image source,Azov Mariupol/Handout via REUTERS
Aerial view showing a military vehicle on fire next to a building, Maripoor, Ukraine
Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine continues into its 20th day. Here is a summary of some of the main events on March 15:
- Almost all Russian military offensives remain stalled, with little progress over the weekend, a senior U.S. defense official said.
- Fourth round of talks between Russian and Ukrainian representatives ended without a breakthrough and will continue in Turkey on Tuesday
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky posted a video address on Facebook, saying he was told the talks were going “pretty well”; he added that Ukrainian troops helped 3,806 people flee the Luhansk and Kyiv regions on Monday; one transported 100 tons The convoy of supplies remains stranded in Berdyansk
- Ukrainian authorities say an evacuation convoy of about 160 cars has successfully left the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol
- Arkady Dvorkovich, head of the World Chess Organization (FIDE), Russia’s deputy prime minister from 2012-18, denounced the war in an interview with the US publication Mother Jones. “War is the worst thing in life,” he said from an undisclosed location inside Russia. “Any war. Anywhere. Including this war.”
image source,Reuters
At a meeting in 2018, Dvorkovic was sitting to the right of Putin.
- Japan’s Ministry of Finance announced a freeze on the assets of more Russians. Since Russia invaded Ukraine, Japan’s Ministry of Finance has announced sanctions against 61 Russians.Japan has previously announced charges against 11 members of Russia’s State Duma, the lower house of Russia’s parliament, five relatives of banker Yuri Kovalchuk and billionaire Viktor Vekselberg sanction
- New Zealand’s immigration minister, Kris Faafoi, announced that New Zealand plans to take in 4000 relatives of Ukrainian-born New Zealand citizens and residents. This special visa category will be open for one year.Successful applicants will be granted a two-year work visa and their children will be allowed to study in New Zealand
- The latest intelligence assessment by the British Ministry of Defence says Russia continues to baselessly accuse Ukraine of planning a chemical or biological weapons attack. The British Ministry of Defence said in a statement that Russia “may plan to use chemical or biological weapons in false flag operations”.The operation “could” come in the form of a failed attack, the staged discovery of Ukrainian agents or ammunition, or the fabrication of evidence of Ukrainian government decision-making
image source,Facebook/Zelensky
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky posted a video address on Facebook
- A woman protesting with a sign reading “No war” appears behind a newscaster on a Russian state-controlled TV station
- Russia continues to bomb many Ukrainian cities, with an airstrike on an apartment building in the capital Kyiv killing one person
- UK Cabinet Secretary Michael Gove has launched a scheme to house Ukrainian refugees in British homes
- Russia’s Defense Ministry said it would take action against Ukraine’s defense industry company in response to Ukraine’s ballistic missile attack on the separatist stronghold of Donetsk earlier on Monday. “In response to Ukraine’s attack on Donetsk with ‘Dot-U’ missiles, the Russian Armed Forces will take action to stop the production of Ukrainian defense-industrial enterprises that produce weapons used by nationalists,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.
- Russia’s Defense Ministry earlier claimed that 20 civilians were killed in Ukraine’s airstrike on Donetsk using cluster munitions carried by a “Dot-U” ballistic missile.But Ukraine denies carrying out the attack and claims Russian missiles were responsible
image source,Getty Images
Pedestrians walk past anti-tank barriers on the streets of Odessa on Monday
- U.S. President Joe Biden has vowed to continue to provide arms, food and money to help Ukraine. Biden tweeted that the U.S. would “welcome Ukrainian refugees with open arms.” Biden said earlier on Monday that the U.S. would provide “tens of thousands of tons of humanitarian supplies” every day
- Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said he had a phone call with Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly to discuss “way to stop Russia from aggression in Ukraine.” Kuleba said in a tweet that he and Jolly agreed that sanctions pressure on Russia would “increase.” He added that “Canada supports Ukraine in every way.”
- The words “You’ll Never Drink Alone” used to hang above Old Hem, an iconic bar in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. But the bar, named after the legendary American writer Ernest Hemingway and popular with the city’s young creatives, is now in ruins. It was completely destroyed when Russia shelled the city.
image source,Reuters
Ruined ruins of the old Hem bar in Kharkiv, Ukraine
Russian military reportedly used previously unknown missile decoys
According to the New York Times, U.S. officials believe that ballistic missiles launched by Russia into Ukraine were equipped with a previously unknown decoy device that would allow them to avoid interception.
The devices, which are attached to the Iskander-M short-range ballistic missiles, are each about a foot long and contain radio signals to generate Devices that interfere with radar detection.
Among other things, each unit contains a heat source to attract incoming missiles. Similar “penetration aids” have been used in nuclear warheads since the 1970s, the US official told The Times.
Weapons and ammunition experts who could not identify the devices shared various images of them on social media.
Russia has fired 900 missiles since the Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, a senior U.S. defense official told reporters earlier on Monday.
Ukraine situation: BBC reporter goes deep into the front line of Russia-Ukraine war Kharkiv is like a ghost town