Russian forces and separatists loyal to them continue to advance on the fighting fronts in eastern and southern Ukraine, and while the evacuation of trapped civilians from the Azovstal complex in Mariupol has stopped, the United States hopes to return its diplomats to Kyiv at the end of this month.
A spokesman for the pro-Russian separatists in Donetsk (eastern Ukraine) said that they had taken control of 173 towns and residential areas since the beginning of the military operation, confirming that 39 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed in the battles on Monday on the various fronts of Donetsk.
According to field sources, Russian forces have now controlled a large part of the city of Robyzhny in Lugansk Province.
In a parallel context, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry acknowledged that the Russian army had made progress in the western part of the Donbass region, but stressed that its forces were still repelling the attacks launched in the eastern and southern regions.
As the battles approached some cities, some of those who remained in the Lugansk and Donetsk provinces decided to move out to safer areas.
In turn, the Russian Defense Ministry said that its forces had shot down a Ukrainian "Mig-29" fighter near Slaviansk in the Donetsk region, and that it had bombed 38 Ukrainian facilities, including ammunition depots, and destroyed 10 marches and two "Tochka-U" missiles.
The Russian Defense Ministry released pictures that it said were targeting the military infrastructure of the Ukrainian armed forces with "Onyx" missiles launched from the Black Sea coast.
The Russian Bastion coastal missile systems - which use supersonic winged Onyx missiles - are a mobile coastal missile system intended to destroy naval ships, including large and medium landing ships and aircraft carriers.
On the other hand, the Southern Operations Command of the Ukrainian forces said that they had shot down a Russian drone over the Black Sea off the shores of Odessa, and that areas in the province had been attacked by three Russian missiles.
She added that the Russian army continues to target the bridge on the estuary of the "Dniester" river - which connects Odessa with Romania and Moldova - in order to destroy it.
The authorities in Odessa imposed a curfew in the city, which paralyzed the movement and stopped public transport.
The Internal Security Forces had said that they had carried out a large-scale security operation against what they described as supporters of Russia in Odessa, and arrested a number of them.
In Kherson (south), the Ukrainian armed forces posted on their Telegram account a video of a cloud of smoke caused by an explosion in the Chornabayevka region, where the Kherson airport is located, which is used by the Russian army for military purposes.
For his part, Oleksiy Aristovich, Ukrainian presidential advisor, posted a tweet on Twitter, in which he indicated that the explosion occurred in a Russian ammunition depot as a result of a Ukrainian raid.
For his part, Yury Sak, an advisor to the Ukrainian Defense Minister, said that his country's forces are still fighting battles in the east of the country, and that Russia has not achieved tangible gains in the region.
The advisor explained - in an interview with Al-Jazeera - that "the one who looks at the map of military activity in the past two weeks will not notice any tangible change, as the armed forces are still defending" the east of the country "and at other times they launch counterattacks."
secret rescue
Yuri Sak described the evacuation of the trapped people from Mariupol as a "covertly shrouded" operation, saying that it focused on civilians, and might include soldiers at a later time.
Efforts to evacuate more civilians from the devastated Ukrainian port city of Mariupol were disrupted on Monday, with hundreds of people still trapped in the Azovstal steel plant, the last stronghold of Ukrainian forces inside the city.
The reason for the delay was not clear, although a city official said earlier that Russian forces resumed bombing the factory on Sunday after a convoy of buses left.
Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that about 100 civilians have been evacuated from the Azovstal complex in Mariupol so far.
The Ukrainian president indicated that work is underway to evacuate more civilians trapped in the complex.
On the other hand, the Russian Defense Ministry stated that 80 civilians were evacuated, adding that these civilians were handed over to representatives of the United Nations and the International Red Cross.
Ending the military operation
Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that his country does not intend to end the military operation by the ninth of May, which falls on the Russians' Victory Day.
Lavrov added - in statements to Italian television - that Russia will not stop its efforts to prevent the outbreak of a nuclear war, and that it does not have any plans to change the Kyiv regime and does not demand the Ukrainian president to surrender, but rather to release civilians and stop the resistance, as he put it.
The Russian minister accused Kyiv of wanting to get the militants out of the Azovstal factory because they are evidence of the presence of mercenaries and officers from the armies of Western countries in Ukraine, according to Lavrov.
British expectations
In Russia, the governor of the Belgorod region reported that two explosions occurred in the early hours of Monday morning in an area near the border with Ukraine.
The governor added that the two explosions did not result in any injuries or damage, as he put it.
In another field matter, British intelligence said that it is likely that more than a quarter of the military units that Russia has involved in the war on Ukraine have become ineffective.
She added that some of the most elite units, including the Airborne Forces, were the hardest hit, and that it would take Russia years to reconfigure them.
British intelligence also pointed out that at the beginning of the conflict, Russia involved about 65% of its total ground combat force in the war.
3,000 civilians killed
In humanitarian terms, the United Nations Human Rights Office said today, Monday, that the number of civilian deaths in Ukraine since the start of the Russian war on February 24 has exceeded 3,000.
The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said the real losses were likely to be much higher, citing difficulties in documenting cases.
The commission added that most of the victims were killed by explosive weapons that have a wide impact, such as missile strikes and air strikes, without attributing the responsibility to any party.
American hopes
Internationally, the United States hopes that its diplomats will be back in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv by the end of this month, Chargé d'Affairs Kristina Kvin announced Monday.
"The priority is the safety of the crew. If we inform the security forces that we can return to Kyiv, we will return," Kvin said during a press conference in the western city of Lviv.
The United States decided to move its embassy in Ukraine from Kyiv to Lviv, near the Polish border, on February 14, 10 days before the start of the war, before it evacuated its staff from the country.
Following a visit to Kiev on April 24, the US Secretary of State and Defense Anthony Blinken and Lloyd Austin announced the gradual return of US diplomacy to Ukraine in light of the improvement in the situation on the ground, especially in and around Kyiv.