36-hour curfew in kyiv, Russian advance in southern Ukraine… midday update

• On the twentieth day of the war in Ukraine, Tuesday March 15, the Russian army is slowly advancing and extending its bombing campaign throughout Ukraine. According to the Ukrainian army general staff, “the enemy continues to carry out strikes with missiles and bombs, artillery and tanks on infrastructure and civilian neighborhoods” in several large and medium-sized cities.
• Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, will be under curfew for thirty-six hours, starting Tuesday evening at 8 p.m. Several explosions sounded in Sviatochyn and Podil, residential areas of the city, at dawn. Russian troops would be about 15 kilometers from the city center. Heavy fighting has been going on for several days on the northwestern outskirts, in the towns of Irpin, Hostomel or Boutcha. Corn “kyiv is still open to the south (…), the southern roads are passable, allowing the Kievans to flee and the capital to be supplied”, cAs reported by our special correspondent, Rémy Ourdan.
• The prime ministers of Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovenia are on their way to Kyiv to meet President Volodymyr Zelensky and show “unequivocal support” of the EU.
• In the south, the seat of Mariupol, a strategic port city, has been going on for more than a week. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) talks about living conditions “which are nothing less than a nightmare” for the approximately 400,000 people who are still there. While fighting between Ukrainian and Russian armed forces takes place in the north of the metropolis, Russian missiles fall and pulverize civilian and military buildings. AT Mykolaiv, a port city on the Black Sea, the bombardments also continue. Russian troops are closing in, but their objective remains Odessa, to cut Ukraine’s access to the sea. The Russian Ministry of Defense has assured, according to several official Russian agencies, that the army now has control of the entire region around Kherson. This city of 290,000 inhabitants, which fell almost ten days ago, is the only large Ukrainian agglomeration under Russian control since the start of the invasion.
• To the East, the Russians are still trying to take Kharkov, the second largest city in the country, according to the army staff. The ICRC reports that a convoy of thirty buses is ready to leave the town of Sumy, a few miles away. Valentyn Reznitchenko, governor of the region of Dniproclaims that the Russian army bombarded the international airport of the city on the night of Monday and Tuesday, destroying in particular the take-off and landing strips.
• the human losses is still very uncertain. At least 636 civilians have been killed since the start of this war, according to the count made on Sunday by the UN, which underlines that this assessment is probably much lower than the reality. Nearly 3 million people fled the fighting and shelling, including 1.6 million children, and around 2 million people were internally displaced. Nearly 1,300 Ukrainian soldiers were killed, according to the Ukrainian president, while Russia released only one report on March 2: 498 soldiers killed.
• The fourth round of negotiations to try to find a way out of the war is due to resume today, after a “technical break” announced late yesterday afternoon by the head of the Ukrainian negotiators, Mykhaïlo Podoliak.
• Marina Ovsiannikova, an employee of the powerful Russian public broadcaster Pervy Kanal, held up a sign denouncing the attack on Ukraine and Russian propaganda live, during the television news. She could be prosecuted for having “discredited the use of Russian armed forces”.
• European Union member states on Monday adopted a fourth round of sanctions against Russian companies and oligarchs. Previously, 862 people and 53 Russian entities were already on this blacklist which prohibits entry into the territory of the European Union and allows the seizure of their assets.

Read all our articles, analyzes and reports on the war in Ukraine:

Report. In Ukraine, a van carrying seven educators for children is targeted

Maintenance. Sergei Guriev, economist: “Vladimir Putin will destroy the Russian economy”

To analyse. Why France maintained its military equipment exports to Russia after 2014

Report. The ski resort of Bukovel, an upscale refuge from the bombs

Grandstand. Raphaël Glucksmann: “If we don’t defend Ukraine for our principles, then let’s do it for our vital interests”

Decryptions. Staying in Russia, the disputed bet of TotalEnergies

Our live from Monday March 14 can be found here.