As the Russia-Ukraine war enters its 401st day, we take a look at the main events.
This is the situation as it stands on Friday, March 31, 2023:
diplomacy, politics
- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Russian President Vladimir Putin may visit Turkey in April to inaugurate the first nuclear power reactor built by Russia’s state atomic energy company Rosatom.
- The US White House said it had new evidence that Russia is again looking for North Korea for weapons to use in its war in Ukraine, this time in a deal that would see Pyongyang receive much-needed food and other goods.
- The Turkish parliament has ratified Finland’s accession to NATO but has not yet approved Sweden’s offer. Finland and Sweden requested to join the military alliance in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Sweden’s foreign minister also said he was no longer sure his country could join NATO in July after signs of objection from Hungary.
- A Moscow court has formally arrested Evan Gershkovic, an American reporter for the Wall Street Journal suspected of spying, according to Russian media. The 31-year-old told the court that he was not guilty and the White House described the allegations as “ludicrous.”
- Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will chair a meeting of the United Nations Security Council in April, when Moscow will hold the rotating presidency of the international body.
- The International Olympic Committee (IOC) recommendation to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete as neutral individuals is not binding for the 2024 Paris Olympics, French Sports Minister Amelie Oudea-Castera said. The IOC recommendations were “a step that does not prejudge what we will do” for Paris 2024, Oudea-Castera told reporters on a visit near Paris.
Struggle
- The governor of Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, Oleh Synyehubov, said at least six Russian missiles hit the capital city of Kharkiv and authorities are gathering details about the damage and casualties.
- The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces admitted that the Russian forces had a “degree of success” storming Bakhmut on both sides. kept fighting through the destroyed city.
- Ukrainian troops overcame 47 Russian attacks on different sections of the Eastern Front, the Ukrainian military has claimed.
- fights broke out outside a Kyiv monastery after the Ukrainian branch of the Orthodox Church defied an eviction order. Tensions over the presence of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) have risen since the Russian invasion. Kiev has accused the UOC of maintaining ties with the Russian Orthodox Church, which has supported the invasion of Moscow, but the UOC has said it severed all ties with the Russian Church in May 2022.
