Closing summary
It has gone 6.15pm in Kyiv and 7.15pm 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 has tortured and arbitrarily detained people in occupied Ukraine, creating a “climate of fear” and suppressing Ukrainian identity, a UN report said on Wednesday. The report, which the UN human rights office said was based on more than 2,300 interviews, accused Moscow of “committing widespread violations” of human rights law.
The UN report also said Russia had tried to suppress Ukrainian identity among children, replacing the curriculum in schools with a Russian one which sought to “justify” Moscow’s invasion, the report added. UN high commissioner for human rights Volker Türk said in a release linked to the report, that “the actions of the Russian Federation” had resulted in “profound and long-lasting consequences for Ukrainian society as a whole”.
The European Commission disbursed the first €4.5bn of support under the EU’s new Ukraine Facility. In a statement published on Wednesday by the commission, its president Ursula von der Leyen said: “Today is a good day for Ukraine, as more EU funds are flowing to meet urgent needs.” Ukrainian prime minister Denys Shmyhal said in a social media post on X that the disbursement “strengthens our economic and financial stability”.
Two people were killed and two more were injured when Ukraine attacked Russia’s Belgorod region with multiple-launch rocket systems, its regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Wednesday. Earlier, had said one person had been killed in separate shelling of the regional capital, and two others injured.
Authorities also said on Wednesday that Belgorod would be expanding its closure of schools and colleges amid a major evacuation plan. The measures were announced a day after Gladkov unveiled plans to evacuate about 9,000 children from the region.
Putin vowed on Wednesday to provide support for Belgorod civilians who have lost their homes and businesses. “There is a lot to do and we will do everything which depends on us,” he said at a televised meeting at the Kremlin.
Russia and Ukraine each said they had repelled numerous air attacks late on Tuesday and early on Wednesday, with intensified pounding of border regions forcing evacuations of civilians on both sides. Russia’s defence ministry said it intercepted 13 Ukrainian rockets over the Belgorod region around mid-morning on Wednesday.
A Russian attack on Ukraine’s northern city of Kharkiv on Wednesday hit an eight-storey building and a factory, killing three people and injuring at least five others, the head of the investigative unit of the regional police said. The attack also sparked a fire across more than 1,000 square metres.
The European Commission has proposed transferring to Ukraine profits of €2.5-3bn a year generated by Russian central bank assets frozen in Europe. The exact amount available for Kyiv each year will depend on global interest rates as the profits are the returns on €210bn of Russian central bank assets held in various currencies in the 27-nation EU.
The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said he will propose the EU use 90% of revenue from Russian assets frozen in Europe to buy arms for Ukraine via the European Peace Facility fund. Russia criticised the plan on Wednesday, saying it would lead to decades of lawsuits. Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Borrell’s proposals to use revenues from frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine amount to banditism and theft.
Indian prime minister Narendra Modi held separate phone calls on Wednesday with Putin and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskiy and discussed strengthening ties with both. The Indian government said in its own statement that Modi had reiterated India’s “consistent position in favour of dialogue and diplomacy as the way forward” in the Ukraine crisis.
Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba will visit India next week as Kyiv looks to build support for its peace plan, two Indian officials aware of the matter said. It would be the first visit by a top Ukrainian official since Russia’s invasion.
Ukrainian drones operated by the GUR military intelligence agency attacked the Engels airbase deep inside Russian territory early on Wednesday and Kyiv was assessing the damage, a Ukrainian intelligence source told Reuters. The governor of the Saratov region, where the base is located, said Ukrainian drones had been downed near the city of Engels but did not report any damage.
Russia’s defence ministry said that its forces had cleared the Russian border village of Kozinka in Belgorod region of Ukrainian forces, according to the state news agency RIA. Ukrainian forces have made several attacks on Kozinka and nearby frontier settlements in recent weeks.
The US Treasury said in a statement on Wednesday that it had imposed sanctions on the two people and two entities for providing services to Russia’s government in connection with a foreign malign influence campaign, including attempting to impersonate legitimate media outlets. Reuters reports that those targeted are: Moscow-based Social Design Agency, its founder Ilya Andreevich Gambashidze, Russia-based Company Group Structura LLC and its CEO and owner Nikolai Aleksandrovich Tupikin.
On Wednesday, the EU reached provisional agreement to extend Ukrainian food producers’ tariff-free access to its markets until June 2025 – albeit with new limits on grain imports. Polish protest leaders said they were not happy with the latest deal as it included the last few years as a reference for import limits. Polish police said they knew of more than 580 protests planned for Wednesday, with an estimated participation of 70,000 people.
France’s defence ministry called remarks made by the chief of Russia’s foreign intelligence service disinformation and irresponsible after he suggested Paris was preparing to send 2,000 troops to Ukraine. Sergei Naryshkin, director of Russian foreign intelligence, was quoted by the Russian state news agency Tass as saying France was preparing to send 2,000 troops to Ukraine and that French troops would be a legitimate target for Russian forces if they “ever come to the territory of the Russian world with a sword”.
The Czech Republic said it is on the verge of delivering thousands of extra artillery shells to Ukraine, just weeks after it announced an initiative to source the much-needed supplies from outside the EU. Its foreign minister, Jan Lipavský, said it had so far secured 300,000 shells and that the ammunition would provide a vital “few months’ breathing space” on the frontline.
Russia has lost 433,090 troops in Ukraine since the beginning of its full-scale invasion on 24 February 2022, according to the general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces. This number, reported on 20 March via the Kyiv Independent, includes 700 casualties Russian forces suffered just over the past day.
Ukraine could make 2m drones a year – double the existing rate of production – with extra financial support from the US, other western governments and private citizens, the country’s minister for digital transformation has claimed. Mykhailo Fedorov said in an interview that Ukraine’s government was “contracting much less than our manufacturers are capable of” because it did not have enough funds on hand.
A Russian court on Wednesday sentenced a St Petersburg woman to eight days in jail for writing “no to war” on a ballot paper during the country’s presidential election in protest at Putin’s Ukraine campaign. St Petersburg’s Dzerzhinsky district court said it ordered Alexandra Chiryatyeva to be jailed for eight days and fined 40,000 rubles (€399/$433/£341). It said she was guilty of hooliganism and “discrediting the Russian armed forces”.
A man living in Russia’s far east who allegedly spied for Ukraine to help it carry out sabotage has been charged with high treason, local FSB security services said on Wednesday. The FSB did not name the suspect, but said he was a resident of Komsomolsk-on-Amur, a remote Russian city in the far eastern region of Khabarovsk.
Foreign soldiers captured by Ukraine say they travelled to escape poverty from homes in Asia, the Caribbean and Africa but were tricked into fighting for Russia on the frontlines. At a recent press event organised by Ukrainian officials, organisers defined the men as “mercenaries” from the “global south” and said they were treating them the same as Russian PoWs.
The International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) decision to ban Russia’s athletes from the opening parade of the Paris Olympics in July does not paint the IOC in a good light, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday. Peskov called it a violation of the athletes’ interests that ran against the entire ideology of the Olympics.
Zakharova said on Wednesday that a decision by the European Organization for Nuclear Research to cut cooperation with Russian scientists was politicised and unacceptable. The organisation, better known as Cern, said in December it would cut cooperation with Russia from November 2024.
Russia jails woman for writing 'no to war' on ballot paper
A Russian court on Wednesday sentenced a St Petersburg woman to eight days in jail for writing “no to war” on a ballot paper during the country’s presidential election in protest at president Vladimir Putin’s Ukraine campaign, reports AFP
The three-day vote over the weekend saw Putin running unchallenged for a fifth Kremlin term, which would extend his rule until at least 2030.
The election was marred by ballot spoiling, with Putin warning in his victory speech that Russians who did so “have to be dealt with”.
According to AFP, St Petersburg’s Dzerzhinsky district court said it ordered Alexandra Chiryatyeva to be jailed for eight days and fined 40,000 rubles (€399/$433/£341). It said she was guilty of hooliganism and “discrediting the Russian armed forces”.
“Chiryatyeva took a voting ballot and with a red marker wrote ‘no to war’ at the back of it before placing it in the ballot box,” the court said. “In this way, Chiryatyeva damaged state property and discredited the Russian armed forces,” it added.
The court said Chiryatyeva had done so on the final day of the three-day vote, when Russia’s opposition groups called for protests against an election where Putin’s win was inevitable.
Updated
Russia using 'fear' to rule occupied Ukraine, says UN human rights report
Russia has tortured and arbitrarily detained people in occupied Ukraine, creating a “climate of fear” and suppressing Ukrainian identity, a UN report said on Wednesday, reports AFP.
The report, which the UN human rights office said was based on more than 2,300 interviews, accused Moscow of “committing widespread violations” of human rights law.
Since invading in February 2022, Moscow has seized large swathes of southern and eastern Ukraine.
Russia has imposed its “language, citizenship, laws, court system, and education curricula on the occupied areas,” while suppressing a Ukrainian identity, the UN office said in a release accompanying the report.
“From the onset, Russian armed forces, acting with generalised impunity, committed widespread violations, including arbitrary detention of civilians, often accompanied by torture and ill-treatment,” it said.
Russia had tried to suppress Ukrainian identity among children, replacing the curriculum in schools with a Russian one which sought to “justify” Moscow’s invasion, the report added.
Peaceful protests have been meet with “force” from the Russian army, which has restricted free expression and pillaged homes and businesses, it said.
The report said Moscow has blocked access to Ukrainian media and phone networks in the regions in an effort to control information.
“The actions of the Russian Federation have ruptured the social fabric of communities and left individuals isolated, with profound and long-lasting consequences for Ukrainian society as a whole,” the release quoted UN high commissioner for human rights Volker Türk as saying.
Ukraine has accused Moscow of widespread war crimes in its occupied regions. The Kremlin denies any wrongdoing, calling its takeover of the regions a “liberation.”
Reuters have some further details on the news that the US Treasury department issued new Russia-related sanctions on Wednesday (see 14:20 GMT).
According to the news agency, the US Treasury said in a statement that it had imposed sanctions on the two people and two entities for providing services to Russia’s government in connection with a foreign malign influence campaign, including attempting to impersonate legitimate media outlets.
The Treasury said those targeted implemented a network of more than 60 websites that impersonated legitimate news websites and that used misleading social media accounts.
Reuters reports that those targeted are: Moscow-based Social Design Agency, its founder Ilya Andreevich Gambashidze, Russia-based Company Group Structura LLC and its CEO and owner Nikolai Aleksandrovich Tupikin.
The sanctions freeze any of their US assets and generally bar Americans from dealing with them. Those that engage in certain transactions with those targeted also risk being hit with sanctions.
“We are committed to exposing Russia’s extensive campaigns of government-directed deception, which are intended to mislead voters and undermine trust in democratic institutions in the US and around the world,” Treasury’s under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence Brian Nelson said in the statement.
“The US, along with our allies and partners, remains steadfast in defending our democratic principles and the credibility of our elections.”
A state department spokesperson said: “The Kremlin’s ultimate goal in waging these influence campaigns is to undermine democracies. Efforts like these are meant to sow distrust in a free and independent press, and to drown out legitimate criticism with a flood of false information.”
Updated
Two people killed in Russia's Belgorod region, says its governor
Two people were killed and two more were injured when Ukraine attacked Russia’s Belgorod region with multiple-launch rocket systems, Belgorod regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Wednesday, reports Reuters.
Earlier, Gladkov had said one person had been killed in separate shelling of the regional capital, and two others injured.
Russia and Ukraine each said they had repelled numerous air attacks late on Tuesday and early on Wednesday, with intensified pounding of border regions forcing evacuations of civilians on both sides.
Updated
According to Reuters, the US issued new Russia-related sanctions on Wednesday targeting several individuals and entities, the Treasury department’s website showed.
On Wednesday, the EU reached provisional agreement to extend Ukrainian food producers’ tariff-free access to its markets until June 2025 – albeit with new limits on grain imports, reports Reuters.
Polish protest leaders said they were not happy with the latest deal as it included the last few years as a reference for import limits. They want quotas based on figures from well before the war in Ukraine began, when imports were much lower.
“We demand quotas and that they be calculated for the period from 2000, and not as Ukraine wants 2022-2023, because that was when the [import] levels were the highest. This does not fully satisfy us, because it is not a good solution,” Slawomir Izdebski, leader of the OPZZ farmers’ union, told Reuters.
According to the news agency, Polish police said they knew of more than 580 protests planned for Wednesday, with an estimated participation of 70,000 people.
Last Friday, the European Commission also offered concessions to farmers as it proposed an easing of rules on leaving land fallow or rotating crops.
Farmers in the Czech Republic held similar protests. They drove an estimated 1,600 tractors and other agricultural machinery on to the streets, Barbora Pankova, a spokesperson for the Czech Agrarian Chamber, told Czech Television.
Ukraine says it could make 2m drones a year with financial help from west
Ukraine could make 2m drones a year – double the existing rate of production – with extra financial support from the US, other western governments and private citizens, the country’s minister for digital transformation has claimed.
Mykhailo Fedorov said in an interview that Ukraine’s government was “contracting much less than our manufacturers are capable of” because it did not have enough funds on hand. He pressed for further donations to help the war effort.
The 33-year-old digital minister, who is responsible for drone production, said Ukraine was on track to produce “more than a million” drones in 2024, which would exceed a 1m target for manufacture set by the president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, late last year, but could make even more.
“We’ve been able to scale the market so much that we can manufacture more than one or even two million drones,” he said, arguing that there was potential to increase production of all types of drones further.
You can read Dan Sabbagh’s full piece here:
Indian prime minister Narendra Modi has held separate phone calls on Wednesday with Russian president Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskiy and discussed strengthening ties with both, ahead of a visit by the Ukrainian foreign minister to New Delhi.
Reuters reports:
Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba will visit India next week as Kyiv looks to build support for its peace plan, two Indian officials aware of the matter said, the first visit by a top Ukrainian official since Russia’s invasion.
Modi phoned Putin to congratulate him on his victory in Russia’s weekend presidential election, and the two leaders also discussed Ukraine, the Kremlin said in a statement.
The Indian government said in its own statement that Modi had reiterated India’s “consistent position in favour of dialogue and diplomacy as the way forward” in the Ukraine crisis and also that the leaders agreed to deepen bilateral ties.
Modi later said in a post on social media platform X that he also spoke to Zelenskiy on strengthening ties between India and Ukraine and conveyed “India’s consistent support for all efforts for peace and bringing an early end to the ongoing conflict”.
Had a good conversation with President @ZelenskyyUa on strengthening the India-Ukraine partnership. Conveyed India’s consistent support for all efforts for peace and bringing an early end to the ongoing conflict. India will continue to provide humanitarian assistance guided by…
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) March 20, 2024
Kuleba’s visit comes at the invitation of his Indian counterpart, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, after a phone call between Modi and Zelenskiy at the start of the year, said one of the officials.
Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity.
Apart from talks with Indian officials, Kuleba is also set to “review the India-Ukraine inter-governmental commission”, one of the officials said, referring to a panel charged with keeping up the two nations’ economic, cultural and technological ties.
India’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
One of the officials said a formal announcement of the visit was expected next week. Indian media first reported it on Tuesday.
Updated
Foreign soldiers captured by Ukraine say they travelled to escape poverty from homes in Asia, the Caribbean and Africa but were tricked into fighting for Russia on the frontlines.
AFP reports:
Speaking at a recent press event organised by Ukrainian officials, eight prisoners of war from Cuba, Nepal, Sierra Leone and Somalia said they were lured with promises of high wages, non-frontline roles or simply tricked.
Organisers defined the men as “mercenaries” from the “global south” and said they were treating them the same as Russian PoWs.
While the men said they spoke of their own free will, they were escorted by masked guards who listened as they spoke to journalists.
The Geneva conventions says PoWs should be protected from “public curiosity”.
A 35-year-old Cuban man with dreadlocks said he had responded to a Facebook post offering construction work in Russia.
He said:
I didn’t think I was coming to the war.
A man from Sierra Leone wiped away tears, saying he had paid a recruiter and flown to Russia for a “good job” to support his large family but had not wanted to join the military.
The security guard said he only realised after signing Russian-language paperwork that he had joined the army.
Petro Yatsenko, spokespersonfor a Ukrainian office responsible for prisoners of war, said Russia was seeking to recruit from very low-income countries.
When the Russians offer such people $2,000 a month and say that they will actually be used as bodyguards or on the third line from the front, they are very tempted.
Russia has turned to foreign fighters after running low on mercenaries from the Wagner group and ex-prisoners, Yatsenko said.
“The percentage of mercenaries is growing” as “Russia’s mobilisation resource is declining”, he said.
Some of the prisoners in Kyiv said they willingly joined the army but did not expect to be sent to the front. Some said they were told they would be “helpers” for first aid and logistics.
A young Somalian man with cropped hair said he had joined up to give his family a “good future”.
I didn’t know that I would be in the first line.
I was just dropped there without … knowing the language.
A 32-year-old man from Nepal said he had watched TikTok videos about Nepalis joining the army, saying his motivation was “of course about the money”.
One man said he was paid 250,000 rubles ($2,720) a month, while another said his promised salary was $2,000.
AFP reporters in India and Nepal have investigated such recruitment, finding it is often done through informal intermediaries and promotional videos posted on social media. Applicants lacking military experience are initially told they will receive non-combatant roles and the option of permanent residence.
But in reality they receive basic weapons training and are deployed to the front ine.
Nepal has said five of its citizens are prisoners of war in Ukraine and at least 12 have been killed. It has banned citizens from working in Russia or Ukraine and asked Russia to return recruits.
The only prisoner in Kyiv to speak basic Russian was a 24-year-old Nepali with hands so scarred by war-inflicted burns that he struggled to hold a pen.
He said he was studying and working in Russia when he spotted recruitment posters, expecting to become a “security guard or something like that”.
I don’t know what to do, how to shoot.
Yatsenko urged countries to act to stop such people being “duped by recruiters who promise them mountains of gold”.
Ukraine is currently holding foreigners in the same detention centres and treating them the same as Russian PoWs.
Yatsenko said:
They were captured on the front line... in military uniform, with weapons. And whether they are mercenaries will be decided by the court.
We are interested to pass them to their homelands.
Updated
EU proposes to transfer Ukraine €4bn from frozen Russian assets
The European Commission has proposed transferring to Ukraine profits of €2.5-3bn a year generated by Russian central bank assets frozen in Europe.
Reuters reports:
Ninety percent will be channelled through the European Peace Facility fund to buy weapons for Ukraine. The rest will be used for recovery and reconstruction.
The exact amount available for Kyiv each year will depend on global interest rates as the profits are the returns on €210bn of Russian central bank assets held in various currencies in the 27-nation EU.
On top of these profits, Ukraine will also receive every year the 25% tax that the Belgian government puts on the profits. For 2024, this is expected to amount to €1.7bn, of which €1.5bn will be paid this year.
The total financial contribution for Ukraine from frozen Russian assets in the EU will therefore total €4-4.5bn this year.
Once the commission proposal is approved by EU governments the profits are set aside for Ukraine twice a year, with a first tranche already in July.
The Russian assets are held by EU central securities depositories, mainly Belgium’s Euroclear, which will keep 3% for operational expenses and temporarily retain 10% of the profits as a safeguard against legal action by Russia.
The amount temporarily retained might be raised if needed, the commission said. After the war, all the money, unless used to cover legal claims by Moscow, will be passed to Ukraine.
European Commission executive vice-president Valdis Dombrovskis said Russia was being held to account for the massive damage it had caused.
He said:
Our proposal will redirect substantial windfall revenues from frozen Russian state assets for the benefit of Ukraine and its people, to the tune of up to 3 billion euros a year.
Dombrovskis said the EU had coordinated its move with the G7 countries – the US, Canada, Britain and Japan.
The EU proposal does not envisage, for now, the confiscation of the capital of the Russian assets, only the use of the profits they generate.
Ukrainian prime minister Denys Shmyhal said Kyiv expected the EU and G7 countries, which together hold the equivalent of €260bn of frozen Russian assets, to take a further step and to confiscate the capital itself.
We insist on the full confiscation or other use of all frozen assets … Europe and the world need an effective precedent for making the aggressor pay a heavy price for the destruction it has caused in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, AFP is reporting on a warning from the Kremlin that the EU would be committing an “unprecedented violation” of international law if it used frozen Russian assets to arm Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said:
The Europeans are well aware of the damage such decisions could do to their economy, their image, their reputations as reliable guarantors.
They will become the target of prosecution for many decades.
Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova on Wednesday warned Moscow would inevitably respond to what she called “direct banditry and theft”.
Updated
Russia is illegally consolidating its control over occupied Ukrainian territory by creating a “climate of fear” with practices such as arbitrary detention, killings and torture, the head of a UN reporting mission in Ukraine has told Reuters.
Speaking before the release of a comprehensive UN human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) report on the territories Russia occupied in its full-scale invasion since 2022, the mission’s head, Danielle Bell, said Russia’s breaches of rights there were used to terrify local residents into co-operating.
She said:
These combined actions of censorship, surveillance, political oppression, repression of free speech, movement restrictions … created a climate of fear in which the Russian Federation could systematically dismantle the Ukrainian systems of government and administration.
In Moscow, Russian authorities did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the main points of the UN report.
Moscow has repeatedly denied accusations that its forces have committed atrocities or deliberately attacked civilians during the invasion, which it says is a “special military operation”.
The UN monitors did not have access to occupied territory, but instead based their findings on more than 2,300 interviews with people who were living in occupied territories, had left occupied territory, or lived in liberated areas.
Bell said there had been an initial phase of rights violations, including killings, torture and arbitrary detention of those perceived to be linked to Ukrainian security forces or those believed to be supporting Ukraine.
That was followed by campaigns against freedoms of movement, assembly and expression, she said. These were followed by a push to change all major state institutions into Russian ones, something Bell said violated international humanitarian law.
That effort saw schools forced to switch to the Russian language and curriculum, and the justice system jailing people in Russian prisons. Civil servants had been forced to comply with these new systems, she said.
Bell gave the example of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, where she said workers were forced to continue to work even if they did not want to.
When they resisted, they faced threats, intimidation harassment, threats against their families, and some even faced arbitrary arrest, detention, torture, and in some cases … death.
Bell said Russia aggressively pushed people to take Russian citizenship: people could obtain services such as healthcare, social security or rented housing only with a Russian passport.
Bell said residents in occupied areas were encouraged to spy on each other, and online services had been created for this.
Bell also said Russia had sought to cut communication links between Ukrainians in occupied areas and those in territories controlled by Kyiv. Combined with families not being allowed to travel back and forth to see loved ones, this kept relatives “cut off from each other”, she said.
Updated
Russia’s Defence Ministry has said that its forces have cleared the Russian border village of Kozinka in Belgorod region of Ukrainian forces, state news agency RIA reported.
Ukrainian forces have made several attacks on Kozinka and nearby frontier settlements in recent weeks.
Updated
Russian attack in Kharkiv kills three
A Russian attack on Ukraine’s northern city of Kharkiv on Wednesday hit an eight-storey building and a factory, killing three people and injuring at least five others, the head of the investigative unit of the regional police said.
Sehriy Bolvinov, the head of the unit, said on Facebook:
A regular printing house, a furniture and paint products factory (were hit).
The attack sparked a fire across more than 1,000 square metres, he added.
Kharkiv region, which borders Russia to the north and lies close to the front line, has suffered regular attacks during Russia’s two-year-old invasion.
Updated
According to a breaking news line from Reuters, a Russian attack on Ukraine’s Kharkiv has hit an eight-storey building and factory, killing three people and injuring five. Reuters cites the regional police for the information.
We will update with more details as they come in.
Updated
Russian Belgorod border region expands school and college closures amid a major evacuation plan
A Russian border region being pounded by Ukrainian shelling and drones is expanding its closure of schools and colleges amid a major evacuation plan, reports the Associated Press (AP).
Kyiv’s forces are extending their campaign of long-range strikes that aim to put the Kremlin under pressure, the AP adds.
Authorities in the Belgorod border region announced on Wednesday that some schools will close early ahead of school holidays. Also, universities and colleges will switch to remote learning and clubs and cultural, sports and other educational institutions will stay closed.
The AP reports that Ukraine lacks ammunition supplies along the 1,000-kilometer (620 mile) frontline due to a shortfall in promised western supplies, which is one of the main factors forcing its army to take a more defensive stance. But at the same time, it is attacking oil facilities deep inside Russia and seeking to unnerve Russia’s border regions.
The measures were announced a day after the regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov unveiled plans to evacuate about 9,000 children from the region.
Putin vowed on Wednesday to provide support for Belgorod civilians who have lost their homes and businesses.
“There is a lot to do and we will do everything which depends on us,” he said at a televised meeting at the Kremlin. “Of course, the primary task is to ensure safety. There are different ways to do this. They are not easy, but we will do it.”
Russia’s defence ministry said it intercepted 13 Ukrainian rockets over the Belgorod region around mid-morning on Wednesday. Gladkov said one person was killed and two others were injured, including a 17-year-old girl, in the attack. He said 16 people have been killed over the past week alone.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images on the newswires:
Ukraine receives first €4.5bn of support under the EU's new Ukraine Facility
The European Commission has disbursed the first €4.5bn of support under the EU’s new Ukraine Facility.
In a statement published on Wednesday by the commission, its president Ursula von der Leyen said:
Today is a good day for Ukraine, as more EU funds are flowing to meet urgent needs.
The Commission has just paid to Ukraine a first tranche of €4.5bn from the Facility. This payment, in the form of bridge financing, is crucial to help Ukraine maintain the functioning of the State in this difficult moment.
Ukraine has also delivered the Ukraine plan. This success is all the more impressive, since it is only 19 days ago that the Ukraine Facility entered into force. The plan maps out how Ukraine can get back to rapid growth and start to recover the losses that the war has caused. With it, Ukraine has laid a solid foundation for the EU’s support, right up until the end of 2027.”
Ukrainian prime minister Denys Shmyhal said in a social media post on X that after “fruitful discussions in Brussels”, he was “pleased to share good news”.
“Today we received a first tranche in amount of €4.5bn through the Ukraine Facility Exceptional Bridge Financing,” he wrote. Shmyhal also said he was “grateful” to von der Leyen for “her invaluable support”.
“This strengthens our economic and financial stability,” he added.
After fruitful discussions in Brussels, I'm pleased to share good news. Today we received a first tranche in amount of €4.5 billion through the Ukraine Facility Exceptional Bridge Financing. Grateful to @vonderleyen for her invaluable support. This strengthens our economic and…
— Denys Shmyhal (@Denys_Shmyhal) March 20, 2024
Russia says Borrell's EU frozen assets plan would lead to decades of lawsuits
Reuters have some more details on Russia’s reaction to Borrell’s proposals to use revenues from frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine.
Under Borrell’s plan, proceeds from the assets such as interest payments would go to the European Peace Facility, an off-budget fund that provides military aid to countries outside the EU and has been used mainly for Ukraine.
The Kremlin said such plans – if implemented – would destroy Europe’s reputation as a reliable guardian of property rights and lead to years of litigation.
“Europeans are well aware of the damage such decisions can do to their economy, their image, and their reputation as reliable, so to speak, guarantors of the inviolability of property,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.
“The damage will be inevitable. The persons who will be involved in making such decisions, the states that will decide this, of course, they will become the objects of prosecution for many decades,” he added.
About 70% of all Russian assets immobilised in the west are held in the central securities depository Euroclear in Belgium, which has the equivalent of €190bn ($206bn/£162bn) worth of various Russian central bank securities and cash.
When asked about Borrell’s plan, Maria Zakharova, spokesperson for Russia’s foreign ministry, said: “It is simple banditry and theft.”
Zakharova said that Russia would respond if the west went ahead with confiscating Russian assets. Russia has said it will take action against western assets if its own property is seized
A man living in Russia’s far east who allegedly spied for Ukraine to help it carry out sabotage has been charged with high treason, local FSB security services said on Wednesday, reports news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The FSB did not name the suspect, but said he was a resident of Komsomolsk-on-Amur, a remote Russian city in the far eastern region of Khabarovsk.
The man “proactively contacted representatives of the main directorate of intelligence of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine via the internet”, a regional branch of the FSB told Russian news agencies.
He then gave “information about the defence enterprise of Khabarovsk region, allowing the enemy to plan and carry out sabotage at facilities and enterprises of the defence-industrial complex,” it said.
According to AFP, video published by Russian news outlets showed security forces dashing towards the suspect outside an apartment building at night and pinning him down in the snow.
Ukrainian drones attacked Russian Engels air base overnight, Kyiv source says
Ukrainian drones operated by the GUR military intelligence agency attacked the Engels airbase deep inside Russian territory early on Wednesday and Kyiv was assessing the damage, a Ukrainian intelligence source told Reuters.
The governor of the Saratov region, where the base is located, said Ukrainian drones had been downed near the city of Engels but did not report any damage.
“The results are being verified,” the Ukrainian source said of the attack.
Updated
Reuters reports that one person has been killed in Ukrainian shelling of Russia’s neighbouring Belgorod region and two more have been injured on Wednesday.
The news comes via the regional governor of the area. We will update with more details as they come in.
Putin vows to ensure security of Russian regions bordering Ukraine
Russian president Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that Russia will ensure the security of its border regions, which have been frequently shelled from Ukraine.
According to a report by Reuters, Putin told a meeting with activists in the Kremlin that Russia has its own plans how to respond but will not attack population and civilian targets in Ukraine.
“The primary task is to guarantee security. There are different methods here, they aren’t easy but we will do this,” he said in televised comments.
Borrell's assets proposal is banditism and theft, says Russian foreign ministry spokesperson
Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday that EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell’s proposals to use revenues from frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine amount to banditism and theft, reports Reuters.
The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, has said he will propose the EU use 90% of revenue from Russian assets frozen in Europe to buy arms for Ukraine via the European Peace Facility fund.
Borrell said he would propose the remaining 10% be transferred to the EU budget, to be used to boost the capacity of the Ukrainian defence industry. He would submit the proposal to EU member states on Wednesday, ahead of a summit of EU leaders on Thursday and Friday.
The International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) decision to ban Russia’s athletes from the opening parade of the Paris Olympics in July does not paint the IOC in a good light, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday.
According to Reuters, Peskov called it a violation of the athletes’ interests that ran against the entire ideology of the Olympics.
The Kyiv Independent reports that Russia has lost 433,090 troops in Ukraine since the beginning of its full-scale invasion on 24 February 2022, according to the general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces.
This number, reported on 20 March, includes 700 casualties Russian forces suffered just over the past day, said the Ukrainian online newspaper.
Russia says Cern decision to cut science cooperation is unacceptable
Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday that a decision by the European Organization for Nuclear Research to cut cooperation with Russian scientists was politicised and unacceptable, reports Reuters.
The organisation, better known as Cern, said in December it would cut cooperation with Russia from November 2024.
“We consider such actions to be politicised and absolutely unacceptable,” Zakharova told reporters in Moscow. “The west is increasing pressure on our country in the field of fundamental science.”
Zakharova said the decision by Cern was discriminatory against Russian scientists.
Updated
Ukraine’s prime minister Denys Shmyhal welcomed the interim EU deal on farm imports on Wednesday, saying it will allow his country to support Ukrainian producers and maintain exports.
Shmyhal expects the arrangements to be agreed by the European parliament next month, he added in a statement on the Telegram messaging app, reports Reuters.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and Indian prime minister Narendra Modi discussed Ukraine in a phone call, the Kremlin said on Wednesday, according to Reuters.
More details soon …
Ukraine's foreign minister to visit India next week, Reuters sources say
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, will visit India next week as Kyiv looks to build support for its peace plan, two Indian officials aware of the matter told Reuters. It would be the first visit to India by a top Ukrainian leader since Russia’s invasion more than two years ago.
New Delhi, which has traditionally had close economic and defence ties with Moscow, has so far refused to criticise Russia for the February 2022 invasion, instead stepping up purchases of Russian oil to record levels.
Kuleba’s visit comes at the invitation of his Indian counterpart, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, after a telephone call between the leaders of the two nations at the beginning of the year, said one of the officials.
Both officials spoke to Reuters on the condition of anonymity.
Ukraine’s peace plan, as presented by president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, calls for removing all Russian troops, restoring Ukraine’s 1991 post-Soviet borders and a process to make Russia accountable for its actions.
Apart from talks with Indian officials, Kuleba will “review the India-Ukraine inter-governmental commission”, one of the officials said, referring to a panel charged with keeping up the two nations’ economic, cultural and technological ties.
India’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request by Reuters for comment.
One of the officials told the news agency that a formal announcement of the visit was expected next week. Indian media first reported it on Tuesday.
Ukraine has also pitched for New Delhi to help rebuild its war-ravaged economy, inviting investment from Indian companies at a January business summit in India.
Kuleba’s visit will come about two weeks after Andriy Yermak, the head of the Ukraine president’s office, spoke to India’s national security adviser Ajit Doval on 15 March.
Indian prime minister Narendra Modi has spoken several times to the leaders of Russia and Ukraine, having met Zelenskiy in May on the sidelines of a G7 summit in Hiroshima.
India has insisted on the need for both sides to talk, with Modi telling Russian president Vladimir Putin during a meeting in September 2022 that this is not an era of war.
Czech Republic to deliver thousands of extra artillery shells to Ukraine
The Czech Republic says it is on the verge of delivering thousands of extra artillery shells to Ukraine, just weeks after it announced an initiative to source the much-needed supplies from outside the EU.
Its foreign minister, Jan Lipavský, said it had so far secured 300,000 shells and that the ammunition would provide a vital “few months’ breathing space” on the frontline. Sources added that the first deliveries would come before June.
“We have a direct experience with 40 years of being a satellite of Moscow, being a country which was invaded in 1968 by Russian tanks to curb the Prague Spring,” said Lipavský, adding that his country could not stand by and watch Ukraine go without help. “No one really wants to bring back those [Soviet] times, and I have to say that the population is very sensitive to that.”
Ukraine has said it is falling short of ammunition against Russia; the EU has said it expects to meet only 52% of a target set last year to deliver a million shells by March, and a bill to fund US military aid to Kyiv has been held up in Congress.
Russia is ‘‘outshelling’’ Ukraine by a five-to-one ratio and Kyiv’s forces are gradually being pushed back on the battlefield. Last month Avdiivka, a frontline town, fell to the Russians after a four-month battle.
You can read the full piece by Lisa O’Carroll and Dan Sabbagh here:
France calls Russian spy chief remarks 'irresponsible' provocation
France’s defence ministry on Tuesday called remarks made by the chief of Russia’s foreign intelligence service disinformation and irresponsible after he suggested Paris was preparing to send 2,000 troops to Ukraine, reports Reuters.
“The manoeuvre orchestrated by Sergei Naryshkin, director of Russian foreign intelligence, once again illustrates Russia’s systematic use of disinformation,” the defence ministry said in a statement. “We consider this type of provocation irresponsible.”
Naryshkin was quoted by the Russian state news agency Tass as saying France was preparing to send 2,000 troops to Ukraine and that French troops would be a legitimate target for Russian forces if they “ever come to the territory of the Russian world with a sword”.
Franco-Russian relations have deteriorated further in recent weeks as Paris has increased its support to Ukraine, including signing a bilateral long-term security accord and promising to send more long-range cruise missiles.
President Emmanuel Macron has also adopted a tougher position on Russia, vowing that Moscow must be defeated. He has not ruled out that European troops may one day have to go to Ukraine, although has made clear that France has no intention of instigating hostilities against Russia.
Paris has accused Russia of habitually spreading false information. According to Reuters, in January it dismissed any notion that Paris had mercenaries in Ukraine a day after Russian lawmakers adopted a resolution condemning French mercenaries there.
Opening summary
It has gone 10am in Kyiv and 11am in Moscow. This is our latest Guardian blog covering all the latest developments over the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
France’s defence ministry have called remarks made by the chief of Russia’s foreign intelligence service disinformation and irresponsible after he suggested Paris was preparing to send 2,000 troops to Ukraine.
“The manoeuvre orchestrated by Sergei Naryshkin, director of Russian foreign intelligence, once again illustrates Russia’s systematic use of disinformation,” the defence ministry said in a statement, reports Reuters. “We consider this type of provocation irresponsible.”
Naryshkin was quoted by the Russian state news agency Tass as saying France was preparing to send 2,000 troops to Ukraine and that French troops would be a legitimate target for Russian forces if they “ever come to the territory of the Russian world with a sword”.
More on this story in a moment, but first, here are the other latest developments:
The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, has said he will propose the EU use 90% of revenue from Russian assets frozen in Europe to buy arms for Ukraine via the European Peace Facility fund. Borrell said he would propose the remaining 10% be transferred to the EU budget, to be used to boost the capacity of the Ukrainian defence industry. He would submit the proposal to EU member states on Wednesday, ahead of a summit of EU leaders on Thursday and Friday.
Russia and Ukraine both reported air attacks in border areas on Tuesday. Russia’s defence ministry said 10 projectiles were fired by Ukrainian multiple rocket launchers and one Tochka-U missile over Belgorod region at about 10pm on Tuesday, and two more missiles including a Patriot over the neighbouring Kursk region. The Belgorod regional governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said there was heavy shelling in the community of Kozinka, and about 9,000 children would be evacuated from the Russian border city of Belgorod and from several districts in the wider Belgorod region
Intense Russian bombing of Ukraine’s north-eastern border region of Sumy has prompted an order for mass evacuations. Russia has launched 130 missiles of various types, more than 320 Shahed attack drones and almost 900 guided bombs in attacks on Ukraine so far this month, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has said. He decried “constant terrorist attacks and strikes” in the Sumy region, where on Tuesday one person was killed in the border community of Velyka Pysarivka, the focal point of evacuations.
A Russian energy ministry official revealed plans to defend oil and gas facilities with missile systems. Successful Ukrainian attacks on refineries within Russia have caused extensive damage in recent days. “We are jointly working, including with colleagues from the Russian National Guard, to cover objects, on installing, accordingly, protection systems such as Pantsir,” Artyom Verkhov told a Russian parliamentary meeting.
Ukraine’s survival is in danger, the US defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, has said, as he sought to convince allies that the US was committed to arming Ukrainian forces. The Republican speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, is refusing to call a vote on a bill that would provide another $60bn in assistance. On Tuesday, Austin, leading the monthly Ramstein group meeting at the airbase of that name in Germany, told its 50 member countries that he was “fully determined to keep US security assistance and ammunition flowing. And that’s a matter of survival and sovereignty for Ukraine and it’s a matter of honour and security for America.”
Rachel Rizzo, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Europe centre in Washington, said: “It’s becoming harder and harder for US leaders to travel to Europe, with the message that the United States is committed to Ukraine in the long term. The message of this long-term financial, military, economic commitment flies in the face of the reality of what’s happening on Capitol Hill.”
The Ukrainian defence minister, Rustem Umerov, who attended the gathering, said participants had “demonstrated their unity and resolve in helping Ukraine. Our forces are critically in need of ammunition. The ammo will be delivered!”
Ukraine hopes to have enough ammunition from April to push back Russian invaders thanks to a Czech-led initiative to source shells, Ukraine’s prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, has said. “We also count on the supplying of long-range and middle-range missiles to cut Russian logistics on the occupied territories. It is also crucially important, [just] as the artillery shells are for us.” Finland has joined the Czech initiative.
Estonia’s prime minister, Kaja Kallas, called on Nato allies to increase their defence spending to over 3% of gross domestic product (GDP), saying her country is already investing more than 3%.
Ukraine is working to secure “a strong and far-reaching step” towards membership of Nato at its Washington summit in July, Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, has said. Ukraine’s leadership was left bitterly disappointed when, under US and German pressure, Nato at its summit in 2023 issued a statement saying Ukraine would be offered an invitation when conditions allowed – when Ukraine wanted a specific date.
Russia appointed Adm Alexander Moiseyev as acting navy chief, replacing Nikolai Yevmenov, according to the state RIA news agency, which confirmed earlier reports of the reshuffle.
Ahead of the EU leaders’ summit, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said he had spoken with the European Council president, Charles Michel. “We focused on further steps toward the actual start of Ukraine’s EU accession negotiations, as well as further comprehensive EU support for Ukraine. We also identified potential ways to increase the supply of artillery ammunition to Ukraine. We discussed the importance of extending autonomous trade benefits for Ukraine for another year. I emphasised that maintaining the trade liberalisation regime with the EU is critical to supporting Ukraine’s economy during the war.”
Vladimir Putin will travel to China in May for talks with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, sources have told Reuters.
