Ukraine updates: Russia claims further advances in Donetsk

Ukraine is ready to provide humanitarian aid to Syria, said President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. 

According to Zelenskyy, food from the "Grain from Ukraine" program could be used to help the Syrian population.

"Now, we have the opportunity to support Syrians with Ukrainian wheat, flour, and oil — our products that contribute globally to ensuring food security," he wrote on X.

Zelenskyy said that Ukraine is coordinating with partners and the Syrian side to decide on logistics. 

"We will certainly support this region so that stability there can become a foundation for our movement toward real peace," he added.

The "Grain from Ukraine" humanitarian program, launched in 2022, provides for donor countries and other organizations to purchase agricultural products directly from Ukrainian producers and send them to countries in need, mainly in Africa and Asia.

Two Russian oil tankers were badly damaged by a storm in the Kerch Strait, spilling oil and triggering an emergency rescue operation, Russian officials said.

The Volgoneft-212 tanker, carrying a crew of 13 and a cargo of fuel oil, ran aground and had its bow torn off, the country's Emergency Situations Ministry said. Officials said one crew member died, but a rescue operation was able to evacuate the remaining sailors.

A second tanker, the Volgoneft-239, was also damaged and drifted with 14 crew members on board. It later ran aground 80 meters from shore near the port of Taman in Russia's Krasnodar region, where a rescue operation is planned, the ministry said.

The Kerch Strait separates the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula from Russia and is an important global shipping route, providing a passage from the Sea of Azov to the Black Sea.

It has also been a key point of conflict between Russia and Ukraine, following Moscow's annexation of the peninsula from Ukraine in 2014.

Ukrainian forces have destroyed a Russian tanker train in the occupied part of the southern Ukrainian region of Zaporizhzhia by blowing up the track and then using long-range artillery and drones.

The blasting of the track first brought the train of 40 tankers to a halt on an open section of the line, Ukrainian media reported, citing military sources.

The locomotive and the last truck were then targeted with artillery before drones set fire to the remaining trucks.

The report said a major rail link would be out of service for an extended period of time.

Russia's Defense Ministry said its forces have captured villages in two key front-line areas of Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region as Moscow's troops continue their advance toward the logistical hub of Pokrovsk and the industrial town of Kurakhove.

In a daily briefing on Sunday, it said the villages of Vesely Gai and the village of Pushkine had been "liberated."

Russian forces have been pushing forward in the Donetsk region for months now, and their advance seems to have recently accelerated.

Ukraine's Khortytsia group of troops on Sunday spoke of "exhausting clashes" on the fringes of Kurakhove and in the town itself, as well as to the north in the hilltop town of Chasiv Yar, which has come under intense attack.

"The situation is complex and changing. Our troops are currently taking measures to improve the tactical situation," the group of troops said on Telegram.

Suspected Ukrainian drones have hit parts of Grozny, the capital of Russia's Chechen Republic, local media reported on Sunday.

A military camp and a base used by the OMON special police unit were targeted in the attack, the opposition Telegram channels NIYSO and Ostorozhno Novosti said.

There was no information on possible casualties or damage.

It was the third suspected Ukrainian strike on the region since the start of the month, with a number of soldiers injured in one of them when a barracks was struck.

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, a staunch supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has sent troops to assist Russian forces in their invasion of Ukraine.

Ukrainian air defenses destroyed 56 of the 108 drones launched by Russia during an overnight strike, Kyiv's military said on Sunday.

It said another 49 were "locationally lost," which typically means they were rendered directionless by electronic jamming.

The air force said debris from the destroyed drones damaged an unspecified piece of infrastructure as well as apartment buildings and homes.

zc/tj (AP, AFP, Reuters, dpa)