Russia wants to continue its offensive beyond the Donetsk region, but our forces will not allow this, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

The main points of fighting in the Donetsk region are near the cities of Bakhmut, Soledar and Avdeevka, Reuters reports. Zelensky announced that about 4 million people in Ukraine were left without electricity as 14 regions and the capital city of Kyiv were affected by blackouts.

According to Russian military channels, heavy fighting is going on near Snigirevka in Kherson region. The Russian deputy governor of the occupied Kherson region, Kirill Stremousov said that the Ukrainian army managed to capture the railway line in the area, but the Ukrainian attack in Beryslav was repulsed.

Russian calls for restoring spheres of influence is unacceptable, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in a speech at the Climate Conference in the Egyptian resort of Sharm El Sheikh. The war in Ukraine must stop because it brings a lot of suffering and the poorest people are the most affected. The rise in the price of energy and food is not due to the sanctions imposed by the EU and NATO, but to the fact that Russia uses energy sources and access to food as weapons, Stoltenberg added.