As the war enters its 750th day, these are the main developments.
Here is the situation on Thursday, March 14, 2024.
Struggle
- At least four people were killed and eight injured after a Russian drone and bomb attack in The eastern regions of Donetsk and Sumy in Ukraine were affected by residential buildings.
- Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskii, head of Ukraine's army, said the situation on the eastern front was “difficult” and that Russian forces were continuing to carry out offensive operations. He said Russian activity on the southern front had “decreased significantly.”
- Ukraine attacked oil refineries in Russia's Rostov and Ryazan regions on the second day of intense drone strikes, causing a fire at Rosneft's largest refinery and temporarily halting production. A Ukrainian source told the Reuters news agency that the attacks were the work of SBU security services.
- Ukraine-based anti-Putin Russian paramilitaries supporting Kiev urged civilians to flee Belgorod and Kursk, threatening large-scale attacks on military targets in Russian border towns.
Politics and diplomacy
- Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo warned that Russia was preparing for a “long conflict with the West” and urged European countries to increase defense spending and coordination.
- Russian President Vladimir Putin said he would send more troops to Russia's border with Finland, which joined NATO in 2023 after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
- Leonid Volkov, an exiled Russian activist and former aide to Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny, who died in an Arctic penal colony last month, was attacked with a hammer and tear gas near his home in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius. . Lithuania accused Russia of being behind the attack, which left Volkov in hospital.
- The leaders of France, Germany and Poland said they would hold urgent talks in Berlin on Friday to increase support for Ukraine.
- Andriy Yermak, chief of staff to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, met with the Chinese ambassador in Kiev to continue discussing a visit last week by China's special envoy and preparations for a peace summit to be held in Switzerland. Russia said it had no intention of joining the summit, even if it were invited.
- Austria ordered two diplomats from the Russian embassy in Vienna to leave the country. The Foreign Office said the two had “engaged in acts incompatible with their diplomatic status.” He did not give more details.
Weapons
- After months of wrangling, European Union countries agreed to provide five billion euros ($5.48 billion) in military aid to Ukraine as part of a renewal of an EU-administered assistance fund.
- Czech national security adviser Tomas Pojar said the first deliveries of artillery ammunition under a Czech-led plan to boost supplies from Ukraine should arrive in the country by June at the latest.
