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A convoy takes civilians from Mariupol to safety
Photo: ALEXANDER ERMOCHENKO / REUTERS
On the 68th day of the illegal war of aggression, explosions erupted again on Russian territory.
According to British information, the war is causing increasing losses on the Russian side.
Ukraine says it has destroyed two Russian patrol boats near Snake Island.
There were no further confirmed evacuations from Mariupol on Monday.
US Democrat Nancy Pelosi calls for increased pressure on the Kremlin while the EU in Brussels struggles to agree on a common line on gas imports from Russia.
The developments at a glance.
The military situation
According to Ukrainian sources, Russia is continuing its attacks in the east of the country.
Russian troops tried to take the city of Rubizhne and were preparing an attack on Sieverodonetsk, the Ukrainian General Staff said.
In Dnipro, further east, a Russian missile hit a grain silo, according to the governor responsible, Valentyn Resnichenko.
Nobody was injured.
According to Governor Serhiy Gaidai, three people have been killed in attacks in the Luhansk region in the past 24 hours.
In addition, a Russian missile hit a strategically important bridge, which is the only road and rail link to a large area in southern Odessa region.
On Russian territory, two explosions occurred early Monday morning in the Belgorod region bordering Ukraine.
Governor Vyacheslav Gladkovin said that no attacks by Ukraine were to blame.
“Our air forces have engaged in combat operations as part of the special military operation.
Nothing threatened the safety of the residents of the area,” Gladkov wrote on the Telegram news channel.
According to British information, the war on the Russian side is causing increasing losses.
According to London's Ministry of Defense, it is likely that a quarter of the 120 battalions deployed are now disabled.
Some of Russia's elite units, such as airborne troops, also suffered significant casualties.
Meanwhile, Ukraine reports the destruction of two Russian patrol boats.
A Ukrainian drone destroyed the ships near Snake Island in the Black Sea early in the morning, Ukrainian Chief of Staff Valeriy Zalushnyi said on the Telegram messenger service.
In its situation report, the Russian military reported the shooting down of three Ukrainian Bayraktar drones over Snake Island.
The Ministry of Defense did not provide any information on its own losses.
The information provided by both sides could not be verified independently.
The humanitarian situation
The rescue of civilians from the hard-fought Azovstal plant in the eastern Ukrainian port of Mariupol is apparently faltering.
A bus convoy had brought around 100 civilians from the Azov steelworks besieged by Russian soldiers over the weekend.
The evacuations were to continue on Monday morning.
According to the Mariupol City Hall, the evacuation buses did not initially arrive at the agreed collection point.
Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba nevertheless assured that the evacuation operation was "underway".
The situation is "very fragile".
According to the Ukrainian military, around 200 civilians are trapped in buried bunkers at the plant.
The deputy commander of the Azov regiment, which has holed up in the huge factory premises, told the Reuters news agency that there were children, women and the elderly in the shelters.
However, his troops did not have heavy equipment to clear the entrances, said Swiatoslaw Palamar.
According to Kyiv, around 1,000 civilians are said to be trapped in the bunkers of the steelworks alone.
Russia speaks of about 2,500 people, including military and foreign mercenaries.
According to the United Nations, more than 3,000 civilians have been killed in Ukraine during the war.
According to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the number has increased by 254 since Friday to 3,153.
The actual number is likely much higher.
Most of the victims were killed by explosive devices, such as rocket attacks or airstrikes.
That's what the international community says
A statement by Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has provoked violent reactions in Israel.
The Russian politician caused outrage with a Nazi comparison.
The government in Jerusalem demanded an apology and called in the Russian ambassador for an interview.
The Federal Government continues to assume that, under international law, Germany will not become a party to the war by training Ukrainian soldiers.
Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht has contradicted a report according to which Germany could possibly become a party to the war by training Ukrainian soldiers.
A spokesman for the federal government had previously stated that it was convinced that Germany would not become a war party under international law by training Ukrainian soldiers.
During a visit to Warsaw, the Democratic leader of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, called for support for Ukraine to be increased despite Russian threats.
The PAP news agency quoted the politician on Monday as saying: "We should not be limited by the threats that the Russians are making.
You've made enough threats and carried out many of those threats: you've killed people, families, civilians."
The sanctions against Russia should also be tightened further, said Pelosi: "The Russians have already done enough to justify the greatest possible use of military aid and the toughest sanctions to show that their behavior is unacceptable." That's why the USA was planning not only to freeze Russian assets, but to use them later for reconstruction in Ukraine.
Despite growing calls in the European Union for a halt to Russian oil and gas imports, Hungary is sticking to its opposition.
"Hungarian stance on an oil and gas embargo has not changed: we do not support it," a government spokesman in Budapest replied in an email to a Reuters query.
In Brussels, the EU energy ministers are debating on Monday whether an oil embargo should be part of the sixth package of sanctions against Russia.
On the fringes of a special meeting of the ministers responsible for energy in Brussels, Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck called on all EU countries to reduce their dependence on Russian energy as quickly as possible.
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svs/dpa/AFP/Reuters