The situation as of 8:00 on March 24, 2022 (other languages version in PDF)
OPERATIONAL SITUATION
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reports that in four weeks of combat operations the plans of Russian troops to reach the administrative borders of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, cordon off the city of Kyiv and establish control over the left-bank part of Ukraine have not been fulfilled.
Kyiv and Zhytomyr directions:
The Ukrainian military is carrying out counterattacks against Russian groups operating near Kyiv. According to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Russian forces were stopped in the eastern (Brovary) direction. According to CNN, the Pentagon records an increase of 20-30 km from Russian troops to the Ukrainian capital here. In the northwestern direction, there is a possibility of cordoning off the Russian contingent should the Ukrainian military proceed.
The Kyiv City Military Administration reports that Russian troops have shelled Kyiv again. Residential houses in Sviatoshynskyi and Shevchenkivskyi districts were damaged, 4 people were injured. Also the shelling of the Podilskyi district continues. According to the mayor of the city Vitali Klitschko, there are casualties as a result of the shelling of the parking lot near a shopping center. It is proved that Oksana Baulina, a journalist of The Insider, was killed as a result of the shelling in Podilskyi district.
The mayor of Slavutych (Kyiv region), Yuriy Fomichev, said in a video message that Russian troops shelled a roadblock at the entrance to the city. So far, Russian troops have not attacked Slavutych, but the city is blockaded.
Chernihiv and Sumy directions:
On the night of March 22-23, Russian aviation struck and destroyed a bridge over the Desna River in Chernihiv through which the road from the city to Kyiv passes. In the evening, Russian troops launched an artillery strike on one of Chernihiv’s food processing plants. As a result, a fire broke out in a warehouse of finished products, and the main ammonia pipeline was damaged. However, according to Viacheslav Chaus, head of Chernihiv Regional Military Administration, the concentration of the substance remains within the norm. There are no casualties from the shelling.
Kharkiv and Luhansk directions:
Russian forces continue shelling in the Kharkiv region. In the morning of March 23, the chairman of the Kharkiv Regional Military Administration, Oleh Synyehubov, reported that 32 shellings were carried out over the past 24 hours. There is an increased activity of Russian MLRS. As a result of the shelling of the village of Stary Saltiv in Kharkiv region, the secretary of the local village council was killed.
Serhiy Haidai, the head of the Luhansk Regional Military Administration, disclosed that in the evening of March 22, a Russian shell hit a multi-story building in Rubizhne (Luhansk region), killing four people, two of them children, and wounding six more.
The press service of the Joint Forces recorded the destruction of civilian infrastructure in the Luhansk region. Russian shelling in Severodonetsk, Lysychansk, Rubizhne, Kreminna, Novodruzhesk, and Voyevodivka damaged 31 objects, including 10 apartment buildings and 13 private houses.
Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia directions:
Russian troops shelled a railway station in Ocheretyne township in Donetsk region. There was damage to the buildings at the facility, no casualties were reported.
Southern direction:
The head of the Mykolaiv Regional Military Administration, Vitaly Kim, reported that Russian troops shelled residential buildings on the night of March 22-23, killing 2 people. Also as a result of the firing, 44 people were wounded in Mykolaiv region. Later, Kim posted a video of a cruise missile shot down by the Ukrainian military in Mykolaiv region.
Information confrontation
On the evening of March 23, online ticketing services and telephony services of Ukrainian Railways (Ukrzaliznytsia) became temporarily unavailable due to a mass attack on communications providers.
HUMANITARIAN SITUATION
On March 23, 7 humanitarian corridors went operational, through which 4,554 people were evacuated. Due to shelling and violations of the silence regime, it was not possible to evacuate people from the township of Borodyanka in Kyiv region.
Daria Herasymchuk, the Adviser to the President of Ukraine on Children’s Rights and Children’s Rehabilitation, reported that as of March 23, 121 children had died as a result of the hostilities in Ukraine; 167 children had been seriously injured. As of the evening of March 21, 548 educational institutions were damaged, of which 72 were destroyed to the ground. In addition, more than 40 libraries, sports schools, art schools, etc. were damaged.
The count of casualties from the March 1 strike on the Kharkiv regional administration continues. Bodies of 24 victims have already been pulled out from under the rubble of the building. Disassembly of the rubble continues.
Minister of Healthcare of Ukraine Viktor Liashko revealed that since February 24, 58 emergency ambulances have been shelled and 6 medics have been killed.
The kidnapping of Ukrainians continues in southern Ukraine. The locations of MP Oleksandr Ponomarev (Berdyansk) and a father of a journalist and director of the Ria-Melitopol website Svitlana Zalizetska are unknown. The head of the Kherson Musical and Drama Theater and deputy Oleksandr Knyha was temporarily detained.
Volodymyr Zelensky stated that all four nuclear power plants and their 15 nuclear units operating on the territory of Ukraine are under threat. The Chornobyl nuclear power plant has turned into a war arena, and the 30-kilometer zone around it is used to prepare new attacks. Regulatory work, system maintenance and repair activities at the Chornobyl nuclear power plant are not carried out in a full scope. Fires are recorded within the exclusion zone. Regulatory oversight of nuclear and radiation safety directly at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant site is also impossible due to the presence of the Russian military.
ECONOMIC SITUATION
The press service of the National Bank of Ukraine reported the signing of an agreement with the National Bank of Poland on the conclusion of a currency swap hryvnia / U.S. dollar in the amount of up to 1 billion U.S. dollars in equivalent.
Danilo Hetmantsev, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy, said that the Committee had recommended that deputies approve a law guaranteeing the full amount of bank deposits to individuals during martial law.
On March 23, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the decision to convert gas payments for so-called “unfriendly countries” into rubles in response to sanctions imposed by Western countries. The relevant step of the Russian leadership is aimed at trying to eliminate the problem with the shortage of cash currency in the country.
POLITICAL AND DIPLOMATIC EVENTS
On March 23, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky delivered a video address to the French Parliament. The president thanked France for its help, for the efforts of President Emmanuel Macron, and called on the French government to strengthen sanctions and on French companies to withdraw from the Russian market.
On the same day, President Zelensky addressed the Japanese parliament. In his speech, the President called on Japan to continue pressure on Russia and to join the development of new instruments and security guarantees.
In addition, Volodymyr Zelensky discussed the course of military operations and defense assistance to Ukraine with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson during a telephone conversation.
According to an official statement by United States Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, the US government believes that the Russian military is responsible for war crimes on the territory of Ukraine based on the analysis of the collected facts.
On March 23, the Polish Sejm passed a resolution on the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity, as well as human rights violations by Russia in Ukraine.
The UN Security Council did not support the resolution proposed by Russia on providing humanitarian aid and protecting civilians in the conflict zone, because the document did not mention Russia’s role in organizing the existing humanitarian crisis. The document was supported only by Russia and China.
The Ministers of Transport of Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia called on the European Union to ban the movement of trucks from and to Belarus and Russia by land routes. Ministers also called on the EU to take all necessary measures to ban Russian and Belarusian ships from entering EU ports.
The Council of the European Union decided to allocate an additional 500 million euros to support Ukraine within the framework of the European Peace Facility, thus doubling the initial amount to one billion euros.
The European Commission proposed an increase in aid to EU member states hosting people fleeing the war in Ukraine from the REACT-EU emergency assistance fund. This aid, together with the CARE (Cohesion’s Action for Refugees in Europe) program to help refugees, would accelerate EU member states’ access to funds for spending on infrastructure, housing, equipment and services in employment, education, social inclusion, health and child care.
The information in the digest is collected from official sources — reports of state authorities of Ukraine, Ukrainian and international news agencies. The accuracy of the data is carefully checked by the project team and corrected in case of fake news.