Brussels: Europe and the Arabs
The Ukrainian authorities announced the participation of tens of thousands of women in the military operations against the Russian invasion, which began on February 24, 2022.
"More than 42,000 women serve in the Armed Forces of Ukraine," Ukraine's foreign ministry said in a post on Twitter.
"No less than 5,000 of them are defending the country on the front line," she added.
According to the Al-Hurra website, she indicated that "women are fighting and sacrificing their lives to protect Ukraine's freedom."
Ukrainian forces confirmed on Monday that they had pushed Russian forces out of an eighth village in their two-week-old counter-offensive, while a senior Defense Ministry official vowed a "major strike" in the coming days despite stiff resistance from Moscow.
Deputy Defense Minister Hana Malyar said Ukrainian forces had recaptured the village of Pyatikhatki, located in a heavily fortified sector of the front line near the closest direct routes to the country's Sea of Azov coast.
This came as part of Kiev's progress of up to seven kilometers inside the Russian lines within two weeks, during which it controlled 113 square kilometers of land.
Maliar added, via Telegram, "The enemy will not easily give up its positions, and we must prepare ourselves for a difficult confrontation. The army is moving according to plan, and the major strike is yet to come."
It said the fiercest fighting was taking place in eastern and southern Ukraine. Separately, it said that the Ukrainian army had prevented Russia's advance in the east, where it is concentrating its units, including the Air Force.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, said in his videotaped nightly speech that the Kiev army is advancing in some sectors and is seeking to repel intensified attacks in other areas, and that the final result is in favor of Ukraine.
"We did not lose sites, but we liberated some of them. They only suffer losses," he added.
On the other hand, Russia said that it had repelled many attacks and published a video clip showing what its forces say was confiscated Western equipment, and what it said was a French-made tank that was confiscated in the Donetsk region in the east of the country, without mentioning the village of Pyatikhatki.
Ukraine has acknowledged attacks on various areas of the 1,000-kilometre front line in its long-awaited counter-offensive to retake 18 percent of its territory occupied by Russia.
Both sides seem to have taken heavy losses in the fighting lately and both say the other side is bigger.
Ukraine prepared a group of fresh military units for the counterattack, while its brigades withstood the Russian winter offensive in the east.
US Attorney General Merrick Garland made a rare visit to the International Criminal Court, according to the Hague-based court, during a trip to Europe focused on taking action against Russia.
Washington never ratified the Rome Statute under which the court was established, and even the previous US administration issued sanctions against it because of its investigations into Afghanistan.
The Justice Department said in a statement that Garland was in Europe "to meet with his international counterparts to discuss holding Russia accountable and other shared law enforcement priorities," calling his visit to the ICC "historic."
The world atrocity tribunal, set up in 2002, posted a video on Twitter of Garland meeting with the tribunal's chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, and its president, Piotr Hofmansky.
Source: agencies