Russian forces in Donbass have almost completed preparations for a new offensive, according to Ukrainian data.

The start of "active combat operations" in this area is expected in the very near future, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense said in Kyiv, according to the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.

The Ukrainian General Staff stated in its daily situation reports that Russia was also planning provocations in the West from Transnistria, which had broken away from the Republic of Moldova.

Russian soldiers are in the area.

In his daily video speech late Sunday evening, President Volodymyr Zelenskyi prepared the Ukrainians for the upcoming intensification of fighting in the east and Russian airstrikes.

Gerhard Gnauck

Political correspondent for Poland, Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania based in Warsaw.

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Zelenskyj reported on his recent phone call with Chancellor Olaf Scholz: "I am pleased to note that the German position has recently changed in favor of Ukraine." He thanked the German people for supporting Ukraine.

"But I expect that what we have agreed will also be implemented," said Selenskyj about the conversation with Scholz.

The German armaments group Rheinmetall has announced to the "Handelsblatt" its readiness to deliver up to 50 Leopard 1 battle tanks.

The first Leopard 1 could be delivered in six weeks if the federal government agrees.

It's about old tanks that were returned to Rheinmetall after their use and still need to be overhauled.

Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) approved the delivery of heavy weapons to Ukraine on Monday at the start of an EU foreign ministers' meeting in Luxembourg.

In a speech to the South Korean parliament on Monday, Zelenskyy again called for a rapid expansion of arms deliveries to his country.

This would not only save lives in Ukraine, Zelenskyy said, "but also other states from a further increase in Russian aggression".

In an interview with the American broadcaster CBS, Zelenskyy warned against refusing aid to Ukraine for fear of a nuclear escalation: "No one in the world can predict what Russia will do, regardless of whether there is war in Ukraine or not." The further Russia advances in Ukraine, the stronger and less predictable it becomes.

Meanwhile, Ukraine's border guards are beginning to regain control of the borders with Belarus and Russia in areas from which Russian troops have withdrawn.

According to the border guards and the governor of the Chernihiv region, problems are caused by the fact that the withdrawing attackers have mined many streets and buildings.

The Ukrainian civil protection agency expects that mines and duds will have to be searched for in almost half of Ukraine's territory.

Iryna Vereshchuk, Kyiv's Minister for the Occupied Territories, told FAZ that Ukraine wants to use the container module solution to accommodate refugees inside the country.

After the beginning of the Russian aggression in 2014, Berlin delivered five modular villages to Ukraine.

“We are very grateful for that.

Now we have a strategy for new villages because of the war, we are now looking for sponsors for it.

We would be happy if Germany would take part.” The villages are not to be set up along the western border, but distributed over the areas of western and central Ukraine.

While more than 4.5 million people have fled Ukraine since the war began, another 7 million are internally displaced.