• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Russo-Ukraine War - 24 March 2022

The UN General Assembly (UNGA)passed a resolution demanding aid access and civilian protection in Ukraine. The 193-member General Assembly passed a resolution demanding aid access and civilian protection in Ukraine and criticising Russia for creating a “dire” humanitarian situation in the country. The resolution, drafted by Ukraine and allies, was backed by 140 countries. Five member states – Russia, Syria, North Korea, Eritrea and Belarus – voted against it, while another 38 abstained. The vote follows the Security Council’s overwhelming defeat of a Russian resolution that would have acknowledged Ukraine’s growing humanitarian needs – but without mentioning Russia’s invasion that left millions of Ukrainians in desperate need of food, water and shelter.

Western nations warned Putin that his country will pay “ruinous” costs for invading Ukraine, during an unprecedented one-day trio of NATO, G7 and EU summits that will be attended by US President Joe Biden. Ukraine’s president said the outcome of NATO, EU and G7 summits will reveal “who is a friend” to Ukraine. “Politicians must … support freedom. All of them. They must support the struggle for life. We are waiting for meaningful steps. From NATO, the EU and the G7,” Zelenskyy said. “Our firm position will be represented at these three summits. At these three summits we will see: Who is a friend, who is a partner, and who betrayed us for money.”

NATO leaders agreed to bolster defences along the alliance’s eastern flank at an emergency summit in Brussels. “In response to Russia’s actions, we have activated NATO’s defence plans, deployed elements of the NATO Response Force, and placed 40,000 troops on our eastern flank,” they announced in a joint statement following the alliance’s emergency summit. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said NATO leaders had agreed to reinforce defences along the alliance’s eastern flank. He explained this will include establishing four additional multinational battlegroups in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia. Stoltenberg said the alliance will continue to provide assistance to Kyiv in areas such as cybersecurity and “and protection against threats of a chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear nature”. He warned Russia’s invasion marked the “biggest security crisis in a generation” and said NATO was determined to “continue to impose costs” on Moscow in a bid to make it end the offensive. Permanent troop deployments would constitute a violation of the NATO-Russia Founding Act signed in 1997, which said that NATO has no intention to station permanent military forces in Eastern Europe.

European Union leaders will not agree to new sanctions against Russia during their two-day summit, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said. “I do not expect concrete new sanctions today,” Rutte said upon arrival for the beginning of the meeting, which will be attended by all 27 leaders of the bloc’s member states. “We can’t brainstorm about sanctions with such a broad group, we need proposals. We have already imposed a lot of sanctions, we are now entering more complex terrain.” The EU and its allies will keep on delivering military aid to the Ukrainian army, Borrell said. The EU is assessing scenarios including a full halt to Russian gas supplies next winter, as part of its contingency planning for supply shocks, European Commission vice president Valdis Dombrovskis has said.

The Group of Seven most industralised nations said it will do everything in its power to hold Russian President Vladimir Putin and his supporters personally responsible for the Ukraine invasion. “We will spare no efforts to hold President Putin and the architects and supporters of this aggression, including the Lukashenko regime in Belarus, accountable for their actions,” the G7 said in a statement after a summit in Brussels. “To this end, we will continue to work together, along with our allies and partners around the world.”

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he had been raising concerns about Putin’s plans to attend the next G20 summit in Indonesia this year. “The idea of sitting around a table with Vladimir Putin, who the United States are already in the position of calling out [for] war crimes in Ukraine, for me is a step too far,” Morrison said during a media briefing. Biden said Russia should be removed from the G20. At the same time, he said Ukraine should be able to attend G20 meetings.

The US imposed a new wave of sanctions on Russia, targeting dozens of defence companies and hundreds of members of Russia’s parliament as Washington ramps up pressure on Moscow. The measures target individuals and entities that “fuel [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s war machine,” the White House said in a statement, including Herman Gref, the chief executive of Russia’s largest financial institution, Sberbank. The Treasury Department also issued guidance on its website warning that gold-related transactions involving Russia may be sanctionable by US authorities in a move aimed at stopping Russia from evading sanctions.

The UK’s government says it has imposed new sanctions on 65 more Russian individuals and organisations, including “banks, defence companies and oligarchs”. Eugene Shvidler, an oligarch said to have “close business links” to Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich, and Polina Kovaleva, the stepdaughter of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, are among the individuals targeted. “These oligarchs, businesses and hired thugs are complicit in the murder of innocent civilians and it is right that they pay the price,” UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said in a statement, adding there will be “no let-up” in the pressure on Putin.

The UK is giving Ukraine 6,000 more missiles, including anti-tank and high-explosive weaponry, as well as 25 million British pounds ($33m) to help Kyiv pay its military and police forces. PM Johnson said the UK “will work with our allies to step up military and economic support to Ukraine, strengthening their defenses as they turn the tide in this fight”. The UK has already sent more than 4,000 anti-tank weapons to Ukraine. The first shipment from the US’s $800m arms package for Ukraine will be shipped in the next day or so, and will not take long to reach Ukraine, a senior US defence official said.

Zelenskyy asked NATO to provide Ukraine with “military assistance without restrictions” as its forces battle to “save people” and the country’s cities from Russia’s onslaught. Addressing the alliance’s emergency meeting via video link, the Ukrainian president urged the organisation to provide Kyiv with one percent of all its planes, tanks and anti-ship weapons, among other equipment. “When all this finally happens, it will give us, as well as you, one hundred percent security,” he said, before warning Moscow will target member states of the organisation in Eastern Europe next. "To save people and our cities, Ukraine needs military assistance without restrictions. In the same way that Russia is using its full arsenal without restrictions against us," he said.

Ukraine successfully thwarted Moscow’s intended rapid offensive, turning the war into a conflict that exhausts demoralised and undersupplied Russian soldiers. Instead of pushing forward in strategic directions, the Russians boast very moderate gains only in the breakaway, eastern Donbas region, where Moscow’s troops take a village a day, with enormous losses. Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych has said Russian troops do not have enough resources to push ahead with their offensive in many areas of Ukraine, leading to a slowdown in hostilities.

A month since the Russian invasion of Ukraine had begun, 24 March 2022 was the first day when Ukrainian troops reported more successful operations than the invading force. Jerome at Militlary Land reported that in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, Ukrainian drone Bayraktar TB2 hit and reportedly destroyed a Russian landing ship in Berdyansk. The strike also caused damaged to two other Russian ships nearby. In Kyiv Oblast Ukrainian forces launched an offensive operation in the west and liberated Lukyanivka and Lukashi. During the operation, Ukrainian troops captured and destroyed a number of Russian tanks. In Chernihiv Oblast Russian troops, for the first time since the beginning of the invasion, attacked Ukrainian checkpoints at Slavutych. Ukrainian troops reportedly repulsed the attack, but the outlook didn’t look promising. The city is too far from Chernihiv. In Sumy Oblast, Russian troops shelled Okhtyrka again, the town is practically non-existing. The fierce battle of Trostyanets continued. Several buildings are on fire, but the local firefighters cannot get there due to ongoing fighting. In Kharkiv Oblast Ukrainian forces denied Russian claims about the loss of Izium, they reportedly still control the south of the city. Russian troops seem to given up on Kharkiv and just continue to cause irreversible damage to the regional capital.

In the Nikolaev area Russian troops here have taken positional tactics, no special actions are being taken, Nikolaev is partially blocked. Methodical serious pinpoint strikes are being carried out on military targets. In the north, there is no area of active operations either, Russian troops are moving towards Krivoy Rog. Periodically in the media space there is information about the "counterattacks" of the Armed Forces of Ukraine from Nikolaev, but there is no real evidence of this. Kherson region under control army of the Russian Federation, it is put into circulation.

On the Front East, the most important things at the moment are happening here. In the south of the front there is a terrible "Mariupol cauldron". According to Russian comrades: “ Today, the Azov regiment of the National Guard of Ukraine suffered the biggest losses. We can say that it, as a single unit, no longer exists . ” On March 24, it became known that the administration building of Mariupol had been vacated . Kadyrov said that the entire Levoberezhny district of Mariupol, located in the eastern part of the city, was also cleared.

In the center of the front is the East, from Ugledar to Gorlovka , the front is slowly moving towards Kurakhovo. There are successes on the Luhansk part of the front, the LPR reported on the capture of several settlements. on the approaches to Popasnaya, where fighting is also continuing. In Lisichansk and Severodonetsk, there are no changes so far. Fierce battles have been going on in Izyum in recent days. The Armed Forces of Ukraine transferred reserves here and tried to counterattack. The attack was repulsed. The south of the city of Izyum, where there was a very serious fortified area of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, was taken. Now the front is passing in the area of the village of Kamenka, the intensity of the fire does not subside there. Front North. Intense fighting in Bucha, Irpen and east of Brovar, as well as near Makarovo. In addition, powerful explosions are reported in Kiev, Kramatorsk, Slavyansk, Dnipro and Kharkiv region.

The UK Ministry of Defence said in its morning intelligence update that it believed the Russian military has "almost certainly suffered thousands of casualties" during the invasion. Therefore, Russia is probably turning to "its reservist and conscript manpower, as well as private military companies and foreign mercenaries," according to the ministry. "It is unclear how these groups will integrate into the Russian ground forces in Ukraine and the impact this will have on combat effectiveness."

A senior US defence official said Russian ground forces appear to be digging in and setting up defensive positions between 15 and 20 kilometres (9-12 miles) outside Kyiv, as they continue to make little to no progress moving towards the city center. In some cases east of Kyiv, Ukrainian troops have been able to push Russian soldiers away, the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said, claiming that Russian forces who had been 20 to 30 kilometers (12-19 miles) away to the east and northeast are now about 55 kilometers (34 miles) away. The official said now Russian troops are exerting more energy and effort in the eastern Donbas region, specifically Luhansk and Donetsk.

The UK’s defence ministry said Ukrainian forces are successfully counterattacking Russian positions in towns on the outskirts of the capital, Kyiv. “There is a realistic possibility that Ukrainian forces are now able to encircle Russian units in Bucha and Irpin,” the ministry said in its latest intelligence update. It added that these counterattacks will likely “disrupt the ability of Russian forces to reorganise and resume their own offensive towards Kyiv”.

A spokesman for Ukraine’s defence ministry said its troops have pushed back Russian forces from some areas around Kyiv but warned Moscow retains hope of surrounding and seizing the Ukrainian capital. “In some sectors the enemy was driven back by more than 70km (44 miles), in some sectors the enemy is at a distance of 35km (21 miles),” Oleksander Motuzyanyk told a televised briefing. Without citing evidence, Motuzyanyk also claimed that the Kremlin had been sending additional military equipment to Belarus to reinforce Russian troops attacking Kyiv.

Colonel-General Vladimir Chirkin, former Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Ground Forces spoke to Komsomolskaya Pravda "Do you remember the Battle of Stalingrad? There, a whole army of Paulus of the 300,000-strong city could not take it to the end. There were places where the Nazis crossed from one side of the street to the other for two months! But Pavlov's house was never taken! Didn't you ask yourself the question: why did the Nazis not take Leningrad? Why couldn't they take Voronezh? Because fighting in the city is a very difficult, risky and sacrificial job!

"What our military is doing, they are doing it right. Cities are surrounded. They are taken into "cauldrons", all logistics are cut off. And I think the time will come when their purge will begin. In the meantime, it is necessary to fulfill the tasks indicated by the boundaries and in time."

Jerome, the founder of militaryland.net, reported that "Russian Army seems to prioritize Donbas area and focus its main forces there.... in Chernihiv Oblast, Russian Airforce destroyed a bridge near Desna, the only bridge in the area under Ukrainian control. The closest bridge now is all the way down near Vyzhorod (Ukraine controlled) or near Zolotynka (Russia controlled). Russian troops appear to be building a defensive positions and checkpoints near Novyi Bykiv, Makiivka, Losynivka, Monastyryshche, Velyka Doroha, Prokhory, Berestovets and Talalaivka. It has become clear that the town of Slavutych near the border with Belarus is under Ukrainian control. Russian forces bypassed the town on February 24. Thanks CortoM for the heads-up!... Russian forces crossed the Seversky Donets near Izium and attempted to gain control of Donetske, Topolske and Kamianka. They did not succeed and retreated to the original positions. According to the Ukrainian intelligence, Russian troops lost about 60% of its strength in the area of Izium."

The Russian government has no interest in negotiating a ceasefire in Ukraine for now as its army has not reached its military goals, the EU’s top diplomat Josep Borrell said. “Right now, Russia doesn’t want to sit and negotiate anything: What it wants is to occupy the ground,” Borrell said in an interview with Spanish channel TVE. “It wants to … isolate Ukraine from the sea. It wants to negotiate in earnest only when it has secured a position of strength.” In regards to ongoing diplomatic negotiations between Ukraine and Russia, Biden said it was ultimately up to Kyiv to determine whether it would like to give up territory to Russia.

Ukraine’s navy said it has destroyed a large Russian large landing ship, the Orsk, in Ukraine’s Azov Sea port city of Berdyansk. The ministry posted a short Facebook statement about the ship – a landing support vessel for naval infantry – with accompanying photos and videos which appeared to show fire and thick plumes of smoke in the port. Russia stepped up its air attacks, with more than 250 flights registered in 24 hours, the Ukrainian military’s general staff said. This was 60 more flights than the day before, the authorities said. The main targets remain areas in and around Kyiv, Chernihiv, and Kharkiv. The Ukrainian army said 11 “enemy air targets” were hit, including seven planes, a helicopter, a drone and two cruise missiles.

There were reports of possible rifts between Putin and his top generals. Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, a close-ally of Putin, had not been seen for 13 days amid claims he has ‘heart problems’ just as reports suggested Putin held him responsible for the invasion’s failure so far. Shoigu resurfaced on 24 March 2022 after having been out of the public eye for several weeks. However, the 66-year-old's appearance was limited to a small section of Putin's computer screen during a split-screen video call along with other Russian officials. The video, taken from within Putin's office by the RIA news agency, zoomed in on the section of the screen where Shoigu was. The video is believed to be the first public sighting of the minister since March 11. "The defence minister has a lot on his mind right now. A special military operation is under way. Now is not really the time for media activity," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.

The Kremlin was accused of faking the video showing Shoigu on a video call with Putin on 24 March. In the footage released on Thursday by state-run RIA news agency, an image of Shoigu mysteriously appears on the top left-hand corner of a video split screen set up in front of Putin as the Russian President spoke to his Security Conference. In the moments before an image of Shoigu appears, his screen is black and the image shakes about for a few seconds - despite all of the other officials appearing clearly on the screen from the beginning of the call. The clip did not contain audio nor did it show Shoigu speaking. Questions have been raised over whether his appearance is a recording of old footage.

The UN children’s agency (UNICEF) says Russia’s offensive has displaced the majority of Ukraine’s children. “One month of war in Ukraine has led to the displacement of 4.3 million children – more than half of the country’s estimated 7.5 million child population,” UNICEF said in a statement. The figure includes more than 1.8 million children who have crossed into neighboring countries as refugees and 2.5 million who are now internally displaced inside Ukraine, it added.

The US announced it will accept up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees fleeing Russia’s offensive. The White House said in a statement that Washington would use “the full range of legal pathways”, including the refugee admissions program, for Ukrainians seeking to enter the country. “While we expect many Ukrainians will choose to remain in Europe close to family and their homes in Ukraine … we will do our part to welcome Ukrainians to the United States,” it said.

NATO estimates between 7,000-15,000 Russian troops have been killed. But they say when you take into account the number that have been wounded or captured, then the number of Russian troops who are no longer able to fight could be 30,000-40,000. In the month since Moscow invaded Ukraine, Russia has lost some 15,800 servicemen, Ukraine’s General Staff of Armed Forces said. Ukrainian forces also destroyed 530 tanks, 1,597 armored vehicles, 108 planes, 124 helicopters and 50 drones.