According to the Ukrainian army, it is facing difficulties in its counter-offensive in the east of the country - but President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is confident of victory. On Sunday night, the head of state spoke of a "very difficult situation" in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. As in the days before, it was the most difficult for the city of Bachmut. In Russia, at least eleven people were killed in an incident at a military site near the Ukrainian border on Saturday evening.

According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, two shooters opened fire during a shooting training session at a military training area near Belgorod. They were killed in the process. At least 15 people were injured, according to the state agency Tass. Moscow spoke of a terrorist attack.

Musk wants to continue giving money for satellite internet

As recently as Friday, tech billionaire Elon Musk threatened to stop funding his aerospace company SpaceX's satellite internet for Ukraine. Now the turnaround. "Never mind...even if Starlink still loses money and other companies get billions in taxpayers' money, we will continue to fund Ukraine for free," he wrote on Twitter.

For the Ukrainian troops, the use of the Starlink satellite Internet service is indispensable in the fight against Russia. The service serves as a means of communication for both civilians and the Ukrainian military where there is no longer access to mobile communications and the Internet due to destroyed infrastructure.

Zelenskyj praises US for new military aid

Selenskyj called the new military aid from the USA with a volume of up to 725 million dollars (745.6 million euros) "very necessary". His country became the target of new Russian attacks on Saturday. "Some of the missiles and drones were shot down, but unfortunately not all," said the head of state in his video address. "We are doing everything we can to shoot down more enemy missiles and drones. (...) The day will surely come when our state can fulfill this task 100 percent."

"In general, we do everything in the east and south to give the occupiers the feeling that they have no perspective," said Zelenskyj. Sunday marks the 235th day since the start of the February 24 Russian invasion of the neighboring country.

At the same time, the head of state spoke of progress in repairs after Russian attacks on energy supply systems. The gas supply has started to be restored in the eastern city of Izyum in the Kharkiv region. "The first 500 families in the city already have gas in their homes again." In other regions, more than 3,000 houses were only reconnected to the gas supply on Friday.

France is training Ukrainian soldiers

Meanwhile, France announced that it would train nearly 2,000 Ukrainian soldiers. There have already been artillery training courses for the Caesar howitzer, but now they will go a little further, Armed Forces Minister Sebastien Lecornu told the newspaper Le Parisien.

Moscow speaks of a terrorist attack on military premises

Moscow blamed two citizens of a CIS country for the incident at the military base in south-west Russia, which left many dead and injured. The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is a loose association of former Soviet states. The two shooters are said to have been killed. It is said to have been a terrorist attack during the training of recruits for the Ukraine war. Like many other statements from the war zone, this cannot be verified. After the partial mobilization announced almost a month ago, protests erupted and hundreds of thousands of Russians fled their homeland. But there was also direct resistance to the mobilization.

Bulgaria accuses Russian hackers

Bulgaria blamed Russian hackers for a large-scale attack on the websites of the president, the government, key ministries and the constitutional court. "The hacker attack came from the territory of the Russian Federation," said the head of the Bulgarian investigative agency, Borislav Sarafov, about the cyber attack. According to official information, access to the affected websites was blocked or slowed down.

Melnyik says goodbye to Germany

Andriy Melnyk has returned to Ukraine after almost eight years as Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany. On Saturday morning he left Berlin by car and crossed the border into Ukraine in the evening. "Home Sweet Home," he wrote on Twitter from the border crossing. "Our fight goes on. Ukraine will win. Dear German friends, thank you for everything. And goodbye." His successor Oleksii Makeiev is expected in Berlin on Monday.

Greens are in favor of more arms deliveries to Ukraine

At their federal party conference in Bonn, the Greens voted overwhelmingly in favor of supplying more weapons to Ukraine. Delegates rejected several motions that criticized this as a departure from the party's pacifist tradition. In the Ukraine war, Germany must help where possible, "because we see that these weapons save lives," said party leader Omid Nouripour.

That's going to be important today

After the fatal shooting in Belgorod, it is eagerly awaited whether the Ministry of Defense will provide further details. On Saturday there were reports of a new attack by the Ukrainian army to liberate the occupied territory of Kherson in the south of the country. New developments may be communicated in this regard.