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Ukraine’s eastern city of Bakhmut came under heavy Russian artillery fire, with the region bracing for a major new offensive as the first anniversary of the war nears.
FIGHTING
* Positions in Bakhmut have been fortified and only people with a military role were being allowed in, a deputy battalion commander said. Any civilians who still wanted to leave the city would have to brave the incoming fire, he said.
* Russia said its troops had managed to advance two kilometres to the west in four days. However, it did not say which part of the long front line, encompassing several Ukrainian regions in the south and east, had moved.
* Ramzan Kadyrov, leader of the Russian region of Chechnya, said that Russia would achieve its goals in Ukraine by the end of the year and it would be wrong to negotiate with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
ENERGY
* Ukraine was meeting consumers’ energy needs after carrying out repairs to the national power network following the latest wave of Russian air strikes, Energy Minister German Galushchenko said. Galushchenko said emergency repairs had been completed rapidly after Russian attacks on Friday that struck energy facilities.
WEAPONS
* NATO’s Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters that the feared new major Russian offensive in Ukraine, almost one year after Moscow launched the war, has already started, saying there is no sign that Russian President Vladimir Putin is preparing for peace.
*Stoltenberg said he expected the issue of aircrafts to be discussed at the upcoming two-day meeting of NATO ministers of Defence starting on Tuesday and said supplying planes would not make NATO part of the conflict.
* NATO is expected to ask its members to raise its ammunition stockpiles which have been badly depleted by the war in Ukraine, as allies try to put arms supplies to Kyiv and their own militaries on a sustainable footing after a year in crisis mode.
DIPLOMACY
* The United States 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. “Do not travel to Russia,” the US embassy in Moscow said.
* Russia’s foreign spy service said it had received intelligence that the US military was grooming Islamist militants to attack targets in Russia and the former Soviet Union.
*Hungary’s Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto paid a visit to Minsk on Monday to keep “channels of communication open” and push for peace, as a group of 35 countries demanded that Russian and Belarusian athletes be banned from the 2024 Olympics.
*The French Foreign Affairs Ministry “strongly” advised its citizens against going to Belarus giving the “new offensive launched by Russia in Ukraine”.
*International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach said his organisation is not on the wrong side of history after opening the door for Russian and Belarusian athletes to participate in next year’s Summer Games in Paris.
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