Russia announced its readiness to ensure the passage of ships loaded with grain from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, and set a condition for this, while the Ukrainian General Staff confirmed that the Russian forces are trying to tighten complete control over Severodonetsk and besiege its forces there.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced today, Tuesday, that his country can guarantee the passage of ships loaded with grain from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, provided that Kyiv solves the problem of removing mines from its waters.

Lavrov said in press statements that the Russian army guarantees the unhindered passage of ships laden with grain from Ukrainian ports to the Mediterranean if Ukraine solves the problem of removing mines from coastal waters.

He added that Russia did everything in its power to solve the food problem in the world, according to what was reported by "Russia Today" channel.

Two days ago, the British Ministry of Defense announced, in a statement, that Russia had asked Ukraine to remove mines from the area around the port of Odessa (south) to allow the passage of ships.

She said Ukraine had deployed naval mines only because of continued Russian threats to launch attacks from the Black Sea.

On the other hand, the Russian Defense Ministry announced today, Tuesday, that the Russian army had found a truck bomb loaded with the bodies of 152 Ukrainian fighters at the Azovstal factory in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol.

Russia Today channel quoted a ministry statement as saying that the Russian army found a truck carrying the bodies of 152 Ukrainian fighters in Azovstal, and under the bodies were 4 explosive devices and mines.

The ministry said in its statement, quoting the prisoners of the Azov fighters, that the mining of the bodies that had been left in Azovstal was carried out on the instructions of Kyiv, in order to level more accusations against the Russian side.

The last Ukrainian defenders of Mariupol, holed up in the huge Azovstal steel plant, surrendered to Russian forces between May 16-20, after three months of fierce fighting.


Lugansk region

On the ground, Sergei Gaidi, governor of the Lugansk region, told Al Jazeera that the Russian side controls about 70% of the region and the situation is very difficult, and confirmed their possession of many weapons, due to the Western aid they receive continuously, which prevented the Russians from controlling the region despite the passage of 4 months on The outbreak of battles, but he nevertheless indicated the need for the Ukrainian forces for more weapons to stop what he called the Russian aggression.

He stressed that the Russians do not accept the opening of relief corridors, and they always lie and continue to bomb these corridors, even if they accept them, according to him.

He added, "The aid we receive comes back with difficulty from the Ukrainian government and some of our friends in the West, and the warehouses in which we keep the aid we receive are constantly being bombarded by the Russians."

He explained that they cannot evacuate civilians currently due to the firing by the Russian side with heavy artillery.

For its part, the Ukrainian General Staff said that the Russian forces are focusing their attacks on the city in an attempt to control it, and that the defending forces continue to repel them.

While the Ukrainian forces reinforced their positions with vehicles and soldiers, the Russian army continued its bombardment and attacks on Bakhmut, which is the rear and logistical base of Severodonetsk.

The Ukrainian army said that it repelled 8 Russian attacks during the past 24 hours on different axes in the Lugansk and Donetsk regions, while 3 civilians were killed and at least 6 were wounded in a missile shelling targeting the city of Sloviansk, north of Donetsk Province.

War crimes in the Donbass region

In another development, Ukraine has identified "a few thousand" possible war crimes in the eastern Donbass region, where Russian forces are intensifying their offensive, according to Ukrainian Prosecutor General Irina Vendediktova.

"Of course we have launched a few thousand cases related to our observations in the Donbass," the prosecutor said - at a press conference in The Hague, where she met her international counterparts.

"When we talk about war crimes, it is about a possible transfer of people. We have opened several files on the possible transfer of children and adults to different parts of the Russian Federation," she said.

"Then, of course, we can talk about torture, the killing of civilians and the destruction of civilian facilities," she added.

Venediktova said - during a press conference at the headquarters of the European Judicial Agency Eurojust - that the Ukrainian authorities have not been able to reach the Russian-controlled areas of Donbass, but are conducting interviews with evacuees and prisoners of war.

She added that Ukraine had monitored 15,000 war crimes files across the country since what it described as the Russian invasion on February 24.

The prosecutor said Ukraine had identified 600 suspects of the "basic" crime of aggression, including "high-ranking military and political officials and propaganda agents of the Russian Federation".

It added that nearly 80 suspects have been identified for alleged war crimes that have already taken place on Ukrainian soil.

For his part, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, announced that work is underway to open an office for the court in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, during the next few weeks.

After a meeting in The Hague attended by representatives of a group of countries working together to investigate allegations of war crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine, British Prosecutor Imran Khan expressed his hope that more countries would join in supporting this investigation.

For its part, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General, Irina Venediktova, announced that she had identified the identities of more than 600 Russian suspects of war crimes and that she had already begun prosecuting 80 of them.

In the same context, a Ukrainian court sentenced two captured Russian soldiers to 11-and-a-half years in prison on Tuesday for bombing a town in eastern Ukraine, in the second verdict in a war crimes case since the Russian invasion began last February.

Soldiers Alexander Popikin and Alexander Ivanov pleaded guilty last week and heard the verdict today standing in a toughened glass indictment at the Kotelevska District Court in central Ukraine.

"The charges against Bubikin and Ivanov have been fully established," Judge Evkhin Polibuk said.

The two soldiers admitted last week that they were part of an artillery unit that fired shells at targets in the Ukrainian region of Kharkiv from the Belgorod region in Russia.

Prosecutors said the bombing destroyed an educational facility in the town of Derhachy, but that there were no casualties.

The two Russian soldiers were captured after they crossed the border and continued the bombing.

The prosecution requested that the two soldiers be sentenced to 12 years in prison, while the defense pleaded for clemency, saying that they carried out the orders of their commanders and that they expressed remorse for what they did.


Lithuanian support for Ukraine

Diplomatically, Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonete said in an interview with Al-Jazeera that Ukraine is fighting valiantly and facing a more numerous and numerous enemy, and that her country supports Ukraine in its fight and in self-determination, noting that each country has the right to decide its own destiny and choose its alliances.

She stressed that the longer the fighting continues, the more war criminals there are, and thus the need for international justice increases.

Regarding the dependence on Russian oil, Simoneti told Al Jazeera that her country has no problems "in obtaining alternatives to Russian gas, and this is a decision we have taken since 2010," adding that we import oil by sea and not by pipeline, and we are not afraid of Russia cutting off oil and gas supplies. .