Monday, March 18

Russia’s war against Ukraine

Yulia Navalnaya, widow of Alexei Navalny, stands in a line outside the Russian embassy in Berlin, Germany to cast her vote in the rigged Russian presidential election on March 17, 2024. (Carsten Koall/picture alliance via Getty Images)

Putin ‘wins’ rigged Russian election; Ukrainians in occupied territories vote at gunpoint. Russian authorities on March 15-17 held a presidential election in two countries – Russia and the regions of Ukraine brutally occupied by the Kremlin. The voting was neither free nor fair, with the result known in advance.

‘Noon Against Putin’ protest in Russia dies down, no major opposition on election’s last day. Russia’s presidential election entered its third and last day on March 17, with the state-controlled news agency Interfax reporting over 70% voter turnout as of 3 p.m. local time in Moscow.

Zelensky: ‘Putin fears justice and must end up in The Hague.’ “He is afraid of only one thing – justice,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said. “(Putin) must end up in The Hague. That is what we must ensure, everyone in the world who values life and integrity.”

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Media: 12 Russian oil refineries successfully hit in recent attacks by Ukraine. The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) drones have recently successfully attacked 12 oil refineries in Russia, a source told Ukrainska Pravda, including an overnight attack on March 17 of an oil refinery in Slavyansk-on-Kuban in Krasnodar Krai.

WP: Ukraine may be forced to aim to down only 1 in 5 missiles targeting cities due to ammunition shortage. Munitions for some of Ukraine’s air defense systems may be nearly used up by the end of March, the Washington Post reported on March 15, citing unnamed Western officials.

Ukrainian forces stop 3 Russian saboteur groups from advancing in Sumy Oblast. Border guards and Ukrainian troops in Sumy Oblast stopped three groups of Russian saboteurs from advancing, Ukraine’s State Border Guard Service reported on March 17.

Anti-Kremlin militia claims it captured local administration in Russia’s Belgorod Oblast. Russian volunteer fighters from the Siberian Battalion claimed to have entered the Gorkovsky settlement in Russia’s Belgorod Oblast and taken control of the local administration building, the militia said on March 17.

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Ukraine war latest: 12 Russian oil refineries reportedly hit in recent attacks by Ukraine

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) drones have recently successfully attacked 12 oil refineries in Russia, a source told Ukrainska Pravda, including an overnight attack on March 17 of an oil refinery in Slavyansk-on-Kuban in Krasnodar Krai.

Photo: Christophe Gateau/picture alliance via Getty Images

Human cost of war

1 killed, 6 injured, including child, in Russian attack on Mykolaiv. Russian forces attacked the southern city of Mykolaiv twice with missiles earlier in the day.

1 killed, 1 injured in Russian attacks on Sumy Oblast. One person was killed and another injured as a result of Russian aerial bomb attacks on Velyka Pysarivka in Sumy Oblast, the local military administration said on March 17 in its evening update.

Local authorities: Russian forces strike Sumy infrastructure twice, no casualties reported yet. Russian forces struck Sumy twice, attacking undisclosed infrastructure in the northern city, the regional military administration reported on March 17.

Russia launches attacks against several regions, hits infrastructure. Russian troops launched an attack against several Ukrainian regions, including Sumy and Kharkiv oblasts, on the evening of March 17, local authorities reported.

Russian attacks on Nikopol in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast injure 5. Russian drone attacks on Nikopol in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast injured five people on March 17, Regional Governor Serhii Lysak said.

Mediazona confirms identities of over 47,700 Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine. Through open source research, Mediazona, a Russian independent media outlet, together with BBC Russia, confirmed the names of 47,701 Russian soldiers who had been killed since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

4 reasons why Russian elections are fake

International response

Czechia to propose EU-wide grain import ban on Russia, Belarus. Czechia is planning to propose a ban on grain imports from Russia and Belarus into European Union countries at next week’s European Council meeting, Czech Agriculture Minister Marek Vyborny said on March 17.

Macron promises to visit Kyiv with ‘specific solutions’ for the war. “I will definitely come. I have a rule that my visit should be as useful as possible for Ukraine,” French President Emmanuel Macron said in an interview published on March 16.

UK Defense Ministry: Russia’s arms exports drop due to war and sanctions-related customer decline. In its daily intelligence bulletin published on X, the ministry cited research conducted by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), which revealed that Russia’s arms exports fell by 53% between 2019-2023 compared to the previous four-year period.

Drone reportedly hits military base in Russian-controlled Transnistria. A drone hit a military base in Transnistria, in the Russian-controlled region of Moldova, local Telegram channel “Pervyi Prydnestrovskyi” claimed on March 17.

Opinions and insights

The Counteroffensive: Inside Kharkiv’s underground metro schools

There’s a low rumbling that never quite stops below Kharkiv’s iconic Independence Square. This morning, the sound is a metro train thundering into Universytet Station, just underneath the school children learning the basics of the four seasons and the seven days of the week.

Photo: Ozge Elif Kizil/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

In other news

CNN: Ukraine dismisses Russian claim about killing hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers with a ‘vacuum bomb.’ After Russia claimed on March 16 that it killed up to 300 Ukrainian soldiers using a so-called “vacuum bomb,” a spokesperson for the military intelligence of Ukraine (HUR) told CNN that the claims were “absolute nonsense and propaganda.”

Shoigu calls for better Navy defense in visit to Black Sea Fleet, Russian Defense Ministry says. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu ordered increased training and more weapons to repel Ukraine’s attacks on the Black Sea Fleet, according to a statement by Russia’s Defense Ministry on March 17.

Authorities have uncovered nearly 400 networks aiding draft evaders since start of war. Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, law enforcement agencies have uncovered nearly 400 criminal networks that help individuals evade military service by aiding them in fleeing abroad, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s State Border Guard Service announced on March 17.

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Today’s Ukraine Daily was brought to you by Oleg Sukhov, Daria Shulzhenko, Asami Terajima, Andrea Januta, Olga Rudenko, Toma Istomina, Oleksiy Sorokin, Sonya Bandouil, and Dmytro Basmat.

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