WAR IN UKRAINE: March 10, 2023
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS: Day 380
The massive Russian attack on many regions of Ukraine used more than 80 missiles fired from the air, sea and ground, Ukrainian officials said. Also involved were about a half dozen air-to-surface hypersonic missiles. By the end of the day, power was said to have been restored throughout Ukraine - including to the lines that power the cooling systems at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. At least 11 people were reported killed yesterday, including five in Lviv Oblast alone.
As stated above, the attack on Ukraine yesterday utilise rare hypersonic missiles. Russia had reportedly not fired Kinzhal hypersonic missiles - which can evade air defences - since the early months of the conflict, the BBC reported. Though Ukraine claimed it had shot down 34 cruise missiles and four drones yesterday, it also said it had been unable to intercept the six Kinzhal ballistic missiles - nor was it able to destroy older weapons, such as Kh-22 anti-ship missiles and S-300 anti-aircraft missiles. "This was a major attack and for the first time with so many different types of missiles," the Reuters news agency quoted a Ukrainian air force spokesperson as saying. "It was like never before." The BBC reported that President Vladimir Putin has highlighted Russia's investment in ballistic hypersonic missiles, which can travel at more than five times the speed of sound.
Russian forces have kept up their assaults near the invasion's eastern front in Kupyansk, Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Shakhtarsk, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said Thursday. Ukraine's military said its forces had recently repelled attacks in the villages of Orikhovo-Vasylivka and Dubovo-Vasylivka to the northwest of Bakhmut, in Ivanivske to the west of the city and in Oleksandro-Shultine to the southwest. "The enemy continues to violate the norms of International Humanitarian Law, continues to carry out strikes, shell civilian objects and civilian homes, and tries to destroy the critical infrastructure of our country," the General Staff said - CNN
Slovak Defense Minister Jaroslav Nad said he had spoken to his Polish counterpart and was told that Warsaw would agree to a joint process to hand over MiG-29 jets to Ukraine - RFE/RL
The US and its allies have blocked or seized more than $58 billion worth of assets owned or controlled by sanctioned Russians in the past year as Western governments continue to dial up the pressure over the Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine, according to a joint statement from a multinational sanctions enforcement task force. The Russian Elites, Proxies and Oligarchs (REPO) Task Force is a joint effort between the US, Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy, France, Japan, the UK and the European Commission. "REPO will redouble efforts to hold Russia accountable for its unjust war, countering Russian efforts to undermine, circumvent, or evade REPO's collective sanctions," according to a joint statement released following the meeting and obtained first by CNN. "REPO will continue to identify, locate, and freeze the assets of sanctioned Russians, with the aim of depriving the Kremlin of the funds it needs to fight its illegal war," it continued.
