Challenge to the West and to Kiev by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who made a surprise visit to Mariupol, the city symbol of Ukrainian resistance to the Russian invasion. Putin arrived by helicopter and toured the city in a vehicle. He later held a meeting in the Russian city of Rostov, not far from the Ukrainian border.
Moscow, Putin visited Mariupol
Russian President Vladimir Putin paid a “working visit” to the Ukrainian city of Mariupol in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic. This was announced by the Kremlin press service, quoted by the Russian agency Tass. Putin has “inspected a number of places in the city and spoken to local residents,” Moscow explains, adding that the Russian president “flew to Mariupol by helicopter; A vehicle drove through the streets of the city and stopped in several places.” Just a few days ago, the Russian military administration inaugurated a helicopter platform at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, which was a stronghold of Ukrainian defenses for months before the capitulation last May. According to renewed information from the Kremlin, Putin also held a meeting with military leaders at the command post of the “military special operation” ongoing in Ukraine in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don.
2 killed and 10 wounded in Russian attack on Kramatorsk
The number of wounded in yesterday’s Russian attack on Kramatorsk rises to ten. This was reported by the Kyiv Independent, citing the words of the governor of Donetsk region Pavlo Kyrylenko. Two civilians were killed in the Russian cluster bomb attack.
Kiev, 83 Russian attacks repelled on Saturday, March 18th
Ukrainian forces repelled 83 Russian attacks in five cities yesterday, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Kiev said in its daily update on the situation on the front lines. This was reported by the Kyiv Independent. Russian troops are trying to seize the entire Donetsk and Lugansk regions of eastern Ukraine and yesterday launched offensives near the cities of Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka, Marinka and Shakhtarsk. During the attacks, the Russians fired 11 rockets, four of which were aimed at civilian infrastructure in Zaporizhia. The Moscow Armed Forces also conducted 16 airstrikes and launched a hundred rockets from multiple launch systems. For its part, the Ukrainian Air Force carried out ten strikes on areas with a high concentration of Russian soldiers and shot down an Iranian-made Shahed-136 drone.
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