Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, has said “the reality is that we are seeing the start already” of a new Russian offensive in Ukraine. Speaking at a news conference ahead of a two-day meeting of Nato defence ministers in Brussels on Tuesday, Stoltenberg said on Monday that Nato plans to increase its targets for ammunition stockpiles and that he expected the issue of the possible supplying of aircraft to Ukraine to be discussed at the two-day meeting.
Russia may have lost an entire brigade of the elite 155th naval infantry while storming the eastern Ukrainian city of Vuhledar, according to a report. A “large number” of Russian forces, including the command staff, were “destroyed” near the cities of Vuhledar and Mariinka in Donetsk, a Ukrainian official, Oleksiy Dmytrashkivskyi, said. Russian forces were also losing 150-300 marines a day near Vuhledar, he said. He estimated the brigade to have comprised about 5,000 soldiers in all, whose members had been killed, wounded or taken prisoner.
Ramzan Kadyrov, the Kremlin-appointed leader of Chechnya, has said Moscow will achieve its goals in Ukraine by the end of the year. In an interview broadcast on Russian state television, Kadyrov said Russia had the forces to take the capital Kyiv and that it needed to capture Ukraine’s second city Kharkiv and its main port, Odesa. Kadyrov’s forces have played a prominent role fighting in Ukraine, and he has formed an informal alliance with the head of the Russian mercenary Wagner group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, and other nationalist hardliners who back the war.
One person has been killed overnight after Russia shelled Kherson, and damage to train infrastructure has prevented trains from Kyiv and Lviv reaching the city today. Five areas of Kherson were shelled overnight, and trains were forced to terminate at Mykolaiv and passengers transfer by bus to reach Kherson after tracks were damaged.
Russia claims its troops have advanced 2km (1.24 miles) to the west in four days along the frontline in Ukraine. Russian state-owned news agency Interfax carried a report on Monday citing a statement from the commander of the central military district saying “Russian servicemen broke the enemy’s resistance and advanced several kilometres deeper into its echeloned defence. In four days the front moved 2 kilometres to the west. The enemy is very actively mining the territories that he leaves. It becomes problematic for both equipment and personnel to advance.”
Yevgeny Prigozhin said the mercenary force has taken the village of Krasna Hora, on the northern edge of the embattled city of Bakhmut in Ukraine’s Donetsk region. He also published a short video, apparently showing Wagner fighters next to the entrance sign to the village. The Guardian could not independently verify that the village had been taken.
US thinktank the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said geolocated footage showed Russian forces have captured at least part of the village of Krasna Hora and the Ukrainians have likely withdrawn from it, according to its latest intelligence report.
Ukraine’s defences are holding along the frontline in Donetsk, with the fiercest battles raging for the cities of Vuhledar and Maryinka, Kyiv’s top military commander said on Saturday. Valerii Zaluzhnyi, commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, said Russia was carrying out 50 attacks a day in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.
Ukraine was meeting consumers’ energy needs on Monday after carrying out repairs to the national power network after the latest wave of Russian airstrikes, energy minister German Galushchenko said.
The US has told its citizens to leave Russia immediately due to the war in Ukraine and the risk of arbitrary arrest or harassment by Russian law enforcement agencies. France has also “strongly” advised its citizens against going to Belarus given the “new offensive launched by Russia in Ukraine”.
