Press digest – Ukraine

33th 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

📌Photo of the day

Milan’s street art. “Anna Frank, a prisoner of Auschwitz and Bergen-Belzen, burns the Russian symbol”

Author – the Italian artist Alessandro Palombo

DESTRUCTION AND LOSSES

📌 After the blockade, 150,000 residents were evacuated from Mariupol, about 170,000 remain under siege, according to preliminary data almost 5,000 residents died, say the city authorities.

📌 Within 32 days of the war, the Russians killed 143 children, 216 children were injured.

📌 The air raid sirens are on repeatedly all over the territory of Ukraine for the second day in a row. Russia shells the civilian population 24/7.

📌 Throughout the day on March 27, Russian troops shelled Severodonetsk, Rubizhne, Lysychansk, Borivske, and Voevodivka. Due to the shelling, there were 3 fires in residential buildings in the region. 6 residents were rescued from the rubble, 1 child was killed and 2 others were injured. The occupiers destroyed 4 high-rise buildings, 5 private houses and 3 more buildings.

📌 According to the General Command of the UA Armed Forces, Russia plans to send military equipment and 150 servicemen from the 155th Separate Brigade of the Pacific Fleet (permanent location in Vladivostok) to Ukraine. They also formed a unit of the 14th Special Brigade of the Eastern Special Forces (permanent location in Khabarovsk).

📌 In the Gomel region of the Republic of Belarus, the displacement of Iskander-M OTRK launchers towards the State border with Ukraine has been recorded.

📌 Some of the warships of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation were dislocated to a closed area, most probably it is done to launch missile strikes on objects in Ukraine from there.

📌 During the day, Russian occupation forces fired about 59 artillery and mortar shells in the Kharkiv region.

📌 The Russian occupiers in the temporarily occupied Kherson broke into the Office of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. As the office is currently closed, no one was injured, but they stole equipment and documents from the office. The preparation of provocations is suspected.

📌 Ukraine has lost more than $ 560 billion due to the Russian invasion:

$ 119 billions in infrastructure: almost 8,000 km of roads, dozens of railway stations and airports were destroyed and damaged;
$ 112 billions of potential GDP in 2022;
The estimated losses of civilians amount to $ 90.5 billion: 10 million square meters of housing, 200,000 cars, food security for 5 million people;
$ 80 billion is estimated in losses of enterprises and organizations;
$ 54 billion in losses of direct investment in the Ukrainian economy;
$ 48 billion in losses was inflicted on the state budget.

RUSSIAN CONTEXT

⚠️ After the full-scale war started against Ukraine, which was launched by Russia, the level of rejection of all Russian related things among Ukrainians grew to its maximum. This attitude applies not only to Putin and officials of his bloody regime, but also to the people of Russia who either openly support the war in Ukraine (which is 71%!) or are simply keeping silent. While our children in Mariupol die without food and water. If you think that ordinary Russians are not involved in the war in Ukraine, then that is why you are wrong. After all, today it is Ukraine, and tomorrow it may be Poland. By the way, 75% of Russians support this.

INTERNATIONAL CONSEQUENCES

📌 Russia’s invasion of Ukraine can destabilize the Middle East over food problems, said Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, at a forum in Doha.

📌 The international network of hacktivists Anonymous has published an order of the Acting Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation. The order says to prepare fake videos in which the “Ukrainian military” must be displayed as extremely cruel towards “Russian prisoners of war”. The hackers also said that they accessed the database of the Russian propaganda television network, the main channel of which, Russia-1, is the place where propagandists Solovyov, Skabeeva and Popov work. They promise to make the database public in the near future.

DEFENSE UPDATES

📌 Estimated losses of the Russian Federation Army in Ukraine:

📌 Fighters of the Ukrainian operational command “North” destroyed a column of Russian troops and seized two combat trucks “Ural” model “Tornado-U”.

📌 After the defeat of the Russian military by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the commander of the 13th Tank Regiment (part of the Kantemirov Division), shot himself in Trostyanets and was removed from the position of a commander of the 1st Tank Army of the Western Military District.

📌 The Armed Forces of Ukraine continue to liberate the territory of Sumy Region from the Russian occupiers – they have recaptured and regained control of Okhtyrka, Trostyanets and Boromlya. Clean-up of other settlements is in progress.

📌 The air defense of the Armed Forces of Ukraine downed a Russian plane over the Kharkiv region. Also on the night of March 28, 3 planes and a helicopter were shot down in the Kyiv region. Two houses and one private estate were damaged by rocket debris.

📌 Late in the evening on March 27, Russian troops fired their missile strikes on Lutsk, Kharkiv, Zhytomyr, and Rivne. According to preliminary data, there are no casualties of the missile strikes on the oil depot in Lutsk. “The cruise missile was fired from the Republic of Belarus. It flew at a low altitude, so the radars failed to detect it,” said Yuriy Pohulyayko, Head of the Regional Administration.

📌 The city of Irpin near Kiev is now free from the Russian troops, as reported by the Mayor of the city Alexander Markushin. He also noted that the “clean-up” is still in progress, that’s why so far the residents are not allowed to return to their homes. “We will go to release Bucha, Gostomel, Vorzel next!”, the mayor said.

📌 The Defense Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense in Ukraine has published data about the Russian spies operating in Europe. There are 620 FSB (Federal Security Service in Russia) officers involved into Russia’s criminal activities in Europe. The list contains the names and surnames, places of work, registration addresses, as well as passport data, car makes, models, and their plate numbers. The list is available on the Defense Intelligence office’s website.

📌 Since the beginning of the war, the Security Service of Ukraine has terminated 5 enemy bot farms with a capacity of over 100,000 fake accounts.

CYBER-RESISTANCE AND DIGITAL VICTORIES

📌 South Korea has banned the shipment of 57 types of non-strategic items to Russia and Belarus. Restrictions primarily apply to semiconductors, microprocessors and computers.

📌 The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has suspended any further cooperation with Russian research institutes. The cooperation lasted for 11 years with the Skolkovo Innovation Center, which is called the “Russian Silicon Valley”.

📌 In Latvia, software developer MikroNet, operating under the worldwide known brand MikroTik, provided network equipment worth more than € 300,000 as a part of humanitarian support activities. The assistance provided by MikroTik includes the set-up of the network connections in bomb shelters and crisis centers in Ukraine.

President Volodymyr Zelensky’s daily statements

📌 While Russian journalists were preparing to publish an interview with me – I talked to them this afternoon – the Russian censorship agency started threatening them. That’s what they wrote – they demand not to publish the conversation. It would have been ridiculous if it

weren’t so tragic. They have destroyed freedom of speech in their country, they are trying to destroy the neighbouring state, they portray themselves as a global player… And they themselves are afraid of a relatively short conversation with a few journalists.

📌 The maximum contrast to it was my conversation with Ukrainian TV people. I held a zoom conference with almost five hundred of our media people who were developing a telethon “United News”.

📌 I will continue appealing to the parliaments of other countries. It is going to be a very busy week, from a diplomatic perspective. So, no one will be able to hide the Ukrainian interest somewhere in political offices or in bureaucratic loopholes.

📌 A new round of negotiations is ahead because we are looking for peace. With no delay. As I was informed, there is an opportunity and a need for a face-to-face meeting in Turkey. Our priorities in the negotiations are known. Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity are beyond doubt. Effective security guarantees for our state are mandatory.

📌 In his interview to The Economist magazine yesterday, President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the European Union linked the embargo on Russian gas and oil to the possible usage of chemical weapons in Ukraine. The president condemned the decision to impose an embargo depending on whether Russia does a chemical attack in Ukraine or not.

📌 Zelensky emphasized the fact that the occupiers had kidnapped Ukrainian mayors, and some of them had already been found dead.

PUBLIC AND BUSINESS SUPPORT

📌 On March 27, an international charity telethon Save Ukraine – #StopWar was held. States and governments, diplomats, media representatives, artists and citizens from around the world united around a common idea: to support Ukraine in its fight against RF’s aggression. The concert was broadcast by about three dozen broadcasters worldwide.

📌 Yesterday, more than 100,000 people gathered in the center of Vienna for a charity concert in support of Ukraine and its fight against Russian aggression. Thousands of people also went out in Prague, Warsaw, Dublin, Munich, Bratislava, Vilnius, Amsterdam, Chicago, New York and dozens of other cities.

📌 In front of the German Theater in Berlin, “ДЕТИ” (CHILDREN) was written down in giant letters on asphalt – exactly the same sign was written in front of the Drama Theater in Mariupol, when the Russian military dropped a bomb on it on March 16. Similar large signs were written in the Polish city of Szczecin, the Theater of Contemporary Art, and in front of the National Theater in Prague.

📌 This weekend, Prague activists doused the stairs of the Russian embassy with “blood”, which symbolizes the blood of innocent Ukrainians. According to them, the police not only did not interfere in the action, but even suggested that next time it would be better to come during the business hours.

📌 American singer Katy Perry supported Ukraine from the stage during her 5 concerts in Las Vegas: she called on the audience from the stage and asked to “make some noise” for Ukraine and sent Russian President Putin in the direction of the Russian warship.

📌 Emma Thompson, British actress and screenwriter, participated in a rally in support of Ukraine in London and read a poem by Taras Shevchenko in English: “The sun is setting down, the mountains are turning black…”.

📌 The German DHL delivery service gave 6 cars to the Ukrainian military. Defenders simply called them.

📌 A minute of silence was observed at the Oscar ceremony in support of the Ukrainian people. On the red carpet, many celebrities wore Ukraine-related symbols like badges or ribbons to demonstrate their support for Ukraine. Among them – Benedict Cumberbatch, Jason Momoa, Francis Coppola, Diane Warren, Joe Walker and others.

📌 The Finnish state-owned railway company VR has suspended freight rail services with Russia due to anti-Russian sanctions.

📌 The Dutch brewery Heineken and the Danish brewery Carlsberg have completely ceased operations in Russia.

INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT OF UKRAINE

📌 The G7 countries (USA, Canada, UK, Germany, France, Italy and Japan) have rejected Russia’s demand to pay for gas in Russian rubles. “Payment in rubles is unacceptable,” said German Economy Minister Robert Habeck. When he was asked about a possible boycott by Russia, he said: “We are ready for any scenario.”

📌 42 countries have already appealed to the International Criminal Court in connection with the war crimes of the Russian occupiers in Ukraine. If the war crimes of the Russian troops are recognized by the International Criminal Court, those involved in those crimes may be detained in any country that recognizes the jurisdiction of that court.

📌 The British government is allocating a £ 3 million aid package to support Ukrainian scientists and is suspending cooperation with Russian universities and companies.

📌 The Prime Minister of the Czech Republic Petr Fiala said that his country had frozen assets worth hundreds of millions of korunas belonging to sanctioned Russian citizens and companies.

📌 The Ukrainian Embassy to the United Kingdom purchased and shipped 20 tons of medicines to Ukraine for a total of almost $ 1 million. The costs were collected via the withukraine.org platform.

📌 590 StarLink satellite Internet stations have been transferred to Ukrainian medical and healthcare institutions.

📌 The volunteer offices at the Ukrainian Cultural Center in Tallinn sent 20 bulletproof vests and 20 reinforced helmets to the Mykolaiv region.

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

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, with full respect for the work of journalists, especially in wartime and in hotspots, urges the international media community not to show or publish footage of Russian missiles during and after the shelling and not to name the exact location of the shelling. This helps the Russian air force to adjust the fire and pose a danger to civilians in cities under bombardment and shelling.

📌Tweet of the day

More and more people in the world are on the side of Ukraine, on the side of good in this battle with evil. And if politicians don’t know how to follow people, we will teach them. This is the basis of democracy of our national character.