Almost nine months after the invasion began, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi says the fiercest fighting is taking place in Donetsk, while Ukrainian troops continue to fight in Luhansk, where they are slowly advancing. The head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog warned that whoever fired at Ukraine’s Zaporizhia nuclear power plant was “playing with fire” as his team prepared to inspect it on Monday to see if it had been damaged by attacks over the weekend.

A brief summary of recent events:

• Russian forces carried out nearly 400 strikes in eastern Ukraine on Sunday as part of an artillery fire campaign, President Volodymyr Zelenskyi said in a speech on Sunday evening. “The fiercest battles are, as before, in the Donetsk region. Although shelling has decreased today due to the deterioration of the weather, the number of Russian shelling remains, unfortunately, extremely high,” Zelenskyy said. “In Luhansk region, we are slowly advancing as the battle progresses. Currently, there have been almost 400 artillery strikes in the east since the beginning of the day.” Russia transferred troops to strengthen positions in the east of Donetsk and Luhansk regions after the withdrawal from Kherson,” said the leader from Kyiv.
• The UN nuclear watchdog will assess the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant on Monday after it was bombed more than 12 times over the weekend. The International Atomic Energy Agency said the explosions damaged buildings and equipment, although none was “critical” to nuclear safety.
• Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht said Germany had provided Poland with a Patriot missile defense system to help protect its airspace after a missile landed on the country’s territory last week. Ground-based air defense systems, such as the Raytheon Patriot, are designed to intercept missiles in flight.
• Ukraine denies that its troops executed Russian prisoners of war, claiming that its soldiers were defending themselves against Russians who were faking surrender. The human rights commissioner of Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada on Sunday reacted to videos circulated on Russian social media this week purportedly showing the bodies of Russian soldiers who died after surrendering to Ukrainian forces. Ukrainian Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said that “excerpts” from the video show that the Russians “used a staged capture … committed a war crime by opening fire on the Ukrainian armed forces.” That means the soldiers “cannot be considered prisoners of war,” he said.
• Negotiations with Russia would mean “surrender,” said the chief adviser to the Ukrainian president. Mykhailo Podolyak said that the West’s attempts to encourage Ukraine to negotiate with Moscow are “fanciful”, given the series of major military victories achieved by Kyiv. He added that this would mean that the country “which returns its territories must capitulate to the losing country”.
• The first Ukrainian supermarket opened in Kherson after the liberation of the city earlier this month. Long queues formed near the 24-hour ATB store on Sunday. Kherson remains without electricity, water and heating, but residents have found joy in the fact that they can buy Ukrainian pickles, dumplings, horseradish and other favorite dishes.
• France has sent two more anti-aircraft defense systems to Ukraine along with two salvo fire systems, the French Defense Minister said in an interview.
• Emmanuel Macron has accused Russia of spreading disinformation to promote its “predatory project” in Africa, where France has suffered military setbacks. “Several states that want to extend their influence in Africa are doing it to influence France, to influence its language, to sow doubts, but above all to pursue certain interests,” Macron told TV5 Monde.

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Sunday’s events were broadcast live on HotNews.ro