March 20th, 2022
1. Humanitarian operation: major events
Russia exerts every effort to evacuate the local population and foreign citizens to safe areas and to implement a set of measures to restore daily life in the territories of Ukraine liberated from Ukrainian extremists.
To this end, from 10AM every day humanitarian corridors have been opened in the directions of Kiev, Mariupol, Chernigov, Sumy and Kharkov, one to Russia and one more through Kiev-controlled territories towards Ukraine's western borders.
Of the routes Russia proposed, the Ukrainian authorities again agreed on only three, and no humanitarian corridor to the Russian territory is still confirmed by official Kiev.
At the same time the Ukrainian side announced 11 additional humanitarian corridors for the current day - in the Kiev, Zaporozhye, Kherson and Kharkov directions.
On the basis of humane principles, in order to ensure the evacuation of civilians forcibly held by nationalists in blockaded settlements, the Russian Armed Forces fully observe the ceasefire along all routes, including those declared by Kiev.
In the past 24 hours, without assistance of the Kiev authorities, 16,394 people were evacuated to Russia from dangerous areas of Ukraine, Lugansk and Donetsk People's Republics, including 3,129 children.
In total since the beginning of the special military operation (February 24th, 2022) already 314,252 refugees, of which 66,594 were children, have been saved and evacuated. 1,784 private motor vehicles crossed the state border of the Russian Federation, and a total of 36,710.
The Russian Federation's Joint Coordination Headquarters for the Humanitarian Response in Ukraine continues to document numerous cases of violence against civilians by Ukrainian nationalists.
Some of them over the past day were as follows:
a) radicals operating on the Chernigov-Kiev highway, under the pretext of collecting funds for the UAF, forcibly take money from civilians at a rate they imposed with these rates being five times higher for anyone trying to travel toward Russia, and the most cynical thing is that if people do not have money to pay “a check-point fare” their cars are confiscated and people are sent back on foot;
b) in Sumy, at the Sumykhimprom chemical plant, nationalists mined storage facilities with ammonia and chlorine with the aim of mass poisoning of residents of the Sumy region, in case of entry into the city of units of the Russian Armed Forces;
c) in the village of Kotlyarovo, Nikolaev Region, militants of nationalist groups are preparing provocations using toxic chemicals. For this purpose, canisters with toxic chemicals have already been delivered to the local elementary school, and it is planned to blow them up when the Russian troops arrive.
Russian MoD warn the entire civilized world and international organizations in advance of the cynical provocations prepared by the Ukrainian authorities.
All this is happening with the direct support of the U.S. leadership and a number of European Union countries, which view Ukraine as an instrument of anti-Russian policy.
A significant part of the population forcibly detained by radicals in Ukrainian cities is still looking for any opportunity to evacuate to Russia, as evidenced by numerous appeals by citizens to official structures, NGOs, directly to the subjects of our country, to family and friends, as well as acquaintances who live in the Russian Federation.
According to the results of daily monitoring it was established that only during the last day 7,223 such appeals were received, and all in all there are already totally 2,711,319 names and specific features of people wishing to settle down in Russia in the database from two thousand ninety-three settlements of Ukraine. More than 9,500 temporary accommodation centers continue to operate in the regions of the Russian Federation. The Russian side still keeps a sufficient number of vehicles ready at the checkpoints, including buses for transporting refugees to selected destinations, as well as to temporary accommodation points, where all citizens arriving on the territory of Russia are provided with three hot meals a day and medical assistance is provided around the clock.
Despite the humanitarian corridors opening daily, Ukrainian nationalists continue to hold more than 4,500,000 civilians as a "human shield" in Kiev, Kharkov, Chernigov, Sumy and more than 20 other blocked large settlements, as well as 6,830 foreign citizens from 19 states and the crews of 70 foreign vessels, blocked in the seaports of Ukraine.
Russian federal executive authorities together with the subjects of Russia, various NGOs and patriotic movements have prepared more than 16.5 thousand tons of humanitarian aid. More than 20 tons of basic necessities, food and medicines have been prepared at the collection points.
The Russian side delivered 3,619 tons of cargo to the settlements of the Lugansk and Donetsk people's republics, Kiev, Zaporozhye, Chernigov, Kharkov and Kherson regions during 464 humanitarian actions. To date, 52 humanitarian actions have been planned and are currently being carried out in Zaporozhia, Chernigov, Kiev, Kharkov and Kherson regions, in Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics, during which 280 tons of basic necessities, medicine and food will be distributed.
On March 20th president Zelensky banned eleven opposition parties in Ukraine. He also extended martial law in Ukraine from March 26th for extra 30 days.
2. Russian offensive operation vs extremists
In the meantime, Russian forces, as well as the DPR and LPR militias, continue to advance in Donbass, tightening the encirclement around the remaining Ukrainian radicals in Mariupol and taking control over multiple settlements.
The grouping of troops of the Donetsk People's Republic, developing an offensive, took full control of Stepnoye and is pursuing the retreating units of the 53rd separate mechanized brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces (UAF). Up to 25 personnel, 2 tanks, 2 infantry fighting vehicles and 5 all-terrain vehicles were destroyed. In Novoselovka Vtoraya direction, the units of the Donetsk Republic have advanced to a depth of 3 kilometers, crossed the Kamenka - Verkhnetoretskoye road, and are fighting with the 1st airborne battalion of the 25th separate airborne brigade of the UAF.
During the night, most of Verkhnetoretskoye settlement was taken under control, where battles are being fought with the 2nd battalion of the same brigade. In total, up to 40 personnel, 5 armored personnel carriers and 4 all-terrain vehicles were destroyed there. Offensive actions continue.
In the evening of March 19th and in the morning of March 20th, high-precision long-range weapons attacked Ukraine's military infrastructure.
A large fuel storage base of the UAF near Konstantinovka in Nikolaev Region was destroyed by Kalibr (Calibre) sea-based cruise missiles fired from the Caspian Sea, as well as by Kinzhal (Dagger) air-based hypersonic missiles from Crimea. This is the main base for supply Ukrainian armored vehicles with fuel in the south of Ukraine.
Kinzhal has been used for the first time in real combat environment in Ukraine.
Fired from the Black Sea, Kalibr sea-based cruise missiles destroyed workshops for repairing Ukrainian armored vehicles damaged in combat at the Nezhinsky repair plant.
Kalibr has been successfully used in Syria vs terrorists.
During the night, operational-tactical and army aviation obliterated 62 military assets of the UAF. Among them: 3 command posts, 1 MRLSs, 2 missile and artillery weapons depots and 1 fuel depot, as well as 52 military equipment concentration zones.
Russian AAD shot down in the air: 1 Mi-8 helicopter of the Ukrainian Air Force near Kohannoye, 6 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles, including 1 Bayraktar TB-2 near Shibennoye, as well as 1 Ukrainian Tochka-U tactical ballistic missile near Chistovodovka north of Izyum.
In total, from February 24th till now 207 unmanned aerial vehicles, 1,467 tanks and other ACVs, 148 MRLSs, 573 field artillery pieces and mortar guns, as well as 1,262 units of special military vehicles have been destroyed since the beginning of the special military operation.
Ukrainian Security Service officer who defected recently confessed that “Azov” nationalist battalion planned to stage a number of terrorist actions in Lvov, Western Ukraine, versus the U.S. and other Western Embassies there.
3. The fate of mercenaries backing neo-nazi in Ukraine
Russia has repeatedly warned foreign countries against allowing their citizens to travel to Ukraine in order to take part in the hostilities, stressing that anyone firing at Russian troops during the special op will be considered a valid target.
High-precision air-launched missiles struck the training center of the Ukrainian special operations forces near Ovruch settlement of Zhytomir Region, where foreign mercenaries who arrived in Ukraine were based. More than 100 special operations forces servicemen and mercenaries were killed.
This is the second major strike by the Russian military targeting foreign mercenaries in Ukraine: a week ago, up to 180 foreign mercenaries were killed in precision strikes against Ukrainian training ground located at the Yavorovsky military compound and near the settlement of Starichi.
It is a pity that some countries are sending their citizens as the “soldiers of fortune” into Ukraine to help ultra-nationalists. Very frequently they are becoming “soldiers of misfortune”. Ten ammo rounds per assault rifle shared with them – that is all the UAF can afford them today, and less tomorrow.
Food for thought: “The West, and especially America, is principally responsible for the crisis which began in February 2014. It has now turned into a war that not only threatens to destroy Ukraine, but also has the potential to escalate into a nuclear war between Russia and NATO”. John J. Mearsheimer, the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago//The Economist. March 19th, 2022// https://www.economist.com/by-invitation/2022/03/11/john-mearsheimer-on-why-the-west-is-principally-responsible-for-the-ukrainian-crisis
Written by Vladimir P. Kozin
