Ukraine war update, March 22: US military aid for Ukraine to include ‘secretly acquired’ Soviet air defence systems

Russia has conducted its invasion of Ukraine mainly with airpower, bombarding cities like Kharkiv and Mariupol from the skies. Western war analysts such as this site say Russia has found it difficult to conduct ground attacks in the face of stiff resistance from Ukrainian defence forces, and its troops are bogged down at many places. Ukraine, which inherited a robust weapons industry from the Soviet Union, has its own air defence systems, but its Western allies believe it needs more. What Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has demanded though is that NATO must enforce a no-fly zone over his country to prevent the Russian attacks from the sky.

On Sunday, the Russian defence ministry said it had used its Kinzhal hypersonic missile for the first time to destroy a Ukrainian fuel depot in Kostiantynivka near the Black Sea port of Mykolaiv. The Kinzhal, which was unveiled by President Vladimir Putin in 2017 as an “invincible” weapon, travels at 6000 km per hour, about five times the speed of sound, and can hit targets up to 2,000 km away. Russia has two other hypersonic missiles, namely the Zirkon and Avangad, which are said to be faster and go farther than the Kinzhal, which means dagger in Russian.

The Kinzhal can be fitted on a MiG-3, and this was how it was most likely used in Ukraine, according to Western media reports.

Zelensky says direct talks with Putin must to find an end to war, any compromise will be approved by Ukrainian people in a referendum

In an interview with Ukraine’s public broadcaster Suspilne, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reiterated his call for direct talks between him and Russian President Vladimir Putin to find a way to end the war through negotiations. He said Russia’s ultimatums to give up Ukrainian cities would not work, as people living in those cities would continue to resist Russian forces. He also indicated that he was ready for a “compromise” with Russia on Crimea and Luhansk and Donetsk, the two “republics” in the Donbas region, but that ultimately, it was the people of Ukraine who would decide on what that compromise should be through a referendum.

“That is why the ultimatum is a bad thing because it leads to genocide and the destruction of the Ukrainian people. Therefore, dialogue. And we are for peace, I repeat it again. No matter how difficult it is, it is better than war. And even though we hate these troops that are destroying us and killing our people, we still need to sit down and talk if we want peace. The right word is to negotiate. Negotiate because you have to. But to negotiate, not to fulfill the ultimatum. This is an important point. A compromise can be found in the dialogue. That is why the fire is stopped first, the troops are withdrawn, the presidents meet, it is agreed that troops will be withdrawn, that there are certain security guarantees. Here you can find compromise things. There are certain guarantors of our security…

“Both Crimea and Donbas are for everyone…At the first meeting with the President of Russia, I am ready to raise these issues, they are relevant, for us they are important – about the occupied territories. But I am sure that this decision will not be in this meeting…This rather long process will be decided by both the Rada and the people of Ukraine. I explained to all the negotiating groups: when you talk about all these changes, and they can be historic, we will not go anywhere, we will come to a referendum. The people will have to say and respond to certain formats of compromises.

Destruction of Mariupol

Bombs have been raining from the skies on Mariupol from the start of the invasion, but more so in the last 24 hours after Ukraine rejected a Russian demand for surrendering the city to its troops. Some 8,000 people were able to escape the city amid the bombardment on Monday. About 300,000 people still remain in the city.

On Sunday, Greece’s consul general in Mariupol, who left Ukraine last week, told Reuters the city was fast joining the ranks of places known for having been destroyed in wars of the past.

Mariupol has a substantial ethnic Greek population, and Manolis Androulakis, was the last EU diplomat to leave Ukraine.

“What I saw, I hope no one will ever see,” Androulakis said as he arrived on Sunday at Athens International Airport “Mariupol will become part of a list of cities that were completely destroyed by war; I don’t need to name them- they are Guernica, Coventry, Aleppo, Grozny, Leningrad,” Androulakis said.

Meanwhile, EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Josep Borell said Russia was guilty of a “massive war crime” in Mariupol and is violating “the laws of war”. “Russia really doing a lot of war crimes,” Josep Borrell told reporters ahead of a foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels, according to Euronews. “What’s happening in Mariupol is a massive war crime, destroying everything, bombarding and killing everybody in an indiscriminate manner,” he said, adding: “The city will be completely destroyed and people are dying.”

EU foreign ministers are gathering in Brussels to discuss the fifth round of sanctions against Russia over its military invasion of Ukraine, ahead of a European Council summit later in the week in which US President Joe Biden will also take part.

“It’s not a war, it’s massive destruction of a country without any kind of consideration for the laws of war because the war has also laws. “Legally, (the) international court has already condemned the invasion; morally, they (Russia) have lost any kind of ground because what they’re doing is completely out of any kind of law that rule war.”

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Civilian casualties

The UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights says 925 people have been killed so far in the war in Ukraine, and some 1,496 people have been wounded. The UN agency has warned that the numbers could be higher. Mariupol local officials have said the casualties in the city are more than 2000.

Animals left without caregivers

The head of a zoo in the Kyiv region has made a heart-rending appeal for a “humanitarian corridor” for the animals in the zoo, according to this report.