US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and defense secretary Lloyd Austin have arrived in Ukraine.

The pair are in Kyiv and were holding talks with Volodymyr Zelenskiy, presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said late on Sunday in a social media video.

Mr Blinken and Mr Austin will discuss the kinds of weapons that Ukraine needs to battle Russia’s renewed aggression in the east and south of the country, Mr Zelensky said at a news conference Saturday.

The visit will mark the highest level United States officials to visit since the Russian invasion began on 24 February.

Russia’s Consulate-General in New York has had to use the reserve of cash at its disposal and has resorted to austerity measures after its account in the Bank of America was blocked in March, said state news agency TASS.

The consulate has since remained fully operational, said the acting Consul-General Vyacheslav Slavkin.

“Before all that happened, we created a certain cash reserve in anticipation of some unpleasant things that might occur. The cash we have enables us, on the condition we take austerity measures, to pay the electricity and utility bills and for car fuel, to a certain extent, although we have restricted the use of motor transport. Also, we can pay salary to our staff,” he said.

Earlier today Russia’s ambassador to the US, Anatoly Antonov, said the Bank of America closed the accounts of Russia’s general consulates in Houston and New York and the embassy was in fact “blockaded by US government structures”.

Ukraine has asked the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for “a comprehensive list of equipment” it needs to operate nuclear power plants during the war with Russia, Reuters reports.

“We will coordinate the implementation of the assistance that the IAEA and its member states will provide, including by delivering required equipment directly to Ukraine’s nuclear sites,” IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said.

“The needs are great and I’m very grateful for the considerable support that our Member States have already indicated they will make available.”

Governor Dmytro Lunin said that the number of casualties and the damages caused by the evening strike were being verified, reported The Kyiv Independent.

According to Slidstvo.info, the Russian Orthodox Church has helped with the deportation and resettlement of Ukrainians.

Since the invasion of Ukraine, the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations has been sending reports on the occupied territories and deported Ukrainians to the church.

The Ministry of Emergencies informs churchmen daily about changes in the occupied territories and the number of Ukrainians forcibly deported – routes and time of delivery of people from Ukraine to Russia.

Our Defense and Diplomatic Editor Kim Sengupta reports on how Ukraine’s continued resistance against Russia will shape modern history forever.

According to the latest update from Ukraine’s Armed Forces, Russian troops intensified their offensive in Kharkiv Oblast, trying to advance, but suffered losses and were forced to retreat to occupied territories, The Kyiv Independent reported.

“I have collected a lot of bodies, more than 100,” said Vlad Minchenko, a Ukrainian artist who’s retrieving dead bodies around the town of Bucha.

The grim work for Minchenko and a small group of others began under occupation as the bodies scattered in streets or hurriedly dumped in yards apparently became too much even for the Russians. But the work was dangerous.

The Russian embassy has dismissed reports of alleged deliveries of Iranian weapons to Russia, said state news agency TASS.

“The rumors that have appeared in some media about Iranian weapons supplies to Russia are fake news and have nothing to do with the reality,” the embassy said on its Twitter page on Sunday.

Reports alleged deliveries of weapons, including anti-aircraft missile systems, from Iraq and Iran to Russia to use in Ukraine. Both Baghdad and Tehran have also dismissed these reports.