Closing summary
It’s 9pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:
Ukraine’s ground forces commander has said his troops were continuing to repel heavy Russian attacks on the eastern city of Bakhmut and that defending it was a “military necessity”. Col Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi’s comments signalled again Ukraine’s intention to keep fighting in Bakhmut despite the heavy death toll there.
At least two people have been killed in a Russian missile strike in the eastern city of Sloviansk on Monday, according to the regional governor. The attack left 29 others wounded, Pavlo Kyrylenko said, adding that a number of high-rise buildings and offices were also damaged or destroyed. President Zelenskiy posted a short video clip that showed vehicles on fire and debris strewn across the road.
The UN nuclear watchdog chief, Rafael Grossi, has said he had met the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in Zaporizhzhia, the region that houses Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, which has been occupied by Russian forces since early in the invasion. The two had a “rich exchange” on the protection of the plant and its staff, Grossi said, adding that he reiterated the IAEA’s full support for Ukraine’s nuclear facilities.
President Zelenskiy visited frontline positions in Zaporizhzhia on Monday, his office said, during a visit to one of the partly occupied regions that the Russian Federation claims to have annexed as part of its own territory. Zelenskiy “visited advanced positions in the Zaporizhzhia region, learned about the operational situation, and presented awards to the military”, his office said.
The 18 Leopard 2 battle tanks promised by Germany to support Ukraine have been handed over at the Ukrainian border, according to a report. About 40 Marder infantry fighting vehicles have also reached Ukraine, Der Spiegel reported, citing unnamed sources.
Ukraine has accused Russia of destabilising Belarus and making its smaller neighbour “a nuclear hostage”, after Vladimir Putin’s announcement that Moscow had made a deal to station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarusian territory. The country’s opposition leader in exile, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, said the move “grossly contradicts the will of the Belarusian people” and reflected the further subjugation of Belarus under Russian control.
A German foreign ministry spokesperson has described Vladimir Putin’s announcement that Russia will station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus as “irresponsible” and “escalatory”. Berlin sees Moscow’s announcement as “another attempt at nuclear intimidation and we consider this rhetoric to be irresponsible and expressly reject it,” Andrea Sasse told reporters in Berlin.
Members of a recently formed Russian assault unit say their commanders deployed troops to stop them from retreating and threatened them with death after they suffered “huge” losses in eastern Ukraine. In a video addressed to President Vladimir Putin, a group of about two dozen men in military uniform say they are the remnants of Storm, a unit under the defence ministry.
The chair of Ukraine’s parliament, Ruslan Stefanchuk, has told British lawmakers that Kyiv is ready to send its pilots to be trained in the use of western fighter jets. Stefanchuk, speaking during a visit to the UK, said Kyiv could bring “joint victory for Ukraine and the world” once it “gets the wings”, in language echoing that of President Volodymyr Zekenskiy’s speech to the British parliament last month.
A leaked phone conversation allegedly between prominent the Russian music producer Iosif Prigozhin and the billionaire Farkhad Akhmedov, in which the two men give a far-ranging criticism of the war in Ukraine and Russia’s leadership, has been published by Ukrainian media. If confirmed genuine, the audio would provide a rare insight into the mood within the Russian elites.
Russian and Belarusian athletes should be banned from the 2024 Olympics in Paris unless Moscow pulls its forces out of Ukraine, Poland has said, after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said it planned to let them compete as neutrals.
Poland has detained a foreign citizen on charges of spying for Russia, prosecutors have said. The arrest comes after Poland dismantled a Russian espionage network that had been preparing acts of sabotage and monitoring rail routes to Ukraine. If found guilty, the suspect could face up to 10 years in prison.
Hungary’s parliament has approved a bill to allow Finland to join Nato, bringing the Nordic country one step closer to becoming a full member of the western military alliance. Hungarian lawmakers voted 182 for and only six against with no abstentions. Turkey is now the only one of Nato’s 30 members not to have ratified Finland’s accession.
That’s it from me, Léonie Chao-Fong, and the Russia-Ukraine war blog today. We’ll be back tomorrow. Thank you.
Updated
Video released by a Russian assault unit details what they describe as ‘criminal’ commands to block a retreat following 14 days of nonstop mortar fire and shelling.
Alexander Gorin, a Russian soldier, is heard describing the conditions of the Storm group, which initially had 161 members, in an appeal to Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin.
