Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 760

Police officers inspect a part of a Russian Kh-55 cruise missile, intercepted during a missile strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine [Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters]

Here is the situation on Monday, March 25, 2024.

Fighting

• Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Monday that its forces destroyed 11 Ukraine-launched drones over the southwestern Russian Rostov region.
• Separately, the Ukrainian military said it hit two large Russian landing ships in overnight attacks on the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula as well as other infrastructure used by the Russian navy in the Black Sea.
•  An underground gas storage site in Ukraine was attacked on Sunday in the latest wave of Russian missile strikes on power facilities, while Ukrainian officials restored power in cities, ordered imports and imposed rolling blackouts to deal with shortfalls.
• President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said efforts to restore power supplies were under way in various regions, with the greatest difficulties in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city.
• He said more than 200,000 residents of Kharkiv, a frequent target of Russian attacks, were without reliable power. The network had been restored elsewhere, he said.
• The country’s energy ministry and distributors said Ukraine ramped up imports of electricity and halted exports after the recent series of Russian attacks, in which top energy producer DTEK lost 50 percent of its capacity.
• Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, head of Ukrenergo, which operates Ukraine’s transmission lines, said the latest wave of strikes had caused damage of at least 90 million euros ($97 million).
• Russia attacked Ukrainian generating and transmission facilities on Friday, causing significant blackouts in many regions, and energy facilities in three Ukrainian regions were also attacked early on Sunday.

Politics and diplomacy

• Poland demanded an explanation from Russia after a Russian missile strayed briefly into Polish airspace during a major attack on Ukraine, prompting the NATO member to activate F-16 fighter jets.
• The Polish Foreign Ministry intends to summon the Russian ambassador over the airspace violation, Deputy Foreign Minister Andrzej Szejna told private broadcaster Polsat News.
• Following the ISIL-claimed attack at a Moscow music hall, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the gunmen were captured while fleeing to Ukraine. Putin did not mention ISIL in his speech to the nation and Kyiv accused him and other Russian politicians of falsely linking Ukraine to the assault to stoke fervour for Russia’s war in Ukraine, which recently entered its third year.