Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,122

The important things happened on Saturday, March 22; here is a roundup.

Fighting

Following a loud explosion in Rostov-on-Don, in Russia’s southern city, CCTV footage showed debris falling from an apartment building. Two people were hurt when a Ukrainian drone struck an apartment building on the 17th floor, according to Rostov-on-Don’s acting regional governor, Yury Slyusar.
Voronezh, the regional governor of southern Russia, reported that more than 10 Ukrainian drones had been seized. No injuries or damages were reported.

According to the public prosecutor’s office in Ukraine, Russia bombed the Sumy region village of Krasnopillya with six glide bombs. Two people were hurt in a different village.
Vitali Klitschko, the mayor of Kyiv, is urging people to seek shelter in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv and other regions of the country. A building in the capital was shattered by debris from a downed flying object, according to Klitschko.
After Ukraine fired drones at Russia’s Engels strategic bomber base on Thursday, satellite imagery revealed craters and damaged bunkers at the base. A significant explosion and fire were the result of the attack. Russia’s Tupolev Tu-160, a heavy strategic bomber with nuclear capability, is housed at Engels Base.
Ukraine filed a complaint to the International Criminal Court alleging that Russia is pressuring Ukrainians to change their legal status or leave occupied territory.

In what it called a “deliberate provocation by the Kyiv regime… discredits the US president’s peaceful initiatives,” the Russian Ministry of Defense claimed that Ukrainian forces had destroyed a gas metering station close to Sudzha in the country’s Kursk region.
The Russian military, according to the general staff of the Ukrainian military, refuted Moscow’s accusations and pointed finger at Russia for shelling the Sudzha gas metering station as part of its “discrediting campaign.” Up until supplies were halted last year, Russia’s natural gas was pumped to Europe via a major pipeline that the gas metering station serves.

Tykhyi once more attributed Russia’s inability to implement any kind of ceasefire and reiterated that Ukraine had accepted the US’s demand for a full 30-day ceasefire.
Rustem Umerov, the country’s foreign minister, will not attend the talks in Saudi Arabia, but Defense Minister Umerov will.

Following the United Kingdom’s statement that “nothing is off the table” regarding possible troop deployments for Kyiv, Western military plans to intensify in London next week in order to enforce a potential ceasefire in Ukraine. As allies “prepare for all eventualities,” according to the UK, “Thousands” of personnel would be required to support any operation, whether it was conducted by sea, on land, or in the air.
According to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine does not support the deployment of a contingent of foreign troops or security guarantees in order to put an end to the conflict with Russia. At a joint press conference with Czech President Petr Pavel in Kiev, Zelenskyy stated, “With all due respect, the UN will not protect us from the occupation or]Russian President Valdimir Putin’s desire to return.”

Kim Jong Un, the leader of North Korea, met with a top Russian security official in Pyongyang to discuss his unwavering support for Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Following a South Korean intelligence assessment in late February that North Korea had likely sent additional troops to Russia after its forces suffered serious casualties fighting in the Russia-Ukraine war, Kim and Sergei Shoigu met for a meeting on Friday.
In his televised remarks, Shoigu received a message from Putin, who thanked Kim for “solidarity with Russia’s position on all crucial geopolitical issues, particularly the Ukrainian issue.”

North Korea should stop cooperating militarily with Russia, according to South Korea’s foreign minister Cho Tae-yul, and it shouldn’t be given a pass for supporting the Ukrainian war.
On Saturday, the foreign minister of Japan declared it was unacceptable to unilaterally alter the status quo through force in front of his Chinese and South Korean counterparts. Following trilateral discussions in Tokyo with Beijing and Seoul, Takeshi Iwaya told reporters, “On the situation in Ukraine, I stressed the need for the international community to unite and call out that any attempt to unilaterally alter the status quo by force will not be tolerated anywhere in the world.”
On Friday, hundreds of people marched against Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, alleging that he has pro-Russian views and authoritarian tendencies.
Russian-led anti-government demonstrations, according to Serbia’s deputy prime minister, were aided by Russia’s spy agencies in Belgrade’s response, which critics claimed revealed Moscow’s dependence on the government.
In an interview with Russia’s RIA state news agency, deputy prime minister Alexandar Vulin praised the country’s special services, who consistently support us in our fight against color revolutions, primarily through information.

Russia criticized the European Union’s plans to significantly strengthen its defenses.
Since the start of the Ukrainian conflict three years ago, the UK government has frozen more than 25 billion pounds ($32 billion) in Russian assets.

President Zelenskyy thanked Germany for its most recent multibillion-euro aid package, which was welcomed by the Bundestag budget committee, which approved $ 3.25 billion in additional military aid for Ukraine in 2025.

Source: Aljazeera