The rule allowing four flight segments in Europe/Middle East used to have the words:
*not more than 2 of which may be between the UK and ALBANIA, ALGERIA, BULGARIA, CROATIA, CYPRUS, GREECE, MIDDLE EAST, MOROCCO, ROMANIA, RUSSIA west of the Urals, TUNISIA, TURKEY, UKRAINE.
But those words were removed - back in 2016
As jerry a. laska has pointed out, your second itinerary violates another rule; your first and third itineraries are fine