These are the key developments on days 1,116 and 1,117 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Here is the roundup of key events on Saturday and Sunday, March 16th and 17th:
Fighting
- A Russian missile struck a residential area in the Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, injuring 11 people, including two children, the governor of Dnipropetrovsk, Serhiy Lysak, said. Several apartment buildings, homes and a building housing multiple businesses were damaged, according to Lysak.
- Russian far-right paramilitary operative Yan Petrovsky was sentenced to life in prison by a Finnish court after being convicted of four war crimes in Ukraine. The court found that he killed a soldier and shared degrading images of the victim.
- Ukraine’s largest private energy provider, DTEK, said Russian strikes caused “significant” damage to its energy facilities in Dnipropetrovsk and Odesa. Some residents in the regions were reportedly left without power due to the attacks.
- Kyiv’s air force said Moscow launched 178 drones overnight, out of which some 130 were shot down while another 38 went missing and did not reach their targets.
- Russia’s Ministry of Defence said its forces shot down 126 Ukrainian drones in an overnight attack on Friday targeting the Volgograd and Voronezh regions. This came after Moscow rejected an immediate ceasefire proposed by the United States.
- The Ukrainian Air Force said it shot down 47 of 90 Russian drones in an overnight attack. Another 33 drones were reportedly lost due to electronic warfare.
- The Russian Defence Ministry announced that its troops reclaimed the villages of Rubanshchina and Zaoleshenka in the western Kursk region. The acting regional governor, Alexander Khinshtein, said 371 civilians were evacuated to safety from these areas, including 14 children.
- Russia launched an overnight drone attack on Kyiv early on Monday, Ukraine’s air defence units said. Further details were not available.
Politics and diplomacy
- US President Donald Trump said he would speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday about bringing an end to the war in Ukraine.
- Putin called on Ukrainian troops fighting in Kursk to surrender, saying they would be guaranteed “life and dignified treatment”. He said he made the call out of “sympathy” after Trump called on him to “spare” the lives of Ukrainian soldiers.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the topic of territorial control would be a key focus of any ceasefire. However, he said Ukraine would not recognise its occupied regions as parts of Russia.
- United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer, accusing Putin of not being serious about peace talks, said Russia would have to come to the table sooner or later. “If Putin is serious about peace, I think it’s very simple, he has to stop his barbaric attacks on Ukraine and agree to a ceasefire, and the world is watching,” he said.
- Zelenskyy also accused Russia of not showing interest in ending the war, highlighting the continued attacks on Kyiv.
- He appointed an official delegation to represent Kyiv in future peace talks. Presidential chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, was named head of the delegation, which includes Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, Defence Minister Rustem Umerov and Yermak’s deputy Pavlo Palisa.
- Zelenskyy also appointed Major-General Andrii Hnatov as Ukrainian forces’ new chief of general staff, Umerov said.
- Umerov met his counterparts in the Czech Republic and Italy to discuss military assistance, defence cooperation and battlefield needs, the Ukrainian Defence Ministry said.
- French President Emmanuel Macron said Russia has no say in foreign troops’ future deployment to Ukraine.
- Trump changed Keith Kellogg’s role from special envoy to Ukraine and Russia to envoy for only Ukraine. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied allegations that Russia wanted Kellogg to be excluded from peace negotiations with Ukraine due to Kellogg’s pro-Kyiv stance.
- US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov discussed the upcoming stages in the talks to end the war. According to Tammy Bruce, a spokeswoman for the State Department, the diplomats “agreed to continue working towards restoring communication between the US and Russia”.
- Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko told Russian media outlets that Moscow would seek “ironclad security guarantees” to have Ukraine excluded from NATO membership.