Brussels, Feb 23 (AP) European leaders plan an in-person emergency summit on Thursday evening in Brussels to discuss the tensions between Russia and Ukraine.

European Union Council president Charles Michel said in his invitation letter to the 27 leaders that the "use of force and coercion to change borders has no place in the 21st century."

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German Chancellor Olaf Scholz had already planned to hold a 90-minute virtual meeting of Group of Seven leaders on Thursday afternoon. That meeting was announced last week.

Michel praised the heads of states and government for the unity shown by the bloc in recent days to ensure the adoption of sanctions against Russia and deter its suspected plans to invade Ukraine.

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KYIV - Ukraine's minister for digital transformation says cyberattacks are disrupting government websites and those of some banks in his country.

Mikhail Fedorov said on Wednesday the distributed denial-of-service attacks targeted the websites of the Ukrainian parliament, Cabinet and foreign ministry.

He said they also caused interruptions or delays on the sites of the defense and internal affairs ministry, which controls the police.

NATO has blamed recent cyberattacks in Ukraine on Russia's GRU military intelligence agency and warned further attacks were likely as tensions over a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine mounted.

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ROME - Italy's foreign minister says sanctions against Russia over its threatening behaviour toward Ukraine must be “sustainable, proportional, gradual and directly linked to concrete and objective developments on the ground."

In a briefing to the Italian Senate on Wednesday, Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio made no reference to Italy's previously voiced misgivings about punishing Moscow -- which supplies some 40% of Italy's gas.

Instead, Di Maio noted that gas from Russia flows exclusively through Ukrainian pipelines. That, he says, is “one more reason to avoid conflict."

Italy is considering providing 110 million euros (USD 125 million) in civilian aid to Ukraine and is considering supplying Ukrainian armed forces with non-lethal supplies, such as equipment to remove land mines.

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ANKARA — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has told Russian President Vladimir Putin that Turkey does not recognise Moscow's steps taken against Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Russia has formally recognized the independence of pro-Russian separatist regions in eastern Ukraine, in a move that increased tension.

A statement from the Turkish president's office said Erdogan renewed a call for a diplomatic resolution of the crisis in Ukraine in a telephone conversation with Putin on Wednesday.

The statement said Turkey, a member of NATO and a Black Sea neighbor of Russia, wants talks to resolve the Ukraine crisis.

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MOSCOW -- Russia has started evacuating its embassy in Kyiv, as fears mount that Russian President Vladimir Putin might be about to order an invasion of Ukraine.

Russian state news agency Tass reported that Russia began pulling personnel from its diplomatic posts in Ukraine on Wednesday.

The move came a day after the Russian Foreign Ministry announced a plan to evacuate, citing threats against Russians in Ukraine.

At the same time, Ukraine urged its citizens to leave Russia as the region braced for a military confrontation, with some 150,000 Russian troops deployed around Ukraine's borders.

Putin on Tuesday received authorization to use military force outside his country and the West responded with sanctions. (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)