The latest news from Russia’s Ukraine war: Mongolia refuses to arrest Putin on an ICC warrant as Moscow steps up its offensive in the east

Russia’s defense ministry said it had deployed an additional air defense system in the Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine.

A state of emergency was declared in the region last month, with governor Vyacheslav Gladkov warning that the situation was “extremely difficult” due to daily Ukrainian attacks in the region.

Belgorod is a neighbor of the Kursk region, where Ukraine has launched an unprecedented incursion into Russian territory.

Russian forces have stepped up attacks in eastern Ukraine, with nearly 200 clashes reported on the front line in just 24 hours, Ukraine’s military said.

There were 197 clashes on the front line on Tuesday, up from 182 the previous day, Ukraine’s military general staff said, with the situation most tense near Pokrovsk.

There were 56 clashes near the city of Donetsk, which is a key logistics hub for Ukraine and has been a key target in recent attacks on Moscow.

I smiled as the armored personnel carrier I passed passed the ruins of the Russian passport control building on the border with Ukraine, and I entered – visa-free – a country that in 2022 is launching Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II.

I described what I saw elsewhere The Independentbut here I want to describe some of the emotions I felt in the assignment that is very different from most journeys I have ever written about.

I don’t usually post photos of myself on Facebook, but I want my friends to see me smiling in the center of the Russian city of Sudzha with a headless statue of Lenin – still a symbol of power and imperialism in Putin’s Russia – behind me. me.

In a career spanning four decades, journalist Askold Krushelnycky has seen the brutality of the Russian regime but now crosses the Ukrainian-Russian border in a tank. As Ukraine establishes a foothold in Kursk, can it finally move?

Iran will begin shipping ballistic missiles to Russia “immediately”, adding to existing exports of Shahed-type drones, a Washington-based think-tank said.

Tehran could start delivering missiles “within days”, according to an unnamed European official, Bloomberg reported.

“The acquisition of Russia’s Ababil or Fateh-360 ballistic missiles will allow Russian forces to attack targets near the rear of Ukraine while maintaining a stockpile of Russian domestically-made missiles, such as Iskanders, to target Ukraine in the rear, as previously assessed by CTP-ISW. “ISW think-tank said. in the most recent evaluation.

The think tank cited a European intelligence source from last month that said Iran and Russia signed a contract in December 2023 for Iran to deliver the Ababil short-range ballistic missile and the Fateh-360 short-range ballistic missile (SRBM) to Russia.

Intelligence sources added that dozens of Russian military personnel are currently training Iran to operate the Fateh-360 missile, ISW said.

An eight-year-old boy was among two people killed in a Russian strike in the Zaporizhzhia region of southeastern Ukraine, while a third was killed in a missile strike in the central city of Dnipro, the regional governor said.

Two people were also injured in Zaporizhzhia, regional governor Ivan Fedorov said, including a 12-year-old girl who was in intensive care.

Last day, there were 313 attacks and shooting incidents in 11 settlements, destroying several buildings in Zaporizhzhia, Fedorov added, including a missile attack on the city of the same name, which is the administrative center of the region.

Russian forces also fired missiles into the central city of Dnipro yesterday evening, killing one person and injuring three while destroying homes in one district, according to Serhiy Lysak, Dnipropetrovsk regional governor.

Ukraine’s air force shot down 27 of 35 drones launched by Russia during an overnight attack today, officials said.

The air force also said Russian forces used three ballistic missiles and one guided missile in the attack, according to a statement.

No immediate casualties or damage were reported in the initial update.

Hours before Vladimir Putin landed in Mongolia yesterday to discuss a possible focus on a new gas pipeline linking Russia and China, people in the capital Ulaanbaatar were preparing to demonstrate against the Russian president’s “war criminals”.

An International Criminal Court arrest warrant issued last year against Putin obliges the court’s 124 member states, including Mongolia, to arrest the Russian president and send him to The Hague to face trial if he steps on its territory.

Rafael Grossi, the head of the international nuclear agency, is set to visit the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant before meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv, Ukraine’s president said.

Mr. Grossi, director of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s nuclear watchdog, said on Monday in a post on X that he was going to the plant to “continue to help and help prevent a nuclear accident.”

Mr Zelensky said there was no immediate prospect of Ukraine taking back control of the plant given the situation on the front line.

“It’s safer for Ukraine to control the Zaporizhzhia plant, but so far, from the point of view of the battlefield, I don’t see that possibility, and that there might be, it’s dangerous,” Zelensky said.

Russian agencies reported yesterday that the plant’s high-voltage power supply line was automatically disconnected, but the plant’s needs were supplied from another line. There is no reason to turn it off automatically.

A nuclear facility in southeastern Ukraine – the largest nuclear power plant in Europe and now “dead cold” – fell to Russian forces on the first day of a full-scale invasion of Moscow in 2022.

Both sides have since frequently accused each other of destroying the plant and Moscow and Kyiv have denied the allegations.