Iran Press/ Europe: Blasts were heard in Ukrainian capital of Kyiv and in the major city of Kharkiv on Monday morning, Ukraine's State Service of Special Communications and Information Protection said.
Kyiv had been quiet for a few hours prior to that, it said in a brief statement on the Telegram messaging app. In a separate statement, the agency said a residential building in the city of Chernihiv in northern Ukraine was on fire after being struck by a missile.
President Vladimir Putin put Russia’s nuclear deterrent on high alert on Sunday in the face of a barrage of Western-led reprisals for his military operation in Ukraine, which said it had repelled Russian ground forces’ attempts to capture urban centers.
Ukraine said negotiations with Moscow without preconditions would be held at the Belarusian-Ukranian border. Russian news agency Tass cited an unidentified source as saying the talks would start on Monday morning.US President Joe Biden will host a call with allies and partners on Monday to coordinate a united response, the White House said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told British Prime Minister Boris Johnson by telephone on Sunday that the next 24 hours would be crucial for Ukraine, a Downing Street spokesperson said.
Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a “special operation” that it says is not designed to occupy territory but to destroy its southern neighbor’s military capabilities and capture what it regards as dangerous nationalists.
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