On Monday night, Volodymyr Zelenskyi said that Bakhmut and Soledar are holding, despite the new fierce attacks of Russian troops: “It is extremely difficult – almost no wall has stood… Thanks to the resistance of our soldiers there, in Soledar, we have gained time for Ukraine.” MThis was reported by Deputy Prosecutor Hanna Malyar “The enemy is literally trampling over the corpses of its own fighters and is actively using artillery, volley fire systems and mortars.”

The latest on the war in Ukraine, day 321:

07:49The Dutch media authority has granted a five-year broadcasting license to independent Russian TV channel TV Rain after its license was revoked in Latvia, according to a statement published on the regulator’s website. Latvia revoked TV Rain’s license in early December after the company was listed as a threat to national security.

Liberal TV channel Dozhd, or Dozhd, switched to broadcasting from Latvia and other countries in July after being forced to close its Moscow studio following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. (Reuters

07:04Russia plans to manufacture Iranian kamikaze drones in the Samara region, Ukrainians claim

00:52Zelensky: Ukrainian troops are resisting “force attacks” in Soledar in the east of Ukraine / The entire territory is covered with corpses of the occupiers

A brief summary of recent events:

• Two women were killed and several others were injured as a result of Russian rocket fire on a market in the village of Shevchenkove in eastern Ukraine, the governor of the region said on Monday.
• Ukrainian police said they are looking for two British volunteers who went missing in eastern Ukraine.
• The Kremlin said that new Western deliveries of armored vehicles to Ukraine will worsen the situation. France, Germany and the US announced new plans to send armored vehicles to Ukraine, and Sky News reported that the UK was considering supplying battle tanks to Ukraine.
• White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said that Iran is facilitating war crimes in Ukraine by supplying drones to Russia.
• The human rights commissioners of Russia and Ukraine will meet this week in Turkey for talks that are likely to include the possibility of a further prisoner exchange.
• Russia’s Lukoil has sold its oil refinery in Italy to a consortium of Western firms, marking the first major sale of Russian assets to the West since the invasion.
• The Russian frigate Admiral Gorshkov, the first to be equipped with the hypersonic Zircon missile, left its base in Severomorsk in the Murmansk region (northwest Russia) a few days ago and is heading to the Mediterranean Sea under close NATO surveillance. .
• The chief scientist of one of the world’s largest arms companies and the creator of the Kalibr-class missiles used by the Russian navy died on Monday, less than a week after Russia lost another of its top engineers.
• Lavrov spoke with his new Chinese colleague. “Moscow and Beijing found identity of positions on world problems”
• Five Russian citizens who fled the country separately to avoid the draft are stuck at an airport in South Korea
• Italy will not make a decision on the supply of new weapons to Ukraine until February due to political tensions, financial problems and a shortage of troops.
• The rise of the petro-yuan will accelerate as China looks to capitalize on its status as the world’s largest oil importer and Russia effectively turns itself into an Asian country, an oil trade analyst says.
• Mykola Patrushev, an official seen by many analysts as a potential successor to Putin, says Russia is not in conflict with Ukraine and that “the whole story” of the war was started in Washington.
• The only Russian aircraft carrier in such bad condition that it cannot move on its own / What divers discovered when the shipyard wanted to move it to another dock
• “Symptomatic position for Russia”: Moscow uses its Su-57 aircraft (NATO code FELON) with special care, not introducing them into the airspace of Ukraine, as part of a “special military operation”

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• Monday’s events surrounding the Russian invasion were broadcast LIVE on HotNews.ro