(Adds unconfirmed reports of chemical weapons use in Mariupol)

By Maria Starkova

LVIV, Ukraine – Ukraine said on Monday it expects Russia to begin an offensive soon in the eastern Donbas region as Moscow shifts its focus to seizing territory there after its invasion force was driven from the gates of Kyiv this month.

Russia’s main target in Donbas is the port of Mariupol, where thousands are believed to have died under a near-seven week siege. Russia is amassing thousands of troops in the area for a new assault, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said.

The first European Union leader to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in person since the war began, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer, said following talks in Moscow that the offensive was “evidently being prepared on a massive scale”.

Western sanctions on Moscow will intensify so long as the invasion persists, Nehammer said. “(Telling Putin) once will not be enough. Ten times will not be enough. It might have to be done 100 times,” he told reporters.

After withdrawing forces from northern Ukraine, including suburbs of the capital Kyiv lain to waste under its occupation, Russia has turned its sights toward Donbas. It is demanding Ukraine cede control of territory there to separatist fighters, apparently one of Russia’s major goals in what it calls a “special military operation” against its neighbour.

Capturing Mariupol, the main eastern port, would allow Moscow to link troops advancing from the east with those from Russian-annexed Crimea in the south and shift their focus to a new attempt to encircle the main Ukrainian force in the east.

The United States, which warns Moscow is trying to reinforce and resupply troops in Donbas, has sought to pressure Putin to withdraw his forces by banning Russian oil and gas and encouraging allies to follow suit.

But world powers including China and India have refrained from sanctioning Russia. Lured by steep oil discounts, India has purchased more Russian crude since the start of the Feb. 24 invasion than it did for the whole of last year, data compiled by Reuters shows.

In a video call, U.S. President Joe Biden told India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi “very clearly that it is not in their interest” to increase reliance on Russian energy, White House spokesperson Jen Psaki said.

During a brief portion of the call open to reporters, Modi said he had suggested in recent talks with Russia that Putin and Zelenskiy hold direct negotiations.

MARIUPOL FIGHTING, RAPE AS WEAPON

Thousands have fled from the Donbas region.

In his latest plea for international support, Zelenskiy told South Korea’s parliament that tens of thousands had already been killed in Mariupol, a figure that has not been confirmed independently.

Russia has repeatedly denied attacking civilians.

There were unconfirmed media reports on Monday suggesting chemical weapons were used in Mariupol. Zelenskiy warned in his nightly video address on Monday of potential Russian use of chemical weapons, but did not say that they had been used.

The number of people leaving Mariupol has fallen because Russian forces slowed pre-departure checks, said Petro Andryushchenko, an aide to the mayor of the city.

Around 10,000 people were awaiting screening by Russian forces, he said. Russia does not allow military personnel to leave with civilian evacuees. There was no comment from Moscow, which has previously blamed Ukraine for blocking evacuations.

Ukrainian fears intensified last week after 57 people were killed in a Russian missile strike on a train station in Donbas, where thousands were trying to flee the expected advance, Ukrainian officials said.

Moscow denied blame for the missile strike as well as Ukrainian and Western accusations that Russian forces committed war crimes north of Kyiv.

The United Nations is hearing accounts of rape and violence by both Russian and Ukrainian forces, U.N. officials said.

Kateryna Cherepakha, president of La Strada-Ukraine, said the rights group’s emergency hotlines had received calls accusing Russian soldiers of nine cases of rape, involving 12 women and girls.

“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” she told the U.N. Security Council via video. “We know and see – and we want you to hear our voices – that violence and rape is used now as a weapon of war by Russian invaders in Ukraine.”

Russia’s deputy U.N. ambassador denied the allegations and accused Ukraine and allies of “a clear intention to present Russian soldiers as sadists and rapists.”

Ukraine’s U.N. mission did not respond to a request for comment on allegations of sexual violence by Ukrainian forces and civil defence militias.

‘NO PAUSE’

Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said Moscow would not pause the fighting for any new round of peace talks, which last convened on April 1.

“A decision was made that during the next rounds of talks, there would be no pause (in military action) so long as a final agreement is not reached,” Lavrov said.

Britain’s defence ministry said Russian shelling continued in Donbas. But Ukrainian forces had beaten back several assaults and destroyed Russian tanks, vehicles and artillery equipment, it added.

The governor of another eastern region, Luhansk, told Ukrainian television that shelling was increasing day by day and urged all civilians to evacuate.

“Those that wanted to leave have already left, while now many are left in bomb shelters who are perhaps frightened to come out of the shelters, or scared to lose their possessions,” Governor Serhiy Gaidai said.

(Reporting by Reuters bureaus; Writing by Angus MacSwan, Peter Graff and Rami Ayyub; Editing by Nick Macfie, Tomasz Janowski, Grant McCool and Lincoln Feast.)

By Sarah N. Lynch

WASHINGTON -Defense attorneys for two men accused of impersonating federal law enforcement agents and supplying Secret Service personnel with gifts asked a U.S. judge on Monday to release their clients from jail pending trial, saying the government’s case was flimsy and lacked evidence they pose a threat.

Prosecutors “have jumped to the wildest conspiracy theories imaginable,” said Michelle Peterson, an attorney representing Arian Taherzadeh, 40, who is accused along with Haider Ali, 35.

The two men were arrested last week for impersonating Department of Homeland Security agents and four U.S. Secret Service members were suspended from duty, on suspicion the defendants supplied or offered the Secret Service agents rent-free apartments and other gifts.

Those who were offered gifts included an agent assigned to protect President Joe Biden’s wife Jill Biden.

At a detention hearing on Friday, prosecutor Joshua Rothstein asked U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Harvey to detain both defendants, but Harvey resumed the hearing again on Monday amid lingering questions.

Then at Monday’s hearing, Harvey said he needed still more time before issuing a ruling and expressed skepticism that the government’s request for detention was the only way to address concerns the defendants could go on impersonating police.

“If I were to put both of these gentlemen under house arrest, what’s the realistic likelihood …that they could go and impersonate another police officer during the pendency of this case?” he asked.

Harvey will further question all the parties on Tuesday and aimed to rule on the matter later the same day.

The government has pointed to a cache of weapons and other equipment seized by the FBI as evidence the men pose a threat. The items include firearms, surveillance equipment, tools used to manufacture identities and tactical gear.

Prosecutors have said Ali traveled to the Middle East in recent years and bragged of having ties to Pakistani intelligence, concerns they say justify detaining him as a flight risk.

Ali’s attorney Gregory Smith on Monday said the government’s claims about Ali’s possible ties to Pakistani intelligence were “utterly false and preposterous,” and that his client traveled to the Middle East to visit religious shrines.

(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by Howard Goller)

By Jan Wolfe

WASHINGTON -An off-duty police officer who breached the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack was found guilty of multiple felonies on Tuesday, a notable victory for prosecutors in one of the first trials relating to the attack.

According to court documents, a federal jury in the District of Columbia found Thomas Robertson of Rocky Mount, Virginia, guilty on all six charges he faces, including obstructing an official proceeding of the U.S. Congress.

A judge will impose a sentence on Robertson at a later court hearing.

Robertson was a sergeant in Rocky Mount’s police department at the time of the Capitol riot.

Robertson entered the Capitol along with another former police officer, Jacob Fracker, who pleaded guilty to similar charges last month.

Fracker testified on behalf of the prosecution in its case against Robertson after reaching a plea deal with the government last month.

About 800 people have been charged with crimes relating to the Jan. 6 attack. Robertson was only the second defendant to gamble on a jury trial.

Last year, a judge ordered Robertson to be detained in jail pending trial, after prosecutors alleged Robertson was still buying firearms and ammunition online after his arrest.

The first Jan. 6 jury trial also ended up a victory for prosecutors. Last month, a different jury in the District of Columbia found Guy Reffitt of Texas guilty of all five of the felony charges he faced, including bringing a gun onto the Capitol grounds and obstructing an official proceeding.

Last week, a federal judge issued the first acquittal in a criminal trial stemming from the Jan. 6 attack.

Following a non-jury trial, U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden said prosecutors failed to prove their case against a New Mexico man facing misdemeanor trespassing charges.

McFadden accepted arguments by the defendant, Matthew Martin, that he did not know he was breaking the law when he entered the Capitol complex.

Thousands of Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol, battling police and sending lawmakers running for their lives after Trump in a fiery speech near the White House repeated his false claims that his election defeat was the result of widespread fraud.

Multiple courts, state election officials and members of Trump’s own administration have rejected that claim as untrue.

(Reporting by Jan Wolfe; Additional reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by David Gregorio)

By Dietrich Knauth

(Reuters) -Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc supplied billions of opioid pills to drug addicts and criminals, contributing to an addiction epidemic in Florida, a lawyer for the state said on Monday in a civil trial against the pharmacy chain.

Walgreens filled one in four opioid prescriptions in Florida between 1999 and 2020, and failed to investigate red flags that could have prevented drugs from being diverted for illegal use, the state’s lawyer Jim Webster said as jurors heard opening statements in the trial held in New Port Richey.

“Walgreens was the last line of defense in preventing improper distribution of opioids,” Webster said. “It was the entity that actually put the opioids in the hands of people addicted to opioids and the hands of criminals.”

Walgreens, which has denied the allegations, is the final remaining defendant in the trial taking place before Judge Kimberly Sharpe Byrd in Pasco County Circuit Court.

Florida previously reached $878 million in settlements with CVS Health Corp, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd, Abbvie Inc’s Allergan unit and Endo International Plc.

Steven Derringer, Walgreen’s attorney, said in his opening statement that the pharmacy chain filled prescriptions from doctors and did not ignore red flags that allowed opioids to flood Florida.

“There are so many pills because doctors have written so many prescriptions for pain medicine,” Derringer said.

Florida has spent more than $14 billion to address the opioid crisis in the state, and opioid overdoses have caused nearly 40,000 deaths from 1999 to 2020, Webster told jurors.

Walgreens deserves a “huge chunk of the blame” for overdose deaths and the state’s increased spending, Webster said.

Derringer countered that others should be blamed for the state’s opioid epidemic including drug manufacturers who lied to pharmacies about addiction risk, U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials who approved the sale of opioids for chronic pain and doctors who wrote unnecessary prescriptions.

Florida has collected more than $3 billion in opioid litigation against drugmakers, distributors and pharmacies, according to Attorney General Ashley Moody. Most will be spent on efforts to mitigate the opioid crisis in the state.

In March, Walgreens rival CVS Health Corp agreed to pay Florida $484 million. Drugmakers Teva will pay $194.8 million, Allergan will pay $134.2 million and Endo will pay $65 million.

Walgreens previously argued it was immune from being sued based on a mere $3,000 settlement it reached with Florida in 2012, following an investigation into its record-keeping policies and efforts to prevent the diversion of opioid drugs.

Byrd ruled in March that the 2012 settlement addressed only a single record-keeping violation and did not protect Walgreens from other claims. The company has appealed her ruling.

While a large portion of the more than 500,000 U.S. deaths from overdoses in the past two decades were caused by the powerful opioid fentanyl and other illicit drugs, overuse of prescription pain medicines put countless Americans on the path to addiction.

(Reporting by Dietrich Knauth in New York; Editing by Bill Berkrot, Will Dunham and Noeleen Walder)