Dnipro Hydroelectric Power Plant, damaged in Russian attacks on south-central Ukraine, March 22, 2024

Thursday’s Coverage: “Russian Terror” As Boy Killed and 19 Wounded in Kharkiv

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1840 GMT:

Russian prosecutors have asked the Justice Ministry to designate Alla Pugacheva, one of Russia’s leading pop singers, as a “foreign agent”.

Pugacheva, promininent in music and film since the late 1970s, has criticized Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Russian and — living abroad — said that no normal person would return to Russia.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he had heard no official statements about the singer.,/p>

UPDATE 1746 GMT:

Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has hailed his visit to Delhi, meeting Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.

Kuleba cited discussion of bilateral relations, the regional situation, and global security, with specific attention to the Ukraine Peace Formula and restoration of “the level of cooperation between our countries that existed prior to the full-scale war launched by Russia”.

UPDATE 1718 GMT:

The World Bank has sent a $1.5 billion tranche of funding to the Ukraine Government, helping its budget and social spending.

Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal confirmed:

UPDATE 0905 GMT:

Ukraine Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal says energy facilities in six Ukrainian regions were attacked in overnight Russian missile and drone attacks.

Ukraine’s grid operator Ukrenergo said thermal and hydroelectric power plants in central and western Ukraine were struck. State oil and gas company Naftogaz said its facilities were attacked but there was no serious damage.

Shmyhal repeated Ukraine needs more air defense systems to secure critical infrastructure and protect the population.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Russia has carried out another widespread missile and drone attack across Ukraine.

The Ukraine military said the Russians fired 26 missiles and 58 Iran-type “kamikaze” drones overnight.

Some energy infrastructure facilities were targeted, a week after Russia’s largest assault in 2024 blacked out more than a million Ukrainians and damaged the Dnipro Hydroelectric Power Plant, the country’s largest.

The missiles were launched by Tu-95 bombers from the Russian city of Murmansk, MiG-31K aircraft from the Savasleyka airbase in Nizhny Novgorod region and from a position in occupied Crimea.

Almost every region of Ukraine was attacked, including Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk in the far west.

At least 10 drones were downed over the Dnipropetrovsk region in south-central Ukraine. Four missiles were aimed at the city of Dnipro, where multiple explosions were heard. In Kamianske, critical infrustructure was damaged and five people, including a 5-year-old girl, injured. Two men were hospitalized, one in serious condition.