The most high-profile graft allegations since Russia's invasion that threaten to dampen Western enthusiasm.

Zelensky, who did not identify the officials to be replaced, said part of the crackdown would involve toughening oversight on travelling abroad for official assignments.

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A top ally of Zelensky said corrupt officials would be "actively" jailed, setting out a zero-tolerance approach.

Germany is not blocking the re-export of Leopard tanks to Ukraine, the European Union's top diplomat said on Monday, after Poland vowed to send some as long as other countries did too.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks in Kyiv. File photo

Poland said on Monday it would ask Germany for permission to send Leopard tanks to Ukraine - and would send them whether or not Berlin agreed as long as other countries did too.

European foreign ministers, meeting on Monday to discuss aid to Ukraine, pressed Berlin to let countries send German-made Leopard tanks, after Germany appeared to open the door to such shipments by allies.

South Africa's foreign minister on Monday deflected criticism of joint military drills planned with Russia and China, saying that hosting such exercises with "friends" was the "natural course of relations."

Russia and Estonia downgraded their diplomatic relations and expelled each other's ambassadors after Moscow accused Tallinn of anti-Russian policies. Latvia also expelled Russia's ambassador in solidarity with Estonia.

Russian forces continued to pound the Donetsk region in Ukraine's east on Monday. One person was killed and two injured in Russian shelling of a residential district of the town of Chasiv Yar that damaged at least nine high-rise buildings, Pavlo Kyrylenko, governor of Donetsk region, said on Telegram.

"Spring and early summer will be decisive in the war," Vadym Skibitsky, deputy head of Ukraine's military intelligence, said in an interview with news site Delfi.

On Monday, the new general in charge of Russia's military operations in Ukraine used his first public comments to warn that modern Russia had never seen such "intensity of military hostilities", forcing it to carry out offensive operations to stabilise the situation.

Reuters