After making sweeping gains in its recent eastern counter offensice, Kyiv says it’s still making progress eastwards. Meanwhile in separtist held regiions, there have been reports of shelling and civilian deaths. This comes as Kyiv accused Russian forces of shelling just some 300 metres away from Ukraine’s second largest nuclear power plant in the country’s southern Mykolaiv region.The Kremlin on Monday has denied allegations that Russian troops had committed war crimes near Izium — the Ukrainian town where authorities found more than 400 bodies at a mass burial site. Over the weekend, Ukrainian investigators who are exhuming bodies from the shallow graves said they found evidence of torture and execution, including bodies with their hands tied. They accused Russian troops of committing war crimes. “It’s the same scenario as in Bucha,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Monday, referring to the actions of Russian troops in Bucha in April. “It’s a lie, and of course we will defend the truth in this story.” Germany’s Defense Ministry issued a pair of updates on weapons deliveries to Ukraine online on Monday afternoon. The ministry said it was sending four more armored Panzerhaubitzer 2000’s (literally “tank howitzer 2000”) as well as a collection of ammunition. “With that, the number of the systems delivered in collaboration with the Netherlands rises to 22, of which 14 are from Germany,” the ministry said on Twitter. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte also mentioned this collaboration on Monday, noting after a call with his German counterpart Olaf Scholz that recent Ukrainian successes showed “that international military support works” and saying that his government and Germany would work on further joint initiatives.