Russia

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.

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.

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. 

MOSCOW, February 17. /TASS/: The Project 11442M heavy nuclear-powered missile cruiser Admiral Nakhimov set to become the Russian Navy’s most powerful surface ship after its repairs and upgrade at the Sevmash Shipyard is being prepared for its handover," the Shipyard’s press office reported on Thursday.

MOSCOW, February 17. /TASS/: Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said that one can count on Rome's assistance in the diplomatic settlement of the Ukraine situation.

"I would also like to touch upon the tensions near Ukraine's eastern borders, on the border between Russia and Ukraine. Italy has been in favor of a diplomatic solution from the beginning, and Italy can be counted on to help reach a diplomatic settlement," he said at a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Thursday.·

MOSCOW, February 17. /TASS/: Russia’s COVID-19 case tally rose by 180,622 over the past day to 14,840,502, the anti-coronavirus crisis center reported on Thursday.

In relative terms, the growth rate reached 1.23%.

As many as 18,090 patients with COVID-19 were hospitalized in Russia in the past day, down 7.6% from a day earlier. Meanwhile, in 58 regions the number of those hospitalized has decreased, while in 27 regions the number has increased, according to the crisis center.

MOSCOW, February 17. /TASS/: The Kremlin is not ready to and will not consider complaints, including from the US, on how Russia deploys its armed forces on its own soil, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists.

MOSCOW (AP) — Ivan Malyuta, a resident of Donetsk, a city in eastern Ukraine controlled by Moscow-backed separatists, applied for Russian citizenship this month and said he, his wife and three children will soon be getting Russian passports.

“I want to be a citizen of the Russian Federation. We are moving towards this, aren’t we?” he said at a Donetsk migration service office.

MOSCOW, February 16. /TASS/: Moscow will no longer take seriously any statements by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg who has been named to head Norway’s central bank, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a news conference on Wednesday.

She made the comments in response to Stoltenberg’s statement that NATO’s doors will remain open for Ukraine.

MOSCOW, Feb 16 (Reuters) - Brazil is interested in small nuclear reactors made by Russian state energy firm Rosatom, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said on Wednesday during a visit to Moscow that was overshadowed by international fears of a conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

Bolsonaro snubbed U.S. calls to call off the trip, which coincided with intense Western diplomatic efforts to dissuade Russian President Vladimir Putin from invading his neighbor. Russia has denied it is planning an invasion.