Some of the first civilians evacuated from a giant steel plant in Mariupol reportedly arrived in the Ukrainian city of Zaporozhye on Monday after a night bus trip hampered by delays across the front line. More than 100 civilians – mostly women, children and the elderly – were evacuated from the Azovstal steel plant, according to a statement from Ukrainian military police. Hundreds of people are still believed to be trapped in the city’s last stronghold of resistance.
A Russian missile strike hit the Black Sea port city of Odessa in southwestern Ukraine, causing deaths and injuries. The strike hit a strategically important bridge across the mouth of the Dniester. A 14-year-old boy was killed and a 17-year-old girl was injured, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said on Monday. “How did these children and the dormitory threaten the Russian state?” Zelensky said in his evening video address.
Russian forces in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine – where most of the fighting is taking place – suffer from poor command and control, low morale and less ideal logistics, the United States said. “We continue to see minimal, at best, Russian progress in the Donbass,” said a senior US Department of Defense official.
The United Nations Office on Human Rights (OHCHR) has said that the number of civilians killed in Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion has exceeded 3,000. Most of the victims were killed by explosive weapons with a wide range of impact, such as missile strikes and air strikes, the rights service said without claiming responsibility.
Russian troops are reportedly destroying historic tombs in Ukraine’s Kherson region, according to Ukrainian authorities. On Twitter, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine announced that Russian troops were destroying 1,000-year-old Scythian tombs in Kherson, “arranging firing positions on them.”
Russia plans to annex Donetsk and Luhansk after failing to win Kyiv and overthrow the government there, the US ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe told reporters. Russia may also consider doing the same in Kherson, where it already imposes rubles as its official currency.
The director of the UN World Food Program in Germany has warned that millions of tons of grain have been blocked in Ukraine due to the blockade of seaports by Russian military action. Martin Frick said that about 4.5 million tons of grain in containers in Ukrainian ports could not be moved due to dangerous or busy sea lanes, some of which had been mined, as well as inaccessible ports.
In an interview with Italian television, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was asked to say how Russia could say it should “disinfect” the country when its president, Vladimir Zelensky, is Jewish. Lavrov responded that Adolf Hitler “had Jewish blood” and that “the fiercest anti-Semites are usually Jews” while defending Russia’s policy of “denazification” in Ukraine, the Kremlin’s term for a massive purge that Ukraine says is a pretext for ” mass murder “”
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said Lavrov’s comments showed that “Russia has forgotten all the lessons of World War II.” Israel called on the Russian ambassador to apologize, and world leaders condemned the remarks.
Britain has said it will provide another 300 million pounds ($ 375 million) more in military aid to Ukraine, including electronic warfare equipment and a counter-battery radar system, in addition to aid of about 200 million pounds so far, according to Reuters.
Boris Johnson will welcome Ukraine’s resistance to tyranny as an example to the world as he makes a virtual address to the country’s parliament on Tuesday. Johnson will become the first world leader to address the Verkhovna Rada since the beginning of the conflict.
More than 70 of the 90 M-777 howitzers the United States plans to send are now in Ukrainian hands, along with more than 140,000 155-mm cartridges, a senior US Department of Defense official said.
The European Commissioner for Energy has said that Russia’s demands for fuel payments in rubles should be rejected, despite the risks of interruptions in supplies without an alternative gas supply. After a meeting of EU energy ministers, Kadri Simson said all energy ministers had agreed that paying in rubles through a mechanism set by Russia would violate the bloc’s sanctions following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Germany has said it is ready to support the EU’s immediate embargo on Russian oil, a major change by Moscow’s largest energy customer that could allow Europe to impose such a ban within days. “We have managed to reach a situation where Germany is able to bear the oil embargo,” German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said in Brussels on Monday, where he met with EU counterparts. “That means it won’t go unnoticed.”
Russia has redirected Internet traffic in the occupied Ukrainian region of Kherson through Russia’s communications infrastructure, NetBlocks reported on Monday to monitor the disruption of Internet services.
The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) has banned Russian football clubs from participating in the 2022-23 Champions League, Europa League and UEFA League of Nations. Russia’s bid to host the Euro 2028 and Euro 2032 tournaments is also no longer eligible.
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