Ukraine: WAR BULLETIN March 31, 11.00 a.m. EST
Embassy of Ukraine in the USA
WAR BULLETIN
March 31, 11.00 a.m. EST
WAR ROOM
General Stuff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine
The total combat losses of the enemy from 24.02 to 31.03:
personnel – 17500,
tanks ‒ 614,
APVs ‒ 1735,
artillery systems – 311,
MLRS – 96,
anti-aircraft warfare systems – 54,
aircrafts – 135,
helicopters – 131,
vehicles – 1201,
vessels – 7,
fuel tanks – 75,
UAVs operational-tactical level – 83.
special equipment – 22.
mobile SRBM systems – 4.
The thirty-sixth day of the heroic resistance of the Ukrainian people to the Russian military invasion began.
The main efforts of the Russian enemy are focused on maintaining the occupied territory, preparing for the resumption of offensive operations in certain areas and establishing full control over the territory of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Russians are taking measures to replenish groups of the armed forces of the Russian federation in order to conduct an offensive in the Eastern Operational Zone of Ukraine. The transfer of part of the enemy’s equipment from the territory of the republic of Belarus to the territory of the Russian federation by railways was recorded.
There is a threat that Russians will use missiles, striking objects of the defense-industrial complex and logistical infrastructure of Ukraine. Additional units of the armed forces of the Russian Federation are being relocated to Ukraine to conduct hostilities. At the same time, some military units of the Russian enemy have already exhausted the possibilities of forming reserves.
In the Volyn direction, no significant changes in the composition and position of Russian enemy troops were noted.
In the Polissya direction, the enemy’s main efforts are focused on withdrawing units from the territory of Ukraine, restoring their combat capability and transferring them to other directions. In particular, the enemy is moving units of the 35th, 36th All-Military Armies and the 76th Airborne Assault Division of the Airborne Troops from the Polissya Operational District.
To ensure the withdrawal of troops, the occupiers are conducting artillery fire on the positions of units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and carry out remote mining of the area by means prohibited by international conventions. Due to the critical situation, the withdrawal of units of the 35th All-Military Army is personally organized by the commander of the army, Lieutenant General Oleksandr Sanchyk.
According to the available information, during the fighting against Ukraine, the losses of the 1st Motorized Rifle Battalion of the 36th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade (unit 06705, Borzya) of the 29th All-Military Army accounted for more than 60% of the personnel.
In the Siversky direction, the Russian enemy operates with the help of separate units of the 2nd, 41st All-Military Army and 90th Tank Division of the Central Military District.
The Russian occupiers continue to block and carry out artillery shelling of Chernihiv. They are fixed on the occupied frontiers and are regrouping. Russians use UAVs to conduct reconnaissance and adjust artillery fire.
In the Brovary direction, the enemy continues to withdraw units to the border areas with the Russian federation.
Some units remain at positions and checkpoints along transport communications and on the approaches to temporarily occupied settlements, mines areas and civilian objects.
In the Slobozhansky direction, the Russian enemy continues to carry out artillery shelling of the city of Kharkiv.
In the direction of Slovyansk, the Russian enemy continues to regroup troops and replenish ammunition and fuel and oil.
In the Donetsk direction, the Russian enemy is concentrating its main efforts on taking control of the settlements of Popasna, Rubizhne, as well as the capture of the city of Mariupol.
Russians intensified air strikes with the use of operational and tactical aircraft on troops and facilities in the areas of the settlements of Lysychansk, Rubizhne, Popasna, and Kreminna. The enemy attempted to bypass Ukrainian forces, but was unsuccessful. Russians are strengthening the group in the Donetsk direction. The arrival of railway echelons with weapons and equipment at the Rovenky railway station was noted.
Russians continue assault in the city of Mariupol.
The Russian enemy concentrated its efforts on maintaining the occupied positions in the areas of the settlements of Novozlatopil and Lyubimovka.
In the Tavriya direction, near Nova Kakhovka, the enemy deployed a logistics base and does not take active action.
In the South Bug direction, the Russian enemy is taking measures to restore combat capability and continues to carry out engineering activities. Russians are attempting to block the actions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine with artillery fire.
Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights
Liberated from the Russians cities are a mirror of the ” Russian world”, mass murder, torture and destruction.
During the occupation and fighting in Trostyanets, the city sustained a large-scale destruction.
90% of the settlement is without heating, electricity, water and communication.
The bodies of dead or tortured are found in the city every day. Number of citizens abducted or forcibly deported to Russia is still unknown.
About 10,000 citizens who remained in Trostyanets need food and medicine. During the 30 days of occupation and looting of Russians, many people went on a hunger strike.
Russians also mined the cemetery, leaving a large number of streamers – in the fields, roadsides and roads.
As of 10 a.m. on March 31, 2022, according to the Unified Register of Pre-Trial Investigations, as well as other sources that need confirmation, 148 children (+3 per day) have died and 232 children (+10 per day) have been injured since the Russian invasion in Ukraine.
In the Luhansk region, Russians are constantly shelling peaceful cities. Two people died, five were injured and 21 were rescued from debris and fires. The city of Lysychansk was attacked by Russian artillery, settlement of Popasna was heavily bombed by the aircraft.
As a result of heavy shelling of Severodonetsk, Rubizhne, Lysychansk, Kreminna, dozens of civilian objects were damaged – a school, an oil depot, dozens of houses in Severodonetsk and Lysychansk were engulfed in Russian fire. Injured and killed in Lysychans could not be removed from the streets due to the heavy fire from the enemy.
Centre of Strategic Communications
Situation in Kyiv Region: mined areas and regular shelling.
In Kyiv region, the enemy, retreating, mined some areas and residential buildings, stressed the Head of the Kyiv Oblast Administration O.Pavlyuk. Such cases are increasingly detected, mines are neutralized.
O.Pavlyuk also noted that the dangerous areas still remain:
• Settlements along the Zhytomyr highway;
• Bucha – Vorzel – Gostomel;
• Dmitrov community;
• Makariv community;
• north of Vyshhorod district;
• territories of some settlements of Baryshivska, Kalitnyanska, Velykodymerska communities.
Every day there are 30 to 40 enemy shelling of housing estates and social infrastructure of Kyiv region.
As of March 31, the level of radiation at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is not monitored.
The system for monitoring the level of radiation pollution in the Chernobyl zone is not working. This was announced by the Head of the State Agency for Exclusion Zone Management Yevhen Kramarenko on national TV:
– Previously, the level of radiation at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant could be observed online.
– The last time the monitoring system was working was on March 25, when the radiation level exceeded the norm seven times.
– Currently, the monitoring system is not working, so it is impossible to find out the level of radiation and air pollution.
POLICY
President of Ukraine
Speech by President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the States General of the Netherlands
I have the great honor of becoming the first foreign head of state to address the House of Representatives of the Netherlands and your people. In this format, at such a time.
I am sincerely grateful for this opportunity. For the fact that in these critical circumstances in which my country and our entire continent found themselves, I can explain to you directly what is happening and why it is so important to be together now for all of us, for all Europeans. For all who value peace on our planet.
So much has been done since World War II so that what Ukraine is experiencing right now never happens again. But everything repeats.
The World War II began with the destruction of individual states as well. And then it led to the tragedy of Rotterdam, the terrible bombing of London and the massacre that engulfed all of Europe.
Especially since many in Russia want to carry this aggression further, further to Europe. The shadow of those ruins of Rotterdam is already hanging over many European cities. Ukraine is just the beginning, if Russia isn’t stopped. If we don’t stop it immediately!
36 days! 36! That is how long our state, our people have already been fighting alone against the army, which was considered among the strongest in the world. Russia has been preparing for this campaign against us, against freedom, against our people for decades. They have accumulated as many resources to spend on war, on death, as not every European country can spend on life.
For many others, the war in Ukraine is becoming routine. Unfortunately, this is true. Routine. But not for those whose lives are in danger every minute.
Who, as residents of our city of Mariupol, has been under complete blockade for more than three weeks already.
Hundreds of children were killed. Thousands of people were killed. Tens of thousands of houses were destroyed. Burned cities, villages. Russian occupiers rape women in occupied areas. They loot everything they can, everything they find. They even kill not to achieve any military success anymore. Not to sow terror.
Tomorrow your country will celebrate 450 years since the beginning of the armed uprising against tyranny. A fundamental event for your state, for your society. What was the goal of the founders of the Netherlands? Obviously: freedom, democracy, human dignity, cohesion, cultural, religious diversity.
And all this is now under attack again. All this now needs to be defended again. To be defended in the east of Europe, to be defended in our state, in Ukraine. So far only in Ukraine… So far there is a chance to stop the tyranny on our land and drive it back, beyond our Ukrainian border.
I am grateful to you, politicians, I am grateful to all ordinary people for the extremely strong support of my state, our people at this time. For leadership in sanctions. For the principled stance in business activity related to the Russian Federation. For the help you provide to Ukrainian immigrants who have felt family care in your society. This is all extremely valuable!
But Russia does not cease hostilities on the territory of Ukraine. Exactly on the territory of Ukraine. And we have to do much more to restore peace. To protect freedom. To save us as a state. And to really ensure one vital fact: there will never be another war in Europe. Never again!
In 2014, the world did not fully understand why the Russian occupiers came to our land. Then – to the land of Crimea, partly – to the land of Donbas. There can be no doubt that this is a totally unjust war.
Your city, The Hague, the capital of international justice, knows exactly how to do it. I’m sure they will do it! To assert international law. To assert the rule of law. To assert justice that is clear to everyone on Earth.
But for that to happen, sanctions need to be stepped up. Together with other EU countries, you have to do everything possible so that Russia does not have the resources to continue this war, the war in Europe, and so that there is no political opportunity to hide criminals.
Close your ports to Russian ships! Together with all other EU countries. Stop any trade with this country that has forgotten all the lessons of World War II!
Get ready faster to give up Russia’s energy resources, so that billions, billions of euros for them do not go to arms production and mass killings in Ukraine.
Tyranny must lose. Tyranny must always lose.
And for that to happen, freedom must get all the weapons it needs to win, to defend itself. The weapons that are available on the continent. The weapons you have.
“Stingers” and “Panzerfausts” allow you to hold on, to fight. However, this is not a weapon of victory. We desperately need weapons that can make our skies safe, that we can use to unblock our cities where Russia is artificially creating famine.
We need weapons that can drive the occupiers out of our land. Aircraft, tanks, NASAMS air-defense systems and Spike anti-tank systems, shells, missiles and more. You have this list. And I hope you will find an opportunity to help us as much as you can, to help us with that.
The second point. I urge you to influence international institutions! The crimes of the Russian occupiers must be punished. Deportations, massacres, destruction of civilian infrastructure, bombing of hospitals – all this must be answered by the democratic community.
Third. We already have to think about rebuilding Ukraine. About how we all – not only Ukrainians, but all Europeans – will return to a peaceful life.
I dream of this day. The day when Ukrainian immigrants who arrived in the European Union after the beginning of the Russian aggression will be able to say “thank you” and return home. Return to rebuilt cities, to restored Ukraine.
And I invite your country to join this project – the project of reconstruction of Ukraine. I urge you to choose a city, a region of our state that can see your care, can feel what you can do.
I believe that this will happen very soon! Because it is absolutely rational. With our potential, with our people, with our ability to defend freedom. And you know this perfectly well! And you know very well, my friend Mark, that our accession to the European Union depends very much on you, on your country.
I want to thank you for everything!
Full speech: https://www.president.gov.ua/en/news/promova-prezidenta-ukrayini-volodimira-zelenskogo-u-generaln-74001
Address by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Australian Parliament
In May 2016, thousands of Australians gathered at Perth Airport to see the Ukrainian “Mriya” for the first time. “Mriya” is the name of our An-225 aircraft. “Mriya” is a dream in English. After covering almost 15,000 kilometers, it delivered to Australia an urgent cargo – a 130-ton electric generator, which your enterprise desperately needed. Delivery by sea would take several months. And the Ukrainian plane did it in a few days.
We have always been proud of our “Mriya”. Not because it is the largest on the planet. First of all because it helped people from all over the world by delivering food, drinking water, equipment for peacekeeping and humanitarian missions.
Unfortunately, now it is impossible. On February 27, as a result of fighting in the city of Hostomel, our plane “Mriya” was burned. Can we say that Russia has destroyed our dream? No. It burned the plane, it burned the iron. It destroyed matter, not soul.
For decades, there has been no such threat of nuclear strikes as there is now. Because Russian officials and state propagandists are openly discussing the use of nuclear weapons against those who do not want to obey Russian demands.
If Russia is not stopped now, if Russia is not brought to justice, some other countries in the world that dream of a similar war against their neighbors will decide that this is possible for them as well.
The fate of global security is being decided now. After 36 days of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, it is safe to say that there is no other way in the world to guarantee global security than to force Russia into silence, into peace. And also to bring it to justice – this is important – for everything it has done against global security.
I am sure that each of you, as well as each of us Ukrainians, remembers the tragedy of MH-17. Malaysian Boeing shot down by the Russian occupiers in the sky over the Ukrainian Donbas. Then 298 people died. My condolences to all the families who lost their loved ones.
But was it possible to bring to justice those who caused this tragedy? No. They are hiding in Russia. And, obviously, received security guarantees from the Russian state. Has Russia paid compensation to the relatives of the victims? No. It still denies its guilt in the tragedy.
We need to fix these terrible mistakes now.
I am grateful to Australia for its bipartisan support for our defense against invaders. For the help that your state has already given us. In particular, for 70 thousand tons of coal for the needs of our energy.
Together we can, and must do more. New sanctions against Russia are needed. Strong sanctions. As long as it doesn’t abandon nuclear blackmail, the blockade of the sea, it must pay the highest price. No Russian ship should be allowed into the ports of the free world. Buying Russian oil means paying for the destruction of the foundations of global security. Any business activity with Russia must be completely stopped.
Dear friends, the geographical distance between us is insane. Thousands of kilometers. But what does this distance mean for those who have a common understanding, who see the world the same way, who are bitterly disturbed when the enemy comes, when children are killed, when cities are destroyed, when refugees are shot on the roads, when a peaceful country is turned into a burned territory? Then any distance disappears. Geography means nothing. Only humanity matters. Only a dream of returning to a peaceful life.
Full speech: https://www.president.gov.ua/en/news/promova-prezidenta-ukrayini-volodimira-zelenskogo-v-parlamen-73993
Deputy Prime Minister – Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories
Ukraine has received a message from the International Committee of the Red Cross that the Russian Federation confirms its readiness to open access for the humanitarian convoy to Mariupol in transit through Berdyansk. In addition, two humanitarian corridors in the Zaporizhzhia region have been agreed – from Melitopol and Enerhodar. This was announced by Iryna Vereshchuk.
According to her, 45 buses were sent to Mariupol along the route. In particular, as of 9:00 am, 28 buses were to be allowed to pass through the Russian checkpoint in Vasylivka. In addition, 17 buses have already departed from Zaporizhzhia.
“We will do everything possible to ensure that buses arrive in Mariupol today and pick up people who have not yet been able to get out of the city,” said the Deputy Prime Minister.
Two humanitarian corridors in the Zaporizhzhia region have been agreed. In particular, for the delivery of humanitarian aid and the evacuation of people from the city of Melitopol. It is also planned to organize a column of citizens on their own transport from the city of Enerhodar to Zaporizhzhia.
