Two Russian journalists explain why they challenged Putin 6:43
(CNN Spanish) --
A Ukrainian army unit fighting north of Kharkiv claims to have reached the Russian border, with the message: "Mr. President, we've done it!"
A video posted by the unit shows a small group carrying a blue and yellow stake to the border line.
The Ukrainian army said on Monday that around Kharkiv "the enemy is concentrating its main efforts on maintaining its positions and preventing the advance of our troops" towards the border.
Snake Island: the tiny territory that plays a huge role in Russia's war against Ukraine
A little background
: In recent days, Ukrainian forces have advanced towards the border in several places north and east of Kharkiv, the country's second largest city before the invasion began, as Russian forces have withdrawn .
Ukrainian officials said last week that they were liberating villages on the outskirts of the city.
Their advances threaten the symbolic embarrassment of driving Kremlin forces back to their own border, while also posing the strategic threat of cutting off Russia's supply lines to Ukraine and its forces further south in the Donbas region.
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Heavy fighting in Luhansk and Donetsk
In the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, fighting continues along front lines that stretch for several hundred kilometers.
The Ukrainians also report that fighting continues in parts of the east, where Russian forces are trying to break through.
The heaviest fighting appears to be in two places: around the industrial towns of Luhansk and in rural areas north of the Donetsk city of Sloviansk.
The Ukrainian General Staff said on Monday that the "enemy has focused its main efforts in the Donetsk direction... and is preparing an offensive of the forces concentrated in the Izium area."
The Russians have beefed up their presence around Izium in an effort to push south, and heavy fighting broke out in the area over the weekend.
The General Staff said that in three areas of the front - Lyman, Bakhmut and Kurakhiv - Russian forces continued to advance and fighting continued.
But he also claimed that in another area, Avdiivka, Russian units had withdrawn.
Russian forces continue to shell Severodonetsk, according to local officials.
Serhii Hayday, head of the Luhansk military administration, said two people from the city had been killed in the latest shelling.
He said there had been heavy shelling of several towns and villages in the area, but Russian forces had been forced to withdraw near the town of Borivske, south of Severodonetsk.
First Russian soldier to go on trial for alleged war crimes 2:27
Speaking on Ukrainian television on Monday, Vadym Denysenko, adviser to Ukraine's interior minister, said the key area in the Russians' offensive was now around Severodonetsk.
"The Russians are concentrating their forces there. It's the only place they can make any progress. It will be the hottest area in the next few days," he said.
"I hope we'll be able to repel them."
Denysenko added that around Izium "Russian attacks are suffocating" and further north "the Russians are withdrawing, blowing up bridges. Our forces are fighting back."
CNN has geolocated satellite images showing that three bridges west of the Russian supply lines to Izium have been destroyed in the last week.
Mariupol: In the south, the General Staff said Russia is continuing massive artillery and air strikes to block and destroy units trapped at the Azovstal plant.
Several hundred wounded soldiers are trapped in the plant.
In his daily video message late on Sunday, President Volodymyr Zelensky said the government is continuing "very complicated and delicate negotiations to save our people of Mariupol from Azovstal."
Russia warns Nordic countries of 'profound consequences' of joining NATO
Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin and Finnish President Sauli Niinisto attend a joint press conference on Finland's security policy decisions at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki.
(Photo: Heikki Saukkomaa/Lehtikuva/Reuters)
The entry of Finland and Sweden into NATO would be a "mistake" with "far-reaching consequences", Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Monday, according to the state news agency TASS.
On Sunday, Finland's government signaled its intention to join NATO, leaving behind decades of neutrality and ignoring Russian threats of retaliation, as the Nordic country tries to bolster its security amid the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Sweden's ruling party later said it would also support joining the alliance.
Finland to apply to join NATO, abandoning decades of neutrality despite threats of retaliation from Russia
"They should have no illusions that we are just going to put up with this," Ryabkov said, according to TASS, calling the decision by both states "another serious mistake with far-reaching consequences."
Finland's NATO accession — likely to take months to complete — would bring the US military alliance to Russia's doorstep, as the two nations share a 1,335-kilometre border.
"The fact that the security of Sweden, like that of Finland, will not be strengthened as a result of this decision is completely obvious to us," Ryabkov said, according to TASS.
"The general level of military tension will increase and there will be less predictability in this area. It is a shame that common sense is sacrificed to some ghost ideas about what should be done in the current situation."
Ukraine says Russian 'sabotage' tried to cross border at Sumy
The State Border Service of Ukraine claims that Russian troops opened fire across the border in the Sumy region on Monday, adding that "border guards fought enemy saboteurs" who tried to enter Ukrainian territory from the town of Lokot.
The Sumy region in northeastern Ukraine is 48 kilometers from the Russian border, and Sumy was one of the first cities attacked in the Russian invasion.
The State Border Service claimed that the Russians had "fired mortars, grenade launchers, machine guns and automatic rifles".
The border guards fought the saboteurs and forced them to withdraw beyond the state border."
After several weeks of quiet, the border towns of Sumy have come under attack in recent days, with local authorities saying the Russians have used both airstrikes and artillery.
Some background: Analysts say Russian attacks in Sumy and also across the international border in the Chernihiv region are likely intended to tie down Ukrainian units that could otherwise be deployed to the main front lines in Donbas.
Renault leaves Russia and sells assets for more than US $ 2,000 million to the city of Moscow
French carmaker Renault announced the sale of its assets in Russia, formally leaving the country following the invasion of Ukraine.
The assets are valued at 2.195 million euros ($2.29 billion), according to Renault.
The company's directors unanimously agreed to sell Renault Russia to the city of Moscow and its majority stake in Russian automaker AVTOVAZ to NAMI (the Central Institute for Research and Development of Automobiles and Motors), according to a statement Monday. .
"We have made a difficult but necessary decision, and we are making a responsible choice towards our 45,000 employees in Russia," Renault said in a statement.
The sale of its stake in AVTOVAZ provides for the option for Renault to buy back its stake within six years, according to the statement.
The Renault car plant in Moscow, Russia, on April 26.
(Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP/Getty Images)
In his blog, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said the city had decided to take over ownership of the plant and would "resume production of passenger cars under the historic Moskvich brand."
"We will try to keep most of the team working directly at the plant and with its subcontractors," Sobyanin wrote, promising a future move to electric car production.
Moskvich was a Soviet-era automobile manufacturer of everyday passenger vehicles.
Russia was a key player in Renault's world empire before the war broke out.
With 482,264 cars sold in 2021, Russia was Renault's second-biggest market, trailing only the automaker's headquarters France in terms of sales volume, according to the group's 2021 sales results.
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