Volodymyr Zelensky spoke with Emmanuel Macron to coordinate their “positions”, as many international summits approach

• Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, assured, Monday, March 21, that his country would not submit to Moscow’s ultimatums and that cities like kyiv, Mariupol and Kharkiv would never agree to be occupied. Mr. Zelensky called on the European Union (EU) to stop all ” trade “ with Russia, in particular to refuse its energy resources. The Europeans, very dependent on Russian hydrocarbons, have so far ruled out sanctioning this sector.
• Meetings of the G7, NATO and European Union leaders will take place on Thursday 24 March. Volodymyr Zelensly spoke today with Emmanuel Macron and the Dutch Prime Minister, Frank Rutte, to coordinate their “positions”.
• The Russian army is still trying to encircle Kyiv (North), where a new curfew was introduced from Monday 7 p.m. (Paris time) until Wednesday 6 a.m. The bombardments continued, in particular against a mall overnight from Sunday to Monday, killing at least eight people. Half of the capital’s 3.5 million inhabitants have fled.
• Kharkov (North-East), second city of Ukraine, is attacked by the Russian forces on several fronts and the main axes, but is not surrounded. The bombardments continue.
• AT Mariupolbesieged strategic port, in the south-east of the country, Ukrainian troops will not lay down their armsignoring the ultimatum issued by Russia. “What is happening in Mariupol is a major war crime. The indiscriminate bombings are devastating the city and killing everyone”denounced, on Monday, the high representative of the EU) for foreign affairs and security policy, Josep Borrell.
• In the great port city ofOdessa (South), several houses were affected on Monday by “enemy bombardment”, according to the regional military administration. These were the first Russian bombardments of the city’s suburbs. AT Mykolaiv, several buildings were also hit by a Russian bombardment. AT KhersonRussian soldiers targeted civilians demonstrating against the occupation of the city.
• No major bombardment on west and center of Ukraine in recent days.
• No big variation on the forehead from the east of the country, where Russian forces are leading the offensive, among others, from the pro-Russian separatist territories of Donetsk and Luhansk, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), an American think tank.
• Russia claimed on Sunday, for the second day in a row, to have used hypersonic missiles in Ukraine, this time to destroy a Ukrainian army fuel reserve in the south. These armaments “don’t change the situation”said US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
• Ten million Ukrainiansalmost a quarter of the population, have now fled their homes, said the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi. They are more than 3.3 million – 90% of whom are women and children – to have left the country.

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

Report. In Loutsk, the fear of a Belarusian attack.

Decryptions. Giant hide-and-seek game between Russian oligarchs and European authorities

Report. With the Territorial Defense volunteers, an army of civilians

Grandstand. “Putin’s use of mafia slang indicates a kind of belonging to the world of thugs”

Report. On the border with Poland, the humanitarian “festival”