These are the key developments on day 1,126 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Here is the roundup of key events on Wednesday, March 26.
Fighting
- A mass attack by Russian drones caused “major destruction” in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, the head of the city’s military administration, Oleksandr Vilkul, said early on Wednesday. Vilkul reported at least 15 explosions in Kryvyi Rih, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s home town and a frequent target of Russian attacks. There were no initial reports of casualties.
- A Ukrainian drone attack on Russia’s Belgorod region has left one civilian injured and damaged an apartment building, the region’s governor said.
- A Russian court in Rostov-on-Don is expected to soon give a verdict in a trial of Ukrainian military personnel, most of them belonging to the former Azov regiment that defended the port city of Mariupol in the months-long fierce battle against Russian forces in February and April 2022. The 24 Ukrainian soldiers, including nine women, are accused of terrorist activity and participation in a terrorist organisation, and could face up to 20 years in jail.
Ceasefire
- The United States said it has made separate agreements with Ukraine and Russia to ensure safe navigation in the Black Sea and to implement a ban on strikes against energy facilities in the two countries. Washington also agreed to push to lift some sanctions against Moscow as the first steps towards a wider ceasefire. “We’re in deep discussions with Russia and Ukraine. And I would say it’s going well,” US President Donald Trump told reporters.
- Oil refineries, oil and gas pipelines and nuclear power stations are among the targets on which Russia and Ukraine agreed to temporarily suspend strikes, the Kremlin said. A list appearing on the Kremlin’s Telegram channel also included fuel storage facilities, pumping stations, electricity generation and transmission infrastructure, such as power plants, substations, transformers, distributors and hydroelectric dams. The Kremlin statement said the list had been “agreed between the Russian and American sides”.
- According to the statement, the temporary moratorium on strikes on energy infrastructure starts on March 18 and is valid for 30 days, but it could be extended by mutual agreement. If the agreement is breached by one party, the other party is also released from compliance, the Kremlin added.
- In a parallel statement, the White House said that Russia and Ukraine “agreed to ensure safe navigation, eliminate the use of force and prevent the use of commercial vessels for military purposes in the Black Sea.” The US said it would also look for ways to enforce a ban on strikes on energy infrastructure in the two countries.
- The Kremlin warned in a statement that the Black Sea deal could only be implemented after sanctions against the Russian Agricultural Bank and other financial organisations involved in food and fertiliser trade are lifted and their access to the SWIFT system of international banking payments is ensured. The agreement is also conditional on lifting sanctions against Russian food and fertiliser exporters and ships carrying Russian food exports, and removing restrictions on exports of agricultural equipment to Russia, the Kremlin said.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy welcomed the US-brokered agreements but criticised Washington for agreeing to ease sanctions on Russia, saying that doing so “would weaken our position”. Zelenskyy said there was no requirement of sanctions relief for the agreed deals with Russia and Ukraine to come into force, and accused Moscow of manipulating the agreement. “Unfortunately, even now, even today, on the very day of negotiations, we see how the Russians have already begun to manipulate,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address.
- Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, said in remarks published late on Tuesday that the Black Sea deal aims to bring Moscow back to predictable grain and fertiliser markets that would allow for profit and ensure global food safety.
- The United Kingdom government said it was “hopeful of the progress” following the Black Sea announcement but it was unclear whether the UK would follow US efforts to ease some sanctions on Russia as part of the deal.
- Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant was now a Russian facility and transferring control of it back to Ukraine or any other country was impossible. Russian forces seized the nuclear power station – Europe’s largest with six reactors – early in the war.
Regional security
- The US intelligence community’s Annual Threat Assessment report said Russia, along with Iran, North Korea and China are seeking to challenge the US through deliberate campaigns to gain an advantage and that Beijing also seeks to displace the US as the top AI power by 2030.
- NATO commanders said they were drawing on lessons learned in the drone war over Ukraine to conduct Europe’s largest air defence exercise, which ends in the Netherlands on Wednesday.
- The United Nations International Telecommunication Union, its International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the International Maritime Organization jointly voiced “grave concern” at growing disruptions of so-called Global Navigation Satellite Systems amid a marked increase in efforts to interfere with satellite navigation systems – such as GPS – that are critical for aviation and maritime safety since the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine, as well as amid war in the Middle East.
- The European Union is pushing for every household in the 27-country bloc to have a three-day survival kit ready in case crisis strikes – be it a conflict or natural disaster. The EU’s crisis management commissioner, Hadja Lahbib, told the AFP news agency that Brussels would like every citizen to be equipped for 72 hours of self-sufficiency, which was in line with a key report last year on strengthening Europe’s civilian and military preparedness.
Politics and diplomacy
- Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna and his counterparts from Latvia and Lithuania met jointly in Washington, DC, with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio as the Baltic nations – all NATO members – lead concerns over the new US push for a ceasefire in Russia’s war on Ukraine.
- In advance of the meeting, Tsahkna said Russia has gained an upper hand after Trump initiated talks to end the war and suggested the US consider a time limit if there is no progress. “The question is now: How long is Trump actually going to give Putin to play the games?” he told the AFP news agency.
- Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko was sworn in on Tuesday to a seventh term, mocking those who derided him as “Europe’s last dictator”. “Half of the world is dreaming about our ‘dictatorship’, the dictatorship of real business and interests of our people,” Lukashenko, 70, said in his inauguration speech at the Independence Palace in the capital of Minsk. Lukashenko marked three decades in power last year while his political opponents have denounced elections in the country as a farce.
