President Putin meets top commander of Russia’s offensive in Ukraine and also visits Ukraine’s Mariupol city that fell to Moscow’s troops in May last year as Ukraine-Russia conflict enters its 389th day.
Mariupol in Donetsk region was the site of some of the fiercest fighting early in the conflict.
(Reuters)
Sunday, March 19, 2023
Russia’s Vladimir Putin has visited Mariupol, Russian state media reported, the Ukrainian city of Donetsk region that fell to Russian troops in May last year.
Putin flew to Mariupol by helicopter, the TASS agency reported citing the Kremlin.
Driving a car, Putin travelled around several districts of the city, making stops, talking to residents, inspecting the city’s reconstruction as well as the construction of new neighbourhoods.
In the Nevsky micro-district, Putin spoke with the residents and at the invitation of one of the families, he visited their home, the state media said.
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0331 GMT — Putin meets top command of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine
Russia’s President Putin has met with the top command of his military operation in Ukraine, state media reported, including Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov who is in charge of Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine.
The meeting took place at the Rostov-on-Don command post in southern Russia, TASS news agency reported.
Russian President Putin visits Mariupol in his first trip to the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine’s Donbas region since the start of the war pic.twitter.com/oHHRdrLdYS
— TRT World Now (@TRTWorldNow) March 19, 2023
2335 GMT — Up to 1,200 recruits join every day – Wagner head
Evgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner mercenary group, has claimed that up to 1,200 new recruits join its ranks every day.
“The result that we are having now, we did not expect it. We have days when we recruit up to 1,200 people a day. An average number fluctuates from 500 to 800,” he said on Telegram.
Prigozhin said he expects that by mid-May the number of fighters will increase by 30,000.
According to him, newcomers have better physical form than people the group was hiring previously, and pass test for physical training in the first attempt.
2300 GMT — Russia demands lifting of Western sanctions for Ukraine peace
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova has said annulment of sanctions and lawsuits in international courts against Russia is one of the conditions for settlement in Ukraine.
In a statement on the ministry’s website, Zakharova said to achieve “sustainable peace,” it is necessary to stop supplying arms and sending mercenaries to Ukraine.
Ukraine also has to return to a neutral, non-nuclear, non-bloc status, denazified and demilitarised, all threats emanating from its territory have to be removed, and rights of Russian-speaking population should be guaranteed, she added.
“New territorial reality … should be internationally recognised. The annulment of all illegal sanctions and lawsuits against Russia in international courts should become an integral part,” she stressed.
Commenting on Ukraine’s foreign minister’s statement, promoting the country’s “formula of peace,” Zakharova said: “We are dealing with another attempt by the Ukrainian side to misinform the international community and its own citizens.”
She said Ukrainian authorities do not sit at the negotiating table, and instead move forward a “set of ultimatums,” which include the withdrawal of Russian army “even from Crimea,” and payment of reparations and surrender to international tribunals.
Zakharova stressed that opinion of Ukraine’s authorities would have significance “only if Ukraine retained sovereignty and independence from Washington.”
2107 GMT — Ukrainian army says still able to resupply troops in Bakhmut
Ukrainian forces outside the battered eastern city of Bakhmut are managing to keep Russian units at bay so ammunition, food, equipment and medicines can be delivered to defenders, the army has said.
“We are managing to deliver the necessary munitions, food, gear and medicines to Bakhmut. We are also managing to take our wounded out of the city,” military spokesperson Serhiy Cherevaty told the ICTV television channel.
He said Ukrainian scouts and counter-artillery fire were helping keep open some roads into the city.
As well as inflicting heavy casualties, pro-Kiev forces shot down two Russian drones and destroyed five enemy ammunition depots on Friday, he added.
For our live updates from Saturday (March 18), click here.
Source: TRTWorld and agencies
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