03/23/2023
Ukraine war in the live ticker
+++ 01:36 Czech President: Western support will decrease +++
According to Czech President Petr Pavel, Ukraine must adjust to dwindling Western support. “We have to take war fatigue into account and what it means for support from Western countries. This will decrease over time,” Pavel told the Süddeutsche Zeitung. He also refers to the US presidential elections in 2024 and the concentration on domestic politics that can then be expected: “If support for the USA dwindles, support from a number of European countries will also dwindle. Ukraine has to take that into account.” In 2024, Ukraine will therefore probably no longer be able to start any large and complex operations, says the President.
+++ 23:42 Tichanovskaya calls on Belarus to break off relations with Russia +++
During a visit to Washington, exiled Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya urged her country to sever ties with its “colonialist” neighbor Russia. “It’s time to oppose Russian interference in Belarus’ internal affairs,” Tikhanovskaya said at a press conference in the US Congress. Moscow “supports the illegitimate regime” and “carries out colonialist actions,” says the opposition politician. “The military aggressor is using our territory, our airspace, to attack and threaten Ukraine,” she says, calling on the Russian army to “completely withdraw from Belarus.”
+++ 21:59 General Staff: “Heaviest fighting” continues in the southern and northern parts of Bakhmut +++
According to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine the “heaviest fighting” is currently going on in the southern and northern parts of Bakhmut. According to the report, Russia is trying to advance in the areas of Kupyansk, Lyman, Bakhmut, Shakhtarsk, Marjinka and Avdiivka. In the past 24 hours, Russia has carried out 41 airstrikes on Ukraine, one deadly rocket attack on Zaporizhia and 30 multiple rocket launcher (MLRS) airstrikes, the General Staff wrote in its evening update. Russian forces also reportedly launched 21 Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones from the Bryansk region to attack Ukraine, killing and injuring civilians in Kiev Oblast and damaging an energy site in Zhytomyr Oblast.
+++ 21:30 Zelenskyj after visiting the front: There is also hope in the Donbass +++
“It is painful to see the cities of Donbass, to which Russia has brought terrible suffering and ruin,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in his evening video address. There are “hourly air raid sirens, a constant threat of shelling, a constant threat to life.” But despite the severe destruction and suffering, there is hope in these areas. “You can feel them,” said Zelenskyj. “We will do everything so that the blue and yellow colors can continue their liberation movement and normal life can return to our whole country, from Donetsk to the border,” he said, alluding to the colors of the Ukrainian flag.
A video had appeared on social media that showed Selenskyj in a gas station during his visit to the front today with the armed forces, far from official appointments. He could also be seen with his coffee mug taking snapshots with the gas station staff.
+++ 21:07 Ukrainian military intelligence: Russians will change missile and drone attack tactics +++
After targeted attacks on energy supplies during the winter months, Russia will change the main target of its missile and drone strikes in Ukraine and focus more on military installations, troop concentrations and the units’ logistics system, according to Vadym Skibitsky, deputy head of Ukraine’s military intelligence service HUR. The infrastructure, such as oil refineries, hydraulic engineering, sewage treatment plants, but also means of transport (e.g. for western weapons) would of course still be the target of the Russian armed forces, Skibitsky said.
+++ 20:37 Zelenskyj honors “hero city” Kharkiv +++
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj also visited the city of Kharkiv in the northeast of the country today and presented Mayor Ihor Terekhov with the insignia of a “Hero City of Ukraine”. With the award, Selenskyj acknowledged the residents’ resistance to Russian attacks in the previous year. “Kharkiv is a real hero city,” said Zelenskyj, according to the Unian news agency. “Thanks to the citizens, this beautiful city, along with other cities, defends our independence.” Kharkiv had acted as a breakwater, so to speak, to stop the Russian offensive in the extreme east of the Ukraine in heavy fighting that involved losses for both sides. In May of the previous year, the Russian units were pushed out of the immediate vicinity of the city in the course of a Ukrainian counter-offensive. During his visit, Zelenskyy awarded a number of medals to the defenders of Ukraine’s second largest city. A few hours earlier, the Ukrainian head of state had distributed medals to the defenders near the heavily contested city of Bakhmut.
You can read earlier developments in the Ukraine war here.