As the war enters its 761st day, these are the main developments.
Here is the situation on Tuesday, March 26, 2024.
Fighting
- Ten people, including a teenage girl, were injured after Russia hit Kyiv with missiles in the third bombardment in five days. Air defence shot down the missiles but people were hurt when the debris crashed to the ground in several central districts.
- Almost a dozen people were injured after Russia attacked the southern region of Mykolaiv and Odesa with drones. The authorities said eight of nine drones were shot down but that a fire at a plant in Odesa forced an emergency power shutdown.
- Authorities in the northeastern Kharkiv region said a 65-year-old man was killed in the courtyard of his home during Russian shelling.
- Oleg Kalashnikov, a press officer for Ukraine’s 26th Artillery Brigade, said the eastern city of Chasiv Yar was facing a “difficult and tense” situation, with Russian forces trying to “push through” Ukrainian defences. Kalashnikov said Moscow was dropping powerful guided bombs “on populated areas and on our fortified positions”.
- A fire broke out at a major Russian power plant in the southwestern Rostov region after a Ukrainian drone attack. Two power units at the Novocherkassk power station, one of the largest in the region, were shut down while the blaze was brought under control.
Politics and diplomacy
- Russian President Vladimir Putin said “radical Islamists” were behind Friday night’s attack on the Crocus City Hall but added, without evidence, that Ukraine had a role. The Afghan branch of ISIL, also known as the Islamic State in Khorasan Province or ISKP, has said it was responsible for the attack, which killed 139 people and injured 182.
- Speaking in his nightly video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy again dismissed Putin’s claim. Ukraine has denied any role in the attack and Zelenskyy has accused Putin of seeking to divert blame.
- Poland’s Foreign Ministry said that Sergey Andreev, the Russian ambassador in Warsaw, failed to show up for a diplomatic summons issued after a Russian missile breached Polish airspace over the weekend.
- The wife of jailed Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza said she was in favour of prisoner exchanges to rescue him and other political detainees in Russia. Kara-Murza, who also has United Kingdom citizenship, was jailed for 25 years last year after saying Russia had committed “war crimes” against Ukraine.
- Russia’s Foreign Ministry summoned Australia’s chargé d’affaires in Moscow to complain about a social media post that said Russia’s staging of presidential elections in occupied parts of Ukraine, which Moscow claims to have annexed, was a “flagrant violation of international law”.
Weapons
- Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba reiterated his call for international allies to supply more air defences, particularly Patriot systems and missiles, after Russia’s latest attack on Kyiv.
