Blasts rocked Ukraine’s western city of Lviv in the early hours of Tuesday as Russia launched large-scale air attacks that struck an industrial warehouse, officials said.

Local officials said air defence systems were engaged in repelling a Russian air attack that started in the early hours.

All of western half of Ukraine was covered under air raid alerts, starting from about 0000GMT.

The mayor of Lviv Andriy Sadovyi and regional governor Maxim Kozitsky asked people to stay indoors due to the threat of continuing attacks in the region. “As a result of the strike on the territory of Lviv, we recorded a fire at an industrial warehouse,” he said.

Ukraine’s military claims its latest recapture of a key village in Bakhmut will act as a “springboard” for further offensive actions against Russia’s continuing invasion.

Ukraine scored another victory recently when it recently recaptured village Klishchiivka that lies in the southern flank of Bakhmut, as its forces fought off Russian attempts to get back into the area.

The war-torn country’s forces had last week also recaptured Andriivka, another village a few kilometres to the south of Klishchiivka, after earlier criticism alleged Ukraine’s counteroffensive against Russian forces had slowed.

Ukraine‘s legal battle against Russia over allegations of genocide used by Moscow to justify its 2022 invasion resumes Monday at the United Nations’ highest court, as Russia seeks to have the case tossed out.

Hearings at the International Court of Justice, also known as the World Court, will see Ukraine supported by a record 32 other nations in a major show of support.

Kyiv launched the case shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, arguing that the attack was based on false claims of acts of genocide in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions of eastern Ukraine and alleging that Moscow was planning genocidal acts in Ukraine. It wants the court to order Russia to halt its invasion and pay reparations.

Russia’s new ambassador to the Vatican met Monday with Pope Francis for a protocol visit, as signs emerged that the Vatican’s Ukraine peace envoy could soon be undertaking a second mission to Moscow.

The Vatican said Ambassador Ivan Soltanovsky was presenting his credentials to Francis, signalling the official start of his term. His motorcade was seen leaving the Russian embassy Monday morning, bound for the Vatican, and returning about two hours later.

Soltanovsky replaced Ambassador Alexander Avdeev, whom Francis met with on Feb. 25, 2022 in a remarkable in-person papal visit to the embassy the day after Moscow’s forces invaded Ukraine.

Ukraine has fought back courageously against Mr Putin’s warped bid to restore territory lost to Moscow with the collapse of the Soviet Union and has continued to defy the odds by defending itself against Russian onslaughts with the help of Western military aid.

Ukraine said it is “rebooting” its defence ministry after six deputy defence ministers were fired amid its most significant wartime cabinet reshuffle yet.

Deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar, who frequently issued public updates on Russia’s war against Ukraine, was among the six sacked on Monday. The state secretary for defence was sacked as well.

In a widely-criticised interview with Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker, Mr Trump said that Putin’s comments proved that “what I’m saying is right” about resolving the 18-month-old war.

The former president has repeatedly claimed without providing any details that he could end the war within days should he be successful in taking back the White House.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Monday defended the presence of a Russian military unit in a weekend parade marking Mexico’s independence day, following sharp criticism his country had given a platform to forces that invaded Ukraine.

Ukraine‘s ambassador to Mexico, opposition politicians and critical media blasted the decision to allow a Russian unit to participate on Saturday, but Lopez Obrador said Mexico had allowed any country to join in.

“We have relations with all countries in the world and we invite everyone,” Lopez Obrador said at a regular government press conference after noting that the presence of the Russian unit had sparked a “scandal.”

Lopez Obrador, a leftist, has sought to keep Mexico neutral in the war between Russia and Ukraine, at one point proposing peace talks.

Nonetheless, his government has backed some major U.N. resolutions criticizing Russia’s role in the conflict.

Ukraine‘s ambassador to Mexico, Oksana Dramaretska, said on X that the parade had been “sullied” by the participation of a Russian unit which she said was “stained with blood.”

“How coherent is it Mr. Lopez Obrador with your policy of neutrality and condemnation of aggression against my country?,” Dramaretska wrote on the platform formerly known as Twitter.

Russia’s embassy in Mexico celebrated the 154th Preobrazhenskiy Regiment’s participation in the event.

“Long live the friendship between Mexico and Russia!,” the Russian embassy said on X.

The commander of Ukraine‘s ground forces has claimed the recapture of another village in the east of the country has helped Kyiv‘s forces break through part of Russia‘s defensive lines around the devastated city of Bakhmut.

The area has been a key part of Ukraine’s counteroffensive to try and reclaim territory occupied by Russia as part of its near-19 month invasion. Bakhmut has been the scene for some of the bloodiest fighting of the war and in the process taking on symbolic importance for both Russia and Ukraine far greater than its size.

Retaking Klishchiivka is considered tactically important as it will allow Ukrainian forces to further extend their gains around Bakhmut and keep pushing forward.

The rights situation in Russia has “significantly deteriorated” since President Vladimir Putin launched his war against Ukraine in February last year, an expert commissioned by the U.N.’s top human rights body said in her first report on the country on Monday.

Mariana Katzarova, the special rapporteur on Russia’s rights situation mandated by the Human Rights Council, chronicled the domestic crackdown that has largely targeted critics of Putin’s war as well as other opposition voices in Russia.

Her report, made public on Monday, is separate from another probe by U.N.-backed investigators that has accused Russia of war crimes in Ukraine.