Blasts were heard at Russia’s Engels airbase hundreds of miles from frontlines in Ukraine, Ukrainian and Russian media outlets reported early on Monday. The RBC-Ukraine reported that 2 explosions took place, writes The Guardian.

Vladimir Putin claimed Russia was ready to negotiate with all parties involved in the war in Ukraine, while accusing Kyiv and its western allies of “refusing” to negotiate. Kyiv and its allies suspect Putin’s claims are a ploy to buy time after a series of Russian defeats and retreats on the battlefield.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said Putin “needs to come back to reality” after the Russian leader claimed Moscow was ready for negotiations. It is “obvious” that Russia “doesn’t want negotiations, but tries to avoid responsibility”, Podolyak tweeted.

Air raid alerts sounded across Kyiv and most of Ukraine on Sunday. Officials gave the all-clear and there were no immediate reports of Russian attacks. Unconfirmed reports on Ukrainian social media suggested the sirens may have been triggered after Russian jets took to the skies in Belarus.

Ukraine’s Kherson governor has issued a blood donor appeal after 16 people were killed when Russian shelling hit the southern region on Saturday. Yaroslav Yanushevych said Russian forces “opened fire on the Kherson region 71 times” with artillery, multiple-launch rocket systems and mortars. Iuliia Mendel, a Ukrainian former presidential spokesperson, shared photos of people waiting to donate blood in Kherson.

Three Ukrainian emergency workers died when a mine exploded while they were demining parts of the Kherson region. “All three selflessly served … and performed the task of demining territories liberated from the enemy in the Kherson region,” the Zhytomyr emergency service said on its Facebook page.

Russian forces’ rate of advance in the Bakhmut area of eastern Ukraine has probably slowed in recent days, according to analysts. In its latest update, the US thinktank the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) cited one Russian military blogger as saying that Ukrainian forces had pushed back elements of Russian private mercenary company the Wagner group to positions they held days ago.