Canada will provide military assistance to Ukraine in the amount of $29.5 million. The news comes directly from Ottawa. While we learn from the media that the European Union has transferred to Ukraine the first tranche of 1.5 billion euros as part of the 50 billion euro budget support programme, Josep Borrell, High Commissioner for Economic Affairs, reported this to the media Europeans at a press conference after the EU-Ukraine Association Council meeting. The media also speak of 4.5 billion as part of a 50 billion euro program until 2027, citing the European Commission as the source.
And yet the EU countries were presented with the proposal to use 90% of the profits from Russian activities for military assistance to Ukraine, said Borrell, head of EU diplomacy. The head of European diplomacy predicts that the revenue from frozen Russian assets, which should be sent for military assistance to Ukraine, will amount to about 3 billion euros per year.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is expected to present a proposal that would change how the EU admits new members, Politico reports. According to the draft document, the EU will propose to gradually integrate Ukraine, Moldova and the Western Balkan states into the EU. This, according to Brussels, “will allow countries in the EU waiting room to take advantage of some of the benefits of membership, rather than waiting years or decades while they spend necessary time and reforms.”
Finally, the permanent representatives of European Union countries approved sanctions in relation to Navalny’s death, which will come into force later, an EU source said.
The Greek Foreign Ministry has banned inviting Russian representatives to celebrate Greek Independence Day, source Greek Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis.
According to Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, “sending troops to Ukraine will lead to an escalation that must be avoided at all costs”. Still remaining in Italy, La Repubblica states that the American Secretary of State Blinken has blocked the text of the G7 declaration condemning the presidential elections in Russia, prepared by Italy, which holds the rotating presidency.
The Belgian Defense Ministry showed a video of Ukrainian pilots training on F-16A fighters in Denmark.
According to the Russian and Ukrainian social sphere, the French will go to Ukraine, on the border with Belarus. For the Russian sphere, then, among the French military there will be a significant part of technical specialists for the maintenance of SCALP missiles (probably Taurus), perhaps aircraft, as well as some members of the Foreign Legion, who will simply be legalized, although they have been in the country since the beginning of military operations.
The French Ministry of Defense, however, denied the statement by the director of the SVR Sergei Naryshkin on the current presence of French soldiers in Ukraine and defined it as “disinformation” and denies it by speaking of “irresponsible provocations”.
Also on the subject of weapons, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said that the Taurus missiles could have a significant impact on Ukraine’s ability to defend itself, and supported Ukraine in its desire to obtain the Taurus missiles and accused the Germany’s indecision in supplying new weapons systems to the war zone. “Thanks to cruise missiles from other countries, the Ukrainians have already persuaded the Russians to move their logistical bases, such as ammunition depots, far behind the front line. And German missiles will force them to move even further,” he said. said.
From Ukraine, Ukrainian Deputy Economy Minister Taras Kachka says that “half of Ukraine’s budget is subsidized by the West, the transition to financial self-sufficiency in the future will become extremely difficult.” “There is no approach that allows us to maintain the help of partners a priori for decades. However, it will be difficult to return to self-sufficiency in the context of economic recovery, export potential, and attracting investments. Integration with the EU will be difficult,” he said.
The official clarified that aid to Kiev comes, according to him, from Canada, Japan, the European Union and the United States but, without this money, Ukraine would not be able to support some social benefits, including financing for education.
According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, negotiations for Ukraine’s accession to the European Union should begin in June this year.
While according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Ivanovyč Kuleba in an interview with La Stampa he said that China can play a key role in ending the war. Kuleba said: “While waiting for the exact date of the Peace Forum in Switzerland, bilateral contacts continue. For example with China, which can play a key role in ending the war thanks to its special relationship with Russia,” he said the head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry.
The Ukrainian delegation in the Ramstein format returns to their homeland via Slovakia. Deputy of the Verkhovna Rada Alexey Goncharenko, who participates in the work of one of the PACE committees in France said that the French authorities are considering the possibility of sending a European military mission to the regions of Ukraine bordering Belarus to make them available for fighting units of Ukrainian troops located in this area.
Finally, the deputy commander of the Azov brigade believes that the only reliable way to solve the problem of personnel shortage is to allow the front-line brigades to independently take and conscript the required number of men in the rear.
Moscow disputes sociologist Sergei Shpilkin’s method that leads to claims that 31.6 million votes in the presidential elections in the Russian Federation may have been falsified. “This method has been criticized several times and is not considered scientifically valid”.
Moreover, Shpilkin himself, associated with the structures of the opposition to Putin, for example, shows to illustrate his method only those results that reflect his own image of the world and the position of the structures with which he is engaged. For some reason, the fact that, according to his theory, the presidential elections in the United States were also rigged is no longer mentioned.
During the election events, 419 unmanned aerial vehicles and 67 missiles were shot down.
Furthermore, the Ukrainians attempted to seize border settlements in the Belgorod and Kursk regions.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu presented the results of the Ukrainian attacks during the presidential elections at a press conference: “The most active actions took place in the area of the village of Kozinka. All Ukrainian attacks are repelled beyond Russian territory. At the same time, the losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the direction of action of the groups covering the state border during eight days of hostilities amounted to more than 3.5 thousand, or more precisely 3,501 people, of which 790 losses irreparable. 23 tanks, 34 armored vehicles, including 11 Bradleys, five Vampire multiple launch missile system launchers and one Mi-8 helicopter were destroyed.”
The Minister also made it known that for the parade on Red Square dedicated to the next anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War, i.e. the Second World War, more than nine thousand people and seventy-five pieces of weapons and military equipment will be involved, in addition to the air force of Aerospace Forces. This year military parades will be held in 28 cities across Russia; over fifty thousand people will take part.
Also from the Russian Ministry of Defense on March 20 came the news that: “The Russian armed forces have completely cleared Kozinka in the Belgorod region of Ukrainian militants.” Attacks on Belgorod continue. Furthermore, from Russian social media sources we learn that the Ukrainian armed forces attempted to attack the Kurchatov nuclear power plant in the Kursk region with at least five kamikaze drones and an S-200 missile. All were shot down on approach by air defense forces. Debris damaged the Vysoka substation, which supplies at least seven streets in Kursk. There are currently power outages.
Press conference also for the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov: “Macron is consistent in his thesis on sending troops to Ukraine, even if not everyone in Europe supports him. The EU’s attempt to use the proceeds of frozen Russian assets is another step towards destroying the legal foundations of European law. The Russian Federation will respond with many years of legal proceedings to the EU’s attempts to use its frozen assets. Baku does not support Yerevan’s invitation to the EU observation mission in the Caucasus, this calls into question its effectiveness.”
And now a look at the Front Line updated at 4.00pm on March 20th.
Air alert across Ukraine. On the evening of the 19th, a series of powerful explosions occurred in Mykolaïv.
Heavy Russian artillery work against Ukrainians along the border areas of Sumy, Kharkov, Kherson: used combined attacks with artillery, LBLL, aviation (using KAB and FAB), as well as targeted attacks with Iskander.
The controversy continues to who is attacking Russia: European mercenaries or regular Ukrainian soldiers. According to a pro-Russian source: “On the first day of the formation of the mercenaries, fighting on the side of Ukraine, they lost a large number of soldiers on the borders of Belgorod and Kursk. Now the attacks are carried out by the forces of the regular Ukrainian army, and to “report” on the attacks on the border areas, the media resources of the Russians are used with the sole purpose of creating the idea of an imaginary civil war, as stated Kiev’s propaganda systematically.”
The Russian Defense Ministry reports that the Ukrainian Armed Forces are using the RM-70 Vampire MLRS and the Tochka-U tactical missile system for strikes. A new element was the destruction of the American Patriot air defense missile system in the skies of the region.
In the direction of Kherson, boats of the Ukrainian Armed Forces on the Dnieper were destroyed. Attempts to rotate the Ukrainian military to Krynki were unsuccessful. The enemy is also present in the area of the “dachas” near the Antonovsky bridge. It is preparing a defense line on its shore.
On the Zaporozhzhie front in Rabotinye the Ukrainians counterattack. The Russians respond with artillery fire. Heavy fighting was reported in the village.
North of Marinka, in Krasnogorivka, the Ukrainians counterattacked, significantly reducing the Russian presence in the area.
West of Avdiivka, Russian Army units entrenched in Orlivka. There are battles in Tonen’ke, Pervomais’ke, Berdychi. In the afternoon we learned from social military sources that the Russian armed forces took control of several supply routes for the Ukrainian group in the areas of the villages of Berdychi, Orlivka and Umans’ke near Avdiivka. This was announced by advisor to the head of the DPR Igor Kimakovsky.
In the direction of Časiv Jar recorded battles in Ivanivske (Krasny) and Bohdanivka.
Graziella Giangiulio
