Russia and Ukraine exchanged drone bombardment and accusations of targeting cities on Monday, and while Moscow announced the advance of its forces on the eastern front, Kiev warned of movements of Russian warships in the Black Sea.

This comes at a time when Russia has asked its BRICS partners (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), as well as its other partners, for their assessments of the Jeddah consultations on the Ukrainian crisis, while China renewed its adherence to an independent and impartial position on Ukraine.

The governor of Russia's Kaluga region, southwest of Moscow, said air defense systems shot down a drone over the province at dawn on Monday.

The governor of Belgorod province also announced that air defense systems had shot down another drone that was flying over the province.

In Ukraine, prosecutors said a woman was killed and 7 people injured in Russian shelling on the Kherson region, southeastern Ukraine.

The Public Prosecution added, in a statement, that the shelling targeted a residential neighborhood in the city center, and led to the fire in the building, and damaged a number of neighboring buildings.

In the Kharkiv province, Ukrainian authorities announced that two people were killed, and 3 wounded, in Russian shelling around the city of Kobyansk.

Russian progress

On the ground, the Russian army confirmed that its forces advanced within 3 days to a depth of more than 3 kilometers in an 11-kilometer strip on the Kobyansk front in the Kharkiv province of northeastern Ukraine, an area that Ukrainian forces recaptured last September.

The Russian Ministry of Defense said in its daily briefing that this area is located between the towns of Vilchana and Brtshutravnifi, northeast of the city of Kobyansk.

Ukraine admitted in mid-July that it was in a "defensive position" in the Kopyiansk region, where the Russian military launched an offensive. Moscow has since maintained that it was advancing there.

In a related context, the Russian army announced that the units of the Western Group of the army took control of 7 sites of the Ukrainian forces, and destroyed an infantry company, in the "Olshan" region.

The Russian Defense Ministry said Russian artillery forces destroyed a headquarters of Ukrainian forces in the vicinity of the city of Liman, western Ukraine, after a drone monitoring operation.

The Russian Defense Ministry broadcast images it said were of the targeting operation, and indicated that its forces managed to repel an attack by Ukrainian forces in the Kleschevka region towards Akhmut, and also attacked positions of Ukrainian forces in the same area.

Black Sea

In contrast, the Ukrainian General Staff said that its forces repelled Russian advances on the axes of Kobyansk in the Kharkiv province, and Liman, Marinka and Avdiivka in the Donetsk region.

On the naval front, Ukraine's navy said three ships it described as hostile were on a Black Sea combat mission, not including missile carriers.

For her part, spokeswoman for the Operations Command of the Southern Region of the Ukrainian army Natalia Homenyuk said that Russian forces are constantly changing their military tactics, and are working to gather information, to carry out missile strikes from the Black Sea on Ukraine within the next 48 hours.

Jeddah Talks

Politically, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Monday that Moscow hopes that its BRICS partners, as well as its other partners, will share their assessments of the high-level consultations in Jeddah on Ukraine.

More than 40 countries, including China, India, the United States and European countries, took part in the Jeddah talks, which ended on Sunday and Russia was absent.

Zakharova added that the Russian Foreign Ministry was briefed on what happened in the consultations on Ukraine hosted by Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on the fifth and sixth of August / August / August "at the initiative of the regime in Kiev and the member states of the Group of Seven."

In turn, the Chinese Foreign Ministry confirmed that Minister Wang Yi confirmed in a phone call with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov that Beijing adheres to an independent and neutral position on Ukraine.

Earlier on Monday, China's Foreign Ministry said recent international talks hosted by Saudi Arabia to resolve the Ukraine crisis had helped "establish international consensus."

In turn, a spokesman for the German government confirmed on Monday that the Jeddah talks were successful, because they reflected the desire of the international community to work to end the war.

Prisoner exchange

For his part, a senior Ukrainian official said that Russia and Ukraine carried out the latest prisoner exchange today, which included the return of 22 Ukrainians to their country.

Andrei Yermak, director of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's office, said the released soldiers included two officers, a number of sergeants and soldiers who had fought in several areas on the front, adding that some were wounded.

"Today, we have repatriated 22 Ukrainian fighters from captivity," Yermak said, adding that the oldest is 54 years old and the youngest is 23. There was no immediate comment from Russia.

Russia and Ukraine periodically exchange groups of prisoners over the course of the war, now in its 18th month.

Russia spy arrested

Ukraine's security service said on Monday it had detained a woman accused of helping Russia plan an attack on President Volodymyr Zelensky while visiting a flood-ravaged region.

The security service said the woman was gathering intelligence to try to find out Zelenskiy's itinerary before visiting the southern Mykolaiv region.

Zelenskiy visited the Mykolaev region in June after it was flooded by a breach in the Kakhovka dam and in July after it was bombed.

The security service said the suspect was helping Russia prepare an "intensive air strike on the Mykolaev region" and sought data on the locations of electronic warfare systems and ammunition depots.

The SSS said its officers continued to monitor her for more information about her Russian trainers and missions, and that his men then caught the woman "red-handed" trying to pass intelligence data to Russian intelligence services.

The woman could face charges of unauthorized publication of information about the movements of materiel and troops, punishable by 12 years in prison.