Moldova has blocked access to the websites of major Russian news media, accusing them of taking part in an information war against the country. A decree published online by Moldova’s Intelligence and Security Service listed 31 websites to be blocked immediately for “online content used in the war of information against the republic of Moldova”.
The first US-made F-16 combat aircraft that the Netherlands is donating to Ukraine will arrive in Romania’s training centre within two weeks, outgoing Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte said on Monday.
Russian shelling hit the frontline region of Kherson in southern Ukraine on Monday, killing two civilians, local authorities said earlier.
Russia has significantly bulked up its forces around the devastated Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, with its soldiers switching from a defensive posture to taking “active actions”, a Ukrainian military commander said.
A Russian state-backed private military company was specifically attempting to recruit women into combat roles in Ukraine for the first time, the UK’s Ministry of Defence said in its latest intelligence update.
Russia’s Federal Security Service said it had detained a Russian man in Crimea on suspicion of treason, accusing him of passing military secrets to Ukraine, according to a state news agency.
The governor of Ukraine’s southern Odesa region said two people were wounded and buildings damaged in a Russian missile attack on a ship repair yard on Monday. “In the morning, Russian terrorists attacked Odesa district with rockets,” Oleh Kiper said on the Telegram messaging app. “The enemy targeted a shipyard.”
The Russian prime minister has said the government would create a simplified procedure for citizens and companies from “friendly” countries to invest there. Mikhail Mishustin said entities from a list of 25 countries would be allowed to open bank accounts in Russia and make deposits via a simplified procedure, Reuters reported. “Creating more convenient conditions for foreign enterprises and entrepreneurs is an important part of the government’s systemic efforts to achieve financial sovereignty as part of the implementation of the national goals set by our president,” he said.
Russia’s defence minister has accused the United States of fuelling geopolitical tensions to uphold its “global dominance by any means” and warned of the risk of confrontation between nuclear-armed countries. Speaking at a defence forum in Beijing, Sergei Shoigu also accused Nato of trying to expand its footprint in the Asia-Pacific under the pretence of seeking dialogue and collaboration with regional countries, AP reported.
Russian police have taken over an airport in the predominantly Muslim Dagestan region and arrested 60 people after hundreds of anti-Israel protesters stormed the facility on Sunday when a plane from Israel arrived, the interior ministry said. Videos obtained by Reuters from the airport at Makhachkala, the regional capital, showed the protesters, mostly young men, waving Palestinian flags, breaking down glass doors and running through the airport on Sunday evening shouting “Allahu Akbar” or “God is Greatest”. Another group was seen trying to topple over a patrol truck.
Russia says it has shot down 36 Ukrainian drones over the Black Sea and the Crimean peninsula. There were claims in local media outlets that a fire at an oil refinery in the early hours of Sunday had been caused by a drone strike or debris from a downed drone. Ukraine has said it shot down five Iranian-made Shahed exploding drones launched from Russia overnight.
State media in Russia has reported that more than 100 Ukrainian soldiers were killed in Yuzhno-Donetsk over the past 24 hours. The 58th motorised infantry, 79th air assault brigades of the Ukrainian armed forces and the 128th territorial defence brigade were reportedly involved in the attack by Russian troops.
Russian forces are believed to have suffered some of the country’s biggest casualty rates so far this year as a result of continued “heavy but inconclusive” fighting around the Donetsk oblast town of Avdiivka, according to the UK Ministry of Defence.
Russia would confiscate assets belonging to EU states it deems unfriendly if the bloc “steals” frozen Russian funds in a drive to fund Ukraine, a top ally of Vladimir Putin said. The comments were made after Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, said the EU executive was working on a proposal to pool some of the profits derived from frozen Russian state assets to help Ukraine and its postwar reconstruction.
Ukraine and Russia are locked in a stalemate on the frontlines of their war and the two sides need to sit down and negotiate an end to the conflict, the Belarusian president has said. Alexander Lukashenko, a key Putin ally, described the current state of the conflict as “head-to-head, to the death, entrenched … seriously stalemate”.
Four Ukrainian police officers were wounded when a shell fired by Russian troops exploded by their police car in the city of Siversk, located in the partly occupied Donetsk oblast.
A third round of Ukrainian-backed peace talks opened in Malta, but without Moscow. In a statement, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said 66 countries had taken part, proof that his plan “has gradually become global”. Ukrainian deputy minister Mykola Tochytskyi has said his country aims to hold a global “peace summit” of world leaders this year.
