Budapest, Apr 11 (AP) Hungary plans to modify its natural gas contract with Russian energy company Gazprom in order to satisfy a demand by President Vladimir Putin that Russian gas be paid for in rubles.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told a news conference on Monday that the subsidiary of Hungary's energy group MVM, CEE Energy, would pay its gas bills in euros to Russia's Gazprombank, which would convert the payments into rubles and transfer them to the gas provider Gazprom Export.

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Putin, in retaliation over sanctions against Russia by the European Union, has demanded that countries pay for Russian gas in rubles or risk having their supply shut off.

While Hungary has voted with the European Union on most sanctions against Russia, it has lobbied heavily against blocking Russian energy imports, arguing that would cripple its economy.

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Szijjarto said that modifying Hungary's contract with Gazprom ensured the country's energy supply while staying in line with the EU's sanctioning policy.

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Copenhagen: The Danish Health Authority said Monday it will buy 2 million iodine tablets in case of “a nuclear accident in our immediate area.”

The COVID-19 pandemic “has shown us that it is important to be prepared,” while the war in Ukraine shows that “the world is unpredictable,” the health authority said, adding it had based its recommendation on advice by the Danish Emergency Management Agency as well as impact calculations for the risk of a nuclear incident in Denmark's immediate area.

The tablets would cover the risk group which includes those up to age 18, health and emergency personnel under the age of 40, and pregnant and breastfeeding women.

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Bucharest: The Republic of Moldova received on Monday in Luxembourg a questionnaire from the European Commission to assess the small country's readiness to become a European Union member, authorities said.

“A period of hard work is ahead starting today,” Foreign Minister Nicu Popescu wrote online.

The former Soviet republic of around 2.6 million people is one of Europe's poorest nations.

Sandwiched between Romania and Ukraine, Moldova has pushed to accelerate joining the EU since Russia launched its attacks on Ukraine in late February.

Becoming a EU member will take years and be contingent on reforms, including cleaning up widespread corruption.

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Vilnius: Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte on Monday became the latest Western leader to visit Ukraine to express support to the nation under Russian attack,

“Today, my visit in Ukraine started in Borodyanka. No words could possibly describe what I saw and felt here,” Simonyte wrote on Twitter.

She also posted photos of her looking at the at the blackened hole in a high-rise apartment building in Borodyanka, northwest of Kyiv.

During the unannounced visit, she is expected to meet with the Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelenskyy, who plans to address the Lithuanian parliament on Tuesday.

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Bratislava: Slovakia has denied its S-300 air defense missile system it transported to Ukraine has been destroyed by the Russian armed forces.

“Our S-300 system has not been destroyed,” Lubica Janikova, spokeswoman for Slovakia's Prime Minister Eduard Heger said in a statement sent to The Associated Press.

She said any other claim is not true.

Earlier on Monday, the Russian military said it destroyed a shipment of air defense missile system provided by the West on the southern outskirts of the city of Dnipro.

The Russian side said Ukraine had received the air defense system from a European country that he didn't name.

Last week, Slovakia said it has handed over its Soviet-designed S-300 air defense systems to Ukraine, which has pleaded with the West to give it more weapons, including long-range air defense systems. (AP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)