23.03.2022, Moscow.
The Rossa Primavera News Agency publishes a summary of events in Ukraine as of 5 p.m. on March 23.
On the evening of March 22, high-precision sea-based long-range weapons struck an arsenal in the village of Orzhev, 14 kilometers northwest of the city of Rovno. As a result of the strike, a large arsenal containing weapons and military equipment of Ukrainian troops, including those from Western countries, was destroyed.
Aircraft and missile forces struck 97 Ukrainian military infrastructure Targets during the day. Among them: two launchers and a transport-loading vehicle of the Tochka-U tactical missile system in the industrial zone on the northern outskirts of Kiev, eight anti-aircraft missile systems, including: 6 Buk-M1, one S-300 and one Osa SAM vehicle, 10 command posts, 8 field artillery guns as well as 3 NATO artillery reconnaissance stations.
Russian air defense forces shot down Ukrainian Su-24 near the town of Izyum and 16 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles, including three Bayraktar TB-2s in the Rozhin, Karashev and Maksim Gorky towns.
A group of “night hunters” consisting of Ka-52 and Mi-28n helicopters destroyed 8 tanks, 5 BMPs and APCs, 9 vehicles and tractors, 3 pillboxes, 7 field artillery guns and mortars during night strikes.
A total of 184 Ukrainian air force aircraft and helicopters, 246 unmanned aerial vehicles, 189 anti-aircraft missile systems, 1,558 tanks and other armoured combat vehicles, 156 multiple rocket launchers, 624 field artillery and mortar guns, and 1,354 units of special military vehicle equipment have been destroyed since the start of the special military operation.
Kiev direction
The head of the Kiev region denied yesterday’s report by the mayor of Borispol that there was combat under the city, assuring everyone that the situation was normal, and the population should not evacuate anywhere, especially since a curfew is now imposed in the region. At the same time, yesterday the Russian Air Force bombed military facilities at Borispol airport, and eyewitnesses from the field reported that the sound of the artillery and aviation attacks on the Ukrainian army’s positions near the city could be heard all night long.
Kharkov direction
Heavy combat is underway in the village of Kamenka south of Izyum. The Ukrainian army concentrated significant forces in order to prevent the main Russian Armed Forces from breaking through from Izyum towards Slavyansk.
Zaporozhye direction
In Energodar, the Banderites tore down and burned the Red Banner of Victory. This shows their real nature. However, the Banner must be guarded, after being raised.
Southern direction
After the Russian military takes control of the highway to Mariupol, Crimea will be reliably connected by a transport corridor to Donbass, Russian deputy presidential envoy to the Southern Federal District Stepanov told RIA Novosti.
Liberation of the LPR and DPR
Units of the Russian armed forces continue to destroy units of the 54th Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian army. They are currently fighting to take the village of Novomikhaylovka under control.
A group of troops from the Donetsk People’s Republic, having completed the mopping-up of the Verkhnetoretskoye village from nationalists, continued to pursue retreating units of the 25th Airborne Brigade of the Ukrainian army and took control of the Novobakhmutovka railway station.
Overnight, three tanks, two BMPs, two mortars and five cross-country vehicles were destroyed in the area.
As of March 23, 2022, in the territory of the Donetsk People’s Republic, a group of DPR troops liberated a total of 102 villages and twons, including Sladkoye, Urozhaynoye and Zolotaya Niva
The Russian Armed Forces took new territories on the outskirts of Velikaya Novoselka and Ugledar under their control.
There are battles for Mariupol, Marinka, Verkhnetoretskoye, Novomikhaylovka and Novobakhmutovka.
Mariupol
DPR and Russian troops are completing a mop-up of the Left Bank district of Mariupol. Heavy combat is underway, Nazis are entrenched in houses. They are being driven out by assault groups.
On the Mariupol direction, the 36th brigade of the Ukrainian army’s Marines is completely denazified – Basurin. The DPR soldiers captured four tanks, two armored vehicles, two Harris tactical communications sets. Specialists of the republic are studying documents and secret media abandoned by the occupiers during their shameful flight.
The DPR authorities evacuated over half a thousand civilians from Mariupol in the past 24 hours. Between 08:00 a.m. on March 22 and 08:00 a.m. on March 23, 562 people, including 110 children, were evacuated from Mariupol to Bezymyonnoye, Novoazovsky district.
Shelling of LPR and DPR territories
As a result of the military aggression of the Ukrainian army, 13 households and 8 civilian infrastructure facilities were damaged. A total of 132 rounds of ammunition were fired by the Ukrainian militants. The enemy fired at the territory of the Donetsk People’s Republic using 122 mm multiple rocket launchers, 152 and 122 mm artillery, 120 mm mortars and tanks. Areas of 12 towns and villages of the Republic came under the fire of the Ukrainian army.
In the past 24 hours, 25 people were wounded as a result of the shelling of the territory of the Donetsk People’s Republic previously liberated by a group of DPR troops. A total of 28 civilians were wounded in varying degrees of severity throughout the territory of the Donetsk People’s Republic during that period.
The most powerful explosion in the LPR shook the entire north of Donbass. People dozens of kilometers away had houses shaking and windows ringing. According to preliminary information, the Zarya NPP, a chemical and explosives manufacturing facility, exploded.
The DPR air defense forces intercepted a missile of the Ukrainian Tochka-U tactical complex over Yenakievo. On the evening of March 22, near Karl Marx village in Yenakievo, the Ukrainian Tochka-U missile was intercepted, launched in the direction of civil infrastructure of the Republic. A civilian was injured by the falling rocket wreckage and houses were damaged.
As a result of the hostilities, the Chelyuskintsev mine in Donetsk was de-energized at 2:15 p.m., with 14 miners underground.
As a result of the shelling of the Ukrainian army, 152 transformation substations were de-energized, and more than 23,000 subscribers remain without electricity.
As a result of the shelling in Yasinovataya by the Ukrainian army, 12,168 subscribers were left without electricity.
Repair and restoration work will begin as soon as the situation allows.
As a result of the shelling of Yasinuvatya in the Zorka neighborhood, a woman and a man were wounded. The woman died of her injuries. A local resident from Verkhnetoretskoye village was also taken to Yasinovataya with wounds.
Liberated territories
The 114th humanitarian convoy of the Russian Emergencies Ministry arrived in the DPR. Trucks delivered about 100 tons of humanitarian aid.
The bridge in Nikolaevka connecting the village with Dokuchaievsk, which was destroyed by Ukrainian militants, was restored. The central district hospital in recently liberated Volnovakha, damaged by shelling, is being restored.
Employees of the Emergencies Ministry, the LPR Interior Ministry and soldiers of the People’s Militia of the Republic evacuated more than two thousand people from Rubezhnoye. The evacuation of Rubezhnoye continues: more than two thousand people have been evacuated to a safe zone so far.
People find temporary shelter in the tent camp at the exit from Starobelsk and in the city children’s and youth sports school. Next, LPR Emergencies Ministry officials are compiling lists of those wishing to evacuate to Lugansk. As of 08:00 a.m. on March 23, 373 people were in temporary accommodation facilities in Starobelsk and Lugansk, including 145 children.
The LPR authorities are developing a unified scheme for paying pensions in areas of the republic liberated from Kiev’s militants. Payments are already being started in Stanytsa Luganskaya. Earlier, the LPR Pension Fund reported that the agency accepted more than 17 thousand applications for payment of pensions from residents of the liberated areas of Luhgansk region.
The gas tariffs in the regions of Lugansk People’s Republic that have been liberated from the Ukrainian Government are 8 times lower than under the Ukrainian Government, electricity tariffs 2.5 times lower.
Political situation
The State Duma of the Russian Federation passed a bill proposed by the United Russia party on recognizing participants in the special operation in Ukraine as veterans of combat operations.
State Duma deputies from United Russia were forbidden to leave Russia without the permission of the faction’s leader.
Putin plans to attend G20 summit in Bali – Russian ambassador to Indonesia. The G20 summit will be held in autumn 2022 in Bali, Indonesia. Earlier, Warsaw called for excluding Russia from the G20, replacing it with Poland.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry said of Poland’s calls to exclude Russia from the G20 that no member of the G20 has the right to exclude another.
Aleksander Volfovich, State Secretary of the Security Council of Belarus, on the possibility of Belarus joining Russia’s special operation on the territory of Ukraine, “Today the Armed Forces, forces and means of military organization of the state are ready to protect the country, but only on the territory of their own country. The president spoke about it, and I officially declare it to you. We will not allow unleashing and dragging us into any military conflicts, but we will defend our country, our territory. We are ready to defend it.”
Moscow and Kiev have held two prisoner exchanges – Russian Foreign Ministry.
Anatoly Chubais resigned as the Russian president’s special representative for sustainable development and left the country. Chubais was later pictured withdrawing money from an ATM in Istanbul.
Chubais resigned at his own request; whether he left Russia or not is his own business, Press Secretary of the Russian President Peskov said.
Tomorrow the Moscow Exchange will resume trading in shares.
Belarus is expelling almost all Ukrainian diplomats: only five of more than 20 diplomats will be able to continue their work in the Ukrainian embassy in Minsk, and the Ukrainian consulate in Brest will be completely closed.
State Duma deputy Artem Turov issued a statement in which he stated the need for a military tribunal to investigate the use of civilians as human shields. The deputy himself heard about examples of such tactics used by the Ukrainian neo-Nazis from people who are currently being evacuated from Mariupol. Of course, it is assumed that a specially created commission will also collect materials about other war crimes of the Kiev regime.
Poland with its actions brings relations with Russia to actual nullity – the Russian ambassador.
Mercenaries
Another story from a former soldier of the Ukrainian foreign legion came to us from Barcelona. Yesterday the Catalan right-wing nationalist and supporter of secession from Spain, who left just a week ago to “fight for the independence of Ukraine,” returned home. So, the realities of serving in a foreign legion through the eyes of a Catalan.
Ukrainian recruiters deceive mercenaries with their salaries – it turned out that they paid the Spaniards ten times less than promised: instead of 3000 euros they promised him 300; from weapons and equipment he was given only a submachine gun and some ammunition. After destroying the Yavorov firing range, the Ukrainian army decided not to be ceremonious with the training and immediately transferred the mercenaries to the front near Zhitomir. “War is not a game. Russian artillery gives no respite and strikes very often. The Ukrainian and international military have no time for respite. They can’t even sleep.” He was returned home through the efforts of the Spanish Foreign Ministry and intelligence forces.
Nuno Machado, a retired Portuguese special forces soldier and veteran of the UN mission in CAR (2017), traveled to Ukraine with a group of five Portuguese men in early March and survived the bombing of the Yavorov training ground. The military actions in Ukraine proved not to be an African safari, Nunu had no choice but to flee to Poland, from where he continued to post both pathetic and entertaining content. The most valuable thing Nuno gave us was confirmation that a detachment of at least 28 Portuguese special forces had been formed in a foreign legion. However, the publication is dated March 8 – there is a possibility that most of the detachment has dispersed to Europe.
Sanctions
Biden intends to announce sanctions against more than 300 State Duma members in coordination with the EU and G7 during a visit to Europe – The Wall Street Journal.
US prepares to block $132 billion in Russian gold reserves. A bipartisan group of US senators is working with the Treasury Department to prepare a bill designed to block about $132 billion in Russian gold reserves, news portal Axios reported, citing its source. According to one of the senators, the bill may be adopted this week.
Annual inflation in Britain accelerated to 6.2% in February, a record high in almost 30 years.
Russian holders of Russian Eurobonds cannot receive payments on them. Payment on coupons or in repayment of a debt on the Russian eurobonds goes abroad on accounts of banks-agents, and return of its part to the Russian clients is blocked by the European depositaries Euroclear and Clearstream. Money from Euroclear to the National Settlement Depository has not been received since the beginning of last week.
Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Novak: due to sanctions against Russia, the West may introduce rationing – restrictions on fuel consumption.
The price of gas in the EU, to its detriment abandoned Nord Stream – 2, reached $4000, which is not the limit, because there are risks of not filling the underground gas storage, Novak said.
TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanné, “Unlike oil, which we can buy from other countries, such as Saudi Arabia, and deliver through other countries, such as Poland, Russian gas cannot be replaced.” TotalEnergies, the largest French oil and gas company, is Novatek’s partner in the Yamal LNG project, in which the French have a 20% stake. The French company TotalEnergies, which is under enormous pressure because of its stance twoard Russia, has started to suspend its activities in Russia.
Poland and the Baltics called on the EU to close EU ports to Russia and ban road freight traffic between Russia, Belarus and the EU.
The Baltic states called on the EU to close roads for trucks from Russia and Belarus.
Foreign buyers of gas will have to sell foreign currency at Moscow Exchange.
Putin on transferring the payment for Russian gas to roubles:
- The government and the Central Bank should determine in a week the procedure for transactions with Europe in rubles;
- Russia will continue to supply gas in the volumes and at the prices set out in the contracts concluded earlier;
- a number of countries have made illegitimate decisions to freeze Russian assets, undermining confidence in their currencies.
The logic behind transferring gas payments into rubles is that dollars and euros are not the national currency of Russia, even if they are entering into the Russian accounts. Rubles, on the other hand, are Russian national currency, no matter where they are. How to get rubles (to transfer currency to Russia) in order to pay for gas is a problem of the buyer, not of Russia. Plus the ruble is basically becoming a much more in-demand currency.
The first consequences of Putin’s order. Gas prices in the EU are rising by more than 10% – up to $1250. The dollar to the ruble exchange rate is decreased below 100 rubles.
President of the European Council Charles Michel stated that European politicians are ready to think about how they can increase the pressure on Russia. He however acknowledged that the European countries are not in the same position as the USA since they are much more dependent on the gas supplies from Russia. After all, the goal is to hurt Russia, not ourselves, the politician explained. Therefore, it is very important for Europe not to waste itself in order to preserve the capacity both to support Ukraine and to apply painful measures against Russia.
Losses of foreign airlines due to overflight of Russian territory will amount to at least $2-3 billion a year – Minister of Transport of the Russian Federation.
Russia is introducing counter “maritime” sanctions. The decision on the admission or non-admission of ships of a particular unfriendly state in domestic seaports will be approved by a separate order of the Cabinet. The decision for each state will be made based on the data from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs about the sanctions imposed on Russian ships. The access ban can be removed after the cancellation of the decisions of the unfriendly country that restricted Russian-flagged ships entering its ports.
Ukraine
Zelensky on the progress of the negotiations, “Ukrainian representatives are working on the negotiations, which go on almost every day. It is very difficult. Sometimes scandalous. But step by step we are moving forward.”
Member of the Verkhovna Rada from the Kherson region Sergey Khlan, “Since April in the Kherson region <…> it is planned to put rubles in circulation. They will <…> accept rubles in stores and, most likely, pay salaries to the ‘new administration.’ I think that the rest of it will come to ruble salaries in the existing budgetary and communal institutions. Little by little the Kherson region is being drawn into the ruble zone. The Kherson People’s is getting closer.” Khlan opposes Russia and frames it all as a “threat” to Ukraine.
The commander of the Kiev unit of the Nazi Azov (organization banned in the Russian Federation) Vladislav Sobolevsky urged Western diplomats to bring weapons to Mariupol and join the ranks of Azov (organization banned in the Russian Federation). Sobolevsky, “Biden, our partners from Britain, the European Union, NATO – everyone should talk about Mariupol. Not only the Greek foreign minister should go there with the humanitarian convoy. Everyone should go there. And not just pick up locals from there, but bring weapons and ammunition and join the Azov regiment (organization banned in the Russian Federation).” However, Sobolevsky himself is not going to go to Mariupol.
Western countries
Polish President Duda will propose at the NATO summit on March 24 to send NATO peacekeepers to Ukraine, Polish media reported, citing its sources in the republic’s defence ministry.
Sending NATO peacekeepers to Ukraine would lead to a direct clash between the armed forces of Russia and the alliance – Lavrov.
Lavrov, “I don’t rule out that – when they [Poland] talk about peacekeepers – they probably mean their borders – western Ukraine. Maybe they want to introduce peacekeepers, make their headquarters in Lvov, and then stay there. They have such thoughts floating around, and not just thoughts – there have been such things in the past.”
CNN quotes NATO representatives as saying that Belarus has already taken steps to participate in the full-scale invasion. This, in their view, is caused by the fact that Putin needs support. It is noted that the final decision on the participation of Belarus in the special operation is still to be made in Russia. The involvement of Belarus is necessary to try to block NATO’s military aid, which comes to Ukraine from its western border.
Ukraine is running out of weapons and ammunition – The Times. The general message of the British newspaper article is that the West urgently needs to increase arms supplies to Ukraine.
Turkey’s refusal from S-400 is not even discussed. Ismail Demir, head of the Turkish Defense Industry Directorate, “This is not a subject for discussion for us. We discussed this issue in the past and now we just continue [cooperation with Russia]. The rejection of it is not even discussed. Turkey is capable of determining its own policy and path, it has always been that way. The Turkish position is to ensure peace. In the current situation, we, our leaders, are doing everything possible to stop the bloodshed and bring the conflict [in Ukraine] to stop.”
Poland’s domestic security agency has compiled a list of 45 Russian diplomats suspected of espionage and demanded their expulsion, according to a spokesman for the secret service coordinator minister.
Moldovan Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Spinu confirmed that it would not be possible to conduct an audit of Moldovagaz’s debt to Gazprom within the stipulated time.
The EU has approved an agreement with Ukraine that will allow it to provide Kiev with classified information, including satellite imagery – Bloomberg.
South Korea announced that from April 1 it would resume visa-free travel with Russia with the condition of pre-registration of travelers in the electronic authorization system K-ETA.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz once again spoke out against NATO intervention in the conflict in Ukraine, “Of course, I hear the voices of those who demand a no-fly zone or a NATO peacekeeping force in Ukraine. No matter how hard it is, we will not do this.”
Biden says Russia’s use of chemical weapons is a real threat – Reuters.
NATO does not consider itself part of the conflict and is not going to send forces to Ukraine. Ukraine’s membership in NATO is not on the agenda of NATO summit – NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg.
The US, France, Italy, Germany and Britain call on Serbia and Kosovo to refrain from any actions that increase tensions.
The Kremlin said of the talks between Putin and Scholz, “When discussing the situation around Ukraine, attention was focused on the problems of the ongoing negotiations between Russian and Ukrainian representatives. Vladimir Putin outlined a number of considerations in the context of the principal positions of the Russian Federation at these talks.”
Belarus will not start a special operation against Ukraine, it already participates in it – NATO Secretary General.
The EU has already allocated Ukraine 1 billion euros for the purchase of weapons from the European Peace Fund – the head of the European Council.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
