The day of the war at a glance
Ukraine sees front stalemate – Turkey: Russian-Ukrainian agreement in sight
03/20/2022, 9:10 p.m
While there is heavy fighting around Mariupol and also around the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, Ukraine sees the front lines between its and Russian armed forces as “virtually frozen” in many places. The diplomatically involved Turkey reports hopeful. The 25th day of the war at a glance.
Battles for Mariupol and Chernihiv
Ukraine has again accused Russia of massive shelling of civilians, especially in the strategically important port city of Mariupol. The attackers fired on a school building where several hundred people had found refuge, the city administration said. Officials in Mariupol also reported on the forced deportation of residents to Russia. Mariupol has been under siege by Russia for weeks.
According to military information from Kyiv, heavy fighting is also continuing around the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv. “Chernihiv is being defended,” the Ukrainian army said. The city near the Belarusian border is under fire. There is no electricity and no heating. Many residents are without gas. In contrast, the night around the capital Kyiv was comparatively quiet. The “enemy” erected fortifications.
Front “frozen”?
Meanwhile, one of the Ukrainian presidential advisors, Oleksiy Arestovych, sees a kind of stalemate in many places between the country’s own and the Russian armed forces. The front lines are “practically frozen”. Russia does not have enough fighting power to advance further, the adviser working for Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office said in a video address.
The Russian army, on the other hand, reported something different, namely a success in advancing – and at a probably important point. Putin’s army advanced twelve kilometers in eastern Ukraine. The border of the Nikolske settlement northwest of the city of Mariupol has been reached, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said, according to the Interfax agency. There was no information on this from the Ukrainian side.
“At the moment, a positional war is recognizable,” political scientist Markus Kaim analyzed the overall situation in an interview with ntv that morning. There is no real advance of Russian troops recognizable. The former head of British military intelligence sees it the same way. Air Marshal Philip Osborn sees Russian forces as “quite demoralized, quite deadlocked and quite deadlocked.” He told Sky News that Russian troops are now stuck because they “have lost momentum”.
Turkey gives hope for an agreement between Ukraine and Russia
But there could have been momentum elsewhere, at least if you listen to a statement by Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu: namely at the negotiating table. “Of course it’s not easy while the war is raging, but we believe things are moving forward,” said Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. “We see that the parties are close to an agreement.” The NATO member Turkey is therefore in contact with the negotiating teams of the two countries. However, Cavusoglu declined to reveal details about the talks, saying Turkey was playing “an honest mediating role”. Ankara maintains good relations with both sides and is considered a deeply involved mediator.
In an interview broadcast by US news channel CNN, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy reiterated that he was “ready to negotiate” with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Russia executes second dagger blow
Irrespective of this, the Russian armed forces have meanwhile used their new type of hypersonic missile in Ukraine for a second time. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, a fuel and lubricants storage facility of the Ukrainian armed forces in the Mykolaiv region was attacked with “Kinzhal” (dagger) type rockets. The new weapon system was used for the first time on Friday. While there has been an arms race for the hyper-fast and at the same time, to a certain extent, manoeuvrable missiles in recent years, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin sees them “not as a game changer” after the Russians used them for the first time in a real war. , as revealed in his interview with the TV station CBS.
The Russian armed forces again suffered a loss in their top ranks. The deputy commander of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, Andrei Palij, is dead. Corresponding reports from the Ukrainian side have now been confirmed by Russian media, citing official sources from the city of Sevastopol. According to the information, Palij was 51 years old. He is the first senior naval officer reported to have died in war. He was shot dead near Mariupol. More details about his death are not yet known.
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