Ukraine Daily

Thursday, March 31

Russia’s war against Ukraine

Russian forces blasted Kharkiv Oblast with Grad multiple rocket launcher systems 180 times on March 30. Over the past overnight on March 29-30, the Russian occupiers also shelled the oblast with artillery and mortars, damaging residential buildings and civilian infrastructure, according to governor Oleh Synehubov. No casualties have been reported.

Russian strikes hit Red Cross building in besieged Mariupol. The organization’s warehouse was hit by Russian air strikes and artillery even though its roof is marked with a Red Cross symbol, “indicating the presence of wounded people or civilian or humanitarian cargo.”

Dnipro suffers missile strike, oil depot damaged. According to the chairman of the regional council Mykola Lukashuk, an oil depot and two fuel trucks were damaged during the Russian missile attack. No casualties were reported yet.

Mayor says Chernihiv under ‘colossal attack’ after Russia pledged to halt assault. “They actually have increased the intensity of strikes,” Vladyslav Atroshenko told CNN. He said that there was a ‘colossal attack’ on central Chernihiv, a regional capital in northern Ukraine, on March 30, which injured 25 civilians. Following March 29 Ukraine-Russia talks, Vladimir Medinsky, head of the Russian delegation, said that Moscow would reduce its military activities in the direction of Kyiv and Chernihiv in northern Ukraine.

Ukrainian Air Force destroys four planes, two cruise missiles, and one UAV. Air Force Command Spokesman Yuriy Ignat said that over the last two days, Russian forces have changed their tactics in the sky and concentrated their activities in the east of the country.

Azov: 64 Russian soldiers killed, including special forces of the GRU of the Russian Federation near Mariupol. Three tanks were also destroyed along with the special forces, according to a March 30 statement by the Azov battalion participating in the defense of Mariupol.

Ukraine’s military: Ukrainian forces regain control over southeastern villages Orlove, Zahradivka, Kochubeyivka. The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine made the announcement on Facebook on March 30.

US intel shows Putin misled over Russian military performance. U.S. intelligence officials have determined that Russian dictator Vladimir Putin is being misinformed by advisors on Moscow’s poor military performance in Ukraine, White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield said at a briefing on March 30. Bedingfield also told reporters that Washington believes Putin is also misinformed on “how the Russian economy is being crippled by sanctions because his senior advisors are too afraid to tell him the truth.”

UK GCHQ spy chief says Russian troops in Ukraine refused to carry out commands, sabotage own equipment. Head of Britain’s GCHQ spy service Jeremy Fleming said on March 30 that intelligence revealed Russian troops had low morale, were poorly equipped, and accidentally downed one of their own aircraft. Fleming added that “Putin has massively misjudged the situation” in Ukraine.

Pentagon: Russian occupiers start to withdraw from Chornobyl nuclear power plant. AFP reported, citing an unnamed U.S. defense official, that Russia has begun pulling its troops out of the defunct nuclear power site after seizing control of the facility on Feb. 24. “Chornobyl is (an) area where they are beginning to reposition some of their troops — leaving, walking away from the Chornobyl facility and moving into Belarus,” the official said.

UK Defense Intelligence: Some Russian units returned to Belarus, Russia to reorganize and resupply. This is placing further pressure on Russia’s already strained logistics and demonstrates the difficulties Russia is having reorganizing its units, according to a report released by the U.K. Ministry of Defense on March 30. “Russia will likely continue to compensate for its reduced ground maneuver capability through mass artillery and missile attacks,” the report reads.

Podolyak: Referendum on security agreement possible only if Russian troops leave Ukraine. Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the president’s chief of staff, said that a referendum in Ukraine on a security agreement will only be possible after Russian troops “at least” return to the position they occupied before Feb. 24.

Russia sees no breakthrough in Ukraine’s peace proposals. According to Reuters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia hadn’t noticed anything “really promising” in the proposals Ukraine presented at peace talks on March 29. The plan included a 15-year consultation period on the status of the Crimean peninsula occupied by Russia in 2014. Peskov said it was impossible to discuss Crimea’s status as it was “part of Russia, and the Russian constitution precluded discussing the fate of any Russian region with anyone else.”

Russia-Ukraine talks will resume on April 1st in Turkey. A senior Ukrainian official announced the date after the latest round of negotiations ended in Turkey on March 30th, Reuters reports.

Russia announces ceasefire to evacuate residents of Mariupol. The Russian Ministry of Defense said a humanitarian corridor from Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia, via the Russian-controlled port of Berdiansk, will begin at 10 a.m. on March 31st.

General Staff: Russia transfers 2,000 troops from occupied parts of Georgia to Ukraine. According to Ukraine’s military, five battalion tactical groups were sent from military bases in Russian-occupied South Ossetia and Abkhazia to strengthen the Russian army attacking Ukraine.

Poll: 83% of Russians support Putin. Russia’s independent sociological research organization Levada Center’s poll conducted between March 24-30 showed that Russian public’s support for the actions of their president rose by more than 10% compared to the figures in January or February. It was 69% in January and 71% in February.

The team from the outerwear brand Nebesite working on sewing simplified bulletproof vests for Ukraine’s military and Territorial Defense. (Courtesy of Nebesite)

Read our exclusive, on the ground stories.

While international designers may be busy doing shows at Milan and Paris fashion weeks, Ukrainian designers are making clothes for war.

After Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, Ukrainian designers have decided to use their sewing skills to support the Ukrainian army. Instead of fashionable shoes and stylish outerwear, they are now making camouflage nets, combat boots, and even armored vests.

Read the story here.

The human cost of Russia’s war

Death toll of Mykolaiv Regional State Administration bombing increases to 15. A Russian missile destroyed the building in the early hours of March 29.

Markushyn: Up to 300 civilians, 50 soldiers killed in Irpin, half of city destroyed. Mayor Oleksandr Markushyn said that the actual number of casualties was still unknown since many people were buried in yards and parks. Markushyn also said in a televised broadcast on March 29 that “50% of the city and its critical infrastructure has been destroyed and the rubble has not been cleared yet.”

Russia’s war kills at least 145 children, wounds 222 others. Since Russia began its full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 69 children were either killed or injured in Kyiv Oblast, 49 in Kharkiv Oblast, 54 in Donetsk Oblast, 39 in Chernihiv Oblast, 30 in Mykolaiv Oblast, 28 in Luhansk Oblast, 22 in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, 25 in Kherson Oblast, 16 in the city of Kyiv, 15 in Zhytomyr Oblast, and 16 in Sumy Oblast, according to the Prosecutor General’s Office.

UN: More than 4 million people have fled Ukraine since Feb. 24. According to the recent figures from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees office, 4.01 million people have fled Ukraine since Russia began its all-out war. Over 2.3 million of those have entered Poland.

Media: Priest kidnapped in Russian-occupied Kherson. Serhii Chudynovych, a priest of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, was abducted right from the church, according to local media outlet Vgoru. Three men who introduced themselves as “police officers” searched the church, checked his documents and messenger apps before driving him in an unknown direction. Russian forces had previously kidnapped several officials in Kherson Oblast.

Ukraine’s military: Over 17,300 Russian troops killed since Feb. 24. The General Staff also reported taking out 1,723 Russian armored personnel carriers, 605 tanks, 1,184 vehicles, 305 artillery pieces, 54 anti-aircraft warfare systems, 96 launch rocket systems, 131 planes, 131 helicopters, 75 fuel tanks, 21 pieces of special equipment, 81 UAVs, and seven boats.

International response

UK not ready to give security guarantees to Ukraine. U.K. Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab told BBC Radio that his country isn’t ready to become a guarantor of Ukraine’s independence as part of Kyiv’s proposed peace deal with Moscow. “We have been very clear we are not going to engage Russia in direct military confrontation. Ukraine is not a NATO member,” he said.

Germany has ‘general willingness’ to give security guarantees to Ukraine, doesn’t mention military assistance. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told President Volodymyr Zelensky that Berlin was ready to act as a guarantor of Ukraine’s security, said government spokesperson Steffen Hebestreit, however he did not specify would the guarantees include military assistance.

Germany says Putin agreed to keep gas payments in euros. Following Scholz-Putin phone call, Germany’s government announced that it has received assurances that European companies could continue paying for gas in euros or dollars. The money will be paid into Gazprom Bank, which is not subject to sanctions.

Johnson: ‘Putin clearly cannot be trusted.’ UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, in a comment to Reuters, said that Russian President Vladimir Putin “clearly cannot be trusted” as Russia said it was moving forces away from Kyiv. He added that Britain does not seek to remove Putin from power.

UN human rights chief: Russia ‘may have committed war crimes’ in Ukraine. In her strongest comments yet on Russia’s war, Michelle Bachelet urged Moscow to end its full-scale invasion of its neighbor and reiterated that “indiscriminate attacks are prohibited under international humanitarian law and may amount to war crimes.”

Zelensky concludes hour-long call with Biden. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has concluded a call with U.S. President Joe Biden. The allies discussed battlefield reports and financial support for Ukraine.

US to give additional $500 million in assistance to Ukraine. The money will be direct budgetary aid for the Ukrainian government.

Slovakia expels 35 Russian diplomats. The Slovak Foreign Ministry has announced that it expelled 35 Russian diplomats from its embassy in Bratislava. Slovakia states that the actions of one of Russia’s diplomats was in violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.

UN creates commission to investigate Russian war crimes in Ukraine. The independent panel, led by Erik Mose of Norway, will look into all accusations of rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law “in the context of the aggression against Ukraine by the Russian Federation,” according to a March 30 statement by the UN.

Poll: 72% of Americans trust Zelensky. According to a recent Pew Research survey published on March 30, “around seven-in-ten Americans have a lot or some confidence in Zelensky, higher than any other international leader.”

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Today’s Ukraine Daily was brought to you by Asami Terajima, Alexander Query, Thaisa Semenova, Dylan Carter, Sergiy Slipchenko, Teah Pelechaty, Oleksiy Sorokin, Olga Rudenko, Toma Istomina, Lili Bivings.

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