Russia Ukraine War Map Live: Ukrainian Troops Win at Bakhmut

Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukrainian forces had taken the “initiative” after making gains outside the eastern town of Bakhmut as part of a wider counteroffensive.

Stating that Ukraine is “progressing, albeit not as fast [as we would like]”, Mr. Zelensky said: “We would all like to see the counter-offensive accomplished in a shorter time. But there is reality. Today, the initiative is on our side.

“All of us want to do it faster because every day means new losses of Ukrainians. We are moving forward. We are not stuck,” he said in an interview with US news channel ABC, noting that the army had overcome a “kind of stagnation” in the previous months.

A substantial announcement on a German delivery of military equipment to Ukraine is expected during the NATO summit this week, a senior government official said in Berlin on Monday.

Germany is also working on bilateral security guarantees for Ukraine, the official said, adding that now was not the right time to invite kyiv to join the defense alliance.

Western leaders are meeting in Vilnius from Tuesday for a two-day NATO summit.

A Russian airstrike on a school in southern Ukraine killed four adults as people gathered to receive humanitarian aid, the governor of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region said on Monday, calling the incident ” war crime”. Three women and a man, all in their 40s, died in Sunday’s attack in the town of Orikhiv, Governor Yuriy Malashko said. A guided aerial bomb caused an explosion at the school, Malashko said, without providing evidence. Eleven other people were injured in the attack. Overall, Russia fired on 10 settlements in the province in one day, he said. Moscow denies targeting civilian sites. Russia has been repeatedly accused of doing so and committing other war crimes since its full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine in February 2022. In March, the International Criminal Court issued a warrant arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes, accusing him of personal responsibility in child abductions from Ukraine. Extensive investigations are also underway in Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. The International Center for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine, located in The Hague, contributes to these investigations.

Four people were killed in a Russian attack on a humanitarian aid distribution point in the Zaporizhzhia region of southeastern Ukraine, Ukrainian officials said on Monday.

The attorney general’s office said it had opened a criminal war crimes investigation after the attack on the town of Orikhiv, which it said was carried out on Sunday afternoon.

Regional Governor Yuriy Malashko said a guided aerial bomb was used in the attack on a school building used as an aid distribution point.

Malashko said on the Telegram messaging app that three women and a man, all in their 40s, had been killed. The attorney general’s office said 13 people were also injured.

Footage of the scene posted online by the Home Office showed rubble and debris strewn across a courtyard and street.

Reuters could not independently verify the information. Russia, which began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, denies deliberately targeting civilians.

The Ukrainian army leads a counter-offensive to try to retake the territory occupied by Russia in the region of Zaporizhzhia.

The United States announced that it was sending cluster munitions to Ukraine to help its army repel entrenched Russian forces along the front lines.

Joe Biden’s administration has said it will send thousands under a new military aid package worth $800m (£630m).

The move will likely spark outrage from some allies and humanitarian groups who have long opposed the use of cluster bombs.

Poland has arrested another member of a Russian spy ring, bringing the total number of people arrested in an investigation to 15, Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski said on Monday.

A hub of Western military supplies to Ukraine, Poland says it has become a major target for Russian spies and accuses Moscow of wanting to destabilize it.

“The Internal Security Agency has arrested another member of the spy network working for Russian intelligence,” Mariusz Kaminski said in a post on Twitter.

“The suspect was monitoring military installations and seaports. He was systematically paid by the Russians.

The Russian Embassy in Warsaw did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

In June, Poland arrested a Russian professional ice hockey player for espionage.

In March, Poland said it had busted a Russian spy ring and arrested nine people it said were plotting sabotage and monitoring rail lines to Ukraine.

The following month, Poland announced it was introducing a 200-meter exclusion zone around its Swinoujscie liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal, citing concerns about Russian espionage.

The prime minister is due to attend a NATO summit in Lithuania on Tuesday, where he will urge allies to increase defense spending and warn they face “unprecedented” security challenges.

Valery Gerasimov, chief of staff of the Russian armed forces, was shown by the Defense Ministry listening to a report on the Ukrainian missile attacks, his first appearance in public since the June 24 mutiny.

The Defense Ministry said the footage showed Gerasimov at a meeting on Sunday. He used his current title, Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces.

He said Russia foiled a Ukrainian missile attack on Crimea and the Rostov and Kaluga regions on Sunday. Russia annexed Crimea to Ukraine in 2014.

Four people died and 11 were injured in Russia’s shelling of a residential area in the frontline town of Orikhiv in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region as humanitarian aid distribution took place, the regional governor.

Governor Yuriy Malashko said those killed included three women and one man, all in their 40s. He added that Russia carried out 36 targeted strikes on 10 settlements in the Zaporizhzhia region.

Reuters could not independently verify the report. Both sides deny targeting civilians in Russia’s 500-day war against its neighbour.

Russia is almost certainly in the grip of a combat medical supply crisis, having suffered an average of around 400 casualties a day for 17 months, the UK Ministry of Defense said today.

“The influx of military casualties has likely compromised the normal provision of some Russian civilian medical services, especially in border regions close to Ukraine. It is likely that many dedicated military hospitals are reserved for wounded officers,” the ministry said in its latest intelligence update.

He added that, as the head of the combat medicine training division of the Kalashnikov Society asserts, it is “probable that up to 50% of Russian combat deaths could have been prevented with proper first aid. “.

“The very slow evacuation of casualties, combined with the inappropriate use of the crude Russian combat tourniquet in service, is believed to be one of the leading causes of preventable deaths and amputations,” the ministry said.