The situation at the front
Russian forces are advancing in the Kupyansky, Limansky, Bakhmutsky, Avdeevsky and Maryinsky directions. According to the summary of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine for March 31, over the past day, the Ukrainian side repulsed more than 80 enemy attacks. Belogorovka, Bakhmut, Avdeevka and Marinka remain at the epicenter of hostilities.
shelling
The Russian army fired S-300 missiles at infrastructure facilities in Kharkov. According to the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor's Office, several residential buildings and an office building were damaged, three people were injured. Settlements in Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Zaporozhye, Kherson, Donetsk and Luhansk regions were also shelled, according to a summary of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Ukrainian territory was attacked by 10 Shahed-136/131 kamikaze drones, nine of which, according to the Ukrainian Air Force, were shot down.
The Situation Center of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine reported on the morning of March 31 that nine regions of Ukraine had been shelled over the past day, two people were killed and 20 were injured. 70 infrastructure facilities were damaged. In the afternoon, the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Andriy Yermak, said that Russian forces fired rockets at the city of Orekhov in the Zaporozhye region. The Kommunarsky district of Zaporozhye also came under fire. A total of four people were injured.
In the evening it became known that as a result of the shelling of Avdiivka, a five-month-old child and his grandmother were killed. According to the head of the Donetsk regional administration Pavel Kirilenko, the mother and father of the child were wounded.
Losses
According to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, during the day Russia lost 460 people killed, as well as five tanks, three armored combat vehicles, four artillery systems, three vehicles and three units of special equipment.
British military intelligence devoted its daily report to counter-battery radar systems (RLS). On March 23, Ukraine published footage of the destruction of the Russian "Zoo-1M" in the vicinity of Donetsk. According to British military intelligence, in total, Russia has lost at least six radars of this class.
The report notes that there are few such systems on both sides, but their importance is great, since radars allow you to quickly find and hit enemy artillery. However, due to their active electromagnetic signature, they are also relatively easy to detect and destroy. British military intelligence believes that it is difficult for Russia to produce new radars, since the supply of electronics necessary for them is limited due to sanctions.
Arms deliveries
Ukrainian aviation has already begun using American JDAM guided glide bombs, Yuriy Ignat, spokesman for the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said . “These are Western-style bombs, with which our aviation quite successfully strikes important targets,” he specified. The fact that Ukraine will receive JDAM manufactured by Boeing was reported in December by The Washington Post. These are GPS-guided bombs capable of hitting targets at a distance of up to 72 km.
By the end of the year, the United States will double the production of 155-mm artillery shells – up to 24,000 units per month. Gabe Camarillo, deputy head of the Pentagon, said that the production of Javelin missiles (up to 330 units per month) and launchers (up to 41 units per month) will also double. According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the United States sent Ukraine a total of more than a million 155-mm shells.
The Gray Zone Telegram channel associated with PMC Wagner reported that for the first time the use of a missile with a semi-active laser guidance system AGM-114 Hellfire was recorded by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The rocket, delivered from Norway, was launched from a ground-based portable launcher in the Ochakov area of the Nikolaev region along the Kinburn Spit, which is under the control of Russian forces.
The Pentagon reported on the training of Ukrainian soldiers
The Pentagon said that more than 7,000 Ukrainian troops have been trained by US instructors since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In particular, this week 65 Ukrainians returned from the United States, who completed a course on managing the Patriot air defense system. 4,000 Ukrainian servicemen are currently completing their combined arms training course in Germany.
Sites for nuclear warheads to be restored in Belarus
Alexander Lukashenko said that he ordered the immediate restoration of sites where nuclear warheads were stored until the mid-1990s. He said that the entire infrastructure for tactical nuclear weapons has been created and is ready in Belarus, and stressed that the country intends to agree with Russia on the deployment of strategic nuclear weapons on its territory. Earlier in March, Vladimir Putin announced the construction of a storage facility for tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus. According to him, this is not about the transfer of Russian nuclear weapons, but about their deployment in a neighboring country.
Nuclear security expert at the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Studies Pavel Podvig told The Insider that Lukashenka's statements should be taken with skepticism.
“At one time there were many storage facilities with nuclear weapons on the territory of Belarus, but over the past 30 years they have come to such a state that they require restoration. It is not a fact that restoring these facilities will be easier and faster than building new ones. In any case, it is necessary to install equipment there, and security systems, and everything else. Theoretically, there is probably such a possibility, but I would be skeptical about this.
If we talk about strategic nuclear weapons, then I do not see any scenarios in which Russia would take such a step as deploying them in Belarus. There is no expediency in this – neither political nor technical. But even if we discard all questions of political expediency, then in order to return or deploy nuclear missiles on the territory of Belarus, it is necessary to build a base of mobile missiles. This is a serious construction, these facilities are being built for quite a long time. Besides, nobody needs it. I don’t see any scenarios in which someone in Russia would approve such a move.”
Anniversary of the liberation of Bucha
On the anniversary of the liberation of the city of Bucha in the Kiev region, which was under Russian occupation from February 27 to March 31, 2022, the Prosecutor General of Ukraine published data on the crimes committed during this period. According to these data, the Russian military committed more than nine thousand war crimes in Bucha. More than 1,400 civilians were killed, many of whom were tortured. Among those killed, there are 37 children.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Bucha together with the leaders of Slovakia, Croatia, Slovenia and Moldova. He also presented the city community of Buchi, represented by Mayor Anatoly Fedoruk, with the Hero City badge.
Russian officer arrested for failing to prevent shelling of Belgorod region
According to Kommersant, for the first time a criminal case was opened in Russia for violating the rules of combat duty for the timely detection and repulsion of a sudden attack on the country's territory (part 2 of article 340 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). According to the sources of the newspaper, the officer is accused of the fact that in the spring of 2022 he was unable to prevent the rocket attack on the Belgorod region by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. As a result, seven Russian servicemen were killed, 43 people were injured and shell-shocked, equipment worth a total of 89 million rubles was destroyed. The officer is in custody.
About the main events of the war on March 30 – in the previous report: “Ukrainians are talking about a turning point in the battle for Bakhmut, the Russians began to actively use winged bombs. What's happening on the front line .