But it remained far from clear who might be behind the leaks that were first reported on Monday or any foul play, if proven, on the Nord Stream pipelines that Russia and European partners spent billions of dollars building.

"Russia's recognition of the pseudo-referendums as 'normal', implementation of the so-called Crimean scenario, and yet another attempt to annex Ukrainian territory means that there is nothing to talk about with (the) current Russian president," he said in a video message.

"Italy of course is a cause for concern. Parties in this coalition have said and done things that should make us vigilant. This relates to Russia, and to financial and economic issues," Rutte said in an interview on Dutch TV.

Votes were staged for a third day in four eastern Ukrainian regions, aimed at annexing territory Russia has taken by force. The Russian parliament could move to formalise the annexation within days.

Voting began at 7 a.m. (0500 GMT) and will continue until 11 p.m. (2100 GMT) when exit polls will be published.

After a week of pressure at the United Nations General Assembly, Russia's foreign minister took the General Assembly rostrum to deliver a fiery rebuke to Western nations for what he termed a "grotesque" campaign against Russians.

Putin announced the call-up of 300,000 reservists -- more than the nearly 200,000 mustered to invade Ukraine in February -- after his troops have lost significant parts of territory seized early in the war.

"I consider it necessary to support the proposal of the Defence Ministry and of the General Staff to conduct partial mobilisation in the Russian Federation," Putin said during a televised address to the nation. 

"This is why we will not accept any peace dictated by Russia and this is why Ukraine must be able to fend off Russia's attack," Scholz said in his first address to the United Nations General Assembly.

The British monarch exercises little real power but Elizabeth was a titanic figure on the 20th-century stage, whose first prime minister was wartime leader Winston Churchill, met the first man in space Yuri Gagarin, and made landmark visits to newly independent nations as the British Empire fell apart.

The southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu will resume production and life "in an orderly manner" from Monday following more than two weeks of COVID-19 lockdowns and other strict curbs, local authorities said on Sunday. 

At 6.30 a.m. (0530 GMT), an official lying-in-state period ended after four days in which hundreds of thousands have queued to file past the casket of Britain's longest-reigning monarch at London's historic Westminster Hall.

"It would be naive to think that we are close to the possibility of a peace deal," said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres ahead of the high-level meeting of the 193-member UN General Assembly, which starts on Tuesday. "The chances of a peace deal are minimal, at the present moment."

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, China has trod a careful line, criticising Western sanctions against Moscow but stopping short of endorsing or assisting in the military campaign.

"In Kyiv, a passenger car collided with the car of the President of Ukraine and escort vehicles," spokesman Sergiy Nikiforov said in a statement posted on Facebook at 1:22 am local time (22:22 GMT).

"We are not there yet. But the end is in sight," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press conference, noting that the tally of COVID-19 deaths last week fell to a level seen in March 2020.

RTE said lowering national electricity consumption by 1 percent to 5 percent in most scenarios and up to 15 percent in an extreme scenario of gas shortage and very cold weather could help avert a power crunch. It added it would be on alert to monitor market developments from November, or sooner if needed. RTE usually starts its winter monitoring in January.

On a dark night, the well-lit hearse travelled slowly from a nearby airport through London, with crowds stood all along the route, some in the road, others throwing flowers, and many ditching their cars or running from nearby streets to catch a glimpse of the cortege. 

Britain, along with its Western allies, has sought to isolate Russia and its ally Belarus on the world stage with economic sanctions and other measures in response to Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

"Since the start of September, our soldiers have already liberated 6,000 square kilometres of Ukrainian territory in the east and south, and we are moving further," Zelensky said in his daily address.

At a ceremony in Westminster Hall, the oldest building on the parliamentary estate, Charles used his address to the upper and lower houses of parliament to pay tribute to his mother and to pledge to uphold the principle of constitutional government.

Thousands of people stood for hours on Sunday to see the 96-year-old's coffin arrive from her Balmoral estate to Edinburgh's Palace of Holyroodhouse, and the formal proclamation of Charles as king. 

Pictures of the quartet putting aside their differences to look at floral tributes to Queen Elizabeth II outside her former Windsor Castle residence were splashed across the covers of many of the nation's Sunday papers.

Meanwhile, the Russian-installed chief administrator of Russian-controlled parts of Ukraine's Kharkiv region recommended on Saturday that all its inhabitants evacuate to Russia "to save lives", according to the Russian state-run TASS news agency.

The couple, who were on a rare visit to Britain when the queen died on Thursday, reunited with Harry's brother William and wife Kate at Windsor Castle Saturday. It was their first joint public appearance since they moved stateside in early 2020.

Since the queen's death aged 96 on Thursday, her body has remained at her Balmoral estate in northeast Scotland while her eldest son travelled to London to be formally proclaimed King Charles III.

Speaking for the first time as monarch from Buckingham Palace, the 73-year-old thanked his "darling mama" for her "love and devotion to our family and to the family of nations".

Tributes poured in -- from countries she had ruled over to those she had been at war with, from tiny territories to the mightiest governments on the planet, and from centuries-old institutions to nations that had not yet been born when she took the throne.

"The death of my beloved Mother, Her Majesty The Queen, is a moment of the greatest sadness for me and all members of my family," the new king, her eldest son Charles, said.

Here are some of the tributes to Britain's longest-serving monarch, who is also head of state in 14 Commonwealth countries around the world: