Germany has delivered the promised Leopard battle tanks to Ukraine, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said.
"Yes, we delivered the Leopard tanks as we announced," Scholz told a news conference in Rotterdam when asked to confirm a report published in the Spiegel newspaper that Germany had delivered 18 advanced Leopards.
The report said Berlin had delivered 18 advanced Leopards, with the last tanks leaving Germany at the end of last week, according to AFP.
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Russia has warned Armenia of "serious consequences" if it submits to the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has issued an arrest warrant for President Vladimir Putin, the RIA news agency reported.
The ICC issued the warrant this month, accusing Putin of the war crime of illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine, a move the Kremlin condemned as senseless and outrageous.
Armenia, a traditional Russian ally whose ties to Moscow have weakened since Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine, is moving toward becoming a signatory to the Rome Statute, the international treaty that established the ICC.
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Russia has announced that it will not change its plans to deploy "tactical" nuclear weapons in Belarus despite numerous criticisms from Western countries.
"Of course, such a reaction cannot affect Russia's plans," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on Saturday that he has an agreement with Minsk to deploy "tactical" nuclear weapons in Belarus, a country at the door of the EU ruled since 1994 by Alexander Lukashenko, Putin's closest ally.
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The West should be calm in response to Russia's decision to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, Polish Minister for European Union Affairs Szymon Szynkowski vel Sec said.
"This is an element of escalation," Vel Sek told reporters, according to Reuters.
"The reaction should be calm, but firm. We cannot be intimidated by Russian propagandists," he concluded.
Russian shelling forced the almost complete closure of the town of Avdiyivka in the east of Ukraine, which is located 90 kilometers southwest of the besieged Bakhmut, said the head of the military administration of Avdiyivka, Vitaly Barabash.
"I'm sorry to say, but Avdijevka looks more and more like a place from post-apocalyptic movies," said Barabaš, Reuters reports.
Russian shelling hit two buildings in Avdijevka.
Ukrainians warned last Sunday that Avdiyivka could become "another Bahmut" – reduced to rubble in fierce fighting that both sides called a "meat grinder".
The Ukrainian General Staff announced that Russia continues its attack on Bakhmut, while Ukrainian forces repelled more than 60 attacks in the past 24 hours on the eastern front, some of them in the direction of Avdiyivka.
The Russian Ministry of Defense announced that they hit military targets in the regions of Kharkiv, Donetsk, Zaporozhye and Kherson, causing significant Ukrainian casualties.
The ministry said it shot down a Ukrainian drone south of Moscow on Sunday, adding that three people were injured and apartment blocks were damaged in the attack.
Moscow may seek compensation for last year's explosions on the North Stream gas pipelines, the RIA Novosti news agency reported, citing a Russian diplomat.
Gas pipelines connecting Russia and Germany under the Baltic Sea were damaged by so far unexplained explosions last September, which Moscow considers an act of "international terrorism".
"We do not rule out that the issue of compensation for damage caused by the explosion of the North Stream gas pipeline will be raised later," said the head of the department for economic cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Dmitry Birychevsky, according to Reuters.
He added that Western countries oppose the draft resolution of the UN Security Council prepared by Russia, which calls for an independent international investigation of the explosions in the Nord Stream.
"Despite this, we intend to continue to insist on a comprehensive and open international investigation with the mandatory participation of Russian representatives," Birichevsky said.
The 396th day of the war in Ukraine has begun, see yesterday's events in Eastern Europe at the link below.
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