WAR IN UKRAINE: March 26, 2022
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS: Day 31
The situation in Lviv was tense Saturday evening after two separate sets of missile strikes hit the historic western Ukrainian city around dinner time. According to Maksym Kozytskyi, Head of the Lviv Regional Military Administration, two sites were hit: a fuel storage facility and one of the military infrastructures. In an evening news conference, Lviv Mayor Andrij Sadovyi said there were no deaths reported but that crucial infrastructure such as a school were damaged. “We do have some wounded and I believe this is how the aggressor is saying hello to President Biden who is in Poland now, and we know Lviv is only 70 kilometers- 40 miles from Poland so all of the world needs to understand the threat is serious,” Sadovyi said. Shortly after the blasts I observed displaced families packing their vehicles to depart the city.
President Biden appeared to call for Vladimir Putin’s ouster in a speech Saturday in Warsaw, saying the Russian president’s invasion of Ukraine had ignited a “new battle for freedom” between democracies and autocracies. "For god’s sake, this man cannot remain in power,” Biden said in remarks that were later walked back by the White House.
Also in his Warsaw speech Biden suggested there will be no quick end to the Ukraine war: “We are engaged anew in a great battle for freedom. A battle between democracy and autocracy. Between liberty and repression. This battle will not be won in days or months either. We need to steel ourselves for the long fight ahead.“
A little more than one month into the war, President Volodymyr Zelensky says Ukraine has inflicted "powerful blows" and "significant losses" on Russian forces
Russia is moving troops into Ukraine from occupied territories in Georgia. CNN reported citing an unnamed Pentagon official that the U.S. had seen “movement of some number of troops from Georgia.” Russia invaded Georgia in 2008.
Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba denies consensus over some points between Ukraine and Russia. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan earlier claimed that Ukraine and Russia were nearing consensus on four of Russia’s demands, including regarding Ukraine’s NATO membership and status of the Russian language. “There is no consensus with Russia on the four points mentioned by the Turkish president. In particular, the only state language in Ukraine is and will be Ukrainian. And in general, the classification of key negotiating topics into four or more points is incorrect,” Kuleba said. - Ukrainska Pravda
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