Embassy of Ukraine in the USA
WAR BULLETIN
March 24, 6.30 pm EST
President Zelenskyy: The threat of large-scale use of chemical weapons by Russia on the territory of Ukraine is quite real.
A.Yermak: Ukraine wants the State of Israel to be one of the guarantors of a major international treaty that would provide clear security guarantees for our country after the end of the war with Russia.
I.Vereshchuk: Today was held the first full-fledged exchange of POWs.
140 countries voted in favor of the UN Resolution "Humanitarian consequences of aggression against Ukraine" that clearly indicates the grounds of the humanitarian catastrophe.
From February 24 to March 24, the State Border Guard Service registered 3.2 million people crossed the Ukrainian border, in particular 2.2 million of our compatriots and 275,000 foreigners left Ukraine.
WAR ROOM
General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine
The 29th day of the heroic resistance of the Ukrainian people to the Russian military invasion continues.
The full-scale armed aggression of the Russian federation against Ukraine continues. The enemy continues to suffer significant losses.
To replenish them, the Russian invaders are recruiting reserve officers, conscripts and sergeants. The practice of recruiting mercenaries, recruited by Russian private military companies, persists.
In order to restore combat capability, the commanders of the Armed Forces of the Russian federation have made a number of decisions to remove from storage and send to military units that restore combat capability, obsolete armoured vehicles.
In the territories temporarily occupied by the enemy, there are frequent cases of seizure of trucks and special agricultural machinery from private entrepreneurs and farmers.
According to the information received, the military-political leadership of the Russian federation has decided to adjust the plans for further hostilities on the territory of Ukraine due to the fact that the goals set before the war with Ukraine were not met in time.
Over the past two weeks, more than 20 enterprises of the military-industrial complex of the Russian federation have been forced to suspend their activities in whole or in part due to lack of components and parts. In particular, the production of aircraft missiles at the Russian research and production enterprise "Vimpel" was suspended.
At the same time, the Russian military leadership is transferring weapons and military equipment from military districts to the territory of Belarus and the temporarily occupied Autonomous Republic of Crimea. The goal is to make an attempt to prepare and implement offensive actions for the encirclement of the city of Kyiv.
The Russian military leadership is beginning to realize that the available forces and means are not enough to maintain the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine and conduct defence operations.
In the Volyn, Polissya, and Siversky directions, the enemy was forced to abandon offensive operations, regroup troops, and hold previously occupied frontiers. Takes measures to mislead our units and continues to conduct reconnaissance.
Units of the Armed Forces of the republic of Belarus continue to be involved in covering certain sections of the Belarusian-Ukrainian border.
Enemy units are trying to blockade Chernihiv and capture the city of Slavutych, but did not achieve their goal.
In the Slobozhansky direction, the enemy continues to blockade the city of Sumy. It did not take any active actions in the direction of Kharkiv. The main efforts focused on the destruction of the city's civilian infrastructure.
It was not successful in the Izium direction. The Russian enemy suffered losses. It retreated to the southern part of the city.
In the Donetsk direction, the enemy does not refuse to conduct offensive operations, with the ultimate goal of reaching the administrative borders of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
In the South Buh area, the enemy is defending, taking measures to restore combat capability, replenish ammunition and fuel and oil in preparation for the resumption of offensive operations.
Units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine attacked large landing ships stationed in the port of Berdyask. As a result, a fire broke out on a large landing ship of project 1171, followed by the detonation of ammunition (enemy losses are being clarified).
Despite significant losses and demoralized personnel, the military-political leadership of the Russian federation does not refuse to continue its war against Ukraine. The enemy continues to destroy the infrastructure of peaceful towns and villages of Ukraine, grossly violating the rules of warfare and neglecting to comply with the requirements of international humanitarian law.
According to the available information, among the personnel of the armed forces of the Russian federation, propaganda work is constantly being carried out, which imposes the idea that the war must be completed before the 9th of May 2022.
The vast majority of the Russian federation's medical institutions in settlements located near the territory of Ukraine are occupied by wounded servicemen of the Russian federation, who took part in the war against Ukraine and encountered units of the defense forces in combat.
As a matter of urgency, the enemy is taking measures to renew the combat capability of the air units of the airborne troops, which had suffered critical losses both in manpower and military equipment.
Despite the active measures taken by the federal security services, the crossguard, and the informational-psychological operations, which are taking place on the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine, Russian occupants are facing enormous difficulties controlling the population in said territories. Attempts to install a false pro-Russian government among the traitors and collaborators do not have support from the local population.
In the unrecognized Transnistrian-moldavian republic, local Russian curators are spreading rumors about involving Transnistrian in the war with Ukraine.
In the temporarily occupied Autonomous Republic of Crimea, the location of the 126th separate coast guard brigade held a farewell ceremony with approximately 100 dead members of the unit at once. Similar measures recently took place at the sailors' club in the city of Sevastopol, where a farewell was held for the marines of the Black Sea fleet who died in the war against Ukraine.
In the city of Dokuchaivsk of the Donetsk region, the occupants created a filtration camp for civilians, who attempt to flee Mariupol. The punitive bodies of the Russian federation's FSB carry out so-called "filtration measures" with the detained people.
In the regions of the settlements Kreminna and Rubizhne, there have been records of forced evacuation of the Ukrainian citizens by the occupants, and their deportation to the Voronezh region.
In some settlements of the Chernihiv region, which are temporarily occupied by the occupational forces, instances of tractors being seized from local farmers have been observed.
Agricultural machinery is being used for evacuating the occupants' damaged equipment.
In the Kharkiv region, a battalion-tactical group from the 59th tank regiment of the Western military district, which operated in the direction of Kharkiv, came under the fire of Ukrainian artillery. The consolidated unit suffered significant losses in manpower and equipment.
Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine/Minister of Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories
Iryna Vereshchuk: “Today was the first full-fledged exchange of POWs”.
“In exchange for 10 captured occupiers, we are releasing 10 of our servicemen. Also today we sent to Russians 11 civilian Russian sailors whom we rescued from the sunken ship near Odessa. As a result of this exchange, 19 Ukrainian civilian sailors are returning home from the rescue ship Sapphire, which was captured by the Russians while trying to take our troops from Snake Island. Under the terms of the exchange, the rescue ship itself will also be returned to Ukraine and sent to a port in Turkey” noted Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine.
Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine
Persecution of the Head of the Central Election Office of the Qurultay of the Crimean Tatar People.
On March 24, 2022, Russians conducted an illegal search and detained the Head of the Central Election Office of the Qurultay of the Crimean Tatar People.
On March 23, 2022, Russian fascists fired multiple missiles at the Zolochiv settlement in the Bohodukhiv district. The shelling damaged more than 30 houses, some of which were completely destroyed.
Donetsk Prosecutor's Office urges citizens to join the collection of evidence on the forcible transfer of persons to the territory of the aggressor country.
On March 24, 2022, at about 00:28 CET, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, using means of warfare prohibited by international law, carried out aerial bombardment of a residential area in the town of Okhtyrka in the Sumy region. At least 15 residential multi-story and private buildings, civil infrastructure facilities and power lines were destroyed or damaged. According to preliminary data, one civilian died.
Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine
Police is recording the consequences of artillery shelling on the outskirts of Vyshgorod
On March 24, the occupiers fired heavy artillery at a residential area near Vyshhorod. As a result, a high-rise building was damaged. According to preliminary data, no one was injured.
Russians organize abduction of children in Ukraine.
In the occupied part of Kharkiv region invaders persuade collaborators to kidnap children of the locals.
According to operatives of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, people who agreed to work for the invaders stole children from a resident of one of the cities of Kharkiv region. The invaders were told that the man had weapons collected at the scene of hostilities. The Russians sent local collaborators to investigate.
The expropriators did not find the owner of the house, so in agreement with Russian officers, they took away his two minor sons. Their father just went to another village for humanitarian aid to feed his six-month-old grandson.
Ukraine introduces criminal liability for photo and video shooting of movements of servicemen, weapons and equipment of Ukrainian army.
In the Mykolayv region National police of Ukraine destroyed more than one hundred explosive devices, bombs and the missiles left after enemy shelling’s.
Ministry of Defense
The large landing ship “Orsk” of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian occupiers was destroyed in the temporarily Russian-occupied port of Berdyansk.
POLICY
President of Ukraine
Address by President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the participants of the Group of Seven summit
The world's greatest democracies represented by you!
First of all, I would like to thank Chancellor Scholz and the German presidency for the opportunity to address you today. At this urgent summit.
Today is exactly one month since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation. Russia, which was present at this format together with advanced democracies. Then the G7 was the G8. And there were a lot of hopes for its participation, for a dialogue with Russia. I want to emphasize that most of those hopes, as well as the place next to the Group of Seven, Russia received in advance. And it still hasn't deserved this advance.
But this and other similar advances gave the Russian leadership the impression that they would get away with anything. In recent years, the Russian state has created so many crises and such instability that it has now become a major problem for the world. A problem that is only growing.
And you and I still have no idea how many more such urgent summits will have to be held before the problems created by Russia are resolved. Europe is going through a war, every day of which is full of war crimes of Russian troops. This morning I received information that Russian troops had used phosphorus bombs against civilians in Ukraine.
The threat of large-scale use of chemical weapons by Russia on the territory of Ukraine is quite real. We are trying to find out the exact number of deported Ukrainians. People who are forcibly deported to Russia on a daily basis are deprived of documents, means of communication - everything is taken away - and distributed among their regions. And even then Russia tries to mobilize them into its army!
It illegally abducts children. According to our data, more than two thousand already! Ukrainian cities - Mariupol, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Okhtyrka and other cities - look like a global catastrophe. They are ruined. The roads from these cities, which people used to escape, resemble the set of a post-apocalyptic movie with hundreds of burned and shot cars.
But it is true: there is a global catastrophe! Russia has destroyed the global security architecture and dealt a powerful blow to international relations. But this is just the beginning. This war may be followed by a global food crisis. The longer there is no peace on Ukrainian land, the less food the world market will receive from Ukraine. Consequently, many countries in Asia, Africa, and even Europe, may have extraordinary problems with access to basic products, with food prices. This will definitely result in political destabilization. Maybe this is also the goal of the Russian leadership? I do not know.
We must all act immediately! Immediately stop Russian troops, remove them from the territory of Ukraine. Peace is needed immediately before the world faces an even greater level of problems. It is better now to tighten sanctions against Russia as much as necessary to stop its military machine than to deal with the consequences of the food and political security global crisis. Unprecedented challenges!
If so, a full embargo on trade with Russia is needed. It is necessary to deprive Russia of the opportunity to use GPS in war. It is very important. So that this system does not help Russian missiles and bombs destroy peaceful cities.
Russian banks and, most importantly, the Central Bank of Russia must get a complete blockade from the global financial system. War criminals should be left without money at all! And their frozen assets should turn, inter alia, into reparations for the reconstruction of Ukraine.
It is better to give Ukraine the kind of weaponry support we really need now than to look for weapons for other countries later. We mean Georgia, Moldova, the Baltic States, Poland and Central Asia.
The sooner this happens as we ask, the sooner there will be peace in Eastern Europe. This is in our best interest. This is in your best interest. This is in the interests of all democracies. Because democracies must be able to defend themselves. Freedom must be armed. Life must overcome death.
And I emphasize this: no advances to such a Russian state! Never again. Any steps towards it or towards any other violator of international law should take place only after their steps towards peace, towards universally recognized rules. And on the basis of a system of preventive deterrence.
I am grateful to you for the unprecedented unity. For your resolute support for peace for our country, for our people. I am grateful to those of you who are trying one hundred percent to stop this war. I believe we can do it. We will be able to make your Group of Seven not just the Great Seven, but the Great Seven of Peacekeepers. What do we need for this? Ukraine is very specific in answering this question.
First - to intensify sanctions against Russian aggression on a weekly basis until it stops and restores peace for us.
Second - to take part in the creation of a new system of security guarantees for Ukraine, for our region. Real guarantees. Effective. Those that can stop any aggressor in 24 hours.
We offered to create an association - U-24. This is what the world really needs. Not just to preventively stop the war or hostilities that have already begun. But also to provide assistance to the states that were affected by the natural disaster, that need to be supported during a pandemic, that are facing migration or food crises.
The world needs new effective alliances! New effective guarantees! This can support developing democracies. This can support the economies of countries where there are no stable institutions yet.
And third - which directly concerns our state and Eastern Europe. We must rebuild our state together as soon as possible after the war. Rebuild cities. Restore economic life. Bring people back.I offer you to participate in such a project. Recovery project. I am sure it will be in our common interest.
But first - weapons for Ukraine. First - increase sanctions against Russia every week. That is, peace comes first. We have the strength to do it. You have the strength to do it. So, may there be peace! I am grateful to everyone who supports us.
Thank you.
Israel could become one of the guarantors of the international agreement on security guarantees for Ukraine, as it should understand us like no other - Andriy Yermak
Ukraine would like the State of Israel to be one of the guarantors of a major international treaty that would provide clear security guarantees for our country after the end of the war with Russia. Ukraine also hopes for an effective mediation role of Israel in ending the war and more powerful assistance to our country. This was stated by Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak during a conversation with the Israeli media.
He stressed that our country has very warm, friendly and special relations with Israel. Andriy Yermak noted that the Ukrainian authorities welcome the mediating role of the State of Israel in its attempts to stop the war started by the Russian Federation on the territory of our country.
"We are amazed at how deeply Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, are aware of the issue. And we believe that he is really determined to do everything necessary to bring peace to our land and end the war," said the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine.
At the same time, he stated that there are issues that Ukraine will never compromise on.
"These are compromises related to our independence, territorial integrity and sovereignty. And Prime Minister Bennett knows about it," Andriy Yermak added.
According to him, there are also hopes that Israel can be one of the guarantors of the future major international agreement on security guarantees for Ukraine.
"Such an agreement provides for a large list of countries - potential guarantors. Therefore, we are holding separate consultations with each of these countries in order to meet together afterwards," said the Head of the Office of the President.
In addition, Ukraine would like to receive more assistance from the State of Israel in armaments and military technology.
Andriy Yermak noted that the Israeli authorities should also resolve the issue, which was very negatively perceived in Ukraine, when the rules of entry for our citizens were changed and electronic permits were introduced.
Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine
Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine has been ongoing already for a month. Every day Ukrainian diplomats work to make our victory closer. Our achievements:
️ Our partners imposed powerful sanctions which are ruining the Russian economy
️ Number of Russian banks were disconnected from SWIFT
️ Many countries closed their sky for Russian airplanes
️ More than 240 companies left Russian market
️ Russia was expelled from the Council of Europe and from the Danube Commission
️ 141 states supported UN General Assembly's ResolutionES-11/1 on Russian aggression against Ukraine
️ Ukraine has obtained the first victory in the International Court of Justice
️ Our partners provide enhanced military, humanitarian, and financial assistance to Ukraine
️ The international community develops reconstruction fund that will help to rebuild Ukraine after our victory
️ Parliaments of the world are applauding the President of Ukraine, millions of people around the world send their support to our country
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UN General Assembly Special Session
Today, during the continued 11th Emergency Special Session on the Humanitarian situation in Ukraine, 140 countries voted in favor of the Resolution "Humanitarian consequences of aggression against Ukraine" that clearly indicates the grounds of the humanitarian catastrophe and focuses on the immediate steps for the facilitation of sufferings on the ground.
By supporting this document, UN member countries reaffirmed Russia's full responsibility for the humanitarian consequences of the aggression against Ukraine and condemned the aggressor's violation of the international humanitarian law.
The approved document calls on Russia to immediately cease shelling civilian population and infrastructure, end the siege of cities, and ensure full access for humanitarian personnel to deliver humanitarian assistance.
The Resolution calls for the safe and uninterrupted passage of civilians who leave the war zone, including foreign nationals and students.
The Resolution also warns of the possible consequences of Russia's aggression on global food security and the potential environmental consequences of nuclear facilities shelling.
The UN Member States emphasized the need to fully implement the UN General Assembly Resolution of March 2, 2022, "Aggression against Ukraine," and tasked the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator to prepare a report on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine.
The adopted Resolution is the result of collective and rigorous efforts of more than two dozen countries from all over the world: 90 countries became its co-authors.
We are grateful for the full support of the UN Member States for the General Assembly resolution, which has become an essential part of the international actions for holding Russia accountable for its actions.
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State Border Guard Service
Since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, 3.2 million people have crossed Ukraine's state border.
Ukraine has been holding back and defeating a much bigger enemy for a month. We showed the world the stability of Ukraine, the courage of our soldiers, national unity in the fight against the enemy.
In connection with the military aggression committed by Russia against the Ukrainian people, tens of thousands of citizens cross the state border of Ukraine every day.
️In total, from February 24 to March 24, the State Border Guard Service registered 3.2 million people for both entering and leaving Ukraine.
In particular, 2.2 million of our compatriots and 275,000 foreigners left the country. We remind you that in the conditions of the humanitarian crisis, the priority of crossing the border of Ukraine is given to women and children.
At the same time, during the war 435 thousand of our compatriots returned to Ukraine, the vast majority of whom are men. Thank you to our defenders, our Warriors of Light!
The war of the Russian Federation against our state is not only a war against Ukraine, we stand for security and democratic values of the whole world.