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Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that Russia was trying to crease "an atmosphere of threat" around ceasefire talks, Reuters reported. "Playing with muscles in the form of military exercises and possible provocations along the border is a traditional Russian affair," Zelenskiy said. The Kremlin said on Thursday that the military movements of Russian troops near the border with Ukraine were aimed at ensuring national security.

British society is a "model for other white-majority countries", according to a report by 'the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities', a government body, ordered in the wake of last year's 'Black Lives Matter' protests. "We no longer see a Britain where the system is deliberately rigged against ethnic minorities," the commission said. But the report was "another total [government] whitewash", the opposition Labour Party said.

President Emmanuel Macron ordered France into its third national lockdown and said schools would close for three weeks as he sought to push back a third wave of Covid-19 infections that threatens to overwhelm hospitals, Reuters writes. With the death toll nearing 100,000, and intensive-care units in the hardest-hit regions at breaking point, Macron was forced to abandon his goal of keeping the country open to protect the economy.

The leaders of France, Germany, and Russia have held a conference call on rolling out purchases, supplies, and production of Russia's 'Sputnik V' vaccine in the EU, according to the Kremlin. The conversation, on Tuesday, came after The Lancet, a leading medical journal, said the Russian jab was safe and effective. But the EU regulator, the European Medicines Agency in Amsterdam, is still carrying out tests prior to approval.

The EU is set to sanction eight Iranian leaders of the Basij militia and the police and three entities for human rights abuses, the first such measures since 2013, Reuters writes. The EU will impose travel bans and asset freezes, diplomats said, and their names will be published next week, when the sanctions take effect. "Those responsible for serious rights violations must know there are consequences," an EU diplomat said.

Austria is likely to order a million doses of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine next week, Reuters reported. "We are in the final metres and a Sputnik order can probably be placed next week," Kurz said in a statement published on Wednesday, after his meeting with Russia's ambassador to Austria. The agreement would involve 300,000 doses to be delivered in April, 500,000 in May and 200,000 in early June.

A French air strike in January killed 19 civilians and three armed men at a wedding in the remote desert of central Mali, United Nations investigators said - contradicting France's account that only Islamist militants were hit, Reuters reports. France immediately rejected the findings. France has more than 5,000 troops in Mali and neighbouring countries to battle groups linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State.

An Italian captain of a frigate, plus a Russian who was accredited at their embassy, have been accused of "serious crimes tied to spying and state security", according to Reuters. Ansa news agency said Nato documents were among the files that the Italian had handed over, raising potential security worries for other members of the Western military alliance. The Italian captain was arrested, while two Russian diplomats were expelled.

The European Medicine Agency insisted on Wednesday that the AstraZeneca vaccine's benefits outweigh the risks, but acknowledged that people should be aware of the "remote possibility" of rare blood clots occurring, Reuters reported. "A causal link with the vaccine is not proven, but is possible and further analysis is continuing," the EU drug agency said. The statement comes after several countries limited the jab use for certain vulnerable groups.

EU institutions have put forward a first-ever, controversial entry into the Eurovision Song Contest to be held in the Netherlands, in May.

The Slovenian prime minister recently lashed out against both journalists and MEPs. His country will soon take over the presidency. In Brussels, there is concern - but also faith that Janez Janša cannot have much impact on the EU machinery.

The European Parliament's plans to replace the current paper-based MEPs attendance control system with a digital register, based on a fingerprint scanner, raises "critical concerns", the EU data protection watchdog has warned.

Rights defenders say Montenegro's treatment of an investigative journalist amounts to a "politically-motivated judicial persecution".

European leaders always fail to mention the Turkish military intervention that led to the end of Khalifa Haftar's infamous military operation initiated in April 2019, and the end of the warlord's ambition to become Libya's 'new Gadaffi'.

The European Commission announced on Wednesday that members states will have received a total of 107 million vaccine doses by the end of this week. Under signed contracts, the EU expected to receive 120 million doses in the first quarter. Almost 30 million doses came from AstraZeneca, although the pharmaceutical firm was supposed to deliver 90 million. BioNTech/Pfizer has delivered a total of 67.5 million and Moderna 9.5 million.

A Brussels judge has ruled that the Belgian government must withdraw all anti-corona lockdown measures within 30 days, as there is not sufficient legal basis for them, De Standaard writes. The judge gave the Belgian state 30 days to present a sound legal basis. If it cannot, the state needs to pay €5,000 per day in fines. The Belgian minister of interior, Annelies Verlinden, said she was studying the ruling.

The EU Commission on Wednesday said it will take Poland to the EU's top court over a disciplinary regime for judges and a law aimed at punishing critical judges. It will ask the European Court of Justice to suspend the Polish measures, pending a final ruling. "The Polish law on the judiciary undermines the independence of Polish judges and is incompatible with the primacy of EU law," the commission said.

AstraZeneca delivered close to 30 million doses in the EU in the first quarter of this year, according to the European Commission on Wednesday. "The number of AstraZeneca deliveries expected by the end of this week is verging on 30 million," said a commission spokesperson. The British-Swedish pharmaceutical firm was contracted for 90 million.

A Syrian refugee who wanted to run for MP on behalf of the Green party in Dinslaken, western Germany, has pulled out due to safety fears after a racist backlash. "The high threat level for me and especially for people close to me is the most important reason," he said Tuesday. The Green party, a rising force in second place in polls ahead of elections in September, voiced dismay.

Syrian people's humanitarian needs are worse than ever, but international aid is shrinking, amid no end in sight to its 10-year war.