Press digest – Ukraine
22nd day of heroic resistance of Ukraine against Russian military invasion
Every morning, starting March 17, a nationwide minute of silence has been declared throughout Ukraine at 9:00am Kyiv time.
“We will remember the Ukrainians who gave their lives, all the military, civilians, and children” (c) President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy
DESTRUCTION AND LOSSES
📌Putin and Russia have killed 108 Ukrainian children since the start of the war. Russian Nazis are deliberately targeting children, doing it with cynicism and terrible cruelty. Another confirmation of this was the attack with a heavy bomb which the Russians dropped yesterday on the Mariupol Drama Theater. Hundreds of citizens with children were sheltering in the basements of the building to avoid relentless shelling. Children who survived are doomed to stay near the dead people without water, food, or access to the air.
📌 In the late evening of March 16 and on the night of March 16-17, air alerts again sounded throughout the WHOLE TERRITORY of Ukraine.
📌Russian invaders attacked the building of the Neptune swimming pool in Mariupol, where civilians who lost their homes during previous bombardments were hiding from shelling.
📌 In Chernihiv, Russian invaders again fired at civilians near a store in the city center today. The number of dead and wounded will be confirmed, but it is known for certain that there is a US citizen among the dead. “As a result of attacks of Russian invaders on the city, there are great human losses in Chernihiv. Only on March 16, 53 bodies of dead civilians were brought into the morgues of the city,” — said the Governor of the Chernihiv region, Vyacheslav Chaus.
📌 Late on the evening of March 16, three Russian missiles hit the city of Sarny in the Rivne region. One of the city’s critical infrastructure facilities was shelled. There are no victims or injured. The situation after the shelling is under control.
📌 In the early morning of March 17, Russian troops again fired on Kyiv from the air. As a result of hitting rocket fragments, two residential buildings in the Darnitsky district of the city were damaged. According to preliminary data, 1 person died, 4 more were injured, more than 30 people were evacuated.
📌On March 17, at 03:30 Kyiv time, Russian aircraft fired on the city of Merefa in the Kharkiv region. They destroyed the school and the house of culture, and also caused damage to the houses that are located nearby. 21 people died, 25 were injured, 10 of them are in serious condition.
📌 The night of March 17 was difficult for Rubizhne, Popasnaya and Severodonetsk. At least 27 houses caught fire in Rubezhnoye, entire streets burned in some places, five more fires occurred in Popasna and one in Severodonetsk.
📌Russia and Putin have already bombed 80-90% of Mariupol. According to the deputy mayor of the city, there is not a single undamaged building in it.
📌On Kholodna Gora in Kharkiv, another temple came under fire from Russian troops — the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God. Fortunately, there were no injured or dead.
📌According to the statement of the Ombudsman Lyudmila Denisova, in settlements that are temporarily captured or surrounded by Russian invaders, Russian militants torture the residents:
⚠️ In the Sumy region, the occupiers are driving people out of their homes and looting.
⚠️Using the lack of humanitarian corridors, the invaders staged “arms marches” in the Sumy region. The villages where they spend the nights suffer the most. Russians break into houses, drive people out into the street and take away food, slaughter livestock and poultry.
⚠️In the Kherson region, in the village of Vysokopolie, the invaders hijack civilian vehicles and take the documents for transport from residents.
⚠️In Mariupol, a well-known paramedic, National Hero of Ukraine Yuliya “Taira” Payevska, along with her driver Sergiy, were captured by Russian troops. She has been saving the lives of civilians, including children, and wounded soldiers for eight years. Yulia has a disability and health problems. So being in captivity threatens her life even without torture.
Taking of civilian hostages and the terror of the population of the occupied territories is a direct violation of articles 3 and 34 of the Geneva Convention for the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, articles 9 and 21 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
📌On February 24, the Russian Federation seized all the hydraulic structures of the South Crimean Canal, which regulated the water supply of the Kakhovka Reservoir of the lower Dnipro River basin to the Crimea. Thus, on February 27, Russian troops destroyed a temporary dam, a road bridge and the main blocking structure of the canal. As a result, the Ukrainian budget has lost 620 million hryvnias. This is the price of Ukrainian water already stolen by Russian invaders.
📌As a result of the shelling of the armed forces of the Russian Federation on March 16, the power line of the Zaporizhzhya NPP – Kakhovskaya 750 kV was damaged.
📌In Mariupol the situation is critical, 50-100 bombs are dropped on the city every day, and about 80% of the city’s housing stock is destroyed, almost 30% cannot be restored.
📌 Under the rubble of a dormitory in Chernihiv bombed by the Russian army, rescuers found the bodies of the family: a 12-year-old girl, twins, a 3-year-old boy and a girl, and their parents.
📌 In Izyum, Russian invaders destroyed the Memorial to the memory of the Second World War on Kremyanets Mount during the bombardment. One of the parts of the monument fell after the shelling.
📌As a result of shelling by Russian troops in the Svyatoshinsky district of Kyiv, a warehouse caught fire, several cars. According to preliminary data, at least two people died as a result of the shelling.
📌Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, in Ukraine were destructed:
📌Hero of the day
The legendary fighter, historian-scientist Mykola “Kruk” Kravchenko, died in a battle with Russian troops. He stood at the origins of the Patriot of Ukraine organization, the Right Sector on the Maidan, the Ukrainian partisan movement in the Kharkiv region and the Azov battalion.
DEFENSE UPDATES
📌Estimated losses of the Russian Federation Army in Ukraine:
📌The Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported about the SU-24 destroyed at night over Kyiv and the SU-35 shot down. In just one day on March 16, more than 10 air targets of Russian aviation were hit.
📌 The bomb shelter in the Mariupol Drama Theater survived. The emergency services started to dismantle the rubble — the people are alive. Information about the wounded is being specified.
📌The Mayor of Melitopol Ivan Fedorov was exchanged for nine Russian conscripts born in 2002-2003. In fact, those are just kids. It’s worth noting that according to the Russian Defense Ministry, there are no conscripts in Ukraine.
📌During a two-day curfew in the capital and Kiev region, the National Police of Ukraine detained several Russian sabotage groups.
📌More than 320,000 people have returned to Ukraine since the beginning of the war, 80% of which are men.
📌 The Armed Forces of Ukraine caused significant damage to Russian troops near Kharkiv – the occupier lost about 30 personnel, weapons and military equipment. In addition, units of the defense forces liquidated the commander of the 3rd motorized rifle division, Colonel Igor Mykolayiv.
NEGOTIATION UPDATES
by Mykhailo Podolyak
📌The meeting between Putin and President Zelensky may take place after the agreement is finalized, possibly in the coming weeks.
HUMANITARIAN CORRIDORS AND EVACUATION UPDATES
📌 15 buses of the evacuation convoy from Berdyansk arrived in Zaporizhzhya with residents of Mariupol, children of the Berdyansk boarding school and Berdyansk residents who decided to evacuate.
📌During the evacuation of people from the Buchansky district, the Russian invaders fired at the evacuation columns with tanks. One policeman was killed and another injured. The same situation happened in Irpin, when the patrol police car accompanying the convoy was hit by a Grad shell. The occupiers, hiding behind ”green corridors”, are redeploing their troops and equipment.
📌All evacuation operations in the Kyiv region on March 17 are under fire from the invaders.
📌 During the evacuation from Popasnaya, the Russians opened fire on the evacuation bus. Shots damaged the doors, no one was injured.
President Vladimir Zelensky’s daily statements
📌After the speech of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky before the US Congress, President Joe Biden announced the allocation of an additional $800 million in security funding to Ukraine.
📌President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the deputies of the German Bundestag and urged them not to delay Ukraine’s accession to the European Union:
“The occupiers killed 108 children. In the middle of Europe, in our country, in 2022.
I am addressing the German Bundestag after numerous meetings, negotiations, statements and requests. After steps in support, some of which are overdue. After sanctions, which are obviously not enough to stop this war. And after we saw how many ties your companies still have with Russia. With a state that just uses you and some other countries to finance the war.”
PUBLIC AND BUSINESS SUPPORT
⚠️Nestle won’t leave Russia, — Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal.
📌Real Madrid football club will donate 1 million euros to support Ukrainians forced to leave the country due to the war. The team also launched the Everyone with Ukraine campaign, which donated 13,000 items of clothing and sports equipment to Ukrainians seeking refuge in Madrid.
📌American company Qualcomm, which develops wireless communications, has stopped selling its products to Russian companies.
📌According to the analytical company Sensor Tower, 6982 applications have been removed from the Russian App Store since the beginning of the war in Ukraine.
📌IIly coffee stops their supply to Russia.
📌Russian banks can’t issue debit cards. The reason is a lack of plastic, said Tinkoff bank and Sberbank.
📌European Space Agency (ESA) refuses to cooperate with Roscosmos in developing ExoMars mission due to Russian invasion of Ukraine.
📌An art exhibition and a charity sale in support of Ukraine will be held in Paris. The PTASHKA exhibition will feature 31 works by Ukrainian and international photographers, each of which reflects the years of Ukraine’s independence and symbolizes freedom and peace. All the proceeds of the sale of the submitted works will be transferred to the humanitarian aid fund of the National Bank of Ukraine.
📌 The Berlin Film Festival will not host Russian delegations and representatives of state institutions. https://www.berlinale.de/en/news-topics/news/detail_142408.html
📌A concert in support of Ukraine was held at the Metropolitan Opera in New York on March 14. The Ukrainian flag was hung on the facade of the building!
📌Lebanon is the first Arab country to support Ukraine and condemn Russia’s military invasion. Villa Sursock, one of the most beautiful museums in Beirut, was highlighted with the colour of the Ukrainian flag!
📌200 Nobel laureates supported Ukraine in an open letter, noting that the Russian invasion tarnished the country’s international reputation for the next decades. Resolving the war, as President Putin and his aides have done, is an uncertain, bloody and unproductive path for the future. “We have united around this appeal to call on the Russian government to stop invading Ukraine and withdraw its troops from Ukraine,” the Nobel laureates said in a letter.
📌Deep Purple supported Ukraine and told the story of Kharkiv. The post began with a song by the band and added an image of the Deep Purple logo in the colors of the Ukrainian flag. They also mentioned that they were returning the autograph of former Prime Minister and President of Russian Federation Medvedev, which they received in 2011.
📌Angelina Jolie showed the world a photo of a pregnant Ukrainian woman who died under fire at a maternity hospital in Mariupol. From the first days of the war, the Hollywood actress has been supporting our country and telling the whole world about the horrors that are happening in Ukraine. On her Instagram account, Angelina, a UN goodwill ambassador, posted a photo of a pregnant woman who was being evacuated after the bombing of a maternity hospital in Mariupol, and who unfortunately died with her unborn child.
📌 “Georgian government is pro-Russian. The Georgians want to influence the situation in Ukraine, but so far it has not worked out — it is a very long conversation. I think that as a result, Ukraine will win this war, and all this will end soon”, — said Georgian actor and composer Vakhtang Kikabidze.
📌One of the stars of Russian ballet Olga Smirnova left the Bolshoi Theater, condemning the aggression in Ukraine: ”Even if we are not at the epicenter of hostilities, we can not remain indifferent to the global catastrophe.”
📌A singer-songwriter Ak Benjamin, born in Taipei, posted a song dedicated to his friends and subscribers from Ukraine. The artist draws attention to Russia’s military aggression in Ukraine, which has not stopped since February 24.
📌 To protest against the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Japanese writer Haruki Murakami will hold a special issue of his radio show on March 18: “A war has begun in Ukraine that no one needs. Can music stop the war? Probably not. But I believe that music can make listeners think that they should stop the war.”
📌British singer and composer Sting has stated that he will never give concerts or perform at corporate events of Russian oligarchs and people involved in the Russian aggression against Ukraine: “No oligarch in Britain, Russia, or anywhere else will be able to book a concert, wedding, or party. Those days are over.”
📌Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, as well as the University of Łódź and the University of Warmia and Masuria in Olsztyn have stopped cooperating with universities in Russia and Belarus.
📌Largest Austrian automotive concern Steyr Automotive stopped production cooperation with the Russian automobile concern GAZ due to EU sanctions against the Russian Federation.
📌The world’s largest retailer of diamond jewellery Signet Jewelers has ceased cooperation with Russian companies.
📌The American corporation Electronic Arts (EA) has banned Russians and Belarusians from participating in their Apex Legends and FIFA 22 esports programs.
📌On March 31, the American index provider S&P Dow Jones will exclude bonds of Russian and Belarusian issuers from the indices calculated by the company.
INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT OF UKRAINE
📌 US President Joe Biden publicly called Russian President Putin a war criminal for the first time while talking to the media.
📌The United States will send 100 Switchblade drones to Ukraine. They fly significantly faster than Turkish Bayraktar TB2 drones, US Congressman Michael McCall said.
📌Canada closed the air corridor for Belarusian aircraft.
📌 Until the end of the war in Ukraine, Twitter will mark accounts that belong to the state-owned media in Ukraine and Belarus.
📌The Serbian airline Air Serbia has cancelled all Moscow-Belgrade flights. We remind you that Serbia was so far the only European country with an air corridor for Russians.
📌During a meeting with the head of the Lviv military administration, Maksym Kozytskyy, Chinese Ambassador to Ukraine Fan Xianrong expressed the Celestial Empire’s goodwill and willingness to assist.
«China would never attack Ukraine; instead, we will assist, particularly in the economic sector. In a single year, our country imports nearly three trillion dollars’ worth of commodities from around the world. We are eager to help you in your growth. We will act responsibly in this position, which you are currently in. We have realized how united Ukrainian people are, which is a pure expression of their strength.»
📌The United States set up an international group for the search and seizure of Russia’s elite assets in the West — the group includes representatives of Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, Germany, France, Italy and the European Commission.
📌The Lithuanian Seimas unanimously adopted a resolution calling on the UN to take immediate measures to ensure a no-fly zone over Ukraine to stop the mass deaths of civilians.
📌Canada bans broadcasting of Russian propaganda channel RT (Russia Today).
📌The United States has established a Multilateral Russian Oligarch Task Force with other countries to persecute Russian oligarchs and officials. The group collects and exchanges information to take specific action, including sanctions, asset freezes and prosecutions.
📌Belgian monarchs King Philip and Queen Matilda will provide shelter to Ukrainians who were forced to flee their homes due to the Russian war.
📌The Japanese government has allowed Ukrainians fleeing Russian aggression to enter the country, even if they have no relatives or acquaintances who could act as their guarantors.
📌EU countries reserve more than 10,000 hospital beds for Ukrainians. Namely, medical care is provided for premature babies and their mothers, for children, for cancer patients, patients with severe burns and patients in intensive care units.
📌On March 18 President Joe Biden will discuss with President Xi Jinping of the People’s Republic of China Russia’s war against Ukraine — White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki.
📌Today, Ukraine has achieved the removal of Russia from work in the Danube Commission.
📌Canada introduces new sanctions against the regime of Alexander Lukashenko. The list includes 22 high-ranking officials of the Ministry of Defense of Belarus who supported the aggression.
📌France will provide Ukraine with 300 million euros of financial assistance. French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs announced this.
📌The European Space Agency (ESA) refused to cooperate with Roscosmos in the development of the ExoMars mission.
📌 The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe decided to terminate any relations with Belarus due to its active participation in the Russian aggression against Ukraine.
📌More than 700 thousand euros to help Ukraine were collected during the charity concert “Glory to Ukraine”, organized by Estonian musicians and volunteers in Tallinn.
📌Ukrposhta received 30 tons of medical supplies from the USA worth $2 million.
📌 Hungary will send one ambulance with first aid supplies for Ukrainian military personnel.
📌Part of European countries publicly support the decision to close the sky. On March 17 Latvia unanimously adopted a statement on the establishment of a no-fly zone over the territory of Ukraine. Earlier, Lithuania and Estonia also announced similar decisions.
📌Italy is ready to restore the Drama Theater in Mariupol, which was destroyed on March 16 during a targeted bombardment.
📌Tweet of the day
📌Quote of the day
Biden called Putin a “murderous dictator” and a “pure thug”.