Three people have been killed and six injured after a fuel tanker exploded at a Russian airport near the city of Ryazan, southeast of Moscow. Another explosion reportedly occurred in Russia’s Saratov region along the Volga River, far from the front lines. Saratov regional governor Roman Bushargin said there was no damage to civilian facilities and added that authorities were checking whether there had been incidents at military facilities. The cause of the two explosions remains unclear. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said simply that the president is regularly updated on current developments. Russian media reported that Ukraine had developed munitions that would allow it to target Russian air bases that hold long-range bombers. “If something is launched into the airspace of other countries, sooner or later unidentified flying objects will return to the point of departure,” Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podoliak wrote on Twitter. In recent weeks, Russia has been pounding Ukraine’s infrastructure – including power plants – with military strikes. Air raid sirens sounded in the capital Kyiv and across the country on Monday as Russia reportedly launched a new barrage of missiles. Two people were killed in Zaporizhia, while several Ukrainian cities were hit by new water and electricity cuts, according to local and regional authorities.
The country’s electricity provider, Ukrenergo, criticized Russia for the “eighth massive missile attack by a terrorist country”, saying its facilities had been hit, causing a blackout. Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Smykhal said that energy facilities in three Ukrainian regions were affected, but the national electricity system remained operational and intact. However, water supply to the Odesa region had been completely cut off as all pumping stations and backup lines had lost power, the regional water company announced on Telegram. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky assured that his country’s air defense had managed to “shoot down most of the Russian missiles”.
Moldovan police also said they found fragments of a missile that fell in a northern region near the border with Ukraine.

2. Ukrainian forces occupy front line positions in Donetsk, Zelensky says

Heavy fighting is also raging on the ground in eastern Ukraine, mainly around the city of Bakhmut. Russia’s Defense Ministry said its troops were conducting successful operations and had repelled Ukrainian attacks. President Zelensky said that Kiev forces are holding positions along the front line in the Donetsk region. Russian forces are also digging in near the southern city of Kherson, which was recaptured by Ukrainian forces last month after an eight-month occupation. The commander of Ukraine’s ground forces said Russia’s recent “partial mobilization” has increased its military threat in Ukraine, with better-trained soldiers now arriving on the front lines. But he also claimed that Russia was now replenishing supplies with old equipment “On the eastern front, the situation is very tense, the enemy is attacking our units every day,” General Oleksander Syrskyi said on national television. Russian forces shelled the Kherson region 46 times on Sunday, killing one civilian, according to senior aides to Ukraine’s president. Two people were also killed in raids in Kryvyi Rih and Kupyansk, according to Zelenskyy’s office.

3. Russian oil price cap comes into effect

Western countries have begun imposing a price ceiling of $60 per barrel and banning certain types of Russian oil. The European Union, along with Australia, Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States agreed to the price cap on Friday. The 27-nation bloc has also imposed an embargo on Russian oil transported by sea. The move is part of new measures aimed at increasing pressure on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine. The price cap was rejected by the Kremlin, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also criticizing the cap as too high. Kremlin spokesman Peskov said the price cap would not affect Russia’s ability to maintain its “special military operation” in Ukraine. “Russia and the Russian economy have the required capability to fully meet the needs and requirements of the special military operation,” Peskov told reporters on Monday. The Ukrainian government had called for a lower price ceiling of $30 a barrel, insisting that at $60 Russia would still earn $100 billion in annual oil revenue. The EU and G7 had said a price cap of $60 would have an impact on Russia while protecting the global economy from a sudden spike in energy prices. Russia relies on the sale of oil and natural gas to prop up its economy, which has already suffered sweeping international sanctions over the war in Ukraine. Read more about the story here.

4. ICC prosecutor opposes EU plan for Ukraine special court

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) denounced the European Union’s proposal to create a special court to prosecute war crimes in Ukraine. Karim Khan hit back at the plan proposed by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, telling reporters the bloc had “drafted the law wrongly”.
The Hague-based ICC has already launched an investigation into war crimes in Ukraine.
But it is unable to prosecute the crime of aggression – the act of invading another country – because Russia is not a signatory to the ICC’s founding treaty. In her announcement last week, von der Leyen said the EU would work with international partners to get “the widest possible international support” for the court, while continuing to support the ICC. But Khan defended the ICC’s ability to prosecute high-ranking political figures for war crimes or genocide. “We should avoid fragmentation and instead work for unification,” Khan said on Monday.

5. No Diplomatic Solution to Ukraine War, Says Russian Nobel Peace Prize Laureate

The Russian winner of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize said that at the moment there is “no diplomatic solution” to the war in Ukraine. Irina Shcherbakova, who co-founded the now-defunct Russian NGO Memorial, said the only solution to the conflict was “now military”. “I am absolutely convinced that there is no diplomatic solution with Putin’s regime as long as he is still there,” Shcherbakova said on Sunday. The Russian laureate left the country after the start of the invasion of Ukraine and now lives in Germany. She was recently awarded the Marion Doenhoff Award in Hamburg for her years of human rights activism in Russia. Shcherbakova also said the early calls for peace were “childish”. “These decisions, this diplomacy, can only take place when Ukraine believes it has won the war and can put an end to it,” he said. French President Emmanuel Macron was criticized at the weekend for suggesting the West should consider Moscow’s need for security guarantees in peace talks. Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius shot down the idea that concessions should be made to the Kremlin. “Russia has all security guarantees if it does not attack, annex or occupy its neighbors,” Linkevicius tweeted on Sunday. Zelenskyy’s top aide, Mykhailo Podolyak, added that the world needs security guarantees from Russia, not the other way around. Kyiv says peace talks are possible only if Russia stops its attacks and withdraws from all Ukrainian territory it has seized. But the Kremlin said the West must recognize Moscow’s declared annexation of “new territories” in September before any talks with Putin.

6. Ukraine and UAE to start talks on bilateral trade agreement

The United Arab Emirates and Ukraine have announced their intention to start negotiations on a bilateral trade agreement. UAE Minister of Foreign Trade Thani Al Zeyoudi and Ukraine’s Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko signed a joint statement on the negotiations, the UAE Ministry of Economy announced on Monday. It would be the UAE’s first such agreement with a European country. The talks are expected to be completed by mid-2023. The Arab nation has tried to remain neutral in the Russia-Ukraine war despite Western pressure on Gulf oil producers to help isolate Moscow During Zelensky’s last visit to the Gulf state in February 2021, Ukraine and the UAE made more than $3 billion (€2.8 billion) in trade and investment commitments. “For us, Ukraine is a key trading partner,” Thani Al Zeyoudi, the UAE’s minister of foreign trade, told Reuters news agency. “The potential for growth and investment was high before the whole geopolitical situation; we think it’s time to move things forward.” “This is going to bring added value not only to the UAE but also to Ukraine,” he added. Ukraine is a major grain supplier to the Middle East.