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  • Ukraine is preparing for an intensification of Russian attacks in the Donbass.

    The Kremlin forces transfer troops from the Kharkiv region (north) to that of Lugansk, in the Donbass, with the aim of taking Severodonetsk.

  • 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.

  • In the huge Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol, some 1,000 Ukrainian combat soldiers are trapped under bombs.

    According to a commander of the Azov regiment, nearly 600 were injured.

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07:21: Lysytchansk, abandoned area

Nearly three months of war have transformed Lyssytchansk, a mining town of some 100,000 mainly Russian-speaking inhabitants, into an abandoned area, devoid of water, electricity or telephone network, noted an AFP journalist.

07:13: The situation on the ground

Ukraine is preparing for an intensification of Russian attacks in the Donbass, in the east of the country, a priority objective for Moscow but where its forces are struggling, while the Ukrainian army continues its counter-offensive in the region of Kharkov.

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

The Ukrainian general staff confirmed Monday morning that the Russian army was concentrating its forces in Izium, between Kharkiv and Severodonetsk.

07:06 am: In western Ukraine, museums on the defensive

To enter the Potocki Palace, one of the architectural gems of western Ukraine, you have to show your credentials, pass between armed soldiers, sneak under scaffolding.

All this to discover bare picture rails.

In Lviv, even though life has almost returned to normal since the Russian forces left the kyiv region and are concentrating their offensive on the south and east of the country, the museums are barely ajar, convinced that the enemy is ready to plunder Ukrainian cultural heritage.

“We would like to reopen a little, but it is complicated in terms of security”, explains Vassyl Mytsko, deputy director of the National Gallery of Lviv, the largest museum of Fine Arts in Ukraine with its collection of 65,000 works and its 21 locations.

"How can we be sure that the Russians aren't just recovering their strength before launching all their rockets?"

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On February 24, the war took the staff of the Gallery by surprise, who “did not expect the strikes to go so far” and threaten their city, says Vassyl Mytsko.

At first "shocked", the curators quickly got to work and carefully packaged paintings and sculptures.

These works, some of which are worth millions, were kept safe in secret locations, where they are still to be found today.

7 a.m.: The European journey of wives of Azovstal fighters

Leaving kyiv on April 23, they stopped in the Vatican, Poland and Germany, before arriving in Paris this weekend.

Three young women, all in a relationship with fighters from the last pocket of Ukrainian resistance against the Russians in Mariupol, are fighting for at least one country to free their companions from this hell.

"The more countries we approach, the more likely we are to find a quick solution," Olha Andrianovna, 30, the oldest member of this group of four women, told AFP.

“We don't know which country can really help us, that's why we are reaching out to everyone”.

At the Vatican, they secured a five-minute audience with Pope Francis.

In France, a meeting with political figures - starting with President Emmanuel Macron or his wife Brigitte - would obviously be welcome, but "it's not our main goal, the objective is to attract attention about the situation" in Azovstal, said his comrade Hanna Naoumenko, 25.

Hello and welcome to this live.

This Saturday, Ukraine obtained a symbolic victory by winning Eurovision, a competition very popular in Europe, and from which Russia was excluded.

Finland and Sweden have decided to launch a NATO candidacy procedure.

On the ground, kyiv is preparing for an intensification of Russian attacks in the Donbass.

Ukrainian forces are nibbling ground in the Kharkiv region and are closing in on the Russian border.

  • World

  • War in Ukraine

  • Russia

  • Volodymyr Zelensky

  • Mariupol

  • Donbass