LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:
- Russia has a "sufficient stockpile" of cluster bombs and the right to use them if cluster munitions are used against its forces in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin told Russian TV Sunday. Ukraine has pledged to only deploy the munitions it received from the United States to repel enemy soldiers from Ukrainian territory. Cluster munitions are banned in more than 100 countries.
- The Russian state has assumed control of the Russian subsidiaries of French yogurt maker Danone's DANO.PA and Danish beer company Carlsberg's CARLb.CO as a retaliatory move after Western countries froze assets of Russian companies abroad.
- The U.N.-brokered grain deal that has allowed Ukrainian exports through the Black Sea – is set to expire late Monday. The deal remains in limbo as Putin has not yet said if he will agree to renew it.
Russian officials said Monday a key bridge linking Russia to Crimea was damaged in an “emergency” situation that halted traffic amid reports of explosions.
The bridge links Russia’s Krasnodar region to Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula Russia annexed in 2014 in a move not recognized by the international community. The bridge serves as a key link to supply Russian troops in their invasion of Ukraine.
Russia’s transport ministry said on Telegram there was damage to the road on the section of the bridge closer to Crimea, without providing an explanation of the cause.
Russian officials said two people were killed and their daughter injured on the bridge Monday.
The bridge was previously damaged in an October explosion that Russia blamed on Ukraine.
Ukrainian gains
A Ukrainian defense official said Monday the country’s military had retaken 18 square kilometers of territory during the past week, and 210 square kilometers from Russian forces since launching a counteroffensive last month.
The gains included 7 square kilometers in the Bakhmut area, in eastern Ukraine. Russian forces have occupied the city of Bakhmut since May.
In southern Ukraine, Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said Ukrainian fighters had retaken 11 square kilometers as they advance toward the cities of Berdyansk and Melitopol.
Maliar also said Russian forces have advanced toward Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region in eastern Ukraine.
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
