17.03.2022, Moscow.
The Rossa Primavera News Agency publishes a summary of events in Ukraine as of 5 p.m. on March 17.
On the evening of March 17, high-precision missiles struck an ammunition storage depot in the village of Sarny, the Rovno region. The storage facilities with missiles and ammunition, including missiles for the Tochka-U tactical complex, were destroyed.
All in all, over the past 24 hours, aviation and air defense systems of the Russian Air Force shot down one Ukrainian Mi-24 and one Mi-8 helicopter and 12 Ukrainian UAVs, including three Bayraktar TB-2s.
Operational-tactical, army and unmanned aerial vehicles hit 46 Ukrainian military targets. Among them: 11 SAMs, including a S-300 division, one MLRS unit, three command posts, one air defense station, seven ammunition depots, and 18 sites where ammunition was amassed.
A total of 181 Ukrainian aircraft and helicopters, 172 unmanned aerial vehicles, 170 surface-to-air missile systems, 1,379 tanks and other armoured combat vehicles, 133 multiple rocket launchers, 514 pieces of field artillery and mortars, and 1,168 pieces of special military vehicles were destroyed since the launch of the special military operation.
Georgy Dudorov, deputy commander of the reconnaissance company for military and political work of the 137th regiment of the 106th Tula Guards Parachute Division, who turned out to be the son of Deputy Governor of the Nenets Autonomous District Aleksandr Dudorov, was killed during the special military operation in Ukraine.
Kiev direction
A cruise missile shot down overnight by Ukrainian air defenses fell on an apartment building in the Darnitsa district in southeastern Kiev. Local authorities reported one dead and three injured residents.
The Russian Airborne Troops are equipping roadblocks in the Kiev region.
Kharkov direction
Units of the Russian Army entered the town of Chuguev, Kharkov Region.
Combat continues near Kharkov, the Russian Armed Forces grouping is trying to close the encirclement ring, while simultaneously making a breakthrough to Slavyansk. In Izyum, clashes is underway on the southern outskirts towards Barvenkovo.
Kharkov residents report that the Barabashova market is on fire.
Merefa, southwest of Kharkov, was shelled.
Zaporozhzhye direction
Dnepropetrovsk residents report explosions and fires in the left-bank part of the city.
Prices in Melitopol markets have begun to fall.
Southern direction
The National Guard of Russia took under protection the Kakhovskaya HPP, previously surrendered by the Ukrainian side without a fight. The local paramilitary guards laid down their weapons and went home.
The TM-62 mines planted by Ukrainian punishers began detonating on Odessa beaches.
Black Sea Fleet warships were spotted near Odessa.
Billboards are being dismantled in Nikolaev: the head of the regional administration ordered them to be used to prevent the advancement of tanks.
Two Ukrainian Su-25 attack aircraft were shot down in the sky over Kherson Region while attempting to attack a Russian Armed Forces convoy.
Liberation of the LPR and DPR
A group of LPR troops fought successfully overnight against Ukrainian nationalists on several directions inside Severodonetsk and Rubezhnoye.
The head of the Lugansk regional state administration Sergey Gaydae reported serious fighting in Rubezhnoye, Popasnaya and Severodonetsk. Active street battles are reported in Severodonetsk in almost all parts of the city.
The DPR units are conducting offensives to take the villages of Mariinka, Slavnoye, and Sladkoye under control. The advance during the day amounted to 4 kilometers.
The DPR troops are expanding their control over the territory near Volnovakha.
The DPR asked Russia to strengthen the republic’s air defense system, this work is in progress – Pushilin.
Military facilities in Krasnoarmeysk (in Ukraine is renamed to Pokrovsk, under control of the Ukrainian army) of Donetsk region are shelled.
There are persistent battles for Mariupol, Avdeevka, Mariinka and Verkhnetoretskoye.
In the village of Yaremovka, Svyatogorsk district, on the border between the LPR and DPR, Ukrainian punitive forces destroyed a bridge to prevent the advance of the DPR and LPR troops to Slavyansk.
South Ossetian volunteers left for Donbass to assist LPR and DPR units.
Lieutenant Colonel Oleg Kozeynik, head of one of the battalions of the 53rd Brigade of the Ukrainian army, voluntarily laid down his arms and surrendered to the DPR People’s Militia.
Mariupol
In Mariupol, the joined forces of the Russian and DPR troops are slowly advancing from both the west and east. The defensive lines of the Ukrainian army and Azov (organization banned in the Russian Federation) on the territory of Azovstal were broken through.
Thirteen buses carrying 300 refugees, including children, arrived at the border of the Rostov Region with the DPR from Mariupol. Russian Armed Forces military police units provided security for the convoy.
About 1,000 refugees from Mariupol were accommodated in the villages of Bezymennoye and Kachkarskoye in the Novoazovsk district of the DPR.
Situation in the republics
Over the past 24 hours, the Ukrainian army shelled 17 towns and villages, including Donetsk, Horlivka, Yasinovataya, Dokuchayevsk and their suburbs. Two people were killed and 13 civilians were wounded, 11 of whom were from territories previously liberated by the DPR. Fifty households were damaged.
DPR specialists began repair work on the destroyed bridge in the village of Yalta on the Mariupol-Urzuf road.
A convoy of the Ministry of Emergency Situations and the United Russia party delivered about 50 tonnes of humanitarian aid to Donetsk. The cargo included food, other essential goods and construction materials. The total weight of the cargo was about 50 tonnes.
During the day Donetsk (Petrovsky district), Dokuchayevsk, Yasnoye, Kremenets, and Signalnoye were shelled.
Two civilians were wounded in the liberated DPR territories.
Donetsk
A civilian was wounded in the Petrovsky district. Houses were damaged in the Trudovskaya mine village.
In the village of Aleksandrovka residential houses were damaged, one house was hit directly, a civilian was wounded.
Six electrical substations were de-energized, Shakhty village No. 11, school No. 116 and 600 private houses were left without electricity.
Houses were damaged in Kremenets settlement.
Gorlovka
5 houses were damaged by the evening shelling in Gorlovka.
The LPR
The city of Stakhanov was hit, and the Stakhanov ferroalloy plant was de-energized due to shelling from BM-21 Grad MLRS.
Kalinovo, Zolotoye-5, Pervomaiyk and Donetskiy villages were shelled.
Nine houses and four outbuildings were damaged in Kalinovo. In Zolotoye-5, 3 houses were damaged.
The Lugansk Railroad is restoring railway service to the liberated territories via the Lugansk – Starobelsk route.
Former detainees of the illegal Aidar battalion prison (organization banned in the Russian Federation) in the village of Polovinkino (the LPR) visited places of detention and torture for the first time and were able to testify to the LPR Ministry of State Security.
Political situation
The Chinese Ministry of Commerce stated that it opposes the US anti-Russian sanctions that destabilize the global market. According to a spokesman for the ministry, China will protect the interests of its enterprises and will continue regular economic cooperation with Russia.
Due to the arrival of the Dnepr water through the Severo-Krymsky channel, there is no longer a need to build a desalination plant in Crimea – Aksenov.
The Chinese newspaper Global Times described NATO’s aggressive policy of eastward expansion and the policy of pitting other countries against Russia as unreasonable and extremely mean. The newspaper stated that it is a deviation from the norm in the international community and stated that the West has fallen into absolute insanity.
Peskov said that Putin is not yet planning a trip to the zone of the special military operation in Ukraine.
Peskov said that Moscow cannot take into account the decision of the UN International Court of Justice, which demanded an immediate halt to the military operation in Ukraine.
Large Russian companies, including banks, have nothing to fear anymore, they can start operating in Crimea – Putin.
Peskov commented on a Financial Times publication that allegedly Ukraine and Russia have made significant progress in drawing up a peace treaty and that there are 15 clauses, “Everything is assembled incorrectly. There are correct elements, but as a whole, it does not correspond to reality.”
Lukashenko said that Zelensky would have to sign an act of capitulation if he did not conclude a treaty with Putin.
Since midnight on March 18, all restrictions on the movement of citizens within the Union State of Russia and Belarus are lifted – Prime Minister of Russia Mishustin.
The Russian Defense Ministry has published materials on the implementation of US military-biological projects on the territory of Ukraine. The military department showed information on the study of the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus and its transmission routes, the destruction of biomaterials in Ukrainian laboratories, and the conduct of research bypassing international organizations.
Ukrainian Defense Ministry laboratories in Kiev, Odessa, Lvov, and Kharkov received $32 million in funding from the United States – Russian Ministry of Defense.
More than 70 deaths in the DPR in 2018 from multitresistant strains of tuberculosis may be linked to the activities of a biolaboratory in Ukraine – Russian Defense Ministry.
Lukashenko: At least two Tochka-U missiles were launched from the territory of Ukraine against Belarus. If Ukraine continues the escalation, Minsk will retaliate.
Anatoli Topale, the Minister of Education of Moldova, stated that 88% of 631 applications for temporary education in schools and kindergartens, submitted by Ukrainian refugees, were applying for education in the Russian language and only 6% – in Ukrainian.
The Belarusian KGB prevented a terrorist attack targeting Russian military and equipment in the Mozyr district of Belarus.
Ukraine
Zelensky stated Ukraine’s main positions in the talks: end of war, security guarantees, sovereignty, restoration of territorial integrity, real guarantees for Ukraine, real protection for Ukraine.
Ukraine requested satellite images from Japan to determine the location of Russian troops.
The Ukrainian authorities steal humanitarian aid: the head of the Chernigov Region State Administration published a video of the unpacking of humanitarian aid: instead of margarine there was foam plastic.
A priest of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church Moscow Patriarchate in Berdyansk urged Ukrainian soldiers to lay down their arms and return to their families.
Arestovich, on behalf of the Ukrainian authorities, called for a “total rail war” (derailing trains) in Russia, Belarus and on the territory of Ukraine liberated from the Bandera regime.
Western countries
According to US media reports, the United States and its NATO allies are already sending several Soviet-made “mobile” anti-aircraft missile systems to Ukraine as urgent military assistance. The systems have been received from NATO partner countries and are already on their way. It is stated that these SAMs include SA-8 (Osa-AK/AKM), SA-10 (S-300P), SA-12 (S-300V) and SA-14 (Strela-3) SAMs.
Moldovan President Maia Sandu called on Russia to withdraw troops from Transnistria.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the sanctions would continue at least until the armed conflict in Ukraine ends. He stressed that the main condition for lifting the sanctions was the restoration of Ukraine’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence.
The United States has compiled a list of 50 Russian citizens who will be subject to sanctions on a priority basis, including the freezing and seizure of all assets directly or indirectly related to them, including through third parties. The list includes Russian President Vladimir Putin, people from the top management of various agencies, top managers of state corporations and oligarchs.
Luca Goretti, Chief of Staff of the Italian Air Force, urged NATO pilots working on the territory of Romania to be twice as careful and reminded that pilots sometimes find themselves in 20 kilometers from the territory of Ukraine. The slightest mistake is enough – “and you already find yourself in the war”, said the general, noting that NATO pilots can be “lured” to the territory of Ukraine on purpose.
Slovakia is ready to transfer Soviet-made S-300 air defense systems to Ukraine in exchange for American Patriot air defense systems, CNN reported, citing sources.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said after President Vladimir Zelensky’s speech in the Bundestag that Berlin will continue to support Ukraine, but ruled out a military intervention by NATO.
A mass rally in support of Russia and the Donbass republics took place in the Bulgarian capital. The protesters took to the streets with slogans against Kiev’s criminal government and NATO, as well as in support of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine.
Human Rights Watch called on Ukraine to stop publishing videos of Russian POWs and violating their rights.
The Montenegrin government tried to approve sanctions against Russia, but failed due to disagreements between ministers.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
