[Korrespondent] 22:23 Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said that the goal of his country, which hosts the NATO summit in the summer, is Ukraine's full membership in the alliance. According to him, Lithuania, as the host of the meeting, plays a "certain role" in the decisions that may be taken at this summit.
21:46 Austria, as a party to the Rome Statute, is obliged to comply with arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court, and even heads of state do not have immunity to the ICC, the country's Federal Ministry of Justice told Ukrinform in response to a request about the possibility of fulfilling an arrest warrant for Putin.
21:25 Motor Sich, under the leadership of Vyacheslav Boguslayev, has been selling aircraft engines to sanctioned companies from Iran for years, Schemes found out. We are talking about AI-9 and TV3-117 engines. Such models are installed on small transport aircraft and military helicopters, in particular the Ka-52, which Russia uses in the war against Ukraine. One of the Iranian companies, with the leadership of which Boguslaev and his subordinates actively communicated, is involved in the development of the Shahed-171 and Shahed-136 drones, journalists say.
21:19 Zaluzhny said that he had a telephone conversation with the Chief of the British Defense Staff Tony Radakin: “I informed my colleague about the operational situation along the entire front line. It is the most difficult in the Bakhmut direction. Thanks to the titanic efforts of the Defense Forces, the situation can be stabilized. We also discussed the strengthening of Ukrainian air defense We agreed to develop cooperation and keep in touch."
20:17 An American top pilot revealed a scheme for how Ukraine can quickly send F-16s into battle. The APU supported his idea. More details - in the material F-16 in the sky of Ukraine .
18:51 Zelensky presented the Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise III degree to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Gabrielius Landsbergis for special merits. The President thanked him and his country for supporting Ukraine.
18:23 The Swedish parliament has approved a new $532 million military aid package for Ukraine. It will include tanks, Archer artillery systems, Robot System 97 air defense system and ammunition.
18:08 The United States expanded sanctions against Belarus - Alexander Lukashenko, his Boeing 737 aircraft, the Minsk Automobile Plant and the Belarusian Automobile Plant, as well as their directors and a number of representatives of Belarusian elites and companies fell under new restrictions.
18:04 In a sand pit in the village. Sorokovka, Kharkiv region, a MAZ truck of a local enterprise was blown up by an unknown explosive device: the driver was hospitalized, the director of the enterprise died, Oleg Sinegubov, head of the OVA, said.
17:45 The Cabinet of Ministers today launched the mass production of drones in Ukraine: a resolution has been adopted that will significantly speed up the creation and delivery of domestic UAVs to the front, and most importantly, will create conditions for the rapid development of the Ukrainian Miltech, Head of the Ministry of Digital Development Mikhail Fedorov said.
According to the minister, today's decision will allow UAV manufacturers to develop more actively, scale up, reinvest profits, and compete with foreign companies. It also provides for an accelerated admission of UAVs to operation, their purchase and delivery to the front.
17:18 In the Poltava region, the curfew has been reduced: from March 27 it will last from 23:00 to 04:00. The OVA explained that the sowing campaign had started in the region, daylight hours had increased, and workers went out into the fields early in the morning.
17:13 Zelensky said that he had met with a World Bank delegation led by Vice President for Europe and Central Asia Anna Bjerde.
17:05 Brazilian President Lula da Silva is going to propose the creation of a "peace club" with the participation of China to end the war in Ukraine, writes the Financial Times, citing Brazilian Foreign Minister Maura Vieira. The President intends to make such a proposal during his visit to China next week.
16:49 For a strike on the Sumy region on the night of March 24, Russia used its analogue of the American "smart" planning bombs JDAM-ER, Defense Express writes, citing photos of the wreckage received from sources. The enemy used such a bomb for the first time on March 12, in occupied Donetsk. The Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that in total, the invaders dropped 11 planning bombs, some of which are analogues of the JDAM-ER.
Journalists note that Russia was probably able to begin production of such bombs. Therefore, it is now important to find out the origin of electronic components in order to eliminate the channels of their supply.
16:30 "Head" of Crimea Sergei Aksyonov created his own PMC Convoy, writes the Russian opposition publication Important Stories . Formally, the Convoy is BARS, a combat army reserve. Its members enter into two contracts - one with the Convoy, the second - with the Ministry of Defense, which allows them to have guaranteed payments in case of injury or death. In addition to payments, those who serve in the unit for a year are promised land "in the Crimea or Abkhazia," one of the former mercenaries told reporters. According to him, PMCs have no problems with material support.
Today, the positions of the Convoy are in the occupied part of the Kherson region. The training ground is located in the village of Perevalnoye near the Crimea. The PMC is led by Prigozhin's right hand, the curator of PMC Wagner in Africa, Konstantin "Mazai" Pikalov. "This is PMC Aksenov, but the entire command is former employees of PMC Wagner. All are people who have known each other for a long time," the former mercenary of Convoy told reporters.
16:11 Several heads of state will visit China in the near future, writes Politico. So, Macron said that he plans to visit Beijing, accompanied by the head of the European Commission on April 4. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez also announced that he will travel to China next week. He said that he intends to discuss with Xi Jinping possible peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv. According to media reports, his visit is scheduled for March 30-31. And Prime Minister of Luxembourg Xavier Bettel, in turn, called for continued cooperation with Beijing.
In addition, Brazilian President Lula da Silva is also leaving for Beijing on March 26 for a five-day visit.
15:38 The enemy is shelling Marganets in the Dnipropetrovsk region, as well as Orlovka and Pervomaiskoye in the Donetsk region. One person was wounded in the village of Pervomaiskoye, the President's Office reported.
15:29 The Russians fired at the border area of the Chernihiv region today, a resident of the village of Gorodishche died, OK Pivnich reported.
15:05 The Russian command in Crimea and the occupation administration of the Russian Federation are actively selling real estate and taking their families out of the peninsula, Andrey Yusov, a spokesman for the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, said: "But the rest, the rank and file, they say: don't worry, everything is calm, everything is under control... But this is already like a meme that the "special operation" is going according to plan... Families associated with the Russians are being taken out, and very actively. And this is a reason for everyone else who has connected their fate with the criminal Putin regime to think. It is better to leave Crimea while such there is a possibility."
14:38 The Russians fired at the private sector in Orekhov, Zaporizhia region, one person was injured, the OVA reported.
14:17 Germany this week handed over to Ukraine three Dachs engineering vehicles, spare parts for Leopard tanks and Marder infantry fighting vehicles, MG3 machine guns, and 30 anti-drone systems, the German government said.
13:56 In Kherson, the Russians hit the floodplains - one person died, one was injured, the OVA reported.
13:37 Kazakhstan plans to tighten control over goods intended for further re-export in order to prevent circumvention of anti-Russian sanctions, writes the Financial Times. According to the publication, Kazakhstan has introduced a customs tracking system, a new online tool that will be launched on April 1. It is assumed that this will allow real-time tracking of the entire chain of movement of goods from border to border.
13:20 Senator of the Romanian Parliament Diana Shoshoake submitted a bill proposing to annex part of the southern region of Ukraine to Romania. Thus, in her opinion, the cultural identity of the Romanian population will be restored.
Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko called it "a classic example from the manual of Russian revanchism." According to him, Kyiv strongly condemns the attempt to question the territorial integrity of Ukraine, to undermine the spirit of good neighborliness between Ukraine and Romania. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine initiates the imposition of sanctions on Diana Shoshoake as a person who poses a threat to national security.
12:52 In Russia, they said that the use of shells with depleted uranium will make it impossible for agricultural exports from Ukraine "for many decades, if not centuries." Igor Kirillov, head of the Radiation, Chemical and Biological Defense Forces of the Russian Armed Forces, claims that after the use of shells with depleted uranium in Ukraine, "significant areas under crops will allegedly be contaminated, and colossal damage will be done to the agro-industrial complex." Also in Moscow they are very worried about the health of the Ukrainian military and civilian population, which will suffer "irreparable harm."
12:35 Ukraine, with the participation of the ICRC, unilaterally handed over seriously wounded and seriously ill captured invaders to Russia , the Coordinating Headquarters for the treatment of prisoners of war said. At the same time, Russia is still holding hostage thousands of Ukrainian citizens, including the seriously ill and wounded, civilians, children and women, the elderly, as well as those who were captured even before the start of a large-scale invasion, the department stressed.
All these categories of citizens, according to international humanitarian law, must be returned to Ukraine by repatriation without any conditions. Despite this, Russia not only continues to hold civilians and non-combatants hostage, but also refuses to allow representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross to their places of detention, the Coordination Headquarters said.
12:31 Estonia expels a diplomat from the Russian embassy for participating in undermining security and spreading propaganda.
12:26 Suspіlne showed the consequences of the night shelling of Belopolye, Sumy region. Russian planes dropped several bombs on the city. One of them hit the police building, and the local school was also damaged. A police officer and a school watchman were killed, and nine more people were injured.
12:21 Russians have become more active in the Kupyansk and Limansk directions for several weeks in a row, said Sergey Cherevaty, spokesman for the Eastern Group of Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In the past 24 hours alone, the enemy opened fire 427 times from cannon and rocket artillery in this sector of the front. There were two clashes, one of which was near Kremennaya.
12:10 Medvedev once again threatened to use nuclear weapons if Ukraine tries to return the Crimea. According to him, "an attempt to split off part of the state" is an encroachment on the existence of the state itself. “Therefore, draw your own conclusions: there are absolutely grounds for using any weapon here. Absolutely any. And I hope our “friends” across the ocean understand this,” he said.
12:03 The EU Central Bank requires Raiffeisen Bank to leave Russia, Reuters reports citing five interlocutors. According to the publication, the pressure began to rise after a senior US sanctions official expressed concern about Raiffeisen's business in Russia during a visit to Vienna in February. While the ECB is not asking Raiffeisen to leave the country immediately, it needs to develop an action plan to wind down the business. Perhaps such a plan would include the sale or closure of his Russian bank.
11:37 The bodies of another 83 dead soldiers were returned to Ukraine, the Ministry of Reintegration reported.
11:33 Russia's withdrawal from the Council of Europe was "the right decision" and it does not intend to return there, said Nikolai Kobrinets, director of the department for pan-European cooperation at the Russian Foreign Ministry.
11:24 On the anniversary of the liberation of Bucha, Irpen and Gostomel On March 31, Ukrposhta will issue a stamp as part of the "Hero Cities" series called "We will not forget! We will not forgive! Bucha. Irpen. Gostomel", as well as postcards and envelopes of the series.
10:53 The court arrested in absentia ex-People's Deputy Renat Kuzmin for high treason. Employees of the State Bureau of Investigation established that the deputy, on the eve and after the start of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation, placed propaganda materials in the media to the detriment of Ukraine.
10:36 In Konstantinovka, as a result of a Russian strike on the invincibility point, five people were killed , the State Emergency Service reported.
10:19 According to the command of the Air Force, on the night of March 24, the Russians attacked Ukraine with Shahed-136/131 strike drones and guided aerial bombs. UAV launches were carried out from the northeast direction, tactical aviation was raised from two Russian airfields - Morozovsk and Akhtubinsk. Ten Su-35 fighters launched 11 guided bombs and one Kh-31P missile in the Sumy region. "Shaheds" attacked Krivoy Rog and Sumy region.
10:02 In the morning, the Russians hid and shelled Belozerka, Kherson region, from artillery: one person died, four were injured, the OVA reported.
09:35 At night, the Russians carried out a massive shelling from various types of weapons on the territory of the Belopolskaya, Vorozhbyanskaya, Rechkovskaya and Nikolaev settlement communities of the Sumy region, the OVA reported. As a result of the shelling of Belopolye, two people were killed, nine were injured. Another person was wounded in Vorozhba.
09:29 In the Donetsk region on March 23, as a result of Russian shelling, three people were killed (two in Konstantinovka and one in Chasovoy Yar), five more were injured. In the Kherson region, one person died, according to the IVA.
09:17 The speaker of the Air Force, Yuri Ignat, said that last night about ten enemy Su-35 aircraft attacked the Sumy region with guided aerial bombs. More than ten such bombs hit targets in the Sumy region, the losses are being specified. The Russians also launched strike drones and used the Kh-31 anti-radar missile.
08:42 The General Staff announced the approximate losses of the Russian Federation as of the morning of March 24.
- personnel - about 169,170 (+1020) people liquidated,
- tanks - 3574 (+4),
- armored combat vehicles - 6921 (+23),
- artillery systems - 2616 (+8),
- MLRS - 511 (+0),
- air defense systems - 276 (+3),
- aircraft - 305 (+0),
- helicopters - 290 (+0),
- UAV operational-tactical level - 2208 (+5),
- cruise missiles - 911 (+2),
- ships/boats - 18 (+0),
- automotive equipment and tankers - 5464 (+12),
- special equipment - 277 (+4).
08:29 The Russians hit Konstantinovka, Donetsk region, from the S-300 anti-aircraft missile system at night. One of the rockets hit the point of indestructibility, as a result of which three people died - immigrants from Bakhmut, Chasov Yar and Experienced. Two more people were injured, the Prosecutor General's Office said.
08:06 The Russian army is concentrating its main efforts on conducting offensive operations in the Limansky, Bakhmutsky, Avdeevsky, Maryinsky and Miner directions. Over the past day, the Defense Forces repulsed more than 79 enemy attacks on them, the General Staff said in the morning summary .
In the Luhansk region, the invaders significantly increased the number of beds in military hospitals due to significant losses. At the same time, all the wounded officers were evacuated to the territory of the Russian Federation by helicopters from March 17 to 18. There is an increase in mortality among the wounded invaders in the period from March 17 to March 21 due to severe injuries and poor medical care, in particular due to insufficiently professional medical personnel.
07:39 The Russians attacked Krivoy Rog with drones at night: one Shahed was shot down, there are hits by five UAVs. There are no dead or injured, the consequences of the attack are being investigated, said the head of the Dnepropetrovsk OVA Serhiy Lysak.
06:03 The American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) drew attention to Prigozhin's words that Russia is not at war with NATO, and there are no Nazis on the territory of Ukraine. The leader of the PMC Wagner stressed that Russia is fighting "exclusively with Ukrainians" equipped with equipment provided by NATO, and some "Russophobic mercenaries" who voluntarily support Ukraine, but not with NATO itself. Prigozhin also said that he was not sure about the purpose of "denazification" of Ukraine, because he did not know if there were "Nazis" in Ukraine.
ISW analysts believe that with his statements, Prigozhin effectively refuted the Kremlin’s statements about the need to defend against the NATO threat in Ukraine and called into question Putin’s declared maximalist goals of the invasion.
05:34 The United States is striving for a lasting peace in Ukraine based on respect for sovereignty and other principles of international law, but now there are no signs of readiness for meaningful diplomacy from Russia, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said. "We don't want Russia to just rest, regroup and attack again - six months, a year or two or three years later," he added.
02:42 The EU is preparing to introduce the 11th package of sanctions against Russia, Radio Liberty journalist Rikard Dzhozwiak said, citing European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. It is assumed that the package will deal mainly with the fight against bypassing already introduced restrictions.
00:11 The head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced that an initiative was launched in cooperation with Ukraine and Poland aimed at returning Ukrainian children abducted by Russia.