Pro-Russian separatists in the Donbass region in eastern Ukraine announced that the conditions are favorable to encircle the Ukrainian forces on the Bakhmut front and narrow the siege on them, and while the Kremlin described the Chinese peace plan as a "long and exhausting process," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that Russia's "invasion" of Ukraine launched widespread violations. human rights.

The leader of the separatist "Donetsk People's Republic" Denis Pushilin said that the conditions on the Bakhmut front are favorable for encircling what he called the enemy and narrowing the siege on him.

Igor Kimakovsky, advisor to the governor of Donetsk, said that all roads leading to Bakhmut are under the fire control of the Russian forces, but it is too early to talk about a complete encirclement of the city, as he put it.

He explained that the Ukrainian forces are trying to deliver supplies into the city, but their efforts failed and incurred heavy losses.

For his part, Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the Wagner Company, said that intelligence information confirms the start of the arrival of German "Leopard" tanks to the Ukrainian forces in the city of Chasev Yar, adjacent to Bakhmut, stressing that the Ukrainian forces have not used them yet.


On the other hand, the Ukrainian army said that the commander of the ground forces, Oleksandr Sersky, visited Bakhmut to raise the morale of the fighters and hold strategic talks with the units defending the city and the surrounding villages.

And the Ukrainian Ground Forces published - via the Telegram application - that Sersky "listened to the unit commanders about their handling of urgent problems, provided assistance in resolving them and declared his support for the soldiers."

The 57-year-old commander - one of the most experienced Ukrainian leaders - is seen as the mastermind behind the defeat of Russian forces as they advanced towards Kiev early in the war - which broke out on February 24, 2022 - and in the Kharkiv region last September.

After he was assigned to defend Bakhmut, Sersky visited the city several times, and assured that the Ukrainian forces would not abandon it.


The dismissal of the Ukrainian commander

On the other hand, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed on Sunday a senior military commander involved in leading the battles against Russian forces in the east of the country, but he did not give a reason for this move.

In a one-line decree, Zelensky announced the dismissal of Eduard Moskaliev from the post of commander of the joint forces of Ukraine, which is fighting in the Donbass region.

Zelensky mentioned Moskalev by name in his daily speech last Friday when he referred to military leaders he spoke to, and Moskalov took office in March 2022, that is, shortly after the start of the war.

And in the field developments, the Ukrainian Staff Command said that its forces repelled 71 Russian attacks - most of them on the fighting axes in the Donbass region, in the east of the country - in the last hours.

It added that it had thwarted several Russian attempts to advance towards the locations of its forces in the city of Bakhmut.


Drone attack

In a related context, a Russian attack by drones believed to be Iranian-made this morning, Monday, killed two people and wounded 3 in Khmelnytskyi, in western Ukraine, according to what the city's mayor announced.

On the other hand, the Russian army said that it targeted the "Special Operations Command Center in the West" near the city of Khmelnytsky.

On Monday morning, the Al-Jazeera correspondent reported that sirens sounded throughout Ukraine, as the authorities warned of an air danger.

This came after the Ukrainian forces announced that the Russian army launched an attack with about 14 drones on the northern side of the country, including the capital, Kiev, and that the defenses shot down 11 of them.

At the same time, the Ukrainian military administration in Khmelnytskyi (west of the country) announced that one person was killed and 4 others were injured as a result of a Russian drone attack.

Earlier, the military administration of the capital said that since last night Kiev had been subjected to an air attack with explosive drones, and that the air defenses were dealing with the matter, and the administration called on residents to stay in shelters.


Chinese initiative

Politically, the Russian presidency (the Kremlin) considered the peace plan proposed by China to resolve the Ukrainian crisis a "long and exhausting process," saying that its details must be subject to careful analysis and calculations.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said - today, Monday - that the Kremlin attaches great importance to the peace plan put forward by Chinese friends, but its details must be subject to careful analysis and calculations, and it is a long and cumbersome process.

Peskov described the tenth package of sanctions imposed by the European Union imposed on his country as "nonsense."


Peskov stressed that the return of Crimea to Ukraine is impossible, because it is an integral part of Russia, as he put it.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree concluding the first contract for military service with foreigners for a year.

According to the legal information website that published the document, contracts for foreigners wishing to serve in the military at the ranks of soldier and sergeant are concluded for a period of one year.

It is noteworthy that the legislation allowed the conclusion of similar contracts for a period of 5 years.

Last year, the Russian President signed a decree allowing foreigners who conclude contracts to serve in the ranks of the Russian army to obtain Russian citizenship according to short and simplified administrative procedures.

International criticism

And in Geneva, the Russo-Ukraine war dominated the opening debates in the United Nations Human Rights Council and the Conference on Disarmament.

"Russia's invasion of Ukraine unleashed the most massive human rights violation we are witnessing today," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said during the opening of the 52nd session of the Human Rights Council.

For his part, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk also denounced what he called "a return to the old authoritarianism and destructive wars of aggression from bygone times, which have global repercussions, as we see in Europe after Russia's crazy invasion of Ukraine."

At the Conference on Disarmament, which also kicks off today, Monday, at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva, British Secretary of State for Europe Leo Docherty read out a statement on behalf of more than 30 countries in which he indicated that the "Russian invasion" constitutes a threat not only to Ukraine, but also to international peace and security and international order. , According to him.


Trial of Russian soldiers

In Ukraine, the Security Service said today, Monday, that a Ukrainian court had sentenced two captive soldiers to prison, on charges of participating in Russian bombing of residential areas in eastern Ukraine.

The agency stated in a statement that the court sentenced one of the two soldiers to 10 years in prison and the other to 9 years in prison.

The statement did not mention the names of the two soldiers, their self-defence, or the time of the verdict, but it stated that they participated in the war in eastern Ukraine and were captured last year.