Weeks-long fierce fighting continued around the city of Bakhmut and the nearby towns of Solidar and Vahlidar, according to the Ukrainian president’s office.
The city and the two towns are located in the Donetsk region, which together with neighboring Luhansk region forms the Donbass region, an industrial region on the border with Russia.
“The battles for control of the region are raging,” Donetsk Governor Pavlo Kirilenko said in televised remarks, adding that “the Russians are sending new units to the battlefield and annihilating our cities and villages.”
In Luhansk, Governor Serhiy Hayday said the shelling there had subsided because “the Russians are providing ammunition for a large-scale attack.”
Canadian Defense Minister Anita Anand tweeted Sunday night that the first Leopard tank donated by Canada to Ukraine has arrived in Poland.
It is noteworthy that the tank is part of a pledge made by the Western countries allied to Ukraine to help Kyiv “defeat Russia.”
Imminent training
Anand said that training the Ukrainian army on how to use this type of tank is set to start “soon”, as allies rush to prepare Ukrainian forces ahead of the looming attack.
On Monday, the Ukrainian presidential office said that at least one civilian had been killed and 10 wounded in Russian bombing over the past 24 hours.
Five of the wounded were wounded during the bombing of Kharkiv, where Russian shells hit residential buildings and a university, according to the Ukrainian presidency.
Ukrainian authorities stated that the Russians again bombed targets across the Dnieper River from the Russian-controlled Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant, damaging residential buildings and power lines in Nikopol and Marhanets on the opposite side of the river.
The director general of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, is expected to visit Moscow this week to discuss the safety of the Zaporizhia plant, according to a senior Russian diplomat.
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov did not disclose the exact date of Grossi’s visit to Russia, but confirmed that it was expected to take place this week and that the safety of the nuclear power plant would be a “major issue” on the agenda.
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