20.03.2022, Moscow.
Rossa Primavera News Agency publishes a summary of events in Ukraine on March 19 (5:00 p.m.)
On March 18, the KINJAL aircraft missile system with hypersonic ballistic missiles destroyed a large underground warehouse of missiles and aircraft ammunition of Ukrainian troops in the village of Delyatin, Ivano-Frankovsk region.
On the night of March 19, Russian aviation struck 69 Ukrainian military targets. Among them:
four command posts, including a brigade command post in the town of Zabuyanye,
four anti-aircraft missile systems, including three S-300 and one Buk-M1,
one radar guidance and targeting station,
three multiple rocket launchers,
12 depots of rocket and artillery weapons,
43 sites of ammunition storage.
The air defense assets of the Russian Air Force shot down 12 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles in the air.
The SBU booby-trapped a city hospital in Dnepropetrovsk and plans to blow up the building when a Russian plane flies over the city.
Anchor mines planted by the Ukrainian Navy on the approaches to the ports of Odessa, Ochakov, Chernomorsk and Yuzhny were torn off and are drifting through the Black Sea due to a storm, posing a threat to ships in Black Sea ports.
The Ukrainian Defense Ministry admitted that the Ukrainian Armed Forces had lost access to the Sea of Azov.
Kiev direction
At a press conference, Kiev’s mayor Vitaly Klitschko demonstrated the allegedly Russian cruise missile elements found at the sites of damage to residential buildings in the city, which in fact turned out to be the warheads of the obsolete 9H314 of the 9M38 anti-aircraft guided missile for the 9K37 Buk air defense system. Thus, Vitaliy Klitschko unknowingly, but not unreasonably, framed Ukrainian anti-aircraft gunners as killers of civilians in Kiev.
As a result of the hostilities, the peat bogs near Kiev caught fire. The Ukrainian capital and its suburbs are shrouded in smoke.
Kharkov direction
The SBU and police in Kharkov are conducting mass inspections in residential buildings, looking for those with ties to Russia. “They are sweeping the entire yard, all the houses, they came with a document check. One woman became indignant, they hit her right in the face with a machine gun, her neighbor stood up for her – so they gave him one too,” said a woman from Kharkov.
A man who lives in Kharkov said he knows of at least three cases of such inspections in apartment buildings, including the one in which he lives. “They go all over Kharkov, all the apartments, apartment buildings, looking for them. They’re looking for whoever it is. They go around by 10-15 people. They check who lives, who has left. They check the documents for apartments.”
Combat continues on the southern part of Izyum and its suburbs; the city is blocked, and most of it is under the control of the Russian Armed Forces. At the same time, the main units of the Russian Armed Forces have bypassed the city by crossing over the pontoons set up downstream of Seversky Donets and are already advancing south of Izyum, developing an offensive in the direction of Svyatogorsk and further to Slavyansk.
South direction
The Russian Armed Forces’ Bastion coastal missile system destroyed the Ukrainian army’s radio and radio reconnaissance centers in the Odessa region.
In Melitopol, the Russian military commandant’s office returned the cars seized by the territorial defense battalions to the city’s residents. The vehicles were marked with the symbolism of a special military operation, the letter Z, and were probably used for special tasks by Ukrainian security services and formations.
In Melitopol and Kherson, representatives of the Russian Federation distribute humanitarian aid to residents. Russian Federal Guard Service servicemen are suppressing attempts by Ukrainian provocateurs to prevent local residents from receiving humanitarian aid.
Rallies are held in Kherson by supporters of the Banderite government, with protesters singing anthems and shouting slogans. The Russian military turned on loudspeakers with the Soviet anthem and Soviet songs against the protesters.
According to preliminary reports, at least 70 servicemen were killed in yesterday’s cruise missile strike on the base of the 79th AFU brigade near Nikolaev. The debris removal is continuing, the barracks building is almost completely destroyed.
High-precision cruise missile strikes hit the 81st fuel supply center in the village of Konstantinovka, Nikolaev region.
Liberation of the LPR and DPR
The LPR army hoisted the Victory Banner in liberated Rubezhnoye.
The Novotroitskoye checkpoint is under DPR control. Combat is now underway in Mariupol, Mariinka, Avdeevka, and Ugledar.
Soldiers of the DPR People’s Militia fought their way into Mariinka and are clearing the village from Kiev’s militants. The clearing of Mariinka will make it possible to take the village of Aleksandrovka, the Petrovsky district and the Tekstilshchik neighborhood on the outskirts of Donetsk out of the militants’ fire.
Accurate strikes by large-caliber 203 mm artillery hit the building of the occupation military-civilian administration of Avdeevka.
The Russian Air Force and long-range artillery began striking at the Ukrainian army’s strongholds near Pokrovsk.
Mariupol
Zelensky’s office advisor Arestovich admitted that Kiev had written off the fighters who remained in Mariupol. He stated:
The Ukrainian army units closest to Mariupol are fighting near Volnovakha;
other units are more than 100 kilometers away from Mariupol. If they move towards Mariupol, they will find themselves in the bare steppe under the strikes of Russian aviation;
there were attempts to cover Mariupol from the air, but the Russian Army has good air defense in the area.
The Russian Defense Ministry offered Kiev to open humanitarian corridors from Mariupol in any direction for Azov Nazis (organization banned in the Russian Federation). Those who laid down their weapons were guaranteed life. In response, they received a categorical refusal from high-ranking officials in Kiev.
In the south of the DPR, radio broadcasts called on the Ukrainian soldiers of the 36th and 53rd brigades defending in Mariupol to refuse to follow the criminal orders of the Ukrainian leadership, stop armed resistance, lay down their weapons, and use humanitarian corridors to leave Mariupol.
Intense combat continues in Mariupol, the allied forces are encircling the group of Nazis, who are still several thousand in the city, and trying to split the militant forces into several pockets – to further mop them up.
Mariupol police chief Mikhail Vershinin addressed Zelensky and admitted that the Stingers and other MANPADS the militants have are essentially useless against the Russian Air Force.
The Azovstal factory in Mariupol, where a significant group of the Ukrainian army and Azov Nazis (organization banned in the Russian Federation) have fortified, is now being destroyed by hurricane fire from Allied artillery and bombing strikes by the Russian Air Force.
Over the past 24 hours, DPR authorities were able to evacuate 389 people, including 89 children, via a humanitarian corridor from Mariupol to Novoazovsk.
Militants in Mariupol changed into civilian clothes and tried to leave the city. It is known that about 100 prisoners have already been detained, who disguised themselves as civilians and tried to break out of the encirclement.
The liberated districts of Mariupol are being supplied with food for the residents.
According to a captive National Guard of Ukraine soldier from Mariupol, Azov (organization banned in the Russian Federation) arbitrarily subordinated a unit to the National Guard, and the mayor of the city abandoned it on the first day.
Situation in the republics
Armed formations of Ukraine shelled the territory of the DPR 37 times in the past 24 hours (from 03:00 a.m. on March 18 to 03:00 a.m. on March 19), firing 311 rounds of ammunition. Multiple rocket launchers, anti-tank missile systems, 152-mm and 122-mm artillery, mortars, grenade launchers, and small arms were used. In particular, Donetsk, Makeevka, Gorlovka, Yasinovataya, and their suburbs were hit. As a result of the shelling, 26 civilians were wounded, 22 of whom were from previously liberated territories. In addition, 26 households were damaged.
The DPR
The Trudovskaya mine’s substation was de-energized due to the shelling, resulting in 153 transformer substations and 26 boiler houses being shut down. Also, 31,000 residents of the Petrovsky district were left without power supply.
At the moment 45 miners were brought to the surface, 40 people are continuing technical work on the fresh jetty. There is no threat to life for people.
Last night a kindergarten in Chervonogvardeysky district of Makeevka was under fire by the Ukrainian army.
The LPR
The Ukrainian army shelled the village of Berezovskoye (5 shells) and the village of Golubovskoye (7 shells) with 122 mm artillery.
Political situation
Medinsky on Arestovich’s calls for a “rail war”, “It seems to me that this kind of extreme figures can severely damage the negotiation process and the minimal sprouts of understanding between our delegations. I would least like to comment on the appeals of Arestovich, a well-known Ukrainian video blogger who appears to be an advisor to the president of Ukraine on, in my opinion, security and war-related issues. His statements can be interpreted as a direct call for terrorism. This is the only interpretation.”
The commander of the Internal Troops of Belarus, General Nikolay Karpenkov, in an interview on the anniversary of the formation of the Internal Troops, commented on Arestovich’s statements about the “rail war”, “We see the bestial nature of the Ukrainian nationalists – complete and absolute non-humans.”
Lukashenko said that the situation in Ukraine is controlled by representatives of the West and the United States, who sit in Kiev. At the same time, the West benefits from “drowning” Belarus and Russia in this conflict, the Belarusian leader added.
Lukashenko about the last chance for Ukraine, “Now, perhaps, the only moment that may not happen again, so that Ukraine could get out of the situation with dignity. If this moment is lost, it most likely will not come back. Therefore, Ukraine needs to cling to this moment. And it will be beneficial to Ukraine, and Russia, and Belarus. The main thing is that we will save thousands of lives. If we go now to sign the treaty.”
Chairman of the State Duma of Russian Fedeartion Volodin demanded that NATO immediately stop supplying weapons and sending mercenaries to Ukraine.
China’s position on the situation around Ukraine, voiced on central TV, “In fact, Russia and Ukraine should solve this problem through political negotiations, not on the battlefield. And the US should acknowledge its role in pushing the two sides into conflict instead of negotiations – a role that Washington continues to play by focusing on supplying weapons to Ukraine and sanctions against Russia instead of discussion and balance.”
Roskomnadzor ( Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media) once again called on Google to immediately end restrictions on YouTube against Russian media and resources.
On March 18, Bashar Al-Assad visited the UAE and met with Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Muhammad bin Zayid Al Nahyan, who “stressed that Syria is a fundamental pillar of Arab security and that the UAE is interested in strengthening cooperation with it.” The sides stressed “preserving the territorial integrity of Syria and the withdrawal of foreign forces” from the fractured country, where there is a military presence of Russia, Iran, Turkey and the United States. The State Department said it was deeply disappointed and concerned about what it called an apparent attempt to legitimize Assad.
Lavrov, “Russia will not put forward initiatives to improve relations with the West: let’s see how they themselves get out of the impasse in which they have driven themselves.”
Lavrov, “Negotiations are underway, although the Ukrainian delegation basically started them by ‘going through the motions,’ as they say. Then some kind of dialogue has been established, although it is constantly felt that the Ukrainian delegation is being held by the hand, most likely by the Americans, not being allowed to agree to those demands, which I think are absolutely minimal.”
Mercenaries
A Swede who survived the destruction of a mercenary base near Lvov returned home. Markus Fredriksson, 31, said that in the early morning of March 13 the alarm, which had been working properly before, did not go off and everyone on the site woke up because of the sound of an explosion. He is sure that one of the mercenaries passed the information about their location to the Russian military.
Eventually, Markus returned to Poland and from there back home to Sweden. After his experience, he doubts that the Swedish government can track how the money and weapons sent to Ukraine are used, “You need to better understand where and who gets the information and equipment. Where does the money go? In this case it just seemed like crap.”
Sanctions
Price for neon has risen ninefold in recent weeks – chip makers have two to three months’ worth of stocks left.
Korea’s LG Electronics says it is suspending shipments of its products to Russia.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres commented on the sanctions by saying that the war in Ukraine is already disrupting supply chains and causing skyrocketing prices for fuel, food and transportation. He called to do everything to prevent a hurricane of famine and the collapse of the global food system.
India, without directly naming the USA, Britain and other Western countries that have expressed concerns about its oil purchases from Russia, said that legitimate energy deals cannot be politicized, and that countries that self-supply themselves with oil and those that import oil from Russia cannot authoritatively advocate restricting trading.
The USA is considering disconnecting Russia from GPS, Director General of Roscosmos Rogozin said. However, it is not clear how to do it technically.
According to a number of Western media reports, the Iranian nuclear deal can be negotiated within 48 hours. If London has returned frozen debts to Iran, it means that a general unfreezing of Iran’s assets is very close. In addition, information that the USA and Iran have agreed to remove the terrorist stigma from the IRGC has already appeared in several sources.
Lufthansa and KLM do not allow Russian citizens on flights from Istanbul with transit in Europe. Passengers flying from Istanbul with connections in European cities report mass refusals of boarding. In particular, there are reports of flights from Istanbul to Mexico with a connection in Amsterdam and to the Dominican Republic with a connection in Frankfurt being denied boarding.
Poland’s prime minister has proposed that the EU consider a new package of sanctions against Russia at the next summit, extending them to include a “trade blockade” by both sea and land
Ukraine
Denisenko, advisor to the head of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, “Since the beginning of the war, we have had checkpoints built in almost every village, built by whoever wanted them, which resulted in a logistical collapse: it was difficult to bring food, and neither the army nor the ambulance could get through.”
Zelensky demanded that Russia capitulate, which he wants to “substantively discuss” in a personal meeting with Putin, “Substantial negotiations on peace and security for Ukraine are the only chance for Russia to reduce the damage from its own mistakes. It’s time to meet. It’s time to talk. It’s time to restore territorial integrity and justice for Ukraine. Otherwise, Russia’s losses will be such that you won’t have enough generations to rise up.”
In Ukraine, Nazi lawlessness continues, and potentially disloyal elements to the regime are being cleansed. In Odessa, they came for Yuri Tkachev, editor-in-chief of the newspaper Timer.
A Ukrainian court has authorized the arrest of Viktor Medvedchuk, a deputy and leader of the Opposition Platform – For Life party, the Ukrainian State Bureau of Investigation said.
Western countries
“I reject the cheap Russophobia that exists today and reject the existing denial of Russian culture and everything of this kind,” former Czech President Václav Klaus said in response to calls to return the Russian state award he was awarded in 2007 – the Pushkin Medal.
Two former US presidents, Democrat Bill Clinton and Republican George W. Bush, visited the Ukrainian Church in Chicago to express their support for Ukraine.
EU leaders have very credible evidence that China is considering military assistance to Russia and are concerned about it, Politico reported, citing a senior EU official. The official said the EU would erect trade barriers against China if Beijing complies with Russia’s request.
The USA will lift many sanctions against Russia after Ukraine’s territorial integrity is restored – State Department
US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi read a poem on St. Patrick’s Day and said that mourning Ireland is now Ukraine. She added that St. Patrick’s name is now Zelensky.
Earlier, Pelosi accused Putin of raising prices at US gas stations. In her opinion, since Putin started pulling down the troops earlier this year, the price at gas stations has gone up to 75 cents. She also stated that the US government is doing everything to minimize Putin’s price increases in the country.
Former US intelligence officer Ryan Hillsberg told FOX News that the CIA has been secretly training the Ukrainian military. He said that the USA provided this kind of support regularly and in all parts of the world. He was glad that the news of this was made public showing that the USA didn’t sit idly by. . Ryan Hillsberg said added that the USA had been proactive, anticipating and pre-empting the enemy’s moves.
NATO will not interfere in the conflict in Ukraine and create a no-fly zone there, German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht said. In response, Podolyak, advisor to the head of the Ukrainian presidential office, urged the German defense minister not to make “provocative” statements.
The Netherlands and Germany, on NATO’s request, will supply Slovakia with US Patriot anti-aircraft missile systems instead of its S-300 air defense systems, which are transferred to Ukraine. We are talking about one battalion of 4 S-300PMU1 units of the 1980s model.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
