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Latest Developments in Ukraine: March 26


A man walks behind a crater created by a bomb and in front of damaged houses following a Russian bombing earlier this week, outskirts Mykolaiv, Ukraine, March 25, 2022.
A man walks behind a crater created by a bomb and in front of damaged houses following a Russian bombing earlier this week, outskirts Mykolaiv, Ukraine, March 25, 2022.

For full coverage of the crisis in Ukraine, visit Flashpoint Ukraine.

For the latest developments of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, all times EST:

10:09 p.m.: The U.K. foreign secretary told the Sunday Telegraph that sanctions against Russia could be lifted if Russian forces withdraw from Ukraine, the BBC reported.

FILE: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks from Kyiv, Ukraine, March 24, 2022.
FILE: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks from Kyiv, Ukraine, March 24, 2022.

7:45 p.m.: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy demanded 1% of the military hardware he said Western nations “just gathering dust,” he said Saturday.

"This is all for not only the freedom of Ukraine, but for the freedom of Europe," he said in a late-night video address.

While several countries have promised to send anti-armor and anti-aircraft missiles as well as small arms, Zelenskyy said Kyiv needed tanks, planes and anti-ship systems.

FILE: British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss speaks during a G-7 foreign and development ministers session with guest countries and ASEAN nations in Liverpool, Britain, Dec. 12, 2021.
FILE: British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss speaks during a G-7 foreign and development ministers session with guest countries and ASEAN nations in Liverpool, Britain, Dec. 12, 2021.

6:50 p.m.: In an interview with the Telegraph, British Foreign Minister Liz Truss indicated that sanctions against Russian companies and individuals could be lifted, but only if Russia agreed to a “full cease-fire and withdrawal, but also commitments that there will be no further aggression.”

6:20 p.m.: Zurich Insurance says it is removing the Z logo from its social media because it has become a symbol of support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the company told Reuters in a statement.

The letter has appeared widely on Russian tanks and military trucks, but also on billboards and even clothing. But how it got started and why remains a mystery. And the insurance company says it wants to avoid any misinterpretation.

5:55 p.m.: In an update, three people were killed when Russian forces took control of Slavutych, the city near the defunct Chernobyl nuclear plant where its workers live, Interfax Ukraine news agency quoted the local mayor as saying.

The governor of Kyiv region, Oleksandr Pavlyuk, earlier announced the capture of the city in an online post, Reuters reported.

Ukrainian staff continue to manage the Chernobyl site even after the territory was occupied by Russian forces soon after the start of the February 24 invasion.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said in a statement that it was closely monitoring the situation and expressed concern about the ability of staff to rotate in and out of the atomic power station.

5:15 p.m.: Russian forces are firing at a nuclear research facility in the city of Kharkiv, the Ukrainian parliament said in a Twitter post on Saturday.

"It is currently impossible to estimate the extent of damage due to hostilities that do not stop in the area of the nuclear installation," the post quoted the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate as saying.

Earlier this month, Reuters reported, the grounds of the Institute of Physics and Technology were hit by Russian shells. At the time, the facility's director general said the core housing nuclear fuel remained intact.

FILE: Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, right, and Head of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Russia and First Deputy Defense Minister Valery Gerasimov listen to Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, Russia, Feb. 27, 2022.
FILE: Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, right, and Head of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Russia and First Deputy Defense Minister Valery Gerasimov listen to Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, Russia, Feb. 27, 2022.

4:40 p.m.: Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, who hasn't been seen since March 11 and who the Kremlin said had had a heart attack, was seen chairing an army meeting and discussing weapons supplies in a video posted by his ministry on Saturday, Reuters reported.

The meeting was attended by a number of top Russian army officials including the chief of the General Staff, Valery Gerasimov, who also had not been seen in public recently.

4:10 p.m.: In a statement Saturday from Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the U.S. said it intends to provide Ukraine with $100 million in additional civilian security assistance.

The assistance listed in the statement included funding to continue a steady flow of personal protection equipment, field gear, tactical equipment, medical supplies, armored vehicles, and communication equipment for the Ukrainian State Border Guard Service and the National Police of Ukraine.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken waves as he boards his plane in Warsaw, Poland, March 26, 2022, departing for Israel.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken waves as he boards his plane in Warsaw, Poland, March 26, 2022, departing for Israel.

3 p.m.: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is flying to Israel on Saturday to attend the Israeli-Arab summit that is likely to be dominated by discussions about the Russia invasion of Ukraine and the Iran nuclear talks.

2:10 p.m.: In a speech in front of the Royal Castle in Warsaw on Saturday, U.S. President Joe Biden dramatically upped his rhetoric against Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying: “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power."

Biden also strongly defended liberal democracy and the NATO military alliance, while saying Europe must steel itself for a long fight against Russian aggression.

1:22 p.m.: Russian troops have seized Slavutych, a town where workers at the nearby Chernobyl plant live, the regional governor said. Reuters could not independently verify the reports.

Ukrainian staff have continued to work at Chernobyl after the plant was seized by Russian forces soon after the start of the February 24 invasion.

12:55 p.m.: A Kremlin spokesman said on Saturday that recent comments by U.S. President Joe Biden about Russian President Vladimir Putin are hurting the prospects for mending ties between the two countries, TASS news agency said.

Biden referred to Putin as a butcher and a war criminal in the last few days.

12:32 p.m.: Before his speech in Warsaw, U.S. President Joe Biden met with Ukrainian refugees at Polish border:

12:15 p.m.: Thousands of Russians took to the streets Saturday in Prague, waving the white-blue-white flags that symbolizes protest against Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, Reuters reports.

Carrying signs and chanting "No to War," they walked from Prague's Peace Square through the center of the Czech capital. Police estimated about 3,000 people marched.

"We are against Putin," said Alexander Sibrimov, a 19-year-old student who attended the protest with his father. “This is a way to show the world that the things happening in Ukraine are not right."

11:43 a.m.: NATO's deputy general secretary said in an interview with The Associated Press that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s month-old “barbaric war” against Ukraine is a war he cannot win.

Mircea Geoana said that NATO would be “forced to take appropriate measures” in the event of a chemical or nuclear attack. The Putin regime’s most significant mistake so far was underestimating “the bravery of the Ukrainian army” and the “unity of the political West,” he added.

11 a.m.: At least five people were hurt Saturday in airstrikes on a fuel storage facility near Lviv, Ukrainian officials said. The attack on the western Ukraine city was a rare one a month into Russia's invasion, Agence France-Presse reports.

"There were two missile strikes within Lviv," the regional Governor Maksym Kozytsky said on social media, adding that, "according to preliminary data, five people were injured."

The city's Mayor Andriy Sadovy said in a later post that "an industrial facility where fuel is stored caught fire" as a result of the attack.

7:42 a.m.: Biden-Kuleba-Reznikov meeting is ongoing — started at 10:41 a.m. local time (now 12:19 p.m.) in Warsaw, VOA White House Correspondent Anita Powell reports. Pool was brought in for one minute, during which time Kuleba and Biden made small talk.

6:04 a.m.: The U.K.'s latest intelligence update indicates that Russia will likely keep using "heavy firepower" on urban areas as part of "the indiscriminate use of air and artillery bombardments." It warns that Russia is looking "to limit its own already considerable losses, at the cost of further civilian casualties."

5:12 a.m.: The New York Times reports that Ukraine is facing a possible public health catastrophe: "Ukraine has alarmingly high numbers of people living with HIV and hepatitis C, and dangerously low levels of vaccination against measles, polio and COVID-19. Overcrowded and unsanitary living conditions for refugees are breeding grounds for cholera and other diarrheal diseases, not to mention respiratory plagues like COVID-19, pneumonia and tuberculosis."

4:11 a.m.: There have been more than 70 attacks on hospitals, ambulances and doctors in Ukraine, the BBC reports, and that number is increasing every day, the World Health Organization says.

3:15 a.m.: French President Emmanuel Macron dismissed Russia's demand to be paid for gas in rubles, Agence France-Presse reported. He said Russian President Vladimir Putin was trying to sidestep sanctions.

2:13 a.m.: Swedish company Spotify, which provides audio streaming services, will "fully suspend" its service in Russia, The New York Times reports.

1:03 a.m.: The Washington Post reports that more than 7,300 residents of Ukraine escaped through humanitarian corridors Friday. Humanitarian corridors are expected to be agreed upon for Mariupol, as well as settlements in the Kyiv and Luhansk regions, Saturday.

12:01 a.m.: A 28-year-old English teacher from the U.S. state of Minnesota has been freed after being detained by the Russians as he tried to leave Ukraine, The New York Times reports. Tyler Jacob, who'd been living in Ukraine, had been in Russian custody for 10 days.

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.

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