20th day of heroic resistance of Ukraine against Russian military invasion

DESTRUCTION AND LOSSES

📌Martial law in Ukraine has been extended for another 30 days starting from March 26.

📌More than 3 million people have fled Ukraine since Russia invaded on 24 February, the UN said on Tuesday. Out of 3 million, 1.4 million are children, 157,000 are citizens of third countries, – said Paul Dillon, spokesman for the UN International Organization for Migration.

📌Russian invaders shelled Kharkiv 65 times in one day. As a result of the shelling, residential buildings and the building of the Central Market were damaged, in which a fire later broke out.

📌In the early morning of 15 March in Kyiv, shells of Russian invaders hit residential buildings, and also damaged a metro station with an explosive wave. As a result of the explosions, 5 people died, 27 more people were saved.

📌In Rubizhne, the Russian military destroyed a boarding school for children with visual impairments, a city hospital and three schools. 4 people died under the rubble.

📌 In the Luhansk region, shelling of the civilian population does not stop, the destruction of infrastructure and housing facilities in Popasna, Severodonetsk, Rubizhne is catastrophic.

📌 The number of victims after yesterday’s air strike on the TV tower in Rivne has increased to 19 people. Parsing by rescuers of the destroyed TV tower continues.

 📌The humanitarian catastrophe in Mariupol continues. Russian saboteurs killed 2357 civilians during the blockade, leaving people without food, water, heat, light, destroying houses, schools, hospitals to the ground, aiming at residents.

📌 On the afternoon of 15 March, Russian aircraft over Kharkov fired at the area of ​​​​Armeyskaya metro station.

📌As a result of the bombing of Russian aviation and artillery shelling in the Kherson region, 21 educational institutions were damaged.

📌Russian aviation launched a missile attack on the Dnipro airport. The walls of the terminal were destroyed, the container with kerosene was damaged, there was a leak. Rescuers continue to eliminate the consequences of the bombing, there are no casualties.

📌After the evacuation of people who suffered after the bombing in Kharkov, the Russian invaders began shelling the victims and rescuers. 

📌Russian invaders took hostage doctors and patients near Mariupol, in the regional intensive care hospital, drove 400 residents from neighboring houses to the hospital and seized there.

📌 On 15 March, the Odessa region was under attack – the Russian fleet fired at two settlements from naval artillery. In total, Russian troops fired more than 90 missiles. There are wounded.

📌Since 24 February, Russian aircraft have launched more than 900 missiles of various types in Ukraine, the US Department of Defense reported. Most of these missiles were fired at civilian infrastructure and civilians.

 📌The Russian Federation has destroyed 3,500 civilian infrastructure facilities in Ukraine.

📌According to Energoatom, due to the fault of the Russian occupation forces, more than 1 million Ukrainians are left without electricity and gas.

📌 The kidnapped mayor of the city of Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov, is in occupied Lugansk, where he is charged with “terrorism” actions.

📌 Another journalist died as a result of shelling by the Russian invaders. FoxNews TV cameraman Pierre Zakrevskiy and Ukrainian journalist Alexandra Kuvshinova were killed during an artillery shelling in Gorenka near Kiev. Before that, another FoxNews journalist, Benjamin Hall, was injured under similar circumstances.

 📌 On 13 March, in Vorzel, Kiev region, Russian invaders shot Vasily Kladok, an experimental physicist, deputy director of the Institute of Semiconductor Physics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Saving his family from the invaders, he himself did not have time to leave the settlement in time and was shot by Russian aggressors.

📌 On the night of 13-14 March, Russian invaders fired on a TV tower in the Rivne region. As a result of the explosion and destruction, at least 9 people, including employees, were killed, and another 10 were injured.

📌 In the village of Dergachi in the Kharkiv region, rockets from Russian invaders hit a residential house. As a result of the shelling, a 15-year-old girl was killed, who had just entered the house to get the toys for younger children.

📌 Residential buildings in Kramatorsk, Avdeevka, Severodonetsk, Akhtyrka, Zhitomir, Nikolaev were subjected to shelling by the Russian invaders. In all cities there are deceased among the civilian population. https://t.me/ukrainenowenglish/1454

📌 As a result of shelling by Russian aviation, new explosions and damage to civilian infrastructure have occurred in Kyiv since the beginning of the day on 14 March. Residential buildings in 4 districts of the city, as well as the Antonov plant, the state enterprise of the aviation industry of Ukraine, caught fire.

📌According to the Financial Times, the United States told allies that China is ready to provide military assistance to Russia.

📌The Governor of the Sumy region Dmitry Zhyvitsky said that in Trostyanets Russian invaders are driving local residents into fake “green” corridors in order to later use them as “human shields”.

RUSSIAN CONTEXT

📌Russian propagandist Vladimir Solovyov, who owns a lot of real estate in Italy, threatened Europe and said that Russia would not stop at war with Ukraine. Direct speech: “If you think that we will stop in Ukraine, think 300 times. Let me remind you that Ukraine is only an intermediate step in ensuring the strategic security of the Russian Federation.”

📌The Russian Federation has imposed sanctions against US President Joe Biden and 12 other American civil servants. Sanctions have also been imposed on Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

📌Russia has announced its withdrawal from the Council of Europe.

📌The Russian social network Vkontakte, where the main migration of users and businesses from Instagram banned by Roskomnadzor, allows a technical default. The reason is that on 3 March, the London Stock Exchange stopped trading in shares of Russian companies, in particular VK. In this regard, the owners of securities may request redemption of their bonds with interest. In its statement, the company writes that if the principal and interest on the bonds are not paid within 14 days, a default will occur.

📌“Moscow panic over lack of new action plan for full-scale invasion of Ukraine” — Bellingcat Investigator Hristo Grozev. He reports that the elites of the Russian Federation are already openly declaring that Russia’s course is suicidal, it is impossible to continue the war, and repressions have begun in the special services of the aggressor country.

DEFENSE UPDATES

📌Estimated losses of the Russian Federation Army in Ukraine:

📌 Defending Mariupol on 14 March, the Armed Forces of Ukraine destroyed military equipment and 150 invaders. 

📌The Security Service of Ukraine has detained 60 collaborators since the beginning of Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine and uncovered 20 Russian sabotage and reconnaissance groups in different regions.

📌Russian invaders suffered significant losses when trying to storm Kharkov from Pyatikhatki.

📌At the initiative of the Ministry of Digital Transformation in the Russian Federation and Belarus, the main companies that issue SSL and TLS security certificates for websites, namely GeoTrust, Sectigo, DigiCert, Thawte, Rapid, have stopped working.

📌Photo of the day

HUMANITARIAN CORRIDORS AND EVACUATION UPDATES

📌As of 14:00 Kyiv time, it is reported that 2,000 cars left Mariupol. The column is heading towards Zaporozhye, where civilians who have spent 13 days in the blockade will be able to receive assistance. Another 2,000 cars were parked at the exit of the city.

📌 In total, 29 thousand people left the blocked cities of Ukraine on 15 March, including 20 thousand people from Mariupol.

President Vladimir Zelensky’s daily statements 

📌Ukraine is fighting for life. Ukraine wins life from rockets, air bombs, artillery, tanks, mortars. And everything else that Russian troops use to destroy Ukraine and Ukrainians. Everything else. Russia is now destroying itself, because every bombing, every shot at Ukraine is a step towards self-destruction of Russia.

📌President Zelensky has appointed a new Head of the Kyiv Regional Military Administration and a new Commander of the Joint Forces Operation Oleksandr Pavlyuk – Hero of Ukraine, Lieutenant General, Commander of the JFO. Major General Eduard Moskalev became the new commander of the JFO.

📌The Prime Ministers of Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovenia Mateusz Morawiecki, Piotr Fiala and Janez Jansha, as well as the Deputy Prime Minister of Poland for Security Affairs Yaroslav Kaczynski arrived in Kyiv today as representatives of the Council of Europe to meet with President Zelensky. The purpose of the visit is to confirm the unequivocal support of the entire European Union for the sovereignty and independence of Ukraine, as well as to provide a wide package of assistance to the Ukrainian state and society.

📌Vladimir Zelensky spoke at a meeting of representatives of the member countries of the Joint Expeditionary Force (Great Britain, Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Sweden and Norway):

✅The world needs new security guarantees, as the old ones have proven to be ineffective.

✅The Russian invasion of Ukraine destroyed everything on which security in the world rested and called into question the most powerful alliance in the world – NATO.

✅In the countries of Europe, especially those bordering Russia, there is no certainty that the Alliance will not be afraid to respond if Russian missiles and planes fly to them.

✅Ukraine needs new interaction formats to guarantee security. If NATO does not want to open the doors, then Ukraine can cooperate, for example, with the UK.

✅ It is necessary to increase the sanctions pressure on Russia until its aggressive rhetoric and intentions change. In particular, it is necessary to ban the Russian fleet from using world ports, disconnect all Russian banks from SWIFT, recognize the Russian Federation as a terrorist state and impose an embargo on any trade with the Russian Federation.

✅According to statistics, one Ukrainian tank accounts for about 100 Russian, for one Ukrainian soldier – up to 30 soldiers of the aggressors forces. Therefore, Ukraine needs additional assistance, in particular, aircraft and air defense systems for self-protection of the sky.

Tweet of the day

PUBLIC AND BUSINESS SUPPORT

📌Ukrainian creative group and music production Roger Leao & 7CS collected the sounds of hundreds of documentary recordings from Ukraine and created the “Anthem of Real Russia”. “The Anthem of True Russia” can be listened to on a dedicated website, as well as Spotify, Apple Music and Youtube. https://anthemoftruerussia.org

📌Korean Air suspends passenger and cargo flights to Moscow and Vladivostok.

📌One of the largest US banks Citigroup will curtail activities in several areas in the Russian market.

📌The EU Aviation Safety Agency has suspended the licenses of dozens of Russian air carriers, in particular for products, spare parts and devices, training centers.

📌Hong Kong-listed Chinese stocks endured their worst day since the global financial crisis – Bloomberg.

INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT OF UKRAINE

📌EU approved fourth package of sanctions for Russia, and UN plans to allocate an additional $40 million for humanitarian assistance to Ukraine.

📌The EU Committee of Permanent Representatives decided to approve the fourth package of sanctions against Russian individuals and legal entities, as well as certain sectors of the Russian economy.

📌Japan announced the freezing of assets of 17 individuals from the Russian Federation.  In general, Tokyo has already imposed sanctions against 61 Russians for the war against Ukraine.

📌The United States imposed sanctions against 11 people working in the Russian defense sector.  In particular, the restrictions apply to the heads of the Russian Ministry of Defense.

📌Spain seized a $140 million yacht owned by a Russian oligarch.

📌The United Nations will provide an additional $40 million for humanitarian assistance to Ukraine.

📌Since the beginning of the war, international partners have provided humanitarian aid to Ukraine with medical supplies worth more than $50 million.

📌The British government has launched a special website “A Home for Ukraine” for those who are ready to accept Ukrainians forced to flee from the armed aggression of the Russian Federation.  43.8 thousand people have already expressed their readiness.

📌On March 16, the UN International Court of Justice will rule on immediate action in the case of Ukraine vs Russia on genocide charges under the Convention on the Genocide Crime Prevention.

📌 US President Joe Biden said that the United States will respond to any step by the Russian Federation that threatens NATO, even though this will lead to a world war.

📌 The United States may impose a complete embargo on trade with Russia. This was reported by Reuters. In addition, the next package of sanctions may include blocking sea routes, restricting the export of nickel, uranium and aluminum, as well as blocking cryptocurrency transactions.

📌Slovakia expelled three employees of the Russian Embassy from the country. “The activities of Russian diplomats are contrary to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations,” the Slovak Foreign Ministry said. 

📌 OSCE Head and Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau called Russian attacks on civilians, schools, hospitals and civilian infrastructure state terrorism.

📌 US President Joe Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan met in Rome with Communist Party Politburo member Yang Jiechi to warn China against providing Russia with military and economic aid.

📌 Russian invaders may use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine to stage an attack on their own army, the UK Ministry of Defense warns. Earlier, the same assumptions were made in the White House.

📌US President Joe Biden agreed to provide Ukraine with a “historic” $13.6 billion in aid.

Tweet of the day

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba’s daily statements 

📌Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Russia, 1,790 orphans have been evacuated from Ukraine. Now they are in Poland, Italy, Germany, Israel, Spain, Denmark, Austria, Romania, Czech Republic, Turkey, France, Switzerland. Ukrainian consuls in these countries are in touch with attendants and doctors who arrived with children and provide them with the necessary consular and legal support.

📌 “Caring for the safety of the citizens of Hungary does not mean that you can turn a blind eye to the murder of citizens of Ukraine.” Thus, the Head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry expressed surprise at the position of official Budapest regarding assistance to Kiev in the face of Russian aggression. Recall that Hungary itself did not provide military assistance to Ukraine and refused to allow the transit of weapons through its territory.