Chronicle of the war with Ukraine. Day 32

Russian troops launched missile attacks on Lviv while the US President was in Poland. From its border to Lviv is only 70 kilometers.

19:44

President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky posted a video of an interview with Russian media on his Telegram channel. “Russia must know the truth,” he wrote.

19:38

Roskomnadzor demanded that the media not publish an interview with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky.

“An investigation has been launched against the media that took the interview to determine the degree of responsibility and take response measures,” the department’s telegram channel says .

Zelensky gave an interview to Russian media for the first time since the beginning of the war. He spoke with Meduza editor-in-chief Ivan Kolpakov, Dozhd TV channel editor-in-chief Tikhon Dzyadko, Kommersant correspondent Vladimir Solovyov and journalist Mikhail Zygar. This afternoon they promised to publish the full interview, unabridged, “in a few hours.”

Reporting Roskomnadzor’s demand, Meduza clarified that “the interview will be released in its entirety in the coming hours.”

18:59

In the self-proclaimed Lugansk People's Republic, preparations are not yet underway for holding a referendum on joining Russia, said the head of the LPR, Leonid Pasechnik. His words are quoted by the Lugansk Information Center.

Pasechnik added that now the main task is “to end the war, liberate our territories, save our residents from fascism.”

Earlier today, Pasechnik expressed the opinion that the referendum would be held “in the near future.” In response to this, the head of the State Duma Committee on CIS Affairs, Eurasian Integration and Relations with Compatriots, Leonid Kalashnikov, noted that now is “the wrong time” to hold such a referendum.

17:47

Advisor to the head of the office of the President of Ukraine Alexey Arestovich at a briefing this afternoon called on the Ukrainian military not to abuse captured Russians and reminded that this is contrary to the Geneva Convention on Human Rights.

He made such a statement against the backdrop of videos that appeared on the Internet, which allegedly captured how Ukrainian soldiers shot Russian prisoners of war in the legs. The video initially appeared on pro-Kremlin telegram channels. Eliot Higgins from the Bellingcat investigative project drew attention to the video and urged his Twitter followers to geolocate the footage.

In the comments, users note that despite the lack of obvious identifying marks, the video is most likely not a fake. Members of the Project Owl OSINT open data analysis discord community come to the same, albeit very cautious, conclusion.

16:42

15:45

A memorial plaque to the Ukrainian historian, “the first president of the Ukrainian People’s Republic” Mikhail Grushevsky was removed from a building in Kazan, the student online magazine “Veter” reports . Grushevsky lived in this building in 1915. Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, local residents have brought flowers to the memorial plaque.

Although the plaque says that Grushevsky was the first president of the republic, in reality he became the first chairman of the Ukrainian Central Rada in 1917.

Updated at 9:41 p.m. It is clarified what position Grushevsky held during the revolution.

13:43

Roskomnadzor has restricted access to the website of the German tabloid Bild and the website of journalist and publicist Alexander Nevzorov nevzorov.tv, as follows from the register of prohibited websites.

The reason for the blocking is the same resolution of the Prosecutor General’s Office dated March 26th. It is not specified what materials led to the blocking. On March 22, a criminal case was opened against Nevzorov regarding military “fakes.”

VKontakte also, by decision of the Prosecutor General’s Office, blocked access to Nevzorov’s page and the public page of the DOXA magazine.

13:04

The Russian military dispersed a pro-Ukrainian rally in Kherson, Suspilne reports . Those gathered chanted “Kherson is Ukraine!”, and the military threw smoke bombs at people.

This morning, residents of the village of Kakhovka in the Kherson region alsoattended a pro-Ukrainian rally. There is no information about its acceleration.

12:48

During the shelling of the village of Stanislav in the Kherson region on the night of March 23-24, two people were killed, reports the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine. Infrastructure and residential buildings were damaged.

12:40

“VKontakte” blocked the page of the St. Petersburg publication “Paper” by decision of the Prosecutor General’s Office due to news about military operations in Ukraine, the publication itself reports . Previously, Roskomnadzor blocked the Paper website (twice) and the site’s mirror.

12:09

At the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, a shift that had been working without interruption since February 24 was partially replaced. As Ukrayinska Pravda writes , the mayor of Slavutych, Yuriy Fomichev, announced this on air at a national telethon.

“We found volunteers - they are real heroes, like those who were there at that time. But this is already a conscious decision of people: to go to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, realizing that this could be a long time,” the publication quotes Fomichev as saying. The mayor added that negotiations on more frequent rotation are ongoing.

Fomichev also said that the city authorities would not cooperate with the Russian military that entered the city the day before. “We don’t have any cooperation with the occupiers, we don’t need any help from them,” the UNIAN agency quotes the mayor.

11:57

The head of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People's Republic, Leonid Pasechnik, said that “in the near future” a referendum on joining Russia could be held in the region.

“I think that in the near future a referendum will be held on the territory of the Republic, in which the people will exercise their absolute constitutional right and express their opinion on joining the Russian Federation. For some reason, I am sure that this is exactly what will happen,” the Lugansk Information Center quotes him as saying.

11:37

In Kiev, on Monday, March 28, education will resume in schools, colleges and universities, the city administration reports .

Training will be conducted online, and the focus of classes will be not only on new material, but also on repetition of what has been covered and psychological support. Distance learning, notes the head of the Kyiv administration, Valentin Mondrievsky, should help children, and not “be a reason for stress and anxiety - without bad grades and homework.”

The Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine recommended that all educational institutions go on a two-week vacation on the second day of the war, February 25. On March 7, the department advised to suspend the work of kindergartens, and transfer schools and universities to distance learning after the end of the holidays. In schools, the possibility of resuming online lessons depends on the situation in the region and the decision of the local administration.

11:09

In the Luhansk region, as a result of hostilities, cameraman of the Ukrainian “24 channel” Yuriy Oleinik was killed. As reported on the channel’s website, Oleinik died on March 23. He was a fighter in one of the brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

10:57

In Moscow hospitals, military personnel were awarded orders for their participation in the “special operation to protect Donbass.”

At the branch of the 3rd Central Military Clinical Hospital named after A.A. Vishnevsky, nine military personnel received the Order of Courage. The video of the award ceremony was published by the Zvezda TV channel. It shows that eight soldiers had their legs amputated, and the ninth (the only one who was able to stand up) had his arm amputated.

At the main military clinical hospital named after Burdenko, as TASS reports , six military personnel received the Order of Courage, and two more received the medal “For Courage.” The TV Center television channel published a video in which Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-Bek Yevkurov presents an award to two men lying in hospital beds. “I wish you to recover and get back on your feet,” Yevkurov told one of them, adding that the military man would be given a prosthesis.

10:16

The Russian Ministry of Defense confirmed missile attacks on Lvov. At a briefing , a representative of the department announced the “destruction of a large fuel base” and workshops of the Lvov Radio Repair Plant.

Earlier, Lviv authorities talked about an air attack on an oil depot and a defense plant.

09:56

Swiss insurance company Zurich Insurance has removed the letter Z from its logo on social networks so as not to be associated with Russian troops, Reuters reports . The company explained that the logo - the letter Z on a blue background - could be "misunderstood." The new logo is Zurich on the same background.

09:41

The head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov , said that Ruslan Geremeev, who was called the organizer of Nemtsov’s murder, heads one of the Chechen units in Mariupol.

“My dear BROTHER Ruslan Geremeev “Kind” always brings the assigned work to the end,” Kadyrov wrote.

He also published a recording with Geremeev, which, according to the head of Chechnya, filmed the events in Mariupol. In the video, Geremeev, who used to be an officer of the Sever battalion , and people in camouflage fire weapons and are accompanied by exclamations of “Allahu Akbar.” However, their opponent is not visible on the recording.

They then hang a Chechen flag with the image of Akhmat Kadyrov, presumably on the Mariupol administration building. After this, Geremeev addresses the camera in Chechen, he ends his speech with the words “Akhmat is strength,” and then people in camouflage next to him begin to shoot in the air.

Nemtsov’s family lawyer Vadim Prokhorov called Geremeev the real organizer of the politician’s murder. But the Investigative Committee declared his driver to be the organizer.

The investigator in court said that he wanted to interrogate Geremeev and came to his home, but no one opened the door for him. After this, the Investigative Committee made no attempts to find Geremeev.

Results of the 31st day of the war

Russian troops launched several missile attacks on Lvov. Their target, according to Ukrainian authorities, was an oil depot and a defense plant. Five people were injured.

US President Joe Biden, who is on a visit to Poland, called Vladimir Putin a “butcher.”

Slavutich, a city built for Chernobyl nuclear power plant workers and their families in 1986, is occupied by the Russian military, Mayor Yuri Fomichev said.

In Kharkov, Russian troops damaged the Holocaust memorial in Drobitsky Yar.

Putin signed a law recognizing participants in the war with Ukraine as veterans.

Cover photo: Fotoreserg, Depositphotos