7:20 am: An update on the progress of the fighting
As fighting intensified Tuesday in southern and eastern Ukraine, missiles also targeted the Odessa region. The Ukrainian army counted seven strikes, deplored one dead and five wounded. The President of the European Council Charles Michel, on a surprise visit to this large southern city on Monday, was forced to take shelter.
The Russians “continue to prepare offensive operations in the Lyman and Severodonetsk regions”, in Donbass (east), the Ukrainian general staff announced on Tuesday morning, adding that artillery fire and air strikes continued on the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol.