Ukraine called on schools to follow the distance education system between February 22 and 24, in anticipation of the possibility of Russian missile strikes on the first anniversary of the war, while the Russian Ministry of Defense denied the existence of any shortage of ammunition among the volunteer forces on the fighting fronts in Ukraine.

Ukraine's Education Ministry issued a statement on Tuesday saying it recommended schools "to protect the life and health of all participants in the educational process as a precautionary measure before the anniversary".

Russian bombing destroyed hundreds of schools in Ukraine.

And many other schools were forced to mix the in-person and distance education systems due to problems such as frequent power outages as a result of a series of air strikes launched by Moscow.

In-person education was not permitted this academic year except in Ukrainian schools that had shelters to protect them from bombing.

Russia has regularly carried out missile and drone strikes since October 2022, and Kiev says that Moscow may launch new attacks on the anniversary of the beginning of the invasion, which falls the day after tomorrow, Friday.

Moscow denies

And the Russian Defense Ministry said, on Tuesday, that the statements about the lack of ammunition among the volunteer forces are completely untrue.

It added that all ammunition requests for the assault units would be submitted in the coming days.

The ministry added in a statement that "attempts to create a rift within the mechanism of tight interaction and support between units of the Russian forces lead to counterproductive results and only benefit the enemy," referring to Ukraine.

The denial of the Russian Ministry of Defense came after Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of Wagner for Russian mercenaries, accused both Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu and Russian Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov of depriving his fighters of ammunition and trying to destroy Wagner, considering these actions tantamount to treason.


Prigozhin said this caused increasing casualties among Wagner's ranks in the battles around the city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine.

In an audio recording, Prigozhin complained that unnamed officials were denying supplies to Wagner fighters because of his personal enmity.

Western sanctions

Yesterday, Tuesday, US Deputy Secretary of the Treasury (financial) Wali Adimo said that Washington and its allies will announce additional sanctions against Russia in the "coming days."

"A large part of what we will do using sanctions is to go after networks that help facilitate circumvention (circumvention of Western sanctions), so you will see in the coming days additional measures that we will take not only here in the United States, but in cooperation and coordination with our allies and partners around the world," Adeyou said. ".

Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki said that the G7 finance ministers will meet on Thursday to discuss measures against Russia to increase pressure on it to end the war in Ukraine.

European diplomats said that the European Union is close to approving a tenth package of sanctions against Russia, and added that the government of the bloc's member states hopes to reach an agreement on the new package, today, Wednesday, in the event that the member states overcome their differences regarding imposing a ban on imports of rubber and diamonds from Russia.

United nations

US Ambassador to the UN Security Council Linda Thomas-Greenfield said that the UN General Assembly will vote this week on a resolution that supports efforts to achieve peace in Ukraine, and the delegate added that the resolution "will show Russia's isolation and emphasize the need to sit at the negotiating table."

In Kiev, the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, said that supplying Ukraine with combat aircraft is not currently on the table.

Meloni said in a press conference during her meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Ukrainian capital today, Tuesday, that Italy is studying providing the Ukrainian army with more air defense systems, other than those that it decided to provide with France previously.

battle fronts

Al-Jazeera correspondent said late on Tuesday that loud explosions were heard in separate parts of the city of Donetsk in the Donbass region in eastern Ukraine, and the separatist forces loyal to Moscow control Donetsk, the capital of the province that bears the same name, and the Ukrainian forces bombard the positions of these forces.

While the Ukrainian General Staff said that it is confronting Russian attempts to advance in the vicinity of the strategic city of Bakhmut, north of Donetsk Province, and in 7 other fighting axes in the Donbass region, which includes Donetsk and Luhansk provinces.

The authority stated, in a statement, that the Russian forces bombed more than 20 areas in the vicinity of Bakhmut in particular, and more than 30 areas in the directions of Avdiivka and Shakhtar.

The authority added that the Russian army has increased the frequency of missile and air strikes during the past hours, in other areas, including Kherson, which led to deaths and injuries and left property damage.

On the other hand, the Russian military website, Ribar, said that the Russian Wagner Group forces stormed the defenses of the Ukrainian army, north of the city of Bakhmut, and that they were advancing simultaneously from the southern axis of the city.

The site indicated that the fighting between Wagner and the Ukrainian army is concentrated in the regions of Krasny and Budenovka, southwest of the city, and that the Russian forces have penetrated from the northern side towards the Stupky train station and are fighting battles near the town of Berkhovki.