Russia said its post-first military operation against Ukraine was largely complete and would focus on the complete “liberation” of the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine, adding that more than 1,300 Russian troops had been killed since the fighting began.
And Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukraine has delivered a strong blow to Russian forces, and Ukraine’s defenders are showing the Russian leadership that immediate, meaningful and fair dialogue between the two sides is a must.
He called on energy producers to increase production so that Russia could not use its oil and gas to blackmail other countries, while attending a forum in Doha by video.
The Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office said on social platforms that 136 children were killed and nearly 200 injured in the fighting.
The British Ministry of Defence said Russian forces continued to lay siege to major cities in Ukraine, including Kharkiv, Chernihiv and Mariupol. The intelligence also pointed out that the Russian forces seemed reluctant to participate in large-scale ground operations, relying on indiscriminate air strikes and artillery shelling to boost the morale of the Ukrainian army.