Ukraine accused Russia on Monday of looting empty homes in the southern city of Kherson and occupying them with troops in civilian clothes to prepare for street fighting in what both sides predict will be one of the war’s most important battles.

DIPLOMACY

A senior adviser to Ukraine’s president said Kyiv had never refused to negotiate with Moscow and that it was ready for talks with Russia’s future leader, but not with Vladimir Putin. The comments by Mykhailo Podolyak followed a Washington Post report saying the Biden administration was privately encouraging Ukraine’s leaders to signal an openness to negotiate with Moscow.

FIGHTING, CONFLICT

* Ukraine has received its first delivery of NASAMS and Apside air defense systems, Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said.

* Putin said that 50,000 Russian soldiers called up as part of his mobilization drive were now fighting with combat units in Ukraine, the Interfax news agency reported.

* Russia is suffering heavy losses in “fierce” attacks in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region and is preparing new assaults on Ukrainian energy infrastructure, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said.

* Russia’s defense ministry took the rare step of denying allegations that a naval infantry unit had suffered disastrous losses of men and equipment in a futile offensive in eastern Ukraine.

ECONOMY

* Three top Ukrainian officials confirmed that the shares of five strategic companies had been taken over by the defense ministry under wartime laws. The decision was taken at a top security meeting on Saturday and came into force the next day, Security Council Secretary Oleksiy Danilov told a briefing.