Rob Lee

The Russian aggression on the Ukrainian front is creating new conditions, prompting the Western community to reassess the level of support it will provide to Kyiv. According to recent developments, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has reported that the Russian army has begun a counteroffensive in the western Russian region of Kursk.

Russia has announced that it is tightening its encirclement of Ukrainian forces in the town of Vuhledar (Ugledar) in the Donetsk region. According to the Russian news agency TASS, Ukrainian troops in Vuhledar find themselves in a semicircle, with the town being shelled from multiple directions.

A 14-year-old girl lost her life following a Russian strike on a playground in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. According to the BBC, at least five others were killed, and dozens were injured when the attacks also struck a residential building near the Russian border.

The eastern city of Pokrovsk in Donetsk region is currently the focal point of hostilities between Russian and Ukrainian forces, with Russian troops attempting to breach Ukrainian defense lines. According to the 47th Mechanized Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, cited by DPA, the situation is critically serious.

Air defenses repelled an attack by drones near the town of Dzhankoy in Crimea on Monday evening, the Russian Investigative Committee, the body in charge of the most important investigations, said. "The target of all the downed drones was civilian infrastructure," the committee added.

Critics who largely support Russia's invasion of Ukraine see Putin's government as the main culprit for the military's poor preparation ahead of the war, the high number of dead Russian soldiers and slow progress on the ground.

A fire broke out on the territory of the Bryansk oil depot, the causes of which are currently unknown and are allegedly not directly related to the war in Ukraine, news agencies in Russia and Ukraine reported at the same time. According to Bryansk residents on Telegram, at least two fires are burning.