Moscow announced a new advance of Russian forces in Donetsk. Russian forces they captured the village of Novobakkhmutivka in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, near Osretyne, which has become the focus of fighting in recent days, the Interfax news agency reported, citing the Russian Defense Ministry.

Russian forces pushed back a number of Ukrainian counterattacks near Chasiv Yar, announced the ministry. This is another strategically important point in this region, where the two sides have repeatedly clashed.

The situation on the battlefield in eastern Ukraine has worsened with Kiev’s troops retreating to new positions in at least three places along the front, Ukraine’s army chief admitted on Sunday.

Oleksandr Shirsky wrote in Telegram that his troops received new positions west of the villages Berdici, Semenivka and Novomikhailivka in order to save energy.

The Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky addressed a new dramatic appeal on Saturday to strengthen Ukrainian air defenses and urgent arms deliveries after the latest overnight Russian strike on Ukraine’s energy sector.

Zelensky said that Ukraine is in need of a sufficient number of anti-aircraft defense systems and from other weapons to protect her cities and prevail on the front lines. “Terrorism must always be defeated, and anyone who helps us stand up to Russian terrorism is a true pro-lifer,” he said in a post on social media.

The Pentagon announced that it would “expedite” it deployment of Patriot air defense missiles and artillery ammunition to Ukraine as part of its new US military aid package.

However, new Patriot systems to launch the missiles they will not be sent, the Minister of Defense clarified Lloyd Austin.

Moscow warns West of tough response if it touches its ‘frozen’ assets

Russian officials meanwhile warned the West today of a “tough” response if frozen Russian assets are seized and vowed “endless” legal battles and retaliation.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Russia would never cede territory it seized from Ukraine in exchange for the return of seized Russian assets.

“Our country is not for sale”, Zakharova wrote on Telegram.

“Any Russian assets must remain intact, otherwise there will be a harsh response to Western theft. Many in the West have already understood this. Unfortunately not all,” he commented.

In response to Russia’s war in Ukraine, the US and its allies banned transactions with Russia’s central bank and finance ministry and froze Russian assets worth about $300 billion in the West, most of which are in European rather than American financial institutions.

In a separate comment, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there was still a lot of Western money in Russia that could be targeted by Russian countermeasures.

“The Prospects for Legal Appeals (against the seizure of Russian assets) are wide open. Russia will take advantage of them and relentlessly defend its interests,” Peskov said.

After all, yesterday the number two of the Russian Security Council and former prime minister Dmitry Medvedev warned that Russia will answer to any US seizure of Russian seized currency reserves in the West–seizing the assets–including real estate and cash–of American citizens and investors in Russia.

The US House of Representatives has passed legislation allowing the Biden administration to seize Russian assets held in US banks and transfer them to Ukraine, which the Kremlin has called illegal and said would trigger retaliation.