Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, days 1,116 and 1,117

The important dates for Saturday, March 16 and Sunday, March 16 and 17, are listed below.

Fighting

• According to Dnipropetrovsk governor Serhiy Lysak, a Russian missile struck a residential area in the Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, injuring 11 people, including two children. According to Lysak, several apartment buildings, homes, and a building housing multiple businesses were damaged.
• After serving four war crimes in Ukraine, Russian far-right paramilitary operative Yan Petrovsky was found guilty of four crimes and given a life sentence by a Finnish court. He killed a soldier, according to the court, and he shared degrading photos of the victim.
• DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy provider, claimed Russian strikes in Dnipropetrovsk and Odesa had caused “significant” damage to the country’s energy infrastructures. Due to the attacks, some residents of the areas reportedly lost power.
• Moscow launched 178 drones overnight, according to Kyiv’s air force, of which about 130 were shot down, and 38 went missing and failed to reach their targets.

• In an overnight attack targeting the Volgograd and Voronezh regions on Friday, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported that its forces shot down 126 Ukrainian drones. Following Moscow’s rejection of the American-proposed immediate ceasefire, this occurred.
• 47 of 90 Russian drones were killed overnight, according to the Ukrainian Air Force. Apparently, electronic warfare caused the loss of another 33 drones.
• The western Kursk region’s villages of Rubanshchina and Zaoleshenka were reclaimed by the Russian Defense Ministry’s troops. 14 children were among the 371 civilians who were safely evacuated from these areas, according to Alexander Khinshtein, the acting regional governor.
• Early on Monday, according to Ukraine’s air defense units, Russia launched a drone attack on Kyiv overnight. Additional information was not made available.

diplomacy and politics

• Donald Trump, the president of the US, said he would discuss ending the Ukrainian conflict with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday.
• Putin demanded that Kursk-affiliated Ukrainian soldiers give up, claiming that they would be assured of “life and dignified treatment.” He claimed that he made the call after Trump called him to “spare” the lives of Ukrainian soldiers out of “sympathy.”
• Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, stated that any ceasefire would be primarily concerned with territorial control. He claimed that Ukraine would not recognize its occupied areas as belonging to Russia.
• Putin is accused of not being serious about pursuing peace talks by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who said Russia would need to discuss it sooner or later. The world is watching as Putin agrees to a ceasefire and stops his barbaric attacks on Ukraine, he said.
• Zelenskyy also alleged that Russia had no desire to end the conflict, citing Kyiv’s ongoing hostilities.
• In upcoming peace talks, he appointed an official delegation to represent Kyiv. Andriy Yermak, the president’s chief of staff, was appointed leader of the delegation, which included Yermak’s deputy Pavlo Palisa, the defense minister Rustem Umerov, and foreign minister Andrii Sybiha.
• According to Umerov, Zelenskyy also appointed Major-General Andrii Hnatov as the new commander of the Ukrainian forces.
• According to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, Umerov met with his counterparts in Italy and the Czech Republic to discuss military assistance, defense cooperation, and needs for the battlefield.

• Russian President Emmanuel Macron claimed that Russia would not have a say in the deployment of foreign troops to Ukraine.
• Trump changed Keith Kellogg’s position from that of special envoy to Ukraine and Russia to envoy to Ukraine. Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for the Kremlin, refuted claims that Russia wanted Kellogg to be turned down for its pro-Kyiv position in the wake of his pro-Kyiv position.
• The next steps in the war-torn talks were discussed by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. The diplomats “agreed to continue working toward restoring communication between the US and Russia,” according to Tammy Bruce, a State Department spokeswoman.
• Russian media outlets were informed by deputy foreign minister Alexander Grushko that Moscow would seek “ironclad security guarantees” to prevent Ukraine from joining NATO.