Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday he discussed with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen financial aid to Ukraine and further sanctions against Iran.
"We recognize the importance of the continuation of the Cereals Initiative for global food security. We discussed further sanctions against Iran and opposition to its actions in support of aggression," Zelensky wrote on Twitter.
This coincides with the announcement by the pro-Russian separatists in the southern Kherson province that Ukrainian forces are mobilizing a large number of tanks and armored vehicles in preparation for a major attack on the city.
According to pro-Moscow sources, Russian Wagner forces are approaching the strategic city of Bakhmut, north of Donetsk Province in the Donbass region, where they are now stationed less than two kilometers from the city.
accusation of lying
Zelensky had earlier attacked the Iranian leadership, accusing it of "lying" after it admitted for the first time that it provided drones to Russia before the start of the Ukrainian war.
He said that his country's forces shoot down at least 10 Iranian drones daily, while Tehran says it provided Moscow with a limited number of them before the war.
The Ukrainian president justified his accusations that the number of drones downed by the Ukrainian Air Defense Force exceeded the number of "few" drones that Iran had talked about.
He stressed that his country is certain that Iranian military personnel are training the Russians to use these planes.
Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko also warned Tehran of the consequences of its support for Moscow, stressing that "Tehran must realize that the consequences of complicity in the crimes of Russian aggression against Ukraine will far outweigh the benefits of Russia's support."
Possible attack
In the latest field developments, Kirill Strimosov, the Russian deputy governor in the Kherson region, said that large forces of Ukrainian nationalists are massing on the outskirts of the region, amassing a very large amount of equipment and amassing an increasing number of foreign mercenaries, armored vehicles and tanks in preparation for the attack on its axis.
For its part, the Kherson Province (pro-Russian) regional administration announced the formation of groups of popular defense for the remaining men in the city.
She added that she compulsorily evacuated about 700 residents of the city of Kakhovka on the Dnipro River, stressing that the residents will be transferred to the city of Tubasi in southern Russia, in order to preserve their lives from the risk of any possible Ukrainian attack, as she put it.
The city of Kherson has completely cut off electricity, amid warnings that a decisive battle may be about to begin.
Russian news agencies also reported today, Sunday, quoting the emergency services, that the Russian-controlled Nova Kakhovka Dam in Kherson was damaged by the bombing of the Ukrainian forces.
The TASS news agency quoted a representative of the emergency services as saying that a missile fired by the US-made HIMARS missile system hit and damaged the dam, noting that it was an "attempt to create conditions for a humanitarian disaster" by hitting the dam, as he put it.
On the other hand, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov announced that a number of Ukrainian army attacks had been repelled on the Mykolaiv-Krivoy Rog axis in Kherson Province.
Konashenkov added that more than 80 Ukrainian soldiers were liquidated and 3 armored combat vehicles and 4 vehicles were destroyed on that axis.
He also said that Russian forces had killed about 55 Ukrainian soldiers in separate areas of the battlefront, including about 40 who he described as mercenaries from the United States, Britain and Poland.
On the other hand, the Ukrainian army said that its air defenses shot down two helicopters of the Russian forces in Kherson and 6 drones in the south of the country, and destroyed 3 Russian ammunition depots in Pereslav and Kherson.
Wagner in Bakhmut
In a related context, the Russian RIA Novosti agency said that the Wagner company's forces are now stationed less than two kilometers from the city of Bakhmut.
A field commander in the group said that his forces had taken control of two towns adjacent to the city from the south, and that the Ukrainian army was trying to repel their attacks using various medium and heavy weapons, especially artillery, tanks and rocket launchers.
In turn, Oleksandr Marchenko, deputy mayor of the besieged city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, said that the city's residents live in harsh conditions, and that civilians are killed or wounded daily, while fighting rages around it between Russian and Ukrainian forces.
"We are steadfast, and we hope that the Ukrainian armed forces will be able to push the enemy further from the city," he added.
Bakhmut is an important target for the Russian army in its slow progress in the Donetsk region, one of the regions that the Kremlin announced its annexation after referendums last September, which Kyiv and the West described as sham.