The night of the war at a glance
Russian missile hits barracks – “random shelling” of residential areas
03/20/2022, 06:05 am
The Ukrainian President bans pro-Russian parties from working – and speaks of mountains of corpses in the enemy army. Selenskyj once again addresses the population in Russia with drastic words. In Belarus, an important train connection is apparently being cut.
The fierce fighting on the front sections in Ukraine continued into the night of Sunday. At the political level, the government in Kyiv meanwhile launched a strike against pro-Russian parties in the country and had their work banned until further notice. President Volodymyr Zelenskyj once again addressed the people of Russia with drastic words.
Work of pro-Russian parties in Ukraine banned for the time being
The National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine has banned the work of a number of pro-Russian parties for the duration of the war in the country. Selenskyj announced this via video message on Sunday night. “The activities of their politicians aimed at splitting or collaborating will not be successful, but they will receive a harsh answer,” Zelenskyi was quoted as saying by the newspaper Ukrajinska Pravda. The parties affected include the “Opposition Platform – From Lifetime” and the “Opposition Block”, which are also represented in Parliament. Like the other nine extra-parliamentary parties that have now been banned, they are considered Eurosceptic, anti-liberal or pro-Russian.
Selenskyj: mountains of corpses of Russian soldiers
In his video message, Selenskyj addressed the people of Russia with martial words about heavy Russian war losses. “At the hotspots of particularly heavy fighting, our front lines of defense are practically overwhelmed with corpses of Russian soldiers. (…) And these corpses, these bodies are not recovered by anyone,” he continued. “And they’re chasing new units over them, any reserves that the Russian commanders are collecting somewhere.”
He can understand that Russia has almost endless reserves of soldiers and military equipment. “But I would like to know from the citizens of Russia: what has been done to you over the years that you did not notice your losses?”. More than 14,000 Russian soldiers have already been killed. “That’s 14,000 mothers, 14,000 fathers, wives, children, relatives, friends – and you don’t notice?” The Ukrainian account of the killed Russian soldiers cannot be independently verified – just as little as that of their own military losses, which the state leadership put at around 1,300 soldiers around a week ago. So far, the Russian side has officially confirmed just under 500 of their own casualties.
Ukrainian authorities: More than 260 civilians killed in Kharkiv
The number of deaths among the civilian population also continues to rise. According to local authorities, 266 civilians have been killed since Russian troops invaded Ukraine more than three weeks ago as a result of fighting in the city of Kharkiv alone. Among them were 14 children, said the judicial authorities in the country’s second largest city on Saturday evening. The city, which was besieged by Russian troops and was home to 1.5 million people before the start of the war, continues to be shelled with artillery, the Unian agency reported. This information could not be independently verified.
High number of victims in destroyed barracks in Mykolaiv
After a rocket attack by Russian troops on a barracks in Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine, helpers are said to have recovered at least 50 dead from the rubble on Saturday. A total of around 200 soldiers were sleeping in the building when the rockets hit, Ukrajinska Pravda reported on Saturday. Almost 60 injured were taken to nearby hospitals. This information has not been independently confirmed.
Mayor of Chernihiv reports catastrophic situation
In a dramatic appeal, the mayor of Chernihiv pointed out the precarious situation in the northern Ukrainian city surrounded by Russian troops. “Indiscriminate artillery shelling of residential areas continues, peaceful people are dying,” Vladislav Atrashenko said, according to the Unian agency. The city is experiencing a humanitarian catastrophe. “There is no electricity, no water, no heating, the city’s infrastructure is completely destroyed.”
Rail connections between Ukraine and Belarus probably interrupted
Belarusian railway workers are said to have cut all rail connections between Belarus and Ukraine. The chairman of the Ukrainian railways, Olexander Kamyshin, thanked his colleagues in Belarus for the unspecified action on Saturday. “As of today I can say that there is no rail traffic between Belarus and Ukraine,” he was quoted as saying by the Unian agency. This would mean that Russian troops in Ukraine would not receive reinforcements or supplies via these routes.
An adviser to the Belarusian opposition icon Svetlana Tichanovskaya also reported on the alleged action on Twitter. “Heroes! Belarusian railway workers cut off the railway connection with Ukraine, so trains with Russian equipment cannot go to Ukraine,” wrote Franak Viachorka. Here, too, however, there was no independent confirmation of the alleged action. Although Russian troops have invaded Ukraine from Belarus, authoritarian Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who is considered a protégé of Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin, has so far refused to allow his troops to be directly involved in the war in the neighboring country.
Office for Radiation Protection: Still “serious situation” in Ukraine
The Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS) continues to consider the situation around the Ukrainian nuclear power plants to be serious. “It is in no way intended that acts of war take place around a nuclear power plant,” says BfS President Inge Paulini of the German Press Agency. There is “a fundamental risk that the hostilities could lead directly to damage, accidents and the release of radioactivity”. Her office has been “continuously monitoring” the situation since Russia’s attack on Ukraine on February 24.
More than 6,600 Ukrainians manage to escape from Mariupol and Kyiv
On Saturday, more than 6,600 people were able to escape from the fighting via escape corridors. According to the authorities, 4,128 people were able to escape from the besieged port city of Mariupol. Another 1,820 people left the capital, Kyiv, via escape corridors. The sirens wailed again in Kyiv on Saturday evening, as residents announced in online networks. The northwest city of Kharkov also continued to be bombed on Saturday, killing a man and a nine-year-old child, local authorities said. According to local authorities, at least 500 people have died in the Russian-speaking city since the beginning of the war.
What is important today
- The youth organizations of the parties, the climate movement Fridays for Future and the Ukrainian diaspora have again called for a demonstration against the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine on Sunday at 1 p.m.
- The rally on Jungfernstieg, with an expected 20,000 participants, has the motto “Peace in Ukraine & Security in Europe”.
- The demo is directed against the threat to nuclear infrastructure from Russian attacks, and the importance of Ukraine for world food security should also be pointed out.
You can read all the other developments of the day in our live ticker on the Ukraine war.