July 18, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

Our live coverage of Russia’s war in Ukraine has moved here.

Jill Biden will host Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska at the White House Tuesday afternoon, according to a release from the East Wing. The two women are slated to talk privately during a scheduled bilateral meeting. 

Biden and Zelenska first met in person in May when Biden made a stealth trip to Ukraine. The first ladies had been in communication prior to their meeting, which was the first time Zelenska emerged from hiding since the start of the Russian invasion in February.

During their one-hour closed meeting, Zelenska shared with Biden her concerns for the emotional health of Ukrainian children.

Zelenska is scheduled to arrive at the White House at 1:30 p.m. ET.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Monday renewed his threat to “freeze the process” of NATO membership for Sweden and Finland after conditionally agreeing to green light their bid following negotiations with the Nordic countries and NATO members in late June. 

“We shared our conditional approval with the member states for the start of the NATO membership process of Sweden and Finland. I would like to remind you once again that we will freeze the process if they do not take the necessary steps to fulfill our conditions,” Erdoğan said Monday after a cabinet meeting. 

“We see that Sweden does not give a good picture in this regard,” he added, without explaining his comments. 

Turkey said in late June that it signed a trilateral memorandum with Finland and Sweden supporting their NATO membership bids, which require ratification from all 30 members states’ parliaments and legislatures. 

Following the signing of the memorandum — which covered several outstanding issues between Turkey, Finland and Sweden — the two Nordic countries made the historic decision to formally apply for NATO membership, ending decades of neutrality.

Ankara said Helsinki and Stockholm agreed to not provide support to the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, also known as YPG, which Turkey views as a terrorist organization, according to the Turkish Presidency.

The Turkish statement said Finland and Sweden also confirmed the separatist militant Kurdistan’s Workers Party, also known as PKK, which Turkey, the US and EU consider a terrorist organization, is a “proscribed terrorist organization” and commit to prevent activities “of the PKK and all other terrorist organizations and their extensions.” 

Istanbul also said the three countries agreed on not having national arms embargoes between them and would commit to establishing an intelligence sharing mechanism for counter-terrorism and to combat organized crime.

Erdoğan had said Sweden promised to extradite 73 people to Turkey because of the memorandum, which stipulates that Sweden and Finland will address Turkey’s pending extradition requests of terror suspects in accordance with the European Convention on Extradition.

President Volodymyr Zelensky says that the Ukrainian Armed Forces are now able to inflict “significant losses” on the Russians — and other Ukrainian officials have said that the influx of Western weapons is changing the battlefield.

In his daily video message, Zelensky said that the armed forces are “able to inflict significant logistical losses on the occupiers. It is increasingly difficult for the Russian army to hold positions on the captured territory. Step by step, we advance, disrupt the supply of the occupiers, and identify and neutralize collaborators.”

Valeriy Zaluzhniy, commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, said that the “timely arrival” of longer range artillery such as the US HIMARS system was helping to change the battlefield.

“We managed to stabilize the situation. It is complex, intense, but completely controlled. An important factor contributing to our retention of defensive lines and positions is the timely arrival of M142 HIMARS, which deliver surgical strikes on enemy control posts, ammunition and fuel storage depots,” Zaluzhniy said.

CNN has identified nearly twenty strikes far behind Russian lines, in Donetsk, Luhansk, Mykolaiv and Kherson regions, so far this month — some of them causing large explosions and multiple detonations.

Zaluzhniy said he had thanked Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the US, for the help of the US and its allies “in the struggle for freedom.”

Separately, Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, told Ukrainian television that “today, we really have a completely different situation than it was a month ago. Now, thanks to the fact that we receive enough weapons from our partners, we have established a certain parity in certain positions.”

Danilov said Ukraine would like more weapons in future to tip the balance in its favor “so that we have as many capabilities as possible to end this war as soon as possible.”

Speaking about the situation in Donbas, Serhiy Hayday, head of the Luhansk regional military administration, said Monday that “Western weapons work not at 100% but at 200% because [Russian] warehouses are blown up. Command posts are also blown up. “

Hayday said that “we can clearly understand that the Russians are really afraid of a further increase in those Western weapons.”

The US State Department is “aware” of the reports that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced he plans to suspend two of his top law enforcement officials over the weekend, citing instances of treason, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said at a briefing Monday.

“We’re aware of the reports, and we’ll continue to carefully monitor the situation. We are in daily contact with our Ukrainian partners,” Price said. 

The State Department is “leaning forward in terms of the information” they are sharing with Ukrainian partners to “help them build the case for accountability against those who may have perpetrated war crimes and other atrocities,” Price added. 

Most of the information that the US is passing to the Prosecutor General of Ukraine on a “routine basis” is “open-source information,” Price added.

“We do have an intelligence sharing relationship with our Ukrainian counterparts, that is we continue to proceed ahead with that,” Price said.

Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska will deliver remarks before the US Congress on Wednesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office announced Monday.

All members of the House and Senate are invited to the speech, which is set for 11 a.m. ET in the Congressional Auditorium at the Capitol Visitor Center in Washington, DC.

Both the Ukrainian military and the leadership of Russian-backed separatist-held Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) have been talking about the ongoing Russian offensive in Donetsk.

Ukrainian forces are still defending the towns of Bakhmut and Siversk, which are in the pocket of the Donetsk territory.

“The enemy continues offensive attempts in the direction of the cities of Bakhmut and Siversk” but is meeting pushback from Ukrainian forces, the Ukrainian General Staff said Monday.

At the same time, Russians are intensifying hostilities towards the town of Avdiivka, trying to improve their “tactical position,” but they were unsuccessful and had withdrawn, the General Staff added.

Avdiivka is immediately north of the city of Donetsk — but despite months of bombardment remains in Ukrainian hands. 

However, Eduard Basurin, a spokesperson for the DPR militia, claimed that preparations are underway “to carry out the tasks planned for the liberation of the republic’s territory. The same thing is happening in Avdiivka and in the Horlivka area.”

The goal of DPR forces was to surround Ukrainian forces in Bakhmut as well as ensure that territory held by the DPR is beyond the range of Ukrainian artillery, Basurin said, adding that advances by DPR forces along with Russian units and the Luhansk People’s militia would “make it possible to force” Ukrainian forces to retreat deep into the Ukraine territory, thereby securing both Donetsk and Yasynуvata and Makiivka from shelling.”

Here’s a look at the areas under Russian control:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky put forward a resolution to the country’s parliament to dismiss the head of Ukraine’s intelligence agency SBU, Ivan Bakanov. 

Zelensky suspended Bakanov and the Ukrainian Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova on Sunday, as he announced an investigation into their departments, due to the alleged presence of Russian collaborators.

“In accordance with paragraph 14 of the first part of Article 106 of the Constitution of Ukraine, I am filing a motion to dismiss [Ivan] Bakanov from the post of Head of the Security Service of Ukraine,” the draft resolution reads.

The resolution will be discussed at the next plenary session, which is expected to take place in the next 24 hours.

Ukrainian Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova said she will not discuss the decision by President Volodymyr Zelensky’s to suspend her while an investigation into her office is underway.

“I have not discussed this issue with anyone. And now I’m also refraining from comments for one simple reason — it’s not the right time,” she wrote on her official Facebook page on Monday.

“As soon as the stage of “settlement” of the existing situation is completed, adequately and understandably for all parties, I will give a comprehensive comment,” Venediktova wrote.

Zelensky suspended Venediktova and the head of the country’s intelligence service, SBU, Ivan Bakanov, on Sunday as he announced an investigation into their departments, due to the alleged presence of Russian collaborators.

In her comment, Venediktova added she would not argue the president’s decision or opinion, but said she was proud of her work. 

“I demonstrated good work results,” she wrote. “I managed to unite the legal, professional, and criminal procedural world elite around the problems of Ukraine in the interests of Ukraine.”

“If the corresponding resolution is registered in the walls of the Ukrainian Parliament, I will not hesitate for a second and will report to the people’s representatives,” she concluded.

Ukrainian officials have given further details of targets struck in Russian-occupied Kherson in the south of the country.

Serhii Khlan, adviser to the head of the Kherson civil-military administration, said the third target to be hit in the last 24 hours was in the district of Beryslav on the north bank of the river Dnieper. 

“The base of the invaders was destroyed, where they also placed both equipment and ammunition depots,” Khlan said.

Separately, Natalia Humeniuk, spokesperson for Operational Command South, told CNN that “at 5 a.m., our units struck a concentration of enemy, weapons and equipment, as well as an ammunition warehouse in the Raiske district [near Nova Kakhovka on the south bank of the river] and an ammunition warehouse in the Beryslav district.”

CNN has independently geolocated videos of a major explosion in Raiske at dawn Monday. 

Ukrainian forces have been targeting Russian ammunition sites and command posts in Kherson on an almost daily basis over the past two weeks in an effort to disrupt Russian supply lines. 

The Ukrainian Air Force said Russia has fired 3,000 missiles since the invasion of Ukraine started on Feb. 24. 

“As of today, the enemy has already fired about three thousand missiles of various types over Ukraine,” the Ukrainian Air Force said in a Facebook post Monday. “These are cruise missiles, air-to-surface missiles, operational-tactical missiles (Tochka-U, Iskander), as well as Onyx missiles of the Bastion coastal complex.”

CNN could not independently verify the Ukrainian Air Force’s claim. 

The Ukrainian Air Force also noted that recently, Moscow had started using more Soviet-era projectiles. 

“Increasingly, the enemy is using old Soviet missiles, such as X-59, X-22, X-31 and others, against the positions of the Ukrainian army and civilian objects,” the post said. “And in recent weeks, the enemy began to hit ground targets with anti-aircraft missiles from the S-300 complex, the main purpose of which is to destroy air targets.”

Marina Ovsyannikova, a former editor at a Russian state TV channel who held up an anti-war poster during a live news broadcast in March, was briefly detained in Moscow on Sunday, her lawyer Dmitry Zakhvatov told CNN on Monday.

Police detained Ovsyannikova for “actions aimed at discrediting the Russian army” after she recorded a video statement on Wednesday, according to Zakhvatov.

Marina Ovsyannikova held a solo protest action opposite the Kremlin Sunday.

According to the photos she shared on her Telegram channel, she held a poster saying, “Putin is a killer. His soldiers are fascists. 352 children died. How many more children have to die for you to stop?”

Read here about her past protest with an anti-war poster during a live broadcast on Russian state TV.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has acknowledged Moscow faces “colossal” difficulties in accessing high-tech goods due to Western sanctions, but said it was impossible to cut off his country from the world economy. 

“They are trying to set up barriers to restrain our development. Clearly, this is a huge challenge for our country,” Putin told a cabinet meeting on Monday.

“Not only are we not going to give up or — as some of our ‘well-wishers’ predict — regress to a few decades ago,” he said. “On the contrary, realizing the colossal amount of difficulties that we face, we will intensively and competently look for new solutions.”

The Russian president went on to say attempts to cut off his country from the rest of the world were “impossible.”

“It is clear that we cannot develop in isolation from the whole world. But we won’t,” he said. “In the modern world, it is impossible to … put up a huge fence. It’s just impossible!”

The battle for eastern and southern Ukraine is enduring as Ukrainian forces push back against Russian offensives in Donetsk and Mariupol.

Here are the latest headlines:

Zelensky suspends top officials and names interims: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has suspended, not fired his Prosecutor General and the head of the Security Service to prevent their interference in the investigations of some people in their departments, according to the deputy head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Andrii Smyrnov. Talking to Ukrainian television on Monday, Smyrnov said Ukraine identifies enemy “collaborators in these law enforcement agencies every week.” In separate presidential decrees issued on Monday, Zelensky named the first deputy head of the Secret Service, Vasyl Maliuk, to temporarily replace Ivan Bakanov, and Ukraine’s deputy prosecutor general, Oleksii Symonenko, to lead in Iryna Venediktova’s stead.

Foreign ministers’ meeting: At the European Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Brussels, the focus is on Ukraine. Ahead of the meeting, the EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Monday said that they will not “stop supporting Ukraine and putting sanctions on Russia.” Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted the main points of his message to the EU: “weapons to Ukraine, sanctions on Russia, and accountability for Russia are the three ways to restore peace, enhance security, and protect stability in Europe.”

Battle for the South: Ukrainian officials say a steady flow of Russian military equipment is moving westward from Mariupol toward other parts of southern Ukraine, where Ukrainian forces are on the offensive. A convoy of up to 100 units of military equipment passed through Mariupol in the direction of Zaporizhzhia on Saturday, according to Ukrainian officials. Some independent analysts believe this is to support Russian forces in Kherson that have come under attack from Ukrainian long-range weapons. Towns in Donetsk have been under constant shelling in Russia’s attempt for control. On Monday, a Ukrainian official said that a two-story building in Toretsk was hit, from which “the rescue service found and recovered the bodies of 5 dead people.”

Ukrainian defense: Ukraine has struck two warehouses in Russian-occupied territory — one in Chulakivka late on Sunday and another in Raiske in the early hours of Monday morning, the adviser to the head of Kherson’s military administration, Serhii Khlan, told CNN. The Ukrainian military said Russian forces are also trying to eliminate its defensive positions in Donetsk, with the town of Siversk their immediate priority, but they appear to be defending terrain further west with tenacity — despite superior Russian firepower. 

Here’s a look at the areas under Russian control:

Ukraine’s Interior Ministry says a two-story building in the town of Toretsk was hit early Monday, as Russian forces intensify the shelling of Ukrainian defenses in Donetsk region.

“The rescue service found and recovered the bodies of 5 dead people,” the ministry said. “Three people were rescued from the rubble, 1 of whom died in the hospital.”

Toretsk and surrounding towns have frequently come under fire from Russian lines to the south.

Some context: Ukraine’s military said on Monday that it had repulsed Russian attempts to advance in Donetsk.

The General Staff said that north of the city of Sloviansk more than ten settlements had come under fire.

Russians continue to shell areas along the border of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions and to persist with a ground assault to the east of the city of Lysychansk, which they took last month.

Little territory has changed hands in Donbas since the fall of Lysychansk as Ukrainian forces have adopted new defensive positions.

Ukraine’s foreign minister has called on the European Union to send additional weapons to his country and to impose additional sanctions on Russia.

“Today, I addressed EU ministers at the Foreign Affairs Council,” Dmytro Kuleba tweeted on Monday. “My key message: weapons to Ukraine, sanctions on Russia, and accountability for Russia are the three ways to restore peace, enhance security, and protect stability in Europe

“Weapons: grateful for the extra €500 mln under the EPF and urge additional bilateral military aid,” Kuleba added.

Addressing the issue of further sanctions on Russia, the Ukrainian minister said: “Energy embargo, price cap on oil, ban on all Russian TV channels.”

“I encourage EU states to support the Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression Against Ukraine,” Kuleba wrote.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has named the temporary heads of the country’s intelligence agency and prosecutor’s office, while the current leadership is suspended pending an investigation into the two departments.

The first deputy head of the Security Service of Ukraine, Vasyl Maliuk, will “temporarily” lead the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), according to a presidential decree published on Monday.

Another presidential decree issued on Monday said Ukraine’s deputy prosecutor general, Oleksii Symonenko, will lead the prosecutor’s office in the interim.

The head of the Ukrainian intelligence agency Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), Ivan Bakanov, and the country’s Prosecutor General, Iryna Venediktova, have not been dismissed from their posts, but instead suspended while an investigation is carried out, according to a senior member of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s administration

The pair were suspended to guarantee they would not interfere in the investigation of some of the people working in each of their departments, the official said.

“We have been waiting for more concrete and sufficiently radical results from the leaders of these two departments, to clean these two departments of collaborators and state traitors,” Andrii Smyrnov, the deputy head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, told Ukrainian television on Monday.

“However, in the sixth month of the war, we continue to find … packs of these people, in each of these departments,” he added.

Smyrnov said the move was aimed at preventing “the potential influence of these two officials on the criminal proceedings that are being investigated regarding … employees.”

Based on the results of official inspections and investigations, Smyrnov said Zelensky will decide whether or not to submit a motion to parliament to dismiss the prosecutor general, and the head of the Security Service of Ukraine.

Smyrnov also said that Ukraine identifies “collaborators in these law enforcement agencies every week.”

Some context: In his nightly video address on Sunday, Zelensky announced that he had taken the “decision to remove the Prosecutor General from office and to dismiss the Head of the Security Service of Ukraine,” adding that more that 60 employees in both offices were suspected of treason.

Resolving Russia’s blockade of Ukrainian grain supplies is a matter of “life and death for many human beings,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Monday.

What will they talk about? The meeting will focus on Ukraine. Kyiv’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba is expected to join the meeting and report on the situation on the ground.

Ministers will discuss how to better implement sanctions against Russia and increase military support for Ukraine, Borrell said.

Gas supply: On Wednesday, the EU Commission will discuss gas supply and the bloc’s reliance on Russian energy.

“We are not going to stop supporting Ukraine and putting sanctions on Russia,” Borrell said.

“Certainly there is a risk to our energy supply. Everybody knows (that),” Borrell said.

He added that the EU Commission and Council were prepared to face “any possible situation.”

Social media videos published early Monday showed large explosions in the Kherson region, close to the River Dnipro. 

Serhii Khlan, an adviser to the head of the Kherson civil-military administration, told CNN that two warehouses in Russian-occupied territory had been struck – one in Chulakivka at 11pm local time Sunday and the other in Raiske near Nova Kakhovk at 5am local time Monday. He said detonations had continued for several hours In Raiske.

Social media video showed a large plume of smoke rising over the river. 

Some context: Ukrainian forces had previously targeted a large warehouse said to contain Russian munitions in Nova Kakhovka, setting off multiple detonations and sending a huge fireball into the sky.

The arrival of high-precision long-range artillery and rocket systems from western allies has allowed Ukrainian forces to target Russian supply lines and storage sites far behind the front lines.

The Ukrainian military said Monday that shelling of its defenses across Donetsk is continuing, but renewed attempts by Russian forces to win territory have been foiled.

The General Staff said that north of the city of Sloviansk more than ten settlements had come under fire. Most civilians left the area weeks ago.

The Russians continued to shell areas along the border of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions and were persisting with a ground assault to the east of the city of Lysychansk, which they took last month.

Ukrainian forces still defending this pocket of territory in eastern Donetsk region are being attacked from two sides as the Russians try to close in on the town of Siversk. But the General Staff said that “our defenders successfully repulsed the assaults in the areas of Verkhniokamianske, Spirne and Serebrianka settlements,” all close to Siversk. 

The Ukrainian military said Russian efforts to attack from the south, near Bakhmut, had also been rebuffed.

At a standstill: Overall, very little territory has changed hands in Donbas since the fall of Lysychansk as Ukrainian forces have adopted new defensive positions.

Oleksandr Honcharenko, the mayor of Kramatorsk, said that early Monday, there had been four strikes on an industrial zone in the city. Kramatorsk is some distance from the front lines but one of several cities in the west of Donetsk region that are seeing an uptick in long-range Russian missile and rocket attacks. 

In the south, the military said the Russians had tried to carry out an airstrike in northern Kherson, parts of which were liberated in recent weeks. 

“After attacking our positions, the [enemy] immediately retreated under the onslaught of fire,” Operational Command South said. It claimed that Ukrainian aircraft had hit Russian weapons and ammunition near Davydiv Brid, on the border of Kherson and Mykolaiv regions.

Elsewhere in the south, heavy shelling was reported overnight in the town of Nikopol in Dnipropetrovsk region, with about ten homes and a power plant hit.

At least 353 Ukrainian children have died and more than 665 been injured due to Russia’s invasion, the Ukrainian Juvenile Prosecutor’s Office said on Monday.

Most injuries were reported in Donetsk, Kharkiv and Kyiv, it said.

It said at least 2,138 educational institutions have been damaged, of which 221 have been completely destroyed.

Russian forces hit Pokrovsk, a city in Donetsk region, with two Iskander-M ballistic missiles on Saturday, killing at least one person and injuring 14, according to Marharyta Idrisova, the city’s deputy mayor.

“Fourteen people were injured with medium and light injuries and were admitted to the hospital,” Idrisova said.

“Unfortunately, there’s one dead civilian. It’s a woman born in 1987, she was simply sitting on the bench when the strike took place,” she added. 

Idrisova said 30 buildings in the city were damaged in the strike. 

Pokrovsk is 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the front lines but has seen an uptick in missile and air strikes as Russian forces try to weaken Ukrainian defenses in Donetsk.

The battle for southern Ukraine is heating up, with Russia sending reinforcements westward from Mariupol as its forces come under attack from Ukrainian long-range weapons.

Here’s what you need to know:

Battle for the South: Ukrainian officials say a steady flow of Russian military equipment is moving westward from Mariupol toward other parts of southern Ukraine, where Ukrainian forces are on the offensive. A convoy of up to 100 units of military equipment passed through Mariupol in the direction of Zaporizhzhia on Saturday, according to Ukrainian officials. Some independent analysts believe this is to support Russian forces in Kherson that have come under attack from Ukrainian long-range weapons.

Russian advance foiled: The Ukrainian military says Russian forces are trying to eliminate its defensive positions in Donetsk, with the town of Siversk their immediate priority. After withdrawing from the city of Lysychansk last month, the Ukrainians appear to be defending terrain further west with tenacity – despite superior Russian firepower.

Zelensky fires top officials: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has dismissed his Prosecutor General and the head of the Security Service, saying many officials in both departments are suspected of treason and collaborating with Russia. He said 651 criminal proceedings had been registered regarding treason and collaboration and that “more than 60 employees of the prosecutor’s office and the Security Service of Ukraine remained in the occupied territory and are working against our state.” Among those detained on suspicion of treason is the former head of the Main Directorate of the Security Service in Crimea.

Funeral for girl, 4: A funeral was held on Sunday for a 4-year-old girl who died during Russian strikes on the central Ukrainian town of Vinnytsia. Ukrainian broadcaster Suspilne aired video of Sunday’s funeral for the girl, Liza. The footage showed mourners surrounding her casket, a crown of flowers on her head and stuffed animals surrounding her body. “It’s to avoid pictures like this that I sent my own children away,” said Ukrainian MP Lesia Vasylenko. “And it’s why I urge Ukrainian mothers with kids to temporarily seek safety abroad whenever possible.”

Ukrainian officials say a steady flow of Russian military equipment continues to move westward from Mariupol toward other parts of southern Ukraine, where Ukrainian forces are on the offensive.

The assertion is supported by recently geolocated video of Russian armor moving through parts of southern Ukraine.

Andriushenko, who is not in Mariupol, said “a large convoy of up to 100 units of military equipment passed through the city in the direction of the Zaporizhzhia region” on Saturday. The column included infantry fighting vehicles.

“In addition, a large number of Russian soldiers, brought in by KAMAZ trucks, settled in the villages of the Nikolske and Manhush districts” – two districts west of Mariupol.

Last week, CNN geolocated a large Russian military convoy heading west near the city of Melitopol in the Zaporizhzhia region.

Photographs posted in a Mariupol local community group on July 15 also appeared to show Russian military vehicles on the move through the city on the way to Berdiansk.

Some independent analysts believe the Russians are moving forces westward potentially to support Russian forces that are on the defensive in Kherson after coming under attack by Ukrainian long-range weapons.

On Sunday, Ivan Fedorov, the mayor of Melitopol, said there had been a number of explosions south of the city (in Yakymivka – where Ukrainian saboteurs blew up a railroad bridge in April.) He gave no explanation, but Russian bases in the region have been struck by long-range Ukrainian artillery at least three times this month.

Fedorov said Russian forces were increasing the pressure on the civilian population in Melitopol, sealing off neighborhoods and conducting questionnaires.

Fedorov added some 500 people were stranded at the Russian-controlled checkpoint in Vasylivka, the last remaining crossing-point for civilians to reach Ukrainian-controlled territory.

In Kherson, where Russian command posts and ammunition dumps have come under attack in recent weeks, Ukraine’s Operational Command South said “units of the Russian occupying forces (have) massively changed their deployment points, trying to hide behind the civilian population.”

It claimed that Russian forces have abandoned some bases for fear of further strikes and chosen “new deployment locations in densely populated residential areas, hoping that the defense forces of Ukraine will not carry out strikes that could be a threat to local residents.”

The Ukrainian military says Russian forces are continuing their efforts to eliminate its defensive positions in Donetsk, with the town of Siversk their immediate priority.

After withdrawing from the city of Lysychansk last month, the Ukrainians appear to be defending terrain further west with tenacity – despite superior Russian firepower.

Last week, the leadership of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic claimed that Siversk had been taken, but western intelligence assessments are that it is still held by the Ukrainians. The General Staff said Sunday that another attempt by the Russians to break through towards Siversk had been foiled near Hryhorivka.

The General Staff said several settlements south of Bakhmut had been shelled, while towns further from the front lines had been hit by missile and airstrikes. 

After what some observers regarded as an operational pause by Russian forces to re-equip, it appears they are now trying to advance on the ground again, but are meeting stiff resistance.

“The occupiers tried to storm and advance near Berestove, Bilohorivka, Yakovlivka, and Novoluhanske,” all settlements within the pocket of Donetsk that the Ukrainians are trying to defend, the General Staff said.

“The actions of the enemy again ended in failure and loss of personnel,” it added

The General Staff also said there had been shelling of more than ten districts north of the city of Sloviansk, but did not say whether any territory had been lost in the area.

Two important figures in the Ukrainian government have been suspended after their leadership qualities came into question.

In his nightly video address on Sunday, Zelensky appeared to suggest that the pair had been fired. “Today I made a decision to remove the Prosecutor General from office and to dismiss the Head of the Security Service of Ukraine,” Zelensky said, adding that many officials within both departments were suspected of treason.

But Andrii Smyrnov, the deputy dead of the Office of the President of Ukraine, said Monday that the pair have been suspended to ensure they did not interfere with the investigations.

Zelensky will decide whether or not to submit a motion to dismiss them to Ukraine’s parliament, depending on the results of the probe.

The two suspended high-ranking officials are Iryna Venediktova — the Prosecutor General — and Ivan Bakanov — head of the powerful SBU or State Security Service, and a long-time associate of the Ukrainian president.

Zelensky said many officials within both departments are suspected of treason.

“As of today, 651 criminal proceedings have been registered regarding treason and collaboration activities of employees of prosecutor’s offices, pretrial investigation bodies, and other law enforcement agencies,” he said.

“In particular, more than 60 employees of the prosecutor’s office and the Security Service of Ukraine remained in the occupied territory and are working against our state.”

Explaining his decision, Zelensky said, “Such an array of crimes against the foundations of the national security of the state and the connections detected between the employees of the security forces of Ukraine and the special services of Russia pose very serious questions to the relevant leadership. Each of these questions will receive a proper answer.”

Zelensky said the former head of the Main Directorate of the Security Service in Crimea had been detained on suspicion of treason.

“Everyone who together with him was part of a criminal group that worked in the interests of the Russian Federation will also be held accountable. It is about the transfer of secret information to the enemy and other facts of cooperation with the Russian special services.”

Senior officials in the SBU in southern Ukraine have been blamed for the ease with which Russian forces were able to capture large areas of the south within a week of the invasion.

Zelensky indicated there would be further action.

“The specific actions and any inaction of each official in the security sector and in law enforcement agencies will be evaluated. The corresponding inspection of law enforcement agencies has already yielded the first results and will be continued.”

Zelensky also said the prime minister would be tasked with intensifying the search for a new head of the National Anticorruption Bureau.

Editor’s note: This post has been updated with the presidential adviser’s comments clarifying that the two staffers were suspended.

A funeral was held on Sunday for a 4-year-old girl who died during Russian strikes on the central Ukrainian town of Vinnytsia. 

Ukrainian broadcaster Suspilne aired video of Sunday’s funeral for the girl, Liza. Mourners were shown gathering around her casket. There was a crown of flowers on her head and stuffed animals surrounding her.  

Suspilne said that several dozen people attended the funeral and Liza was buried in the city cemetery in Sabarov. 

Ukrainian MP Lesia Vasylenko posted a photo on Twitter of Liza’s casket and wrote, “Today was 4-year-old Liza’s funeral. She was far from the frontline. Farther than Kyiv. She was killed by Russia. It’s to avoid pictures like this that I sent my own children away. And it’s why I urge Ukrainian mothers with kids to temporarily seek safety abroad whenever possible.”