Over the past twenty-four hours, Russian forces in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, have made progress in a number of areas, repelled a number of HIMARS missiles fired towards Russian territory, while launching a drone attack targeting the Kiev region.

The military administration of the city of Kiev announced that the Ukrainian capital was subjected to drone attacks early this morning, and urged residents to pay attention to the warnings issued by the authorities to warn of raids.

"The enemy is attacking the capital," she said in a Telegram post, adding that "at the moment, nine drones have been shot down in the airspace of Kiev".

The civil protection in Kiev issued an initial warning of the occurrence of raids and the need to take cover, as the alert lasted for three hours, and then the sirens went off again at 5.24 am before the end of the alert was announced half an hour later.

Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said protecting his country's borders was a" permanent priority " and that Ukraine was ready for all possible scenarios with Russia and its ally Belarus.

Zelensky's remarks came on the eve of a visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin to Belarus amid talk of a possible new attack by Moscow and expectations that it could be launched from Belarus.

In his speech, Zelensky made a new appeal to Western countries to provide his country with effective air defenses. He said his forces were in control of the town of Bakhmut in the East, where some of the country's fiercest fighting is taking place.

Zelensky had called for a global peace conference to help end the war that broke out because of the Russian attack on his country

In a video released by his office on Sunday, he said: "We have presented a formula of peace to the world. Absolutely fair. We presented it because there are no heroes in the war, there can be no draw,"he said.

Zelensky explained that the world had heard his call for peace despite the decision of FIFA to refuse to allow his video message to be broadcast before the football World Cup final.

On Monday, British prime minister Rishi Sunak plans to announce the supply of a new package of artillery ammunition to Ukraine during a meeting in Riga that will bring together the leaders of northern European and Baltic countries as well as the Netherlands.

Sunak arrives in Latvia on Monday to attend the meeting of the member states of the British-led coalition "joint reconnaissance force" (Jef), where efforts to counter Russian aggression will be discussed.

A statement from the British Prime Minister's office said that Sunak will call on the leaders of the countries of this alliance to maintain the 2022 levels of support for Ukraine or increase them in 2023.

"Sunak will also announce the supply of hundreds of thousands of artillery shells to Kiev next year under a contract worth 250 million pounds sterling (304 million dollars), ensuring the continuous flow of basic ammunition for artillery to Ukraine throughout 2023,"he said.