Ukrainian firefighters tackle blazes after deadly Russian strike on Zaporizhzhia
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At least five people have been killed and 16 others have been injured after Russia launched a large-scale missile and drone attack on multiple Ukrainian cities overnight, local officials said.
The explosions were reported from the cities of Poltava and Zaporizhzhia shortly before 3am.
Russia launched a total of 392 drones and 34 missiles in the overnight attack targeting multiple Ukrainian cities, Ukraine’s air force said this morning.
Air defence units shot down or neutralised 25 missiles and 365 drones, the air force said in a post on Telegram.
The large-scale attacks killed two in the Poltava region, with Zaporizhzhia, Kherson and Kharkiv each reporting one death, according to the AFP news agency.
The Russian strikes disconnected Moldova’s key power link with Europe, president Maia Sandu said this morning.
“Alternative routes are in place, but the situation remains fragile. Russia alone bears responsibility,” she said.
Poland scrambled fighter planes and allied aircraft to respond to the Russian strikes, though it later confirmed that “no violations of the country’s airspace were observed”.
Recap: Ukraine and US still need to work out security guarantees, says Zelensky
Ukraine and the United States still need to “work through” the security guarantees agreement that Kyiv has long sought from Washington, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday.
Security guarantees were one of the topics discussed over the weekend between Kyiv and Washington’s representatives at a meeting in Florida.
“Meetings at the leadership level are needed to truly resolve these issues,” he wrote on social media.
“I have instructed the team to continue working as actively as possible with partners so that diplomacy is substantive and that, in particular, humanitarian issues such as prisoner exchanges are resolved.”
Rustem Umerov, Ukraine’s top negotiator, at talks in Florida (Volodymyr Zelensky / X)
James Reynolds24 March 2026 15:10
EU backs off permanent ban on Russian oil imports as Trump’s Iran war bites
The European Commission will no longer submit a legal proposal to permanently ban Russian oil imports over Moscow’s war in Ukraine on April 15 as previously planned, an updated EU legislative agenda showed on Tuesday.
An EU official, however, said the proposal had not been cancelled and would still be published though no longer by the mid-April date due to “current geopolitical developments”.
The US-Israeli war on Iran is creating the biggest oil supply disruption in history, according to the International Energy Agency, sending global crude prices soaring.
The proposal would fix into law a full phase-out of Russian oil imports by no later than end-2027. The European Union has already legislated a phase-out by late 2027 of gas imports from Russia.
Petrol trucks in the village of Konstantinovo in the Moscow region, Russia June 8, 2022 (file) (Reuters)
James Reynolds24 March 2026 14:25
Recap: Russia sustains major losses as Ukraine beats back offensive
The Russian army has sustained more than 6,000 casualties in the last four days as Ukraine beat back an attempt at a fresh offensive.
Ukrainian Army Commander Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi said on Monday that Russian forces tried to overwhelm Ukrainian defensive formations in several directions, amounting to 619 attacks in four days.
“Over four days of intensive assault operations, the enemy lost more than 6,090 soldiers killed and wounded,” he said, adding that Ukraine managed to largely repel the offensive.
A soldier fires a 155mm M-109 “Paladin” howitzer towards Russian forces on the frontline in the Zaporizhzhia region, 18 March (Ukraine’s 65th Mechanized Brigade)
James Reynolds24 March 2026 13:39
UK says it ‘will not cease’ support for Ukraine and its people
Britain will continue to support Ukraine and its people, the UK chargé d’affaires to the UN told a Security Council meeting yesterday.
“Russia is now firing over 5,000 drones per month in Ukraine, five times higher than in 2024. The burden on Ukrainian civilians is immense,” James Kariuki said.
He said there have been more 50,000 Ukrainian civilian casualties and over 15,000 killed since Russia started its war.
“Mr President, the UK fully supports the diplomatic efforts of our US colleagues to secure a peace that guarantees Ukraine’s long-term security, sovereignty, and prosperity.
“We call on Russia to end its war of choice, immediately and without pre-conditions.
“The UK will not cease in our support for Ukraine and its people,” he said.
Ambassador James Kariuki, deputy permanent representative of the United Kingdom to the UN, speaks during a United Nations Security Council meeting (Getty Images)
Arpan Rai24 March 2026 11:00
Ukraine seeing violence ‘worse than ever’, says UN official
The violence being meted out in the Ukraine war is “worse than ever” more than four years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion, according to a UN official.
Rosemary DiCarlo, the head of UN political and peacebuilding affairs, said the conflict had caused “nearly 1,500 days of death, destruction and despair”, as she repeated the UN’s long-standing demand for a ceasefire.
She said at least 15,364 civilians were confirmed killed, including 775 children, and more than 42,000 others injured, though actual numbers are likely to be higher, since Russian president Vladimir Putin launched his offensive in February 2022.
“The suffering and destruction caused by the war in Ukraine can never be justified. The longer the war exists, the deadlier it becomes, with growing risks to regional and international security,” she said.
The official added that at least 188 civilians were killed in February alone, and 757 injured – a 45 per cent increase over the same period last year.
Rosemary DiCarlo, Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, briefs the United Nations Security Council (AP)
Arpan Rai24 March 2026 10:40
Russia loses more than 6,000 troops in four days, says Ukrainian military
Russian forces have suffered more than 6,000 casualties in the last four days after Vladimir Putin’s army attempted a renewed offensive to capture more land in Ukraine, officials said.
Ukrainian army commander Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi said the Russian operations were a “colossal pressure” and their forces were beaten back.
“The enemy tried to break through the defensive formations of our troops in several strategic directions at once… In total, the enemy conducted 619 assault actions during these four days,” he said.
The Russian command, he said, threw tens of thousands of soldiers into the “meat assaults”.
“Over four days of intensive assault operations, the enemy lost more than 6,090 soldiers killed and wounded,” Syrskyi said, adding that Kyiv largely managed to repel the offensive.
Ukrainian soldiers fire at Russian positions on the front line in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine (AP)
Arpan Rai24 March 2026 10:10
Moscow security agencies put on higher alert over threat of attack from Ukraine
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), police and national guard in Moscow have been put on higher alert due to intelligence that there is a threat of a sabotage attack from Ukraine, Russia’s state RIA news agency reported today.
The FSB, the main successor to the KGB, had received intelligence that Ukraine planned acts of sabotage and attacks on “government officials, military personnel of the Russian Defence Ministry and law enforcement officers”, according to the Russian state agency report.
Lieutenant General Vladimir Alexeyev, deputy head of Russia’s GRU military intelligence service, was shot three times in February with a Makarov pistol equipped with a silencer in an apartment block on the Volokolamsk highway in northern Moscow. He survived the attack.
Arpan Rai24 March 2026 09:55
Ukraine has ‘irrefutable’ evidence of Russia providing intelligence to Iran, says Zelensky
Ukraine’s military intelligence has “irrefutable” evidence that Russia continues to provide intelligence to Iran and such activity can only prolong the war in the Middle East, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has said.
“Russia is using its own signals intelligence and electronic intelligence capabilities, as well as part of the data obtained through cooperation with partners in the Middle East,” he said on X after meeting the head of military intelligence.
Zelensky, later in his nightly address, said there was “growing evidence” of continued Russian efforts to funnel intelligence to Iran.
“This is clearly destructive activity and must be stopped as it only leads to further destabilisation. All decent states are interested in guaranteeing security and preventing a larger crisis,” he said.
“Markets are already reacting negatively and this is significantly complicating the fuel situation in many countries. By helping the Iranian regime survive and strike more accurately, Russia is effectively prolonging the war,” he said.
The Kremlin last week dismissed a Wall Street Journal report that Russia was sharing satellite imagery and improved drone technology with Iran as “fake news”.
(Ukrainian Presidential press-service )
Arpan Rai24 March 2026 09:40
Russia’s drone-hit Primorsk resumes oil loadings, data and sources show
Russia’s Baltic Sea port of Primorsk has resumed crude oil loadings following a suspension of operations due to drone attacks, according to two industry sources and LSEG ship-tracking data.
Two of Russia’s main Baltic Sea outlets, Primorsk and Ust-Luga, halted operations on Sunday after drone attacks. Ust-Luga resumed exports on Monday.
The local governor said the fuel reservoirs at Primorsk had caught fire following the drone attacks.
LSEG data showed that the oil tanker Anlan has been set up for loading at Primorsk’s port facilities this morning.
A Ukrainian drone attack damaged fuel reservoirs at the oil export hub of Primorsk in northwestern Russia, regional authorities said yesterday.
(Planet Labs PBC )
Arpan Rai24 March 2026 09:23
Russian strikes in Ukraine cut Moldova’s key power link to Europe
Russian strikes overnight on energy infrastructure in Ukraine disconnected Moldova’s key power link with Europe, president Maia Sandu said this morning.
“Alternative routes are in place, but the situation remains fragile. Russia alone bears responsibility,” she said in a statement on social media website X.
Arpan Rai24 March 2026 09:15
