A summary of today's developments
A prominent pro-war Russian military blogger has been killed in a blast in a cafe in central St Petersburg, Russia’s interior ministry has said. Vladlen Tatarsky, whose real name was Maxim Fomin, had more than 560,000 followers on Telegram and was one of the country’s most influential military bloggers. The interior ministry said 19 people were injured in the blast on Sunday. Tatarsky was among the attendees at a Kremlin ceremony last September where Vladimir Putin proclaimed Russia’s annexation of four partly occupied regions of Ukraine, a move widely condemned by the international community. It is unclear whether the blast was directly linked to the conflict with Ukraine.
Russian forces have seen an “extremely high” number of incidents – including deaths – attributed to drunkenness during the war, the UK’s Ministry of Defence has said in its daily briefing. “While Russia has suffered up to 200,000 casualties since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a significant minority of these have been due to non-combat causes. On 27 March 2023, a Russian Telegram news channel reported there have been ‘extremely high’ numbers of incidents, crimes and deaths linked to alcohol consumption amongst the deployed Russian forces.”
At least three civilians have been killed and six wounded in Russian shelling of Kostiantynivka in eastern Ukraine on Sunday morning, Reuters quotes a senior Ukrainian official as saying.
The European Union will stand against any abuse during Russia’s leadership of the United Nations security council over the next month, its top diplomat, Josep Borrell, has said. Borrell told Agence France-Presse: “Despite being a permanent member of the security council, Russia continuously violates the very essence of the UN legal framework. The EU will stand against any abuse by [the] Russian presidency.”
The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, held a phone call with the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, Reuters reports. Lavrov reportedly claimed that Washington was trying to politicise the case of the Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who has been accused of spying in Russia, calling this unacceptable. The Russian foreign ministry said Lavrov told Blinken that Gershkovich’s fate would be determined by a court.
Ukrenergo, Ukraine’s electricity transmission operator, said it has fully restored power to the country after a “massive missile attack” on 9 March. The company said there were no restrictions on energy consumption after it finished its work in the central region, Sky News reported.
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The British former air vice-marshal Sean Bell told Sky News there was not enough detail to suggest a perpetrator behind the blast in St Petersburg but he thought it was “unlikely” the Ukrainian government was involved.
He said: “It could have been the resistance movement, much more likely.
“As rising Russian casualties from the war in Ukraine there’s increasing domestic unrest back at home.”
If Tatarsky was deliberately targeted, it would be the second assassination on Russian soil of a high-profile figure associated with the war in Ukraine.
Russia’s federal security service (FSB) accused Ukraine’s secret services last August of killing Darya Dugina, the daughter of an ultra-nationalist, in a car bomb attack near Moscow that Vladimir Putin called “evil”. Ukraine denied involvement.
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Saudi Arabia and other Opec+ members have announced voluntary cuts to their oil production of about 1.15m barrels a day in a surprise move they said was aimed at supporting market stability.
The group of oil-producing countries had been largely expected to stick to its already agreed cuts of 2 million barrels a day when its ministerial panel, which includes Saudi Arabia and Russia, meets virtually on Monday.
The US has argued that the world needs lower prices to support economic growth and prevent Vladimir Putin from earning more revenue to fund Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
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The military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky, who was killed in the bomb blast in a cafe in St Petersburg on Sunday, had more than 560,000 followers on Telegram and was one of the most prominent of the influential military bloggers who have provided an often critical running commentary on Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Tatarsky, whose real name was Maxim Fomin, was among hundreds of attendees at a lavish Kremlin ceremony last September to proclaim Russia’s annexation of four partly occupied regions of Ukraine, a move that most countries at the UN condemned as illegal, Reuters reported.
A St Petersburg website said the explosion took place at a cafe that had at one time belonged to Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner private army that is fighting for Russia in Ukraine.
There was no indication who was behind the blast.
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Russian pro-war blogger killed in blast – reports
A well-known Russian military blogger, Vladlen Tatarsky, was killed in an explosion in a cafe in Russia’s second largest city of St Petersburg on Sunday, the RIA news agency has reported.
At least 16 people were injured in the incident.
It is unclear whether the blast was directly linked to the conflict with Ukraine.
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The European Union will stand against any abuse during Russia’s leadership of the United Nations security council over the next month, its top diplomat, Josep Borrell, has said.
Borrell told Agence France-Presse: “Despite being a permanent member of the security council, Russia continuously violates the very essence of the UN legal framework.
“The EU will stand against any abuse by [the] Russian presidency.”
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Ukrenergo, Ukraine’s electricity transmission operator, said it has fully restored power to the country after a “massive missile attack” on 9 March.
The company said there were no restrictions on energy consumption after it finished its work in the central region, Sky News reported.
The Zaporizhzhia power station, which accounted for 20% of the country’s power generation before the invasion, has been offline since September.
In a post on Telegram, Ukrenergo thanked its Lithuanian colleagues for their assistance.
“All restrictions on consumption, which were introduced in the Kyiv region, Zhytomyr region, and Kharkiv region, due to equipment damage during a massive enemy missile attack on 9 March, have been lifted,” the statement read.
“In other regions, there are also no restrictions in Ukrenergo networks that would lead to the need to limit consumption.”
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Here’s a little more detail on that phone call between Lavrov and Blinken. The latter called for Gershkovich’s immediate release, the US state department has said. According to Reuters, the principal deputy spokesperson, Vedant Patel, said:
Secretary Blinken conveyed the United States’ grave concern over Russia’s unacceptable detention of a US citizen journalist. The secretary called for his immediate release.
The news agency reports that Moscow said Lavrov reiterated Russia’s assertion, for which it has not publicly stated any evidence, that the journalist was caught “red-handed” last week. It quotes the foreign ministry as saying:
Blinken’s attention was drawn to the need to respect the decisions of the Russian authorities, taken in accordance with the law and international obligations of the Russian Federation.
It was emphasised that it is unacceptable for officials in Washington and the western media to whip up a stir with the clear intention of giving this case a political colouring.
The conversation was initiated by Blinken, the Russian side said.
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The Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov held a phone call with the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, Reuters reports.
Lavrov reportedly claimed Washington was trying to politicise the case of the Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who has been accused of spying in Russia, calling this unacceptable. The Russian foreign ministry said Lavrov told Blinken that Gershkovich’s fate would be determined by a court.
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Pictures are emerging of damage in Kostyantynivka, where Ukrainian officials say six people were killed and eight wounded in a Russian missile attack.
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Russian forces affected by alcohol consumption, UK government assessment says
Russian forces have seen an “extremely high” number of incidents – including deaths – attributed to drunkenness during the war, the UK’s Ministry of Defence has said in its daily briefing.
While Russia has suffered up to 200,000 casualties since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a significant minority of these have been due to non-combat causes.
On 27 March 2023, a Russian Telegram news channel reported there have been ‘extremely high’ numbers of incidents, crimes and deaths linked to alcohol consumption amongst the deployed Russian forces.
Other leading causes of non-combat casualties likely include poor weapon handing drills, road traffic accidents and climatic injuries such as hypothermia. Russian commanders likely identify pervasive alcohol abuse as particularly detrimental to combat effectiveness.
However, with heavy drinking pervasive across much of Russian society, it has long been seen as a tacitly accepted part of military life, even on combat operations.
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A senior Ukrainian official has outlined a series of steps the government in Kyiv would take after the country reclaimed control of Crimea – including dismantling the strategic bridge that links the seized Black Sea peninsula to Russia, the Associated Press (AP) reports.
The agency reported that Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council, published the plan as Ukraine’s military prepares for a spring counteroffensive in hopes of making new, decisive gains after more than 13 months of war to end Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Moscow annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, but most of the world does not recognise it as Russian territory. The peninsula’s future status will be a key feature in any negotiations on ending the current fighting.
The Kremlin has demanded Ukraine recognise Russia’s sovereignty over Crimea and acknowledge other land gains made by Moscow as a condition for peace. Kyiv has ruled out any peace talks with Moscow until Russian troops leave all occupied territories, including Crimea. Danilov suggested:
Prosecuting Ukrainians who worked for the Moscow-appointed administration in Crimea, adding that some would face criminal charges and others would lose government pensions and be banned from public jobs.
Expelling all Russian citizens who moved to Crimea after 2014, and nullifying all property deals made under Russian rule.
Dismantling the 12-mile (19km) bridge that Russia built to Crimea.
A truck bomb severely damaged the bridge, Europe’s longest, in October. Moscow blamed Ukrainian military intelligence for the attack. Russia has repaired the damaged section of the bridge and restored the flow of supplies to Crimea, which has served as a key hub for the Russian military during the war. Ukraine did not claim responsibility for the bomb, but Ukrainian officials had repeatedly threatened to strike the bridge in the past.
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We reported earlier on the Ukrainian claims of deaths as a result of Russian shelling in Kostiantynivka. Ukrainian officials have now put the death toll at six people, with a further eight wounded, Reuters says.
Zelenskiy’s office say 16 apartment buildings, eight private houses, a school and an administrative building were damaged. An official posted photos showing the partial destruction of buildings and craters from explosions on the Telegram messaging app. Reuters could not independently verify the authenticity of the photos or the number of casualties.
More than three dozen editors of news organisations from across the world have signed a letter condemning the detention of the Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.
An experienced reporter of Russian affairs, Gershkovich was working in the city of Ekaterinburg when he was detained. The Kremlin claimed he had been spying and had been caught “red-handed”. However, the Wall Street Journal vehemently denied the allegations against him, while the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has also condemned the arrest. The letter says:
Gershkovich’s unwarranted and unjust arrest is a significant escalation in your government’s anti-press actions. Russia is sending the message that journalism within your borders is criminalised and that foreign correspondents seeking to report from Russia do not enjoy the benefits of the rule of law.
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Civilians reported killed and wounded in Russian shelling of Kostiantynivka
At least three civilians have been killed and six wounded in Russian shelling of Kostiantynivka in eastern Ukraine on Sunday morning, Reuters quotes a senior Ukrainian official as saying.
Kostiantynivka, home to about 70,000 people before the war, is just 20km (12.5 miles) west of Bakhmut, the centre of fighting for at least eight months as Russian forces try to capture the city.
“Russians have carried out massive shelling of the town of Kostiantynivka,” Andriy Yermak – a senior member of the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s staff, said on the Telegram messaging app.
Photos published by Yermak showed the partial destruction of buildings and craters from explosions. Reuters said it could not independently verify the authenticity of the photos and the number of casualties.
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The US basketball player Brittney Griner, who was freed from a Russian penal colony in a prisoner exchange last year, has urged the Biden administration to keep using “every tool possible” to win Gershkovich’s release.
Reuters reports that Griner and her wife Cherelle said on Instagram that “our hearts are filled with great concern” for the Wall Street Journal reporter arrested by Russia’s FSB security service last week in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg.
The Kremlin claims Gershkovich was using journalism as a cover for spying activity - something his newspaper, the Wall Street Journal, has vehemently denied.
Russia has not made public any evidence to support the charges, under which Gershkovich faces up to 20 years in jail. The White House has described the accusations as “ridiculous” and the president Joe Biden has called on Moscow to release him.
The Griners said they were grateful for Biden’s “deep commitment to rescue Americans”. They cited the cases of aid worker Jeff Woodke, freed last month after being kidnapped for more than six years in West Africa, and Paul Rusesabagina, a permanent US resident who returned home last week after being released from prison in Rwanda. The couple added:
We call on all of our supporters to both celebrate the wins and encourage the administration to continue to use every tool possible to bring Evan and all wrongfully detained Americans home.
Brittney Griner, a WNBA star and double Olympic gold medallist who played for a Russian team in the off-season, was arrested at a Moscow airport one week before Russia invaded Ukraine last year.
She was found with vape cartridges containing cannabis oil in her luggage and sentenced to nine years in a penal colony after being convicted on drug smuggling and possession charges, a verdict that Biden called “unacceptable”.
She was freed in December in exchange for Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer who spent 14 years in jail in the United States for arms trafficking, money laundering and conspiring to kill Americans.
Hours before Russia’s federal security service, the FSB, came for him, my best friend, Evan Gershkovich, sent me a text. How will Arsenal, the football team we both passionately supported from childhood, perform after the international break? he asked. Was Gabriel Jesus finally ready to start his first game after injury? I texted back. Evan’s reply never came. His phone had gone silent.
Pjotr Sauer, a Russian affairs reporter for the Guardian, writes about his friend Evan Gershkovich, who has been arrested in Russia over allegations of espionage; a charge that carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years.
A year ago, when Russian tanks were already marching toward Kyiv, the whole world wondered why there were no mass anti-war protests in Russia, why only loners took to the streets. I attributed it to fear. Silence is a Russian survival strategy. Those who protested back then were in jail. This is how Russians have survived by silence for generations. Pushkin formulated this Russian way of life in the last line of his historical drama Boris Godunov: “The people are silent.” And with the beginning of the aggression against Ukraine, the people were “keeping silent”. But then mass mobilisation began in the autumn, and it is no longer possible to explain away the fact that hundreds of thousands of Russians obediently went to kill Ukrainians and be killed. This is something else, something deeper, something scarier.
A year after Putin’s invasion, the award-winning novelist Mikhail Shishkin reflects on the silence of his compatriots, the betrayal of his mother tongue, and his hopes for the future:
The Wall Street Journal has demanded the immediate release of Moscow-based correspondent Evan Gershkovich after his arrest by Russia’s FSB security service on suspicion of spying.
“Evan’s case is a vicious affront to a free press, and should spur outrage in all free people and governments throughout the world, the newspaper said on Twitter.
A top Ukrainian cleric from a church with alleged Moscow ties was sentenced to house arrest on Saturday after a hearing into whether he glorified invading Russian forces and stoked religious divisions, the church said.
Kyiv is cracking down on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) on the grounds it is pro-Russian and collaborating with Moscow, a charge the church denies.
In a statement, the UOC said a Kyiv court also ordered Metropolitan Pavlo to wear an electronic bracelet. The Interfax Ukraine and Ukrinform news agencies said Pavlo had been given 60 days of house arrest.
“I haven’t done anything. I believe this is a political order,” Pavlo told reporters after the ruling.
Russia’s TASS state news agency said the court ordered Pavlo to live in a village some 40 km (25 miles) southeast of Kyiv. Pavlo said the house was not fit for inhabitation.
“There is nothing to sleep on, no heat and no light. There is no kitchen, no spoon. But it’s okay, I’ll endure it all,” he said.
Russia’s war against Ukraine has claimed the lives of 262 Ukrainian athletes and destroyed 363 sports facilities, the country’s sports minister, Vadym Huttsait, said on Saturday.
Meeting the visiting president of the International Federation of Gymnastics, Morinari Watanabe, Huttsait said no athletes from Russia should be allowed at the Olympics or other sports competitions.
“They all support this war and attend events held in support of this war,” Huttsait said, according to a transcript on president Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s website.
The International Olympic Committee has recommended the gradual return of Russian and Belarusian athletes to international competition as neutrals. It has not decided on their participation in the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Summary
Welcome back to our continuing coverage of the war in Ukraine. We’ll be bringing you the latest developments as they happen.
Our top story this morning:
Russia assumed charge of the UN security council on Saturday – causing fury inside Ukraine with its president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, labelling the situation “absurd and destructive … It’s hard to imagine anything that proves more the total bankruptcy of such institutions.”
In his daily video address, Zelenskiy pointed out that Russian shelling had killed a five-month-old boy on Friday, and said it was time for a general overhaul of global institutions.
Earlier, a top Ukrainian official has criticised the “symbolic blow” of Russia assuming the rotating presidency. Andriy Yermak, the Ukrainian president’s chief of staff, wrote: “It’s not just a shame. It is another symbolic blow to the rules-based system of international relations.”
The Kremlin has said it will “exercise all its rights” in the role.
Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, will chair the meeting when Russia assumes the council presidency. “As of 1 April, they’re taking the level of absurdity to a new level,” said Sergiy Kyslytsya, Kyiv’s permanent representative.
There’s more to come on this story. In the meantime here are the key recent developments:
An intelligence update from the UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) says the performance of the Russian chief of the general staff, General Valery Gerasimov, is “pushing the limits of how far Russia’s political leadership will tolerate failure”. It adds: “Gerasimov’s tenure has been characterised by an effort to launch a general winter offensive with the aim of extending Russian control over the whole of the Donbas region. Eighty days on, it is increasingly apparent that this project has failed.”
Russia’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, has promised to increase the supply of munitions to Russian forces during a visit to the headquarters of Moscow’s troops fighting in Ukraine, according to footage published by the defence ministry.
The International Monetary Fund’s executive board has approved a four-year $15.6bn loan programme for Ukraine, part of a global $115bn package of economic support. The decision clears the way for an immediate disbursement of about $2.7bn to Kyiv, and requires Ukraine to carry out ambitious reforms, especially in the energy sector, the fund has said.
The top US general, Mark Milley, has said Ukraine is unlikely to expel all Russian troops from its territory this year, the Kyiv Independent reports, citing an interview with Defense One. Milley said: “I don’t think it’s likely to be done in the near-term for this year.”
At least five people, including a baby, have been killed in Ukraine in the past 24 hours, according to the Kyiv Independent.
Prosecutors have asked a court to put the abbot of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra monastery, Metropolitan Pavel, under house arrest. He is accused of supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and inciting religious hatred. Pavel denies wrongdoing.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy wrote online that he had talks with France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, to discuss “defence interaction” and “further steps to implement #PeaceFormula”.
Russia has lost at least six Zoopark-1M counter-battery radar and will struggle to regenerate them because of sanctions, the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said. The MoD added: “Regenerating counter-battery radar fleets is likely a key priority for both sides, but Russia will likely struggle because the systems rely on supplies of high-tech electronics which have been disrupted by sanctions.”
Vladimir Putin has signed off on a new Russian foreign policy strategy aimed at curtailing western “dominance” and identifying China and India as key partners for the future. The document cements the deep cold war-style rupture between Russia and the west over Moscow’s war on Ukraine.
North Korea’s Kim Yo-jong, the sister of leader Kim Jong-un, has accused Ukraine of having nuclear ambitions, state media KCNA has reported – basing her assertion on an online petition with fewer than 1,000 signatures.
Alexander Lukashenko, the Belarusian president, said he had intensified talks with Russia about deploying nuclear weapons in Belarus, alleging there were plans for neighbouring Poland to invade. There is no evidence Poland is planning to invade.
