The Russian army near Bakhmut in the Donetsk region uses barrier detachments, writes the New York Times, citing Ukrainian commanders. They said that for retreating the Russians would face execution or imprisonment - the corresponding orders of Russian officers were recorded in radio intercepts. In addition, in the pocket of one of the dead opponents, the Ukrainian military found a document stating that Russians would face execution for desertion.

Employees of the Institute of Oil and Gas Geology and Geophysics of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (INGG SB RAS) in Novosibirsk sent letters demanding to clarify the actual addresses of residence and provide information about all cohabitants, regardless of registration. The reliability of the message to “important stories” was confirmed by an employee of the institution.

Yevgeny Prigozhin warned Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu about an imminent “large-scale” counteroffensive of the Ukrainian Armed Forces near Bakhmut. The owner of Wagner PMC wrote about this in an appeal to the minister. Prigozhin believes that in late March - early April the Ukrainian army will launch “flank cutting strikes” to cut off mercenary units from the main Russian forces. Prigozhin asked Shoigu to take “all necessary measures” to prevent the cutting off of Wagner PMC units.

On the afternoon of March 19, 20-year-old resident of Izhevsk Nikita Gorbunov went out to the Kirov Cultural Park with a poster in his hands “Hug if you are against war.” This happened the day after a pro-government festival dedicated to the anniversary of the annexation of Crimea was held there. The video of the action quickly became popular, and Gorbunov himself was detained and charged with “discrediting” the Russian Armed Forces.

A full -scale war is going on for the second year, GDP in 2022 decreased by 2.1%, the budget deficit is calculated by trillions of rubles, but there were fewer the poor in Russia. The number of Russians with income below the poverty border amounted to 15.3 million people, the Rosstat said preliminary data for 2022. This is 700 thousand people less than in 2021.