The Russian landing ship Konstantin Olshansky, damaged in a Ukrainian strike on occupied Crimea, March 23, 2024 (File)

Tuesday’s Coverage: Zelenskiy — “Today, Putin Was Talking to Himself Again”

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1637 GMT:

One person has been killed and 12 injured by Russian airstrikes on Ukraine’s second city Kharkiv on Wednesday afternoon.

Mayor Ihor Terekhov posted on Telegram:

Five-story houses were severely damaged. The institute of emergency surgery was also damaged.

This is another act of bloody terror against Ukrainians.

In Nikopol in south-central Ukraine, a 55-year-old man was killed by Russian artillery fire. Private houses, a farm building, and a power line were damaged.

UPDATE 1629 GMT:

Samsung is not accepting the Russian payment card Mir on its mobile payment service from April 3.

Mir is one of the only card systems available to Russians after Visa and Mastercard pulled out of the country in 2022.

Apple and Google suspended Mir soon after Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Last month the US Treasury sanctioned Russia’s national payment card system, which operates Mir.

UPDATE 1302 GMT:

Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko has undermined the disinformation of Vladimir Putin that Ukraine is behind last Friday’s deadly attack on the Crocus City concert hall near Moscow.

Ignoring the Islamic State’s claims of responsibility for the mass shooting and explosions that killed at least 140 people, Putin has declared that the four attackers were apprehended in the Bryansk region, trying to escape across the border with the help of Kyiv’s officials.

But Lukashenko, an ally of Putin, said the assailants tried to enter Belarus rather than Ukraine to the south.

They could not enter Belarus. Their handlers… knew that it would be a very bad idea to try to enter Belarus, because Belarus immediately reinforced security measures.

That’s why there was no chance they could enter Belarus. They realized it. So they took a turn and headed to the Ukraine-Russia border.

UPDATE 1258 GMT:

A 61-year-old woman has been killed in Russian drone attacks on the Kherson region in southern Ukraine.

The woman was fatally wounded in her home in the village of Mykhailivka.

UPDATE 0959 GMT:

Moldova’s Constitutional Cou/rt has overturned a Parliamentary ban on the Kremlin-linked Shor Party from standing in elections later this year.

The party is led by Ilan Shor, who has been convicted in absentia by Moldovan courts for massive fraud and money laundering. Shor — sanctioned by the US for his involvement in Russian efforts to undermine the Moldovan Government — lives in Israel, but has reportedly arrived in Moscow this week.

The Moldovan Parliament first declared the Shor Party unconstitutional last July and banned members of any unconstitutional party from running in elections for five years. The Constitutional Court threw out the measures on October 3, prompting the Parliament to pass an amended Electoral Code the next day.

UPDATE 0952 GMT:

Ukraine air defenses downed 10 of 13 Iran-type “kamikaze” drones launched by Russia overnight.

The Russians also fired five missiles and carried out 74 airstrikes in the past 24 hours.

UPDATE 0907 GMT:

“Eight banking and trading sources” have confirmed that Russian oil firms may not be paid for several months by banks in China, Turkey, and the UAE.

Reports have circulated since the start of 2024 that the banks are scrutinizing the accounts of Russian customers and suspending some of them. The financial institutions fear US secondary sanctions if they allow transactions by an entity or individual blacklisted by Washington.

Some banks are asking clients for written guarantees that no one in the US sanctions list is involved in a deal or is a beneficiary of a payment.

The UAE’s First Abu Dhabi Bank and Dubai Islamic Bank have suspended several accounts. UAE’s Mashreq bank, Turkey’s Ziraat and Vakifbank, and Chinese banks ICBC and Bank of China are processing payments but take weeks or months.

UPDATE 0714 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has replaced the Secretary of the National Security Council, Oleksiy Danilov.

The new Secretary is Oleksandr Lytvynenko, the head of the foreign intelligence service.

Zelenskiy said Danilov, who had been Secretary since October 2019,is being transferred to a new post and details will be published later.

“The strengthening of Ukraine and the renewal of our state system in all sectors will continue,” the President declared.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: With damage to three Russian landing ships in an attack on Saturday night, Ukraine has sunk or disabled 1/3 of Moscow’s Black Sea Fleet, says the Ukrainian navy.

The navy’s Dmytro Pletenchuk confirmed Tuesday that the Saturday strikes hit the amphibious landing ship Kostiantyn Olshansky in dock in Sevastopol in Russian-occupied Crimea.

Built in 1985, the Konstantin Olshansky was transferred to the Ukrainian Navy in 1996 when the naval fleet of the Soviet Union was divided up. It was taken by Russia in 2014, along with much of Ukraine’s fleet, when Moscow seized Crimea.

Pletenchuk said yesterday:

Currently, this ship is not combat-capable….

It had gone through a renovation and was being prepared for use against Ukraine, so unfortunately the decision was taken to strike this.

The navy previously announced that the landing ships Azov and Yamal, as well as a communications center, an oil depot, and other infrastructure, were damaged.

“Our ultimate goal is complete absence of military ships of the so-called Russian Federation in the Azov and Black Sea regions,” Pletenchuk said.

The Ukrainian Navy had its first success of Vladimir Putin’s invasion with the sinking of the Moskva, Russia’s flagship in the Black Sea, in April.

Attacks on Russian facilities and warships in Crimea began in summer 2022 and were expanded inside Russia last year. Ukraine has now damaged or sunk six large landing ships.