Intense fighting continues in and around the besieged eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut as Kyiv and Moscow seemingly struggle with ammunition shortages and mounting casualties. The head of the mercenary Wagner group, which is leading the Russian offensive in Bakhmut, claimed in a video published on Saturday that if his men were forced to withdraw, it could lead to the collapse of the entire Russian frontline.
Ukrainian forces appear to be “conducting a limited fighting withdrawal” in eastern Bakhmut but continue to inflict high casualties on the advancing Russian forces, the US-based Institute for the Study of War says in its latest update.
Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu visited Mariupol, in a rare visit to occupied Ukraine by a senior Moscow figure. The Russian defence ministry issued images on Monday of Shoigu “inspecting Russian reconstruction efforts of infrastructure”. During his visit, it said, he was presented with a medical centre, a rescue centre, and a “new microdistrict” of 12 five-story residential buildings.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has paid tribute to fighters in the Donbas, as his forces come under increasingly intense pressure in the city of Bakhmut. “It is one of the toughest battles. Painful and challenging,” he said in his nightly address.
His comments came after Kyiv said it had repelled “more than 130 enemy attacks” on Sunday as Russian troops continue attempts to surround Bakhmut. Russian forces are said to be contesting lines of communication and preventing resupply.
Zelenskiy also said “the world was strong enough to punish Russia for the war”. Ukraine would spend the next six months working to shore up the country’s energy supply against Russian attack, he said.
The founder of Russia’s Wagner mercenary force, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said that his representative had been denied access to the headquarters of Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine after Prigozhin complained about a lack of ammunition.
Exiled Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya was handed a 15-year jail term on Monday after being convicted in absentia for treason and “conspiracy to seize power”, a verdict she said was punishment for her efforts to promote democracy. Tsikhanouskaya, 40, a former English teacher, fled to neighbouring Lithuania in 2020 after running against incumbent leader Alexander Lukashenko in a presidential election, which official results claimed Lukashenko won by a landslide. She and the opposition said at the time that the results had been doctored to hand victory to Lukashenko. In 2022, Lukashenko allowed Putin to use Belarus as a springbaord for Russia’s failed offensive to capture Kyiv in the early days of the Russian invasion.
Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, has reported that in the last 24 hours “Russian troops carried out 29 strikes on Donetsk region and shelled 14 settlements in the region”. It reported that a rocket attack on Kramatorsk had destroyed a school, and that 15 apartment buildings were also damaged.
The European Union is reported to be edging closer to a landmark move into joint procurement of ammunition to help Ukraine and replenish members’ stockpiles, but major questions regarding funding and scale remain to be resolved.
Russia’s premier tank force is expected to be re-equipped with Soviet-made T-62 tanks first fielded in 1954 to make up for combat losses, the UK ministry of defence has claimed. In its latest update the ministry says there is a “realistic” possibility” that the 60-year-old tanks will be supplied to units which had been expected to receive the next-generation T-14 Armata main battle tank. The ministry said approximately 800 T-62s have been pulled from storage since 2022.
Russia’s prosecutor general said has said it is labelling German-based anti-corruption group Transparency International an “undesirable organisation”. “It was found that the activities of this organisation clearly go beyond the declared goals and objectives,” it said.
A British-led £520m international fund to provide fresh weapons for Ukraine and intended to be “low bureaucracy” has been plagued by delays, with only £200m allocated amid warnings that the rest of the funding will not provide arms at “the front until the summer”.
Most of Ukraine’s winter grain crops – winter wheat and barley – are in good condition and could produce a good harvest, Ukraine’s academy of agricultural science was quoted as saying on Monday.
Ukraine special forces destroyed a Russian observation tower at the weekend in the city of Bryansk with a kamikaze drone. Kraken, a special forces unit, has taken credit for the attack on a tower that was being used to monitor the border with Ukraine.
Three Ukrainian missiles have allegedly been shot down by air defence in Russia’s Belgorod region overnight. Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of the Belgorod region, claimed the strikes in a post to his Telegram channel Monday morning and said authorities were working to understand what had occurred.
The Russian army hit a command centre of the Ukrainian forces’ Azov regiment in the south-eastern Zaporizhzhia region, the Russian defence ministry said on Sunday. The Guardian could not independently verify this.
Turkish foreign minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said on Sunday that Ankara was working hard to extend the UN-backed Black Sea grain initiative. A Russian foreign ministry spokesperson indicated Moscow was unhappy with aspects of the deal, which allowed Ukraine to export grain from ports blockaded by Russia following its invasion.
German chancellor Olaf Scholz told CNN it was “necessary” for Russian president Vladimir Putin to understand he will not win the Ukraine war, so negotiations to end the conflict can begin. “If you look at the proposal of the Ukrainians, it is easy to understand that they are ready for peace,” he added.
The head of the World Food Programme, David Beasley, has warned UK MPs that failing to address issues around food security could lead to additional flows of people out of Syria, Lebanon, and possibly north Africa towards Europe in the next 12 months. Beasley called on MPs to recognise the urgency of addressing dropping food production globally and the importance of adopting a more strategic approach to the Black Sea grain initiative so that food could reach vulnerable communities.
The death toll from a Russian missile strike that hit a five-storey apartment block in the southern Ukrainian city Zaporizhzhia on Thursday has risen to 13, a local official said on Sunday.
A woman and two children were killed in Russian mortar shelling of a village in the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson, the head of Ukraine’s presidential office said on Sunday.
Ukraine MP Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze told Sky News on Sunday that tens of thousands of Ukrainian children could have disappeared in what she described as “genocide”. Klympush-Tsintsadze said the children were potentially deported to Russia.
