The US embassy in Kyiv said - this morning, Monday - that the US infantry forces are preparing to send howitzer cannons to Kyiv as part of its assistance in the face of Russian interference, and while Russian soldiers have begun removing mines from the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, the Ukrainians are facing a situation It is getting more and more difficult in the Donbass region.

At a time when American sources announced their military support, the Russian Information Agency reported - quoting the Russian Defense Ministry - as saying that its forces destroyed a Ukrainian unit of American-made M-777 howitzers, a type of artillery weapon, according to Reuters, which could not independently verify the report.


Demining

In Mariupol, since Sunday, Russian soldiers began clearing mines and debris from the grounds of the Azovstal steel plant, after orders to withdraw hundreds of Ukrainian troops who had holed up for weeks in the sprawling plant.

Video footage showed soldiers walking into the compound and using mine detectors on debris-strewn roads, while others checked everything for explosive devices.

Drone footage also showed the factory buildings in ruins, many charred, many partially collapsed, and some just a pile of debris.

"During the past two days, more than 100 explosive devices have been destroyed," the Russian soldier said. "The work is continuing."

Full control of Mariupol gives Russia control of a land route linking Crimea, which Moscow seized in 2014, with mainland Russia and parts of eastern Ukraine under the control of pro-Russian separatists.

Moscow describes its actions in Ukraine as a "special military operation" to disarm Ukraine and protect it from fascists.

Ukraine and the West say allegations about the outbreak are baseless and the war is an unjustified act of aggression.

Ukrainians in the line of fire in Donbass (Anatolia)

A difficult situation

In field developments, the Ukrainians are facing an "increasingly difficult" situation in the Donbass, as Moscow bombed Severodonetsk in Lugansk "around the clock", and Russia announced the destruction of Ukrainian vehicles in the Zhytomyr district that were heading to the region.

Moscow is intensifying the bombing of the Donbass, where, according to the governor of the Lugansk region, Sergey Gaidai, the units that withdrew from the Kharkiv region (northeast), the forces that laid siege to Mariupol (southeast), the fighters of the separatist Donetsk and Lugansk regions, the Chechen forces and reinforcements brought in from Siberia and the Russian Far East, are mobilizing.

"All Russian forces are massing in the Lugansk and Donetsk regions," Gaidai said on the Telegram application, adding that the same applies to weapons with "everything focused here", especially the S-300 anti-aircraft missiles. for aircraft and "S-400" (S-400) anti-missile system.

Gaidai stressed that Severodonetsk - which is a focal point in the Donbass battle - is under fire from Russian forces "around the clock".

"They are using a scorched earth tactic, they are deliberately destroying the city" through aerial bombardment, multiple rocket launchers, mortars and shelling of buildings from tanks, he explained.

And the Ukrainian army announced - yesterday, Sunday on Facebook, that at least 7 civilians were killed and 8 wounded in shelling targeting 45 towns in the Donetsk region.

Severodonetsk faces the same fate as Mariupol, a city reduced to ruins after weeks of siege, with entire neighborhoods reduced to rubble and rubble while the remaining buildings bear witness to intense bombardment by rockets and missiles.

Hundreds of thousands of residents fled the city and many were killed there, and it is not possible to count their numbers until now.


Military reinforcements

Politically, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said - at a press conference in Kyiv brought together by Polish President Andrzej Duda on Sunday - that they discussed strengthening the military capabilities of the Ukrainian forces.

And Duda had confirmed earlier - in a speech before the Verkhovna Rada, to be the first foreign president to address the Verkhovna Rada since the outbreak of the Russian war - to continue his country's support for Ukraine with weapons until the end of the war.

The Polish president stressed that no concessions would be made to the Russians.

Duda said the peoples who "shed their blood" in order to belong to Europe "must be respected", implicitly addressing French President Emmanuel Macron, who offered to create a "European political organization" that Ukraine could join, and German Chancellor Olaf Schulz, who opposes giving Ukraine a "shortcut". to join.

On Sunday, French Minister Delegate for European Affairs, Clement Bonn, presented the same position, warning that Ukraine's accession to the European Union "will probably take 15 or 20 years."

On the other hand, Russia expressed its readiness to resume negotiations, blaming Kyiv for its suspension.

"From our side, we are ready to continue dialogue," Vladimir Medinsky, the Kremlin's adviser in charge of negotiations with Kyiv, said in an interview with Belarusian television on Sunday, adding that "the freezing of talks was at the initiative of Ukraine."

He believed that "the ball is in their court."

Negotiations began between the two parties after Moscow failed to control Kyiv, but they did not reach a result despite several meetings held in Turkey.