• 6:05 am: Russia focuses on Donbass

Ukraine is preparing for an intensification of Russian attacks in Donbass, in the east of the country.

"We are preparing for new attempts by Russia to attack Donbass, to somehow intensify its movement towards southern Ukraine," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video released Sunday evening.

And yet according to him, "the occupiers still do not want to admit that they are at an impasse."

The Russians are transferring troops from the Kharkiv region (north) to that of Lugansk, in the Donbass, with the aim of taking Severodonetsk, assured, for his part, the Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovich.

The Ukrainian army also announced on Monday morning that it had blown up a railway bridge controlled by the Russians, linking Rubizhne and Severodonetsk, two objectives of Moscow.

  • 5:58 a.m .: Moscow suffers a counter-offensive in Kharkiv

Russian forces are also now facing a counter-offensive from Ukrainian forces in the region of Kharkiv, the country's second largest city, where they are approaching the border with Russia.

  • 5:12 a.m.: Azov battalion wives in battle order

02:01

Refugees outside Ukraine, the wives of members of the Azov regiment communicate via their telephones with their spouses entrenched in the ruins of the Azovstal factory in Mariupol.

"They share a glass of water every 5 or 6 hours," says one woman.

Another evokes the lack of medical means and the serious injuries, with in particular amputated soldiers.

They try to alert Westerners, including France and the Vatican, to obtain the evacuation of their husbands. 

  • 4:07 a.m .: Finland and Sweden ready for a major turning point

Finland officially announced on Sunday its intention to join the Atlantic Alliance, while its Swedish neighbor is about to make the same decision.

01:56

Finnish soldiers take part in the "Arrow 22" military exercise, in Kankaanpaa, Finland, May 4, 2022. © Lehtikuva, Reuters

With AFP and Reuters

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