will be proportionate to the task of maintaining security, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the media.

"We respect Turkey’s right to take measures to maintain its own security, but we expect that the operation [in Syria] will be proportionate to the task of maintaining security," he said.

16 October 2019; AFP: France's Emmanuel Macron will hold talks Wednesday with Germany's Angela Merkel for the second time in a week to chart a united front on issues ranging from Brexit to Syria ahead of this week's EU summit.

Macron goes into the two-day meeting in Brussels starting Thursday still smarting from the rejection of his pick for European commissioner, Sylvie Goulard.

16 October 2019; AFP: Europe must be ready for the possibility of a new refugee influx, Greece's Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Wednesday, as an unfolding Turkish offensive in Syria could see more people flee the conflict-ridden region.

"Europe must be prepared for the eventuality of a new migratory and refugee wave coming through Greece," Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told AFP in an exclusive interview 100 days after taking office.