Duda and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk are expected to arrive in Washington on Tuesday for talks with US President Joe Biden. The official occasion is the 25th anniversary of Poland's accession to NATO.

9:09 AM: According to the authorities, a man was killed as a result of a bombing in the Kursk region, western Russia, on the border with Ukraine. The governor of the Kursk region, Roman Starovoit, said on the Telegram application that another woman was injured as a result of the attack launched by the Ukrainian armed forces. The information cannot be independently verified.

According to him, the town of Goncharovka in the Sodja region, a few kilometers from the border with Ukraine, came under fire in the morning, most likely from artillery. In addition, the village of Venisabnoi was bombed and the gas and electricity line was damaged. Starovoit writes that four cities are cut off from energy supplies. There is currently no information about this from the Russian Ministry of Defense.

Russian border areas near Ukraine are increasingly complaining of bombing from the neighboring country. However, the number of victims and the extent of damage cannot be compared to the scale of devastation caused by the Russian army in Ukraine.

9:01 AM: Social Democratic Party leader Lars Klingbeil defends Chancellor Olaf Scholz's (SPD) vote to reject the delivery of a Taurus cruise missile to Ukraine, and rejects the option of exchanging the rings. European partners should finally focus on producing more ammunition and supplying it to Ukraine, Klingbeil says in ARD's Morgenmagazin. When asked about the exchange of rings, Klingbeil said, „That's what everyone should focus on and not the other discussions.”

In an interview with the newspaper „Süddeutsche Zeitung”, British Foreign Secretary David Cameron suggested an exchange of rings that could allay Schulz's concerns. This “would be an option,” Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Green Party) said on Sunday on the ARD program “Karin Musja”. Read more here.

In an exchange of rings, Germany could give Taurus cruise missiles to Great Britain — and London could, in turn, deliver more of its own Storm Shadow missiles to Ukraine. Schulz refuses to deliver Taurus missiles, which have a range of 500 kilometers, to Ukraine because he fears that their use will drag Germany into the war. Klingbeil confirms that the Chancellor has his full support in this situation.

9.30 pm: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has strongly rejected Pope Francis' call for peace negotiations with Russia. The Church is with the people, says Zelensky in his evening video address. “And not two and a half thousand kilometers away, somewhere, to actually mediate between someone who wants to live and someone who wants to destroy you.”

“When Russian evil started this war on February 24, all Ukrainians stood up to defend themselves,” Zelensky said. “Christians, Muslims, Jews – everyone.” He thanks every Ukrainian clergyman working in the army and defense forces. They are on the front lines, protecting life and humanity, supported by prayer, talk and actions. “This is what the Church is like: with the people.”

7:16 pm: Officially unconfirmed reports indicate that the Russian Navy's commander, Admiral Nikolai Yevmenov, has retired. This was reported by the newspaper „Izvestia”, citing unnamed sources. Yevmenov was replaced by Admiral Alexander Moiseev, former commander of the Northern Fleet. Initially there was no information about this on the website of the Russian Ministry of Defense.

Izvestia did not give a reason for the personnel change. Recently, the Russian Black Sea Fleet suffered significant losses of combat ships and soldiers due to attacks by Ukrainian missiles and so-called sea drones – that is, unmanned boats loaded with explosives. Because of the threat posed by Ukrainian forces, Russian naval combat units have largely withdrawn from occupied Crimea.

6:35 pm: According to a US media report, the Russian military has gained tactical advantages through increased use of guided aircraft bombs on the front lines in Ukraine. As CNN reported, Ukraine has almost no defensive options against the FAB-1500 glide bomb. The bomb, weighing about 1.5 tons, can be dropped on its targets by aircraft from a distance of 60 to 70 kilometers, beyond the reach of Ukrainian anti-aircraft defences. The small wings allow the bomb to hit its target with relative accuracy. The collision creates a crater 15 meters wide.

Speaking to CNN, Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yuri Ahnat confirmed that the increased use of these glide bombs was recently recorded in the fighting in the city of Avdiivka in eastern Ukraine. “Within 24 hours, 250 of them were deployed,” he says. Russia is converting its old bombs to the new, controlled type at a factory near Moscow. “It's not a cheap or quick conversion, but it still costs less than millions of dollars per rocket,” Ihnat says.

5:24 pm: According to the judiciary, Ukraine is making progress in punishing Russian war crimes. Ukrainian Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin told Agence France-Presse during a visit to Brussels that his country has convicted 81 Russian war criminals since the start of the war of aggression two years ago. Among them, 17 people were personally tried in Ukraine and sentenced to prison terms.

Kostin continues that the majority of the Russian defendants were convicted in absentia. For relatives, the rulings are an important sign of the lack of impunity. “Russia must be defeated not only on the battlefield, but also in the courtroom,” Kostin asserts. According to him, Ukraine is investigating more than 500 suspects in total. Nearly 360 cases are scheduled to be referred to justice soon.

Kostin accuses Russia of „repeating Nazi crimes.” In the war against Ukraine, civilians are targeted and women and girls are raped. In addition, about 20 thousand Ukrainian children were kidnapped to Russia, and only 400 of them could be returned. The chief investigator criticizes that „this policy is coordinated by the senior political and military leadership.”

1:29 PM: Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk is promoting close solidarity between the United States and Europe. „The post-war era is over. We live in a new time: the pre-war era. That is why NATO and solidarity between Europe and America have become more important than ever,” the head of government wrote on the 10th podium on Saturday. „.

11.35 am: The head of the Catholic Church called on the parties to the war in Ukraine to negotiate. People react sensitively, especially in Ukraine. Here you can read more about it.

9:18 AM: The Ukrainian military said it repelled a large-scale Russian attack with combat drones on Sunday evening. The Ukrainian Air Force announced in the morning that 35 out of 39 drones had been intercepted. “I thank everyone who achieved this result,” Air Force Commander Mykola Oleschuk wrote on his Telegram channel.

According to the army, an enemy drone struck an industrial building in the Odessa region in the south. No one is hurt. A transmission line was damaged in the Mykolaiv region. Iranian-designed Shahed drones were launched from the Russian coast of the Sea of ​​Azov and from the Crimean Peninsula, which it annexed. According to military information, Russia also fired four reused S-300 anti-aircraft missiles at ground targets in the Kharkiv and Donetsk regions.

8.11 AM: Advantage in war? Russia appears to be using a new type of drone. It has decisive advantages. Here you can read more about it.

7:23 AM: According to local governor Roman Starovoit, a Ukrainian drone struck Russia's Kursk Oblast region on the border with Ukraine and set fire to an oil storage facility. “Fire crews and rescue services are on site,” Starwit explains via SMS Telegram. He did not initially provide any further details.

Starwit also wrote that a woman died in the village of Kulbaki and her husband was seriously injured. The couple's residential building caught fire as a result of the bombing. Another house in the village was damaged and some electricity was cut off. The report could not be independently verified.

Kursk Oblast is located on the border with Ukraine. There and other border areas are witnessing repeated bombings, which the Russian side accuses of the Ukrainian armed forces or pro-Ukrainian saboteurs of committing. Leadership in Kiev usually does not comment on such incidents.

04:00: It is clear that a summit will be held in Switzerland this May to discuss the peace plan in Ukraine. This was reported by the newspaper „Tagesspiegel”. According to the report, the federal government sees progress toward a diplomatic end to the war in Ukraine. German government departments confirmed to the Tagesspiegel newspaper (Sunday): “The stage in which the national security advisors crystallized and activated the peace plan drawn up by Volodymyr Selensky has now ended.” Under consideration – a summit meeting of heads of state and government will be held in Switzerland.”

Ukraine's plan is to „adopt a joint statement addressing some elements of the peace plan in Kiev.” A spokesman for the Swiss Foreign Ministry told the newspaper: “The goal is to launch a process towards a common understanding of peace in Ukraine, supported by the largest possible number of countries at the highest political level.” “Various meetings” have already been held in the past few weeks.