00:00Western and EU leaders arrived in Kyiv on Sunday ahead of Ukraine's Independence Day celebrations
00:06and a key meeting of the Coalition of the Willing to reaffirm their support for Kyiv
00:11while advancing work on security guarantees.
00:15Over the next two days, the visiting leaders are scheduled to participate in a series of events,
00:20including the national holiday commemorations and bilateral meetings with President Volodymyr Zelensky.
00:26Nordic and Baltic leaders on Sunday joined Zelensky at the ceremony for the National Flag Day.
00:47The celebration comes amid calls for Zelensky to organize a vote.
00:52Zelensky has warned it would be too dangerous to hold an election, saying the vote could, quote, split Ukraine.
01:00Large-scale Russian strikes have intensified, pushing civilian deaths in the war to their highest
01:06since the first months of Russia's invasion as Moscow exploits Ukraine's shortage of air defense interceptor systems.
01:16Six EU countries are intensifying calls for a block-wide windfall tax on oil companies
01:21as profit surge amid the war in the Middle East.
01:26Finance ministers from Germany, Italy, Austria, Poland and Portugal, along with Spain's economy minister,
01:33urged Ireland to put the issue on the agenda for next month's meeting of EU finance chiefs in Dublin.
01:39The ministers called for an EU-wide framework to tax windfall profits, drawing on the temporary Levi introduced in 2022
01:47after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
01:50Beyond the proposal, Germany's finance minister, Lars Klingbeil, said that excessive crisis profits should be returned to consumers.
01:58Energy companies have posted major earnings as the war disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
02:03However, the EU has not yet signaled plans for a new Levi.
02:08The latter remains a preliminary draft while political divisions persist within member states, including Germany.
02:18Europe continues to face severe weather with wildfires, floods and storms affecting several countries.
02:25In Serbia, an EU response-evolving helicopters and firefighters is helping battle a blaze
02:30that has engulfed more than 1,600 hectares in the Deliplatska-Paskara nature reserve.
02:36A Russian Ilyushin motor bomber and Serbian army helicopters are also assisting.
02:41Beyond Serbia, a large wildfire near Bosnia-Croatia border forced village evacuations
02:46and closed the main highway between Trebnice and Dubrovnik.
02:50Croatian firefighters joined the response as strong winds pushed the flames inland.
02:55In Spain, flooding in Tarragona injured 11 people after more than 145 millimeters of rain fell in some areas.
03:04Meanwhile, firefighters in Valencia stabilized a wildfire that burned around 630 hectares
03:10and forced more than 1,000 people to evacuate.
03:14Further north, Poland recorded more than 6,500 storm-related incidents since Friday.
03:2012 scouts camp were evacuated, while conditions have since improved across much of the country.
03:33Wildfires across Europe are exposing a potentially deadly threat beneath the landscape,
03:38unexploded bombs and mines left from World Wars I and II.
03:42Some weapons have exploded in intense heat,
03:45with blasts reported in France, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands.
03:49In Belgium, fires have spread across former battlefields, including the High Fence,
03:54where emergency services have been adapting to the risk of buried munitions.
03:59Beyond the immediate threat to firefighters,
04:02Belgium's Explosive Ordnance Disposal Service responds to more than 3,000 calls every year
04:07and disposes of up to 250 tons of wartime munitions.
04:11Climate change is increasing the risk, researchers say,
04:14as extreme heat and drought can trigger explosives or expose weapons hidden underground.
04:20Drought has also revealed weapons in rivers and lakes.
04:25In Slovakia, falling water exposed two naval mines,
04:28while bombs emerge from receding waters in Hungary and Germany.
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