Ukrainian troops are fighting hard for control of the town of Vugledar, southwest of Donetsk, in eastern Ukraine. Both warring camps claim victory, AFP reports. Volodymyr Zelenskyi called the situation on the front line “extremely tense”, in particular in the Donetsk region, where Russia is intensifying its offensive.

TOTALS FOR THE LAST 24 HOURS

• The Northern Command of the Armed Forces reported that Russian troops shelled Chernihiv and Shumsk regions 49 times. The army said that Russian troops shelled neighboring areas of the two northern regions with 120 mm mortars and artillery in the city of Gai, Sumy region.

• The Minister of Defense of Germany rules out the supply of fighter jets to Ukraine. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said that sending fighter jets to Ukraine “is out of the question.” “Fighters are much more complex systems than main battle tanks and have a completely different range and firepower. We would take a chance…,” Pistorius told Süddeutsche Zeitung.

• Ukrainian pilots will need 6 months to master F-16 fighters. Ukrainian pilots will need “about six months” to master the F-16 multirole fighter, Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ignat said on Friday, CNN reports.

• The Embassy of Ukraine in Bucharest reacts to accusations in Romania regarding the law on minorities: Distorted information and comments appeared / This topic was touched upon in the recent discussions between Zelenskyi-Iohannis and Kuleba-Aurescu.

• Viktor Orban says that Hungary will veto possible EU sanctions on Russian nuclear energy. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on public radio on Friday that Hungary would oppose and use its veto power in the event of any European Union sanctions against Russia that would affect nuclear energy.

• The President of Croatia made new scandalous statements: “We are not at war with Russia, America is at war, we are only pawns.” Sending Western tanks to Ukraine will continue the country’s war with Russia, and if Washington and Moscow do not come to an agreement, the third world war will begin, said Croatian President Zoran Milanovic, who also ridiculed the statement of German Foreign Minister Annalena Berbock about the “war against Russia” of the Western allies.

• Ukraine will form “the world’s first units of attack drones”. According to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, “the most professional military personnel” have been selected to lead the “world’s first attack drone units”, which will soon be formed in Ukraine, the Kyiv Independent writes.

• Satellite images show a rapidly expanding Wagner group mercenary cemetery in Russia. According to CNN, satellite images of the area near a village in Russia show a rapidly expanding cemetery where many of those who died fighting on the side of the Wagner Group are buried.

• The European Union on Friday decided to extend for six months the sanctions against Russia for the war in Ukraine and is preparing new measures against Moscow. Sanctions imposed after Moscow’s annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea in 2014 were significantly tightened after the invasion began in February 2022. Over the past eight years, they have been systematically extended by six months, AFP reports.

• According to Kirby, it will take “many months” for the Abrams tanks to be in Ukraine. John Kirby, the White House national security spokesman, told CNN on Friday that the new tranche of Abrams tanks announced by the US as part of aid to Ukraine this week will not be leaving the US anytime soon and that “it will be many months before they can reach the field “.

• The first Ukrainian military personnel arrived in Germany for the Marder training. Germany’s defense ministry confirmed on Friday that Ukrainian troops had arrived in the country to train on Marder infantry fighting vehicles, which Berlin had agreed to provide to the war-torn country, CNN reported.

The most important information about the war in Ukraine is the 339th day

05:31 Western countries will hand over 321 tanks to Ukraine, the ambassador of Ukraine to France said, citing CNN. “As of today, many countries have officially confirmed their agreement to supply 321 heavy tanks to Ukraine,” Vadym Omeltsenko said on Friday in an interview with the French TV channel BFM.

05:20Belgium has announced an additional €93.6m ($104.7m/£84.5m) military aid package to Ukraine.

01:50Volodymyr Zelenskyy invites the head of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to Bakhmut to familiarize himself with the situation in the region and to understand that “there is no neutrality.”

“I can only be disappointed by the statements of the current president of the IOC, Thomas Bach. I spoke with him several times. And I haven’t heard how he will protect sports from war propaganda if he returns Russian athletes to international competitions,” Zelenskyy responded in a message Friday night after the IOC announced it was considering options for athletes from Russia and Belarus to return to international events.

01:10 Russian President Vladimir Putin is “building new concentration camps in Eastern Europe,” Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki charged on the 78th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau, a Holocaust memorial day.

01:00The Minister of Defense of Germany rules out the supply of fighter jets to Ukraine.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said that sending fighter jets to Ukraine “is out of the question.” “Fighters are much more complex systems than main battle tanks and have a completely different range and firepower. We would take a chance…,” Pistorius told Süddeutsche Zeitung.