18.03.2022, Moscow.
Rossa Primavera News Agency publishes a summary of events in Ukraine as of 5 p.m. on March 17.
In Lvov, a missile strike destroyed an aircraft repair plant.
Overnight, aviation and air defense systems of the Russian Air Force shot down six more Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles, including one Bayraktar TB-2.
Eighty-one Ukrainian military targets were hit by aircraft. Among them: four multiple rocket launchers, three command posts, eight ammunition depots and 28 sites of ammunition accumulation.
A total of 183 unmanned aerial vehicles, 1,406 tanks and other armoured combat vehicles, 138 multiple rocket launchers, 535 pieces of field artillery and mortars, and 1,197 pieces of special military vehicles have been destroyed since the launch of the special military operation.
Kiev direction
According to the mayor of Kiev, the city’s Podolsky district was shelled. One person was killed, 19 were injured, including four children. Six residential buildings, a kindergarten and a school were damaged. Rescuers and medics are working at the scene.
Kharkov direction
In Kharkov, a missile strike destroyed the Institute of State Administration, which was used by the territorial defense.
Yesterday, a missile strike in the town of Merefa, Kharkov region, killed 21 Ukrainian fighters and wounded another 25 (according to official data).
Zaporozhzhye direction
Russian Smerch multiple rocket launchers destroyed a military training ground on the outskirts of Zaporozhzhye and hit the area where the Ukrainian army units were amassed.
Southern direction
High-precision cruise missiles hit the base of the 79th Ukrainian army’s brigade in Nikolaev.
Two Tochka-U missiles were fired at Melitopol, one damaged a gas pipeline and the other, which was shot down by air defense forces, landed in a non-residential area.
A Ukrainian army’s ammunition depot near Voznesensk (the Nikolaev region) is on fire.
A krainian army’s ammunition depot in Velikodolinskiy (a suburb of Odessa) is destroyed.
Liberation of the LPR and DPR
A group of LPR troops, with fire support from the Russian Armed Forces, have liberated more than 90% of the territory of the republic. At present, LPR units are destroying scattered groups of nationalists on the southern outskirts of the liberated village of Rubezhnoye. According to residents of Rubezhnoye, part of the Ukrainian army forces retreated towards Severodonetsk, where battles are now underway to liberate the city.
The Russian Armed Forces continue their successful offensive in the northern direction in the DPR. During the day, the villages of Zolotaya Niva, Novodonetskoye, Novomayorskoye and Prechistovka were taken under control. The advance over the day amounted to 16 kilometers. Currently, 97 towns and villages are under DPR control.
While retreating, the Ukrainian army partially destroyed residential houses, social infrastructure and bridges on roads between towns and villages in Novoazovsk, Telmanovsk and Starobeshevo districts. As a result, more than 50,000 people are without drinking water, hot food, heat and gas supplies, telephone and mobile communications, and the Internet, the DPR Emergencies Ministry reported.
An SBU building in Kramatorsk was hit by high-precision weapons.
Mariupol
A number of neighborhoods in the west of Mariupol (17th, 16th, and, with a high probability, northern 21st, 22nd, 23rd, etc.) were also taken under the control of the Russian Armed Forces and the DPR People’s Militia. In the area of the Savona cinema and the Police Academy, the Z-technique has gained a foothold. An important target will be the post-bridge. Upon taking it under control, it will be possible to disrupt communication between the terrorist groups in the “Azovstal” area and in the central part of the city.
In the past 24 hours, from 08:00 a.m. on 17 March to 08:00 a.m. on 18 March, 425 people, including 95 children, were evacuated from Mariupol to Bezymyonnoye. At present, they are in an evacuation assistance point deployed by the DPR Emergencies Ministry.
Mariupol airport and the Levoberezhny district are fully under the control of the DPR – official data.
The situation in the republics
The Ukrainian army fired 154 rounds of ammunition on the territory of the DPR in the past 24 hours. The fire was opened 20 times. 122mm guns, mortars, grenade launchers and small arms were used. Eleven settlements were hit, including Donetsk, Gorlovka, Dokuchayevsk, and their suburbs.
Eighteen civilians were wounded, 11 of whom were from territories previously liberated by the DPR armed forces. Sixteen households in Donetsk, Kremenets, Gorlovka, and Aleksandrovka, as well as one civilian infrastructure facility were damaged.
In the previous 24 hours, 34 shelling conducted by the Ukrainian army was reported.
As a result of the shelling of Yasinovataya, a 48-years-old woman was wounded.
Fifty SUVs from Chechnya arrived in the DPR. Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov sent these vehicles to the Donetsk Republic for the needs of the army. Denis Pushilin, head of the DPR, thanked Kadyrov for such assistance, “This is what is needed now at the frontline, needed at the front. In these difficult times, when a liberation operation is underway, such sincere support to our units is extremely important.”
The DPR
The Tekstilshchik residential area in the Kirovsky district of the capital was hit. Multistory buildings and a hospital were damaged. Four women were killed as a result of the shelling.
The hit of the Chelyuskintsev mine is reported. The territory of the enterprise was hit. There were no casualties, the glazing of the ABK building was damaged.
As a result of the shelling by the Ukrainian army in the Petrovsky district of Donetsk 21 transformer substations were de-energized, 3,100 subscribers were left without electricity. Repair and restoration work will begin as soon as the situation allows.
A railway depot in Yasinovataya is on fire after shelling.
More than 350 residents of the areas temporarily controlled by the Ukrainian army have applied to a refugee accommodation center in Starobelsk, liberated from the Kiev punitive forces, in three days.
Political situation
The first humanitarian and law enforcement results of the operation in Ukraine:
- water went to Crimea;
- Phone and Internet fraud has practically stopped (95% of call centers were in Ukraine);
- a sharp reduction in drug trafficking (supply channels from Ukraine were shut down);
“Any shipments that contain weapons for Ukraine will be a legitimate target for Russia,” Lavrov.
Russia demands that Soviet and Russian missile defense systems not be transferred to Ukraine. “Also, missile defense is being discussed. And based on pragmatic reasons, they believe they can ask NATO members who own missile defense systems produced in the Soviet Union to protect them. I would like to remind all the countries that may be considering this idea that the Soviet and Russian-made missile defense systems there are under intergovernmental agreements and contracts that also have a user certificate. And that user agreement does not allow them to be sent to third countries. This is quite a legal requirement,” Lavrov said.
Arkady Dvorkovich is resigning as head of the Skolkovo Foundation. Earlier, he had made anti-Russian statements condemning the operation to denazify Ukraine.
US attempts to exert pressure on China over Ukraine are irresponsible and futile – Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian.
China has condemned the provision of military support to Ukraine. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian, “China has provided Ukraine with food, baby soluble milk, sleeping bags and cotton blankets, moisture-proof bedding as humanitarian aid. As for the US, it gave Kiev lethal weapons. Can these weapons bring back peace and stability, or will they lead to more civilian casualties and injuries? The people of Ukraine are more in need of food and sleeping bags.”
Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin, in an interview with the BBC, named Russia’s main demands for Ukraine, which Putin conveyed to Erdogan:
- Non-bloc status and demilitarization;
- denazification in a possibly symbolic way;
- restoration of rights of the Russian language (details not specified);
- recognition of the independence of the LPR and DPR and Russian power over Crimea.
In his conversation with Scholz, Putin noted that the Kiev regime is trying to drag out negotiations with Russia, putting forward more and more unrealistic proposals, but the Russian side is ready to continue searching for solutions in line with its well-known principled approaches. The Russian president also drew attention to the shelling of residential areas of Donetsk and Makeevka by the Ukrainian military, and the fact that these war crimes have been ignored in the West.
Speaking at the rally “For a World without Nazism!” in Luzhniki, Putin accused the Ukrainian authorities of genocide, which the Russian special operation was aimed to stop.
Putin: There is no greater love than to give one’s life for one’s friends. And we see how heroically our guys are fighting during the operation.
Putin on unity in the ranks of the Russian armed forces and in general, “We haven’t had such unity in a long time!”
Ukraine
Verkhovna Rada Human Rights Commissioner Lyudmila Denisova said at least three cases of people who were tied to poles on charges of looting have been reported in Kharkov. There are known cases when people who did not want to join the military were also tied to the poles.
The mayor of Kharkov Terekhov said that he wanted to rename all the streets of the city, removing all Russian names.
Podolyak, Adviser to the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, condemned the Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany for calling not to persecute the Russians and called specifically for permanent persecution of Russians.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kuleba, following adviser to the head of Zelensky’s office, stressed that the war was on all Russian people, not just on Putin.
Western countries
The European Parliament banned Russian diplomats and civil servants from entering its buildings.
Bulgaria, Latvia and Estonia are expelling three Russian diplomats each.
Britain deploys Sky Sabre air defense system and 100 military personnel to Poland – head of British Ministry of Defense.
Stoltenberg said that NATO soldiers will not be sent to Ukraine because that would bring the alliance into collision with Russia.
The leaders of the foreign affairs committees of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania said together at a US congressional hearing that the three countries need to improve their air defense systems. According to them, the republics make a serious contribution to NATO defense, but air defense is still a weak point, so help is needed from the main ally. However, according to Marko Mihkelson, head of the Estonian parliament’s foreign affairs committee, the US could temporarily supply air defense systems to the Baltics until the republics have similar systems of their own.
Greece announced that it would not deliver S-300 air defense systems to Ukraine.
The Polish program of “derussification of the economy” includes refusal from Russian oil and gas, said the Prime Minister of Poland, admitting that the new measures will lead to higher prices. At the same time, the government intends to try to prevent the rise in prices of food, fertilizers and fuel.
Polish President Duda signed a new law on defense, which almost doubles the Polish army – up to 300 thousand people.
Burger King would like to stop operating in Russia immediately, but cannot do so because of franchise agreements, according to the words of the president of Restaurant Brands International (RBI).
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
