Russia has demanded that Lithuania immediately lift a ban on the transit of goods on an EU sanctions list across its territory to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. Hosting a meeting in Kaliningrad, Nikolai Patrushev, the secretary of the security council of the Russian Federation, said “Russia will certainly respond to such hostile actions. Their consequences will have a serious negative impact on the population of Lithuania.”
The European Union ambassador to Russia, Markus Ederer, was summoned to the foreign ministry in Moscow over the issue. He said he had asked Russia to resolve the issue through diplomatic means.
Russia has gathered almost all of its forces to storm the settlements near the embattled eastern city of Sievierodonetsk, according to Ukraine’s deputy defence minister, Hanna Maliar. “Decisive” battles are taking place in the area of Sievierodonetsk with the Russian leadership aiming to reach the borders of the Luhansk region by the end of the week, Maliar was quoted as saying.
Russian troops have captured the frontline village of Toshkivka near the twin cities of Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk in the Donbas region. The head of the Sievierodonetsk district military administration, Roman Vlasenko, told Ukrainian television: “As of today, according to our information, Toshkivka is controlled entirely by the Russians.”
Russian officials have accused Ukraine of launching missile strikes against three gas rigs in the Black Sea south of Odesa, in an apparent escalation of Kyiv’s attempts to weaken Russia’s maritime dominance. Seven people were reported missing and three injured after the strikes on Monday, according to the head of occupied Crimea, Sergey Aksyonov.
Three people were killed and seven people were injured by Russian shelling on the Kharkiv region in the last 24 hours, according to governor Oleh Synyehubov.
Two Americans captured in Ukraine are currently in the Russian-backed separatist region of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, the Interfax news agency has reported, citing an unidentified source. There are fears that the pair could face the death penalty. The Kremlin has said the two US men were mercenaries, not covered by the Geneva convention, and that they should face responsibility for their actions.
The sister of Brahim Saadoun, the Moroccan man who was captured while serving in the Ukrainian military, and sentenced to death in Donetsk, has said she feared he has been abandoned by his own government and has called on the international community to “claim my brother”.
Russia’s foreign ministry press secretary, Maria Zakharova, has said that “the western regimes that instigate and cause destruction should be blamed” for any global grain shortage, since their “illegitimate sanctions that have disrupted the established commodity-money chains.”
A food warehouse in Ukraine’s southern port city of Odesa was destroyed by a Russian missile attack on Monday, according to the Ukrainian military. The military said Russian forces fired 14 missiles at southern Ukraine during a three-hour barrage “in impotent anger at the successes of our troops”. No civilians were killed, it said.
Russia’s blockade of the export of millions of tonnes of Ukrainian grain is a war crime, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has said. “We call on Russia to deblockade the ports … It is inconceivable, one cannot imagine that millions of tonnes of wheat remain blocked in Ukraine while in the rest of the world people are suffering hunger,” he said.
European countries are united in their support for granting Ukraine the status of European Union member candidate, Luxembourg’s foreign affairs minister has said. Jean Asselborn told reporters “We are working towards the point where we tell Putin that Ukraine belongs to Europe, that we will also defend the values that Ukraine defends.”
Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said Berlin will send weapons to Ukraine “as long as needed” while reaffirming its commitment to stand with Lithuania and other eastern allies.
The upcoming decision whether to grant Ukraine candidacy for membership to the EU is making Russia “very nervous”, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his latest nightly address on Monday night. “We are moving towards the main decision of the European Council, which will be adopted on Friday. As I predicted, Russia is very nervous about our activity.”
The UK government is “determined” to impose further sanctions on Russia and will continue to do so until Moscow fully withdraws from Ukraine, Britain’s foreign secretary Liz Truss said.
Georgia’s prime minister, Irakli Garibashvili, has said his country is committed to joining Nato, but must solve its territorial problems with Russia first.
Russian authorities have blocked the website of the British newspaper the Telegraph for its coverage of the war in Ukraine. The country’s communications watchdog Roskomnadzor confirmed that access to the site was restricted after it was found to have disseminated “inaccurate information about the special military operation conducted by Russia’s armed forces on the territory of Ukraine”
A Nobel peace prize won by Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov has sold for a record $103.5m at auction. Muratov sold the medal to raise funds for Ukrainian children displaced by the war.
Turkey said it does not consider next week’s Nato summit as a final deadline for resolving its objections to Finland and Sweden joining the military alliance. Turkish presidential spokesperson, Ibrahim Kalin, reported no breakthrough in talks in Brussels but said discussions between Ankara, Stockholm and Helsinki will continue.
The United States is in talks with Canada and other allies to further restrict Moscow’s energy revenue by imposing a price cap on Russian oil, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told reporters on Monday. “We are talking about price caps or a price exception … that would push down the price of Russian oil and depress Putin’s revenues, while allowing more oil supply to reach the global market,” she said.
The former director of the British special forces said the UK must “prepare for war” as a deterrent against Russia. The comment by Gen Sir Adrian Bradshaw came after the new head of the British army, Gen Sir Patrick Sanders, told troops they must prepare “to fight in Europe once again”.
Putin fears the “spark of democracy” spreading to Russia, according to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz who said the Russian president was trying to divide Europe and return to a world dominated by spheres of influence. “The Russian President must accept that there is a community of law-based democracies in his neighbourhood that is growing ever closer together. He clearly fears the spark of democracy spreading to his country,” Scholz told the Muenchner Merkur newspaper.
Palaces, yachts and vineyards reportedly provided to Vladimir Putin by friends and oligarchs can now be linked to what appears to be an informal network holding assets worth more than $4.5bn (£3.7bn). A digital paper trail appears to suggest an array of holiday homes and other assets reportedly used by the Russian president are linked through a common email domain name, LLCInvest.ru.
Russia’s ambassador to the UK, Andrey Kelin, is to be banned from the parliamentary estate in Westminster “until further notice”, according to a message sent out by the Commons Speaker and the Lord Speaker on Monday. The ban, which also applies to all other accredited Russian diplomats and officials in the UK, was confirmed in writing for the first time.
