Battle | Partisans may blow up Putin's headquarters in Kherson

A building belonging to Putin's party in southern Ukraine was blown up. Macron's foreign minister is trying to contain the excitement surrounding the president's initiative. More information on the news blog.

9:22 am: China's special envoy for Eurasian affairs will visit Russia, Ukraine, Germany and the European Union in Brussels this week for talks on the war in Ukraine. The Chinese Foreign Ministry explained that Ambassador Li Hui's visit represented “the second round of shuttle diplomacy to find a political solution to the Ukraine crisis”. Accordingly, the Special Representative is also visiting France and Poland.

China says “restoring peace” is the most urgent issue at the moment. “Over the past two years, we have never given up our efforts for peace and never stopped pushing forward negotiations,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning told a briefing. “Everything we have done goes towards the same goal, which is to end the war and build a consensus that will pave the way for peace negotiations.”

8:01 am: Russia is trying to maintain the momentum of its offensive around the recently captured city of Avdiivka in eastern Ukraine. That's what military analysts at the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) write. The Russian armed forces are apparently “relatively high-speed in their offensive operations.” These “aim to advance as far as possible into the Avdiivka area before Ukrainian forces establish more closed and difficult-to-penetrate defense lines in the area,” the analysis said.

A spokesman for the Ukrainian military said recently that Russia is transforming its units in the region from small shock troops into larger combat groups and companies. “Russian forces are currently concentrating their attacks west of Avdiivka in the direction of Berdychi, Orlivka and Donenke,” writes the ISW. In this area, Ukrainian positions are “disappointing” and “problematic,” according to ISW reports by Ukrainian military observers.

Nevertheless, ISW says the difficult terrain with water bodies west of Avdiivka could soon slow Russian advances. This will allow the Ukrainian Armed Forces to expand their defensive positions.

7:28 am: Bombs have exploded at the regional headquarters of the Russian presidential party “United Russia” in southern Ukraine. This was reported by the Ukrainian “Center of National Resistance”. Ukrainian partisans are said to be responsible for Tuesday morning's crime in the town of Nova Kakhovka in the Kherson region. Information cannot be independently verified.

Russian presidential elections began on Sunday in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson. “The forces of the resistance movement sent a 'hello' to the occupiers and called off fake 'elections' in the occupied city,” writes the “National Resistance Center” on its website. According to reports, Russia is trying to hide the fact that the explosions were the work of partisans: “In order not to spread panic, the Russians are now claiming that a drone hit the building, although this is not true.”

6 o'clock: Ten years after Russia annexed the Black Sea peninsula, Ukraine's representative for Crimea, Tamizha Tasheva, has complained that human rights violations are on the rise there. “As of February 24, the occupiers have illegally detained 208 people, including 125 Crimean Tatars,” said the Permanent Representative of the Ukrainian President to the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. He also criticizes the “colonization” and “total Russification” of the region.