Ukraine’s defense ministry has poked fun at the Russian military, saying Ukraine has seized huge finds of ammunition that it promises to use against invading forces.

In a sarcastic Twitter post on Friday, the ministry said it had received “thousands of tons of ammunition as gifts” from the Russian armed forces over the past week. The ministry’s post follows reports of Ukraine’s success in retaking occupied lands in the south and north-east of the country. But the “gift” of the confiscated ammunition will be returned to Russia, the ministry added.

“Please note that we do not accept gifts from murderers, torturers, looters or rapists,” the ministry said in its post. “In the next few days we will return everything except the last shell.”

Abandoned ammunition boxes on the outskirts of Izyum, in eastern Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, are shown in this photo taken on Sept. 14, 2022. Ukraine’s Defense Ministry mocked Russia in a tweet about abandoned ammunition and vowed to use it against the invading country’s army. JUAN BARRETO/Getty Images

Ukrainian forces have regained control of most of northeastern Kharkiv province, including the nearby transport hub of Izyum, and also advanced around the southern city of Kherson.

So said the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a US-based think tank tracking the progress of the counterattack in this week that Ukrainian forces have retaken about 3,475 square miles (nearly three times the size of Rhode Island) across the country since August 29.

Ukrainian forces took control of Kupyansk, a city in Kharkiv province on Friday when they met Russian resistance as they advanced east of the Oskil River, according to ISW. In the adjacent Russian administrative district of Belgorod, Ukrainian forces continued shelling, reportedly hitting a power substation, ISW said.

The British Ministry of Defence said in his intelligence update this week that Russian forces were leaving behind “high quality equipment” necessary for their “artillery-focused style of warfare.” The equipment left behind included at least one ZOOPARK counter-battery radar and at least one IV14 artillery command and control vehicle, according to the ministry.

“Such a task underscores the disorganized withdrawal of some Russian units and likely localized collapses in command and control,” the British department said.

Air Force Brigadier General Pat Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, called Ukraine’s territorial gains “significant” during a news conference on Friday.

“What we’re assessing is that the Ukrainians are consolidating their gains after retaking significant territory and the Russians are trying to shore up their defenses after being pushed back,” Ryder said, referring to Ukraine’s achievements in the north .

In the south of the country, Ukrainian forces are taking what Ryder described as a “deliberate, calculated forward movement” while the Russians continue to try to hold that line.

Ukrainian forces attacked Russia’s administrative headquarters in Kherson on Friday, likely using US-provided High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or “HIMARS,” according to ISW.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday he remains committed to the war effort and focused on the Kremlin’s main goal of “liberating the entire Donbass territory” in eastern Ukraine.

Newsweek has reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry for comment.

Residents of the village of Pianello di Ostra (Italy), the day after the deluge that hit the region, September 16, 2022. ALESSANDRO DI MEO / AFP

“God help us. It is a message of desperation that Riccardo Pasqualini wrote on Facebook on the night of Thursday 15 to Friday 16 September. The mayor of Barbara, a town of 1,257 inhabitants, could only helplessly watching the deluge descend on this small town in the Marche region of eastern Italy In his message, Riccardo Pasqualini urged residents to stay at home and not take their cars under any circumstances, at the risk of losing their lives.

These storms surprised again by their violence. In just six hours, more than 400 millimeters of rain fell in the region, which is a third of the annual amount of rain, said civil protection chief Fabrizio Curzio, who was on site on Friday morning. In the village of Cantiano, about fifty kilometers from Barbara, further inland, some residents filmed themselves with water up to their waists. In many videos shared on social networks, we see cars washed away by mud rivers.

The toll of this new extreme climatic episode is very high. The civil defense has actually identified ten dead and three missing, including two children. Around 50 people were also hospitalized and 150 others had to be evacuated from their homes.

Almost 200 firefighters were mobilized to help the victims. Some help came from the neighboring regions of Abruzzo and Emilia-Romagna. The pictures showed them aboard inflatable boats going up lanes that turned into streams. The army also provided two helicopters to help with the rescue operations.

“Seven violent climate phenomena since July”

A few hours after the tragedy, stunning images from Europe’s Copernicus satellite showed the magnitude of the violence of these storms and the destructive power of the gully. From space we can actually see that the mudslides entered the Adriatic Sea up to 80 kilometers offshore.

These events are just one more episode in a long line of climate catastrophes that this area of ​​the Mediterranean basin has been experiencing since the beginning of summer. “It’s a situation very similar to the violent storms that swept over Corsica on August 18, as well as Liguria and Tuscany,” said climatologist Luca Mercalli, president of the Italian Meteorological Society, who is asking for better information. “Italians are not educated on how to behave in the face of these violent and sudden facts,” he notes.

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Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral is scheduled for next Monday. This will be one of the biggest events of the year. As such, it is expected that several royalty and politicians from around the world will be in attendance.

Invitations have already been sent out and an estimated 500 heads of state and foreign dignitaries will attend the event.

However, as with any event, there are those who have not been invited.

According to the BBC, representatives from Syria, Venezuela and Afghanistan were not invited. Since the UK does not have full diplomatic relations with these countries, the national leaders of these nations are left out.

Apart from them, no one from Russia and Belarus was invited. Diplomatic ties between Britain and Russia have collapsed since the invasion of Ukraine, and a spokesman for the Russian President said Vladimir Putin was “not considering” attending the funeral.

In the case of Belarus, the diplomatic break was also due to the war in Ukraine. The invasion was partially launched from the territory of this country, whose President Aleksandr Lukashenko is a close ally of Putin.

Another country that did not invite representatives due to conflicts was Myanmar. Britain has significantly reduced its diplomatic presence there since a military coup last year.

Finally, North Korea and Nicaragua were asked to send only ambassadors, not heads of state.