These are the significant events on day 1,124 of Russia’s ongoing conflict with Ukraine.
Here is the summary of the foremost happenings on Monday, March 24.
Fighting
- The Ukrainian Air Force reported the destruction of 97 out of 147 Russian drones during an overnight assault on various Ukrainian provinces. Additionally, electronic warfare led to another 25 drones being reported as “lost.”
- According to Russian news agency Interfax, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed that their forces had taken control of the village of Sribne in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk province.
- Russian campaigns in the Donetsk region resulted in the deaths of four individuals, including three fatalities from a strike on Dobropillia, a town on the war’s front lines.
- Local media in the Odesa region of southern Ukraine reported at least one fatality and multiple injuries resulting from an explosion at a police station, which witnesses attributed to a woman entering the facility carrying an explosive device in a plastic bag.
- Kyiv endured its third consecutive nighttime raid by Russia, causing injury to a 37-year-old man and damage to multiple houses, as stated by Mykola Kalashnyk, Governor of the Kyiv region. The man suffered shrapnel wounds to his upper body and head and was subsequently hospitalized.
- A 54-year-old woman was injured, and several apartment buildings were damaged in a separate strike in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, the regional administration announced.
Politics and Diplomacy
- Steve Witcoff, the Special Envoy for the Middle East under US President Donald Trump, opined on Fox News that he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin does not intend to invade Europe. “I take him at his word,” Witcoff remarked.
- Ukrainian President Zelenskyy stated that pressure must be applied on Putin to end his invasion of Ukraine that has spanned three years. “We must urge Putin to give a genuine order to cease the attacks; the one who initiated the war must be the one to bring it to an end,” he posted on social media.
- Delegations from Ukraine and the US met in Saudi Arabia to explore the possibility of a partial truce, with Moscow warning that negotiations would prove “difficult” despite Washington’s aspirations for meaningful advancement.
- Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov described the dialogues as “productive and focused,” pointing out that discussions were addressing a multitude of complex technical issues.
- In his messages, Umerov included the topic of proposals to safeguard Ukraine’s energy facilities and critical infrastructure. “We covered key points, including energy, aiming for a ‘just and lasting peace.’”
- Reuters reported that the US delegation aspires to achieve progress towards a truce in the Black Sea and a more extensive cessation of violence during their meeting with Moscow in Saudi Arabia on Monday.
