These are the key developments on day 1,122 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Here is the roundup of key events on Saturday, March 22.
Fighting
Russian attacks killed two people late on Friday in Ukraine’s southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia and three more in the country’s north and east, officials said. Zaporizhia regional governor, Ivan Fedorov, said nine people were also injured in the attack and the city had been struck more than 10 times.
CCTV footage recorded on Friday showed debris falling outside an apartment building following a loud explosion in Russia’s southern city of Rostov-on-Don. Rostov-on-Don’s acting regional governor, Yury Slyusar, said a Ukrainian drone struck an apartment building on the 17th floor, injuring two people.
Attacks took place in the southern Russian region of Voronezh, where regional governor Alexander Gusev said more than 10 Ukrainian drones were destroyed. No damage or casualties were reported.
Ukraine’s public prosecutor’s office said that Russia had dropped six glide bombs on the village of Krasnopillya in Ukraine’s Sumy region. In another village, two people were injured.
Air raid warnings were issued in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and other parts of the country, with Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko calling on people to seek shelter. According to Klitschko, debris from a downed flying object hit a building in the capital, causing a fire.
Satellite imagery showed craters and damaged bunkers at Russia’s Engels strategic bomber base after Ukraine struck it with drones on Thursday. The attack triggered a major blast and fire. The base in Engels hosts Russia’s Tupolev Tu-160 nuclear-capable heavy strategic bombers.
Ukraine accused Russia of illegally pressuring Ukrainians in occupied territory to change their legal status or leave and said it would report the practice to the International Criminal Court.
Russia – which now controls nearly a fifth of Ukraine’s territory – issued a presidential decree on Thursday saying Ukrainian citizens living “in Russia without legal grounds” should “regulate” their status by September.
Russia’s Ministry of Defence accused Ukrainian forces of blowing up a gas metering station near the town of Sudzha in Russia’s Kursk region, in what it described as a “deliberate provocation by the Kyiv regime … to discredit the US president’s peaceful initiatives”.
Ukraine’s military General Staff rejected Moscow’s accusations and blamed the Russian military for shelling the Sudzha gas metering station as part of Russia’s “discrediting campaign”. The gas metering station serves a major pipeline that had pumped Russia’s natural gas to Europe until supplies were halted last year.
Ceasefire
Talks between Ukrainian and United States representatives in Saudi Arabia on Monday will focus primarily on technicalities surrounding a potential limited ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhii Tykhyi said.
Tykhyi reiterated that Ukraine had agreed to the US proposal for a full ceasefire lasting 30 days and again blamed Russia for the failure to implement any sort of ceasefire so far.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha will not travel to Saudi Arabia for the talks, but Defence Minister Rustem Umerov is set to participate.
Western military planning to enforce a potential ceasefire in Ukraine is set to intensify in London next week as the United Kingdom said “nothing is off the table” over possible troop deployment for Kyiv. “Thousands” of personnel would be required to support any operation whether by “sea, on land or in the air” as allies prepare “for all eventualities” amid diplomatic efforts to end the war, the UK said.
Ukraine does not consider a United Nations mission an alternative to the deployment of a contingent of foreign troops or security guarantees to end the war with Russia, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. “With all due respect, the UN will not protect us from the occupation or [Russian President Valdimir] Putin’s desire to come back,” Zelenskyy said at a joint news conference with Czech President Petr Pavel in Kyiv.
Politics and diplomacy
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un expressed his unwavering support for Russia’s war in Ukraine during a meeting with a top Russian security official in Pyongyang, North Korean state media said.
Friday’s meeting between Kim and Sergei Shoigu, Russia’s Security Council secretary, followed a South Korean intelligence assessment in late February that North Korea had likely sent additional troops to Russia after its forces suffered heavy casualties fighting in the Russia-Ukraine war.
Shoigu conveyed a message from Putin, who extended his greetings to Kim and expressed gratitude for North Korea’s “solidarity with Russia’s position on all critical geopolitical issues, particularly on the Ukrainian issue”, according to his televised comments.
South Korea’s Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul said military cooperation between North Korea and Russia must stop, and North Korea should not be rewarded for its wrongdoings in supporting the war in Ukraine.
Japan’s foreign minister told his Chinese and South Korean counterparts on Saturday that unilaterally changing the status quo by force was unacceptable. “On the situation in Ukraine, I emphasised the need for the international community to unite in calling out that any attempt to unilaterally change the status quo by force will not be tolerated anywhere in the world,” Takeshi Iwaya told reporters following trilateral talks in Tokyo with Beijing and Seoul.
Thousands of people demonstrated against Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico on Friday, charging that he has authoritarian tendencies and a pro-Russian stance.
Serbia’s deputy prime minister said Russia’s spy services had helped Belgrade authorities respond to months of antigovernment protests, remarks which critics said revealed that the government had become dependent on Moscow.
“I am very grateful to Russia’s special services, which always support us in our fight against colour revolutions, primarily with information,” Deputy Prime Minister Alexandar Vulin said in an interview with Russia’s RIA state news agency.
Russia criticised the European Union’s plans to significantly boost the bloc’s defences.
The UK government said it had frozen more than 25 billion pounds ($32bn) in Russian assets since the start of the war in Ukraine three years ago.
Military aid
Germany’s Bundestag budget committee approved $3.25bn in additional military aid for Ukraine in 2025, a move welcomed by President Zelenskyy, who thanked Germany for the latest multibillion-euro aid package.
