Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,127
Here is the roundup of key events as of Thursday, March 27.
Fighting
Russian forces launched a mass drone attack on Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, injuring nine people and causing considerable damage, according to emergency services and Ukrainian officials.
A Russian drone attack also triggered fires in the central city of Dnipro, according to regional governor Serhiy Lysak. No casualties were immediately reported.
The mayor of Ukraine’s southern port of Mykolaiv said there were emergency power outages early on Wednesday in the city, following an attack by Russian drones.
The Ukrainian military said its air defence units shot down 56 of 117 drones launched by Russia.
A Russian military court handed long prison sentences to 12 members of Ukraine’s Azov regiment, which led the defence of the city of Mariupol in the early months of the war. The defendants – charged with terrorist activity and with violently seizing or retaining power – were sentenced to between 13 and 23 years in prison.
Russian state TV journalist Anna Prokofieva was killed and her cameraman Dmitry Volkov was seriously injured by a landmine allegedly laid by the Ukrainian military in Russia’s Belgorod region.
Ceasefire
Ukraine and Russia accused one another of flouting a truce on attacks against energy facilities brokered by the United States after Washington announced separate agreements on Tuesday to pause strikes in the Black Sea and against energy targets.
Senior Ukrainian presidential official Ihor Zhovkva said Russia has attacked at least eight Ukrainian energy facilities since March 18, when Moscow says it halted such attacks.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s order for a moratorium on attacking energy infrastructure in Ukraine is being fulfilled by Russia’s armed forces, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov claimed.
The Ukrainian military rejected as false Russian accusations that it carried out strikes on energy facilities in Russia’s Kursk and Bryansk regions, as well as in Russia-occupied Crimea.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the US told Kyiv that the truce deals with Russia were effective as soon as they were announced. But the Kremlin said the Black Sea ceasefire agreement would not enter force until a sanctioned Russian state bank was reconnected to the international payment system, Swift. European leaders said this would not happen until Russia withdraws from Ukraine.
Speaking alongside French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris in advance of a European summit to discuss Ukraine, President Zelenskyy said he hopes Washington has enough power to press Russia into an unconditional ceasefire after Moscow put forward its conditions for the Black Sea truce.
I want to highlight France’s efforts in helping us defend against Russian strikes. In particular, your “Mirages”—combat aircraft made in France—have performed very well. I am particularly grateful for them—they have already become a part of our air shield and are helping us… pic.twitter.com/ccHbSvWTKM
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) March 26, 2025
The Kremlin said Moscow was continuing its intensive contact with the US and was pleased with how talks with Washington had gone so far. “We are satisfied with how pragmatically and constructively our dialogue is developing and by how it is yielding results,” Kremlin spokesman Peskov said.
The US will evaluate demands made by Russia after it agreed “in principle” to a US-brokered ceasefire with Ukraine in the Black Sea to allow safe navigation, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said.
Rubio said US officials would work to “more fully understand what the Russian position is, or what they’re asking in exchange”, and then “present that” to US President Donald Trump to make a decision.
Trump said in an interview that he thought Russia wanted to end its war with Ukraine, but acknowledged that Moscow could be “dragging its feet”.
The Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine could come back online within months of a ceasefire, but it would take more than a year to restart all six reactors, the UN atomic watchdog chief Rafael Grossi said. Ukraine has accused Moscow of being incapable of managing safety at the plant after what it said were reports of a huge spillage of diesel. Russia has dismissed the reports as “fake”.
Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock welcomed US mediation efforts but warned against being misled by President Putin, saying genuine dialogue cannot occur when ceasefires are continually tied to new demands and concessions.
An agreement on freedom of navigation in the Black Sea to ensure the protection of civilian vessels and port infrastructure “will be a crucial contribution to global food security and supply chains”, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.
Military aid
President Macron said France will provide some two billion euros ($2.15bn) in extra military aid to Ukraine, as he accused Russia of reinterpreting and rewriting recent limited ceasefire deals.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte warned the US and Europe against any temptation to “go it alone” on security, amid increased tensions over the future of the transatlantic alliance and diverging views on Russia. Rutte also said Europe could still trust the US administration after it emerged a journalist was included in a group Signal chat among national security aides to coordinate military strikes on Yemen.
Rutte cautioned there will be no normalisation of relations with Russia even after the war in Ukraine is over, saying it “will take decades” due to a “total lack of confidence”.
European efforts to create security arrangements for Ukraine are shifting from sending troops to other alternatives as they face political and logistical constraints, and the prospect of Russia and the US opposing their plans, unnamed European officials told the Reuters news agency.
Economics
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News that Ukraine may sign an economic deal next week and President Trump will not hesitate to raise sanctions on Russia if the need arises.
Relations between Kyiv and Washington are “back on track”, said Andriy Yermak, the chief of staff to Ukraine’s president, after a fraught Oval Office encounter last month between the US and Ukrainian leaders.
Italian water heating firm Ariston Holding said it had retrieved possession of its Russian unit after President Putin annulled his decision from last year to seize it in response to Western sanctions.
