According to President Volodymyr Zelensky, the Russian units were repelled from the city of Irpin near Kyiv, which had been fought over for weeks.

However, fighting continued there and in other parts of the country.

Russian troops controlled the north of Kiev region, had resources and forces.

They tried to rebuild shattered units.

The situation also remains “very difficult” in the Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Donbass and southern Ukraine regions.

Selenskyj again called for stricter sanctions against Russia because of the war of aggression that began more than a month ago.

According to their own statements, the Ukrainian armed forces are trying to ward off attacks by Russian units in several places.

The Russian advance on the city of Slovjansk in the Donetsk region in the south-east of the country and on the small town of Barvinkove in the Kharkiv region, about an hour's drive away, is said to be in the process of being stopped, according to the situation report of the Ukrainian General Staff, which was published on Tuesday night on Facebook became.

Kremlin spokesman: No pay - no gas

After the EU largely refused to pay for gas deliveries in rubles, Russia is continuing to threaten to stop deliveries.

"No pay - no gas," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told PBS.

Moscow wants to wait for the final answer from the EU and then determine the next steps.

"But we definitely don't intend to present ourselves as benefactors and deliver free gas to Western Europe," Peskov said.

Kremlin boss Vladimir Putin had ordered that natural gas could only be delivered to "unfriendly" states like Germany against payment in rubles.

This has already been rejected by some countries with reference to breach of contract.

Kremlin: No plans to use nuclear weapons in the Ukraine war

At the same time, Kremlin spokesman Peskov countered speculation that Moscow could use nuclear weapons in the Ukraine war.

"No one in Russia thinks about using or even thinking about using nuclear weapons," he said in the PBS interview.

Russia only resorts to the nuclear arsenal if there is a “threat to the existence” of the state.

The state existence of Russia and the events in Ukraine have "nothing to do with each other".

Concern in the West about Moscow's possible nuclear weapons plans increased when Putin ordered the Russian nuclear forces to be on alert at the start of the war of aggression in Ukraine.

Biden: Do not take back statement on Putin

US President Joe Biden stands by his controversial statement about Putin in the Ukraine war, but does not want it to be understood as a call for a change of power in Moscow.

"I'm not taking anything back," Biden said at the White House.

“People like that shouldn't run countries, but they do.

But the fact that they are doing it doesn't mean that I can't express my outrage." This is not associated with a call for a change of power in the Kremlin.

Biden had called Putin a "dictator" during a speech in Warsaw on Saturday evening and concluded with the words: 

"

For God's sake, this man cannot stay in power."

Half a million Ukrainians have returned since the war began

According to the Ukrainian border police, around 510,000 people have returned from abroad since the start of the Russian war of aggression.

In the past week alone there were 110,000 people, said a spokesman for the authority of the daily newspaper "Welt".

Eight out of ten travelers are men.

Most come from Poland.

Before the war began, around 44 million people lived in Ukraine.

According to the UN refugee agency UNHCR, around 3.9 million people have fled abroad.

IAEA: Ukraine reports no damage to nuclear material in Kharkiv

A recent shelling damaged a nuclear research facility in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, but its small amount of nuclear material remained intact.

This was announced by the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, on Monday evening, citing information from the Ukrainian nuclear regulatory authority.

That will be important on Tuesday

Around four and a half weeks after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Moscow and Kyiv will start a new round of negotiations in Turkey on Tuesday.

The delegations from Russia and Ukraine will meet at around 9:30 a.m. CEST on Tuesday morning at the President's Dolmabahce office in Istanbul, the Turkish presidential office announced on Monday evening.

Before the talks begin, the Turkish side wants to meet with the delegations, said President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after a cabinet meeting in Ankara.