UKRAINE WAR. This Wednesday, March 16, kyiv is under curfew and was again hit by missiles. Ukraine is opening the door to a peace agreement, with Zelensky already declaring its non-integration into NATO.
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09:00 – Update on the war in Ukraine at 9:00 a.m.
Situation update in Ukraine :
- The night of Tuesday March 15 to Wednesday March 16, 2022 was marked by new bombardments in Ukraine. In kyiv, a 12-storey building was hit by a shell, while an explosion occurred in Zaporozhye, in the south of the country, while a missile was launched at the neighboring town of Nikopol. The Odessa region in the southwest also came under fire.
- On Tuesday, a hostage-taking was announced in a hospital in Mariupol, southern Ukraine. Doctors and medical personnel were retained by the Russian army.
- More than 20,000 civilians were able to leave Mariupol thanks to the humanitarian corridors deployed to help the inhabitants of the city besieged by the Russians for several days.
Balance sheet of the war in Ukraine :
- The UN has delivered a new assessment of the number of refugees from Ukraine: nearly three million have left their country to flee the war in Ukraine.
- According to the Ukrainian army, 13,800 Russian soldiers have been killed since the start of the war. An unverifiable number that could be inflated.
- Russia, for its part, did not give a new assessment. The latest, dated Wednesday March 2, announced the death of 498 soldiers and 1,597 wounded.
Latest major news :
- In a speech, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday March 16, 2022 that negotiations with Russia were progressing. “However, more time is needed for decisions to be in Ukraine’s interest,” he added. He also indicated that Ukraine could not join NATO.
- kyiv is under curfew until 7 a.m. Thursday morning, in accordance with Mayor Vitali Klitschko’s announcement, while the capital is still targeted by the Russian army.
- A journalist, cameraman for Fox News, as well as his companion, died on Tuesday March 15, after being attacked on Monday. The third journalist also present is still injured.
- The Russian journalist who denounced on television the invasion of Ukraine by Russia was sentenced to an initial fine of 30,000 rubles, but faces up to 15 years in prison.
08:54 – The end of the war in Ukraine in a few weeks, is it possible?
This Wednesday, March 16, the war in Ukraine does not seem to be marking time, a missile was again sent to an apartment building, according to the special envoy in the Ukrainian capital of BFMTV. The Russian army continues to advance slowly and the explosions multiply in the suburbs of kyiv. But last night, the statements of the Ukrainian president seemed to start a new stage in the discussions between the two belligerent countries. “From what I have been told, the positions in the negotiations seem more realistic. However, it still takes more time for the decisions to be in Ukraine’s interest,” he said. he said in a new video address posted on his social media around 1:00 a.m. “It’s difficult, but important, because every war ends with an agreement. The meetings continue,” he said. Yesterday, Volodymyr Zelensky indicated publicly, during a meeting with a military coalition led by the United Kingdom, that Ukraine should probably give up joining NATO. “We heard for years that the doors were open, but we also heard that we could not join. This is the truth and it must be recognized,” he said, in remarks reported by the AFP.
03/15/22 – 11:17 p.m. – In kyiv, Volodymyr Zelensky received the Polish, Czech and Slovenian Prime Ministers
They are the first foreign leaders to visit kyiv since the start of the Russian invasion. On Tuesday evening, the Polish, Czech and Slovenian Prime Ministers met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. According to Le Monde, at the end of this meeting, the Polish Prime Minister called on the European Union to “very quickly” give the status of candidate to Ukraine, affirming: “We will try to organize defensive weapons.” And the Prime Minister to add on Twitter: “We will never leave you alone. We will be with you because we know that you are fighting not only for your freedom, for your own home and for your safety, but also for us.
03/15/22 – 10:46 p.m. – Several mayors kidnapped by the Russians
In a video address on Tuesday, March 15, the life-Prime Minister, Iryna Vereshchuk, returned to the fate of several mayors who were allegedly kidnapped by the Russians. “We are doing everything we can to free the representatives illegally detained by the occupying forces. The mayor of Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov, is still in captivity”, she explained, before adding: “We are trying to obtain more complete information on the whereabouts of the mayor of Dniprorudne, Yevheniy Matvyeyev, who was abducted by the occupiers on March 13 last year.
03/15/22 – 22:14 – What we know about the hostage-taking in Mariupol
400. This is the number of people who would be held hostage on Tuesday, March 15 by Russian soldiers in Mariupol. “Today the occupiers abducted around 400 people from the Mariupol regional intensive care unit: doctors and medical personnel. The occupiers are holding them hostage,” Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said. And the latter to appeal for help: “Russia is a terrorist state. We demand that it be recognized as a terrorist state and that the entire international community concentrate its efforts on the release of the hostages.”
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The Ukrainian capital concentrates a large part of the concerns and fears. Vladimir Putin’s ambition is to march on Ukraine and Moscow reaffirmed on Monday March 14 that he did not rule out “the possibility of taking total control of the large cities which are already surrounded” and of which kyiv is a part. Troops have been advancing towards the capital since the start of the Russian invasion and while they currently surround the city to the west, Irpin, north and east, they are being pushed back to the outskirts of the city from the second fight week. Hoping to penetrate the capital, the Russians launch aerial assaults in the city center to weaken the barrages of soldiers and resistance fighters in the outskirts of kyiv, but the capital suffers the strikes without falling. The bombardments have intensified since March 14 with three explosions occurring on Monday and three more on Tuesday. On the Ukrainian side, morale does not seem to be weakening and the mayor, Vitali Klitshcko, intends to defend his city. He takes up the speech of the Ukrainian army and ensures that the enemy is weakening and despairing of not having yet taken possession of the capital or of another large city of Ukraine. The soldiers and resistance fighters, however, retain defensive positions only, reserving the attack when the Russians pass the last ramparts before kyiv.
Civilians who have not taken up arms and are not part of the resistance are sheltered in humanitarian refuges, many are still crammed into metro stations which serve as shelters against air strikes. But most of the population of kyiv has evacuated the capital, more than three million people as of March 15 according to the municipality. And for those who stay, the curfews follow and follow each other every evening. On March 15, the marie announced an exceptional curfew of 36 hours from 8 p.m. until 7 a.m. the next day.
After weeks of lying poker and an escalation not officially declared in recent days, Russia has therefore announced that it will go to war with Ukraine on Thursday, February 24, 2022. In a televised speech published early Thursday, Vladimir Putin announced a “special military operation” to “protect people who have been intimidated for eight years by the kyiv regime”. The Russian president’s decision comes after the latter recognized the independence of the self-proclaimed People’s Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, territories established in Ukraine but ruled by pro-Russian separatists since 2014. “Treaties of friendship and mutual aid” had been signed on February 22 between Russia and these territories in the east of the country, paving the way for a military intervention by Russia, to which Vladimir Putin has therefore committed.
If for several years, tensions have been high in the separatist regions of Ukraine, where the conflict escalated in the days preceding the Russian invasion of February 24, war was finally declared throughout the country. Although Russia borders only to the east of Ukraine, it is all the main cities of the country, everywhere on the territory, which are under the bombings and armed raids. Starting with the capital kyiv, and its surroundings, attacked by Russian forces. Yet located several hundred kilometers from the Russian border, the country’s first city is only 150km by road from Belarus, a country friendly to Russia through which Vladimir Putin’s forces entered Ukraine. .
Southern Ukraine and the shores of the Black Sea are the scene of fierce fighting between Russians and Ukrainians. The Soviet army got the better of the towns of Kherson and Berdiansk, it is in a position of strength along the entire coast as far west as Odessa, where an assault by the Russian navy is preparing. In the southeast, Mariupol is the last city to resist and to block the junction between the conquered territories of Donbass and the Russian advance in the south of the country. To the north and east the Kremlin soldiers are advancing and striking at Chernihiv and Kharkiv in addition to Donetsk and Lugansk, which have been concentrating tensions for eight years and the beginning of the war in Donbass. Western Ukraine was spared despite isolated attacks and bombardments near Poland, in Lutsk, Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk.
The war in Ukraine has been gaining momentum since the invasion of Ukraine by the Russians on February 24, 2022. The conflict between the Kremlin and the government in kyiv presents significant risks and raises fears of the outbreak of an international war and potentially nuclear. The consequences of the conflict are not limited to the borders of Ukraine or Russia and can affect Europe more widely. Find all the news related to the war in Ukraine.