March 23rd, 2022
1. Number of supporters of the operation has increased
The majority of Russians support President Vladimir Putin and the military operation in Ukraine. Recent public opinion polls showed that the overwhelming majority of citizens, as evidenced by statistics and polls – over 74% of citizens – support the special operation. 17% were against it and 9% did not have any clear answer.
On February 25th the number of those who supported it was 65%. (https://tass.ru/obschestvo/14157841)
At the same time Moscow negatively reacted towards Zelensky’s idea to arrange referendum to determine the fate of Donbass and Crimea (???).
2. Humanitarian situation
Humanitarian situation is still very complicated.
On March 22nd from 10:00AM the Russian Federation has already provided humanitarian corridors for the eighteenth time in Kiev, Chernigov, Sumy and Kharkov directions, along one humanitarian corridor leading to the Russian Federation, and one more through the territories controlled by the Kiev authorities towards the western borders of Ukraine.
Official Kiev has not agreed on any corridor towards Russia again.
At the same time, the Ukrainian authorities additionally announced 4 more routes in Zaporozhye direction, cynically ignoring humanitarian corridors to the Russian Federation.
Current humanitarian situation in Mariupol has reached catastrophic proportions mainly because of servicemen of Ukrainian nationalistic battalions who don`t want to lay down their arms and prevent safe exit of tens of thousands civilians from the city.
Russian troops continue ensuring safety of refugees leaving Mariupol. Every day civilians are kept as hostages by nationalists who has entrenched in residential areas and use civilians as a human shield during the warfare continue.
The Russian Federation continues its coordinated work on the evacuation of civilians and foreign citizens from combat zones, as well as the provision of humanitarian assistance to the population in the territories of Ukraine liberated from neo-Nazis.
As a result of the effective measures taken, without the participation of the Kiev authorities, 68,098 people have already been evacuated from Mariupol, where the humanitarian situation has taken catastrophic proportions. Saved from the horrors and lawlessness staged by the nationalists, people are now completely safe under the protection of the Russian Federation, all those in need are provided with the necessary assistance. According to DPR Head Denis Pushilin, some 150,000 civilians are believed to live in areas controlled by nationalists in Mariupol, the second largest city in the Donetsk region.
Despite the endless streams of lies and disinformation, Russia continues to fully fulfill its humanitarian obligations.
Pursuing exclusively humane principles, in order to ensure the safe evacuation of civilians forcibly held by nationalists in blocked settlements, on all, including new routes, the Russian Armed Forces fully comply with the imposed ceasefire.
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 6,862 foreign citizens from 25 foreign states.
On March 21st, 19,442 people, including 3,448 children, were evacuated from the dangerous zones of various regions of Ukraine, as well as the Lugansk and Donetsk People's Republics still shelled by besieged UAF day in, day out.
During the day without the participation of the Ukrainian side, 336,182 people have been evacuated since the beginning of the special military operation, 77,062 of them children.
The state border of the Russian Federation was crossed by 43,287 personal vehicles including 2,895 per day.
All checkpoints contain the necessary number of comfortable buses, equipped with places for temporary accommodation of refugees, their rest and hot meals, mobile medical centres have been deployed, a supply of medicines has been created. Individual work is organized with each person arriving in Russia, medical and psychological assistance is provided.
More than 9,500 temporary accommodation centers continue to operate in the regions of the Russian Federation.
The federal executive authorities, together with the regions, as well as various public organizations and patriotic movements, continue to accumulate humanitarian aid. More than 21,500 tons of basic necessities, food and medicines have been prepared at the collection points.
Humanitarian aid is delivered daily by the Russian side to the liberated areas. In total, 4,345 tons of humanitarian cargo have already been delivered to Ukraine, 539 humanitarian actions have been carried out, including 26 actions in Kiev, Chernigov, Sumy, Kharkov, Zaporozhye, Kherson and Nikolaev regions regions, as well as in Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics, during which 180 tons of basic necessities, medicines and food were transferred to the civilian population of the liberated areas.
On March 22nd, 2022, 35 humanitarian actions are being held in the republics of Donbass, as well as in the liberated settlements of Ukraine, within the framework of which 299 tons of basic necessities and food packages, including baby food and vital medicines, are being transferred to the population.
3. Russian troops are moving according to the master plan
The Russian Armed Forces continue to destroy units of the 54th Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Currently, they intend to capture Novomikhailovka.
The troops of the Donetsk People's Republic, having completed the clearing of Verkhnetoretskoe from the nationalists, continued to chase the retreating units of the 25th Airborne Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces (UAF) of and took control of Novobakhmutovka railway station. During the night, 3 tanks, 2 infantry fighting vehicles and 6 all-terrain vehicles were destroyed in this area.
On the evening of March 22nd, high-precision long-range sea-based weapons struck an arms depot in Orzhev, 14 km northwest of Rovno city. As a result of the strike, a large depot containing weapons and military equipment of the UAF, including those received from Western countries, was destroyed.
The Russian Defense Ministry has released a video it claims shows Ukrainian a battery of Ukrainian multiple rocket launcher system for which civilian buildings had been used as cover before it was hidden inside a Kiev shopping mall. The site was destroyed overnight in a missile strike.
The Donetsk People's Republic press service said that its troops have de-Nazified Ukrainian 36th Naval Infantry Brigade near Mariupol.
During last 24 hours operational-tactical, army aviation and missile troops hit 97 military assets of the UAF.
Among them: 2 launchers and 1 transport-loading vehicle of the Tochka-U tactical missile system in an industrial zone on the northern outskirts of Kiev, 8 anti-aircraft missile systems, including: 6 Buk-M1, 1 S-300 and 1 Osa combat vehicle, 10 command posts, 8 field artillery guns, as well as 3 artillery reconnaissance stations manufactured by NATO.
The Russian air defence means shot down 1 Su-24 near Izyum city, 16 Ukrainian drones in the air, including 3 Bayraktar TB-2 near Rozhin, Karashev and Maxim Gorky.
A group of "night hunters" choppers consisting of Ka-52 and Mi-28n helicopters destroyed 8 tanks, 5 infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers, 9 vehicles and towing trucks, 3 permanent fire positions and 7 field artillery and mortars during night strikes.
In addition, in the seaports of Ukraine, due to the high mine danger created by the Kiev authorities in their internal waters and territorial sea, the crews of 67 vessels from 15 foreign countries remain blocked.
In total, from February 24th, 2022: 184 aircraft and helicopters of the Ukrainian Air Force; 246 unmanned aerial vehicles; 189 anti-aircraft missile systems; 1,558 tanks and other ACVs, 156 MRLSs, 624 field artillery and mortars, as well as 1,354 special military vehicles were destroyed during the operation.
4. Food for thought
What does it mean – neo-Nazism in contemporary Ukraine?
Not only marches with swastika and portraits of Hitler’s supporters.
Not only the glorification of fascism.
Not only adoption of national laws prohibiting Russian language almost everywhere.
Current neo-Nazism in Ukraine means:
Creation of ultra-nationalist battalions that torture POW and kill Ukrainian citizens who would like to find save heaven and asylum in Russia and in other states.
Continuous shelling of Donbass residential areas without military significance from 2014 till today with heavy artillery fire, ballistic missiles Tochka-U with 15,000 pieces of shrapnel each and MRLS one salvo of which can destroy everything on 20 hectrares.
Barbaric destruction of all that is left when Ukrainian troops retreat: living quarters, schools, hospitals, etc.
Permanent destruction of the civilian live support systems in Donbass and in liberated areas.
Uninterrupted destruction of coal mines’ electric equipment with the aim to trap dozens of coal miners underground.
Refusal to offer humanitarian assistance to Ukrainian citizens who are in trouble, and using them as human shields.
And the collective West is still helping Ukrainian neo-Nazis by lethal weapons, ammunition, mercenaries and blood money? To create an all-out war in Europe?
Written by Vladimir P. Kozin
