Closing summary
It is 6pm in Kyiv and 7pm in Moscow. We will be closing this blog soon, but you can stay up to date on the Guardian’s Russia and Ukraine coverage here.
Here is a recap of today’s latest developments:
Russia is believed to have jammed the satellite signal on an aircraft used by defence minister Grant Shapps to travel from Poland back to the UK, a government source and journalists travelling with him said on Thursday, reported Reuters. According to the source and journalists, the GPS signal was interfered with for about 30 minutes while the plane flew close to Russia’s Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad. Defence sources said there was no danger to Shapps on the travelling aircraft.
The EU and Nato said on Thursday an election in Russia set to see Vladimir Putin re-elected president would not be free or fair because the Kremlin has crushed all opposition. Both the EU and Nato condemned Russia’s decision to stage the vote in areas of Ukraine that are occupied by its soldiers and that Moscow claims as its own territory.
The Ukrainian foreign ministry called voting for Russia’s presidential election that is also being held in Ukraine’s occupied territories illegal and void and called on its international partners not to recognise the results. The ministry said in its statement that the electoral campaign on Russia-occupied territories showed Moscow demonstrated “continued flagrant disregard for international law norms and principles”.
The chairs of foreign affairs committee in 23 parliaments –from the Baltics to the US to Israel – have signed a statement rejecting the legitimacy of elections conducted by Russia in occupied Ukrainian territories.
535 children have been killed in Russia’s war in Ukraine, the Ukrainian prosecutor general’s office said today, Ukrinform reported. “Some 1,790 children have been affected in Ukraine as a result of Russia’s full-scale armed aggression. As of the morning of 14 March 2024, a total of 535 children have been killed and 1,255 sustained injuries of various degrees of severity,” the office said.
The Kremlin said on Thursday that comments on nuclear weapons that Russian president Vladimir Putin made in an interview with state media did not constitute a threat to use them, and accused the US of deliberately taking the remarks out of context. Putin said in the interview published on Wednesday that Russia was technically ready for nuclear war and that if the US sent troops to Ukraine, it would be considered a significant escalation of the conflict. In response to Wednesday’s comments, the White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre accused Russia of deploying “reckless and irresponsible” nuclear rhetoric throughout the Ukraine conflict.
Putin said on Thursday that setting up a nuclear-powered unit in space is a priority. Yuri Borisov, head of Russia’s space agency Roscosmos, said last week that Russia and China were considering putting a nuclear power plant on the moon from 2033-35.
Three pro-Ukrainian battalions made up of recruits from Russia have launched a fresh incursion into southern Russia in a cross-border raid meant to sow chaos before Putin’s widely expected re-election this weekend. The three armed groups of Russian exiled fighters, who operate in close coordination with Ukraine’s military, said they had crossed the border into the southern Kursk and Belgorod regions. Russia’s national guard said on Thursday it was fighting off attacks from the pro-Ukrainian groups.
Nato allies need to urgently step up delivery of ammunition and weapons to Ukraine, Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg told reporters on Thursday. Presenting Nato’s annual report at its headquarters in Brussels, Stoltenberg said Ukrainians were not running out of courage but they were running out of ammunition.
Stoltenberg also said that any attempt to organise Russian elections in occupied regions of Ukraine would be completely illegal. Stoltenberg and Polish president Andrzej Duda also met on Thursday at the Nato headquarters in Brussels.
Ukraine fired at least eight missiles at Russia’s Belgorod border region, killing two people and wounding 12, local officials said on Thursday.
The Russian Defense Ministry claimed on Thursday that its troops killed 195 Ukrainian soldiers and destroyed five tanks and four armored infantry vehicles, two days after saying it killed 234 Ukrainian troops in another border assault. The Associated Press (AP) said it was not possible to independently verify the Russian claims.
Russia has banned 227 US citizens from entering the country, including US state department spokesperson Matthew Miller, the Russian foreign ministry said on Thursday. The list also includes journalists and academics among others.
EU leaders are to take a significant step towards confiscating €27bn in profit generated by Russian state assets frozen in Europe to help fund the war effort in Ukraine. Officials at the European Commission are poised to put forward what they believe is a legally robust proposal to be considered by member states, possibly before a meeting of prime ministers in Brussels next Thursday.
Ukraine’s defence ministry has thanked the EU for agreeing on €5bn for military aid to Kyiv.
Ukrainian drones attacked several oil refineries hundreds of miles from the frontline in Russian regions including Ryazan, Nizhny Novgorod and Leningrad. The continuing attacks are part of a strategy to cause economic damage.
A spokesperson for Ukraine’s military said this morning that overnight Russian forces attacked Ukraine with 34 Shahed drones, and that 22 of them were shot down. He also said that about 150 settlements in the Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk, Kherson, and Mykolaiv regions came under Russian artillery fire. Authorities in Kharkiv and Sumy regions said infrastructure had been targeted.
Norway will reach a military spending target set by Nato two years early as its neighbour Russia is now “more dangerous and more unpredictable,” the Norwegian prime minister said on Thursday The 2024 defence budget, initially expected to be around €8bn, will be revised upwards in the spring budget bill, Jonas Gahr Store said.
Joint chiefs chairman, Gen CQ Brown visited US weapon factories in Oklahoma and Arkansas on Thursday as the Pentagon frames the $95bn (£74bn/$87bn) aid package hanging in the balance on Capitol Hill as not only vital to Ukraine’s survival but also critical to the US economy. Brown travelled with the lawmakers who represent those factory workforces to address concerns over billions of dollars being sent overseas when there are so many needs at home. Some of those lawmakers have either already voted against the aid or have indicated they will oppose it.
Lithuania’s counter-intelligence said on Thursday it assessed an attack in Vilnius on Tuesday on Leonid Volkov, an aide to late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, was carried out by Russian special services. “It seems this is the work of Russia’s special services,” Darius Jauniskis, head of the state security department, told reporters.
Italy on Thursday condemned the attack on Volkov, saying it proved Russia’s persecution of Moscow’s critics. “It is proof that Russia continues to persecute those who oppose the regime and this cannot but deserve our condemnation,” said foreign minister Antonio Tajani.
The Russian-controlled management of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant said today that the Ukrainian army had shelled a critical infrastructure facility at the plant. According to the Russian-controlled plant, an explosive device was dropped near a fence where diesel fuel tanks are located. “Such attacks are unacceptable,” it said.
Germany’s parliament has rejected a call by the opposition for the government to send Taurus long-range cruise missiles to Ukraine, a day after chancellor Olaf Scholz defended his refusal to supply the weapons.
Swiss president Viola Amherd will meet European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen in Brussels on Monday to discuss the opening of talks to update the bilateral relationship between Switzerland and the bloc. In a statement, the Swiss government said Russia’s war against Ukraine would form part of the talks.
German arms manufacturer Rheinmetall said on Thursday it plans to set up at least four factories in Ukraine, as it targets a record €10bn euros ($10.9bn) in sales this year. The company said the factories in Ukraine – which has been suffering from ammunition shortages as Moscow makes battlefield gains – would be for producing shells, military vehicles, gunpowder and anti-aircraft weapons.
Updated
EU and Nato say Russian election will not be 'free and fair’
The EU and Nato said on Thursday an election in Russia set to see Vladimir Putin re-elected president would not be free or fair because the Kremlin has crushed all opposition, reports AFP.
Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of deceased Kremlin foe Alexei Navalny, has urged on the west not to recognise the results of the presidential election, which starts on Friday.
“We know, given the track record of how votes are being prepared and organised in Russia under the current Kremlin administration and regime, how this will look like,” said EU spokesperson Peter Stano. “It’s very difficult to foresee that this would be a free, fair and democratic election where the Russian people would really have a choice.”
Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg also said the ballot “in Russia will not be free and fair”.
“We know already that opposition politicians are in jail, some are killed, and many are in exile, and actually also some who tried to register as candidates have been denied that right,” he said. “There is no free and independent press in Russia.”
The three-day vote, expected to result in Putin claiming another six years in power, comes after his invasion of Ukraine has destroyed ties between Moscow and the west.
AFP said that both the EU and Nato condemned Russia’s decision to stage the vote in areas of Ukraine that are occupied by its soldiers and that Moscow claims as its own territory.
“Russia’s attempts to organise any part of an election in occupied regions of Ukraine are completely illegal, violating international law,” Stoltenberg said.
Stano said the ballot in those regions “is not being recognised and it will not be recognised by the European Union”.
Victory in the 15-17 March contest will allow Putin to stay in the Kremlin until at least 2030, longer than any Russian leader since Catherine the Great in the 18th century.
No genuine opposition candidate has been allowed on to the ballot. Putin officially faces off against three Kremlin-approved candidates from political parties loyal to him and his policies.
German defence firm Rheinmetall plans Ukraine arms factories
German arms manufacturer Rheinmetall said on Thursday it plans to set up at least four factories in Ukraine, as it targets a record €10bn ($10.9bn) in sales this year, reports AFP.
The Ukraine war has boosted Germany’s weapons industry as countries seek to re-arm in the face of the growing threat from Russia, and soaring demand last year propelled Rheinmetall on to the blue-chip DAX index.
The company said the factories in Ukraine – which has been suffering from ammunition shortages as Moscow makes battlefield gains – would be for producing shells, military vehicles, gunpowder and anti-aircraft weapons.
“Ukraine is now an important partner for us, where we see a potential of between €2-3bn [in sales] per year,” Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger said at the presentation of the company’s 2023 results.
The Duesseldorf-based group – which makes parts of the Leopard tanks that Berlin agreed could be sent to Ukraine after much hesitation – reported record sales of €7.2bn last year, and is aiming to top €10bn in 2024.
The company’s shares soared 5% in Frankfurt after the results were announced.
Germany’s largest manufacturer of military equipment had already announced an agreement with a Ukrainian company in February to build artillery shells in Ukraine.
The groundbreaking will take place soon for the plant – in an undisclosed location – and it will be modelled on an ammunition factory that Rheinmetall is building in Germany.
The company already operates a joint venture in Ukraine for repairing military vehicles.
Rheinmetall is also going to build a factory in Lithuania, where Germany plans to deploy a brigade-sized military unit on a permanent basis to help secure Nato’s eastern flank.
The company said it was planning to ramp up production of artillery shells, as Ukraine’s European allies struggle to boost output so they can provide Kyiv with more ammunition.
Updated
Italy on Thursday condemned the attack on Russian opposition figure Leonid Volkov, a close ally of late opposition leader Alexei Navalny, saying it proved Russia’s persecution of Moscow’s critics, reports AFP.
“Something really serious happened with the death of Navalny and also the attack on his closest collaborator,” foreign minister Antonio Tajani, whose country holds this year’s rotating G7 presidency, told reporters.
“It is proof that Russia continues to persecute those who oppose the regime and this cannot but deserve our condemnation.”
Lithuania said that it suspects Russia’s special services of involvement in Tuesday’s attack on Volkov, who was briefly admitted to hospital after he was repeatedly struck with a hammer outside his home in Lithuania’s capital Vilnius.
The attack came almost a month after Navalny’s death in an Arctic prison, which Volkov blamed on Putin, and days before elections that look set to extend the Russian president’s stay in power.
Russian president Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that setting up a nuclear-powered unit in space is a priority, reports Reuters.
Yuri Borisov, head of Russia’s space agency Roscosmos, said last week that Russia and China were considering putting a nuclear power plant on the moon from 2033-35.
Russia believed to have jammed signal on UK defence minister's plane, government source tells Reuters
Russia is believed to have jammed the satellite signal on an aircraft used by defence minister Grant Shapps to travel from Poland back to the UK, a government source and journalists travelling with him said on Thursday, reports Reuters. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) did not immediately comment, said Reuters, but defence sources told the Guardian that there was no danger to Shapps on the travelling aircraft.
According to the source and journalists, the GPS signal was interfered with for about 30 minutes while the plane flew close to Russia’s Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad. Mobile phones could no longer connect to the internet and the aircraft was forced to use alternative methods to determine its location, they said.
Updated
Pro-Ukraine exiled Russian fighters launch cross-border raid into southern Russia
Three pro-Ukrainian battalions made up of recruits from Russia have launched a fresh incursion into southern Russia in a cross-border raid meant to sow chaos before Vladimir Putin’s widely expected re-election this weekend.
The three armed groups of Russian exiled fighters, who operate in close coordination with Ukraine’s military, said they had crossed the border into the southern Kursk and Belgorod regions. In a statement, the Russian National Guard acknowledged the raid, saying that together with the armed forces, they were repelling the Ukrainian-backed armed groups’ attack near the village of Tyotkino in Russia’s western Kursk region.
Russia’s defence ministry later in the day said it had foiled the raids and posted a video appearing to show destroyed tanks and armoured fighting vehicles belonging to the pro-Ukrainian fighters.
Members of the Siberia, Freedom of Russia Legion and RDK battalions – the three groups that claimed the cross-boarding raid – closely work together with the Ukrainian army.
Russia Legion and RDK battalions comprise members ranging from far-right nationalists to anarchists; while the Siberian battalion is predominantly made of minority ethnic people from Siberia, including Buryats, Yakuts, and Tuvans.
You can read Pjotr Sauer’s full article here:
Swiss president Viola Amherd will meet European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen in Brussels on Monday to discuss the opening of talks to update the bilateral relationship between Switzerland and the bloc, reports Reuters citing the Swiss government.
Switzerland has said unrestricted access to the EU marketplace is the cornerstone of the overhaul, which aims to modernise accords on the single market, and seal new sectoral agreements in areas including electricity and food safety.
In a statement, the Swiss government said Russia’s war against Ukraine, the situation in the Middle East, as well as the commitment of Switzerland and the EU to peace and security would also form part of the talks on Monday.
EU moves towards using €27bn in profit from frozen Russian assets for Ukraine
EU leaders are to take a significant step towards confiscating €27bn in profit generated by Russian state assets frozen in Europe to help fund the war effort in Ukraine.
Officials at the European Commission are poised to put forward what they believe is a legally robust proposal to be considered by member states, possibly before a meeting of prime ministers in Brussels next Thursday.
About $300bn belonging to the Russian central bank has been frozen in the west, largely in foreign currency, gold and government bonds. About 70% of these are held in the Belgian central securities depository Euroclear, which is holding the equivalent of €190bn.
Deposits held in Europe are likely to generate between €15bn and €20bn in after-tax profits between now and the end of 2027, depending on the evolution of global interest rates, a senior EU official said.
This year they are expected to generate between €2bn and €3bn in profits, depending on potential interest rate changes – money that could then go straight to Ukraine.
You can read Lisa O’Carroll’s full piece here:
Joint chiefs chairman, Gen CQ Brown is visiting US weapon factories in Oklahoma and Arkansas on Thursday as the Pentagon frames the $95bn (£74bn/$87bn) aid package hanging in the balance on Capitol Hill as not only vital to Ukraine’s survival but also critical to the US economy, reports the Associated Press (AP).
According to the AP, Brown is visiting Lockheed Martin’s Camden weapon facility in Arkansas and the McAlester Army Ammunition Plant in Oklahoma, with the lawmakers who represent those factory workforces to address concerns over billions of dollars being sent overseas when there are so many needs at home. Some of those lawmakers have either already voted against the aid or have indicated they will oppose it.
Brown traveled with Arkansas Republican senator John Boozman, Oklahoma Republican senator Markwayne Mullin and Arkansas Republican representative Brad Westerman and is scheduled to meet with Oklahoma Republican Representative Josh Breechen while at McAlester.
The AP report that Brown said he’ll use the trip to point out how the funding is needed to replenish US military stockpiles that have been sent forward to Ukraine during its fight against Russia’s invasion and how that increased production supports local economies. It is a point the Pentagon has increasingly pushed in recent months as current Ukraine funding ran out – and Ukraine’s frontlines began to ration munitions against a much more robustly supplied Russian army.
“As I have done with other members, and I’ll do with these members, I’ll talk to them about the importance of the supplemental and not only how it helps Ukraine but also how it helps all of us. What I mean by that is much of the money, about 80% of the money out of the supplemental, will go back into our defence industrial base,” Brown said in a call with reporters ahead of the trip.
Here are some of the latest images on the newswires:
Lithuania’s counter-intelligence said on Thursday it assesses an attack in Vilnius on Tuesday on Leonid Volkov, an aide to late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, was carried out by Russian special services.
“It seems this is the work of Russia’s special services,” Darius Jauniskis, head of the state security department told reporters, according to Reuters.
Updated
Ukraine fired at least eight missiles at Russia’s Belgorod border region, killing two people and wounding 12, local officials said today, according to the Associated Press.
AP reports:
Kyiv’s forces apparently kept up efforts to rattle the Kremlin on the eve of Russia’s presidential election that is taking place amid a ruthless crackdown on dissent.
Also, Ukrainian forces attempted cross-border raids that were repelled in Belgorod and the Kursk region, according to local authorities. The Russian Defense Ministry claimed its troops killed 195 Ukrainian soldiers and destroyed five tanks and four armored infantry vehicles, two days after saying it killed 234 Ukrainian troops in another border assault.
It is not possible to independently verify the Russian claims. Cross-border attacks in the area have occurred sporadically since the war began and have been the subject of claims and counterclaims, as well as disinformation and propaganda.
Norway will reach a military spending target set by Nato two years early as its neighbour Russia is now “more dangerous and more unpredictable,” AFP reports that its prime minister said today.
The 2024 defence budget, initially expected to be around 8bn euros, will be revised upwards in the spring budget bill, Jonas Gahr Store said. The Labour prime minister said his country would this year reach the target set for NATO members, under which they are expected to dedicate at least two percent of their gross domestic product (GDP) to military spending.
“Russia has no interest in a military conflict with a NATO member,” Store said. “But we will likely have to cope for a long time with a more dangerous and more unpredictable neighbour, Russia.”
Germany’s parliament has rejected a call by the opposition for the government to send Taurus long-range cruise missiles to Ukraine, a day after Chancellor Olaf Scholz defended his refusal to supply the weapons.
AP reports:
The main centre-right opposition bloc has sought to keep up pressure on the issue and exploit divisions in Scholz’s unpopular three-party coalition, even as the German leader tries to put a lid on the debate. On Wednesday, he told lawmakers that prudence is a virtue and rejected suggestions that he doesn’t trust Kyiv.
Parliament’s lower house, or Bundestag, rejected the opposition Union bloc’s motion by 495 votes to 190, with five abstentions.
Germany has become the second-biggest supplier of military aid to Ukraine after the United States, but Scholz has stalled for months on Ukraine’s desire for Taurus missiles, which have a range of up to 500 kilometres (310 miles) and could in theory be used against targets far into Russian territory.
Ukrainian foreign ministry calls Russia's election on occupied territories illegal and void
The Ukrainian foreign ministry called voting for Russia’s presidential election that is also being held in Ukraine’s occupied territories illegal and void and called on its international partners not to recognise the results.
According to Reuters, the ministry said in its statement that the electoral campaign on Russia-occupied territories showed Moscow demonstrated “continued flagrant disregard for international law norms and principles”.
Ukraine launches attacks on Russia's oil refineries before presidential election – video
Ukrainian drones have attacked several oil refineries hundreds of miles from the frontline in Russian regions including Ryazan, Nizhny Novgorod and Leningrad. The continuing attacks are part of a strategy to cause economic damage.
Rosneft’s biggest oil refinery, in Ryazan, was set ablaze, a regional governor said on Wednesday, causing two damaged primary oil refining units to be shut down. Rosneft did not comment. The plant handles about 5.8% of Russia’s total refined crude oil, according to industry sources.
Nato allies need to step up delivery of ammunition and weapons to Ukraine, says Stoltenberg
Asked by a Reuters reporter, why Ukraine was running out of ammunition, Stoltenberg replied by saying there is an urgent need for Nato allies to step up delivery of ammunition and weapons to the country.
“It is a question of political will to make the decisions”, he said during a press conference.
Updated
Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg is answering questions from journalists now after presenting the annual Nato report.
He says Ukrainians are not running out of courage but they are running out of ammunition.
Stoltenberg also said that any attempt to organise Russian elections in occupied regions of Ukraine would be completely illegal.
Kremlin says the US took Putin's comments on nuclear weapons out of context
The Kremlin said on Thursday that comments on nuclear weapons that Russian president Vladimir Putin made in an interview with state media did not constitute a threat to use them, and accused the US of deliberately taking the remarks out of context, reports Reuters.
Putin said in the interview published on Wednesday that Russia was technically ready for nuclear war and that if the US sent troops to Ukraine, it would be considered a significant escalation of the conflict.
Commenting on Putin’s words, White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters that Washington understood that the Russian leader was restating Moscow’s nuclear doctrine, but accused Russia of deploying “reckless and irresponsible” nuclear rhetoric throughout the Ukraine conflict.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday that Putin had merely been answering a journalist’s questions on the subject and restating the already well known circumstances in which Russia would theoretically be forced to use nuclear weapons.
Peskov also drew attention to the fact that Putin had said in the same interview that the idea of using tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine had never crossed his mind.
Asked about the White House comments, Peskov said:
This was deliberately taking something out of context. Putin made no threats about the use of nuclear weapons in this interview. The president was just talking about the reasons that could make the use of nuclear weapons inevitable.
These are the reasons that are stated in our relevant documents, which are well known throughout the world. Moreover, everyone in the west deliberately failed to notice his words that it had never occurred to him to use tactical nuclear weapons [in Ukraine], despite the various situations that have developed in the course of the fighting.
This is a deliberate distortion of the context and an unwillingness to hear president Putin.”
Updated
Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg will shortly be presenting the annual Nato report. You can view it at the video below.
Earlier today, Stoltenberg and Polish president Andrzej Duda met at the Nato headquarters in Brussels.
Updated
Russia bans 227 US citizens from entering the country, says foreign ministry
Russia has banned 227 US citizens from entering the country, including US state department spokesperson Matthew Miller, the Russian foreign ministry said on Thursday.
According to Reuters, the ban, announced on its website, also included the deputy ministers of commerce, defence and energy, as well as former US ambassador to Russia John Sullivan.
Since the start of the war in Ukraine, Moscow has imposed mainly symbolic entry bans on thousands of western politicians, journalists and others it accuses of “Russophobic” actions and statements.
Russia’s national guard said on Thursday it was fighting off attacks from pro-Ukrainian groups in the region of Kursk, the latest in a recent string of clashes at the border, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Three separate groups of Ukrainian militias, mainly comprised of anti-Kremlin Russians, this week claimed to have captured the village of Tyotkino in a joint operation.
“Rosgvardia units are involved in repulsing an attack by enemy diversion groups near the village of Tyotkino in the Kursk region,” the national guard said.
One of the pro-Kyiv volunteer groups, the Freedom of Russia Legion, warned Russians living in some border cities of imminent shelling attacks. “All residents of Kursk, Belgorod and Bryansk regions who do not have time or have no opportunity to evacuate, immediately proceed to shelters,” they said.
Russia’s defence ministry rejected assertions that the militia groups had taken control of Tyotkino and claimed to have thwarted an attempted incursion using air, rockets and artillery fire, say AFP.
Russian president Vladimir Putin has said the wave of attacks are part of efforts to disrupt forthcoming elections in Russian and occupied regions of Ukraine this weekend.
MPs from around the globe condemn Russian election in Ukrainian territories
The chairs of foreign affairs committee in 23 parliaments –from the Baltics to the US to Israel – have signed a statement rejecting the legitimacy of elections conducted by Russia in occupied Ukrainian territories.
Joint statement of 🇱🇻🇪🇪🇱🇹🇵🇱🇺🇦🇺🇸🇩🇪🇬🇧🇧🇪🇨🇦🇩🇰🇮🇹🇷🇴🇮🇱🇨🇿🇪🇸🇲🇩🇱🇺🇮🇪🇮🇸 Foreign Affairs Committee Chairs: we unequivocally reject legitimacy of the elections conducted by Russia in the occupied Ukrainian territories ...devoid by any semblance of democratic validity" @r_stefanchuk @VCmilyte pic.twitter.com/BCaFKcJ8dB
— ŽygimantasPavilionis🇱🇹🇺🇦🇺🇸🇹🇼🇮🇱 (@ZygisPavilionis) March 14, 2024
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535 children have been killed in Russia’s war in Ukraine, the Ukrainian prosecutor general’s office said today, Ukrinform reported.
“Some 1,790 children have been affected in Ukraine as a result of Russia’s full-scale armed aggression. As of the morning of March 14, 2024, a total of 535 children have been killed and 1,255 sustained injuries of various degrees of severity,” the office said.
Ukraine’s defence ministry has thanked the EU for agreeing on €5 billion for military aid to Kyiv.
🇺🇦🤝🇪🇺 EU ambassadors agreed on a €5 billion increase in the European Peace Facility, which is used to fund supplies of weapons to Ukraine.
— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) March 14, 2024
We are grateful to our European partners for staunch support. Together, we will restore a stable and just peace in Europe. https://t.co/6UU05fEViT
The Russian-controlled management of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant said today that the Ukrainian army had shelled a critical infrastructure facility at the plant, Reuters reported.
According to the Russian-controlled plant, an explosive device was dropped near a fence where diesel fuel tanks are located. “Such attacks are unacceptable,” it said.
‘The fight is continuing’: a decade of Russian rule has not silenced Ukrainian voices in Crimea
“Ten years of the Crimean spring,” say billboards around the Crimean peninsula. “It all started with us.”
The Russian presidential election, to be held over three days at the end of this week, coincides with the 10-year anniversary of Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. The swift seizure of the peninsula in March that year, Vladimir Putin’s response to the Maidan Revolution in Kyiv, was indeed the beginning of 10 years of military action against Ukraine.
Since the beginning of the full-scale war, Crimea is second only to Moscow, among Russian regions, when it comes to the number of court cases opened against citizens for “discrediting the Russian army”, a broadly interpreted charge that can include posting pro-Ukrainian content.
An active player in the battle to subdue dissent in the peninsula is Crimean Smersh, a Telegram account named after a second world war counterintelligence body whose name was derived from the Russian phrase “Death to Spies”.
Crimean Smersh offers people the chance to denounce their friends and neighbours for “anti-Russian” behaviour. Users can message a secure Telegram bot to send information about such incidents. The channel then posts videos of police raids on people’s houses, and frequently adds mumbled on-camera “confessions” and “apologies” from those accused of being pro-Ukraine.
Yaroslav Bozhko, the Kyiv-based spokesperson for the Yellow Ribbon, a nonviolent underground movement in occupied areas of Ukraine, said that operating in Crimea now was extremely dangerous, but that even small actions like painting pro-Ukraine graffiti or tying yellow ribbons in public spaces helped the mood of other pro-Ukraine minded citizens.
“Even if someone from Crimea is silent and cannot speak, they will go through the city and see these symbols, and will understand that the fight for Ukrainian Crimea is continuing,” he said.
Read the full story here, by Shaun Walker in Kyiv and Pjotr Sauer
Deal agreed on €5bn EU facility for Ukraine
EU leaders are expected to rubber stamp a deal agreed in Brussels last night to create a €5bn facility for Ukraine under the umbrella “European Peace Facility” mechanism.
However it won’t all be new money - countries like Germany, which has given €17bn in aid to Ukraine, will be able to count its bilateral contributions as part of its share of the fund.
The fund allows member states to buy defence equipment and be partially reimbursed by the central fund.
The money is a fraction of what many have said Ukraine needs – internal market commissioner Thierry Breton has said Europe’s defence fund needs to be closer to the €100bn mark.
It also comes ahead of a key meeting of the so-called “Weimar triangle” on Friday with leaders of Germany, France and Poland gathering to discuss strategy to help Ukraine win the war.
France had insisted on a strong “buy European” policy (including Norway) for arms eligible for refunds
Diplomats said a compromise was found that would allow countries buy outside Europe if EU suppliers could not deliver equipment and ammunition in timelines required.
Russia targets Ukraine with drone strikes
A spokesperson for Ukraine’s military said this morning that overnight Russian forces attacked Ukraine with 34 Shahed drones, and that 22 of them were shot down.
He also said that about 150 settlements in the Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk, Kherson, and Mykolaiv regions came under Russian artillery fire.
Authorities in Kharkiv and Sumy regions said infrastructure had been targeted, Reuters reported.
Oleh Synehubov, governor of the eastern Kharkiv region, said that repairs were underway after “television infrastructure objects” had been struck.
