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ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the swap of Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko and U.S. ex-Marine Trevor Reed in Ankara during a phone call on Thursday, the Turkish presidency said. Russia and the United States carried out the swap in Ankara on Wednesday amid the most tense bilateral relations in decades over the war in Ukraine.   In the call, Putin thanked Turkey's MIT intelligence agency for its cooperation and supervision of the swap, the presidency said in a statement, adding Erdogan told his Russian counterpart the swap was an indication of the value Turkey placed on peace, and its mediation efforts between Moscow and Kyiv. Erdogan also repeated that Ankara wanted to continue the momentum achieved in Ukraine-Russia talks in Istanbul earlier this month, his office said.

SOFIA, Bulgaria -- Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov has said during a visit to the Ukrainian town of Borodyanka that he hopes Bulgarian lawmakers will agree next week to send military assistance to Ukraine Petkov was due to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv later Thursday. He said after viewing damage caused to Borodyanka during the initial Russian advance that “we cannot be indifferent. We cannot say that this is a Ukrainian problem, we cannot say some people are dying but we are not interested in that.” He criticized the argument of some politicians in Bulgaria that denying military aid to Ukraine would bring about a faster peace. Petkov said: “If this is the price of peace, if the Russian state continues to fire and no one can defend himself — is this the peace we want?” KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR: — Ukraine says Russian offensive in east picks up momentum — Key players urge accountability for atrocities in Ukraine — A chilling Russian cyber a...

LONDON (Reuters) - Russia on Thursday warned the West that there would be a tough military response to any further attack on Russian territory, accusing the United States and its key European allies of openly inciting Ukraine to assault Russia. Russia's Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine has killed thousands of people, displaced millions more and raised fears of the most serious confrontation between Russia and the United States since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Two months since Russia invaded Ukraine, Russia has in recent days reported what it says are a series of attacks by Ukrainian forces on Russian regions which border Ukraine, and has warned that such attacks risk a significant escalation. Ukraine has not directly accepted responsibility but says the incidents are payback, while Russia has taken umbrage at statements from NATO-member Britain that it is legitimate for Ukraine to target Russian logistics.   "In the West, they are openly calling on Kyiv to attack Russia includi...

  Islamabad : Pakistan's ousted prime minister Imran Khan said on Wednesday that he wanted two million people to gather in Islamabad when he gives the call to his supporters on a yet unspecified date to force the government to announce fresh elections. Khan lost a no-confidence vote in the National Assembly earlier this month, becoming the first Pakistan prime minister to be removed unceremoniously from power. "I want two million people to come to Islamabad when I give the call. I want all of you to go to the people and preach to them about our movement for true freedom," Khan said while addressing his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf supporters at a workers' convention in Lahore. Khan reiterated his accusation that his government was toppled as result of a "conspiracy" by the US that resulted in the success of the no-trust vote against him in the parliament. "When you go to the people, you have to tell them that an imported government has been brought through ...